SB Profiles
Executive Q&A: Murray Wright, CEO, Zones Inc.
Murray Wright has worked for large multinationals like Sharp, Lenovo and Xerox. Now, as the CEO of Zones Inc., an Auburn-based IT solutions provider, he plans to double in a matter of years the sales of a business that already has 1,400 employees and generates revenues of more than $1 billion annually. EARLY YEARS: I…
Executive Q&A: Greg Johnson
Gregory K. Johnson, who was raised in the New York City suburbs and studied civil engineering at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, took a circuitous route to his current job as president of Wright Runstad & Company, which is engaged in an ambitious $2.3 billion project to create a new urban center in Bellevue. Seattle-based Wright…
Executive Q&A: Jerry Chase, CEO, Bsquare
Former marine who has served as chief executive of several companies in the world of video and software, Jerry Chase was appointed interim CEO of Bsquare last October and then CEO in February. He has been hard at work turning around the money-losing software and engineering services company as well as focusing efforts on the…
Executive Q&A: Kevin Baldwin, Pacific Northwest market managing partner, PwC
Kevin Baldwins background is in health care consulting, but since arriving in Seattle three years ago, he has become heavily involved in the citys civic life, serving on the board of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce as well as the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association. EARLY LIFE: I was raised in Oklahoma City by…
Executive Q&A: Mary-Lou Misrahy, CEO, Physicians Insurance
Seattle-based Physicians Insurance was established in 1981 after many insurance companies stopped offering medical malpractice coverage. When Mary-Lou Misrahy was appointed CEO of the company in 2004, most of its policyholders, who are also owners of the mutual company, were small practices and the organization was struggling. Misrahy introduced professional management and new strategies that…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Lifetime Achievement — Martha Choe
Martha Choe, CAO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Lifetime Achievement award recipient Martha Choe believes leadership is about finding, encouraging and nurturing the right people. Or, as she puts it: Giving them wings to fly and doing what you need to do to support them. Choe, who celebrates her 10th anniversary with the Bill &…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: J. Shan Mullin
J. Shan Mullin, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP As a young associate at the law firm Perkins Coie, Shan Mullin eagerly started working with the board of United Way, ultimately helping the Seattle branchs charitable campaign become one of the largest in the country. That first endeavor led to 56 more years of community involvement. When…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Debra Music
Debra Music, Cofounder and Vice President Sales and Marketing, Theo Chocolate Most marketing executives struggle to boost their companys message, but Debra Music finds the public tours of Theo Chocolates factory in Fremont make it easy. When you have a captive audience and youre feeding them chocolate, she notes, theyre going to be listening to…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Leonard Garfield
Leonard Garfield, Executive Director, Museum of History and Industry For a man who runs a resource dedicated to Seattles past achievements, Leonard Garfield thinks a lot about the citys future. Some of that future is about his own Museum of History and Industry, or MOHAI. Garfield oversaw the recent move from the museums longtime home…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Shelley Rotondo
Shelley Rotondo, CEO, Northwest Harvest Shelley Rotondo has had a remarkably focused career, fighting hunger in the state of Washington for 23 years. I guess Im pretty lucky, she says about trying to make a difference, because thats been a thread throughout my whole life. As the CEO of Northwest Harvest since 2001, she has…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Dan Price
Dan Price, Cofounder and CEO, Gravity Payments Dan Price fuels the growth of his credit card payments company from the same passion that drove him to launch it. Community businesses, he saw, were poorly served by most competitors, who offered little service and whose transaction fees could rise without notice. The industry, he observed, was…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Sunny Singh
Sunny Singh, Founder and CEO, Edifecs When Edifecs founder and CEO Sunny Singh first took a look at the way the health care industry managed its information, he and his team saw a system that often made simple things more complex. From their experience developing electronic data interchange tools for other industries, Singh says, We…
The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Sue Anderson
Sue Anderson, Vice President/ General Manager, CenturyLink Puget Sound For a sign of future prospects at communications company CenturyLink, regional Vice President Sue Anderson only has to look at the number of construction cranes amid Seattles skyline. Her task for the national company is to develop a localized approach to the market here. Puget Sound…