Apr 05, 2024

Symetra

Galda Joyce

Alexander

Symetra Financial appointed Soraya Alexander and April Galda Joyce to its board of directors. Alexander is chief operating officer of online fundraising platform GoFundMe and president of its subsidiary, Classy. Galda Joyce was most recently CEO and director of Beat Capital Partners Americas. At GoFundMe and Classy, Alexander oversees product, engineering, sales, marketing, technology and operations for the software division. Previously, Alexander was COO at Classy. As a member of the executive team, she played a key role in growing the company's valuation and market presence, resulting in its acquisition by GoFundMe. Prior to Classy, Alexander was with Dick's Sporting Goods as director of loyalty programs and as senior manager, where she led the company's omnichannel customer experience team. At Beat Capital Partners Americas, Galda Joyce established Beat's U.S. platform, capacity and initial managing general agents. She was previously a managing director with Global Atlantic Financial Group, where she held multiple executive roles, most recently as chief culture officer. She also served as one of two Global Atlantic directors at the Forethought Variable Insurance Trust, a $4 billion SEC-registered mutual fund complex. Galda Joyce began her career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York in 1999 before becoming a founding member of the predecessor to Global Atlantic, the Goldman Sachs Reinsurance Group. Symetra is a diversified financial services company based in Bellevue.

Wheelhouse DMG

Wheelhouse DMG hired Laura Chase as senior MarTech strategist. Chase was most recently senior director of web analytics and insights with Providence. Prior to her role at Providence, Chase held several senior roles in enterprise analytics and technology, including head of website testing and analytics for Amazon Web Services, director of digital analytics and optimization for T-Mobile, director of analytics for Overstock.com, senior vice president and global analytics best practices leader for Citi, and senior consultant with Adobe. Chase has experience in data strategy, MarTech, web analytics, and business intelligence in complex enterprises and highly regulated industries. Wheelhouse DMG is a health care digital marketing agency based in Seattle.

Revitalization Partners

Revitalization Partners, a Seattle-based restructuring and turnround company, announced that former corporate executive and senior advisor Richard von Riesen has joined the firm. Von Riesen has over 30 years of experience in CEO, COO and CFO roles as a senior financial, strategic planning and business development executive. His has experience in technology, retail, health care and aerospace, as well as the nonprofit sector. He recently served as executive chairman for a NASA-approved scientific imaging company working on the agency's spaceflight testing of launch and recovery systems. Over the past three decades, von Riesen has led a number of corporate and nonprofit restructurings. His international turnaround and restructuring experience includes advising organizations in London and Shanghai. He currently serves as an advisor to the CEO of a large historic site owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Apr 04, 2024

Washington Trust Bank

Hurst

Washington Trust Bank named Brandon Hurst to its Small Business Banking team at its Smokey Point branch in Marysville to serve as vice president and relationship manager. With more than 12 years of financial industry experience and a focus in commercial banking, Hurst will serve commercial clients near Marysville and throughout the north Puget Sound region. Hurst joins Washington Trust from Umpqua Bank, where he served as business banking relationship manager. Hurst is a graduate of Biola University's Talbot School of Theology, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, and of Wheaton College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and economics. He also holds a Certificate in Business and Commercial Lending from the American Bankers Association. Washington Trust Bank is an independently owned full-service commercial bank serving the Northwest region since 1902. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of W.T.B. Financial Corp., headquartered in Spokane, with branches and offices in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

Snohomish County Superior Court

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Whitney Rivera to the Snohomish County Superior Court. She will replace Judge Anita Farris, who will retire from the bench effective April 30. In November 2020, Rivera was appointed to serve as the sole municipal court judge for Edmonds Municipal Court. She successfully ran for a four-year term in 2021 to retain her seat. As the Edmonds Municipal Court Presiding Judge, Rivera is responsible for hearing all criminal matters, traffic infractions, and administrative appeals, as well as for leading the management of the court's operations. Prior to her current position as a judicial officer, Rivera served as a public defender with the Snohomish County Public Defender Association for over 12 years. Rivera also served as an attorney for the Washington Appellate Project, representing indigent individuals on their direct appeals from convictions. Since 2021, Rivera has served on the Edmonds College Foundation Board where she has focused her volunteer efforts on student scholarships and staff grant requests. In 2022, she was appointed to the board of the Hazel Miller Foundation, which provides grants to organizations focused on a broad range of services, including education, youth services, diversity, and poverty alleviation. In 2023, she was appointed to the board of the Edmonds Food Bank. Rivera earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. She earned her law degree from Boston College Law School.

F5

F5 named Lyra Schramm as executive vice president and chief people officer and Kunal Anand as executive vice president and chief technology officer. Schramm and Anand join F5's executive leadership team reporting to President and CEO, Francois Locoh-Donou. Schramm is responsible for driving people initiatives that position the company for continued growth. She comes to F5 with experience in roles that align people strategies with business objectives in high-growth, innovative, and philanthropic sectors. Schramm was most recently vice president, strategy and innovation at Google. She previously held senior roles at AWS and the Gates Foundation. Anand is responsible for setting the technology vision for F5. He joins the company with expertise across multiple areas, including cybersecurity and data. Most recently, Anand held the dual roles of CTO and chief information security officer at Imperva. Prior to that, Anand was the co-founder of application security startup Prevoty and held senior roles at BBC Worldwide and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Seattle-based F5 is a multicloud application security and delivery company.

Apr 03, 2024

Collins Aerospace

Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, and Common Energy, a community solar provider, announced a partnership to support a portfolio of four new community solar projects across the greater Portland area. In aggregate, the projects have a capacity of 12 megawatts and will generate 17 million kilowatt hours of clean energy each year. Clean electricity from the projects will flow directly to the electric grid and replace fossil fuel generation, thereby lowering carbon emissions. The projects will be owned and operated by Luminace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brookfield Renewables. According to the provisions of Oregon's Community Solar Program, the projects will have a mix of commercial, residential and low-income subscribers. Each subscriber will receive credits on their electricity bills, proportional to their share of the projects, lowering their energy cost. In addition, all subscribers will receive Renewable Energy Certificates. Collins' facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, will make up the commercial allocation, thereby “anchoring” the portfolio. Approximately 10% of the projects' credits will be allocated to low-income households, which will receive a guaranteed 20% savings on their electricity bills for 20 years.

The Standard

Portland-based StanCorp Financial Group (The Standard) announced the closing of the acquisition of the Life & Disability business from Elevance Health in accordance with the terms of the agreement reported on March 28, 2023. The agreement includes a 10-year distribution partnership whereby The Standard's products and services will be made available to Elevance Health customers. The combined life and disability benefits businesses will operate under The Standard brand and include the Elevance Health Life & Disability employees and operations. The distribution agreement partners The Standard's sales team with Elevance Health's medical sales team for customers for group life, short term and long term disability, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and paid family leave and absence management services. Elevance Health's companies serve more than 115 million customers through a portfolio of medical, digital, pharmacy, behavioral, clinical, and complex care solutions.