Executive Q+A
Executive Q&A: Dr. Jeff Sperring of Seattle Children’s on Racing to Turn Breakthroughs Into Cures
"The best outcomes happen when you support employees to empower their best ideas."
This story appears in the July 2018 issue. Click here for a free subscription. Seattle Childrens Hospital, which has 7,530 employees and is ranked fifth in the nation in quality, has seen its clinical and research efforts expand rapidly in recent years. Building Hope, its eight-story, $305 million hospital expansion in Laurelhurst, was completed in…
Executive Q+A with Jim Kerr of D.A. Davidson Companies
CEO learned some tough lessons early in life.
With grit and determination, Jim Kerr, who never finished college, has helped build D.A. Davidson Companies, a Great Falls, Montana-based employee-owned firm, into a financial services powerhouse with 1,330 employees in 22 states and $44 billion under management. EARLY YEARS: I grew up in Oregon, where my dad made and lost several fortunes doing everything…
Executive Q+A: PitchBook CEO John Gabbert
If this is the golden age of data mining, John Gabbert has PitchBook well positioned.
Since John Gabbert created PitchBook Data in 2007, the company’s database has become indispensable to venture capitalists, equity investors and a broadening base of customers that includes consultants and salespeople. EARLY DAYS: I grew up in a small town near the Bay Area but my family later moved to Redmond. I worked my way through…
Executive Q+A: The Navigator
John Wolfe steers the Northwest Seaport Alliance through a challenging time for marine cargo handling.
Since taking over in 2015 as CEO of the Northwest Seaport Alliance, which administers the ports of Tacoma and Seattle, CEO John Wolfe has navigated stormy seas while simultaneously improving the operations of the fourth-largest container gateway in North America. EARLY YEARS: I was raised in Tacoma and Puyallup. Dad was in the Air Force,…
Executive Q+A With Harvey Kanter
CEO has put Blue Nile back in the diamond lane.
Harvey Kanter has taken Blue Nile, a struggling online jeweler, and returned it to a growth trajectory. In November, the publicly traded company with 350 employees reached a $500 million agreement to be taken private by an investor group composed of funds managed by Bain Capital Private Equity and Bow Street LLC. EARLY DAYS: Dad…
Executive Q+A: Boosting Biotech
Leslie Alexandres mission at Life Science Washington is truly a matter of life and death.
Leslie Alexandre, whose leadership of the state-funded North Carolina Biotechnology Center helped strengthen that states life sciences sector, hopes to revitalize Washingtons biotech sector as CEO and president of Life Science Washington, an industry trade organization formerly known as the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association. Alexandre, a 30-year veteran of the life science and health…
Executive Q+A: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray
He wants the city's strong-mayor system to have a more robust organizational structure.
Under Ed Murray, Seattle has become recognized nationally for promoting progressive policies like the $15 minimum wage, but he also sees the need for more centralization in the mayors office to implement better controls over the citys large bureaucracy. EARLY YEARS: My father was a logger. Two of my uncles died in logging accidents. Later,…
Executive Q+A: Cougar Goals
The dean of WSUs Carson College of Business is intent on creating new undergraduate opportunities.
Larry W. Chip Hunter, a scholar of human resource management and industrial relations, became dean of Washington State Universitys Carson College of Business in March 2015. He aims to make Carson College the premier place in the Northwest for an undergraduate business education. EARLY YEARS: I was born in Kansas, lived in Minnesota during grade…
Executive Q+A: A-P Hurds Urban Expression
Touchstone president leads it through a delicate transition and toward national recognition.
Two years ago, when Urban Renaissance Group acquired Seattles Touchstone Corporation in a billion-dollar deal, Touchstones founders began transitioning out of the firm and installed A-P Hurd as president and chief development officer. Getting through the sale of Touchstone was a huge technical and emotional challenge for everyone on the team, says Hurd, who joined…
Executive Q+A with Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader
His European upbringing helps to inform his American approach.
Mark Mader developed a passion for technology by observing how businesses make choices based on many variables. In nearly 11 years at Smartsheet, Mader has directed that passion toward making the ubiquitous spreadsheet less of a loathsome tool and more of a friendly facilitator via work collaboration software. The idea, Mader says, is to address…
Executive Q+A with Benson Porter
As BECU approaches some significant milestones, the credit union's CEO keeps his eye on a community-centered mission.
BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union, was founded in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression. As CEO Benson Porter tells it, Boeing was still hiring at the time but workers were expected to provide their own tools. Scraping together enough money for new or replacement tools was difficult, Porter says, and most…
Executive Q&A with Gus Simonds: Building Resilience
The president and CEO of MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions likes adventure. His background in selling (and sailing) has helped him steer a confident course.
Gus Simonds and his management team took the helm at MacDonald-Miller in 2006. The Great Recession hit two years later. By focusing on services and increasingly complex projects, the mechanical contractor survived, then thrived, doubling business since 2012. The company now has 1,000 employees and boasts $260 million in annual revenue. EARLY YEARS: I grew…
Executive Q&A: The Brand Manager
Rob Harris, founder and CEO of Pacific Market International.
The founder and CEO of Pacific Market International has transformed PMI from a trading company into a product development and manufacturing business with more than 150 corporate employees in offices around the globe. Rob Harris has always been entrepreneurial. In grade school, he set up a retail store in his parents garage. In high school,…