washington business
Of Note
Microsoft Celebrates 50 years
Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and Gates Foundation Chair; Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and Ballmer Group co-founder; and Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO, on stage at the anniversary event.
From Albuquerque to Redmond, from BASIC and Windows to quantum computing and AI, it’ s been a whirlwind half-century for the company that brought the personal computer into every home.
Microsoft celebrated its golden anniversary on April 4 by continuing to look at inventing the future— it held a live webinar with the latest on its AI-powered personal assistant, Copilot, and launched an online timeline of milestones from each decade.
“ Fifty years ago, Bill [ Gates ] and Paul [ Allen ] started Microsoft with a simple but powerful idea: to build technology so people everywhere could build more technology,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the ceremony.“ But today, it’ s not just about the past 50 years, it’ s about the next 50. If there’ s one thing that I have learned during my time at Microsoft, it’ s not about longevity, but relevance. Our future will not be defined by what we have built, but what we empower others to build.”
Columbia Bank Set To Expand
Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System is expanding its West Coast reach, with an announcement in April that it will acquire Pacific Premier Bancorp, based in Irvine, California. The combined company will be a market leader in the largest banking markets within the Western United States.
Columbia merged with Oregonbased Umpqua Bank in 2023. As part of the newly announced acquisition, Umpqua Bank will change its name to Columbia Bank later this year to ensure brand clarity and align better with the parent-company name.
WSU, UW, Gonzaga Welcome New Presidents
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Three leading Washington universities have new leaders.
Elizabeth Cantwell began serving as the 12th president of Washington
State University in February. She
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Elizabeth Cantwell |
Robert J. Jones |
Katia Passerini |
is WSU’ s first-ever female president. Cantwell, who has a doctorate in mechanical |
engineering and extensive experience working with national laboratories, previously |
served as president of Utah State University. |
Robert J. Jones will become the 34th president of the University of Washington on |
Aug. 1. A Georgia native, Jones has a doctorate in crop physiology. He comes to Seattle |
after nine years as chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is |
UW’ s first African-American president. |
Katia Passerini takes office as the 27th president of Gonzaga University this summer. |
She comes to Spokane after serving as provost and senior executive vice president at |
Seton Hall University in New Jersey. A native of Italy, she was a Fulbright Scholar and |
has a Ph. D. in Information and Decision Systems. |
16 association of washington business