Feb 08, 2022

Impinj

Impinj promoted Hussein Mecklai to chief operating officer. In his expanded role, Mecklai is directly responsible for Impinj's engineering and operations. Mecklai joined Impinj in 2018 and has more than 20 years of experience leading engineering organizations. Prior to Impinj, Mecklai was vice president and general manager of the product architecture group at Intel, where he led the organization responsible for defining the product architecture of Intel's mainstream products, including the processors for the personal computer and datacenter franchises. Previously, he served in senior engineering and leadership roles at Infineon Technologies, LSI Group, Agere Systems and Lucent Technologies. Additionally, Impinj announced that director Steve Sanghi will become Impinj board chair after Peter van Oppen's current term ends. Sanghi has experience as the long-term CEO and current executive chair of Microchip. The company also announced that Meera Rao has joined Impinj's board of directors. Rao has more than 25 years of experience in high-tech companies. She currently serves as a director and audit committee chair on the board of Rambus, a chip and silicon IP provider. Previously, she was CFO at Monolithic Power Systems, a high-performance power solutions company. The Impinj, headquartered in Seattle, is a leader in RAIN RFID technology.

Leafly Holdings

Seattle-based Leafly Holdings, an online cannabis discovery marketplace and resource for cannabis consumers, and Merida Merger Corp. I, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Merida Capital Holdings, announced the closing of their previously announced business combination. In connection with the closing, Merida has adopted the Leafly name, and Leafly's common stock will begin trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol “LFLY.” Since announcing the proposed combination with Merida in the summer of 2021, Leafly has introduced new tools for brands subscribers and enhanced its app to enable users to place pickup orders for cannabis products in legal state markets. The company has also announced a post-combination board of directors with wide-ranging expertise and bolstered its executive leadership team. Peter Lee, former president of Merida Merger, will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors of the combined company. Oppenheimer & Co. served as exclusive financial advisor to Leafly, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges served as legal advisor.

PRR Communications Agency

PRR, a women- and employee-owned integrated communications agency, announced that Kristen Bishop will serve as director of PRR Portland. Bishop has more than 20 years of experience in communications, community outreach, and urban planning. She has extensive experience working with public agencies at the local, regional and national levels, including port authorities, electric utilities, community-based organizations, and state and local governments. Prior to joining PRR, Bishop served as executive director for Lois D. Cohen Associates, a Portland-based community engagement firm, where she led community engagement work for several local and state agencies. The firm recently closed due to the passing of its founder, Lois Cohen. Bishop, a member of WTS and IAP2, will work with PRR's current clients in Oregon, including the city of Portland and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Celebrating its 40th year of service, PRR brings multi-disciplinary expertise in communications and outreach for environment, healthcare, and transportation industries, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in all work the agency does. PRR has offices in Seattle, Washington D.C., Norfolk, Portland, and Baltimore.

Feb 04, 2022

Lighthouse

Seattle-based Lighthouse, a leader in technology-enabled eDiscovery, compliance and information governance services, announced the addition of Daniel Black as executive director of digital forensics within Lighthouse's Client Experience Group. Black brings more than 25 years of experience in the legal industry to Lighthouse and was most recently at Cisco where he led their eDiscovery and forensic investigations team for more than 10 years. Prior to Cisco, he was a freelance eDiscovery consultant, led Stratify's global eDiscovery services team, and spent many years at law firms. He has also been a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, in addition to being featured in Inside Counsel magazine.

Quiet Sound

Quiet Sound, a collaborative program working to reduce noise and physical impacts to endangered Southern Resident killer whales from large commercial vessels, announced the official launch of its initiatives and monitoring programs. Quiet Sound is the primary, collaborative initiative in Washington state addressing the impacts of noise on local whale populations. Their focus is on giving commercial mariners and large vessels the resources to join together in a voluntary effort to slow down, reducing underwater noise pollution and protecting the 73 Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea. Quiet Sound is working in partnership with the tribal governments, state and federal agencies, scientific researchers, nonprofits and other maritime industry organizations to initiate an advanced whale alert system and vessel slow down initiative. Large vessels and vessel operations centers are asked to use the Whale Report Alert System, available as a mobile app or in a browser, providing real-time, geographically specific alerts of whale sightings. Immediate next steps for Quiet Sound include partnering with Oceans Initiative to engage Puget Sound boaters in underwater noise measurements and advising the Port of Seattle on a research initiative on what is needed to further develop Washington's underwater noise sensing network. Quiet Sound will also partner with the U.S. Navy's Northwest Tech Bridge on a technology challenge to support innovators in developing new onboard whale sensing capabilities.

Alitheon

Alitheon has named Roei Ganzarski president and chief executive officer. As CEO, Ganzarski, formerly a leader and technologist in the electric aerospace industry, will head the advancement of Alitheon's product authentication and identification technology. Most recently, Ganzarski was CEO of magniX, a developer of electric propulsion solutions for commercial aerospace and defense. He was also executive chairman of Eviation Aircraft, maker of the world's first all-electric middle-mile aircraft. Prior to these roles, Ganzarski was CEO of BoldIQ, a global optimization software provider. Before this he spent over a decade with the Boeing family of companies, where his last role was chief customer officer for Boeing's Flight Services division. Ganzarski is a graduate of Wharton's Advanced Management Program. He has an MBA from the University of Washington and a BA in economics from The University of Haifa. Alitheon, headquartered in Bellevue, provides a link between the physical and digital worlds with solutions for the authentication, identification and traceability of parts, products, and people, with its FeaturePrint system.

Feb 03, 2022

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, a leader in technology-enabled ediscovery, compliance and information governance services, announced that The National Law Journal has recognized its Spectra platform as a 2022 Legal Technology Trailblazer. The annual list acknowledges legal technologies that are changing the way law firms and/or legal departments operate. Lighthouse's Spectra platform provides a powerful ediscovery tool in an automated, intuitive experience that simplifies workflows. With Spectra, law firms and legal departments can maximize ediscovery reviews with minimal training and time commitment. For 25 years, Seattle-based Lighthouse has provided software and services to manage data for compliance and legal teams.

T-Mobile

On February 1st, the first day of Black History Month, T-Mobile announced a $2.5 million donation through its Magenta Scholars program to support the Thurgood Marshall College Fund's scholarships for students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and the new National Black Talent Bank program that helps high school graduates jumpstart their professional careers and gain access to tailored higher education pathways. The company also announced expanded programming and curriculum for its NextTech Diversity and Magenta Edge initiatives, which provide training to underrepresented candidates interested in the telecom industry and connect Black entrepreneurs with resources to help grow their businesses. T-Mobile's Magenta Scholars program was launched in 2021 in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to provide educational opportunities to students attending HBCUs. This collaboration, which started with 18 scholarships valued at $500,000, has now expanded to a total of $3 million in support from T-Mobile, spanning both scholarships and the new National Black Talent Bank program.

Xenon arc

Xenon arc announced the promotions of Alyssa Cunnington to chief operating officer and Mica Zuniga to chief strategy officer. Cunnington has over a decade of experience serving in various senior management roles at Xenon arc and within the materials industry, most recently as senior vice president, exterprise operations. Cunnington was one of Xenon arc's earliest team members. She joined from ChemPoint, a subsidiary of Univar, where she served as product manager in addition to several other roles. Zuniga also brings over a decade of experience serving in leadership positions within the company and the materials industry. Most recently, she served as senior vice president, strategic growth at Xenon arc. Prior to joining Xenon arc in early 2011 as one of the first employees of the company, she held management roles at ChemPoint and SanMar. Xenon arc is a technology-enabled services provider of technical sales, support, technology and distribution solutions to clients and their SMB customers across the food & beverage, industrial, and chemical industries. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Bellevue, Xenon arc also serves South America and Europe through its teams in Brazil, Mexico and the Netherlands.

Xero Limited

Xero Limited has appointed Brian McAndrews as an independent non-executive director to its board, effective 2 February 2022. Based in Seattle, McAndrews is a professional director who brings extensive experience from his career as an executive and CEO for leading technology, software-as-a-service and cloud-based companies. His CEO experience includes leading Pandora Media, a streaming music provider in the US, and aQuantive, a digital marketing services and technology company that was acquired by Microso. With international digital media and technology expertise, McAndrews currently serves on the board of Frontdoor, a platform for home services and as presiding director on the board of The New York Times. He is also senior advisor to a private equity firm based in San Francisco. McAndrews will stand for election by shareholders at Xero's next annual meeting in or around August 2022. Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses with over 3 million subscribers globally.