May 14, 2024

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani

Hicks

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani added Donell Andre Hicks as a partner in the Construction Practice Group in the firm's Seattle office. Hicks is experienced in handling various disputes in all types of construction cases, including residential, commercial, condominium, and homeowner association claims. In transactional, litigation, mediation, and arbitration, he represents multiple construction industry professionals, including developers, property owners, contractors, subcontractors, architects, and engineers. His construction litigation experience includes disputes involving construction defects, breach of contract and construction delays. Hicks earned this law degree from The George Washington University School of Law, and his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. GRSM has offices in all 50 states, and its Construction Group consists of over 200 lawyers across the U.S., specializing in a broad spectrum of legal services tailored for the construction industry.

Leafly Holdings

Seattle-based Leafly Holdings, an online cannabis discovery marketplace and resource for cannabis consumers, announced that Peter Lee will join Leafly as president and chief operating officer. Lee will lead new monetization efforts, operations and corporate development. He will remain a member of Leafly's Board of Directors. Lee brings more than 25 years of strategic leadership and more than five years of cannabis industry experience, as well as deep knowledge of both public markets and public equities. He served as president, chief financial officer and member of the board of directors of Merida Merger Corp.until it merged with and into Leafly as part of Leafly's go-public transaction in 2022. Lee has been a member of Leafly's Board of Directors ever since. From 2011 to 2018, he co-founded and was a managing partner at Sentinel Rock Capital, a long/short equity-oriented hedge fund. He has held various roles at other long/short equity-oriented hedge funds at Spring Point Capital, Blackstone Kailix, and Tiger Management. Lee started his career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, the private equity investment fund of Morgan Stanley.

Yoko Miyashita is CEO of Leafly.

May 10, 2024

Ascendent Demolition

Saber

Ascendent Demolition hired David Saber as its new safety director. Saber will bolster Ascendent's safety program by creating safety policies, identifying hazards, training employees, encouraging safety through various techniques, and working with others throughout the organization to ensure health and safety principles are always improving.

PitchBook

PitchBook, a financial data and software company, announced that John Gabbert will be stepping down as chief executive officer. Gabbert will work closely with Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor over the next several weeks to appoint his successor. In the meantime, Rod Diefendorf, PitchBook chief operating officer, and PitchBook's executive leadership team will assume management responsibilities. Gabbert founded PitchBook in 2007 with a vision for providing transparency into the global private capital markets through data, research and tools. He established proprietary data operations processes to collect and verify hard-to-find financial datasets across private equity, venture capital, and M&A markets. Building on this foundation, PitchBook then introduced news and institutional research as well as a suite of workflow and analysis tools, which today create the PitchBook Platform. In 2016, Morningstar acquired PitchBook, which now operates as an independent subsidiary. Morningstar also acquired LCD in 2022 and integrated it into the PitchBook Platform. PitchBook, with U.S. headquarters in Seattle, operates globally with more than 3,000 team members.

Cyemptive Technologies

Seattle-based Cyemptive Technologies, a provider of cybersecurity solutions for business and government, named former IBM and Hitachi Partner executive Wessel Graatsma as vice president cybersecurity solutions Europe. In his new role, Graatsma will be responsible for business development and directing Cyemptive's business in select European markets. His initial focus will be on developing business and partners in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) and Spain. Graatsma brings more than 35 years of experience in developing business with channel partners, distributors, service providers, cloud providers and OEM partners. This announcement is the latest in a series of international appointments the company has made in the past six months as it scales up for the next level of growth in Europe.

May 09, 2024

Emerald Communities

Wells

Emerald Communities, a not-for-profit senior housing organization, recently appointed Denis Wells as the new corporate controller. Wells has over 25 years of experience in accounting and comes to Emerald Communities after working as corporate controller at a non-profit hospital in Oklahoma. She earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Cameron University and a CPA certification. As corporate controller, Wells will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of accounting including financial reporting, audits, tax returns, actuarial studies, payroll, and financial analysis. Wells will ensure financial management for Emerald Communities, which encompasses Emerald Heights in Redmond and Heron's Key in Gig Harbor.

Wheelhouse DMG

Seattle-based Wheelhouse DMG, a digital marketing agency specializing in the healthcare and medical device industries, appointed Carissa Vega as director of digital advertising. Vega has nearly 20 years of experience in the digital marketing space. Vega joins Wheelhouse DMG from NewEngen, where she served as the SVP of digital. Prior to NewEngen, Vega spent more than 15 years at Merkle, rising through the ranks to become the VP of performance media, where she managed a large client portfolio, including oversight of more than 100 digital advertising professionals. In her new role, Vega will be responsible for leading Wheelhouse DMG's digital advertising strategies and driving innovation, insuring the delivery of business value to clients.

SanMar

SanMar has been selected as a 2024 US Best Managed company. Now in its fifth year, the award, sponsored by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal, recognizes the achievements of U.S. private companies and the successes of their management teams. SanMar has been a family-owned business since its founding in 1971 and is currently managed by the third generation of the Lott family. The company's longstanding investments in its employees, operations, and sustainability efforts, are key drivers for its selection as a 2024 US Best Managed company. US Best Managed Companies is part of a global Deloitte Private program. Honorees are selected by an external panel of judges who evaluate applicants based on strategy, ability to execute, culture, and governance and financial performance. SunMar supplies wholesale imprintable clothing and accessories in the United States. SanMar is based in Issaquah, with nine distribution centers nationwide.