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
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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