Business Pulse magazine March|April 2018

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Invest Sustainably, Globally.

Saturna Sustainable Bond Fund (Ticker: SEBFX) The first global fixed-income, integrated ESG mutual fund.

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Learn more about our unique approach: www.saturnasustainable.com

The Lightcatcher Building at the Whatcom Museum, located in Bellingham, WA, is the first museum in Washington State to meet LEED Silver-Level specifications.

Please consider an investment’s objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing.

For this and other important information about the Saturna Sustainable Bond Fund, please obtain and carefully read a free prospectus or summary prospectus from www.saturna.com or by calling toll-free 1-800-728-8762.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Generally, an investment that offers a higher potential return will have a higher risk of loss. Stock prices fluctuate, sometimes quickly and significantly, for a broad range of reasons that may affect individual companies, industries, or sectors. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall. When interest rates fall, bond prices go up. A bond fund’s price will typically follow the same pattern.

Investments in high-yield securities can be speculative in nature. High-yield bonds may have low or no ratings, and may be considered “junk bonds.”

Investing in foreign securities involves risks not typically associated directly with investing in US securities. These risks include currency and market fluctuations, and political or social instability. The risks of foreign investing are generally magnified in the smaller and more volatile securities markets of the developing world.

The Saturna Sustainable Funds limit the securities they purchase to those consistent with sustainable principles. This limits opportunities and may affect performance.

Distributor: Saturna Brokerage Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saturna Capital Corporation, investment adviser to the Saturna Sustainable Funds. Saturna Capital proudly sponsors occasional events and programs at the Whatcom Museum, but is otherwise unaffiliated with the Museum and the City of Bellingham.

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VOL. 43 | NO. 2 PUBLISHER | Tony Larson

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER | Melissa Vail Coffman EDITOR | Mike McKenzie LIFESTYLE EDITOR | Danielle Larson COPY EDITOR | Larry Coffman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS | Dave Brumbaugh, Larry Coffman Sherri Huleatt, Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy, Kristine McKay, Mike McKenzie, Mary Louise Van Dyke GUEST COLUMNISTS | Fred Likkel, Mary Kay Robinson ART DIRECTOR | Scott Book PHOTOGRAPHY | Scott Book, Tiffany Brooks SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE | Jon Strong ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE | Ashley Butenschoen AD TRAFFIC | Maggie Stafford SUBSCRIPTIONS | Amanda May ADMINISTRATION | Danielle Larson

— WBA BOARD OF DIRECTORS — BOARD CHAIR | Doug Thomas, CEO, Bellingham Cold Storage EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE | Jane Carten, President/Director, Saturna Capital; Pam Brady, Director NW Government & Public Affairs, BP Cherry Point; John Huntley, President/CEO, Mills Electric; Doug Thomas, President/CEO, Bellingham Cold Storage; Josh Turrell, Partner, Larson Gross PLLC BOARD OF DIRECTORS | Ken Bell, President, Best Recycling; Janelle Bruland, President/CEO, MSNW; Tyler Byrd, Founder/ President, Red Rokk Interactive; Jeremy Carroll, Vice President, Dawson Construction; Andy Enfield, Vice President, Enfield Farms; Guy Jansen, Director, Lynden Transport; Sandy Keathley, Founder, K & K Industries; Tom Kenney, NW Regional President, Washington Federal; Ben Kinney, Operating Principal/Founder, Keller Williams, NVNTD; Tony Larson, President, Whatcom Business Alliance; Lynn Murphy, Sr. Government Affairs Rep, Puget Sound Energy; Laura McKinney, NW Regional Govt & Public Affairs, Alcoa Intalco Works; Becky Raney, Co-owner, Print & Copy Factory; Sarah Rothenbuhler, Owner/CEO, Birch Equipment; Billy VanZanten, President, Western Refinery Services, Josh Wright, VP/Broker, Bell-Anderson Insurance For editorial comments and suggestions, write editor@ businesspulse.com. Business Pulse magazine is the publication of the Whatcom Business Alliance. The magazine is published bi-monthly at 2423 E. Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226.

360.746.0418. The yearly subscription rate is $30 (U.S.). For a free digital subscription, visit businesspulse.com. Entire contents copyrighted © 2018 Business Pulse. All rights reserved.

POSTMASTER Send address changes to Business Pulse, 2423 E. Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226.

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We’re Your Community Bank Proud to be a Finalist for Large Business of the Year*

Live Customer Service M-F 7:00am - 7:00pm ourfirstfed.com > 800.800.1577 *First Federal was voted as a Finalist for 2017 Large Business of the Year by the Bellingham Whatcom Chamber of Commerce.

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his year’s star-studded array of Business Pulse T Awards finalists runs the full gamut, from wide-ranging entrepreneurial achievement to leader-

ship in completing what is arguably the community’s most challenging public-sector project.

The four Business Person of the Year finalists include an entrepreneur who launched her successful bath-products business on the kitchen table of her home, to the owner of multiple Dairy Queens—and more, to a man who has seen his footwear business become a runaway success. The fourth is the honoree who will play a major role in achieving completion of the long-awaited downtown Bellingham Waterfront District redevelopment.

Leading-edge community healthcare and physical therapy are the province of two of the finalists for Small Business of the Year. They’re joined by a national and even global leader in supporting fire and emergency-medical services, and a pair of experts who provide their financial advice to clients of any size.

The three Start-Up Business of the Year finalists can

draw you a classic craft beer (while being concerned about water conservation), repair any kind of vehicle you may bring to their growing facility, and provide branded clothing for your company or your team— also while being concerned about wastage and water conservation.

Speaking of water, a man who has spent his entire long life on the high seas in search of fish, and has been—and still is—involved in every aspect of the fishing industry, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is the 32nd year for the signature event, sponsored by the Washington Business Alliance and Business Pulse magazine. It will be held Wednesday, March 21 in the ballroom of the Semiahmoo Resort, with a cocktail hour beginning at 6pm. Visit www. washingtonbusinessalliance.com for ticket information and reservations. Now, please turn the pages to learn more about each of these deserving individuals and companies… P+ MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 35

BY DAVE BRUMBAUGH, LARRY COFFMAN, SHERRI HULEATT, CHERYL STRITZEL MCCARTHY, MIKE MCKENZIE, MARY LOUISE VAN DYKE

Celebrating the best and brightest of the local business community

How Scott Douge, and a small, dedicated team in a Ferndale warehouse, are taking local institution, Hardware Sales, global

Photograpy by Scott Book

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BY CHERYL STRITZEL MCCARTHY

A local icon goes global with booming e-commerce sales

Giving Teens a Backstage Pass to Local Workplaces heard from speakers Mike Andes (Augusta Lawn Care Services), Erin Baker (Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods), Kevin Menard (Transition Bicycly Company), and Anne-Marie Faiola (Bramble Berry Soap Making Supplies). Faiola is a finalist for our 2018 Business Person of the Year award.

Once the schools see how the initial phase Youth Engagement Initiative works, the program will expand exponentially to a broader base of students and schools. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive from both sides,” McKinney said. “This fills an important need for both schools and businesses.”

Whatcom County has an 80% graduation rate, which is above the national average, but only 31% of Washington high schoolers go on to earn some kind of post-secondary credential. A study

by Boston Consulting Group foresees about 740,000 job openings in Washington over the next five years. Most of those jobs, especially those that support a good quality of life, will be filled by workers with post-secondary education or training (reference: Washington Roundtable).

“High schoolers don’t know what most technical jobs are like,” McKinney said. “You can’t walk into a manufacturing facility as if it were a store or restaurant.”

Reading a course description on the Bellingham Technical College website does not inspire the same understanding as actually job-shadowing an employee. Take the example of an instrumentation and process control technician at an oil refinery.

The course description says it prepares you for a career in industries such as power plants, water treatment facilities, chemical manufacturing facilities, and aerospace or semiconductor manufacturing plants.

As McKinney puts it, “The Youth Engagement Initiative will help students see and feel what all of that looks like.”P+

wba Youth Initiative Creates a Bridge

Mike Andes, of Augusta Lawn Care Services, addressed 300 Whatcom County high school students at the Youth Engagement Initiative.

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Photograpy by Scott Book

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By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy Industry in Whatcom County needs workers, and students in Whatcom County need to know about jobs. Dealing with those parallel needs with its new Youth Engagement Initiative (YEI), the Whatcom Business Alliance brings local businesses and Career Technical Education (CTE) students together.

“We’re working with businesses and schools to take students into workplace facilities,” said Laura McKinney, a public affairs specialist for Alcoa Intalco Works at Cherry Point who serves as Co-Chair of the YEI committee.

On-site tours of companies highlight the YEI program in partnership with the Whatcom/Island/Skagit Region of Junior Achievement Washington. David Moore, former President of Junior Achievement in Washington, said the YEI “provides critical work-readiness education and exposure to local business.”

Those planned site visits consist of more than simply a tour.

The high schoolers will see the different jobs in a company in action, and understand different educational requirements to perform them. At Alcoa, McKinney said, students will learn about positions from entry-level all the way through engineers and accountants.

“They’ll see how they might move up through a company,” she said, “and what their own future might look like. How do you find a job? And what do your days look like when you have a job?”

The YEI program includes mock interviews and resume reviews with human-resource professionals. The program will create a bridge between students and businesses. McKinney said, “Part of our planning is looking at projected workforce needs in our county. We want high schoolers to see the relevance of education to their futures.”

The YEI kicked off Feb. 7 with an event at Bellingham Technical College, where 300 Whatcom County high school students

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BY CHERYL STRITZEL MCCARTHY

The WBA fosters success with local Youth Initative

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Six Champs of Sustainability

By Business Pulse Staff Four Whatcom County Businesses and two individuals have been honored with Sustainability Champion Awards for their deep commitments to making positive impacts locally. The awards, sponsored by Sustainable Connections, recognize companies for their work in the four categories below. They also confer Lifetime Achievement Awards on individuals who have made positive changes in their organizations and communities. The 2018 honorees are: • Strong Community: Dawson Construction, Inc. in Bellingham, which donated a Bobcat to the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition, gave $100,000 toward installation of a rooftop solar array for the new Sehome High School, and sponsors multiple community events.

• Healthy Environment: Dandelion Organic Delivery in Bellingham: Owners, Maria Stavrakas and Jonny Lee source their fresh-produce boxes from more than 30 local growers, they installed a 50-panel solar array at their business, and nearly 100% of their electrical energy is

supplied by that array during peak sunny season.

• Meaningful Employment: Superfeet Worldwide, Inc., in Ferndale is 100% employee owned and pays livable wages, including a broad benefits package that goes the extra mile by including two paid days per year for employees who volunteer for their “Be The Awesome” public-service campaign.

• Buying Local First: Good To Go Meat Pies in Everson: Owners Holly Bevan-Bumford and her husband, Beau, have continued to increase local sourcing every year since they opened in 2011. They work with a wide variety of local farmers, businesses, and grocers—even during the winter months when buying local can be challenging.

• Lifetime Achievement: Cheryl and Tom Thornton, owners of the 20-acre Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Everson since 1978, have invested their lives in feeding and educating our community and played a critical role in the early days of sustainable agriculture.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 15

Newsmakers, Out and About, Environmental Stewardship, and much more...

QA and

Ron Goldberg: New Man of the Hour in Port Development

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Photograpy by Scott Book

Interview by Mike McKenzie

he Port of Bellingham has hired its new Director of Economic Development, Ron Goldberg, who previously held the same position with the Port of Portland. He sat down with us recently for a conversation about his background and vision for Whatcom County business.

Have you been here long enough to observe what lies ahead for your position at the Port of Bellingham?

I accepted the position and moved here a month before it started, and I rode all over with staff on a real-estate tour. I’ve gotten enough of a feel to be aware that the county is quite complex and diverse in its makeup. We’ll use the strengths within each community to market the whole region. But I will not create and implement anything new before getting to know the area better.

Business Pulse: You came here from Portland. Are you from there?

Don Goldberg: No, I grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (business degree). I’ve lived all over, including Prague and Vancouver, B.C., and I’ve traveled to 75 countries. But I’ve lived in the Northwest 37 years—the last 17 in Oregon.

Your resume reflects an interesting variety of career positions, in a wide range of areas. How do those experiences benefit you in this role?

My work with Collier’s International (a commercial real-estate services company operating in 68 countries) gave me a lot of experience dealing in commercial real estate, which is a high priority for the Port. And I attended an executive-coaching school in Seattle and went into consulting; that has prepared me to meet, listen, learn, and gain understanding—the main approach I will take with stakeholders here. I also worked for a land trust. And all of these have been executive-level positions.

Will your role here be similar to what it was at the Port of Portland?

There’s a big difference. It’s the same title—Director of Economic Development—but with opposite approaches. There, I advocated only for the Port of Portland. Here, the Port of Bellingham is the state-designated agency for economic development, therefore the benefits to our port are secondary to the state’s. This means I’ll market all of Whatcom County to create and bring in better jobs, and they’ll be no more or less Port-centric than for any other part of the county.

What other experiences will come to bear in your work in the county?

As Senior Project Manager for the Trust for Public Land in Portland, where I worked before the Port of Portland, I was able to

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Getting to know the new Port of Bellingham Director of Economic Development, Ron Goldberg PULSE

AFTER HOURS BEVERAGES / CLOTHING /

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PINK MARTINI / APRIL 22 / MT. BAKER THEATER

It’s near impossible to find a musical group that resonates with almost everyone. But Pink Martini with China Forbes, the featured performers at the Mount Baker Theatre at 7pm on Sunday, April 22, comes about as close to filling that bill as possible.

Portland, Oregon, native Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics back in 1994 and went to every fundraiser under the sun but always was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, and un-neighborly. Drawing inspiration from music worldwide—and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike—he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini “to provide more beautiful and inclusive music for fundraisers for causes ranging from civil rights, affordable housing, and the environment to libraries, public broadcasting, and parks.”

In 1995, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. And they began to write together. Their first song, Sympathique, released in 1997, became an overnight sensation in France and was nominated for Song of the Year in France’s Victories de la Musique Awards. Said Lauderdale: “We’re very

much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America.”

Featuring a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America.

The group made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998. Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco, Cleveland and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

The band’s latest (and ninth) studio-album, Je dis oui, features 15 tracks spanning eight languages and affirming its 23-year history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit. Convinced yet that you don’t want to miss this world-renowned little orchestra with the big eclectic sound? If so, tickets are available now at mountbakertheatre.com.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 69

Your guide to post 9-to-5 living Pink Martini, a guide to sampling sherry, and unique fashion on the cheap

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For more on how BP is giving back to Washington communities, go to bp.com/Washington

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publisher’s note

WHAT MAKES A GOOD COMPANY GREAT? TONY LARSON

President, Whatcom Business Alliance

Whatcom County is home to many outstanding, innovative, and successful businesses.

On March 21, in the grand ballroom at the Semiahmoo Resort, Business Pulse magazine and the Whatcom Business Alliance will honor a select few of them at the 32nd Business Person of the Year Awards banquet.

In this issue, we feature the finalists for the Business Person, Small Business, and Start-Up Business of the Year Awards, and the recipient of the Whatcom County Lifetime Business Achievement Award. All of them represent outstanding, successful companies. They all are leaders in their industries, but what makes a good company great? That question is the challenge for our Selection Committee, which is composed of several past winners in each category.

Year-in-and-year out, the three most common characteristics of the finalists are: • They’re led by people of integrity who expect the same from their staffs; • They treat their employees well and create a positive work culture, with opportunities for people to grow, and • They give back to the community by investing time, money, and energy into organizations and activities they believe in.

I invite you to join us on March 21 to honor those in our business community who embody the virtues we’d like to see in every business. And while the finalists for this

year already have been chosen, I urge you to identify—and share with us for nomination next year—others in the business community who deserve to be recognized.

Our experience over the last three decades has shown that identifying and recognizing individuals and businesses in the community who are doing good things encourages others to strive for the same level of excellence.

Later this year, Business Pulse magazine will be seeking the Best Companies to Work For in Whatcom County. In a recent WBA member survey, finding and retaining good employees was listed as the No. 1 challenge entering 2018. The Best Companies to Work For search will culminate with an event where we’ll all have an opportunity to learn the innovative strategies and best practices employed by those leading the pack.

If you want your company considered, and are willing to share why you believe it’s a Best Company to Work For, go to whatcombusinessalliance.com and sign up for our free newsletter. We’ll be sending out a survey in the second quarter that will provide you the opportunity to tell us why.

WBA Engagement The Whatcom Business Alliance is pleased to have recently kicked off the WBA Youth Engagement Initiative. Nearly 300 high school students from six local high schools attended the event at Bellingham Technical College on Feb. 7. The kickoff was part of

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a much larger effort intended to create a pathway for motivated students interested in gainful employment with local companies, and afford an opportunity for employers to connect with motivated young people seeking future employment. Stay tuned.

There will be lots of ways for the business community to get involved.

A week later, at the WBA annual meeting, our new Board Chair, Doug Thomas, CEO of Bellingham Cold Storage, shared his vision for the year. The big takeaway was that we’re creating many opportunities for members to be involved through committee work. If you are interested in Youth Engagement, Public Policy, Membership, or Events and Programs, he encourages you to join one of these committees and work with other members who have similar interests.

At that meeting, we also announced the addition of Brett Bonner to the WBA staff.

Brett, who will lead our Governmental Affairs and Public Policy efforts, has been actively engaged in the community for many years and has a passion for making a positive contribution. If you’re interested in learning more about our public-policy initiatives, Brett would enjoy meeting to discuss them with you personally.

Also, we’d like your feedback regarding Business Pulse magazine. You can do that by sending a Letter to the Editor, or sharing your comments via email with Associate Publisher Melissa Vail Coffman at melissa @businesspulse.com.

Enjoy the March/April issue!

Business Banking Equipment Finance Treasury Management Multi-Family Income Property Home Builder Finance

“After 70 years with the same lending institution, Bellingham Cold Storage recently conducted a formal search for a new primary bank. Our CFO, Brad Flinn and I interviewed extensively several very qualified firms and ultimately selected Washington Federal primarily because their team was the most closely aligned with our core values.”

For common-sense solutions, sound strategy and trusted advice, call today.

— Doug Thomas President & Chief Executive Officer Bellingham Cold Storage

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Northern Washington Regional President

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To accomplish our goal, KeyBank’s National Community Benefits Plan calls for the investment of $16.5 billion over a five-year period in the communities we serve. It’s just one way we help local economies and people thrive.

Go to key.com/community to learn more about how KeyBank is helping our communities thrive.

Key.com is a federally registered service mark of KeyCorp. ©2018 KeyCorp. KeyBank is Member FDIC. 171005-170606

leading edge

Six Champs of Sustainability

By Business Pulse Staff Four Whatcom County Businesses and two individuals have been honored with Sustainability Champion Awards for their deep commitments to making positive impacts locally. The awards, sponsored by Sustainable Connections, recognize companies for their work in the four categories below. They also confer Lifetime Achievement Awards on individuals who have made positive changes in their organizations and communities. The 2018 honorees are: • Strong Community: Dawson Construction, in Bellingham, which donated a Bobcat to the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition, gave $100,000 toward installation of a rooftop solar array for the new Sehome High School, and sponsors multiple community events.

• Healthy Environment: Dandelion Organic Delivery in Bellingham: Owners, Maria Stavrakas and Jonny Lee source their fresh-produce boxes from more than 30 local growers, they installed a 50-panel solar array at their business, and nearly 100% of their electrical energy is

supplied by that array during peak sunny season.

• Meaningful Employment: Superfeet Worldwide, in Ferndale is 100% employee owned and pays livable wages, including a broad benefits package that goes the extra mile by including two paid days per year for employees who volunteer for their “Be The Awesome” public-service campaign.

• Buying Local First: Good To Go Meat Pies in Everson: Owners Holly Bevan-Bumford and her husband, Beau, have continued to increase local sourcing every year since they opened in 2011. They work with a wide variety of local farmers, businesses, and grocers—even during the winter months when buying local can be challenging.

• Lifetime Achievement: Cheryl and Tom Thornton, owners of the 20-acre Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Everson since 1978, have invested their lives in feeding and educating our community and played a critical role in the early days of sustainable agriculture.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 15

Photo by Julien Scherliss

NEWSMAKERS • NUMBERS • OUT AND ABOUT • BUSINESS OF RECREATION ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP • PHILANTHROPY • GUEST COLUMNS

leading edge NEWSMAKERS

People on the Move...

Nemechek

Divine

KeyBank has named Gloria Nemechek a Senior Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager in its Commercial Banking Division. She will work with middle-market business clients in Whatcom, Skagit and Islands Counties.

Her role is to understand clients’ industries, businesses and goals in order to provide value-added strategic ideas and capital to help them grow. She has spent much of her career in commercial banking, serving large corporate and international businesses, as well as those in the middle market, in multiple metropolitan and global markets, including London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

With more than 25 years in the banking industry, Gloria has held leadership sales and lending positions at major financial institutions, including Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Security Pacific Bank and Bank of America.

“We are delighted to welcome someone with Gloria’s expertise and business acumen. Her client-centered focus will complement our team approach that ensures seamless delivery of best-in-class products and services,” said KeyBank’s Washington Commercial Banking Leader Sean Foley.

Erin Divine has been promoted to Director of Sales at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center.

Divine’s nine years of sales experience includes five at Four Points Bellingham.

She returned to the hotel last year upon completion of its multimillion-dollar renovation, which culminated with launch of the B-Town Kitchen & Raw Bar. Four Points General Manager John Burns said Divine’s experience and local relationships benefit the entire

Gale

Menke

community. “Erin has worked all the markets during her five years with us. Her knowledge of the hotel and the community makes her the ideal person to lead our sales efforts.”

Divine said, “With 14,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and a ballroom that can accommodate up to 500 people, we can assist a wide range of clients on everything from small-group meetings to large banquets.”

Four Points Bellingham is managed by Providence Hospitality Partners and is located at 714 Lakeway Drive, just off Interstate 5 at Exit 253. For information, call 360.671.1011 or visit www.fourpointsbellingham.com.

The Muljat Group has added three real-estate brokers to its team—Trish Gale, Diva Menke and Heather Simpson.

Gale is a 12-year resident of Bellingham.

She has nearly four years of experience as a broker and soon will be a licensed managing broker and is working toward a diversity certification.

“After years in sales and services, I know how to negotiate on the behalf of clients while balancing the emotions that come along with buying and selling homes,” Gale said. “My ability to build relationships keeps them central to the process by setting clear expectations and doing what I say I’m going to do.”

Menke is a graduate of Western Washington University and has recorded $2 million in sales in just 18 months as a broker. She’s also a local musician and 13-year Whatcom County resident.

“It’s my belief that buying and selling should be a fun process where the client feels empowered,” Menke said. “I’m available day

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Simpson

Boucher

and night and work hard for them, with integrity and open communication.”

Simpson also is a Bellingham native and has 12 years of real-estate experience in Whatcom County. The Squalicum High School graduate was CEO of another Bellingham real-estate agency before joining The Muljat Group.

“My experience, combined with local knowledge, helps buyers and sellers experience a smooth and positive transaction process,” Simpson said. “I’m involved with many community-centered projects and children’s activities and my mission is to empower women in leadership.”

The Muljat Group is located at 510 Lakeway Drive and is online at www. muljatgroup.com. You can contact Gale at 360.296.2667, Menke at 360.920.6456, and Simpson at 360.393.9075.

Thomas Boucher has joined North Coast Credit Union as the Community Development Officer. Most recently, he served as Community Liaison for Congressman Rick Larsen.

Boucher will serve on nonprofit boards, be involved with community outreach, and advocate with local, state, and national government policy makers on behalf of North Coast and the credit union industry. Some of the issues he will be working on include easing restrictions on member business lending and safeguarding the industry with regard to housing refinance reform.

Marilyn Brank, North Coast President, said, “Thomas’ extensive knowledge of federal and state government and his desire to be a positive influence in our communities makes him the perfect fit for this very important position.” P+

leading edge MORE NEWSMAKERS

Lynden handles critical samples for Ebola vaccine Lynden International continues to be involved with work on the Ebola crisis in West Africa that has raged for the past three years.

Phil Maxson, Lynden International’s Director of International Operations, recently returned from the Kambia District Hospital where Lynden client, Clinical RM, is conducting a clinical trial of Ebola vaccine. Ebola is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus species.

Lynden has been assisting government

Phil Maxson, Lynden International’s Director of International Operations.

Two score newly elected have taken office At the start of the year, 20 newly elected officials were sworn into public offices throughout Whatcom County, including two new faces on both the County Council and the Bellingham Port Commission.

Election races in November 2017 changed nothing on the Bellingham City Council, as all incumbents won. But redrawn voting districts and three vacancies created rearranged positions on the Whatcom County Council, with incumbents Rud Browne, Todd Donovan, and Barry Buchanan moving to different district seats, while Ken Mann and Carl Weimer did not run for reelection The new faces joining the county council were Tyler Byrd, by election and new to public office, and Timothy Ballew, by council appointment to fill an unfinished term through 2018 (Satpal Sidhu resigned). Byrd owns Red Rokk Interactive, a digital marketing firm, and commercial fisherman Ballew was immediate past chair of the Lummi Indian Business Council (LIBC).

PORT COMMISSION Ken Bell and Michael Shepard were sworn in as the Port of Bellingham’s newest Commissioners. Bell previously served on the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission and the Whatcom County Planning Commission. Shepard is new to public office.

Shepard is a Research Associate at Western Washington University’s Center

for Pacific Northwest Studies and teaches graduate and undergraduate eLearning classes at Goucher College, located in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bell is the President/CEO of Best Recycling, a waste-management company known for its ability to work in very remote locations, like the Yukon Territory, Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland, and the Aleutian Islands.

LUMMI INDIAN BUSINESS COUNCIL Jeremiah (Jay) Julius was selected as the new Chair of the Lummi Indian Business Council, the Lummi Nation’s governing body, which also chose Travis Brockie as Vice Chair. Others elected to seats on the LIBC were: Celina Phair (Treasurer), Cheryl Sanders, and Fred Lane.

WHATCOM CITIES One of the most notable elections in the county put newcomer Kyle Christensen into the mayor’s office in Sumas, winning against the incumbent of the previous 16 years, Bob Bromley. One other new mayor emerged from the balloting—Harry Robinson in Blaine—unseating Mayor Pro Tem Paul Greenough.

Several districts and wards elected new council officials in other county cities: Blaine—Eric Davidson, Alicia Rulenon.

Everson—Jolene Pratt, Matthew Goering.

Ferndale—Kate Hansen, Cathy Watson.

Lynden—Mark Wohlrab, Kyle Strengholt

18 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

and non-government organizations with transportation and logistics since the 2014 outbreak. Phil said, “This particular project involves Lynden transporting human-blood samples from the clinical trial to the U.S. and Europe for testing.”

Maxson explained that, due to the difficulty in keeping the samples frozen and stable during the long trip back to the U.S., Lynden is using Liquid Nitrogen Dry (LN2) shipping containers to maintain a temperature of minus 150 centigrade for up to 10 days.

Local businesses donate nearly $45k to Whatcom’s STEM programs

WCC chemistry faculty member Dr. Tommaso Vannelli (left) and instruction classroom support technician Mark Price, with the Chemco donation.

Three major Whatcom County businesses have donated a total of $44,000 in money and goods to Whatcom Community College’s growing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

Chemco donated more than $31,000 in equipment for the chemistry lab, along with a differential scanning calorimeter that analyzes complex mixtures, from pesticides to vitamins. The Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery and the Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund donated $10,000 and $3,000, respectively, to purchase software for the lab.

STEM students are deemed more likely to continue their studies when they have access to hands-on, authentic laboratory experiences. More than 170 students will benefit annually from these donations. The need for more qualified workers with these technical skills was identified as a major challenge in the Jan./Feb. edition of Business Pulse.

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leading edge NUMBERS

RECORD WHATCOM HOME-SALES PRICES Whatcom County set another record for highest median price of homes sold in 2017, while the number of homes sold declined slightly. The countywide median (middle-point) sale price for all of 2017 was $344,000, up 9.2% from 2016, which was 10.3% above 2015. As usual, the median-sale-price leaders related to their size, with Bellingham at $398,000, Lynden at $350,000, and Ferndale at just under $340,000. The number of homes sold in the county dipped 3.4% to 2,863, attributed to the tight inventory.

The chart below shows the increases in the average (total dollars divided by the number of sales) sale price in the four communities, the units sold and the average days on the market (DOM) before sale.

UP 12.5% $350K

BELLINGHAM

LYNDEN

Average price, $464,970, up 11.0 percent; units sold, 1,029, down 10.4 percent; DOM, 38, down 19.8 percent.

20 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

UP 9.2%

$298K Average price, $363,078, up 10.6 percent; units sold, 460, down 12.0 percent; DOM, 57, down 11.6 percent.

UP 8.6%

$340K Average price, $348,805, up 12.9 percent; units sold, 383, down 9.0 percent; DOM, 66, down 15.5 percent.

Information courtesy of Troy Muljat of Muljat Group Realtors.

Muljat Group Realtors has been tracking Whatcom County sales data and identifying trends for more than 10 years.

$398K

FERNDALE

UP 9.6%

BIRCH BAY/ BLAINE

Average price, $380,414, up 13.0 percent; units sold, 319, up 22.7 percent; DOM, 47, down 14.5 percent.

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leading edge OUT AND ABOUT 1

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Grand Cru Auction: Deep Roots, Strong Branches

On January 27, local business leaders and philanthropists gathered at the Hotel Bellwether, raising more than $375,000 in support of St. Paul’s Academy. The theme for the 2018 auction was Deep Roots, Strong Branches, reflecting the tight-knit community that is a hallmark of St. Paul’s Academy. Bringing in shades of leaf and moss, live plant centerpieces and beautiful art from kids and volunteers, the auction room brought a breath of spring to the late-January gloom. 1. Table Hosts Jeff and Antonia Holmes of Latitude Bar and Grill know how to keep their guests happy. 2. Riad Yousseff, owner of Autohaus, taking home one of the centerpieces. 3. Head of School Stephanie Sadler and long-time friend Mimi Ferlin, of Brooks Property Management. 4. The lovely ladies of the Wine Wheel.

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Whatcom Museum’s Art Auction Gala

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The Whatcom Museum’s Art Auction Gala, presented by Peoples Bank, was hosted in the Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher building on January 19. The museum exceeded its goal in raising funds for exhibitions, programming, and the Family Interactive Gallery, as well as for the development of a native Northwest Coast language project to complement the Museum’s People of the Sea and Cedar exhibition. 1. County Executive Jack Louws, local historian and Museum docent Brian Griffin, and Museum Advocate John Hansen participate in the Whatcom Museum’s Art Auction Gala silent auction. 2. Auction guests consider Bellingham native and California-based artist Ira Yeager’s painting, to be auctioned in the live auction. 3. Whatcom Museum Executive Director Patricia Leach, Museum Advocate Board Chair John Leach, and an auction guest enjoy cocktail hour at the Art Auction Gala.

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OFF TO THE RACES

Brandon Sawaya

Bellingham Traverse, a five-leg relay race, was founded in 2001, to raise awareness of salmon’s importance to our environment, while also encouraging people to get outside and have fun.

Whatcom County’s 100+ annual outdoor races make big impact on local economy

By Sherri Huleatt

Washington is known for its stunning outdoor adventures.

And when it comes to outdoor races, Whatcom County is leaps and bounds ahead. According to Todd Elsworth, Co-Executive Director of Recreation Northwest, when comparing our community’s races to other similar-sized communities, “We blow them away.”

During 2017, Whatcom County hosted 132 outdoor-recreation events (nearly one every 2 1/2 days, on average), drawing more than 34,000 participants. Big-ticket races, like Ski to Sea and the Bellingham Bay Marathon, draw thousands of participants each year, about half from outside the county. Compound that with the thousands of onlookers along the routes and waiting expectantly at the finish line (while, of course, sipping a locally crafted beer), along with race day prepping—which includes buying running shoes, gym memberships, physical therapy, etc.—and the economic impact touches everything from gas stations, to breweries, to outdoor apparel suppliers, to hotels, and beyond.

Lance Romo, the Recreation Director for Bellingham Parks and Recreation, described it this way: An athletic shoe costs an average of $100. If 430 people participate in the Bellingham Traverse, that’s $43,000 represented just in running shoes, many a pair of which have been purchased locally. And runners also spend beaucouop bucks on apparel and equipment (backpacks, water bottles, et al). Add to that any equipment, fuel, coffee, 24 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

theatres, food, and hotel rooms purchased by race participants, and you’re talking a considerable revenue stream.

Go one step further, and multiply this by Whatcom County’s more than 100 outdoor races, and you’ll get a pretty hefty chunk of change going straight into the local economy. According to a 2015 study by Earth Economics, outdoor recreation contributes $585 million annually to Whatcom County’s economy and supports 6,502 jobs (about 7% of the county’s non-farm jobs).

Ski to Sea, the county’s largest race, draws about 2,500 participants, with more than half traveling from more than 50 miles away. According to Anna Rankin, Whatcom Events’ Race Director, Ski to Sea also attracts about 20,000 spectators each year, with an estimated 25%-30% coming from outside the community.

Tour de Whatcom, a 22- to 100-mile cycling event, drew 750 participants in 2017—up about 15% over 2016—and more than half came from outside Whatcom County. “I think these races greatly impact the economy of Whatcom County,” Rankin said.

“While people are here for these events, they’re paying for hotels, meals, and shopping. They often have families, a support team, friends, etc., with them who also are supporting the economy.”

The real impact from these races doesn’t happen on race day, though, it’s what happens afterward. According to Elsworth, outdoor races act as one of the best commercials for Whatcom County life, giving spectators and participants just enough of a

taste of county attractions to make them want to come back. “These races aren’t just a day of play,” Elsworth said. “They’re a magnet to bring them back.”

He said local race planners work together to cement Whatcom County as the recreational capital of the Northwest, so in the short term, the races are about having fun and getting people outside; in the long term, this abundance of events is about increasing tourism and, in some cases, getting people to move here.

“I know participants who’ve packed up and moved here right after the race,” said Amy Trowbridge, Marketing Director for Mt. Baker Ski Area and Mt. Baker’s Legendary Banked Slalom Race. Established in 1985, the slalom race is the world’s longest-running snowboard event and draws 400 participants, more than half from all over the world, and about 1,000 spectators a year.

People use the event to piggyback for company retreats, family reunions, and annual vacations, booking up hotels months in advance all along the Highway 542 corridor. “After coming here, how can you not fall in love with this place?” Trowbridge said. P+

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By the Numbers Ski to Sea (Relay with 7 legs) 2,500 Participants (50%-60% from out of county) 20,000 Spectators Bellingham Bay Marathon 2,500 Participants (60% from out of county) 5,000 Spectators

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Hartnell’s ‘Aha! Moment’ Has Prevented Lots of Wrinkles— And Saved Lots of Salmon

Photo courtesy of Vital Choice

leading edge ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

“We held to strong standards, which required a long paper trail.

But we had a big-picture perspective for the preservation of sustainable fishing, and we believe in it. It’s just who we are.”

— Randy Hartnell, President, Vital Choice

By Mike McKenzie Randy Hartnell, President of Vital Choice Wild Seafood and Organics in Ferndale, and his brother, Terry, were fishing for herring off the shores of San Francisco in the late ‘90s when their boat broke down. “We were out near Alcatraz,” Randy said. “And the engine blew.”

While repairing it, they had the radio blasting. A doctor was talking on National Public Radio about the very best source of Omega-3—wild-caught Alaska salmon. “Dr. Nicholas Perricone (an expert in anti-aging skin care) was discussing his book, The Wrinkle Cure, and how eating that salmon would prevent wrinkles,” Randy explained. That became an “Aha! moment.” He’d fished the Alaskan waters for some 20 years and knew the value 26 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

of sustainably harvested salmon—not to mention its taste— compared with farm-raised salmon that had become all the rage because of convenience and cost.

Inspired by the Perricone broadcast, Hartnell and his wife of 33 years, Carla, co-founded Vital Choice, in 2001. After many successful years of online, retail delivery of sustainable, flash-frozen Alaska and other Pacific Northwest salmon (plus other wildcaught fish), Vital Choice ranks in the upper half of Business Pulse’s annual Top 100 privately owned companies in Whatcom County, and it was the Small Business of the Year in 2012. “I’d like to think we’ve prevented a lot of wrinkled skin,” Hartnell said with a laugh.

The company also carefully chooses beaucoup other certified organic edibles to offer through its award-winning catalog and web store. In addition to a rigid selection process, Vital Choice also considers the most minute details in its meticulous “green” approach to doing business, such as using specific types of recyclable containers for packaging, and shipping via truck, rather than air, to minimize the carbon footprint. An example of attention to detail: A post on their website notes that “tiny pellets from degraded EPS (Styrofoam) can harm birds and marine life, so we’re eliminating those boxes entirely….”

Purity—i.e., absence of mercury and pollutants—is a frequent topic in Vital Choice’s marketing message. The company trademarked Vital Green™ as its Environmental Stewardship program, proclaiming how it fights global warming, how it employs SeaSaver™ boxes, and how it enables CubeCycle™ of foam shipping cubes.

Vital Choice supports the Ethiopia Clean Water Project, funding the installation of certain water filters. “From the very beginning, Carla and I were committed to this ‘green’ approach to our business,” Hartnell said. “We became one of the first to join the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). We had the very first federally certified product to carry the MSC logo back when it had no marketing power, because nobody knew what it was yet.

Now they’re the gold standard among 30 or 40 certification programs.”

Hartnell said he knew full well that fishermen wanted to continue to have an abundance of fish is the ocean, and that that would require responsible management. “As we’ve gained momentum, hundreds of fisheries have been certified. It’s become an important factor, and here’s a good-news story in consumer-based sustainability: Did you know that McDonald’s, for example, buys certified Alaskan Pollock for its fish sandwiches?”

The same standards hold for Vital Choice’s selections of halibut, haddock, cod, and Omega-3 products, like krill oil.

“Our management staff got this all rolling from the beginning,” Hartnell said. “To go forward with credibility, we held to strong standards, which required a long paper trail.

But we had a big-picture perspective for the preservation of sustainable fishing, and we believe in it. It’s just who we are.” P+

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leading edge PHILANTHROPY

A GRAND GIVE-BACK MISSION

Photo courtesy of DeWaard & Bode

At right, with the Roordas, is Ellie Margulies, Executive Director of Blue Skies for Children.

The Roordas especially appreciate nonprofits that help alleviate hunger. Their 2017 donations included the Bellingham Food Bank, Project Hope (which has a Lynden-based food bank), Food Lifeline, and the Feed the Need Food Drive.

By Dave Brumbaugh Philanthropy is important to DeWaard & Bode owners Jerry and Dorene Roorda, for a very simple reason.

“We care about our community— the organizations, the businesses, and the people,” Jerry said. “It’s not just that our business is based in Whatcom County. We grew up here, our employees live and raise families here and in Skagit County, and every day we’re in hundreds of homes with deliveries and repairs of the appliances they depend on.”

The company has a strong give-back commitment. It donated more than $100,000 to nonprofit organizations in 2017. For example, the company’s annual golf tournament last September raised $15,000 for Blue Skies for Children. And charitable giving 28 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

is a year-round priority. “We make a conscious, sustained effort each month to contribute to local nonprofit organizations or people in need in our community,” Dorene said.

The Roordas especially appreciate nonprofits that help alleviate hunger. Other 2017 recipients included the Bellingham Food Bank, Project Hope (which has a Lynden-based food bank), Food Lifeline, and the Feed the Need Food Drive. Any organization seeking a donation is asked to complete a form on the company’s website, DeWaardandBode.com.

Founded in November of 1946 in Lynden as Kredit & DeWaard, it originally sold toys and household items before specializing in some of the first major appliances to Whatcom County. In ’62 after

Tim Kredit retired, Jake DeWaard partnered with Rube Bode. Jerry Roorda began working in their delivery department in 1970 as a senior in high school. Later, he moved into sales for 15 years. Jerry and Dorene bought the company (and kept the familiar brand name) in 1999.

Now in their 19th year, with three locations and 80 employees, the company thrives as one of the rare locally owned, family businesses that successfully compete with large national chain stores. DeWaard & Bode ranked No. 51 in the Business Pulse Top 100 privately-owned companies last year, with sales approaching $25 million.

The outlet store on Hannegan Road in Bellingham opened in ’95 for the complete service department and warehouse, plus sales of “ding and dent” appliances.

The Roordas opened the main showroom on Guide Meridian in 2005, and the showroom and outlet in Burlington in ’16.

DeWaard & Bode also refurbishes some appliances to sell. When an appliance can’t be refurbished, it’s recycled for the scrap metal and proceeds go into the company charity fund. “Having grown up here and owning a business that serves people in the community every day, it’s important to us to support the people and organizations that support others.” Jerry said. “Our roots are in this community, and we care about that.”

HELPING MANY

DeWaard & Bode provided donations and support surpassing $100,000 to many nonprofits in 2017, including: • Blue Skies for Children • Mount Baker Theatre • Boys & Girls Clubs of Whatcom County • Bellingham Food Bank • Lighthouse Mission Ministries • Project Hope • Behind the Badge Foundation

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leading edge GUEST COLUMN | AGRICULTURE

Local Water Crisis a Myth FRED LIKKEL

T

Executive Director | Whatcom Family Farmers

he state and the voting public have been focused on a misguided Washington Supreme Court ruling known as the Hirst Decision.

A “Hirst Fix” is now on the books, as passed by the state legislature, overriding that ill begotten decision.

But what’s really going on here? The Hirst Decision and the hubbub in the legislature are all about the idea of a water crisis. There is no such crisis.

This issue was always about the desire of a few with special interests to make land-use decisions for everyone else, and to circumvent voters and local control over growth policies. Good or bad, that’s OK. Government in action. What’s not OK is to assume that all this activity is about having too little water.

Those who claim a water crisis point the finger at farmers who use water to irrigate. They say the decline in fish is either about lack of water or contaminated water. This provides fodder for anti-farm activists to suggest that farms are the problem.

In fact, farms are a big part—if not the biggest part—of the solution. Two major ways farmers contribute to the solution is through water-use efficiency and habitat restoration.

The real root of the water issue lies in the decline in harvestable fish.

Fish certainly need adequate stream water, and streams need proper fish habitat and protection. And farmers have done more than anyone else to protect and enhance stream and fish habitat. According to one report at the Baker-to-Bay Symposium last fall, stream restoration has covered 3,548 acres of riparian areas and 218 miles of stream in the Nooksack River drainage–much of that with farmer support and cooperation. The Whatcom Conservation District’s Reserve Enhancement Project reports 476 projects, resulting in 241 miles of stream buffer installed and 1,562,198 seedlings planted. Again, much of that is done with farmer support and cooperation.

A popular assumption that stream flows and habitat are why we aren’t seeing more salmon return does not jibe with a study published in Scientific Reports (Nov. 2017) that showed chinook-salmon

30 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

production, from Alaska to Northern California, nearly doubled between 1975-2015 from 225 million to 406 million. So, where are all those chinook salmon?

The major factor for the decline in the harvest: fish predation. In 1972, the federal government passed the National Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the population of protected salmon predators exploded. While salmon production nearly doubled, the harbor-seal predation increased nearly 10 times in that same 40 years, causing an increase in chinook lost from 3.5 million to 27.4 million.

By far the hardest hit was the Salish Sea in northern Puget Sound, near where most fish farms are located. Harbor seals consumed 23.2 million chinook in this small area alone—85% of the total chinook eaten—coming from the Salish Sea stock, which is directly related to the Nooksack and Skagit Rivers that impact Whatcom County.

The Hirst Fix bill includes $300 million for salmon recovery. That’s great, but policymakers and activists must stop pretending that fixing habitat will help fish recovery. Based on the evidence, it would seem producing more salmon simply will produce more predators. It’s time to pursue science-based solutions.

The Hirst Decision was intended to control growth in rural areas.

In Whatcom County, that meant farmland. Those behind Hirst will not stop just because the Hirst Fix restores some level of government and voter control. Wouldn’t a better solution be to support the preservation of our family farms?

When our farms go away, the land does not sit idle. Efforts to control development by any means other than economically vital farmers have failed. One simply has to look at the urban sprawl through the Northwest to see that.

We still have a treasure in Whatcom County—a strong farming community with the infrastructure needed to support it. To keep our farms in business today requires more than smart, experienced, and dedicated farmers.

It takes a village. Or in this case, a whole community.

leading edge GUEST COLUMN | REAL ESTATE

Home Building Screeched to a Halt with Hirst MARY KAY ROBINSON

Realtor/Broker | Windermere Real Estate/Whatcom In November of 2016, the Whatcom County Council passed an emergency ordinance that lifted a moratorium on the drilling of new wells. This came in response to a long drawn-out, highly controversial lawsuit, Hirst vs. Whatcom County.

The Hirst Decision was a State Supreme Court ruling in October of 2016 that required counties to prove that water was available legally to any landowner who wanted to drill an exempt well and build a home. For the landowner, the ordinance meant proving that any groundwater withdrawal from their private well would not adversely affect the instream flows of the Nooksack River and its tributaries.

Proving a negative is virtually impossible and it effectively stopped any new wells, and thus the ruling halted homebuilding in Whatcom County.

Landowners who purchased acreage with dreams of building their own home, and retirees who planned on selling their land to fund their retirement (rendered worthless by the defacto moratorium) had to stop everything. The financial hardship was devastating to many families.

At issue was the question of senior water-rights holders.

32 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

Would they suffer any impairment of their water rights with private exempt wells that have no legal right to water? Decades of water policy held that private wells had such a minimal impact on ground water supply and a state-recognized water right was not needed.

Indeed, private exempt wells (non-commercial) use just .7 of 1% of all the water in Whatcom County. This sadly was not a material fact in the Supreme Court decision. Over 99% of water usage in our county, which is a part of the whole water supply equation, was not addressed in that ruling. It’s like trying to balance the family budget by cutting off a child’s allowance while a brand new Lexus and Cadillac that are 100% financed sit in the garage.

This ruling was a dramatic reversal of decades of water policy. The Whatcom County Council passed the wells moratorium to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. The Council saw the only way to fix this Supreme Court decision was through action by the State Legislature so that the “profoundly flawed” and “grievous error imposed by the Supreme Court,” as described in the lawsuit, would be remedied.

That action was taken Jan. 19 with the passage of ESSB 6091—a bipartisan effort that passed both the state House and Senate with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans voting to approve the bill.

Here are some of the provisions of the new law: • New wells are limited to 3,000 gallons per day (down from 5,000).

• Existing wells and permits that are in process prior to the new law are grandfathered.

• New well application will have a $500 fee, $350 of which will go to the Department of Ecology.

• The State will spend $300 million on habitat restoration around the state.



 

  

     

  

Whatcom County Council voted Jan. 30 to approve a temporary emergency ordinance that would bring Whatcom County into compliance with state law, and they’re working on a permanent ordinance. This lifted a 15-month moratorium on new wells. Landowners can now drill a well on their property and get a building permit for their home.

Some attendees at the council meeting raised concerns during the discussion when several council members asked if there should be additional restrictions on wells. That can translate into additional costs and/or limitations on water usage for gardens and livestock. This discussion was alarming to many in the audience. Potential home builders want what the state legislature passed last December in Resolution No. 201-050 to “restore the procedures in place before the Hirst decision.”

This year there is a lot of work to do for the Nooksack Watershed Planning Unit.

The law requires the Planning Unit to: (1.)

Assess the potential impacts of exempt well use; (2.) identify evidence-based conservation measures, and (3.) identify projects to improve watershed health. The unit comprises a variety of stakeholders who represent nearly everyone in Whatcom County.

If you are at all concerned about this issue, find out who represents you in the Watershed Planning Unit. Talk with them.

Find out the schedule for the public hearings and let your voice be heard. The decisions about water usage in our county affect all of us, whether we’re developing land or building a new home or not.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 33

2017 BUSINESS PERSON OF THE

YEAR

Business Person of the Year Anne-Marie Faiola, Bramble Berry

Small Business of the Year Care Medical Group

Rob Fix, Port of Bellingham

CorePhysio

John Rauvola, Superfeet

Emergency Reporting

Scott Whitman, Whitman Holdings

Tradewinds Capital Management

PULSE B

U

S

I

N

E

S

S

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS Start-Up of the Year 1st Class Auto body Brist Manufacturing Overflow Taps

Lifetime Achievement Award Andrew Vitaljic, American Canadian Fisheries

Whatcom Business Alliance, Business Pulse magazine and the following companies congratulate our Business Person of the Year finalists and thank them for their contributions to our community prosperity.

b

s s e n i s u b YEAR PERSON

Of The

+ LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT small business

his year’s star-studded array of Business Pulse T Awards finalists runs the full gamut, from wide-ranging entrepreneurial achievement to leader-

ship in completing what is arguably the community’s most challenging public-sector project.

The four Business Person of the Year finalists include an entrepreneur who launched her successful bath-products business on the kitchen table of her home, to the owner of multiple Dairy Queens—and more, to a man who has seen his footwear business become a runaway success. The fourth is the honoree who will play a major role in achieving completion of the long-awaited downtown Bellingham Waterfront District redevelopment.

Leading-edge community healthcare and physical therapy are the province of two of the finalists for Small Business of the Year. They’re joined by a national and even global leader in supporting fire and emergency-medical services, and a pair of experts who provide their financial advice to clients of any size.

The three Start-Up Business of the Year finalists can

start-up

draw you a classic craft beer (while being concerned about water conservation), repair any kind of vehicle you may bring to their growing facility, and provide branded clothing for your company or your team— also while being concerned about wastage and water conservation.

Speaking of water, a man who has spent his entire long life on the high seas in search of fish, and has been—and still is—involved in every aspect of the fishing industry, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is the 32nd year for the signature event, sponsored by the Whatcom Business Alliance and Business Pulse magazine. It will be held Wednesday, March 21 in the ballroom of the Semiahmoo Resort, with a cocktail hour beginning at 6 p.m. Visit www. whatcombusinessalliance.com for ticket information and reservations. Now, please turn the pages to learn more about each of these deserving individuals and companies… P+ Photos by Scott Book MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 35

“I quit fishing and opened the Fisherman’s Market downtown….

There was no turning back.”

36 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Andy Vitaljic’s

Lifetime in Fishing Now Capped Off By Desire to Fill Food Banks

By Mike McKenzie

Imagine an Andy Vitaljic doll that walks and talks, personifying a large, vibrant personality in a man still energetically moving about constantly at age 85.

And you press a button on the doll’s back, and it speaks: “Feed the hungry!”

Involved intimately for almost 70 years in about every aspect of commercial fishing, Vitaljic hasn’t learned the meaning of retirement and he is hellbent on fighting hunger with protein from a 10-acre garden and from sourcing fish, especially salmon.

With a resume a mile long, Vitaljic will take center stage at the annual Business Pulse/Whatcom Business Alliance Business Person of the Year Awards banquet March 21 at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine. He’s the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

Vitaljic has started, owned, or partnered in multiple fishing-related companies, donated tons upon tons of vegetables and salmon to food banks, and he remains active in Canadian American Fisheries (AmCan), Fat-Cat Fish Company, and Hannegan Properties. Plus, a vast hatchery program.

Plus, a fish quality control center. Plus…

“Right now I’m busy working with the Maritime Heritage on trying to get more fisheries in Bellingham,’ he said in a recent wide-ranging interview at Hannegan Properties between Bellingham and Lynden. “We’ve got to find more ways to feed more hungry people.”

There’s not enough space here to write about all that he has accomplished, and continues to accomplish. Here are the basics of his personal journey and his professional journey: He is one of three cousins all named Andrew (he was nicknamed Gumps after a comic book character) who grew up in Bellingham as descendants of a Slavic brotherhood of Vitaljics from the island of Vis, off the coast of Croatia. They made their way here to fish. He picks up the story from there:

“In 1946, at the age of 14, I painted the bottom of my Uncle Nick’s boat, the Red Feather, and became the 11th man on the crew with my dad and uncles. We were out of bunks so I slept on the floor of the engine room. I woke up in the middle of one night and fish were jumping everywhere.

Everybody got up in their long johns and started hauling. We caught a full boatload.

It was so exciting. That season I got paid 1,250 bucks—a lot of money for a kid— and I said right then and there, ‘This is the life for me.’”

Andy gave up studying for the priesthood and by 17 he was operating a boat with another family, The Rover, fishing off of Kodiak Island. He kept at it several years until tragedy struck in 1959. His father Joseph’s combo troller/gillnet boat capsized at night in a storm. “My uncle came across my boat radio and told me, ‘You’ve gotta be a man. You’re father has drowned.’ He was just 58, and I was just 27,” Vitaljic said.

“I quit fishing and opened the Fisherman’s Market downtown.” A couple of years later, using a $50,000 loan from a family friend, he partnered with Keith Remington and they opened V&R Co. that built Dungeness king crab pots.

“There was no turning back,” Vitaljic said.

That began his serial entrepreneurship bent that now stretches across six decades and numerous companies. He went from catching fish to learning to buy fish, sell fish, grow fish, process fish, smoke fish, and package and ship and distribute fish.

Ingenuity and ambition put him on a trail of maritime business ventures that trace from that original marketplace up through his nowadays operations, some with partners. One that he has part ownership in, Quality Control Special Services, was an original tenant—and now is the oldest tenant—of Bellingham Cold Storage. “Our companies have three buildings there,” Vitaljic said, pointing them out on a huge photo.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 37

Photo courtesy of the Vitaljic family

Andy Vitaljic with wife Erin.

Another broad-based partnership, Allied Fisheries, operates salmon hatcheries in four states. They have 40 in a collaborative deal with four Native American tribes in Washington, seven each in Oregon and California, and five in Michigan. Still another enterprise delves into specialty fish products—smoked salmon, smoked herring, smoked lox, and caviar.

AmCan evolved from an original partnership with Myer Bornstein called North Pacific Ocean Products, which became Ocean Beauty, then Ocean Star, and finally American Canadian that Vitaljic located on Hannegan in 1985. Andy spends much of his time at offices of Hannegan Properties and its vertical companies— Hannegan Seafoods (retail) and Hannegan Express (shipping).

Pelican, a cannery, and Sunny Foods, which smokes, freezes, and packages specialty fish, lease buildings on the property.

And the farm sits among the 40 acres out there. Operated by Vitaljic’s sister, JoAnn Nelson, it grows the produce that goes to the food bank at Christ the King Church (over 50,000 pounds last year), along with salmon fillets (over 20,000). They donate to the Deming Food Bank, too, and to Northwest Harvest, a hunger relief network of 375 food banks.

“We’re about to build two more 200-foot greenhouses, too,” he said. “We’re building it up to feed more people.” Also, the Hannegan retail store donates one pound of salmon to the church food bank for every pound a customer purchases.

Vitaljic said he inherited the spirit of giving from his father.

“He couldn’t take his wallet out without helping somebody,” he 38 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

said. “Everybody said Joe was a kind and generous man.” Andy shared memories of childhood days of going with friends to fill wagons with fish at Bellingham docks and then pulling them behind their bicycles to give away in nearby neighborhoods.

Now he and his wife, Erin, are driven by their shared mission of feeding people in need. (And animals, too, a central theme in Fat-Cat where they make high-protein pet food from the skeletal scraps of salmon cast aside by AmCan.) Family members have always been involved in Vitaljic’s business pursuits. One of his three daughters, Karen, now retired, helped him get AmCan running full steam. “She started working there for me in high school, then went off to college, and came back and basically ran the company for many years.”

His other daughters, Susan and Linda, have medical and photography careers, respectively.

Andy started Fat-Cat in 2003 with $80,000 in seed money; then Erin took over as CEO and as a co-owner she oversees that operation. This will become the fourth year that both his and her companies rank among the Top 100 privately-owned businesses in Business Pulse’s annual listing, and they have created about 150 jobs.

At first upon learning about his award for a lifetime body of works, Vitaljic said, he was embarrassed. “I don’t like public attention,” he said. “But I believe in destiny, and I realized why this is all happening. It’s a way to spread the message about feeding the hungry.”

business person of the year finalist Anne-Marie Faiola, Owner/CEO BRAMBLE BERRY “Purchasing the building for Bramble Berry studio space and officially putting our flag downtown was a big accomplishment last year.”

— Anne-Marie Faiola

By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy In 1998, hardly anyone knew how to make money on the Internet, including Anne-Marie Faiola. The young woman had a job as a correctional officer, but what she did for fun was make gift-worthy, hand-crafted soap in her kitchen at home in Bellingham.

That year, with no business experience but with a passion for making things, she started Bramble Berry Handcraft Provisions from her kitchen table. “I put $15,000 on a credit card, designed 40 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

my own website, tossed it up onto the Internet, and away we went,” Faiola said.

Today, the company has $18 million in annual revenues and employs 86 people—100 during busy seasons—all in Whatcom County. It sells supplies for home crafting of bath and beauty products to do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and small businesses. The company ships more than 1,000 packages a day from its

16,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in the Sunnyland neighborhood of Bellingham.

Bramble Berry has been honored as Small Business of the Year by both Whatcom County and Washington, and it appears perennially on the Business Pulse list of Top 100 privately owned companies.

Faiola recently opened Bramble Berry Studios on Unity Street, where customers explore soap-making and other crafts that use kitchen chemistry. “Purchasing the building for Bramble Berry studio space and officially putting our flag downtown was a big accomplishment last year,” Faiola said, speaking as the sole owner and CEO. Other Bramble Berry milestones in 2017: a double-digit increase in business over the previous year, and the hiring of another 12 fulltime employees.

Faiola also shoots episodes for www. soapqueen.tv, a DIY soap-making series on YouTube, launched in 2009. “The Soap Queen,” as she’s widely known, has come a long way from that kitchen table in her home in the Lettered Streets neighborhood. “After seven years of running my business, it was clear I needed business help, so I went back to school to get my MBA,” Anne-Marie said. “Through slow, consistent, dripdrip-drip efforts, I built a sustainable business with the help of an incredible team.”

Company President Norman Vigre has worked with Bramble Berry for 16 of its 20 years. Marketing and Product Development Officer Amber Strawn has been on board 12 years. The company employs eight differently abled employees who help fill orders, and annually gives a portion of its profits to charity, including Lydia Place and the Opportunity Council.

Bramble Berry employees are passionate about the art of handcrafted goods, Faiola said. “The Zen, the fun, the stress relieving feel-good factor in making something useful is like no other feeling.

We believe in making time to do what you love, and to do it with your own individual style.

“Right now, we focus on making soap.

In the future? Anything is possible.”

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 41

business person of the year finalist Rob Fix, Executive Director PORT OF BELLINGHAM “Hard work, good people and a lot of luck.”

— Rob Fix, on major factors in his success

By Mary Louise Van Dyke Rob Fix savors the forward momentum occurring on redevelopment of the former George-Pacific property in downtown Bellingham’s Waterfront District. The long-awaited improvements to that 237-acre site is just one of many large projects Fix oversees as Executive Director for the Port of Bellingham, which is rapidly approaching its 100th anniversary in 2020.

His other domains: the Bellingham Shipping and Bellingham Cruise terminals (marinas with 2,015 permanent-moorage slips, with additional space for visitors at the Squalicum and Blaine Harbors); the Bellingham International Airport; and 1.37 million 42 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

square feet of office, commercial, and industrial building space.

Fix also manages a portfolio that last year produced more than $50 million in revenues—about half each coming in operating and capital revenues—and he oversees a full-time staff of 100.

Planning for the downtown-waterfront redevelopment project got underway years ago. The first roads, Waypoint Park, and a commercial building—the Granary—are scheduled to open in late spring. Those amenities, Fix said, will allow the community to access this area of the waterfront “for the first time in more than 100 years.”

The Port and its project partner, Harcourt Developments of Ireland, in concert with the City of Bellingham, also plan additional infrastructure and mixed-use development in the Waterfront District area, including residential units and possibly a conference center hotel, amid the park and trails.

Fix stated he is proud of the Environmental Award the port received in 2017 from the Washington Public Ports Association in recognition of the $35 million Whatcom Waterway Cleanup project. “It was one of the largest environmental cleanup projects in state history,” he said. The endeavor removed 10,000 tons of polluted soil, 5,100 tons of concrete and asphalt rubble, 110,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, and 265 tons of creosote-treated timber.

In 2017, the Port also completed a $10 million project to build a new manufacturing facility for All American Marine on Bellingham’s central waterfront, where the company moved from its cramped quarters near the Fairhaven Ferry Terminal. “That project allowed this fast-growing boat builder not only to expand but also to double its workforce,” Fix said. Another feather in the Port’s cap last year was the docking of a massive cargo ship—the first one in almost two decades.

A Washington State University Business School graduate, Fix became the Port’s Chief Financial Officer in 2008 and was promoted to Executive Director in 2012. He brought a broad background in finance from the hotel and travel industry to the port, moving from Oregon where he worked for MTM Luxury Lodging. Before that he was with First Financial Asset Management.

Sitting in the executive director’s seat, he said, means dealing with constantly-shifting external forces. “With shrinking airport revenues the last couple of years, in part because of the Canadian dollar exchange rate, and declining marina revenues due to boat ownership trends, we reduced our expenses to better match the reduced revenue streams,” Fix said.

This year, the Port is tackling those situations full-on while continuing to build its many other areas as the state’s designated economic-development organization. For example, Fix said, “We will continue to market the airport with a new inducement program aimed at airlines for select destinations, such as Denver.”

Regarding his selection as a finalist for Business Person of the Year, Fix attributed it to “hard work, good people, and a lot of luck.”

Celebrating 10 years!

Thank you for your trust and confidence over the years. It’s our pleasure assisting clients in meeting their financial goals.

Bryant J. Engebretson, CFP®, CLU®, AIF® Kyle B. Jackson, CFP®, CLU®, AIF® p

360.715.9000

www.tradewinds-cm.com 2211 Rimland Drive, Suite 401 Bellingham, WA 98226

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 43

business person of the year finalist John Rauvola, CEO SUPERFEET “I believe that, through actions both big and small, we all have the power to change the world around us.”

— John Rauvola

By Sherri Huleatt When John Rauvola became CEO at Superfeet last year, the company held a “pass the baton” ceremony, during which they handed off an actual baton to him. But his impact on the company began several years prior, when he became company president in 2013.

Since joining Superfeet—an insole and footwear manufacturer based in Ferndale—that year, Rauvola has led the company to a 40% increase in annual sales (hitting the $45 million mark 44 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

in ’17), tripled the size of its Ferndale manufacturing headquarters, added 30 full-time positions, and celebrated the firm’s 40th anniversary.

In 2016, Superfeet became 100% employee owned and launched a new sandal line. The subsequent increase in sales allowed the company to boost its charitable donations by $2 million. Superfeet also recently secured a new 50,000-square foot facility in Ferndale called FlowBuilt—a state-of-the-art manufacturing

building that can produce about 500,000 pairs of custom footwear a year.

That expansion comes with 25 new full-time jobs, a new partnership with Brooks Running athletic footwear, and an advanced HP Multi-Jet Fusion 3D Printer. In 2017, Superfeet partnered with HP to launch the “FitStation” pilot program across 13 running-specialty stores. The technology analyzes how feet move and interact with the ground, allowing the creation of personalized, 3D-printed insoles that hit their customer’s doorsteps within about a week. The company plans to expand the program to 125 U.S. locations during 2018.

A core value at Superfeet is philanthropic work. “We go all-in supporting the things we believe in most,” Rauvola said.

“It’s why we choose to manufacture sustainably. It’s why we donate 1% of our annual sales to help people get back on their feet, and it’s why we made the decision to become 100% employee owned. We believe that it’s how we do business, not just what we make, that sets us apart.”

Rauvola’s said his proudest achievement is growing Superfeet, while still maintaining its strong company culture. “It is apparent as you walk through our halls that everyone believes they can make a positive difference in people’s lives,” Rauvola said.

Superfeet sometimes shuts down entirely so everyone can spend time as a volunteer.

“I believe that, through actions both big and small, we all have the power to change the world around us.”

Rauvola, a Montana native, spent nearly 20 years in the athletic-apparel industry and several more years working for a hardwood floor and cleaner company.

Initially, he wasn’t looking to work at Superfeet, but after learning more about the company and seeing how its values aligned with his, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to work for a firm with so much growth potential.

Superfeet has 144 full-time employees around the globe; 88 of them work out of the company’s headquarters in Ferndale.

Rauvola foresees continued growth by pairing the latest technologies—particularly 3D printing—and footwear. “About 75% of U.S. adults—180 million people— experience foot pain, but only 10% use insoles,” Rauvola said. “This means there are a lot of people out there in pain who we can help.”

You’ve got plans, budgets, suppliers, employees, payables, receivables, and oh yes... customers.

Do you have the right business team by your side?

Chase is proud to support the Whatcom Business Alliance and the 2017 Business Person of the Year Awards, because a community is only as strong as the strength of its leaders.

To see how our people and solutions can work for you, visit chase.com/ForBusiness or contact your local Chase Business Banker.

Amanda Gambino Business Relationship Manager Ferndale, WA 360-392-2035

®

“Chase” and the Octagon Symbol are trademarks of JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender. ©2018 JPMorgan Chase & Co.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 45

business person of the year finalist Scott Whitman, Owner WHITMAN HOLDINGS “(My titles are) owner, president, manager, winemaker and probably some that are not worthy for print.”

— Scott Whitman

By Dave Brumbaugh Working at a fast-food restaurant is the first job for many young people, giving them a chance to earn money while learning about responsibility and developing a work ethic. But Scott Whitman didn’t see just an entry-level position—he saw a career opportunity.

Whitman began working at a Dairy Queen restaurant to pay tuition and other bills while he was attending Western Washington University. He became general manager of the Iowa Street 46 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

location in Bellingham a year later, then after eight years there he acquired the restaurant in 1995.

But Whitman and wife Denise, owners of Whitman Holdings LLC, were far from done. While continuing to operate the Iowa Street location, they purchased the Ferndale Dairy Queen in 1999, the Lynden and Mount Vernon DQs in 2003, and the Cordata (Bellingham) DQ in 2011.

Whitman said the locations generally were under-performing when he acquired them, but now they all rank among the top-performing Dairy Queen restaurants of the more than 300 in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. And their focus on food safety has yielded multi-year Silver Platter awards from the Whatcom County Health Department.

Scott said he is proud of what his restaurants have achieved, though he sees growth as more than a profit-and-loss issue.

“Growth allows our managers and team members to grow with us,” he said, “providing them more opportunities to learn and develop.”

Whitman Holdings also has evolved beyond the fast-food industry. The Whitmans partnered with Paxton and Shannon Rembert in launching Coach House Cellars, a Bellingham boutique winery, in 2010. Since producing its first commercial vintage of just 300 cases, Coach House Cellars has increased production to approximately 1,500 cases, earned multiple awards, and expanded distribution into the Seattle, Eastern Washington, Oregon, and California markets.

“Coach House Cellars is that business you dream of starting—the job you hope to do after your real job ends,” Scott Whitman said. “It’s been fun developing the brand, but the most fun has been developing the skills to make great wine. It’s a creative expression, where you take something and shape it into your vision.”

The newest venture for Whitman Holdings is Rustic Coffee and Wine Bar in Fairhaven, which they acquired in late 2014. It features custom, locally-roasted coffee and locally-made pastries, and also serves as a tasting room for Coach House Cellars, as well as other wines.

Continued growth feeds Whitman’s desire to “provide the same opportunities I had…to see people mature and develop into business people who care for their staff, their fans, and their company.”

Whitman said he’s followed a simple recipe for success: “Hard work, determination, perseverance, and luck.”

That’s led him to wearing many hats.

He described his various job titles as, “Owner, President, Manager, Winemaker…and probably some that are not worthy for print.”

Thank You to

Whatcom Community College’s growing pre-engineering program has a powerful partnership with Alcoa Intalco Works in Ferndale. A $25,000 investment by the Alcoa Foundation delivers state-of-the-art robotics and circuit lab kits, laptops to check out for project design assignments, a laser cutter to bring those projects to life, and more. These tools help students prepare for transfer and success in the workforce; Alcoa’s grant impacts about 150 students this year. Thanks to Alcoa, we are providing opportunities in the classroom that lead to career success in high-demand fields.

This support is essential, and we are grateful.

whatco

m.edu/f oundati

on

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 47

small business of the year finalist Dr. Richard Wei, Owner/CEO CARE MEDICAL GROUP “A lot of women have a hard time getting into a women’s clinic locally, and that is where I see a need.”

— Dr. Richard Wei

By Mary Louise Van Dyke Dr. Richard Wei was searching for opportunities to purchase a clinic and for a healthier climate in which to raise his sons when he moved his family to Bellingham in 2010. He became co-owner of Care Medical Group, and within a year he bought the business from his partner and now serves as its Chief Executive Officer overseeing 16 full-time and nine part-time employees.

His career decision provided a setting in which to utilize his 48 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

skills in musculoskeletal, urgent care, and occupational medicine, he said in an email interview. His previous work in New Orleans included rebuilding clinics that he owned there, after Hurricane Katrina’s destructive sweep through the coastal Gulf States in 2005.

Based in Bellingham, Care Medical Group offers a variety of services seven days a week, from physical and massage therapies

to walk-in urgent care, family medicine, and occupational medicine. The clinic’s Occupational Medicine Department works with more than 200 employers to provide coverage for work-injury care, drug testing, and work-capacity evaluation.

As the City of Bellingham’s Medical Director for Occupational Medicine, Wei said he and his staff also provide services for Bellingham’s fire and police departments. The scope of first responders’ jobs can expose them to needle punctures and blood-borne pathogens, or to illnesses such as meningitis. “I help them if they get injured on the job,” Wei said.

The clinic teamed with Titanium Software last year in developing the online Titanium Software’s Respirator Questionnaire. Employees who wear respirators answer the questions and their responses are instantly evaluated. “They don’t have to wait days or weeks for hard-copy responses to be processed,” Wei said. The questionnaire informs employees if they are cleared to wear a respirator or if they have health issues that require follow-up.

To date, Wei reported, about 1,000 questionnaires have been sent out and a patent is pending on the unique program.

The clinic also sponsors Boys & Girls Clubs of Whatcom County sports teams, and Wei supports the annual Fun with the Fuzz 5K road race and Blue Skies for Children programs as part of the company’s community involvement.

Wei said one of his goals is to expand the clinic’s health care for women. “A lot of women have a hard time getting into a women’s clinic locally, and that is where I see a need,” Wei said.

Eventually, the clinic will move to a new location because of the impending need for expanded space. Care Medical Group has experienced a 60% growth since Wei’s arrival. “I’m very happy with the way the clinic has grown,” he said. “It’s all because of my employees and providers. They’re like my family.”

Care Medical Group provides services throughout Whatcom County, including X-ray and in-house labs, and is continuing to expand those services. “Doing business in this uniquely tight-knit community,” Wei said, “allows us to work with and establish rapport with a diverse group of individuals, employers, and other entities.”

Peter James Photography

Jeff & Rebecca Photography

Eva Rieb Photography

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small business of the year finalist Elizabeth Hampton, PT, DPT, WCS, BCB-PMD, CEO/Clinic Director COREPHYSIO “Our model has supported paying our staff a competitive wage with meaningful benefits, flexible schedules, and shared financial success, while maintaining the highest level of clinician education of the staff delivering care.” ­— Elizabeth Hampton

By Dave Brumbaugh Many healthcare practices never experience growth beyond one provider. A practice’s founder may be quite skilled, yet unable or unwilling to find compatible partners or employees with similar philosophies and abilities.

Physical therapist Elizabeth Hampton saw growth as a necessity after launching CorePhysio in 2004 in Fairhaven. “Expansion has always been driven by the need to ensure an outstanding client 50 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

experience,” Hampton said, drawing from her personal experience: “When I worked by myself and went on vacation, my clients didn’t receive care. That’s unacceptable, because their needs didn’t go on vacation while I was out of the office. So, hiring and expanding was the appropriate, client-centered thing to do.”

CorePhysio is a comprehensive physical-therapy clinic providing one-to-one treatment by clinicians who have earned

advanced certifications and training in their fields. These include orthopedics, sports, spine, vestibular and concussion rehab, balance, clinical bike fits, and video gait analysis.

A doctor who works closely with Core Physio, Dr. Kelly Casperson, commented on its unique approach: “As surgeons, our training doesn’t teach us about integrating with therapy. The relationship between a surgeon and a physical therapist is truly organic and driven by passion to help care for this unique group of clients.”

Additionally, CorePhysio’s Pelvic Health program operates from two offices—in Fairhaven and in a location that opened last December inside Pacific Northwest Urology. The Pelvic Health program is the largest and most experienced clinic in its specialty north of the greater Seattle area, providing specialized physical therapy in treating incontinence and pelvic pain for all clients of all ages.

Hampton matches the focus she has on clients in her treatment of employees.

“Our model has supported paying our staff a competitive wage with meaningful benefits, flexible schedules, and shared financial success, while maintaining the highest level of clinician education of the staff delivering care,” she said.

That’s despite lower reimbursements from insurers. “Insurance companies are paying less, which forces most PT clinics’ care to be faster, shorter, and delivered by support staff,” Hampton said. “CorePhysio will not compromise the client experience or pay its staff less than a living wage and benefits, due simply to reduced insurance reimbursements.”

Still, CorePhysio has thrived. Since 2015, the practice’s revenue increased 61% to more than $2 million in 2017 and the staff grew from 14 to 23, all while accommodating six employee maternity leaves.

Speaking to her company’s next area of growth, Hampton’s vision touches on a specialty field of major national concern—concussions—especially in the sport of football. “Our concussion and vestibular team is working with local multidisciplinary professionals, as well as our public-school systems,” she said, “with the goal of creating a consistent clinical pathway for concussion rehab in our community.”

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small business of the year finalist Dave Adams & Adrian Mintz, Co-founders EMERGENCY REPORTING

“Ours is a true boot-strap success story…two partners with complementary skills delivered the right product at the right time to a market in need.” ­— Dave Adams

By Mike McKenzie Emergency Reporting, a developer of proprietary software for medical and disaster first responders, was the Start-Up of the Year in 2014. Fast forward, and now it’s a finalist for Small Business of the Year.

Fast forward, indeed. Last year, Emergency Reporting leapt 58% in number of new customers, and it has enjoyed an average growth of 25% year-over-year ever since co-founders Dave Adams and Adrian Mintz launched the business in January of 2003. Today, they have 84 employees, with 54 of them living in 52 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

Whatcom County.

Emergency Reporting software serves more than 120,000 users at more than 5,700 first-response agencies worldwide. “Ours is a true boot-strap success story,” Adams said, “in that co-founders with complementary skills partnered to deliver the right product at the right time to a market in need. Despite competing against well-established brands with big market share, we have gained a leadership position some 15 years later, despite acquiring debt.”

Adams, the Senior Director of Business Development,

described the company’s panoply of services this way: “We provide web-based fire and emergency medical services (EMS) records management software for civilian and federal fire departments nationwide to support employee safety, rapid-information emergency response, detailed incident tracking, regulatory reporting, and many other elements of managing, analyzing, and improving fire department operations.”

The company provides onsite and online training, regional training events, and a support staff based in the Bellingham offices that recently relocated to Barkley Village. They serve two markets: • Civilian (from small volunteer to large metro fire departments, plus industrial, manufacturing, and commercial sites); • Federal (contracts include over 160 departments, including Dept. of Defense Fire Departments around the world, the U.S. Marine Corps, NASA installations, airports, Dept. of Ecology, and the Veteran’s Administration).

Last year, Emergency Services hosted its first National Training Academy, and it closed the largest deal in company history, with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency.

A family-centered work culture prevails at ER. “I’m most proud of how the team came together throughout 2017 to help fellow employees who were dealing with severe medical challenges,” Adams said. “Talk about being ‘family friendly’ is common; to see it lived out is exceptional and inspiring.”

ER staff has become involved with the Technology Alliance Group NW as a Galactic Sponsor, including a fund-raiser for a student scholarship fund and volunteering to develop student and technological growth in Whatcom County. Employees receive two days off annually to participate in community service projects. Whenever there is a LODD (Line of Duty Death) within fire service, ER sends a sympathy card. At Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico, ER set up a fund account.

“We have people committed to serving those who serve our communities (in emergencies)… people who make a difference,” Adams said. “Our people show up to work knowing their work matters.”

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small business of the year finalist Bryant J. Engebretson, Founder/Managing Principal

TRADEWINDS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT “I now have more letters after my name than are in my name, and Bryant Engebretson is a long name” he joked.

By Mary Louise Van Dyke Tradewinds Capital Management helps clients stay afloat financially, guiding them safely over the shoals and through the turbulence of fund investments. Bryant J. Engebretson launched the company in 2008 and co-owner Mark R.G. Anderson came on board in 2012. Both formerly worked for Edward Jones & Co. As an independent registered investment advisory company, Tradewinds provides investment advice and financial planning for individuals and small businesses. Ten full-time 54 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

staffers work at the offices in Bellingham’s Barkley Village and in Shoreline, north of Seattle. In 2017, the company earned $4 million in revenues.

Starting a company in 2008’s financially choppy waters was a struggle, Engebretson said. As the Managing Principal, he said, “I spent much of my time talking people through the crisis and helping clients avoid making investing decisions based on emotions.”

That crisis also sparked his realization about the differences

in styles in the financial-services world, he said. Brokers work on commission-based sales, while companies such as Tradewinds have advisors who work on a non-commission basis. “They buy financial products on behalf of their client,” Engebretson said.

The company holds various certifications including, but not limited to, Chartered Life Underwriter and Accredited Estate Planner. “I now have more letters (like CLU and AEP) after my name than are in my name, and Bryant Engebretson is a long name,” he said, listing six certifications containing 19 acronym letters.

Anderson’s arrival, with opening of the Shoreline office in 2012, sparked a growth spurt of over 150% that year.

The success was great, Engebretson said, however it also raised a serious question: How to take “two individual practices and meld them into a united company culture and client experience.” That melding of two practices into a single, focused entity is about 60% solved now, he said. The challenges in 2018: “Keeping our sails adjusted, while monitoring the current financial markets and providing cyber protection for our clients.”

The partners encourage all employees to get involved in philanthropic pursuits.

Engebretson participates in the Bellingham Bay Rotary and its Grape & Gourmet fundraiser, plus he specializes in purchasing bottles of wine for fundraisers, such as the Whatcom Hospice Foundation’s Light the Night Gala Auction. Anderson is a board member for World Concern and chair of the 2018 Transform gala.

Engebretson said Whatcom County offers rich opportunities for working with retirees who need financial services, and with businesses too tiny for larger investment firms to handle.

“We have been able to establish a very nice niche retirement-plan-servicing business that we’re proud of and that our clients and their employees appreciate,” he said.

On the company’s front burner: “We’re very cognizant of protecting our clients’ financial assets and personal data. Also, if the market’s expansion makes it past June, it will become the longest expansion in modern history. Preparing for the end of it and the recession that’s sure to follow is our highest priority.”

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start-up business of the year finalist

1ST CLASS AUTO BODY

“Our business is built on a foundation of excellence and ethical business practices.”

— Joel Nunnikoven

By Larry Coffman A trio of owners has taken their 1st Class Auto Body business from zero to $2 million in annual revenues in only a year, which they attribute to having a “perfect trifecta” of backgrounds, experience, and talents.

Partners Joel Nunnikhoven, John Reichstein, and Marty Evans have a combined 75 years of experience in the collision-repair industry and they shared a desire to open their own facility together.

In 2017, they opened their doors on Pacific Highway, alongside I-5 near Ferndale.

Their focus is on Whatcom County clientele, but they have customers in the San Juans and surrounding counties, as well.

1st Class Auto Body has 13 full-time employees and its technicians are highly trained, skilled with experience, and I-Car Gold certified. Fewer than 5% of body shops across the country have that I-Car Gold certification and recognition, which means they can repair any type of vehicle, regardless of make or model.

Nunnikhoven explained in an email interview: “We’re officially certified by Assured Performance, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization, for maintaining the right tools, equipment, training, and facility necessary to repair their participating Automaker-brand vehicles to manufacturer’s specifications.”

1st Class is the only auto body shop in Bellingham that has a satellite office for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, thus providing rental cars 56 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

to customers immediately at the time they drop their vehicles off for repair. “We’re also the only facility in western Washington that can accommodate the larger Sprinter-type vehicles and that has a complete aluminum-repair center,” Nunnikhoven said.

And just how do you take a business to $2 million in annual revenue from a standing start? Joel had this explanation: “Our business is built on a foundation of excellence and ethical business practices. We provide customers with the peace of mind to know their vehicle has been repaired and held to the highest standard to ensure their safety and, while doing so, provide them with superior customer service.”

That thought falls into a category of good advice for budding entrepreneurs in any business. “A successful business,” Nunnikhoven said, “depends on quality customer service, a dedicated staff team and strong leadership.”

The staff uses state-of-the-art equipment and tooling, and Nunnikhoven said, “There’s no repair we can’t handle.” And at no risk to the customer, because 1st Class Auto Body accepts all insurance carriers, plus all repairs come with a lifetime warranty.

Not content to rest on its laurels, 1st Class Auto Body is in the process of expanding to an additional building on its property, doubling the size of the facility. “This will create more jobs and help us meet the needs of our growing community,” Nunnikhoven said.

Photo courtesty of Brist Mfg.

start-up business of the year finalist

BRIST MFG.

“Our clients have the ability to get as nitty-gritty as the eyelet color on a hat or the thread color stitching on a button.”

— Christian Harkson, Co-Owner, Brist Mfg

By Dave Brumbaugh Brendan Pape and Christian Harkson dealt in frustration a few years ago with their small clothing label, Disidual—a popular lifestyle brand nationally. Manufacturers stifled them in building the brand.

“They had one standard: massive order minimums, with no regard for overproduction and small brands like us,” Director of Operations Harkson said. “We were constrained by the outdated textile industry. So, we created Brist in 2015 not by convenience, but by necessity. Now we help companies of all sizes with cool, unique products.”

Brist Mfg. revolutionized their industry. CEO Pape said, “Instead of giving up, we challenged the status quo.” The partners created a path to design, manufacture, and receive products, regardless of company size—and the size of their orders. “Our minimums open the door to small and mid-sized businesses without them breaking the bank.”

Pape said the manufacturers were wary of this business model at first, “…but with a lot of convincing and plain old good faith we changed the standard manufacturing process and extended it to our clients.”

From start to finish, Brist provides clients with garment design, cut-and-sew manufacturing, e-commerce, warehousing, and fulfillment. Its offerings range from screen-printed garments to custom flannels, hats, patches, beanies and more.

Their first clients were craft breweries and Young Life camps throughout North America. The company’s market then moved into the outdoor industry, including ski resorts, surf brands, fly-fishing companies, ski companies, and more, such as the Seattle Mariners’ merchandising, Teton Gravity Research, and Lib Tech & Gnu snowboard makers.

“Another exciting market stems from social media research and finding bloggers, gamers, and lifestyle brands to work with,” Harkson said. “We give businesses of all sizes the opportunity to not only create custom pieces, but to stay involved throughout the entire process. Our clients get as nitty-gritty as the eyelet color on a hat, or the thread color stitching on a button.”

Since the co-owners launched the company in November 2015 with Pape as CEO and Harkson as Director of Operations, the company generated $3.8 million in gross sales revenues during 2017, just its third year. Brist has 25 full-time employees.

They’re focused on creating sustainable supply chains. “By committing to quick turnaround times and low minimum orders, we reduce excess waste, allowing us to focus on high customization and private-label design while at the same time giving companies what they need when they need it,” Pape said.

“We’re constantly looking at our current procedures and coming up with ways to reduce waste and water consumption.”

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start-up business of the year finalist

OVERFLOW TAPS “What really makes us unique is the social-good aspect of the business.”

— Jesse Nelson, Owner/CEO, Overflow Taps

By Mary Louise Van Dyke Overflow Taps foamed to life in 2015 when Jesse Nelson, a not-so-contented web designer with a desire to give to community, and Adam Stacey, a business-minded spirit with a passion for craft beer, got together and brewed up plans for a tap house.

“I wanted to create a social-good business that involved craft beer, and Adam always dreamed of starting a tap house,” Nelson said. He serves as CEO. Stacey is the Chief Operations Officer.

Josh Libolt is a third member of the ownership team.

Customers can savor their favorite of what they call “hop-elicious brews,” such as Pilsner or Neighborhood IPA, in addition to hard ciders, wine, and food served by the staff of 14. The taps feature beers crafted locally and along the West Coast. The first Overflow Taps opened in Lynden, and the second bar/café is located in Bellingham’s Barkley Village.

Their taps feature the Dry-Hopped Pilsner that is Overflow’s signature Anniversary brew, plus some peculiarly named brands like Mother of Exiles, Voodoo Ranger Imperial, Mount Saint Humulus, Stone Squirrel, and Abrikoos Lambic. Overflow also serves hard ciders—Russian. Red, Lemon Basil, BrightCider, and Prohibition Rum Barrell-Aged.

The Overflow Taps beer experience extends to a podcast where, its website declares, “We talk about all things craft beer 58 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

(recent example: The Kottbusser—a historic German type)… with a heavy focus on tasting the beer!” Occasionally the owners field questions from individuals who wonder how easy it was to launch a tap house in ultra-conservative Lynden. “Opening the location wasn’t hard,” Nelson said, “but it was time-consuming.

Everyone in Lynden, including the City of Lynden, has been so supportive from the very beginning.”

Nelson said launching Overflow Taps required an “all-in” attitude by everyone involved. “But what really makes us unique is the social-good aspect of the business,” he said. “We wanted to do something concrete to help resolve the global water crisis.” The company’s “Charity Pints Program” is geared to raising money for water projects around the world.

Twenty-five cents of each pint sold goes to clean-water projects. And the owners would like more breweries to join them in this initiative. The status of donations from the two tap houses is displayed on a big-screen TV at both locations. The program allows customers to connect with other efforts to create more clean drinking water opportunities for people around the globe.

In assessing the ins and outs of startup entrepreneurship, Nelson said: “There are no shortcuts. You have to leverage momentum, and embrace the power of ask.”

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• Site Prep/Clearing • Environmental Cleanup • Excavation/Demolition

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MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 59

NOT YOUR FATHER’S How Scott Douge, and a small, dedicated team in a Ferndale warehouse, are taking local institution Hardware Sales global

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Photos by Scott Book

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By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy

T

hink you know Hardware Sales? Think again. In 2017, for the first time, this icon of Whatcom County sold more over the Internet than through its brick-andmortar stores on James Street and two other locations in Bellingham.

Hardware Sales Internet revenue in 2017 grew 84% over 2016 and accounted for 52% of its total sales. And 2016 revenues rose 40% over 2015. Director of E-Commerce Steve Douge said, “This past December, we shipped 60% more than any other month in our history, and we did it with the same number of employees.” Nineteen of Hardware Sales’ 129 employees work in the e-commerce division.

How did this come about in a world where most hardware stores have withered and died under the onslaught of big-box competitors? To answer that, go back to 2006 when Ty McClelland, grandson of founders Max and Alta McClelland, hired Douge to launch an Internet division

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for this family owned hardware store.

“For a company that barely had email at the time, this was very forward-thinking,” Douge said. “Ty realized the Internet eventually would disrupt his business. He could either sit around complaining, or do something about it and start his own online sales division.”

From the beginning Douge’s goal was to produce more revenue online than in the brick-and-mortar stores. “It was a fairly lofty goal, considering how successful the retail stores had been over the previous 56 years. I predicted it would take seven or eight years, but it was almost 12 years before we achieved it.

“I remember the owners laughing when I told them about the goal, but I think they appreciated the attitude.

I still tend to set high goals. They still laugh—but not as much anymore.”

The Hardware Sales that Whatcom County and the

“I remember the owners laughing when I told them about the goal (of online sales surpassing store sales), but I think they appreciated the attitude…

They still laugh—but not as much anymore.”

— Steve Douge, Director of E-Commerce, Hardware Sales

surrounding region know so well (it’s a perennial fixture on the Business Pulse Top 100 privately owned companies list) isn’t going to change just because the online division has grown, Douge said. However, having the virtual division enables good deals that also are available in the physical stores.

For example, when a storm hits. “Everyone else is out of generators, but Hardware Sales has several hundred that can be brought over from the Internet division on a moment’s notice,” he said.

Douge agreed that, while the company’s 84% growth in Internet sales over a year is astonishing, it fits a trend in that Internet sales across the country grow at about a 14% rate annually. “Amazon sales, which make up 37% of all Internet sales, are growing at 28% a year. We currently sell on HardwareSales.com, eBay, and Amazon, and all three segments show growth, with Amazon

growing the most,” he said.

“Except for some large equipment, we fulfill all our own online orders. With 64% of U.S. households being Amazon Prime members, it makes sense to take advantage of their seller-fulfilled Prime program.”

Even without its Internet division, Hardware Sales still posts 10 to 20 times the revenue of the typical hardware store that’s not big box, according to Douge. “That number blows my mind,” he said. “Hardware Sales is so unique that it’s pretty well known across the U.S. by other stores and manufacturers. Selling online changes rapidly and can be difficult to understand.

“We’ve been doing this for longer than most, and we’ve learned a lot. And that historical knowledge helps us understand future trends.”

After 12 years in the making, Hardware Sales’ future appears unlikely to fade.

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Giving Teens a Backstage Pass to Local Workplaces

By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy Industry in Whatcom County needs valuable employees, and students in Whatcom County need to know about job and career opportunities. Dealing with those parallel needs with its new Youth Engagement Initiative (YEI), the Whatcom Business Alliance brings local businesses and Whatcom County high school students together.

“We’re working with businesses and schools to take students into workplace facilities,” said Laura McKinney, NW Government Affairs & Public Relations Director for Alcoa who serves as Co-Chair of the YEI committee. Tom Kenney, recently retired northern Washington Regional President for Washington Federal joins McKinney as the second co-chair.

The initial phase of engagement involves a partnership with the Whatcom/Island/Skagit (WIS) Region of Junior Achievement (JA) Washington. Students will explore the world of job hunting through two in-class lessons of the “Job Shadow” curriculum. Onsite tours of companies are the highlight of “Job Shadow”. Students visit a business or nonprofit organization, where they observe professional work conduct, learn what skills and education they need to earn jobs, and participate in a series of host-led challenges that bring home lessons from the “real world” of work.

At Alcoa, McKinney said, students will have a chance to see inside the manufacturing facility and learn about positions from entry-level all the way to engineers and accountants.

“They’ll see how they might move up through a company,” she said, “and what their own future could look like. It is critical that they begin asking themselves now questions like, how do you start looking for a job? And what do your days look like when you have a job?”

In addition to the partnership with JA, the YEI is looking more broadly at the connection between our K-12, technical and community colleges, four year universities, and our business community. Business owners know that the key to their success is the quality of their people. “We [the YEI] want to build a bridge for Whatcom County students and young people to reach the family wage employment opportunities that are available right here,” 64 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

said McKinney. “We want high schoolers to see the relevance of education to their futures.”

Whatcom County has an 80% graduation rate, which is above the national average, but only 31% of Washington high schoolers go on to earn some kind of post-secondary credential. A study by Boston Consulting Group foresees about 740,000 job openings in Washington over the next five years. Most of those jobs, especially those that support a good quality of life, will be filled by workers with post-secondary education or training (reference: Washington Roundtable).

The YEI kicked off Feb. 7 with an event at Bellingham Technical College, where 300 Whatcom County high school students heard from speakers Mike Andes (Augusta Lawn Care Services), Erin Baker (Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods), Kevin Menard (Transition Bicycle Company), and Anne-Marie Faiola (Bramble Berry Soap Making Supplies and WBA Business Person of the Year nominee). The high energy presentations offered some valuable advice like “Show up, and persevere” as well as some encouragement and optimism that each of the students have their own future in their hands.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive from both sides,” McKinney said. “This fills an important need for both schools and businesses.” One request from the schools that were able to bring students for the kick off was to make the presentation into a road show so that the whole school might benefit.

YEI Co-chairs McKinney and Kenney expect to spend the majority of the spring recruiting businesses to participate in the JA “Job Shadow” program while also expanding their advisory Committee. The long term vision includes developing different levels of hands on learning experiences and scoping an online platform that would be a hub of information about different career paths and opportunities.

“You can’t walk into a manufacturing facility and see what it looks like to work there like you can in a coffee shop or a restaurant,” McKinney said. “We want to provide a bridge that allows students to take those next steps towards their future with a real sense of what that future could be like.” P+

Mike Andes, of Augusta Lawn Care Services, addressed 300 Whatcom County high school students at the Youth Engagement Initiative.

Photos by Scott Book

wba Youth Initiative Creates a Bridge

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QA and

Don Goldberg: New Man of the Hour in Port Development

T

Interview by Mike McKenzie

he Port of Bellingham has hired its new Director of Economic Development, Don Goldberg, who previously held the same position with the Port of Portland. He sat down with us recently for a conversation about his background and vision for Whatcom County business.

Business Pulse: You came here from Portland. Are you from there?

Don Goldberg: No, I grew up mostly in New York City, in the Bronx.

However, I finished high school in Milwaukee, then went to Beloit College in Wisconsin, transferred and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse with a BS degree in business.

I’ve traveled to 75 countries and lived all over including Vancouver, B.C., where I attended culinary school. I’ve lived in Vail, Colorado; Banff in Alberta, Canada; a number of places in California, and then worked my way up the coast to Oregon. And now here. I’ve lived on West Coast 37 years—the last 17 in Oregon.

Will your role here be similar to what it was at the Port of Portland?

There I was Director of Business Development in charge of both domestic and international development. I managed the Economic Development Department and the Property Dev team; we were the largest land developer in the state. Another group marketed industrial properties for the Port.

There’s a major difference here. The role here takes an opposite approach from there, in that I advocated only for the Port of Portland. Here, the Port of Bellingham is the state-designated agency for economic development, therefore the benefits to our port are secondary to the state’s.

This means I’ll market all of Whatcom County to create and bring in better jobs, and they’ll be no more or less Port-centric than for any other part of the county.

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Photo by Scott Book

Have you been here long enough to observe what lies ahead for your position at the Port of Bellingham?

I accepted the position and moved here a month before it started, and I rode all around the area with staff on a real-estate tour. I’ve gotten enough of a feel to be aware that the county is quite complex and diverse in its makeup.

Mine is a newly-created role funded by the City, the Port, the County, and even partially by the State. Remember the line in the movie Braveheart when Mel Gibson says, “Unite us! Unite the clans!”? We’ll Create partnerships and unite the diversity of our region to create a more powerful product. One of the most powerful things we have is that we our diverse sectors—ag, maritime, tech, manufacturing, and more.

Not only will we be uniting and creating partnerships, we need to answer the question, “Why Whatcom County?” We want a clear vision of who we are so that anybody outside the region will see us more than simply a really nice place.

Your resume reflects an interesting variety of career positions, in a wide range of areas. How do those experiences benefit you in this role?

My work with Collier’s International (a commercial real-estate services company operating in 68 countries) gave me a lot of experience dealing in commercial real estate, which is a high priority for the Port. And I attended an executive-coaching school in Seattle and went into consulting; that has prepared me to meet, listen, learn, and gain understanding—the main approach I will take with stakeholders here. I also worked for a land trust.

And all of these have been executive-level positions.

What other experiences will come to bear in your work in the county?

As Senior Project Manager for the Trust for Public Land in Portland for seven years, where I worked before the Port of Portland, I was able to use my skill sets to do something positive for people. We established a

nature conservancy, we raised money for timber preservation, and we won a coveted honor—the Collins Award for Conservation.

My career reflects an unusual hybrid in that that I’ve spent the majority of it in the for-profit private sector, but also several years in nonprofit, and now several in government. I understand the strengths of each one and how to bring those benefits forward.

Name some highlights in Portland under your watch.

Probably the biggest one that people here can relate to was a huge project at PDX (Portland’s international airport), when I was Director of Business Development in 2015. Also, we formed a team for industrial development, both domestic and international, and sold $60 million worth of industrial property that included two large Amazon facilities.

What’s the team look like here?

I report to Executive Director Rob Fix. Right now, there’s one person on my team, but we’ll hire two more pretty soon for a team of four.

Although you work for the Port, part of your salary is paid by the City, County, and State. Will you be squeezed by cross-purposes, politically?

Not at all. The way you deal with politically hot issues is to find middle ground, rather than taking an adversarial position.

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What are your top priorities out of the gate?

Retain, expand, grow. Keep what we have, and expand into areas around them. I’m all about deliverables and making positive changes, not just generating more reports.

Do you see an immediate need?

More high tech. Everybody wants those companies. And affordable housing. The cost of living here is high. Great quality of life, yes, but that’s not what keeps people here. Drive the economy, and they will stay.

The news release announcing you reveals that you’re aware of the Bellingham Waterfront District redevelopment. Any thoughts?

The Port has done a great job with partnerships on that project, working with the City.

Harcourt, the developer, has a positive economical process. We can really take some big steps forward. I said in the press release that this revitalization is a critical part of the regional economy as a major stimulator for growth throughout the county. And we can all push together to have it happen faster.

In a nutshell, what’s your vision for your new undertaking?

Programmatic action. Deepen the learning, forward the action.

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PULSE

HOURS AFTER BEVERAGES / CLOTHING /

BOOKS + MORE

Something For Everyone!

PINK MARTINI / APRIL 22 / MT. BAKER THEATER

It’s near impossible to find a musical group that resonates with almost everyone. But Pink Martini with China Forbes, the featured performers at the Mount Baker Theatre at 7pm on Sunday, April 22, comes about as close to filling that bill as possible.

Portland, Oregon, native Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics back in 1994 and went to every fundraiser under the sun but always was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, and un-neighborly. Drawing inspiration from music worldwide—and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike—he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini “to provide more beautiful and inclusive music for fundraisers for causes ranging from civil rights, affordable housing, and the environment to libraries, public broadcasting, and parks.”

In 1995, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. And they began to write together. Their first song, Sympathique, released in 1997, became an overnight sensation in France and was nominated for Song of the Year in France’s Victories de la Musique Awards. Said Lauderdale: “We’re very

much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America.”

Featuring a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America.

The group made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998. Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco, Cleveland and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

The band’s latest (and ninth) studio-album, Je dis oui, features 15 tracks spanning eight languages and affirming its 23-year history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit. Convinced yet that you don’t want to miss this world-renowned little orchestra with the big eclectic sound? If so, tickets are available now at mountbakertheatre.com.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 69

PULSE picks AFTER HOURS

Close Encounters of the Wine Kind

The third time is guaranteed to be a charm! We’re speaking, of course, about the 3rd annual Northwest Wine Encounter at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center. You have a little time before the event on June 1-3 this year, but if past experience holds true, the tickets will go fast.

Northwest Wine Encounter co-founders and organizers Suresh Rao of DS Vintners and Eric Degerman of Great Northwest Wine again have put together a pleasure-packed schedule of wine-related activities, seminars, and events—beginning with a winemaker reception on Friday and highlighted by a delicious dinner on Saturday, featuring Pacific Northwest wines, paired with expertly crafted cuisine.

Rao urged anyone interested in tasting some of the Pacific Northwest’s most famous wines and learning more about them to circle the first weekend in June on their calendars. Displaying their wares this year will be Pepper Bridge Winery, Spring Valley Vineyard, and Dunham Cellars, all of Walla Walla; Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyard of Roseburg, Oregon, and Telaya Wine Co. of Garden City, Idaho.

70 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

The three-day Encounter also will provide educational opportunities, with seminars led by Pacific Northwest winemakers.

One, led by Pepper Bridge Winery founder and former Washington Wine Commission Chair Norm McKibben, invites guests to taste the subtle differences among wines from one of Walla Walla’s most iconic vineyards—celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Pepper Bridge was one of only three wineries in the Walla Walla Valley when McKibben launched it in 1998, and that total has, in his words, “exploded to more than 140 today.”

And you’ll want to be sure to attend the Wine Speed Dating seminar, where guests get the opportunity to spend a few minutes one-on-one with each winemaker. Joining McKibben will be Serge Laville of Spring Valley Vineyard, David Blair of Dunham Cellars, Carrie and Earl Sullivan of Telaya Wine Co., and Stephen Reustle of Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards.

Packages for the Encounter begin at $399 per person and include a two-night stay at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center. For reservations or more information, visit the Conference Center website or call 360.671.1011.

www.thegatewaycentre.com 1313 E. Maple Street, Bellingham, WA 98225

360.685.4202

looks PULSE AFTER HOURS

Worth a Second Look

Get paid to keep updated & classic pieces in your closet! Your local consignment shops not only carry the latest fashion and designer brands for women and men at 80% off retail, they will give you cash for yours! Now that’s business savvy!

Plaid button-down $8 (Foxxy Brown’s) Plaid suit $45 (Foxxy Brown’s)

Faranzi wingtip boots $35 (Buffalo Exchange)

Faranzi dress shoes $34 (Buffalo Exchange) Chainmail necklace $12 (Buffalo Exchange) Grey vest $7 (Foxxy Brown’s)

Beaded silk tank $28 (Serendipity)

Grey button-down $8 (Foxxy Brown’s)

Plaid Brooks Brothers dress pants $11 (Foxxy Brown’s)

J.Crew cardigan $28 (Serendipity)

Coated skinny jeans $30 (Labels)

Photographer: Tiffany Brooks | Stylist: Maggie Stafford

72 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

J.Crew floral necklace $48 (Serendipity)

Orange Biker Sweater $32 (Serendipity)

Joie Silk tank $32 (Serendipity)

Jimmy Choo Boots $200 (The Clothes Rack)

Silk Wrap pants $46 (Serendipity)

Paul Green Silver Sandals $58 (Serendipity)

Pearl Necklace $8 (Buffalo Exchange) Kate Spade bag $53 (Labels) pearl earrings $7 (Buffalo Exchange)

Worthington Leather & Wool gloves: $5 (Labels)

Suede Heels $26 (Serendipity)

Special thanks

to the following Whatcom County consignment boutiques for lending us a versatile and timeless selection of business looks for Spring: Buffalo Exchange 1209 N. State St., Bellingham The Clothes Rack 1905 James St., Bellingham Foxxy Brown’s 1885 Front St., Lynden Labels 2332 James St. & 3927 Northwest Ave., Bellingham Serendipity 1201 11th St., Fairhaven

Tory Burch Silk Dress $25 (The Clothes Rack)

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 73

Photos by Tiffany Brooks

PULSE sherry? YEAH, SHERRY! AFTER HOURS

Del Principe Amontillado 100% Palomino Fino D.O. xeres-jerez-sherry

Micaela Manzanilla 100% palomino fino D.O. SANLUCAR DE BARRAMEDA, xeresjerez-sherry

Real Tesoro 100% Pedro Ximenez D.O. xeres-jerez-sherry

$29.99

$12.99

$21.99

Amontillados are aged by both “biological aging” and “oxidative aging.” Del Principe is aged in total for over 17 years. It has a beautiful amber color and rich aromas of hazelnut and yeasts that are very complex.

The particular conditions of the nearby Atlantic Ocean and Guadalquivir River make this wine unique. It is very dry, golden colored and has aromas of nuts, salt, chamomile , minerals, and olive leaf.

Exclusively aged using the “oxidative ageing method,” this PX has a mahogany color and shows raisins, figs, and nuts in a very elegant nose. Very rich and velvety, it makes the perfect after-meal glass.

All sherries available at Seifert & Jones • 19 Prospect St., Bellingham. 360.393.3271 74 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

By Kristine McKay I was surprised that Basilio Rodríguez Grueso of Casa Ventura Imports was delighted that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (winner of two Golden Globe awards) had several scenes involving Spanish Sherry consumption.

The shots­—definitely not delicate sips—were downed by Midge Maisel and her mother after Midge’s husband leaves her for his secretary in 1958 New York. The scene perfectly depicted my image of Sherry as a beverage associated with outdated standards. Grueso, however, quickly helped me understand that Sherry, like Midge, has a storied past, is complex, interesting, possesses modern sensibilities, and is an A-list addition to any gathering.

Sherry, one of the oldest forms of wine, is produced from grapes in Spain’s “sherry triangle,” an area of approximately 75 square miles.

Historically coveted for its taste, Sherry once served as the primary export between Spain and the rest of Europe. Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry the VIII of England (and arguably, the first celebrity divorcee), is said to have complained that Henry kept all the good Sherry for himself. Initially, Sherry was fortified­—meaning a distilled spirit was added— to safely stabilize for transportation. These fortification techniques improved and aging was introduced to the process, enhancing the wine’s flavor and creating the different types enjoyed today.

Sherry falls into two categories, light and dry varieties, which are aged under a living layer of yeast called the “flor.” The light varieties—Fino, Manzanilla, and Amontillado— make up the bulk of the Sherry production.

They are best consumed within a few days of opening and served slightly cooler than room temperature.

Aged Sherries, such as Oloroso, can last weeks to months if stored in the refrigerator or wine cellar. They tend to have robust flavoring and may contain up to 450 grams of residual sugar per liter, so they are definitely sweeter.

Grueso doesn’t believe the type of glass will impact taste, but to enjoy the true experience use a Sherry glass. He noted that the lighter Sherries are a perfect aperitif. in Spain, Manzanilla is enjoyed during the day, primarily as a prelude to the mid-day meal. The dry varieties are superb with food. A Sherry Cream, or blend, is refreshing on the rocks with a slice of orange.

An aged Sherry is best sipped with desert.

As for me, I plan on enjoying the occasional glass while waiting for Midge to return to the Upper West Side.

For more information on Sherry, visit Sherry.

Wine.com.

Thursdays only!

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 75

reads PULSE AFTER HOURS The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Daniel Coyle The New York Times best-selling author of The Talent Code unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture. Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? For those answers, Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs.

Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust,

and drive positive change. He unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture.

He combines leading-edge science, on-theground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action. The Culture Code puts the power in your hand, no matter the size of your group or your goal.

(January 30, 2018, Bantam) Hardcover from $19.00: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Village Books.

Grit—The Power of Passion and Perseverance Angela Duckworth Pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed—be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” According to Janelle Bruland, a Whatcom Business Alliance Board Member and President/ CEO of MSNW, Grit is “a powerful tool for personal and professional success.” (Ms. Bruland’s full review can be accessed on our website at businesspulse.com.

With insights from her landmark research, Angela explains why talent is hardly

a guarantor of success. And that grit—a combination of passion and perseverance toward a single goal—is the hallmark of high achievers in every domain. Her research involved teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee, as well and lessons learned from dozens of high achievers—including Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.

(May 3, 2016 Scribner) Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Village Books.

Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals

Michael Hyatt We all want to live a life that matters. We all want to reach our full potential. But too often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the day-to-day. Our big goals get pushed to the back burner—and then, more often than not, they get forgotten. New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt wants readers to know that it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, he thinks that this is the year readers can finally close the gap between reality and their dreams.

In Your Best Year Ever, Hyatt shares a powerful, proven, research-driven system for setting and achieving goals. Readers learn how 76 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM MARCH/APRIL 2018

to design their best year ever in just five hours including three simple ways to triple the likelihood of achieving their goals, how to quitproof their goals, what to do when they feel stuck, and much more.

Anyone who is tired of not seeing progress in their personal, intellectual, business, relationship, or financial goals will treasure the field-tested wisdom found in these pages.

(January 2, 2018, Baker Books) Hardcover from $14.99: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Village Books.

MARCH/APRIL 2018 BUSINESSPULSE.COM | 77

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