Jun 16, 2021

Studio Meng Strazzara

Bird

Shu

Branham

Fan

Lee

Draper

Mahoney

Feliciano

Weller

Hatch

Ceyhun

Izquierdo

Johnson

Landa

Studio Meng Strazzara, a Seattle-based architectural planning and consulting firm, has begun broadening its top-level leadership with a number of promotions into senior positions: Steve Lee was promoted to principal and Tony Fan, Lucas Branham and Lukas Shu to associate principal.

Also, SMS promoted to associate Aidan Bird, Erik Hatch, Austin Weller, Kristina Feliciano, Patrick Mahoney, Bryant Draper, Robert Landa, Matt Johnson, Pepe Izquierdo and Haluk Ceyhun.

Lee, a designer and project manager with over 30 years of experience, has spent his whole career with the firm designing education facilities for higher education and K-12 clients. Fan, an architect and project manager with over 20 years in the design field, works in the commercial studio, with a background in early feasibility studies and development planning. Branham, a 15-year veteran of the firm, is an architect in the commercial studio, working on mixed-use and residential projects and new business development efforts. Shu is an architect with 30 years of experience across multiple sectors, including education, public and community facilities. Shu often leads the firm's work with public agency clients, transportation districts and municipalities.

Bird, an architect with 30 years of experience, is a technical expert and serves as a senior design resource for the education and commercial design studios. Hatch is an architect with experience in different market sectors, recently acting as job captain on a predesign study for Central Washington University, and currently leading a commercial development project in Tacoma. Weller leads early design development and concept graphic representations for the firm's commercial studio. Feliciano, a designer and project captain, has worked in the commercial and education studios. She recently led the design and completion of the master planning, renovation and addition project at The Little School in Bellevue. Mahoney has over 25 years of experience, with a background in building and zoning codes, and manages early planning and feasibility study projects for the commercial studio. Draper has spent his 21-year tenure at SMS, often leading public projects with municipal and county clients, as well as design and planning efforts in the education sector. Landa is an architect specializing in educational environment design. He is the lead architect and project manager on the addition project at Stahl Junior High School in Puyallup. Johnson is an architect working in the education studio, and is the project architect on the new addition at James Madison Middle School in West Seattle. Izquierdo is a designer and project manager working in the commercial studio; he leads residential and mixed-use projects from early design through construction closeout. Ceyhun is an architect with 20 years of experience in the design of education-sector projects; most recently, he was the project architect for the new Thomas Middle School in Lakewood and is leading a district-wide facilities study and survey for the Puyallup School District. SMS is led by Charles Strazzara, owner; Dennis Erwood, principal; and Carrie Thompson, director of operations.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile announced donations of $1 million to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's new financial and digital literacy initiatives, and $250,000 to GLSEN's efforts aimed at making schools safer and more inclusive for LGBTQ+ students. The HRC Foundation donation will support initiatives for LGBTQ+ youth, and will provide educational resources on the basics of budgeting and financial management, as well as cyberbullying and internet safety. T-Mobile's donation to this new programming is part of its Equity In Action Plan that advances diversity, equity and inclusion across all aspects of its business. T-Mobile's donation to GLSEN will support year-round initiatives and events that provide students in grades K through 12 with a safe, supportive and LGBTQ-inclusive education, including the Rainbow Library, Respect Awards 2021-2022, Day of Silence and Solidarity Week.

CoreStack

Bellevue-based CoreStack was named the winner of the People's Choice Stevie Award in the 2021 Annual American Business Awards for Favorite New Products. This recognition endorses CoreStack's AI-powered multi-cloud governance solutions that enable enterprises to decrease cloud costs while increasing operational efficiencies by governing cloud operations, security, cost, access and resources. The People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products are a feature of The American Business Awards in which the public can vote for their favorite new products and services of the year. More than 92,000 votes were cast in people's choice categories this year. More than 3,800 nominations were submitted to this year's American Business Awards for consideration in a wide range of categories.

Puzzle Break

Puzzle Break, the first U.S.-based escape room company, announced its virtual professional development series, Excellence Unlocked. Excellence Unlocked takes teams through a variety of collaboration-based, virtual escape experiences designed to challenge and refine the group's communication tactics and problem-solving skills. Each workshop includes four game segments, two discussion periods and a final debrief that recaps the experience and gives teams the opportunity to discuss lessons learned. Led by specially-trained senior Puzzle Break facilitators, the discussion periods are placed throughout the day and provide a forum to deliberate on team progress, collaborative successes, and actionable opportunities for improvement. Puzzle Break was established in 2013 by Nate Martin and Lindsay Morse. Headquartered in Seattle, Puzzle Break has physical escape room locations in New York, Massachusetts and on Royal Caribbean cruise ships around the world. In addition to its virtual escape room offerings, Puzzle Break has also operated workplace team-building challenges at offsite meetings, retreats and corporate events.

Critical Insight

CI Security, a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service provider specializing in protecting the networks of life-saving organizations and critical infrastructure, announced the company's name change to Critical Insight. Founded by Michael Hamilton, Critical Insight assists companies, organizations, and municipalities with a personalized blend of MDR, managed, and professional services that also includes assessments, penetration testing, incident response, and vulnerability scanning.

Jun 15, 2021

KRWM-FM Seattle

Hughes

KRWM-FM morning host, Seth Hughes has inked a deal to continue as morning host and has been named music director for the Hubbard Radio Seattle station. Hughes joined Hubbard Radio Seattle in March of 2018, as mid day host of Seattle's Country 98.9 KNUC. He assumed the Warm 106.9 morning time slot in April 2019, and can be heard from 5am-9am. Started in 1923, Hubbard Broadcasting, is a television and radio broadcasting corporation based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

DigitSec

Software industry veteran Adrian Szwarcburg has joined Seattle-based DigitSec as senior vice president of business development. Szwarcburg most recently was vice president of channel sales and partnerships at AutoRABIT, a DevOps and data protection provider. He has led global channel sales and partnerships at software and SaaS providers including Cloud Lending Solutions (acquired by Q2 Software); AtHoc (acquired by Blackberry); EVault (acquired by Seagate); and Autonomy (acquired by HP). DigitSec provides a continuous application security testing platform for Salesforce DevSecOps that integrates multiple security tools.

Alaska Communications

Alaska Communications has signed a Distribution Partner Agreement with OneWeb, a global communications network powered from space, to expand the company's connectivity solutions across Alaska. Through the agreement, Alaska Communications will sell OneWeb's low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite service to its customers and use OneWeb's infrastructure for critical middle mile connections. LEO satellites deliver fiber-like connectivity performance to areas that have been inaccessible via terrestrial options. LEO services through Alaska Communications and OneWeb will be available for service in the fourth quarter of 2021. Alaska Communications is the leading provider of advanced broadband and managed IT services for businesses and consumers in Alaska. OneWeb, headquartered in London, is a global communications network powered from space.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services announced it will open an infrastructure region in Israel in the first half of 2023. The AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region will enable more developers, startups, and enterprises as well as government, education, and non-profits to run their applications and serve end-users from data centers located in Israel. Additionally, the government of Israel announced that it has selected AWS as its primary cloud provider as part of the “Nimbus” contract for government ministries and subsidiaries. The Nimbus framework will provide cloud services to Israeli government ministries including local municipalities, government-owned companies, and public sector organizations with the aim of helping to accelerate digital transformation.

AWS Regions are comprised of Availability Zones, which place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to significantly reduce the risk of a single event impacting customers' business continuity. Globally, AWS has 81 Availability Zones across 25 geographic regions.

Walsh Construction Co.

Garcia

Lake

Gupta

Johnson

Olsen

Hanks

Erickson

Brito

In Seattle, Walsh Construction Co. hired Alex Brito, Cody Erickson and Emma Hanks as project engineers; Garret Olsen as assistant superintendent; Derek Johnson as project manager; Devansh Gupta as layout project engineer; Whitney Lake as assistant project manager; and Kathy Garcia as office manager. Brito interned with Walsh in summer 2019 and graduated the next year with a construction engineering degree from Washington State University. Erickson worked for a general contractor in Michigan for several years and holds a construction management degree from Michigan Technological University. Hanks previously worked for the Washington State Department of Transportation and in the Wastewater Treatment Division of King County's Department of Natural Resources and Parks. Olsen holds a bachelor's degree in construction management from Central Washington University. Johnson rejoins Walsh after originally working at the company in 2007 as an assistant superintendent, later taking on the roles of building envelope superintendent followed by project manager. Gupta in 2019 completed a master's degree in construction engineering at Arizona State University. Lake previously worked at Walsh in 2008 as an intern, followed by seven years as a project engineer and an estimator, and then a stint with a residential contractor. Garcia previously worked at McKinstry as a business operations analyst and facility manager, and at BlueCore Power as a project engineer and senior administrative assistant.

PCL Construction

Kautz

Tyler Kautz is the new district manager for PCL Construction Services in Seattle, overseeing all operations in the Pacific Northwest. Kautz began his PCL career in 2005 as an intern while serving as an active Marine reserve. In 2007, he joined PCL full-time after serving a one-year tour in Iraq. Some of the local projects he has worked on include the Bravern Condominiums, Chief Joseph Fish Hatchery, Spire, Factoria Recycling and Transfer Station, and the South Link 200 Extension. He holds a bachelor's degree in construction management from the University of Washington, and serves on the school's Construction Industry Advisory Council.

Dawson Construction

Bentley

In Bellingham, Dawson Construction hired Luke Bentley as civil estimator manager. Bentley worked at Granite Construction for 13 years and holds a bachelor's degree in geological testing from Montana Technological University. Dawson says Bentley will help the company in its pursuit of more civil construction projects through its Civil Division, which was launched in 2019. Established in 1967, Dawson Construction is a general contractor serving Alaska and Washington.

Sigma Six Solutions

Irving, Texas–based Shermco Industries said it has acquired two Pacific Northwest electrical specialty businesses: Sigma Six Solutions, a regional testing and maintenance company in Auburn; and Innovative Electric, a design-build electrical contracting business in Everett. Sigma Six provides start-up and acceptance testing on new installations, as well as repair, maintenance, training, engineering services, operations support and project management services for mission critical power equipment and systems. It was owned by Penn Power Group since 2015. Innovative provides specialized and complex commercial, industrial and automation related problem-solving solutions, including design-build services and electrical engineering. Innovative and Sigma Six's management and technical experts remain following the acquisitions. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Shermco provides electrical testing, maintenance, commissioning and repair services. It is majority-owned by San Francisco-based private equity firm Gryphon Investors.