Dec 21, 2021

NW Natural Holding

McDonough

NW Natural Holding's board of directors has elected a new member, Sandra McDonough, effective Jan. 1. McDonough most recently served as president and CEO of Oregon Business & Industry, Oregon's largest statewide general business organization. She joined OBI in 2018, after serving 14 years as the president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance. McDonough spent two decades in the energy industry, including as vice president, external affairs, for PG&E National Energy Group and vice president, communications and external affairs, for PG&E Gas Transmission Northwest. Before that she was a newspaper reporter for The Oregonian and Seattle Times. McDonough was also elected to the board of directors of Northwest Natural Gas, the company's wholly owned subsidiary. Northwest Natural Holding is headquartered in Portland, and has been doing business for over 160 years in the Pacific Northwest.

Lumen Technologies

Native Seattleite Eileen Fisher has been named vice president of strategic alliances at Lumen Technologies. Fisher will focus on streamlining product, operations, and go-to-market activities with Lumen strategic partners, as well as establishing new alliance partnerships. She brings experience successfully developing and managing technology partnerships and innovative go-to-market models. Prior to joining Lumen, Fisher led technology alliances at OutSystems. She also spent a significant part of her career at Microsoft contributing to the launch of the .NET Framework, the inaugural Azure launch. Fisher holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from University of Washington.

Wenatchee Works

Alcoa announced the closure of 146,000 metric tons of aluminum smelting capacity at the Wenatchee Works aluminum smelter located in the state of Washington. The process to permanently decommission the smelter, which has been idle since 2015, will begin immediately to prepare the site for potential redevelopment. Cash outlays related to the permanent closure of the site are expected to be approximately $60 million over the next seven years, with approximately $10 million to be spent in 2022. The site includes approximately 2,800 acres with intermodal transportation and utility infrastructure. The site currently employs 18 people, some of whom will remain to assist with demolition and redevelopment work.

HomeStreet Bank

The commercial banking division of HomeStreet Bank is expanding their commercial services into Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaiian native, Melitajean “Mel” Racadio, will lead the commercial operations on the island. Racadio started her career 30 years ago at the Bank of Hawaii. HomeStreet is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Seattle. Its principal subsidiaries are HomeStreet Bank and HomeStreet Capital Corporation. HomeStreet Bank is the winner of the 2022 “Best Small Bank” in Washington Newsweek magazine award.

Dec 17, 2021

NuScale Power

Hackett

NuScale announced that James Hackett will become the non-executive chairman of the board of managers for NuScale Power. Hackett has served on the board of NuScale since November 2021 and as a director on Fluor Corporation's board since 2016. Hackett has several decades of executive and board experience in the energy sector, including three current public boards. He has held major civic leadership roles including chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas during the financial crisis of 2008. He currently serves as the president of Tessellation Services, a privately held consulting services firm. Previously, Hackett served as executive chairman of Alta Mesa Resources, a partner of Riverstone Holdings and chairman and CEO of Anadarko Petroleum. Additionally, Kent Kresa was named to the board in January 2020. Kresa served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Northrop Grumman, and on the boards of Fluor Corporation and General Motors, as well as several non-profit organizations and universities. NuScale is headquartered in Portland, and has offices in Corvallis, OR; Rockville, MD; Charlotte, NC; Richland, WA; and London, UK.

Accelalpha

Bellevue-based Accelalpha, a portfolio company of Century Park Capital Partners, announced that it has completed its acquisition of LogistiChange to expand its Oracle cloud application consulting services to South America. This is a major step in the company's drive to expand its capability to deliver Oracle cloud solutions for its customers, globally. The acquisition also strengthens Accelalpha's post implementation services for Oracle cloud applications. LogistiChange is known across South America for its expertise and experience working with all aspects of logistics and warehouse management. Together, Accelalpha and LogistiChange will deliver integrated solutions including Oracle ERP, EPM, WMS, OTM, and GTM to support Oracle's full range of cloud applications. Accelalpha is recognized by Fortune as a best small and medium workplace and certified as a great place to work. Century Park Capital Partners is a Los Angeles-based private equity group established in 2000 that invests in family businesses, owner-operated firms and corporate divestitures.

NW Natural Water

NW Natural Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Natural Holding, has agreed to purchase an ownership stake in Avion Water, the largest investor-owned water utility in Oregon. Avion Water operates in Bend and the surrounding communities, serving approximately 15,000 customer connections and employing 35 people. Avion Water's existing management team, including president Jason Wick and CFO Rick Bailey, will continue to lead the company and manage day-to-day operations. The transaction is expected to close in December 2021. Northwest Natural Holding is headquartered in Portland, and has been doing business for over 160 years in the Pacific Northwest. It owns NW Natural Gas, NW Natural Water, and NW Natural Renewables Holdings. NW Natural is a local distribution company that currently provides natural gas service to approximately 2.5 million people in more than 140 communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Dec 16, 2021

Tacoma Creates

Tacoma Creates issued its Annual Report to the Development Committee of the Tacoma City Council. Fifty-seven organizations whose missions are to advance arts, culture, heritage and/or science were funded in the inaugural year in Washington's first and only cultural access program. Designed to support and nurture Tacoma's cultural sector, Tacoma Creates distributed $4.7 million of voter-approved tax revenues to organizations through a competitive funding cycle in early 2020 just as the pandemic forced cultural organizations to reinvent regular programming. Funding during the 2020-2021 program year provided essential support for organizations to develop engaging programming, continue to serve and uplift the community, and keep creatives and cultural workers employed in Tacoma. The funded organizations produced a total of 412 programs, approximately two-thirds of which were produced for the general public and the remaining one-third were youth education programs. With a focus on equity and access as a guiding principle, the vast majority of programming was free for participants. More information is available at http://www.tacomacreates.org.

Itron

Itron, headquartered in Liberty Lake, announced that it is collaborating with EQUANS to bring smart city capabilities to cities in Belgium. Sibelga, distribution network operator in Brussels, will deploy Itron's intelligent street lighting solution as a service to meet their energy savings goals and improve citizen safety. Beyond the energy savings of the LED streetlight, smart street lighting offers improved network resiliency, enhanced safety and increased customer satisfaction. Sibelga is the only distribution network operator for electricity in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels Capital Region. EQUANS is ENGIE Solutions' new name in Belgium. Created in July 2021, EQUANS operates as a new separate entity within ENGIE worldwide. EQUANS is a global leader in multi-technical services with an international presence and a strong position in key European markets. Itron enables utilities and cities to safely and securely deliver critical infrastructure solutions to communities in more than 100 countries.

Columbia Pacific

CI Financial and Columbia Pacific of Seattle announced a strategic relationship in which CI will invest in the continued growth of Columbia Pacific's wealth management and alternative asset management firms. Under the agreements, CI will acquire Columbia Pacific Wealth Management (CPWM), which provides a full range of wealth management solutions to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Additionally, CI will acquire a minority stake in Columbia Pacific Advisors (CPA), an alternative asset management firm that manages assets across a broad selection of institutional-caliber real estate private equity, direct lending, opportunistic and hedged strategies. CPWM has offices in Seattle and San Francisco and is led by managing partners Alex Washburn and Peder Schmitz, president Derek Crump, and Tyler Gaspard. The company was founded by Washburn, Schmitz, Stan Baty, and Dan Baty. As part of the transaction, CPWM owners will become equity partners in CI Private Wealth, the private partnership that holds CI's broader U.S. wealth management business. CPA was founded in 2006 by Alex Washburn, Stan Baty and Dan Baty. Following the completion of the Columbia Pacific transactions, the leadership teams at CPWM and CPA will remain in place. Berkshire Global Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor to CPWM and CPA, and Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young acted as legal advisor. CI's legal advisor was Hogan Lovells US. The transactions are expected to close later this month. Financial terms were not disclosed.