Nov 19, 2025

Best Practice Architecture

Smith

Seattle-based Best Practice Architecture has announced the promotion of Sarah Smith to partner. Smith joined Best Practice in 2018 after working at firms in Los Angeles and New York, where she focused on large-scale commercial and institutional projects. She looks forward to the smaller scale and people-centered work at Best Practice.

Her design approach centers on principles reflected in Lil Shingle, a Best Practice Architecture project designed for her mother following her retirement in 2025.

“Though I enjoy heroic architecture and bold interventions, the most fulfilling work begins and ends with listening,” Smith said. “The result is often more thoughtful, more complete, and more unexpected.”

Red Dot Corp.

Puyallup-based Red Dot Corp. and its employee-owners are celebrating the company's 60th anniversary by launching a new brand, platform-Red Dot is REDy for Anything. “REDy for Anything captures both who we are and where we're going,” said John Beering, CEO of Red Dot. “It reflects our purpose: to take the team member ingenuity, product reliability, and customer relationships that have defined us for 60 years and apply them to new frontiers. We're expanding into emerging markets while staying deeply committed to the people, products, and partnerships that built Red Dot's legacy.” The anniversary celebrations came on the heels of the launch of Offroad Arctic, a new brand of in-cab climate control for UTVs, or utility terrain vehicles. Red Dot currently has manufacturing and sales facilities in the United States, United Kingdom and China, a Millenium RedDOT LTD partnership in India, international OEM partnerships, a strong distributor network and products in use across six continents. Red Dot traces its beginnings to the late 1950s, when Harcourt G. “Harky” Runnings started a sideline business making heaters at his automotive radiator repair shop in West Seattle. In 1965, he incorporated Red Dot with a plan to develop heating and air conditioning products specifically for heavy-duty vehicles and off-highway equipment. Red Dot serves the construction, agriculture, mining and off-highway, military, emergency, coach and bus, and specialty vehicle markets. The company is expanding into strategic new markets, including UTVs and side-by-sides, electric vehicles, battery thermal management, and advanced commercial applications.

Supio

Seattle-based Supio, a legal AI platform purpose-built for personal injury law, has been awarded the Document Intelligence Solution of the Year in the sixth annual LegalTech Breakthrough Awards. Each year, the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards honor and recognize the most exceptional technology contributions globally that are reshaping the legal landscape. Among thousands of other nominations, Supio stood out for its AI platform that transforms how personal injury and mass tort law firms build stronger cases and achieve superior outcomes. Supio's platform automates the most time-intensive aspects of case preparation across the entire lifecycle. The company recently launched its next-generation platform, CaseAware AI, supporting attorneys from intake through trial with agentic research, rapid drafting and deposition analysis. The award also builds on other recent ecosystem momentum for Supio, including a partnership with Litify that sees Supio's technology power new medical record chronology capabilities for Litify customers, and an additional partnership with Thomson Reuters, which integrates Supio's AI technology into the Thomson Reuters legal tech stack.

Nov 18, 2025

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) ranks 13th on List of Largest Employee-Owned Companies in America according to the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). The NCEO, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing employee ownership, publishes The Employee Ownership 100, an annual ranking of the 100 largest majority employee-owned companies in the United States. The list highlights companies that are at least 50% employee-owned, with most, including SEL, being 100% owned. “We are proud to be recognized among the largest employee-owned companies in the country,” said Executive Vice President Joey Nestegard. “At SEL, employee ownership isn't just a structure — it's part of our culture that empowers our people to think and act like owners, focusing on long-term decision-making in the best interest of customers, employees, supplier partners and the communities where we do business.” The SEL employee stock ownership plan was established in 1994, and the company became 100% employee-owned in 2009. Today, the company employs more than 7,400 people at over 100 locations across the U.S. and around the world, including its five U.S. manufacturing centers in Washington, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina. SEL invents, designs and builds digital products and systems that protect power grids around the world. SEL is headquartered in Pullman, and has manufactured products in the United States since 1984.

PBCO Financial Corp.

PBCO Financial Corp., the holding company of People's Bank of Commerce, announced that Steve Erb, chief operating officer of the company and bank will retire in March 2026. Erb joined the bank in January 2014, serving as chief banking officer, chief strategy officer, and most recently as chief operating officer. Erb will be succeeded by Nikki Hoffman, senior vice president and IT director, who will step into the role of chief operating officer of the bank on Jan. 1, 2026. Hoffman has worked at People's Bank since 1998, with prior roles in commercial lending, operations support, and most recently as director of the bank's IT department. PBCO is based in Medford, Oregon.

Nov 14, 2025

Veeam Software

Cerra

Veeam Software, a data resilience software provider, has appointed Allison Cerra as chief marketing officer. Reporting directly to CEO Anand Eswaran, Cerra joins from Alkami Technology, a provider of fintech digital banking for mid-market financial institutions, where she has served as chief marketing officer since 2021. Her prior leadership roles include vice president of marketing at HPE, where she led the company's digital-first go-to-market transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as chief marketing officer at McAfee, where she re-established the company's brand identity after its separation from Intel. Cerra will lead Veeam's global marketing organization, overseeing brand strategy, product marketing, demand generation, events, communications, and digital engagement. Cerra succeeds Rick Jackson, who is retiring after a 40-year career and three-and-a-half years as Veeam's CMO. Veeam solutions are purpose-built for powering data resilience by providing data backup, data recovery, data portability, data security, and data intelligence. Veeam is headquartered in Seattle with offices in more than 30 countries.

GridStor

GridStor, a Goldman Sachs Asset Management-backed developer and operator of utility-scale battery energy storage systems, named Spencer Mash as the company's senior vice president of finance and head of capital markets. Mash brings more than 20 years of experience in capital management to the GridStor executive team, including more than a decade of renewable energy finance focused on distributed generation and utility-scale solar and wind projects across the United States. Prior to joining GridStor, most recently Mash co-founded and served as executive vice president of Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company, an investment manager and independent power producer. In his SVP role, Mash will lead financing transactions to support the company's portfolio of more than 3 GW of battery energy storage projects in later-stage development, under construction, and already operating. As head of capital markets, Mash will negotiate and structure diverse capital solutions, manage relationships with lenders and investors, and ensure rigorous due diligence processes. Mash's prior roles include serving as vice president at Deerfield Capital Management, where he performed due diligence and financial analyses, negotiated loan documentation, and monitored private middle-market first lien, second lien, mezzanine, and one-stop senior secured debt investments. He began his career in the Leveraged Acquisition Finance group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. GridStor is headquartered in Portland.

Nov 12, 2025

Washington Trust Bank

Washington Trust Bank has signed Seattle Mariner's catcher Cal Raleigh to a three-year partnership. This is the bank's first-ever partnership with a professional athlete. “I'm proud to partner with Washington Trust Bank who has a long tradition of guiding their clients and supporting communities I care deeply about,” said Raleigh. “It's great to work with a group that shares my values, and I look forward to supporting the team as they continue making a positive impact in people's financial journeys.” Washington Trust's partnership with Raleigh is an exclusive within the banking industry, and residents can expect to see the ball player in select campaigns, events and activations over the next three years. Headquartered in Spokane, Trust Bank currently has 45 branches and offices in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

Metis

Metis, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm specializing in the wine industry, announced that its CEO, Erik McLaughlin, has been named a 2025 Wine Industry Leader by Wine Business Monthly. McLaughlin previously received this honor in 2019, making him one of a select few to be recognized twice with this award. More than 350 nominees were reviewed, vetted, and judged. McLaughlin was selected for his work in facilitating complex acquisitions and partnerships that have reshaped the wine landscape across California, Washington and Oregon. In 2025, Metis expanded its presence to California. This strategic move complements the firm's existing offices in Washington and Oregon, positioning Metis to provide comprehensive M&A advisory services across all major West Coast wine regions. Under McLaughlin's leadership, Metis has completed over 50 transactions and built a team with more than 100 years of combined wine industry experience. Metis is named for the Greek goddess of prudence and wise counsel, and has offices in Napa, Willamette Valley, and Walla Walla.

State Transportation Commission

Gov. Bob Ferguson has named Matt Ransom of Camas and Gael Tarleton of Seattle to the Washington State Transportation Commission, filling two open seats reserved for representatives west of the Cascade Mountains. Ransom serves as the executive director of the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council and brings more than 25 years of experience in local and regional government. He has overseen projects and initiatives for the city of Vancouver and C-TRAN, the transit service provider in southwest Washington. In his current role, he collaborates with local governments and transportation agencies across southwest Washington and bi-state partners in Oregon to plan and fund regional transportation priorities. Tarleton is a former state legislator and Port of Seattle commissioner who has also held leadership roles with the city of Seattle, University of Washington and the federal government. In the Legislature, she served as chair of the House Finance Committee, vice chair of the House Technology & Economic Development Committee and on the House Transportation Committee. Ransom replaces Commissioner Roy Jennings of Clark County, who served 11 years on the commission. Tarleton replaces Commissioner Shiv Batra of King County, who served nine years. The Washington State Transportation Commission provides guidance to lawmakers and the governor on transportation policy and serves as the state's tolling authority, setting toll rates and ferry fares. Every four years, commissioners update the Washington Transportation Plan, which guides transportation decisions and investments statewide. By law, the commission is composed of four members from west of the Cascade Mountains and three from the east.

Berger Partnership

Bell

Berger Partnership has hired landscape designer Ari Bell, whose background spans ecoacoustics, amusement park landscapes, Arctic permafrost preservation, and the relationship between performance and place. Bell has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Vassar College and a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia.

Hensel Phelps

Waldo

Coyne

Moore

Poppelreiter

Perry

Ryan Perry, Associate DBIA, with experience working on aviation and data center projects, and Brady Poppelreiter and Brian Cordell with aviation-type projects, are now project superintendents at Hensel Phelps.

Caleb Moore now works as a senior safety manager supporting and overseeing project teams and safety initiatives. He brings knowledge of safety and health technical requirements, and considerations and protective measures for accident-free work sites. He will also participate in pre-job planning conferences to help establish safety plans for new contracts. Moore is currently working on the ARS-WSU Bioscience Research Building and the P-290 Earth Covered Magazines project.

Jennifer Coyne now leads the Project Development Team and supports procurement and marketing efforts, actively gathering intelligence on potential opportunities and cultivating client relationships. Coyne helps shape strategic plans to secure new work in targeted and emerging markets, aligning business development with the company's long-term growth strategies.

Hensel Phelps also welcomes Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) manager Christian Waldo to the team. Waldo coordinates various design disciplines utilizing BIM technology and works closely with design teams and trade partners to facilitate constructability reviews and develop efficient solutions for building system coordination.