Sep 01, 2021

HNTB

Schnetzer

HNTB has named Tom Schnetzer, PE, the division operations and delivery officer for its Northwest Division. Schnetzer brings more than 20 years of project management, engineering and design-build experience to this new combined role. He will be based in HNTB's office in Bellevue. In this dual role, Schnetzer oversees the operations, contracting and delivery of complex infrastructure projects across the five-state Northwest Division. He previously served the dual role of interim Salt Lake City office leader and Northwest Division delivery officer. Schnetzer began his HNTB career in 2001 as a deputy project manager. In this role, he oversaw the design of Seattle-Tacoma Airport's third runway embankment. Since then, he has led numerous substantial infrastructure design and construction projects, including the modification and seismic upgrade of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the casting basin design for the new SR 520 bridge's pontoons construction, and structural lead on the I-405/SR167 Corridor Program. After earning a B.S. in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1988, Schnetzer has spent most of his career as a project manager and worked on numerous large-scale bridge, highway and airport projects. HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure solutions firm serving public and private owners and construction contractors.

Swenson Say Fagét

Allen

Nettesheim

Zable

Wible

Scott Wible has been promoted to Project Manager at the firms Seattle office. Upon graduation from the UW in 2015, Scott first joined SSF as a Staff Engineer. He is currently working on the new Kincaid Avenue Mixed-use project in Sumner, the new Polo Club III Apartments in Olympia, and is managing structural design for custom stairs, railings, decks, and canopies for a variety of subcontractors in the region. Swenson Say Fagétt also announced three new hires, Rachel Zable, Laura Nettesheim and Teagan Allen. Zable interned at SSF in 2019. Upon completion of her BSCE from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, she returned to SSF as a full-time staff member. Rachel is currently working on two new multi-family projects, the new 3019 S Angeline Street Apartments in the Columbia City neighborhood, and the new 123 Bellevue Avenue Apartments on Capitol Hill. She is based in the Tacoma office. Nettesheim, PE joined SSF/Seattle after 5 years of structural design experience with multi-family, commercial, and school projects, to explore the fast-paced world of single-family home design. She is working on projects that include new and renovated homes in Seattle, Lake Forest Park, Kirkland, Medina, Issaquah, and Winthrop. Allen is a recent graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She joined SSF/Seattle in July. Current projects include the seismic study of The Ballard Annex Building feasibility study, a new detached additional dwelling unit on Orcas Island, and the renovation of the El Gaucho building in Belltown for the Crocodile Rock Shop event venue.

Washington State Fair Food Drive

Apex Moving & Storage is collecting non-perishable food items for the Puyallup Food Bank at the Washington State Fair's opening day, Friday Sept. 3rd. A donation of a non-perishable food item will allow free access to the fair. Donations will be accepted from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at each of the fair entrances. Apex Moving & Storage has partnered with the national nonprofit organization, Move For Hunger, which mobilizes companies nationwide to provide transportation efforts and host food drives like this, reducing food waste and supporting hunger relief efforts. Since 2015, Apex Moving & Storage has transported over 625,000 lbs. of food to the Puyallup Food Bank and other local organizations. Move For Hunger was founded by Adam Lowy in 2009, at his family's New Jersey-based moving company. Move For Hunger partners with more than 500 moving, relocation and multi-family housing partners, working as a network across the US and Canada to eliminate food waste and support hunger relief.

PEMCO

PEMCO Mutual Insurance appointed Cynthia La Rowe to the organization's executive team as vice president, chief people and brand officer. La Rowe will head human resources, marketing and communications, real estate and facilities and enterprise services. She brings to the role more than 30 years of experience spanning multiple sectors and industries, and expertise in business strategy, people strategy, corporate communications, operations, sales and transformation. Prior to PEMCO, La Rowe established and led sales and client service practices at The Spur Group and Bridge Partners. Before that, she led global people functions for Starbucks and Microsoft.

Banzai

Seattle-based Banzai hired Simon Baumer as chief technology officer. Baumer hails from Germany, where he helped turn Verivox into a leading network of consumer portals as its vice president of engineering. While at Verivox, he led a technology team of over 200 through acquisitions and integration of new technologies. Baumer has over 15 years of direct experience building up engineering teams, creating product management strategies, and integrating acquisition partners as they're grafted onto existing organizations. Banzai is a enterprise SaaS provider of engagement marketing solutions for virtual, in-person, and hybrid events.

Aug 31, 2021

A-Gas

A-Gas, a provider of environmental solutions for the refrigerants and fire protection industries, announced the expansion of its business operations in Seattle. A-Gas has more than 30 locations across the United States, and manages the full life cycle of refrigerants for its partners, including to safely recycle millions of pounds of material each year. A-Gas (U.S.), headquartered in Bowling Green, Ohio, is a trading subsidiary of A-Gas International, headquartered in Bristol, UK.

Symetra

Symetra has been recognized as a top employer in Washington state by two business publications. The Puget Sound Business Journal honored the Bellevue-based life insurer as No. 6 among the top 25 workplaces in the extra-large company category at its 2021 “Washington's Best Workplaces” awards virtual event. In addition, Symetra was named to Forbes' 2021 “America's Best-in-State Employers” list, ranked 24th among the top 60 employers in Washington. The Forbes list is presented by Forbes and Statista, a statistics portal and industry ranking provider. Employers were identified in an independent survey based on a sample of approximately 80,000 Americans working for companies with more than 500 employees. The survey considered several aspects of an employee's experience including working conditions, salary, potential for growth, and diversity. The Business Journal partnered with Quantum Workplace and surveyed thousands of employees throughout the state to quantify the best workplaces. In business since 1957, Symetra provides employee benefits, annuities and life insurance through a national network of benefit consultants, financial institutions, and independent financial professionals and insurance producers.

Hagens Berman

Attorneys at the law firm Hagens Berman announced details of a class-action settlement reached with Apple on behalf of small U.S. iOS app developers. The settlement will result in the creation of a $100 million Small Developer Assistance Fund and changes to App Store policies and practices. The developers' lawsuit was brought against Apple in 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Hagens Berman, Sperling & Slater, Saveri & Saveri, and Freed Kanner law firms. According to the lawsuit, Apple monopolized U.S. distribution services for iOS apps and in-app digital products, which resulted in commission overcharges to U.S. iOS developers. The Small Developer Assistance Fund created as part of the settlement will benefit over 99% of U.S. iOS developers, whose proceeds from app and in-app digital product sales through all associated accounts were less than $1 million per calendar year during the period from June 4, 2015 to Apr. 26, 2021. These developers can claim sums from the fund ranging between minimums of $250 to $30,000, based on their historic participation in the App Store ecosystem. More information can be found at the settlement website, http://www.SmallAppDeveloperAssistance.com. Hagens Berman is a class-action law firm founded in Seattle, and operating in 10 cities worldwide.

Hensel Phelps

Ventola

Potter

Henderson

General contractor Hensel Phelps promoted Jay Henderson and Grant Potter to project managers, and hired Sarah Ventola as a proposal manager within its Pacific Northwest Region. Henderson has built aviation, health care and design-build projects in Washington, Northern California and Arizona over the course of his eight-year career with the company. He is currently working on the design-build Pacific Highway land port of entry project in Blaine for the Department of General Services. Potter has helped with $700 million of design-build projects in Washington and California since joining Hensel Phelps in 2013. He is currently working on the Sound Transit Downtown Redmond Link Extension, another design-build project. Ventola joins the project development team with over 15 years of AEC proposal and marketing experience. She was an independent consultant for the past three years and before that worked for WSP, CH2M Hill (now Jacobs) and HNTB.

APA

Pucci

Cribb

Asano

APA — The Engineered Wood Association has three new board members: Doug Asano, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Roseburg Forest Products Co.; Ashlee Cribb, vice president of wood products at PotlatchDeltic; and Pino Pucci, vice president of Tolko Industries. Asano joined Roseburg in 2020 as director of sales excellence. Prior to that, he worked at Huber Engineered Woods for over 16 years in multiple leadership roles. Cribb has 13 years of experience in various forest products leadership roles, with expertise in sales, marketing, strategic planning and operations management. Before joining PotlatchDeltic, she was senior vice president and chief commercial officer for Roseburg Forest Products. Pucci has over 25 years of industry and leadership experience. He also is on the board of Tolko U.S. Operations, which includes LaSalle Lumber Co. and Southeastern Timber Products.