Nov 18, 2022

Accountability Services

Kooper

Fischer

Thomson Reuters, a provider of business information services, announced Accountability Services of Seattle as the winner of their annual Luca Accounting Firm of the Year Award. Dave Fischer is managing director, and Lera Kooper is firm director of Accountability Services.

The award is named after Luca Pacioli, known as the “father of accounting.” Thomson Reuters recognizes the pursuit of innovation within the tax and accounting profession, honoring firms and individuals who combine their technological and accounting expertise to further the profession. Accountability Services has decades of experience in accounting and tax law, and has offices in Seattle and Bellevue.

Stoel Rives

Stoel Rives promoted four attorneys in its Seattle office to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Veronica Keithley is a member of the Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources group and assists clients in navigating environmental regulation for water quality, NPDES permitting, stormwater, wastewater, and wetlands. Keithley works extensively with a wide range of clients in Washington and Alaska, including industrial, transportation, commodity, energy, and resource development companies, as well as ports and dam operators. She earned her J.D, cum laude, from Lewis & Clark Law School. Emily Kelly is a member of the firm's Real Estate Development & Construction group. Her practice focuses on complex commercial real estate transactions, including the acquisition, disposition, leasing, and financing of multifamily mixed-use, retail and office projects. Her clients include private developers, technology and life sciences companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), nonprofit organizations, institutional investors, and government entities. Kelly earned her J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School. Claire Mitchell is a food and beverage regulatory attorney with extensive experience helping businesses navigate the complexities of food and alcohol laws. She counsels grocery chains, national and regional restaurant groups, hotel operators, e-commerce retailers, entertainment venues, alcohol brand owners, and beer, wine and spirits producers on state and federal liquor licensing strategies, tied house compliance, trade practice regulation, promotional advertising and sponsorship assessments. Mitchell earned her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law. Jenna Poligo is a member of the firm's Litigation group. Her practice focuses on business disputes, representing clients in the technology, insurance, manufacturing, and consumer products industries facing class actions, government enforcement actions, antitrust, bad faith and other commercial disputes. She is an experienced trial lawyer, defending clients in individual lawsuits and class actions in state and federal courts across the country and counsels clients through arbitration, trial, and appeals. She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from the William & Mary School of Law. Stoel Rives has offices in seven states and Washington, D.C.

Gravitics

Seattle-based Gravitics announced raising $20 million to build large, next-generation space station modules. The seed round was led by Type One Ventures, and included Tim Draper from Draper Associates, FJ Labs, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, Giant Step Capital (Chicago based), Gaingels, Spectre, Manhattan West, and Mana Ventures. Gravitics is developing the StarMax, a flexible-use space station module. The StarMax module provides up to 400 cubic meters of usable habitable volume - nearly half the volume of the International Space Station in one module. StarMax's family of modules is compatible to launch on any of the next-generation launch vehicles, including SpaceX's Starship, ULA's Vulcan, and Blue Origin's New Glenn. Bill Tandy, former mission architect for Blue Origin's Orbital Reef space station, and Scott Macklin, former head of propulsion at Virgin Orbit, are leading the StarMax development team. The Gravitics team has grown to nearly forty, comprised of both full-time employees and experienced contractors. To support development and early production, Gravitics opened a new 42,000 square foot facility in 2022 north of Seattle. The company has already begun assembly of their first StarMax prototype and is preparing to conduct module pressure tests in early 2023 with plans for an upcoming orbital test mission to be announced soon. Gravitics is taking StarMax pre-orders now for delivery in 2026. Founded in 2021, Gravitics is an aerospace company that designs and manufactures large space structures.

Nov 17, 2022

NAI Puget Sound Properties

Pappas

Industry veteran Tina Pappas has joined NAI Puget Sound Properties, the firm recently announced. She makes the move from Tarragon Property Services, and will now serve as NAI's president — assuming that role from Scott Coombs, who announced his pending retirement earlier this year. He said of his successor, “We are thrilled that Tina will be taking the helm of our firm. Her track record and her reputation in our industry is unmatched. She is the perfect leader to take our firm to the next level of success.” Pappas added, “I look forward to enhancing the excellent reputation of the organization. I am excited to lead a company that places the utmost importance on their team.”

Conner Homes names new land czar

Residential homebuilder Conner Homes announced the recent hiring of Joe Farruggia as director of land acquisition. Conner is based in Bellevue. Its president, Michael Lorenz, said in a statement, “The process of land acquisition requires extensive research and insight to best determine where the most desirable locations will be in a turbulent market.” Farruggia was previously with D.R. Horton; he's worked in markets across the country, and moved to our region four years ago. He said, “I look forward to seeing how our land acquisition creates opportunities for people to settle and build a future for themselves.”

Neil Walter Co.

Bledsoe

John Bledsoe has joined the team at Neil Walter Co., the brokerage recently announced. He makes the move from the San Diego office of Retail Insite Commercial Real Estate. He'll specialize in both sales and leasing in the Kent Valley industrial market.

Seyfarth bolsters real estate team

Law firm Seyfarth does lots of work in the real estate sphere, and it's adding to its ranks. The firm announced three new hires: Michael Herbst, Russel Robertson and Ryan Dumm, who make the move from Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt. All three will become partners at Seyfarth, which said in a statement, “The addition of Russ, Michael and Ryan helps strengthen two growing practice areas in the Pacific Northwest, and aligns closely with our strategic goals in the region.” Seyfarth is a national firm that opened a Seattle office two years ago; since then, it says, it's added 30 lawyers to its staff here.

ExtraHop

Seattle-based ExtraHop, a provider of cloud-native network intelligence, appointed Chris Scanlan as president and chief commercial officer. Scanlan will lead the company’s international expansion initiatives while overseeing the global sales, sales engineering, channel sales, and renewals functions. Scanlan has more than 25 years of experience in the technology and cybersecurity industry. Most recently, he was CEO of Defy Security, a cybersecurity value-added reseller. Prior to that role, Scanlan was president of Americas for Check Point Software and senior vice president of North America sales for Cylance. He also brings extensive experience in the channel and partner ecosystem to his role through a long tenure at Optiv. Scanlan sits on the advisory board of numerous cybersecurity startups.

Tracer

Boise-based Appdetex announced the company’s rebrand to Tracer and the launch of the next generation of its flagship Tracer Platform. The SaaS platform leverages human-in-the-loop AI and machine learning to continuously trace, analyze and mitigate brand misuse across global Web2 and Web3 digital sources, including online marketplaces, NFT marketplaces, social media channels, mobile app stores, domains, websites, online advertising and paid search channels. Built on more than a decade of real-world brand protection experience, the Tracer Platform enables businesses to decrease the mean time to detect and enforce instances of brand misuse. Tracer’s latest investments in product engineering and data science have resulted in advancements across all core functionality of the next-generation Tracer Platform, including Tracer Protect, which provides online brand protection. Tracer Protect automates the detection of infringing content, the classification and scoring of infringements, the correlation of bad actor networks, and the enforcement of customer directives.

Resilient Infrastructure Group

Industry veteran Walter Lynch has joined Resilient Infrastructure Group as a senior advisor to the board of directors. Resilient develops, funds, and manages a portfolio of wastewater, water and related infrastructure assets in the U.S. and Canada. Lynch’s water and wastewater utility experience includes multiple senior level positions within American Water across several regions, serving his last 14 years with the company as both the CEO and COO. Prior to American Water, he was an entrepreneur in the resource recovery sector, selling his business to Waste Management and working as an executive for Synagro, a residuals industry company. He has served on numerous boards, including the National Association of Water Companies and the Water Research Foundation. Partners Group, a global private markets firm, acting on behalf of its clients, acquired Resilient Infrastructure Group in 2021. The company is headquartered in Portland.

Autonomy

Electric vehicle subscription company Autonomy is expanding its geographic footprint to the Seattle area. Autonomy’s subscription model offers a way to get an electric vehicle that does not require the long-term debt or commitment that comes with buying or leasing. Autonomy subscribers can pay their subscription on their credit card or through their bank account, and can subscribe month to month after a three-month minimum hold period. Vehicles are available for delivery or pickup within weeks. The company was founded by Scott Painter and Georg Bauer, who founded Fair, a used-vehicle subscription service. Autonomy will leverage its recently announced national partnership with AutoNation for vehicle preparation and delivery services in connection with customer activation, as well as maintenance, repair and reconditioning services. Autonomy offers the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y and will soon add the full Tesla lineup, among other makes and models. In August, Autonomy ordered 23,000 electric vehicles, with the order totaling more than $1.2 billion. Autonomy is based in Santa Monica, California.