washington business
Davis witnessed it up close with the creation of the Washington Alliance for
a Competitive Economy, better known as WashACE, in the early 2000s.
The alliance was originally made up of AWB, the Washington Roundtable
and the Washington Research Council, and later added Enterprise Washington,
the nonprofit that strives to get business-minded people elected to the state
Legislature.
It wasn’t clear initially, though, that it would be around for long. The alliance had produced a report on the state’s competitiveness, and Davis thought
it might be a one-off.
But the report, and the alliance, gained traction, when Gov. Locke cited its
work during the formation of the state’s first competitiveness council.
WashACE has gone on to publish an annual Competitiveness Redbook, a
data-driven handbook that compares Washington to other states in dozens of
categories that impact business.
“What was great about that first WashACE report is that it illustrated each organization’s strength,” Davis said. AWB provided strong lobbying, the Roundtab