Mar 06, 2024

Dorsey & Whitney

Watkins

Elijah Watkins has joined Dorsey & Whitney as a partner in the Commercial Litigation group in Boise. Watkins concentrates his practice on complex business litigation in both state and federal courts. He represents companies in consumer and unlawful trade practices actions, intellectual property disputes, products liability matters, commercial contract disputes, and real property issues. Watkins was previously a partner at Stoel Rives. He received his J.D. from the University of Illinois School of Law and his B.S. from Brigham Young University-Idaho. His arrival continues the growth of Dorsey's Boise office since it opened in 2023, bringing the attorney count in this office up to nine. This includes the growth of its Intellectual Property group with partners Dana Herberholz and Jordan Stott. Dorsey has locations across the United States and in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Ogden Murphy Wallace

Ogden Murphy Wallace's Seattle offices are set to move to the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle on March 25, 2024. The firm's new address will be 701 Fifth Ave., Suite 5600, Seattle, WA 98104-7045. The firm's contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses, will remain unchanged. The new space is designed to support hybrid work models, blending the advantages of face-to-face interaction with the flexibility of remote work. Ogden Murphy will occupy the 56th floor and a portion of the 58th floor of the Columbia Center, accommodating approximately 90 attorneys and staff. Contributors to the new offices include: contractor, JE Cumming; design by Burgess Design; furniture by Catalyst Workplace Activation; and The Urban Renaissance Group. Ogden Murphy has been providing services for over 100 years and is a multi-specialty firm providing legal services to businesses, municipal entities, and individuals in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The firm also has offices in Bellevue and Wenatchee.

Syncro

Syncro, a B2B SaaS company serving the managed services provider software market, appointed Dee Zepf as chief product officer. In this position, Zepf will spearhead Syncro's product strategy and development initiatives. With over 20 years as a technology executive, Zepf has experience in product management, specifically within the MSP market. Prior to joining Syncro, Zepf served as vice president of product and partner success at Continuum, vice president of product at Sense, and senior vice president of product at Hydrow. Earlier in her career, Zepf served as senior director of product management at Care.com, IBM, and Bowstreet where she led product management for high growth product lines. Michael George was recently announced as Syncro's CEO. Syncro is headquartered in Seattle.

Magnusson Klemencic Associates

Rogers

Peyroux

Aswegan

Berahman

Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) has promoted four employees to senior principal and principal positions.

Farshad Berahman, the firm's international projects market leader, is now a senior principal and joins MKA's Board of Directors.

Berahman has 25 years of design and structural engineering experience. His work includes complex projects in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, addressing extreme wind and seismic activity in tall towers.

Highlights of his project experience include the Marina One Office Towers in Singapore; NEMA, a residential super-high-rise tower in Chicago, Illinois; the Makkah Jabal Al Kaaba Hotel in Makkah, Saudi Arabia; and Observatory Phase 1, a 2.6-million-square-foot development featuring three residential towers in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Kevin Aswegan has been promoted to principal. Aswegan is a co-author of the book Design and Performance of Tall Buildings for Wind and an industry expert on topics related to performance-based design. His current efforts include the ATX Tower (321 West Sixth St.) in Austin, Texas, for which he is the structural engineering project manager. The design implements the world's first use of the Performance-Based Wind Design methodology.

Juliette Peyroux has also been promoted to principal. Peyroux is a project manager within MKA's Aviation Group and is a seismic design specialist. Her current efforts include being the structural engineering project manager for San Diego's new 30-gate Terminal 1 expansion.

Greg Rogers is another new principal. Rogers is a design specialist managing MKA's Life Science / R&D engineering work. His recent projects include the Gateway of Pacific development in San Francisco. He focuses on vibration control, analysis, and real-world behavior and has applied this knowledge to enhance MKA's Life Science facilities nationwide.

Milbrandt

Mauldin

Milbrandt Architects' Heather Mauldin has passed her final Architect Registration Examination and is now a licensed architect in the state of Washington.

A graduate of Harvard College in 2014, Mauldin further honed her skills by completing two years of a Master of Architecture program at Cornell College of Architecture. She joined Milbrandt Architects in June 2018.

Mauldin specializes in the design of multi-unit residential developments.

Runberg Architecture Group

Parke

Yu

Burgdorf

Seattle-based Runberg Architecture Group celebrated its 25th anniversary year with the promotions of three staff members. Charla Burgdorf has been promoted to associate, Jessica Yu advanced to senior associate, and Ana Parke has joined the leadership team as a new principal.

Burgdorf joined Runberg in 2021 after working as a project architect on educational, historic preservation, and multifamily housing projects throughout the Puget Sound region. Since joining the firm, Burgdord has led the design and project management of an affordable housing project in Angle Lake for Mercy Housing and acted as senior project architect on Candela Apartments, a 400+ unit mixed-use transit-oriented development in Mountlake Terrace.

Yu began working at Runberg in 2011 as a student intern and is now a project manager. Over the last several years Yu has spent much of her time working on master development projects on the eastside of Lake Washington. Yu currently leads the 12th Ave. Place project for Gables Residential, a 275-unit transit-orientated project near Sound Transit's Spring District Station that anticipates starting construction later this year. She is an alumnus of the ULI Center for Leadership, holds a certificate in Commercial Real Estate, and is a frequent guest reviewer at the University of Washington's College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Parke has 17 years of experience, 14 of those years being at Runberg Architecture Group, first as an intern while studying at the University of Washington in 2008, then again as a fulltime employee back in 2012. Parke has focused on mixed-use and multi-family housing design for over a decade. Currently, she serves as the senior project architect for Grand Street Commons, a 771-unit mixed-use/mixed-income community in Rainier Valley, leading project administration during its final construction year. Parke has also contributed to several other large mixed-use buildings in central Seattle, including Jackson Apartments at 23rd and Jackson and both Batik and Cypress in Yesler Terrace. Parke has led training for AIA Seattle's Code Committee, and she currently participates on the city of Bellevue's Development Committee to help with permit review and entitlement processes.

Mar 05, 2024

CDHY

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Shauna Bilyeu as executive director of the Washington State Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth (CDHY). The position was previously held by Rick Hauan, who departed last year. A news release says Bilyeu has extensive experience in deaf education and is committed to ensuring all deaf and hard-of-hearing youth reach their full potential. She joined CDHY (then called the Washington School for the Deaf) in 2005 as a high school English teacher. She worked in a variety of administrative roles beginning in 2009 and was named superintendent in 2016. She has served as interim executive director since April 2023. Prior to joining the CDHY, Bilyeu spent a decade teaching at the Columbia Regional Program for the Deaf.

Agility Robotics

Corvallis, Oregon-based Agility Robotics appointed veteran technology leader Peggy Johnson as CEO. Johnson most recently was CEO of spatial computing company Magic Leap, where she led the pivot from consumer to enterprise, reset and recapitalized the company, and launched Magic Leap 2, a leading AR headset for business. Previously, she spent six years as executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, where she was responsible for driving strategic partnerships and transactions to accelerate growth for the company and its customers. Agility Robotics makes a bipedal mobile manipulation robot called Digit. It says it's the only humanoid robot company with a factory on a path to mass production.

Compass Construction

Bieber

Kirkland-based Compass Construction announced that Bill Bieber has joined its executive team as vice president. In his 30-plus-year career in the construction industry, Bieber has held positions at Baugh Construction and Opus Northwest. In his most recent role as vice president at Exxel Pacific, he was responsible for all aspects of operations in the Seattle office. During his 13-year tenure there, Bieber and his team substantially grew the company's annual volume and project diversity year over year, according to a Compass news release. Compass is a general contractor focusing on the multifamily and affordable housing sectors, as well as student and senior housing. Part of Bieber's new role will be to build relationships for projects outside the multifamily sector. Compass says its pipeline includes a “robust” list of current and booked projects through 2027.

Deacon Construction

White

Barnes

Two new members have joined Deacon Construction's Seattle office: Mary Barnes as senior marketing manager and Jessica White as DEI program coordinator. Barnes has over 18 years of experience leading marketing and communications in the AEC industry. She will oversee Deacon's marketing program, collaborating with regional marketing teams in Seattle, Portland and Sacramento, California. White is a Washington state-certified educator with three years of combined experience in DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and education.

Thomas Fragnoli Construction

Root

Longtime Thomas Fragnoli Construction member Dave Root has joined Chris Thomas and Paul Fragnoli on the firm's leadership team. Root, who has been named an associate principal, will focus on leading projects in the greater Seattle area. Root brings over 36 years of experience designing and building homes, the last 10 years with Thomas Fragnoli. He has spent his career straddling the worlds of design and construction, with decades of hands-on experience as a carpenter balanced by a background in architecture. Founded in 2009, Thomas Fragnoli specializes in high-end, custom residential and boutique commercial projects. The company has offices in Seattle, the San Juan Islands and the Methow Valley.

APA

Seymour

Chris Seymour is the newest board member of APA — The Engineered Wood Association. Seymour oversees manufacturing operations of the wood products division at Boise Cascade as senior vice president. He brings 24 years of experience working with engineered wood products to APA's board. Seymour replaces the position vacated by Mike Brown in advance of Brown's recently announced retirement from Boise Cascade.