Seattle DJC.com local business news and data – News

May 17, 2023

Alisha Gentry has joined BCRA as director of operations, a new role within the firm’s strategic leadership team. She will oversee internal procedures and strategies, firm finances, staffing, and general operations. She joins BCRA from B+H Advanced Strategy and brings over 21 years of operational leadership and management experience to this new role at BCRA. Gentry will be based in the Tacoma office.

Emerald Communities, a not-for-profit senior housing organization serving Emerald Heights in Redmond and Gig Harbor’s Heron’s Key, recently hired Denisa Feddersen as their new corporate controller.

As corporate controller, Feddersen will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of accounting including financial reporting, audits, actuarial studies, payroll, and financial analysis. Feddersen will ensure financial management for Emerald Communities, which encompasses Emerald Heights and Heron’s Key.

Feddersen comes to Emerald Communities with an extensive background in senior living. She previously worked as the vice president of finance and corporate controller at a senior living community based in Calif. She also has experience as a CPA auditor and tax professional.

She has earned an MBA from St. Mary’s College, a Bachelor of Science in accounting from San Francisco State University, an MIT executive certificate in management and leadership, and her CPA license.

PRR announced that Kyana Wheeler has joined the agency as the Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

Wheeler has 20 years of DEI experience in anti-racism data and measurements, systems analysis, group facilitation, anti-racist leadership development, and policy impact analysis that includes more than seven years of consulting experience.

In her leadership role as Senior Director of DEI, Wheeler will lead PRR’s DEI practice focusing on external equity efforts and working with clients to facilitate anti-racist work. She also joins PRR’s Management and Client Services Leadership teams.

Prior to joining PRR, Wheeler served as Deputy Manager of the Race and Social Justice Initiative for the City of Seattle.

Allwest has hired a new project engineer for the firm’s Hayden, Idaho, office. Nathan Swanson recently joined the firm after working more than 20 years in the geology and engineering fields. He has worked on projects in California, Oregon, Canada and the Dominican Republic as a field technician, project geologist, project engineer and senior field engineer.

Swanson most recently worked as a contract field technician with Miller Pacific Engineering Group of Novato, Calif. Swanson graduated in 2004 from Sonoma State University with a bachelor’s degree in geology and chemistry. He holds a master’s degree in geological engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

PACE Engineers, Inc. has welcomed eight new employees following the firm’s recent CES|NW acquisition: Tony Weller, Eliza Turner, Paul Kohn, Ben Mealue, Fallon Emerson, Jerreme Wilburn, Jesse Heldstab and Eric Vestal.

Weller, PE, PLS, now a senior principal engineer in PACE’s Municipal Department, has over 45 years of experience designing and managing numerous public and private civil engineering, construction, and surveying projects. His experience includes working in two city engineering departments and volunteer/elected positions serving the City of Tualatin and the Washington County area.

Turner joins PACE as an accounting professional. She brings over 12 years of experience with four of those being an accounting assistant. Turner manages vendors, vendor invoices, process expense reports, and more.

Kohn, PLS, joins PACE as a principal surveyor and brings over 35 years of experience in land surveying. Over 20 of those years have been in leadership roles working on public projects, private land development projects that include boundary and topographic surveys, large-scale utility surveys, ALTA surveys, and large-scale construction surveys.

Mealue, EIT, is now an engineering intern at PACE. He has over 15 years of experience in project management, design engineering, and construction. Mealue’s engineering experience includes roadway, waterline, sanitary sewer, storm drainage treatment and control, grading and erosion control, and site development projects. Mealue is experienced in AutoCAD Civil 3D modeling.

Emerson joins PACE’s survey team as a survey field technician. With over 19 years of experience, he has extensive knowledge in topographic mapping, construction staking, industrial surveys, boundary surveys, quality control and monitoring.

Wilburn also joins PACE’s survey team as a survey field technician and licensed drone pilot with over 26 years of survey experience. He is proficient in topographical surveys, ALTA surveys, condominium surveys, horizontal and vertical control surveys, construction staking, boundary, and GPS Control surveys.

Heldstab, is now a survey technician at PACE. He brings over 12 years of land surveying experience and is a registered drone pilot. He is proficient with boundary surveys, topographic surveys, construction staking, corner restorations, legal description writing, and GPS and RTK surveys.

Vestal also joins PACE as a survey field technician and brings over 16 years of land surveying experience. Vestal’s main responsibilities will be managing a field crew, maintaining, and calibrating equipment to ensure the gathering of good data, and overseeing that data is transferred to the project managers. On the project sites, he will determine how to best complete the task and what equipment to use. Vestal is proficient in construction staking, survey practices, GPS, Trimble data collectors, and total stations.

Tait Elder, RPA has joined Parametrix as a senior consultant. He is a Secretary of the Interior qualified archaeologist with almost two decades of cultural resources experience spanning across the Western United States.

Elder comes to Parametrix from ICF where he most recently served as principal archaeologist and Pacific Northwest transportation sector lead. Elder has served as principal investigator on over 150 cultural resources studies in the Pacific Northwest since 2012 for agencies such as Snohomish County, Washington State Department of Transportation, City of Seattle, and King County Metro. At Parametrix, he will build cultural resources capacity and expertise for the Greater Washington environmental planning and compliance team.

Tope Aderiye, PMP has joined Parametrix as a senior planner. He has over 15 years of project management experience working in telecommunications, information technology, civil infrastructure, construction, and public utility environments.

Aderiye comes to Parametrix from Program Management & Controls Services. He is a Certified Project Management Professional and holds a master’s certificate in project management. Aderiye has worked with clients such as the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Department of Aviation. At Parametrix, he joins the firm’s Strategic Advisory Services group which offers business advisory, owner’s advisory, and delivery advisory services to clients across the Western United States.

Linda Gehrke has joined Parametrix as a principal consultant based in Seattle. She has over three decades of experience working in the public transportation industry, providing planning, environmental, and cartography services across Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Gehrke is the former Regional Administrator for Region 10 of the Federal Transit Administration and spent over 15 years working for the United States Department of Transportation as a Community Planner and Deputy Regional Administrator. She holds a Master of Public Administration and a degree in geography with a concentration in cartography, environmental sciences, and planning.

At Parametrix, she joins the firm’s strategic advisory services practice with an emphasis on transit clients, Tribal nations, and other public agencies throughout the Western United States.

May 16, 2023

Portland-based Standard Insurance Company (The Standard) named Dave Friesen second vice president of Enterprise Data and Analytics. Friesen joined The Standard in 2012 as a director of IT Business Relations. He then moved to IT’s Solutions Delivery organization as a senior director where he led various functional areas before transitioning to support Employee Benefits Data and Analytics, Actuarial and Investments. In his new role, Friesen will be leading the Enterprise Data and Analytics organization including the data engineering, advanced analytics, data governance, business intelligence and business integration operations functions. Prior to joining The Standard, Friesen held various leadership roles in software engineering, data services, ERP consulting and IT audit.

Seattle-based Leisure Care Senior Living promoted Bre Grubbs to partner and chief strategy officer. In her new role, Grubbs will support company growth, strategic planning, investment strategies, marketing and business development. She has been with Leisure Care since 2005 in various capacities including sales, marketing and business development. Grubbs has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Washington State University and an Accounting Certificate from the University of Washington. Founded in 1976, Leisure Care operates 56 retirement communities and more than 7,500 apartments in the United States.

Edifecs announced that Chris Lance has joined the senior leadership team as chief product officer. He will spearhead product strategy and execution. Lance joins Edifecs after serving as CPO at Evolent Health Services where he helmed development, strategy, and delivery of the business’ Health Plan Administration software and services portfolios. Before joining Evolent Health, he was a vice president and head of product at Change Healthcare, where he managed a portfolio of payer financial management solutions. In these roles, Lance led a range of business transformation initiatives, including the transition to a platform business model. Earlier this year, Edifecs announced the addition of Tom Shultz to its team of senior leaders as chief revenue officer; the company won Best in KLAS for their interoperability platform; and was recognized by the Stevie Awards for Best Technology Pivot by utilizing its interoperability as a differentiating foundation to now provide customers with more effective value-based payment and risk adjustment solutions. Edifecs is a global health information technology solutions company headquartered in Bellevue.

In its Buildings Northwest Group, Graham Construction promoted Trevor Graafstra to vice president of operations, Troy Johnson to project development director, Matt Pulick to senior operations manager, and Joe Browder to operations manager. Graafstra has brought financial, operational and strategic guidance to Graham for over a decade. He has over 28 years of construction experience in multi-key, retail, health care, life sciences, education and office buildings throughout Washington. Johnson spent 28 years in architecture, development and construction, delivering a diverse range of building types for public and private clients. In his new role, he is responsible for developing and curating key clients, overseeing preconstruction and estimating efforts, and ensuring that Graham project teams convert projects into reality. Pulick has been instrumental in Graham’s wins and preconstruction efforts on the upcoming Samaritan Hospital and Quincy Hospital projects in eastern Washington. Recently, he was a key driver toward the completion of the Quileute Tribal School in La Push. Browder has been part of successes in both Graham buildings and infrastructure over his tenure, through a variety of large complex projects. He is working to support project teams in pre-planning, and ensuring that project teams are set up for operational success.

Clarence Clipper joined mechanical contractor UMC as director of the Facility Services Group, where he is working to streamline UMC’s processes and support its growth. Clipper has been integral to the facilities and industrial space for 30 years, and held leadership positions that have propelled businesses forward for 18 years. His most recent role was general manager with CenTrio (formerly Enwave Seattle Steam), where he was responsible for operations that include a steam plant in Seattle, a chiller plant in Portland and an ambient loop wastewater heat recovery system in Denver. Prior to that, he was director of engineering for Unico Properties, overseeing engineering departments in Washington, Colorado, Utah, Texas and Tennessee. He started at Unico as chief engineer for the Metropolitan Tract of downtown Seattle buildings.

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington named Faber Construction as 2022 New Member of the Year. After signing up with the ABC, members of Faber joined the Government Affairs Council, attended events, graduated from ABC’s Construction Business School, and attended the ABC National Convention in March. Faber also referred a list of contractors to help ABC build its membership.

Granite’s Alaska Region team was awarded the Governor’s Safety Award of Excellence by the Alaska Safety Advisory Council for its exceptional safety performance in 2022. Granite’s safety and environmental performance were evaluated over the last three years against other competing companies. This is the eighth time in 11 years that the Alaska team has won the award. The team achieved 300,000 hours without a recordable injury, and ended 2022 with zero OSHA recordable injuries.