Aug 17, 2021

Banner Bank

Luetjen

Miller

The Banner Bank executive leadership team announced the retirement of Craig Miller, executive vice president and general counsel for Banner Corporation and its subsidiaries. Sherrey Luetjen has been promoted to those positions effective immediately.

Miller joined Banner in 2016 as executive vice president and general counsel and later assumed the additional role of the company's ethics officer. Miller retires after more than 45 years practicing law, including having previously served as a senior litigation partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, in Seattle. Before her promotion, Luetjen was senior vice president and assistant general counsel. Last year, Luetjen was recognized as a Diligent 2020 Modern Governance 100 recipient. The world-wide award is presented to influential governance leaders for guiding their companies with strong governance practices and providing sharper insights for company leadership. Luetjen has more than 15 years of in-house legal counsel experience at financial services companies and additional related experience advising technology companies. Banner Bank is a Washington-chartered commercial bank that conducts business in Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho, and is part of Banner Corporation, a bank holding company headquartered in Walla Walla.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services announced a global collaboration with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to upgrade its technology infrastructure and develop and deliver new guest services across its 21 hotel brands—including Days Inn, La Quinta, Microtel, Ramada, Super 8, and Wyndham. Moving to AWS enables Wyndham to enhance business performance, reinvest approximately 45% of reduced data center operating costs, and shut down additional physical datacenters, putting it on track to achieve its goal of running 90% of its infrastructure in the cloud. The announcement is part of Wyndham's multiyear digital transformation and investment in technology that automates hotel reservations, supports its franchisees by helping simplify operations, and enhances the guest experience across Wyndham properties globally. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is one of the world's largest hotel franchising companies, with approximately 9,000 hotels across nearly 95 countries on six continents.

Comprehensive Wealth Management

Comprehensive Wealth Management's (CWM) lead advisor and certified financial planner practitioner Brian Lockett was named a 2020 Elite Advisor and recipient of the Two Million Dollar Club Award from Independent Financial Group (IFG). CWM also was recognized for having one of the top advisor websites out of approximately 100 IFG representatives. Lockett has been recognized as an IFG Elite Advisor each year since 2015. The award honors top advisors among the independent broker-dealer's more than 600 registered representatives, who serve clients across 40 U.S. states. Comprehensive Wealth Management is a Pacific Northwest wealth-management firm that partners with clients to achieve their financial goals as prudently as possible.

Aug 13, 2021

Pierce Transit

Griffus

The Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners has approved a contract with Mike Griffus to serve as the agency's new CEO. Griffus has served as Pierce Transit's chief operating officer since 2016, where he directly managed about 80 percent of the agency's employees, including its 500 bus operators. He was also responsible for safety and security across the system, including serving as the agency's chief safety officer, and negotiated the contracts for Pierce Transit to operate Sound Transit's express bus service. Prior to joining Pierce Transit, Griffus served as chief executive officer of Keolis Transit America, a bus, shuttle, taxi and fleet transportation company. From 2006 through 2009, Griffus was president and chief operating officer of Veolia Transportation, where he orchestrated the company's North American transit operations. Griffus' other transportation experience includes serving as senior vice president and regional vice president of operations at Laidlaw Education Services, and chief operating officer at Bauer Transportation. The Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners began its nationwide CEO search earlier this year after former Pierce Transit CEO Sue Dreier announced she would be retiring this summer. Dreier served in the role for six years.

NW Natural Holding

NW Natural Holding's board of directors has elected Malia Wasson as its new board chair. Wasson is the first woman to chair the company's board of directors. For the past seven years, Wasson has served as a member of the board, most recently as chairperson of the audit committee. In addition to her role on the board, Wasson is chief executive officer of Sand Creek Advisors, which provides business consulting to chief executive officers of public and private companies. And prior to that, she was an executive vice president of commercial banking at U.S. Bank, and served as president of U.S. Bank's Oregon and Southwest Washington operations from 2005 to 2015. Wasson currently serves on the board of directors of Columbia Sportswear, where she chairs the audit committee. She is a director and past chair of the Oregon Business Council and serves as a senior fellow at American Leadership Forum. Northwest Natural Holding is headquartered in Portland, and through its subsidiaries has been doing business for over 160 years in the Pacific Northwest.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, a provider of technology-enabled ediscovery, compliance, and information governance services, announced it has completed its acquisition of H5, an industry leader in advanced search, review, and data analytics products and services. H5's approximately 250 employees will join Lighthouse to help meet demand for technologies and services that span the entire client data life cycle, and embrace the rapid shifts to cloud and hybrid environments. The company also announced that Lon Troyer has joined Lighthouse's executive leadership team as the vice president of review and advanced analytics. Troyer was formerly the executive managing director and head of professional services for H5 and brings a diverse background in technology-assisted review, linguistic modeling, advanced information retrieval strategies, and project management to his role with Lighthouse. Lighthouse is headquartered in Seattle, with offices throughout the United States, and in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and India.

Aug 12, 2021

Emerald Heights

Health Services Administrator Annie Zell of Emerald Heights, a resort-style Life Plan Community, has been recognized by LeadingAge Washington with the Award of Excellence for Advocacy as part of its Excellence in Leadership 2021 Awards. LeadingAge, an organization dedicated to improving the aging experience nationwide, represents over 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-minded organizations, encompassing the entire continuum of aging services. The LeadingAge Awards Program recognizes those individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution in the fields of aging, health care, housing, and community-based services. A licensed nursing home administrator for over 20 years, which has included the last nine years at Emerald Heights, Zell was the first female health services executive in Washington state to advocate for the adoption of this more advanced certification and leadership in long-term care. She also serves on the board of Nursing Home Administrators in Washington in various roles, including vice-chair or chair for the last eight years. Emerald Heights is a nonprofit senior housing and services organization located in the Education Hill area of Redmond.

Visus Therapeutics

Visus Therapeutics, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing ophthalmic therapies to improve vision for people around the world, announced the closing of $20 million in preferred stock financing, led by LSP in Amsterdam, along with participation from Sage Partners of Hong Kong, Johnson & Johnson Innovation — JJDC, and other inside investors in the company. In conjunction with this financing, John de Koning, Ph.D., a general partner at LSP, has joined the company's board of directors. For more than a decade, de Koning was the organizer of BioCapital Europe, an annual life sciences investment conference. The company recently announced that it will be hosting its debut Capital Markets Day on Aug. 31 in New York City and virtually for investors and media. Visus Therapeutics has offices in Seattle and Orange County, California.

AAA Washington

MAPFRE Insurance and AAA Washington have entered into definitive agreements to form a jointly owned insurance company to write automobile and homeowners insurance in Washington and North Idaho. The joint venture, which is subject to regulatory approval, will be known as the Auto Club MAPFRE Insurance Company. The company's products will be designed specifically for AAA members in Washington and North Idaho. AAA Washington is the largest independent personal-lines insurance agency in Washington, serving Washington and North Idaho. AAA Washington will remain an independent insurance agency and offer the new Auto Club MAPFRE Insurance Company's products under the AAA Insurance brand. It is anticipated that the joint venture will begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2022. MAPFRE Insurance serves policyholders in 13 states and is based in Massachusetts.