Feb 11, 2025

The Museum of Northwest Art

Waguespack

The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) named Christian Waguespack as its new director of curatorial affairs and curator of Northwest art, effective March 3. Waguespack comes to MoNA from the New Mexico Museum of Art + Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe, where he has served as head of curatorial affairs and curator of 20th century art. Waguespack will provide strategic vision and managerial leadership to MoNA's collection, exhibition, research, and scholarship initiatives and will work to boost community engagement with the museum and its collection of Northwest Art. Waguespack has an arts-management background, having been involved in the planning, realization and opening of the Vladem Contemporary, the new gallery space of the New Mexico Museum of Art dedicated to exhibit post-war and contemporary art. MoNA's new position of director of curatorial affairs and curator of Northwest art is made possible by the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The trust's mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to strengthen the region's educational, social, cultural, and spiritual base in creative and sustainable ways. It was created by the will of the late Melvin J. Murdock, who was a co-founder of Tektronix, in Beaverton, Oregon, and a resident of Vancouver. Since its establishment in 1975, with a bequest of about $91 million, the trust has focused its grantmaking efforts primarily in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

Naturally Seattle

Goldman

Naturally Seattle, the newest addition to the Naturally Network chapter roster, named Debi Goldman as its first executive director. Naturally Seattle's mission is to elevate the impact of conscious businesses in the natural or organic products industry in the Pacific Northwest. Goldman will lead efforts to build and grow the better-for-you CPG community, connecting Seattle and surrounding areas. With over 25 years of experience in nonprofit program management, community engagement, and the natural products industry, she is an advocate for fair trade practices and ethical business standards, and has dedicated her career to fostering sustainable growth and creating meaningful impact across industries. Goldman has been part of Naturally Network since 2022.

EdgeRunner AI

Seattle-based EdgeRunner AI named Jay Yonamine as its first chief product officer. Yonamine joins EdgeRunner from Google, where he spent the past decade building and scaling industry leading AI applications, initially focused on intellectual property and more recently as a Maps product lead, responsible for Google's largest consumer product with fully on-device AI inference. Prior to joining Google, Yonamine received a PhD in political science where he built AI models to forecast global political conflict for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Between his PhD and experience at Google, Yonamine has built applied AI systems in a broad range of industries including insurance, social media, and e-commerce.

Feb 07, 2025

Life Science Washington

Life Science Washington, the state’s life sciences industry association, announced the expansion of its board of directors with the addition of nine new members, representing leaders from across the state’s top life sciences and technology companies. Life Science Washington’s newly elected board members include: Kamran Ansari, senior vice president, head of clinical development & operations, Pfizer Oncology Division; Jeff Cohen, senior vice president and general manager, Philips Ultrasound; Eric Dobmeier, venture partner, Samsara BioCapital; Yves Leurquin, CEO, Inventprise; Snehal Patel, executive vice president and chief technical officer, Sana Biotechnology; Chris Preti, CEO & president, Jubilant HollisterStier; Kathleen Sullivan, senior director, strategy & operations, Microsoft Research Health Futures; Eric Tham, MD, senior vice president and chief research operations officer, Seattle Children’s Research Institute; and Christina Yi, COO and Seattle site head, Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The addition of these board members is an important step in the continued growth of Washington’s $38.8 billion life sciences industry, a top 10 life sciences cluster in the U.S. In the last year, the region garnered a total of $2.6 billion in mergers and acquisitions and investment activity across 37 deals. Life Science Washington’s new board represents many of the companies leading these expansions and acquisitions. Pfizer is now the state’s largest life sciences company, while Philips Ultrasound is Washington’s largest medical device company. After its current expansion is complete, Jubilant HollisterStier will be the largest manufacturer in Spokane. Sana Biotechnology and Vertex Pharmaceuticals represent the region’s leadership in cell and gene therapy, while Inventprise reflects Washington’s roots in global health and vaccines. Additionally, Seattle Children’s Research Institute is now one of the top five children’s research institutes in the country. Dobmeier is a longtime biotech leader who previously served as an executive at two of Washington’s most successful biotech companies, Seagen and Chinook Therapeutics. Life Science Washington connects its members to each other and to funding, talent, partners and essential business services and elevates the industry by promoting policies that strengthen the environment for ground-breaking research and product development.

Feb 06, 2025

Ewing & Clark puts the flex into KOMO Plaza

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Ewing & Clark has found another tenant for KOMO Plaza. This time it's local fitness chain Transform 180 Training, which is leaving Belltown for a new 7,752-square-foot space. The gym, run by Charith Madawela, also has locations in Madison Park and South Lake Union. Brokering both sides of the deal were Tom Graff and Cameron Kent at E&C. The gym replaces prior tenant Concentra Urgent Care, in the east building, facing Denny Way.

VECA Electric & Technologies

VECA Electric & Technologies has launched a new website, http://www.veca.com, to elevate its online presence, and to highlight its values, departments and work, and to introduce its team. VECA is a Pacific Northwest electrical contractor responsible for powering many of the region's most iconic buildings, as well as developments, and occupied facilities. The new site was championed by the marketing team and features collective input from over 40 internal subject matter experts at VECA.

Lighthouse

Seattle-based Lighthouse, a global provider of technology-enabled eDiscovery, compliance, and information governance services, has named Julie Heller vice president of sales. Heller brings more than 25 years of experience in eDiscovery and information governance to her role with Lighthouse. She was most recently with AIG, where she served as vice president in the legal operations group, head of legal knowledge management and information governance, and a certified information governance officer. While there, she oversaw information lifecycle management, content management, taxonomy development and classification, legal hold, record retention, data preservation, and legacy data disposition processes. In addition, she led the eDiscovery management program for six years. Heller also served as president of AIG's New York and U.S. Women & Allies Employee Resource Groups. Prior to AIG, she spent time in practice support at several AmLaw firms in a variety of eDiscovery project management and legal technology management roles, as well in client services on the vendor side.

Vouched

Vouched named Tom Donlea as its new vice president of business development. Donlea has nearly two decades of expertise, and will focus on driving strategic partnerships, enhancing sales efforts, and using his 10-year dedication to identity verification. He previously held leadership roles at Ekata, where he was a driving force in the company's growth, leading to its acquisition by Mastercard in 2021. The Merchant Risk Council recognized Donlea's contributions to fighting fraud by awarding him a Director Emeritus designation in 2022. Vouched's AI-powered identity verification (IDV) solution enables businesses to authenticate individuals and meet critical regulatory requirements. Based in Seattle, Vouched is privately held and backed by Madrona Venture Labs, Ascend Ventures, Flying Fish VC, BHG VC, SpringRock Ventures, and SeaChange Ventures.