Excellent Evening Caps Remarkable Year
washington business editorial staff
Kris Johnson, Publisher Jason Hagey, Executive Editor Bobbi Cussins, Communications Manager Brian Mittge, Staff Writer / Photo Editor Brian Temple, Digital Media Coordinator J-Anne Nepomuceno, Editorial Assistant
awb officers
Wendy Sancewich, Chair of the Board RSM, Seattle
Michael Senske, Vice Chair Pearson Packaging Systems, Spokane
Tom Pucci, Secretary / Treasurer Expedia, Bellevue
Mike Schwenk, Immediate Past Chair UniWest, Pasco
awb executive team
Kris Johnson, President Gary Chandler, VP, Government Affairs Jason Hagey, VP, Communications Greg Welch, Director of Finance
PO Box 658, Olympia, WA 98507-0658 T 360.943.1600 F 360.943.5811 www. awb. org
Letters are welcomed, but must be signed to be considered for publication. Please include contact information for verification.
Reproduction of articles appearing in Washington Business magazine is authorized for personal use only, with credit given to Washington Business magazine and / or the Association of Washington Business.
Articles written by outside authors do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of AWB, its officers, staff or members.
Products and services advertised in Washington Business magazine are not necessarily endorsed by AWB, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of AWB, its officers, staff or members.
Washington Business magazine is the official quarterly publication of the Association of Washington Business. The annual subscription rate is $ 24.00, and individual copies may be purchased for $ 3.95. For subscription requests and magazine purchases, please contact the Association of Washington Business, P. O. Box 658, Olympia, WA 98507.
washington business is designed by: Daniels-Brown Communications T 360.705.3058 www. danielsbrown. com
advertising inquiries may be directed to: Kelli Schueler, AWB
washingtonbusinessmag. com
What’ s Ahead
Excellent Evening Caps Remarkable Year
Jason Hagey, Executive Editor
It was a perfect ending to an eventful year.
AWB’ s first-ever Evening of Excellence awards ceremony, held Nov. 30 at Benaroya Hall, was an elegant night out on the town in celebration of some of the state’ s top employers.
The idea behind the inaugural Evening of Excellence was to combine most of the awards that AWB gives out at various times throughout the year into a single, stand-alone event that’ s all about paying tribute to our members.
It turned out to be a lot of fun, in part because of the setting. Benaroya Hall is stylish no matter the season, but it was especially striking decked out as it was in full holiday splendor.
And the red-carpet photo op combined with the Oscars-style nominee videos created by AWB’ s Brian Temple were nice touches.
To keep the celebration rolling, the cover story in this issue is all about the finalists and winners in each of the award categories. Staff writer and photographer Brian Mittge put together snapshots of each company, highlighting what’ s special about each of them. You can find it beginning on Page 32.
This issue is packed with other great content, too, including interviews with the presidents of the University of Washington and Washington State University. Ani Mari Cauce and Kirk Schulz shared a stage for the first time at AWB’ s Policy Summit in September, and staff writer Bobbi Cussins followed up with interviews of each of them, exploring their backgrounds and where they want to take their institutions.
Contributing writer Kim Eckart returns to this issue with a profile of Rosemarie Truman, the new director of innovation at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Truman has an impressive background of helping move inventions into the marketplace, which is exactly what she intends to do at PNNL.
With the start of a new year comes a new round of advertising for AWB’ s Grow Here employer image campaign. As the new spots are coming together, Bobbi Cussins helps us take one more look back at the 2016 campaign with a recap of the panel discussion at the Policy Summit. Some of the“ stars” of the 2016 TV spots offered their perspective on the importance of the campaign and how it’ s helping to humanize Washington’ s business community. Stay tuned for more in the next issue about the 2017 version of this exciting ad campaign.
Finally, with the start of a legislative session that’ s expected to be more difficult than normal, Cussins breaks down some of the issues facing lawmakers this year.
It’ s early still, but from the look of the AWB calendar, 2017 is shaping up to be just as eventful as last year. I look forward to seeing you along the way, and at year’ s end standing on the red carpet. winter 2017 5