Sep 13, 2022

Puget Sound Kidney Centers

DeBord

Kelly

Puget Sound Kidney Centers President and CEO Harold Kelly announced he plans to retire in 2023. Under Kelly's leadership, PSKC grew from a small, community-based, nonprofit provider of dialysis to a regional health care organization operating 11 centers in six counties with five more kidney center projects pending throughout western Washington. Kelly led the creation and introduction of PSKC's Chronic Kidney Disease patient education program, and established the PSKC Foundation, an organization that assists in fund-raising for the PSKC patients in need. To succeed Kelly, the board has hired Thomas DeBord as the incoming president and CEO. DeBord has served as chief operating officer of Overlake Medical Center since 2015. In this capacity he has overseen the day-to-day operations of the hospital, including numerous patient care services, and regulatory compliance. Also, DeBord has had primary responsibility for the planning and implementation of Project FutureCare, Overlake's major campus renewal project that was announced in early 2016.

King County

The King County Department of Community and Human Services hired Simon Foster as the new division director for housing, homelessness, and community development. Foster led teams among a range of industries, including behavioral health, transportation, homelessness and federal and state funding programs. Foster most recently led operations for the Salvation Army Northwest Division during the pandemic and oversaw outreach, social service programs, and domestic violence outreach services. In this role, Foster will oversee the Housing, Homelessness, and Community Development Division within DCHS. This division's work includes the Health Through Housing Initiative, a regional approach to address chronic homelessness at a county-wide scale, oversees implementation of anti-displacement strategies for the Skyway-West Hill and North Highline neighborhoods, staffs the Affordable Housing Committee, and manages the transit-oriented affordable housing bond program.

Hecla Mining

Hecla Mining, headquartered in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, completed its acquisition of Alexco Resource. Founded in 1891, Hecla is the largest silver producer in the U.S. In addition to operating mines in Alaska, Idaho and Quebec, Canada, the company owns a number of exploration properties and pre-development projects in silver and gold mining districts throughout North America. Alexco operates the Keno Hill Silver District in Canada's Yukon Territory. As part of the acquisition, Hecla issued 18 million shares of its common stock to Alexco shareholders for a total consideration of about $69 million; the silver streaming interest at Alexco's Keno Hill property held by Wheaton Precious Metals was terminated in exchange for $135 million of Hecla common stock; and Hecla provided Alexco with a $30 million secured loan facility, of which $25 million was drawn when the transaction closed.

ABC of Western Washington

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington has four new members: the Lynnwood office of ULG Companies, a subsidiary of NSC; Three Tree Construction of Seattle; Premier Legacy Builders of Fife; and Preciso Specialized Staff of Seattle. ULG is an industrial and commercial staffing company. Three Tree is a residential and commercial general contractor providing new construction and renovations in the Puget Sound region. Premier Legacy Builders is a residential and commercial remodeling company, with projects ranging from repairs to full rebuilds, and design and layout changes. Preciso was developed to help bridge the unemployment gap for people with language barriers.

Premier Building Systems

In Puyallup, Premier Building Systems' product line now includes building material systems under the brands Premier SIPS, R-Shield Insulation, R-Shield Geofoam and Premier ICF (formerly Diamond Snap-Form). Also, the Big Sky R-Control SIPs brand is now being marketed under the Premier SIPS brand. Premier says there has been no sale, merger or change in company ownership. It has been family-owned and operated since the 1970s.

Sep 09, 2022

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates acquired A to Z Wineworks, a top-selling winery in Oregon. This is the first strategic acquisition for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates under the ownership of private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Together with Ste. Michelle's Erath Winery, the addition of the A to Z and Rex Hill brands gives Ste. Michelle a substantial presence in Oregon and the combined business will be a leading producer of the state's signature variety, pinot noir. Amy Prosenjak, president and CEO of A to Z, will join Ste. Michelle as president of Oregon brands, overseeing the company's combined operations in the state. In addition to Prosenjak, A to Z founding partners Deb Hatcher, Cheryl Francis and Sam Tannahill will join Ste. Michelle as consultants. BNP Paribas Securities served as financial advisor to A to Z. Bank of the West is continuing as the lender to both Ste. Michelle and A to Z. Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel for Ste. Michelle and Tonkon Torp supported A to Z. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ste. Michelle Wine Estates is the largest winery in the Pacific Northwest and among the largest premium wineries in the U.S. The winery now farms more than 30,000 acres across Washington, Oregon and California, and distributes its wines in over 100 countries.

Membrion

Membrion received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office, through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The Phase II Award will support a two-year project to develop, implement and optimize a machine vision system to provide real time analytics of Membrion's roll-to-roll ceramic desalination membrane production line. Membrion, a startup out of Seattle, was created to help industrial facilities recycle more of their water. Membrion's principal investigator leading the project is Dr. Olivia Lenz, a senior research engineer. Lenz guided Membrion through its Phase I SBIR project, screening 50 membrane inspection systems for quality control and inspection methods. The award includes a stipend to commercialize the technology and its integrated software.

Zeitworks

Oregon-based iGrafx, an intelligent process management firm, and Zeitworks, creators of desktop process mining and productivity analysis technologies, have partnered to bring AI-powered process intelligence to global customers. The alliance combines the process mining and business process management from iGrafx with the automated desktop data collection, AI, and real-time analytics from Zeitworks. The partnership creates a comprehensive process intelligence platform by linking process mining, task mining, discrete event simulation, and predictive analytics. Based in Seattle, Zeitworks was originally incubated inside Madrona Venture Labs and is led by technology startup veterans and co-founders Jay Bartot and Kalpana Narayanaswamy. Zeitworks has secured $6.5 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group and Jazz Venture Partners.