Apr 25, 2024

Salmon Recovery Board

Bizyayeva

Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians councilmember, fisheries director and Northwest Indian Fisheries commissioner Kadi Bizyayeva to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. Bizyayeva is the fisheries director for the Tribe's Natural Resources Department, where she has worked since 2013. She co-manages treaty resources with state, federal and tribal governments, working with them to recover species of concern in the Stillaguamish River watershed, which includes two of Puget Sound's 22 threatened populations of Chinook salmon. “We are excited for Ms. Bizyayeva to join the Salmon Recovery Funding Board,” said Megan Duffy, director of the Recreation and Conservation Office, which administers the funding board's grants. “She has more than a decade of experience working on salmon recovery and understands the issues, the people and the fish.” The Salmon Recovery Funding Board awards more than $206 million biennially in grants to cities, counties, tribes, nonprofits, private landowners and regional salmon enhancement groups to do on-the-ground projects to restore salmon habitat. Bizyayeva's term ends July 15, 2027.

Novelty Hill Capital

Seattle-based Novelty Hill Capital announced the recent sale of Firehook Bakery, a baking business specializing in artisanal baked goods, to Forward Consumer Partners, a private equity firm that invests in branded consumer businesses. Novelty Hill Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor to Firehook on the deal. Established in 1992 by founder Pierre Abushacra, Firehook began as a neighborhood bakery in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and has risen to become a national artisanal cracker brand. Novelty Hill Capital is a middle-market investment bank and financial advisory firm with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and evaluating strategic alternatives throughout the consumer, industrial and agribusiness value chains. Michael Barber is the CEO and managing director of Novelty Hill Capital.

Lattice Semiconductor

Lattice Semiconductor's Lattice Avant FPGA platform was selected as a 2024 Environment + Energy Leader Award winner. Lattice Avant was recognized for its power efficiency, performance, and small form factor in the Business & Infrastructure category. The awards celebrate innovation within the industry, and highlight companies making an impact in driving forward a sustainability agenda. The Avant platform enables Lattice to address an expanded set of customer applications across the automotive, communications, computing, and industrial markets. Lattice is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Apr 24, 2024

The Standard

Briggs

Portland-based Standard Insurance Co. (The Standard) promoted Julie Briggs to vice president of strategic innovation and emerging markets and Asset Management Group actuary. In her new role, Briggs is responsible for the leadership of all AMG actuarial and finance functions, working closely with The Standard's corporate partners to balance growth, risk and the increasing contributions of AMG to the company. Briggs joined The Standard in 2005 where she has held actuarial positions in Retirement Plans working with defined benefits and product and risk management as well as a leadership role on the Corporate Actuarial team. Most recently, Briggs served as assistant vice president of retirement plans actuarial and finance. Prior to joining The Standard, Briggs worked nearly seven years at Towers Perrin and Mercer (now WTW) in benefits plan consulting.

Briggs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and classical studies at Willamette University. She is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Silver Creek Capital

Seattle-based Silver Creek Capital Management, an alternative investment boutique focused on developing investment solutions for institutional and sophisticated investors globally, announced that Nathan Kelso has joined the Firm as chief technology officer. Kelso has nearly 30 years of experience serving in information technology roles in the investment management sector. For more than a decade, Kelso was chief information security officer of Research Affiliates. Prior to Research Affiliates, he was director of the platform and integration team supporting BlackRock Alternative Advisors, where he managed the deployment of a client tracking system across the platform. Kelso joined BlackRock in 2007 upon its acquisition of the core asset management business of Seattle-based Quellos Group, where he was associate director, product management. Bob Ratlife is president of Silver Creek. The addition of Kelso follows Silver Creek's recent hiring of David Matter as co-chief investment officer and Michael Callahan as managing director, business development.

NanoString Technologies

Bruker Corp. announced that it has entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with NanoString Technologies, headquartered in Seattle. Under the asset purchase agreement, Bruker expects to acquire substantially all of the assets and rights associated with NanoString's business product lines for approximately $392.6 million in cash, and the assumption of certain liabilities. In 2023, NanoString generated revenues of approximately $168 million. On April 19, 2024, the transaction was approved under a court-supervised Chapter 11 sale process pursuant to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and it is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions. NanoString is a provider of life science tools for discovery and translational research for spatial transcriptomics and gene expression analysis. Bruker expects to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and established debt instruments. Following the closing, the NanoString business will become part of the Bruker Spatial Biology business. By 2026, Bruker expects the NanoString business to have rebounded and to be near break-even with resumed revenue growth and margin improvements, also taking advantage of deal synergies, as Bruker is not acquiring NanoString's public company overhead in this asset deal. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Goldman Sachs & Co. are serving as legal and financial / strategic advisors, respectively, to Bruker. NanoString is represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher as counsel, AlixPartners as restructuring advisor and Perella Weinberg Partners as restructuring investment banker.

Apr 23, 2024

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Varnes

BCLP (Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner) appointed Trevor Varnes as the firm's new chief financial officer. Varnes joins BCLP from Perkins Coie, where he served as CFO for the past seven years. At BCLP, Varnes will work closely with the leadership team to pursue the firm's goals around financial operations and business performance. As CFO, he will oversee the firm's accounting and financial reporting, financial analysis, budgeting, billing and collections, treasury functions, taxes, and audits. With more than 25 years of experience in the legal industry, Varnes spent two decades at Perkins Coie, where he began his career with roles in the conflicts, business development, practice management, and finance departments. He went on to join Seattle-based law firm Ogden Murphy Wallace, serving as executive director for three years, before rejoining Perkins Coie and going on to lead its financial operations as CFO. Varnes will be based in BCLP's Seattle office. Earlier this month, BCLP tripled its presence in Seattle, combining with law firm Harrigan Leyh Farmer & Thomsen, while also adding litigator Erin Ehlert. BCLP has 31 offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

SheerID

Miller

SheerID promoted Dave Miller to chief financial officer. In his new role, Miller will oversee all global aspects of SheerID's accounting, finance, and investor relations. Miller has been with SheerID for almost 3 years, and will continue to report directly to Jake Weatherly, SheerID's chief executive officer. Previously, Miller was head of finance & corporate controller at AWS Elemental and vice president of finance & accounting at FinancialForce. Prior to that, he held various accounting and finance leadership roles at Ernst & Young and Zynga. Portland-based SheerID is a global provider of identity verification for commerce.

Floor & Decor

Floor & Decor, a retailer specializing in hard-surface flooring for homeowners and professionals, announced the grand opening of its fourth warehouse location in Washington, with the addition of its newest location in Bremerton at 4324 Wheaton Way. The warehouse store and design center will open on April 26th with a team of about 36 full-time and part-time associates led by Tommy Paasche, the store chief executive merchant. Floor & Decor is one of Fortune's 100 fastest-growing companies, and in April 2023, Floor & Decor was named to Yelp's “Most Loved Brands” list, which honors the most loved brands on the consumer reviews platform. Founded in 2000, Atlanta-based Floor & Decor operates more than 220 warehouse-format stores and five design studios across 36 states.