Jul 07, 2020

The Standard

Portland-based Standard Insurance Co. (The Standard) promoted Dan McMillan from vice president of the Insurance Services Group to executive vice president. McMillan joined The Standard in 1989 and has held a succession of leadership positions with increasing responsibilities. In his new role, he is responsible for the Asset Management Group and is still overseeing the Insurance Services Group.

Avalara

Seattle-based business tax software developer Avalara hired Kathleen Weslock as chief human resources officer. Weslock has over two decades of leadership experience in human resources. She comes from startup lithium technology company Livent, where she was chief human resources officer. Prior to that, she oversaw human resources at Cisco, Deloitte and FIS (formerly SunGard Data Systems).

IOTAS

Laura Lang, former CEO of Time and Digitas, joined the board of Portland startup IOTAS. Lang also is the founder and managing director of Narragansett Ventures and an adviser to private equity firm L Catterton. IOTAS helps landlords install and manage smart home devices.

ArbiterSports

Utah-based ArbiterSports signed an agreement with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and the Washington Officials Association to provide all 800 member schools with its scheduling and payment platform for games and events starting in the fall. The platform will standardize schedules and expedite daily electronic payments to officials. Additionally, WIAA member schools will use Arbiter to share calendars, schedule events and facilities, and issue electronic payments and 1099s to event workers.

Smartsheet

A 451 Research survey commissioned by Bellevue-based Smartsheet found that 82% of workers feel less productive since working remotely. The survey also found that 68% of workers feel distracted by too many voice, video, messaging and email conversations; followed by 64% who feel they don't have the correct tools to build or adapt new business processes, workflows or project designs; 62% who are hindered by the lack of face-to-face conversations; and 46% who say they can't find the information they need to do their job. Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform for work execution.

AGC of America

Several Northwest firms won 2020 Willis Towers Watson Construction Safety Excellence Awards earlier this year at the Associated General Contractors of America’s annual convention in Las Vegas. They were: BNBuilders of San Diego/Seattle, first place in Building (900,000-2 million worker hours); Cornerstone General Contractors of Anchorage, first place in Building (under 225,000 worker hours); P&C Construction of Portland, first place in Construction Management (under 275,000 hours); General Sheet Metal Works of Clackamas, Oregon, first place in Specialty (275,000-650,000 hours); Mid-Valley Commercial Construction of Salem, Oregon, second place in Specialty (under 275,000 hours); Bremik Construction/MB Structures of Portland, third place in Building (225,000-400,000 hours); Inline Commercial Construction of Aloha, Oregon, third place in Building (under 225,000 hours); and Coffman Excavation of Oregon City, Oregon, third place in Utility Infrastructure. The Grand Award winner was Faith Technologies of Menasha, Wisconsin.

Jul 02, 2020

Heartland

Brinton

Heartland, which is owned by Laird Norton, is adding to its team. Branson Brinton was recently named a new asset manager for the firm, which provides real estate advisory and investment services. He was previously an asset manager for PEG Cos. in Provo, Utah. He holds degrees from the University of Southern California and Brigham Young University.

Gantry secures $12M loan

Gantry announced that its Michael Wood and Colin Ceithaml recently secured a $12 million mortgage loan, provided by Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., for the owner of Lago de Plata, in Everett. That's a 40-acre, 273-pad, age-restricted mobile home park located near Silver Lake, just west of Interstate 5. It's owned by an investor group with offices on Mercer Island, and hasn't traded in decades.

Qumulo

Gil Miner

In Seattle, Qumulo appointed Adriana Gil Miner as chief marketing officer. Gil Miner has over 20 years of experience as a marketing executive, most recently as senior vice president of brand, communications and events at Tableau Software. Prior to that, she was CMO for product design firm Artefact. Qumulo provides hybrid cloud file storage.

City of Sammamish

Dave Rudat is the new city manager of Sammamish. Rudat joined the city in February as interim manager. He has nearly 40 years of leadership and management experience in local and county governments, with a decade as city manager of Orange, California. The city of Sammamish also promoted Lita Hachey to city clerk, replacing Melonie Anderson, who retired after 20 years with the city. Hachey has worked at the city for 17 years, starting in the Public Works department and later moving to the City Clerk's office.

Core Scientific

Bellevue-based blockchain hosting provider Core Scientific is buying 17,595 digital mining machines from manufacturer Bitmain Technologies. The machines will be installed over the next four months at Core Scientific's U.S. data centers.

Itron

Liberty Lake-based Itron closed a deal with Accell as Itron's regional partner and lead distributor for Latin America. Itron provides smart networks, software, services, meters and sensors to help utilities and cities better manage electricity, gas and water for their customers. As part of the deal, all of Itron's Latin American facilities and employees will become part of Accell, except for several Mexico-based employees. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Accell is a newly formed company built around Itron's existing leadership team in Latin America and three additional companies — Ethos Asset Management, Straight Manufacture and Insprotec. It is headquartered in Brazil.

City of Seattle

The Seattle Human Services department will run its Summer Food Service Program July 6-Aug. 21. The program provides free breakfasts, lunches and snacks to children 18 years old and younger at several locations across the city. The sites will operate with pandemic sanitation measures in place. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Alaska Communications

Anchorage-based Alaska Communications' stock was added to the small-cap Russell 2000 Index and broad-market Russell 3000 Index. The addition was part of the 2020 Russell indexes reconstitution. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. Alaska Communications provides broadband and managed IT services for businesses and consumers in Alaska.