Building the Dream Team

When John Kueber was appointed associate publisher of Seattle Business three years ago, the magazine was struggling to find its way.

The University of Washingtoneducated entrepreneur, who has launched and sold four companies, was soon promoted to publisher, and he moved quickly to put the magazine on solid ground. Even as he took on additional responsibilities as COO of parent company Tiger Oak Publications, Kueber set out to make the magazine a central platform for a much broader franchise encompassing events, a website, a popular Facebook page, a large Twitter following and an iPad app.

Supporting this platform while putting out a quality magazine requires many people working closely together. We have been blessed in the past two years to have a group of talented people join our team.

Michael Romoser, our new associate publisher, grew up in Michigan, where he launched his career in the highly competitive outdoor-advertising arena, gaining attention for his ability to turn around underperforming markets. His varied career included a stint in the late 1990s as publisher of Seattle magazine. Romoser, who enjoys playing ice hockey and golf, says he wants to boost advertising to support an even more compelling editorial product for the business community.

Chris Deco, marketing and events director, is the magic behind the seven events we put on annually, including the Washington Manufacturing Awards, featured this month. Deco, from Long Island, has a double degree in marketing and management from the University of Delaware. He worked for David Sonenbergs music management company, which joined with Yoko Ono to produce the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. Deco plays for the Easy Street Wreckers in the Industrial Softball League.

John Levesque, who became managing editor in March after a year as managing editor of our sister publication, Seattle magazine, hails from Rhode Island and has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Rhode Island. He spent 18 years at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a variety of positions, including arts and features editor, business editor, TV critic and sports columnist. Favorite pastimes: reading geeky books on word origins and going on long walks with his wife.

Amanda Wilson, who joined us last summer as art director, was born in Portland. She has a B.A. in anthropology from Colorado College and a masters in journalism from the University of Missouri. A former designer at Outside magazine and founding art director of Barista magazine, Wilson is responsible for our magazines great look. She loves photography, hiking and exloring new places.

Hayley Young, our photo editor, shoots most of the images for Seattle Business magazine as well as Seattle magazine. She studied fine arts at Southern Oregon University before graduating at the top of her class from Seattle Central Creative Academys commercial photography program.

I joined the magazine as editor in early 2009 after a career as a business reporter for Businessweek and the Los Angeles Times and as editor of Washington CEO magazine.

All of us at Seattle Business feel privileged to work for such sophisticated readers in this dynamic business environment. With a strong management team in place, we are well positioned to achieve our goal of building community in Washingtons business sector. Let us know how we can better serve you.