Apr 26, 2023

Everett Community College

Everett Community College's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to offer the college presidency to Chemene Crawford, and Crawford has accepted, pending completion of contract negotiations. The decision was made at a special board meeting April 21 after a national search, a campus visit last week with students, faculty, staff and community forums, and an in-depth interview with the board. Crawford is president and CEO of North Seattle College. She has served over 30 years in higher education, including roles from full time faculty member to associate vice chancellor, previously serving at Dallas College and other colleges and universities. Crawford earned a doctorate of education in organizational leadership for Nova Southeastern University, a master's in human resources and organization development and a bachelor's of science in organizational behavior, both from the University of San Francisco. Everett Community College worked with the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) Searches to conduct a national search. ACCT will continue to assist EvCC during the contracting process. EvCC's next president will lead an institution that educates more than 15,000 students per year and employs more than 800 faculty and staff at several locations throughout Snohomish County, with most students at the main campus in Everett.

Pacific Crest Savings Bank

Ryan Douglas has joined Pacific Crest Savings Bank as senior vice president and risk officer. Douglas brings more than 16 years of experience in finance, risk management and public service, most recently serving as a senior bank examiner with the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions. He will oversee all areas of risk management to help ensure the bank continues to operate in a safe and sound manner, as well as head the bank's programs to ensure compliance with consumer protection laws and regulations. Prior to joining Pacific Crest, Douglas worked extensively in roles within the state government, spending the last six years as a bank examiner with the state Division of Banks. He began his career as a revenue agent with the Washington State Department of Revenue, overseeing state and local tax compliance while working with small business owners. Pacific Crest Savings Bank also hired Angela Monsef as senior loan Processor. Monsef brings more than 15 years of consumer and residential lending and mortgage experience to the role, previously serving in various lending positions around the greater Puget Sound region. Monsef will support the lending team and work closely with clients to determine their individual needs, guiding them through processing and closing their loan.

Prior to joining Pacific Crest, Monsef worked extensively in residential lending, most recently serving as senior loan processor at Capstone Home Loans for more than six years. She began her career as a loan processor at Bay Equity in Everett. Founded in 1984, Pacific Crest Savings Bank is a local and independently owned community bank headquartered in Lynnwood.

Apr 25, 2023

SeaTac Police Chief

Smithmeyer

City Manager Carl Cole named Troy Smithmeyer as the new police chief for the city of SeaTac. Chief Smithmeyer is replacing retiring Chief Jon Mattsen. He will oversee the 50 person SeaTac Police Department. Since 2020, Smithmeyer has acted as a captain for the King County Sheriff's Office overseeing both SeaTac and Burien. The city of SeaTac and city of Burien have an Interlocal Agreement with King County to contract with the King County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services. Smithmeyer secured funding for and successfully managed more than a dozen community related initiatives in SeaTac ranging from traffic safety to the community engagement officer program. Operationally, Smithmeyer oversaw the department's $14 million budget plan and grant administration for the 2023-2024 Biennium budget. Smithmeyer began his career at the King County Sheriff's Office as deputy in 2000. During his first five years with the agency, he served in four King County cities, and worked as a field training officer, an advanced training unit officer, a bicycle deputy, a patrol officer, and a master police officer. In 2015, Smithmeyer was promoted to sergeant. During the next five years, he supervised the Advance Training Unit and the Joint Transit Anti-Terrorism Team.. He also was successful in funding solutions to better support communities including securing a $200,000 Special Event, Direct Overtime grant to provide security support for popular community events such as SeaFair and Seattle's annual Pride Parade. Prior to joining the King County Sheriff's Office, Smithmeyer was a corporal in the United Stated Marine Corps.

Explore Seattle Southside

McGuire

Explore Seattle Southside (Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority) announced Meagan McGuire, its vice president of business development, was included as a winner in the 2023 Smart Women in Meetings Awards. In its 8th year running, the award, presented by Smart Meetings, an industry publisher and resource for event professionals, honors women for their commitment and contributions to the meetings industry. The winners are nominated by their industry peers and colleagues, and evaluated against hundreds of candidates. This past year, the women honored helped the global meetings industry regain its health and vitality after a long recovery post-Covid. Through this awards program, Smart Meetings recognizes these women at all levels of their careers for their aptitude, leadership skills, and dedication to their work. Smart Meetings publishes meetings content in print and digital magazines 12 times per year, hosts networking events, produces CEU-accredited Smart Chat Live! webinars and offers digital resources. Explore Seattle Southside is the official destination marketing organization for Seattle Southside, including the cities of SeaTac, Tukwila and Des Moines. The organization is responsible for competitively marketing the area as a travel destination for leisure and business travelers, and as a place for meeting and event planners to hold their events. The Seattle Southside RTA is funded by a self-assessed hotel fund.

Pivotal Drive

Bellevue-based Pivotal Drive, a portfolio company of Century Park Capital Partners, announced the successful completion of its strategic merger with Nova CPM, a OneStream Platinum Partner. The merger strengthens Pivotal Drive's momentum within the OneStream ecosystem, positioning it for further growth. With the merger, the combined company's size will double, boasting employees in every time zone in the continental United States, as well as Mexico and Canada. The Nova CPM transaction continues to build on Century Park's experience in the technology services sector and marks the first acquisition for Pivotal Drive. Pivotal Drive employs consultants with expertise in designing and delivering unified Corporate Performance Management solutions. This enables customers to modernize their finance organization and streamline their consolidation, reporting and planning processes. Nova is a dedicated OneStream implementation Platinum Partner. 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 with the purpose of accelerating growth and transforming these companies into leading industry players.

Apr 21, 2023

Rally Commerce

Rally Commerce, a checkout platform that helps businesses of all sizes optimize their checkout process, announced a $12M Series A investment, led by March Capital with additional participation from Felix Capital, Commerce Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Kraken Ventures. This investment follows Rally's $6M seed funding round in 2021. Co-founders Jordan Gal & Rok Knez previously ran CartHook, a checkout solution that processed nearly $3B in transactions for Shopify merchants. They launched Rally in 2020 after seeing demand from merchants for a next-generation checkout platform outside of the Shopify ecosystem. Rally currently offers support for multiple back-end and front-end platforms, payment processors, and payment methods. Later this year, Rally will strengthen its fraud protection offering and plans to build out Web3 features, starting with allowing merchants to accept cryptocurrencies in their checkout. Rally is headquartered in Portland. March Capital is a venture growth firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California and investing globally since 2014.

T-Mobile

Clevon, an Estonian-based global autonomous delivery provider, named T-Mobile as the preferred connectivity provider for its fleet of Autonomous Robot Carriers (ARCs) in the United States. Under the long-term deal, T-Mobile will provide IoT solutions for Clevon's latest ARC — the all-electric, multifunctional CLEVON 1. Clevon will rely on T-Mobile's network and IoT solutions to help power reliable, safe and efficient fleet operations for on-demand driverless delivery services. Clevon has been making driverless deliveries in Europe since 2020. Cameras, radar and other sensors in the CLEVON 1 provide data for rapid mapping and remote operating capabilities. The CLEVON 1 is designed to collect orders at warehouses, retail stores, dark stores and micro fulfillment centers and then deliver those goods to consumers and businesses. T-Mobile is based in Bellevue.

Tyemill

New York-based Syntax has acquired the assets of Tyemill, a software research and development company headquartered in Seattle. The Tyemill team of 24 engineering, design and operations professionals became part of Syntax. As part of the integration, Tyemill's CEO, Ellen Anderson, joined Syntax as managing director and head of the Seattle office. The acquisition expands Syntax's in-house capabilities and resources to execute its growth strategy. Founded in 2010, Tyemill has supported Syntax's economic research with technology that powers patented systems and proprietary commercial software applications. Tyemill's tools are used in developing new methodologies for measuring risks associated with companies and investment vehicles, identifying trends in financial data and automating complex workflows. Syntax is a financial data and technology company that has pioneered a proprietary approach to index construction, portfolio analysis, ESG and SDG measurement and other investment applications.