Jun 19, 2020

Pemco

Abu-Emarah

In Seattle, Pemco Mutual Insurance appointed Abeer Abu-Emarah as director of product management. Abu-Emarah joined Pemco in 2018 as director of underwriting operations and analytics. She has 13 years of experience in managing products and was senior director of state operations at Liberty Mutual.

T-Mobile

Peter Osvaldik will become the new CFO at T-Mobile on July 1, when Braxton Carter retires from that role. Osvaldik is senior vice president of finance and chief accounting officer. He joined the Bellevue-based company in January 2016 as vice president of external reporting and technical accounting. Prior to that, he held chief accounting officer, controller and manager roles at Outerwall, Coinstar and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Carter has spent over 19 years at T-Mobile, starting at MetroPCS and then playing an integral role as the companies merged in 2013. Carter will be available as a strategic adviser through year end.

D.A. Davidson

In Portland, D.A. Davidson hired Ben Wilson as a senior analyst on its institutional equity research team to provide alternative data and emerging technology research. Wilson comes from KeyBanc Capital Markets, where he was a technology analyst for over 11 years. Prior to that, he was a senior editor at CNET Networks, a technology-focused news website. D.A. Davidson is headquartered in Montana, with offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle.

Spaceflight

In Seattle, Spaceflight said it will launch two rideshare payloads aboard SpaceX's 10th Starlink mission. The payloads will include two Earth-observation microsatellites for BlackSky. The mission is targeted to launch in the coming weeks at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Spaceflight also announced it inked a deal with SpaceX to secure rideshare capacity on multiple launches through the end of 2021. Spaceflight is a satellite rideshare and mission management provider.

Conversa Health

Portland-based Conversa Health closed $12 million in Series B funding led by Builders VC and Northwell Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Northwell Health, one of New York's largest health care providers. Other investors were P5 Health Ventures, Nassau Street Ventures and UH Ventures. Conversa connects patients and caregivers through its healthcare conversation platform.

Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation donated $1 million to the WA Food Fund, a statewide hunger relief program started in April that has raised over $8 million for Food Lifeline, Second Harvest and Northwest Harvest. WA Food Fund is managed by Philanthropy Northwest. Contributions can be made to http://www.wafoodfund.org.

Jun 18, 2020

Unico forms JV to add solar panels

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Unico Solar Investors has been around since 2015. That division of the local real estate and investment firm Unico Investment Group, also based here, recently announced a joint venture with Excelsior Energy Capital of Minnesota to add solar panels on commercial properties. Unico's Brett Phillips said in a statement, “Unico Solar is driven to rapidly expand access to renewable energy for commercial and industrial power consumers.” Deployment of rooftop solar panels is expected to begin in the third quarter on buildings in Washington, Oregon, California and beyond. The clean energy will then be sold to various market sectors, including municipalities. One recent example is Unico's Harlequin Plaza near Denver, which provides 22% of the energy for two buildings, and will offset 9,655 metric tons of carbon dioxide over 20 years. During that same period, it'll generate about $1 million in net income. Unico Solar also leases rooftops and land outside its portfolio.

Skanska promotes Uber

Uber

National firm Skanska USA announced that its Mindy Uber, based in Seattle, is now regional senior director environmental health and safety for its building arm. Skanska's Brad McFarlane said in a statement, “Her skill, work ethic, tenure and certifications make her the perfect fit for this critical safety role. We're confident she will aid in our effort for more consistent and continuous knowledge sharing, and towards injury-free job sites.” Those sites are in her portfolio of Oregon, California and Arizona and Washington state. In the Puget Sound area, Skanska's next big project is the planned 25-story, 550,000-square-foot office tower on the Washington Square block in downtown Bellevue. The company has said it might break ground later this year, depending on pre-leasing.

Pine Forest grows in Everett

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Last month, Pine Forest Properties paid $4.5 million for an entitled development site at 405 Riverside Road in Everett's Latitude Business Park. Now it's announced plans to develop Building B at the park, where it already owns Building A. The new building, on almost 5 acres, could have up to 100,000 square feet, with 30-foot clear heights. Broderick Group's Steve Henderson, Al Hodge and Rawley Holmberg are leasing the space, which could be a build-to-suit project. “We're bullish on the continued growth of the North End industrial market, and we're ready to move forward with development,” said Matt Wickens of Pine Forest. That company, based in Bellevue, is the investment and development arm of the Burnstead family. Last year it paid $22 million for Building A (pictured), which is leased to Safran Aerospace (formerly Northwest Aerospace Technologies/Zodiac Aerospace). No architect or general contractor are specified.

Pemco

Wang

Seattle-based Pemco Mutual Insurance hired Yuyang Wang as a manager and actuary within the actuarial team, where he'll help develop new insurance products and improve existing products. Wang comes from Travelers Insurance and has nearly a decade of experience working with advanced analytic techniques. He also is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Zeitworks

Seattle and Los Angeles tech startup Zeitworks raised $4.5 million in a seed investment round led by Madrona Venture Group. Jazz Venture Partners and Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow, also invested seed money in the company. The funding is going toward building engineering and product teams. As part of the financing, Madrona managing director Len Jordan joined Zeitworks' board. Zeitworks is developing a software-as-a-service platform that uses machine learning to analyze and make improvements to customers' business processes.

Smead Capital Management

Seattle-based investment adviser Smead Capital Management on July 1 will move its headquarters to Phoenix. The company said it considered several markets and chose Phoenix because of the region's large pool of investment management talent, equitable quality of life, and access to key domestic and global financial markets through Sky Harbor International Airport. It didn't say why it was leaving Seattle. Smead also has offices in Pennsylvania and London.

Spaceflight

Seattle-based Spaceflight said it will manage the launch of an imaging satellite for Canon Electronics aboard Rocket Lab's Electron spacecraft. The mission will lift off from Rocket Lab's complex on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The launch window opens on July 4 New Zealand time. This mission was scheduled to launch earlier this year, but was delayed by the pandemic. Spaceflight will also manage the launch of another Canon satellite later this year aboard an Electron rocket. Spaceflight is a satellite rideshare and mission management provider.

Comcast

Comcast last week opened a new 4,500-square-foot store in Salem, Oregon, at 831 Lancaster Drive N.E. in Willamette Town Center. It replaced an old store about a mile away on Lancaster. The new store will employ 20 and will be open seven days a week. The first 30 minutes of normal business hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will be prioritized for those over 60 years old and others at increased risk. Comcast says it has been transforming its customer centers across the country to make the experience better and more convenient.