Nov 02, 2022

Perteet

Riemann

Infrastructure and engineering consulting firm Perteet has welcomed Paul Riemann, PE, as the firm's new infrastructure director. Based out of Perteet's Seattle office, Riemann will lead the firm's ferry, port, and transit markets. He has over 32 years of experience supporting public sector clients, including spending the last seven years working for Sound Transit. As Sound Transit's engineering manager for storm drainage and utilities, he programmatically managed the associated design elements for the agency's $55 billion system expansion program, including large light rail projects such as Lynnwood Link Extension, East Link Extension, and Federal Way Link Extension. Paul has successfully delivered dozens of planning and engineering projects for local maritime, port, and utility agencies.

WJA Design Collaborative

Heit

Treat

Suhadolnik

Price

Callan

Killmer

WJA Design Collaborative announced the retirement of principal Dan Callan, AIA, LEED AP. Callan has been the principal of WJA-dc since 2000. He officially announced his retirement this year. With Callan's retirement, Eliot Price, RA, LEED AP BD+C has been named principal. Price is an architect and project manager with over 21 years of experience. He has specialized expertise in high performance buildings including dormitories and secure administrative, operations and training facilities for the Department of Defense. He joins WJA-dc's two remaining principals, Greg Nespor, AIA and Todd St. George, PE, SE.

In addition to naming a new principal, WJA-dc has also recognized a new group of associates within the firm; Matt Suhadolnik, Clint Treat, Doug Heit and Alyssa Killmer. Suhadolnik, PLA, LEED AP is a professional landscape architect and LEED Accredited Professional with 38 years of experience who brings a strong background in site planning, restoration, and low-impact development for public and private sectors with emphasis on sustainable site design. He has a wide range of project management and design experience that includes federal, municipal and community facilities, transit facilities, streetscapes, college campus additions and renovations, multi-family residential, sports fields and regional parks.

Treat, AIA is an architect with over 14 years of experience in a range of project types including private residences, dormitories, hospitality, and administrative and training facilities for a variety of clients including the Department of Defense, state and local agencies, and the private sector.

Heit, PE, SE is a professional structural engineer who has been with WJA-dc for over 28 years. He has extensive experience engineering complex federal facilities throughout the United States, ranging from multi-family mid-rise housing to mission-critical operations buildings.

Killmer is a marketing professional with over 10 years of leadership experience in the industry. She has been managing and executing WJA-dc's marketing efforts since their re-emergence in 2014 and is a key contributor to the firm's success the past 8 years.

WJA-dc provides comprehensive design services with specialized experience in the fields of architecture, structural engineering, landscape architecture/planning, and sustainable design.

WiSA Technologies

WiSA Technologies, a developer of spatial, wireless sound technology for smart devices and next-generation home entertainment systems, is moving forward in its exploration of strategic alternatives to consider a wide range of options for the company. To explore strategic opportunities specifically involving the company's IP and licensable software used in WiSA E and WiSA DS technologies, the board of directors approved the engagement of AQ Technology Partners during the third quarter to assist in this process. To date, four companies have executed NDAs in consideration of a potential transaction. WiSA Technologies, with its advisors, is evaluating a broad range of strategic transactions. Potential strategic transactions that may be explored or evaluated as part of this process include the potential for capital raising transactions, an acquisition, sale of assets, including substantially all of the company's assets, merger, business combination, partnership, joint venture, licensing and/or another strategic alternative. Despite devoting efforts to identify and evaluate potential strategic transactions, the process may not result in any definitive offer to consummate a strategic transaction. WiSA Technologies does not expect to disclose developments with respect to this process unless or until the evaluation of strategic alternatives has been completed or the board of directors has concluded disclosure is appropriate or legally required. WiSA Technologies is headquartered in Beaverton, OR.

ATREG

ATREG announced that the acquisition of onsemi's operational manufacturing fab located in Pocatello, Idaho, by LA Semiconductor has officially closed. Established in 2022 by Tallmadge, OH-based Linear ASICS, LA Semiconductor is the newest U.S.-owned and -operated, fully operational semiconductor foundry for analog, mixed signal, and power products. The Pocatello fab is located on a 33-acre campus with over 50,000 square feet of cleanroom space and over 550,000 square feet of building space. Headquartered in Seattle, ATREG specializes in helping global companies divest and acquire infrastructure-rich advanced technology manufacturing assets, including front-end and back-end semiconductor fabs, cleanroom facilities, and technology campuses in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Nov 01, 2022

BERK

Immel

Seattle-based consulting firm BERK hired Madison Immel as an associate. She will focus on community outreach and engagement. Before pursuing her master's degree, Immel was the community engagement manager for Next Up, a nonprofit activating young people in politics and social justice in Oregon, where she expanded the organization's volunteer base to break down barriers disproportionately impacting marginalized communities. Prior to joining BERK, Immel also worked for the cities of Bellevue and Sultan. She has a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and a B.A. in Politics and Spanish from Willamette University.

Qumulo

Data storage company Qumulo announced its position as a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage for the fifth consecutive year. Gartner positioned Qumulo in the Leaders quadrant based on its completeness of vision and ability to execute. Over the past 12 months, Qumulo has added core functionality while expanding platform options for customers. Customers can now deploy Qumulo's software on a variety of platforms: All three major public clouds (AWS, Azure & GCP) as well as multiple hardware platforms for various price-performance needs from a variety of industry leading platform vendors including HPE, Supermicro, Arrow and Fujitsu. According to Gartner Peer Insights, Qumulo has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars in the Distributed File Systems and Object Storage market, based on 119 reviews, as of October 2022. Qumulo is based in Seattle.

GridStor

Portland-based GridStor, a developer and operator of grid-scale battery energy storage systems, announced the acquisition of a portfolio of storage projects currently in development in the greater Los Angeles area from Upstream Energy of San Diego. The portfolio consists of multiple projects, with proposed on-line dates between 2024 to 2026. The projects will be going online in an important time for California's transition to clean energy, as the state works toward a carbon free electricity system by 2045. The battery storage projects will be built on previously disturbed sites in urban areas in the LA basin area near existing power lines and substations, allowing the batteries to quickly connect to the electric grid upon completion. Once online, the projects will provide needed capacity for regional utilities to ensure power grid reliability and will be key to the increasing volumes of renewable energy being added to the state's electric grid and managed by California's Independent System Operator. GridStor was established to build the infrastructure needed to transition the electricity grid toward a renewable, low-carbon future. GridStor is backed by the Sustainability and Infrastructure Investing groups within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. GridStor has assembled a team of experienced professionals with over 125 years of combined energy experience to develop, design, construct and operate battery storage systems at scale.

APA — The Engineered Wood Association

LeBlanc

Williams

Asano

Cribb

A new chair, vice chair and two members have been elected to APA — The Engineered Wood Association’s board of trustees. Ashlee Cribb, vice president of wood products at PotlatchDeltic, is the new chair, succeeding Roy O. Martin III. Cribb’s areas of expertise include sales, marketing, strategic planning and operations management. Prior to PotlatchDeltic, Cribb was senior vice president and chief commercial officer for Roseburg Forest Products, and spent 21 years in the chemical industry. Doug Asano, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Roseburg Forest Products, is the vice chair. Asano leads Roseburg’s sales, marketing, logistics, customer service and fulfillment teams. He joined Roseburg in 2020 as the director of sales excellence, focused on process and systems improvements and sales training. Before joining Roseburg, he worked at Huber Engineered Woods for over 16 years in multiple commercial leadership roles, including vice president of sales and marketing. The new board members are Stephen Williams, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Western Forest Products, and Richie LeBlanc, president and CEO at Hunt Forest Products. Williams leads his company’s corporate finance, corporate development, investor relations, IT, shared services and legal teams. He has over 25 years of experience in the forest industry, and extensive experience in acquisitions and divestitures. LeBlanc has been serving the forest products industry for 22 years. He began his career with Willamette Industries in Ruston, Louisiana, which Weyerhaeuser later acquired. He initially served on the integration team, charged with merging the cultures of Willamette and Weyerhaeuser. Tacoma-based APA represents about 180 plywood, oriented strand board, glulam and cross-laminated timber, wood I-joist, Rim Board and structural composite lumber mills throughout North America.