Oct 03, 2023

Geffen Mesher

Geffen Mesher, a Portland-based tax and assurance firm, appointed Rob Stahly as its new chief operating officer. Before joining Geffen Mesher, Stahly was the executive vice president of client operations at Atmosera, an Azure Expert Managed Services Provider. He also held leadership positions as the COO and executive vice president at Catalyte, where he was responsible for overseeing services to clients in the health plan segment. Stahly has an MBA with a concentration in management information systems from Johns Hopkins, a bachelor's in psychology from Northern Illinois, and completed Ph.D. coursework in industrial and organizational psychology at DePaul. For more than 90 years, Geffen Mesher has provided financial reporting, and tax and business consulting services.

Hyper Photonix

Bellevue-based Hyper Photonix announced a significant expansion of its manufacturing capabilities, marked by the inauguration in June of a state-of-the-art gigafactory in Bengbu, Anhui province, China. The new facility encompasses 120,000 square feet and is backed by a multi-million-dollar investment. The company is committed to meeting the increasing demand for optical transceivers in the hyper-scale data center and AI markets. The increase in its manufacturing capabilities is planned to reach 50,000 units per month by the end of the year, further increasing to several 100,000 units/month by the end of 2024. Ming Yang is the president and founder of Hyper Photonix. Plans are underway to establish production lines outside of China by mid-2024 to mitigate production flow risks and offer customers alternative sourcing at enhanced value. Hyper Photonix makes optical transceivers for high-speed networking applications in data center, enterprise and optical transmission networks.

ATS Automation

Renton-based ATS Automation announced that it has added ECT Services, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, to its family of companies. This addition will enable ATS Companies' continued growth in Kentucky and the Midwest while providing increased capabilities and support for national account clients. ATS will add ECT Services to its family of facility solution providers under the new name ATS Integrated Solutions. Established in 1986, ATS provides energy management services, automated control systems, critical airflow solutions, facility analytics, and building systems integration. ATS serves clients in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, eastern Oregon, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, as well as customers across Canada.

GCCA

Photo from GCCA [enlarge]

Last year’s top photo was taken by Ferdz Bedana of a skatepark in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Got a really cool photo of a project that used concrete? Here’s your chance to win $10,000. The Global Cement and Concrete Association has opened this year’s Concrete in Life competition, which seeks photos highlighting the beauty, sustainability and essential role of concrete throughout world. The contest is open to all — professionals, amateurs or anyone with a smart phone. In addition to the top prize, there will also be a $5,000 people’s choice winner, and winners of $2,500 in four categories: urban design, concrete infrastructure, concrete in daily life, and beauty and design. Last year, the contest attracted more than 14,000 entries from every continent. The top 2022 winner was an image of a skateboard park in the United Arab Emirates. People can enter as many photos as they wish over X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram. Submit using the hashtag #ConcreteInLife2023 and one of the category hashtags: #UrbanConcrete, #ConcreteInfrastructure, #ConcreteInDailyLife?or #ConcreteBeautyAndDesign. Each category has an amateur and professional prize. The deadline is Nov. 15. Winners will be announced in early 2024.

Sep 29, 2023

Compass Housing Alliance

Bailey

The Compass Housing Alliance Board of Directors appointed Michael Bailey as Compass's new president, replacing Mary Steele, who retires in October. Bailey will join Compass on October 16, 2023. He most recently served as deputy director of operations and homelessness at the City of Seattle's Human Services Department. In that role, he provided oversight and support to the data, performance, and evaluation team, managed the department's emergency preparedness function, and contributed to contracting policy and quality assurance functions. He played a pivotal role in supporting the standup of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, the creation of additional housing installations, and ongoing initiatives to connect unsheltered individuals with housing and essential support services. Previously, Bailey held several positions in social services, including serving as the inaugural director of the Washington State Working Families Tax Credit Program, state commissioner for the Washington Commission on African American Affairs, and deputy director of Legislative and Outreach for the Georgia Department of Human Services.

Voxus PR

Smith

Voxus PR, a B2B tech marketing agency, announced that Tara Smith, current chief communications officer at Intel Corporation, will join the agency as a managing partner and equity stake holder in November. Smith has more than 25 years of experience in marketing and communications for technology companies. She is currently chief communications officer, corporate vice president and general manager of global communications at Intel Corporation, where she is responsible for promoting and protecting the company's reputation across all internal and external audiences. Prior to joining Intel in 2016, Smith was a senior vice president at WE Communications, where she served as an executive lead on the agency's Microsoft business, heading up the Windows and OEM teams. Smith has also held senior-level communications roles at Marqui, a software start-up, and Sterling Communications. She serves on the advisory board of the AI Governance Group, which provides practical AI governance policies and training support for ethical use of AI in the workplace. The addition of Smith follows a year of growth and service expansion for Voxus PR. Smith joins managing partners Justin Hall and Kevin Pedraja, and partner emeritus Paul Forecki, in sharing responsibilities for new business, service delivery, client satisfaction and team development. Voxus PR, headquartered in Seattle, offers a full range of integrated public relations, social media, and content services for companies across North America.

Helion

Everett-based Helion and Nucor Corporation announced an agreement to develop a 500 MWe fusion power plant at a Nucor steel manufacturing facility in the United States. This collaboration is aimed at accelerating the future of clean energy in the industrial manufacturing sector. The agreement between the two companies includes an investment by Nucor in Helion. Helion has already completed the construction of six working fusion prototypes, and is currently building its seventh prototype, Polaris. Helion is a fusion energy company focused on generating zero-carbon electricity from fusion. Its mission is to build the world's first fusion power plant. David Kirtley is Helion's CEO.

Sep 28, 2023

BECU

BECU promoted Shawna Thompson to executive vice president and head of operations after more than 30 years of service. Thompson will lead the team in bringing a dedicated focus to operational efficiency and effectiveness across BECU's lending and credit operations, deposits and payments operations, fraud and default management as well as real estate and facilities. Since joining BECU, Thompson has held product and operational leadership roles across the organization's lending, finance, audit, product management and operations functions. In her prior role as BECU's vice president of servicing operations, she oversaw business strategies for servicing of deposits, debit cards, credit cards and ATM Operations, and processing of all deposits and payments, including ACH and wire transfers, and checks. Thompson currently sits on the board of the Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center and chairs BECU's Achieving Disability Awareness Employee Resource Group. She holds a bachelor's degree in business and marketing from Western Oregon University. BECU is Washington-based not-for-profit credit union, currently operating 60 financial centers.

Audere

Seattle-based Audere, a global digital health nonprofit, announced the formation of Audere Africa, a nonprofit subsidiary headquartered and led out of Johannesburg, South Africa. Audere Africa was formed to advance digital health development, bringing together artificial intelligence and machine learning research with expertise in the health challenges and needs of Africa. Audere Africa's board of directors has representation from Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Audere's HealthPulse solutions are currently leveraged in eight countries in Africa to support a growing set of conditions, including malaria, HIV, and COVID-19. Audere Africa will expand that footprint and will aid in the development and implementation of HealthPulse across the African continent. Development of Audere's projects is funded by grants and support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and other global health partners.