Jun 21, 2023

City of Seattle

Kayim

Following a national search, Mayor Bruce Harrell selected Gülgün Kayim to serve as director of the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS). A multi-disciplinary artist and former Stanford Arts Institute Creative Cities Fellow with decades of experience in public art administration, Kayim will begin the new role with the city on July 19th. Coming from the city of Minneapolis, Kayim was the founding director of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, an office focused on powering Minneapolis’s economic and social growth through arts and cultural expression. Prior to that, she was an assistant director at the Archibald Bush Foundation where she managed the selection of artist fellows and supported the fellowship program. She was also the co-founder and co-artistic director of Skewed Visions, a Minneapolis-based performing arts organization. The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture manages the city’s public art program, cultural partnerships grant programs, ARTS at King Street Station, the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and The Creative Advantage initiative. ARTS provides $3.7 million funding to arts and cultural organizations, artists, and creatives. In addition, the 1% for Art program invests more than $4 million annually in the public realm.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Blake

Global law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced that Curt Blake has joined the firm as senior of counsel in the Seattle office, and that the firm is using the occasion to launch a NewSpace industry group, leveraging the firm's existing experience representing clients in the sector and Blake's expertise. Blake co-founded and was formerly CEO of Spaceflight, a provider of integrated launch services and orbital transfer vehicles for small satellites. During Blake's 12-plus years at Spaceflight, he helped establish its network of launch providers, which included SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Roscosmos, Orbital, JAXA, Arianespace, and NSIL. He also established relationships with key commercial, civilian, and defense-related customers, resulting in more than 470 spacecraft deployed from over 55 different missions. Wilson Sonsini represents a range of NewSpace sector clients in corporate, regulatory, intellectual property, and litigation matters, as well as in technology transactions. The firm's NewSpace sector clients include investors and companies such as Astranis Space Technologies, BlackSky, Lunasonde, Skylo Technologies, and Slingshot Aerospace. Blake was a member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation Board and is currently a contributor to numerous satellite conferences. Before co-founding Spaceflight, he served in a variety of senior executive and legal roles at software companies, including Microsoft, Aldus, Corbis, and Starwave. Blake earned his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Washington's Schools of Law and Business, after receiving a B.A. from the same institution.

Jun 16, 2023

Alaska Communications

Alaska Communications announced that president and CEO, Bill Bishop, died June 13. Originally from North Pole, Bishop joined Alaska Communications 19 years ago, serving in a variety of sales and executive roles. Bishop was currently taking a leave-of-absence to focus on his health and medical treatments. During this time, the Alaska Communications board of directors appointed Jim McCarley interim CEO. McCarley will continue in this capacity until a permanent placement is determined. Alaska Communications, an affiliate of ATN International, is a provider of advanced broadband and managed IT services for businesses and consumers in Alaska.

City of University Place

The City of University Place named Patrick Burke as its new chief of police. Burke is a 12-year veteran of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department (PCSD). He assumes the position from Greg Premo, who is retiring after nearly 30 years with the PCSD, the last four as University Place's police chief. Burke has been with the PCSD since 2011 and has worked as a patrol officer and in contract assignments with Pierce Transit, the Puyallup School District and the City of Edgewood. He has been a use of force instructor for 10 years and served on PCSD's SWAT team for five years. Burke holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Pacific Lutheran University, where he also played football. Burke will oversee the city's existing 16-person police force which, thanks to the passage of a dedicated public safety levy, will grow to include eight additional patrol and traffic officers, as well as a specialist to address park safety, homelessness and crime prevention.

Life Science Washington

Life Science Washington Institute (LSWI), a Life Science Washington affiliate focused on supporting early-stage companies and entrepreneurs in Washington state, announced two new grant programs, the SBIR/STTR Matching Fund and Washington Competes, to expand the pipeline of diverse and early-stage companies located throughout Washington. The new grants were unveiled at Life Science Washington's annual East West Life Science Summit as part of a larger discussion among medical innovators about the challenges startups and entrepreneurs face in serving rural and underserved populations. Each grant program can award up to $25,000 to Washington-based life science companies that are developing technologies that will improve the health and wellbeing of Washington citizens. The new grants are made possible through a partnership between the Commerce Department and LSWI to redeploy money that was returned to the state's Life Science Discovery Fund. The SBIR/STTR Matching Fund program will focus on supporting companies outside of King County, where SBIR/STTR awards have been less common. The Washington Competes program will be open to all Washington-based life science companies but will prioritize companies outside of King County, as well as companies that are women-owned or socially or economically disadvantaged. Along with these new grants, LSWI will continue its Washington Innovation Network (WIN) and Commercialization Support programs. Each new grant program will have an information session when the full solicitation is released on June 23, 2023.

CalmWave

Health tech company CalmWave was named the 2023 Digital Health Awards Winner for Connected Digital Health: Clinical Decision Support Tools. CalmWave uses AI to gauge hospitals' Operations Health to improve nurse retention and patient outcomes by reducing alarm fatigue in intensive care units. CalmWave's platform uses AI and expert services to help healthcare organizations optimize operations and make data-informed decisions. Utilizing a healthcare organization's data and machine generated signals, CalmWave allows leadership to manage staff, increase retention rates, and improve patient outcomes. Headquartered in Seattle, CalmWave has raised a pre-seed round led by Bonfire Ventures with participation from Tau Ventures, AI2 Incubator, Seachange Ventures, Hike Ventures, and the co-founders of PagerDuty.

Jun 15, 2023

Carney Badley Spellman

Weston

Blass

Liberman

Seattle law firm Carney Badley Spellman elected Eric Liberman, Ceslie Blass and Amy Weston as a shareholders. Liberman represents and advises clients in disputes related to commercial construction projects and government contracts. Liberman has represented large general contractors and sureties, as well as subcontractors, property managers and insurance companies on public and private projects. Liberman has represented clients in federal and state court cases and arbitrations, GAO bid protests, and appeals before state and federal boards of contract appeals. He also has experience managing large scale e-discovery projects. Blass focuses her legal practice on working with and representing general contractors, subcontractors, developers, design professionals, and suppliers in navigating the legal aspects of the construction industry, including resolving contract disputes, bid protests, CPARS disputes and appeals, lien and bond claims, L&I appeals, and contract drafting and review. Weston advises early stage and emerging technology companies in three main areas: Commercial Contracts, Privacy, and General Corporate Counsel. She advises clients on privacy and other regulatory compliance and best practices, and helps clients safeguard proprietary inventions, systems, and processes, and supports start-up and emerging companies at all stages of their corporate lifecycle.

Allklean

Water damage restoration company HighGround Restoration Group, a portfolio company of Trivest Partners, announced the expansion of its family of brands with the successful acquisition of Allklean. Headquartered in Post Falls, Idaho, Allklean offers a services including water damage restoration and carpet cleaning to residential customers. Allkleen has served the greater Spokane and Coeur d'Alene region for 22 years. Allkleen is led by founders Kevin and Lisa Bunce. Founded in 1981, Trivest Partners, with offices in Miami, Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Toronto, is a private investment firm that focuses exclusively on the support and growth of founder-led and family owned businesses in the U.S. and Canada, in both control and non-control transactions.

Climate Vault Solutions

Seattle-based Climate Vault Solutions launched after closing its Series A funding round for $9.4 million. The funding will be used to further drive carbon measurement, reduction, removal, and reporting as Climate Vault Solutions amplifies the mission started at non-profit Climate Vault, Inc. to provide organizations with an all-inclusive climate partner. The round was led by the Inclusive Capital Partners Foundation, a private foundation based in San Francisco, with additional investment from King Philanthropies, Valor Siren Ventures, and ThirdStream Partners. Climate Vault Solutions is the all-inclusive alternative to traditional voluntary carbon market solutions. Its data-centric solutions will enable organizations to measure, reduce, remove, and report their operational carbon footprints, plus the impacts from their products, employees, portfolios, and events. The Inclusive Capital Partners Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to supporting organizations that address pressing environmental and social challenges.