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Whatcom Business Alliance
Member News
Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity
Buildings come, buildings go PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center revealed recently that an old friend of a building, 809 E. Chestnut, the South Campus of PeaceHealth – which used to be the St. Luke’s General Hospital will be vacated for the most part by the end of this year, and eventually demolished in 2015. Meanwhile, Logos Bible Software remodeled and then moved into its fourth downtown building in January, expanding by another 20,000 square feet at 1323 Commercial Street. Logos’ President/CEO Bob Pritchett reported that the company reached 360 in employees by the end of 2013, and had 70 openings posted. Logos also has a building with 18 employees in Tempe, Ariz. A survey on GlassDoor.com shows Logos among the Top 10 in the nation among best places to work based on comments posted by employees. “It’s determined by the people who work for us,” Pritchett said, “and not by the people who give the award.”
LOGOS ALSO EXPANDING INTO SEMINARY EDUCATION Pritchett, who sits on the WBA board, described Logos’ ambitious new project that rolled out in January that places it in the theological education sector. Utilizing doctoral scholars of religion worldwide, Logos created video lectures and curricula that students of Christian theology can enroll in through the Internet. “We aren’t certified yet (for 100 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
conferring a degree),” Pritchett said. “But some seminaries and universities plan to offer our classes, using a resident professor to oversee the studies.”
LARSON GROSS Add PARTNERS CPAs Josh Turrell and Kelli Visser accepted partner positions effective Jan. 1 aboard the ownership team at Larson Gross PLLC. Turrell joined the firm in 2005 after spending four years with a public accounting firm in Tacoma. A graduate of St. Martin’s University, he specializes in both Audit & Attest services. Visser has been with Larson Gross since 2008 following eight years at another Bellingham firm. Her experience mostly lies in complex tax compliance and consulting, with a specialization in the manufacturing, agriculture, and food processing industries. She has a B.A. in accounting from Western Washington University, and a Master in Taxation from Golden Gate University. With more than 70 staff and with offices in Bellingham, Lynden, and Burlington, Larson Gross is the largest locally-owned public accounting firm north of Seattle.
SOFTWARE COMPANY SAILS INTO SQUALICUM HARBOR Bellingham Bay Software recently became the Marina Building’s newest tenant on the Bellingham Waterfront. The company develops customized software solutions for industries worldwide.
For the last 28 years company President David LeBow has managed software projects in Switzerland for telecommunications, engineering, banking, and transportation sectors for Cablecom, Siemens, Swisscom, QualiCasa, Swissair, and the Swiss Foreign Ministry, among many. Recently he added Theodor Wille Intertrade (TWI), an expeditionary supply chain company operating in Europe, the U.S., Asia and the Middle East. At TWI LeBow developed expertise in the QlikView Business Intelligence (BI) platform that combats what is known as the “data monster”—time lost from searching for company data. “A good BI implementation saves time and money. Demolishing information silos lets you visualize data across multiple applications.” LeBow said.
MILLS ELECTRIC EARNS OIL CONTRACTS Mills Electric of Bellingham recently signed three large contracts for building and general maintenance at the three major oil refineries in the region – Tosoro in Anacortes, and Phillips 66 Ferndale and BP Cherry Point. Mills is featured in this edition (pages 26-30) as an example of the huge multiplier effect of jobs created as a result of heavy industry at Cherry Point. Owner John Huntley is on the board of directors of the WBA.
VSH ADDS MARY TAYLOR VSH CPAs announce the hiring of accountant Mary Taylor, a certified CPA more than five years in