Jul 14, 2023

MultiCare

Busick

Bradd Busick, senior vice president and chief information officer for MultiCare Health System, received the 2023 Healthcare ORBIE award for hospitals and health care organizations from SeattleCIO. Busick led a collaborative partnership between the IT and operations departments that saved the health system $15 million while also designing a state-of-the-art enterprise resource planning system and upgrading the enterprise medical records system. His team also implemented technology for autonomous robots and designed a drone delivery service that will provide more delivery efficiency throughout MultiCare in 2024. More than 80 individuals were nominated for the ORBIE awards. Finalists were selected in seven categories through an independent peer review process led by prior award winners. MultiCare Health System is a not-for-profit health care organization with 12 hospitals and more than 22,000 team members, and is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in Washington.

Childhaven

The Boards of Directors of Childhaven and Washington Association for Infant Mental Health voted unanimously to merge organizations. Through the merger, the organizations are joining forces to launch a center for workforce development in infant and early childhood mental health. The Washington Association for Infant Mental Health was founded in 2014 to educate, support, and advocate for service providers in Washington to improve the well-being of babies and young children, while advancing racial equity and belonging for marginalized communities. Under this merger, WA-AIMH becomes part of Childhaven with continued membership in the national Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health, serving as the state's central resource for endorsement and training. WA-AIMH's executive director, Kelli Bohanon, will lead development of the workforce development hub slated to launch Fall 2023. The hub will operate as an extension of the Childhaven brand to deliver evidence-informed, accessible, and affordable in-person and online resources, trainings, and tools for a wide range of providers and for anyone who wants more information on how to best support the mental and relational health of young children and their families.

Verasonics

Ultrasound research company Verasonics expanded its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to include nine additional members with expertise in the fields of biomedical engineering and materials science. These leaders will work closely with the Verasonics leadership team and existing SAB membership to provide external scientific review and insight on existing and emerging technologies, as well as potential research and development programs. New members of the Scientific Advisory Board are as follows: Pierre Belanger, PhD, Ecole de technologie sup̩rieure Montr̩al, Department of Mechanical Engineering professor; Frederic Cegla, PhD, Imperial College London, senior lecturer & EPSRC research fellow in NDE; Hong Chen, PhD, Washington University, McKelvey School of Engineering associate professor; Hyun Dongwoon, PhD, Stanford University, Radiology РPediatric Radiology instructor; Caterina Gallippi, PhD, Joint UNC, NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering professor; Joergen Jensen, PhD, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology professor; Matt O'Donnell, PhD, University of Washington, Department of Bioengineering professor; Jean Provost, PhD, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Department of Engineering Physics associate professor; and Pengfei Song, PhD, University of Illinois, Electrical & Computer Engineering assistant professor. Additionally, James Greenleaf, Mayo Clinic, retired from the Verasonics SAB at the end of 2022. Verasonics is a privately held company founded in 2001 headquartered in Kirkland.

Jul 13, 2023

Northern Trust

Calcagno

Northern Trust appointed Kathryn Calcagno senior wealth strategist in Portland, where she will work with high-net-worth individuals and families to develop comprehensive wealth management plans. Calcagno brings more than 35 years of experience in the wealth management industry, with an emphasis on working with new clients and offering holistic financial services. Most recently, she was senior managing director and wealth advisor at First Republic Bank, where she managed complex investment and trust services for clients. Northern Trust Wealth Management offers wealth management services for affluent individuals and families, family offices, foundations and endowments, and privately held businesses. Founded in Chicago in 1889, Northern Trust has a global presence with offices in 25 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and across 23 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

Rainier Partners

Seattle-based Rainier Partners, a private equity firm investing in lower-middle-market services businesses, announced it has made a majority investment in SCI Flooring, a floor covering provider serving the Midwest. SCI provides comprehensive floor covering solutions to multifamily, commercial, and single-family property managers and builders, offering soft and hard surface flooring products and installation. SCI currently operates in Detroit; Kansas City, Missouri; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The company will focus on geographic and operational expansion under Rainier's ownership.

Docugami

Docugami, a Seattle-area startup using generative AI to unlock data from business documents, received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support the company's efforts to advance the science of identifying, analyzing, and understanding the semantic relationships between various elements of long-form documents to create a document XML knowledge graph. The grant will support Docugami's scientific work on contextual semantic labels, which are at the core of Docugami's generative AI for business documents. This latest grant builds on a previous grant Docugami received from the National Science Foundation. Docugami was founded in 2018 by former Microsoft executive Jean Paoli and four other senior Microsoft engineers.

Twelve

Carbon transformation company Twelve broke ground on its commercial-scale E-Jet fuel production facility in Moses Lake. Twelve was co-founded by Etosha Cave, chief science officer; Nicholas Flanders, chief executive officer; and Kendra Kuhl, chief technology officer. E-Jet fuel is sustainable aviation fuel produced in partnership with Emerging Fuels Technology using Twelve's carbon transformation technology, which uses only renewable energy and water to transform CO2 into critical chemicals, materials and fuels conventionally made from fossil fuels. The facility is expected to begin E-Jet fuel production in mid-2024 at a capacity of about five barrels per day, with plans to quickly increase production capacity. Construction of the facility will provide roughly 200 local jobs, and once operational it will provide additional, permanent clean energy jobs for the Moses Lake area. Alaska Airlines, Microsoft and Shopify will be the first customers to receive products from the Moses Lake plant under existing agreements. Fuel produced from this production facility will be used in regular airline operations as part of a three-party agreement between Alaska, Microsoft and Twelve.

Jul 12, 2023

L'Ecole No 41

Pennington

L'Ecole No 41, one of the founding wineries of Washington's Walla Walla Valley, appointed Ryan Pennington as chief operating officer. Pennington joins L'Ecole No 41 after 10 years at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest wine producer in the Pacific Northwest, where he was most recently vice president, communications & corporate affairs. Prior to Ste. Michelle, Pennington served for five years as communications director for the Washington Wine Commission. Pennington has also served on several industry boards including the Washington Wine Commission; the Washington Wine Institute, the public policy arm of the Washington wine industry; the Northwest Wine Coalition, the joint international marketing organization for Washington and Oregon wines; and WineAmerica, the national association of American wineries. Housed in the historic Frenchtown schoolhouse depicted on its label, L'Ecole No 41 was founded in 1983, and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Marty Clubb is a co-owner, and is managing winemaker for L'Ecole No 41. In addition to Clubb, his wife, Megan Clubb, and their children, Riley Clubb and Rebecca Olson, are also co-owners and serve on the L'Ecole No 41 Board of Directors.

City of Tacoma

The city of Tacoma's Community & Economic Development Department is leveraging grant funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to host a “Brick and Mortar Masterclass” workshop on July 19, from 3-6 p.m. This free event will be offered in person at Edison Square in the South Tacoma Neighborhood Business District (5415 S. Tacoma Way). The “Brick and Mortar Masterclass” workshop will feature a panel discussion and Q&A session with three local Tacoma businesses (Howdy Bagel, Campfire Coffee, and Field Tacoma) who will share their experiences navigating the challenges of opening and expanding their successful brick and mortar locations. Additionally, there will be a panel of officials from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and the city's permitting team discussing regulatory compliance requirements during store buildouts. The event is free to attend, but capacity is limited and registration is required at brickmortarmasterclass.eventbrite.

Northwest Center

Northwest Center, a nonprofit that has advanced its mission of greater inclusion for people with disabilities for more than half a century, announced changes to its Argus Janitorial business that will further expand its work outside Washington state. Northwest Center has unified its social enterprise services that provide care and maintenance – including Argus Janitorial – under the new brand OneNorth Integrated Facility Solutions (OneNorth IFS). The new name unites operations that have provided maintenance, janitorial, and other building solutions for more than 40 years. Northwest Center is a nonprofit with a portfolio of social enterprise businesses, including OneNorth IFS, The Big Blue Truck, and Lithtex NW, which provide customer service and support Northwest Center's programs that promote the growth and independence of people with disabilities of all ages. This work includes supporting individuals with disabilities in finding meaningful employment. Along with hiring people with disabilities at its own businesses, Northwest Center works with employers of all sizes, matching people with disabilities with employment. Profits from OneNorth IFS fund Northwest Center's education, employment, and community programs that serve children and adults with disabilities. Northwest Center was founded in 1965 by Seattle parents who refused to give up when their kids with disabilities were rejected from schools, and who went on to write the first law in the nation guaranteeing an education to kids with disabilities. Northwest Center Services provides employment services to adults with disabilities across Washington and in Idaho.