Oct 26, 2022

Madrona

Seattle-based Madrona appointed Wei Gao as venture partner, Anna Baird as operating partner and Vivek Ramaswami as partner. Gao will help identify new investments and provide strategic and operational advice to Madrona portfolio companies. She brings over 20 years of operating leadership across product, technology and business operations. As a 16-year veteran of Amazon, she worked in increasingly senior technical leadership roles, including as technical adviser to Jeff Bezos and vice president of Amazon Grocery. She later became the COO at shared experiences platform Hopin. Baird has been a COO, CFO and CRO — most recently at Outreach.io, a sales engagement platform. Prior to Outreach, she was CFO of Livongo, senior vice president at McAfee, and partner at KPMG. Baird also serves on the SeatGeek board of directors. Ramaswami, based in the Palo Alto, California, office, joins Madrona from Steadfast Capital. Prior to Steadfast, Ramaswami was a principal at Redpoint Ventures. Madrona is a venture capital firm with over 25 years of experience investing in early-stage technology companies.

State of Washington

At the Governor's Committee on Disability Issues & Employment (GCDE) 30th Annual Governor's Employer Awards Program, six public and private employers were honored for their work recruiting, hiring, retaining and advancing workers with disabilities. Two individuals were also recognized for their commitment to improve the lives of those with disabilities. Recipients of the awards were: Walgreens in Sedro-Woolley for Youth Employer of the Year; Spectrum Studios in Kennewick for Small Nonprofit Employer of the Year; Seattle Children's Hospital for Large Nonprofit Employer of the Year; Restoration Management in Kent for Small Private Employer of the Year; JCPenney in Marysville for Medium Private Employer of the Year; and ABM Business & Industry in Seattle for Large Private Employer of the Year. The committee also honored Ivanova Smith and Mary Sabetto. Smith was awarded the Governor's Trophy in Memory of Carolyn Blair Brown. This award, named after a former GCDE member, is the highest honor given to someone with a disability who has significantly empowered people with disabilities in Washington. Sabetto was awarded the Direct Support Professional of the Year Award. Sabetto works for Washington Vocational Services, where she has helped numerous employers recognize the benefits of hiring individuals with disabilities. A panel of GCDE members, business representatives and previous award recipients selected this year's honorees. The GCDE advises the governor, Legislature, state agencies and other policy makers on issues important to people with disabilities.

Altavair

Commercial aviation finance firm Altavair announced a deal to lease 10 Airbus A330-300 aircraft to Amazon Air. The aircraft will be delivered following freighter conversion by Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH, a joint venture between ST Engineering Aerospace and Airbus. The aircraft are owned by funds and accounts managed by KKR, with Altavair acting as lease servicer. The first of the A330 freighters will be placed in service with Amazon Air in late 2023. KKR Capital Markets and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) acted as joint mandated lead arrangers, and MUFG acted as structuring agent and hedge provider in this transaction. Altavair is an asset manager focusing on the acquisition of new and used commercial aircraft for leasing to domestic and international passenger airlines and cargo operators. It maintains offices in Seattle, London, Dublin and Singapore.

Oct 25, 2022

NuScale Power

Goodnight

NuScale Power, a provider of advanced small modular nuclear reactor technology, appointed Charles “Chuck” Goodnight to its executive leadership team as vice president of sales. Goodnight will seek new business opportunities for NuScale and help lead the development and implementation of sales and marketing programs. He has extensive executive-level nuclear energy industry expertise, including serving as a partner in the Energy & Utilities practice at Arthur D. Little, a global management consultancy. Prior to that, he founded and led Goodnight Consulting for almost 20 years, serving the global electric power industry, with a focus on nuclear power generation. Founded in 2007, NuScale is headquartered in Portland.

DexCare

Seattle-based health care technology company DexCare acquired e-commerce and online merchandising technology company Womp. The company's brands, WompHealth and WompMobile, remain independent subsidiaries of DexCare. WompHealth applies online shopping technology to empower health systems to deliver intuitive digital experiences for consumers. WompMobile uses technology to convert any website into a mobile experience. Incubated at Providence, DexCare's core offering is a software platform, provided exclusively to health systems, that directs digital demand and health system capacity across all lines of care.

Betacom

Private wireless network provider Betacom announced that its Betacom 5G as a service (5GaaS) has been selected as the winner of the Industrial IoT Solution of the Year award in the Mobile Breakthrough Awards. The awards program recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global wireless and mobile market, and attracts thousands of nominations. Winning products and companies are selected based on a variety of criteria, including most innovative and technologically advanced products and services, with the ultimate goal of recognizing breakthrough solutions for each mobile technology. This recognition follows Betacom being named to the Puget Sound Business Journal's 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Bellevue, Betacom offers a fully managed private 5G network. The company has offices across the nation, including local offices in Seattle and Portland.

Oct 21, 2022

Symetra

Ellis

McGarry

Cerrone

Symetra Life Insurance announced the promotion of Dayna Cerrone to vice president, channel head for the bank and wirehouse channels, a new role. Cerrone joins Kevin McGarry, vice president, independent broker-dealer channel, in leading Symetra's core distribution channels. The executives report to Andrew Farrell, senior vice president, retirement sales, distribution and marketing. Most recently vice president, Western Division, Cerrone joined Symetra in 2013 and is a veteran financial professional whose 30-year career encompasses roles as financial advisor, external wholesaler and corporate sales trainer at multiple financial institutions including Transamerica, AIG and American Express. In her new role, Cerrone assumes leadership for the Retirement Division's field sales teams and relationship management in the bank and wire distribution channel. McGarry joined Symetra in November 2021 following 10 years at Nationwide Financial where his most recent role was vice president and national sales manager for mutual fund distribution. Prior to Nationwide, he worked for MFS Investment Service Groups, Alliance Bernstein, and Travelers Insurance in roles that include divisional vice president, mutual fund wholesaler, and annuity wholesaler. Symetra also announced that Courtney Ellis, formerly vice president, internal sales, will take on an expanded role that now includes retirement product marketing, as VP, retirement marketing, internal sales and sales effectiveness. Ellis joined Symetra in 2012 as a product specialist in the Retirement Division before moving into internal wholesaling. She was promoted to assistant director, internal sales & distribution in 2016, and was named AVP, internal sales & distribution in 2019. She was promoted to vice president in 2022. Based in Bellevue, Symetra provides employee benefits, annuities and life insurance through a national network of benefit consultants, financial institutions, and independent financial professionals and insurance producers.

Gordon Rees

Estes

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani partner Allen W. Estes, III has been selected to serve as a fellow with the American College of Construction Lawyers. The ACCL is a national organization of lawyers who have demonstrated skill, experience and high standards of professional and ethical conduct in the practice, or in the teaching, of construction law, and who are dedicated to excellence in the specialized practice of construction law. Estes is one of only four fellows in Washington state and the first Gordon & Rees attorney to be invited.

Estes serves as a co-chair of the Construction Practice Group, a co-managing partner of the Seattle office, and is a member of the firm's executive committee. In his practice, he advises developers, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and sureties in all phases of project administration and delivery on public and private projects. His litigation experience includes bench and jury trials, as well as arbitrations, throughout the United States. Estes earned his B.A. with distinction from San Diego State University and his J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law. He served as a law clerk to Judge Franklin D. Burgess of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Founded in 1974, Gordon & Rees has offices and attorneys in all 50 states.

Avalara

Avalara, a provider of tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, announced the completion of its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners, a global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses, in partnership with institutional co-investors, for $93.50 per share in cash. With the completion of the transaction, Avalara shares have ceased trading and are no longer listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs served as exclusive financial advisor to Avalara, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Perkins Coie acted as legal counsel. BofA Securities served as financial advisor to Vista and Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel. Headquartered in Seattle, Avalara has offices across the U.S. and around the world in Brazil, Europe, and India.