Seattle's Most Influential People

Pick-up Man
Chris Martin, founder and president, CleanScapes
Bio: Martin, 41, was born in New York City and attended Vassar College before moving west. A former marketing consultant, he now lives in Madrona with his wife and two children, and is an avid recreational rower. 

Why he’s on the list: After moving to Pioneer Square in 1995, Martin became disgusted by the neighborhood’s dumpster-filled alleys, which often hosted drug users, rats and festering piles of trash. In 1997, he began a grassroots, street-level effort to clean up the mess and ended up founding CleanScapes, a garbage, recycling and composting service that promotes dumpster-free refuse removal. Since then, he has single-handedly inspired residential and corporate consumers to drastically rethink their trash-shucking habits. “No one plans on going into the garbage business. I literally just fell into it,” Martin says. “I lived in Pioneer Square, above an alley that was, in many ways, its own little garbage dump. It just seemed like there had to be a better way.” In 2007, Martin led CleanScapes to new heights—the company landed half of the city of Seattle’s refuse removal contracts, beginning in April 2009. CleanScapes is also the sole provider of garbage, recycling and composting services for the entire city of Shoreline. In addition, Martin expanded CleanScapes’ operations to portions of Portland and San Francisco.

Most ironic trash discovery: “I’ve found handbooks on sustainability. Big, paper documents that should have been recycled instead of put in the garbage.”
What’s in his garbage can: “Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream containers. Plus whatever my kids put in there. That and a lot of dog poop.” 
Biggest influence: Huey Long, the populist governor of Louisiana from 1928 through 1932. Long pushed for radical social reforms, ran against FDR in the 1932 Democratic primary and was assassinated in 1935 inside the Louisiana Capitol. “He led a colorful life,” Martin says. “I just like the guy.” Nick Horton

ACTIVIST
The Last Crusader
Booth Gardner, former Washington state governor and right-to-die advocate
Bio: Gardner, 72, a University of Washington grad, Weyerhaeuser heir and lifelong Democrat, was a two-term governor (1985–1993) in Washington state and U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland (1994).

Why he’s on the list: Diagnosed in 1995 with Parkinson’s disease, Gardner spearheaded and is a leading donor to the “Death with Dignity” initiative on this November’s ballot. “I’ve always liked to be in control of my own destiny,” he says. “I can’t take my own life in this state. And so I decided I would put together a state-of-the-art piece of legislation.” Modeled on Oregon’s 1998 law (the only state permitting physician-assisted suicide, also called aid-in-dying), Initiative 1000 would “allow mentally competent, terminally ill adult residents of Washington state diagnosed with six months or less to live the legal choice to obtain and self-administer life-ending medication.” The initiative faces a determined opposition, primarily from the Catholic Church, and critics have accused Gardner both of self-serving motives and of “playing God,” as his son charged in a 2007 New York Times Magazine cover story. Still, though he thinks it will be a close vote, Gardner is confident that his final campaign will be a winning one.

Next up: Gardner’s views on the issue will live on in his pull-no-punches memoir, The Final Say: My Campaign for Death with Dignity (Documentary Media, 2008). Shannon O’Leary
 

NETWORKING 2.0
The Connectors
Lara Eve Feltin and Dan McComb, cofounders of Biznik.com
Bio: This husband-and-wife team, who met in 2002 and married in 2005, were both self-employed; she as a fine-art portrait photographer, and he as a Web and database developer. 

Why they’re on the list: Seattle-based Biznik, founded in 2005, has revolutionized the local business online networking scene with an approach Feltin and McComb have dubbed “Business networking that doesn’t suck.” Their Web site combines live networking and educational events with comprehensive online networking, allowing small-business people to find support among like-minded entrepreneurs as well as to find new clients. They expect their 15,000 members—most in the Northwest—to double by year’s end. A primary goal for Biznik, says McComb, is fostering information sharing (rather than the competitive environment endemic to many business groups). 

What’s new: To grow the company, Biznik is sponsoring volunteer “ambassadors” in other cities, giving them free upgraded profiles in exchange for hosting events. Unlike existing online social networks, McComb says, “Events are the lifeblood of this company.” 

Why being partners in love and business works: The couple says their relationship is one of Biznik’s greatest strengths. McComb is the idea guy who focuses on the development and tech sides of the business, while Feltin orchestrates events and manages the business. And being around each other 24/7 pays off. They say that many an idea is hatched at 2 a.m. Lilium Pierson

ADVERTISING
Mad Men
Cal McAllister and Ian Cohen, headmasters (owners) of Wexley School for Girls
Bio: McAllister, 38, and Cohen, 41—both mid-’90s transplants to Seattle—worked together at Seattle-based advertising firm Hammerquist and Saffel before, as McAllister tells it, “Ian stranded me and went to work for Wieden and Kennedy,” Nike’s supremely influential advertising firm. McAllister went on to work for WongDoody and Publicis until 2003, when Cohen returned to Seattle and the two started Wexley. 

Why they’re on the list: The company moniker offers some clues about this irreverent advertising firm that has made a name for itself through multiple touchpoint branding and seriously silly viral marketing campaigns. Its recent move to Belltown has received all sorts of press: McAllister and Cohen staged a faux Chinese restaurant in the front, and ripped a hole in the back so they could bring in a full-size camper. “Why would you be in this business,” Cohen asks, “if you are not going to have fun with it?” Despite this, both McAllister and Cohen repeatedly say the same thing: “We are funny, but we are not a joke.” They’re not. Companies such as Microsoft, Washington Mutual, Pepsi and ESPN contract with Wexley to help them find a market space, often through guerrilla marketing techniques. They built a two-story Being John Malkovich–style Dwyane Wade head for T-Mobile, where people could go inside and see how the basketball star’s mind works. Cohen spent the summer visiting cities in a van outfitted with a giant projector and amplification system, which was designed to turn downtown areas into giant outdoor karaoke parties. They attribute their success partly to YouTube, which took off about the same time the firm opened.

Biggest influence: Both list their wives. Cheesy, they know. But if they were going to start a new oddball ad agency that refers to itself as a “school for girls”—and expect to support a family doing it—they knew they’d have to have at least two key people in their corner. Steve Hansen

NEW MEDIA
News Agent
Tracy Record, editor and co-publisher, west seattle blog
Bio: A West Seattle resident since 1991, Record, 49, is a former executive producer of new media at KOMO and assistant news director at KCPQ-TV. She started work on the West Seattle Blog (westseattleblog.com) while still 
at Channel 13 and quickly learned it would be a full-time job. Her co-publisher and spouse, Patrick Sand, is the chief salesman. 

Why she’s on the list: In the year of the neighborhood blog, with many newspapers in dire financial straits, the West Seattle Blog, started in 2005, is bucking the trend—reaching financial sustainability this year, and inspiring similar models around the city (including the Rainer Valley Post and MyBallard). 

Record’s formula is steeped in her news roots: Whereas many neighborhood blogs devolve into little more than neighborhood chitchat, WSB plays the editorial content right down the middle. News reports are written or reviewed by Record, and she updates the site with breaking news, day or night. The windstorm of December 2006 helped put the blog on the radar of many locals. Record posted usable, up-to-the-minute information on how the windstorm affected her neighborhood (aided by serendipity, as she had the week off from KCPQ). Page views increased. And ever since, WSB had a dedicated audience. “We can’t take a day off or those people will go somewhere else,” she says.

Biggest influence: Debbie Galant, who started Baristanet in 2004, a New Jersey–based “hyperlocal” news site, published in blog format, that, Record believes, serves as a model for what she and others can do.Steve Hansen

SCIENCE
Bionic Woman 
Yoky Matsuoka, Ph.D., director, University of Washington Neurobotics Laboratory
Bio: The 37-year-old native of Japan earned her master’s degree and doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An associate professor in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, she came to the United States at age 15 and to Seattle in 2006. Her fields of expertise include robotics, neuroscience, electrical engineering and computer science.

Why she’s on the list: In September 2007, she received the prestigious MacArthur “genius grant,” a $500,000, no-strings-attached award for—among other things—her research combining neuroscience and robotics to create more realistic prosthetics that respond to brain signals. Her research is hailed as a tour de force in the emerging field of neurobotics, and she hopes it will soon lead to building assistive devices and rehabilitative tools to help the disabled. Of the grant, she says: “It’s one of the best awards you can get. It’s certainly not about the money…the recognition allows me to think of different steps to take in the future.…”

Next up: “I’m interested in starting a company which might actually help people now.” Additionally, Matsuoka would like to see fewer barriers when combining fields like engineering and medicine. “Lots of applications and things that can really change the world live between fields, and the current educational structure makes it difficult to become an interdisciplinary person.” Elizabeth M. Economou

ARTS
Co-conspirators
Artists John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler of sutton/beres/culler
Bio: The Seattle-based, 30-something trio of John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler started collaborating in 1998 during a sculpture class at Cornish College for the Arts, when Sutton had a big idea—a drive-through art gallery (yes, literally)—and asked Beres and Culler to help him make it work. They’ve worked together ever since. 

Why they’re on the list: Sutton/Beres/Culler first gained attention in 2005, when they “stranded” themselves on a cartoonish, handcrafted desert island anchored in Lake Washington in full view of the 520 bridge. The artful message-in-a-bottle was this: Snap out of your routine and see your surroundings in a new way. Their work continues to challenge viewers and often hinges on audience participation, as evidenced by their current projects. Just completed is a permanent installation, embedded in a city sidewalk at a Central District bus stop, commissioned by the Seattle Department of Transportation (another is likely to come in Magnolia). In the works for early spring is an underground sculpture—a neon double helix, twisting down beneath a cast-glass manhole cover—at the Westlake terminus of the Seattle Streetcar. Finally, thanks to a hefty grant from the NYC-based Creative Capital, they are hard at work on “Mini-Mart City Park,” a project that takes “going green” seriously. The group is transforming an old gas station/convenience store in Georgetown into a sort of park-in-a-box. When finished (in late spring), the burst-open, reconfigured structure will overflow with living greenery—dirt floor, trees, grass—and have an indoor waterfall, path and bench for the public to enjoy. 

Next up: They hope to expand their Mini-Mart City Park concept as an “eco-franchise,” establishing them in other cities. 
Biggest influence: All three credit Cornish professor (and renowned sculptural artist) Cris Bruch for instilling in them the motivation and work ethic to make art. “Whenever we were feeling disgruntled with classes,” Sutton recalls, “Bruch would say, ‘School doesn’t matter, just work.’” Brangien Davis

URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Groundbreaker
Liz Dunn, developer of the city’s best-looking, best-functioning urban neighborhood
Bio: Dunn, 44, grew up on a Toronto-area farm, and was a software engineer at Microsoft before founding her development company, Dunn & Hobbes, in 1997. 

Why she’s on the list: Her series of hip, integrated developments, and strong voice on the Pike-Pine Urban Neighborhood Council, is establishing the Pike-Pine corridor as a benchmark of smart urban neighborhood growth. Dunn earned her building bona fides with the award-winning 1310 East Union Street Lofts, completed in 2001, but the jewel in her Capitol Hill development crown is an ambitious campaign of new mixed-used projects, such as the Piston & Ring building, and rehabbed retail, such as Retrofit Home, taking shape along and between 11th and 12th avenues in the Pike-Pine corridor. It’s a block-by-block testament to Dunn’s vision of sustainable growth: old and new architecture housing diverse residences and indie retail catering to daytime and nighttime uses. Opening in 2009, Dunn’s Melrose Triangle project will transform two historic automotive buildings, between Pike and Pine streets, into 20,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, bar, gallery and office space. 

Biggest influence: Bill Gates and Microsoft. “Bill pushed us really hard and he pushed himself really hard…I have a bunch of influences in my life, and that was definitely one that made me brave, or foolish, or whatever the word is for not overthinking things and for just jumping in and deciding that if you work hard and you’re smart about it, everything will turn out OK. So far, so good.” Shannon O’Leary

GOVERNMENT
The Public Watchdog
Brian Sonntag: Washington State Auditor 
Bio: A lifelong Tacoma resident with five sons, Sonntag was elected Pierce County Clerk in 1978 at age 26 and then served as Pierce County auditor from 1986 to 1992. He’s a former power lifter, baseball player and rock drummer. 

Why he’s on the list: The fearless Sonntag, whose office audits the books of 2,700 “units of government” (from elementary schools to the Department of Transportation), has been busting the chops of state agencies since being elected Washington State Auditor in 1992. (The office of state auditor has risen in public prominence since the passage of Initiative 900 in 2005, which requires performance audits of state agencies as a means of ensuring government accountability and responsible spending.) In 2007, his office published scathing performance audits of the Washington State Department of Transportation—including its administrative division, its highway maintenance and construction practices, and the Washington State Ferries. And in December, he issued a jaw-dropping audit of the Port of Seattle that uncovered shady bid processes and possible fraud. The outcome has yet to be determined, but with Sonntag continuing his efforts, cronyism had better move to another state. “We’re not a government finance shop—we’re the people’s representatives,” says Sonntag.

His philosophy: “It’s not about us just finding things that have been done wrong. It’s about us helping agencies improve their performance,” says Sonntag.
Biggest influence: His father, Jack, who served as Pierce County auditor from 1948 until 1969, setting a fine example for a son who would go on to even greater success. Nick Horton

TRANSPORTATION
Phantom of the Toll
Aubrey Davis, senior statesman and transportation guru
Bio: Davis, 91, the elder statesman of Seattle’s transportation advocacy community, has held a staggering array of positions throughout his prolific 42-year career in public service including: chair of the Washington State Transportation Commission; chair of King County’s Metro Transit Committee; Regional Administrator for Public Transit, mayor of Mercer Island; and CEO of Group Health Cooperative.

Why he’s on the list: Davis is a leading advocate of two current controversial transportation fixes: light rail and road tolling. In 2007, Davis served as chair of the Puget Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC) Tolling Price Task Force, leading the agency’s efforts to study the feasibility of regionwide tolling. Davis was also a champion of the Washington State Department of Transportation’s recently unveiled HOT lanes toll project on Highway 167. “The gas tax is a declining asset,” he says, citing the reduction in gasoline consumption that has resulted from escalating oil prices. “So we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to toll in this region.” The region’s greatest hope, he says, is light rail. “We’ve been working on this for 40 years,” Davis says, “and [the November 2008 transit ballot] was just sweetened up. I don’t know how it’s going to come out. We Seattleites have real trouble with our infrastructure because we set up systems to make things impossible to get done quickly. It’s because of us that we can’t get things done.” Biggest influence: Jim Ellis, founder of Metro and longtime mass-transit advocate. “He taught me that you have a choice: You can either take credit for something, or go about making things happen.” Nick Horton

FUNDRAISING
The Rainmaker
Connie H. Kravas, Ph.D., president of the University of Washington Foundation and vice president for University Advancement since 2001
Bio: A Portland native, 62-year-old Kravas earned her doctorate from Washington State University, where she spent almost three decades as president of that university’s foundation. 

Why she’s on the list: With a larger-than-life personality on her side, Kravas stood at the helm of the University of Washington’s largest-ever fund-raising campaign, Campaign UW: Creating Futures, alongside chairman William H. Gates Sr. and a huge cadre of fundraisers and volunteers. Under her leadership, they surpassed the original $2 billion goal—and a revised $2.5 billion goal—five months early. When the campaign closed on June 30, a whopping $2.68 billion had been raised (benefiting new student and faculty endowments, and new buildings) due in large part to Kravas’ dynamic leadership and transparent approach to fundraising. “We were donor-centric, donor respectful, and we tried to make insiders out of outsiders.… Donors feel fantastic at the moment they make a gift because it may be the most selfless thing they ever do.” 

Next up: Kravas is looking at ways the University of Washington can make positive changes in the world, whether it’s the environment, global health or making a difference in K-12 education. “We [she and her colleagues] can hardly wait to work with the institution’s leadership to chart that new path.” 
Biggest influence: Kravas names her family, including her husband and children, and Bill Gates Sr. “Who would’ve ever thought,” ponders the WSU grad, “that coming to the UW, I’d have such a truly fabulous friend?” 
Elizabeth M. Economou

ARTS ADVOCATE
School of Arts 
Deborah Semer, education chair and vice chair, Seattle Arts Commission
Bio: Semer majored in theater in college, and played the clarinet, piano and drums. A Northwest native (she was raised in Puyallup), she is owner of Atmosphere Artist Management & Consulting LLC—a Seattle-based company that represents musicians, fine artists, music businesses and not-for-profit organizations. 

Why she’s on the list: Since 2003, Semer has spearheaded the Arts Education Partnership Initiative between the City of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools to establish quality arts education in all schools. Her dogged arts advocacy produced systemic changes and milestone appointments in the school district, including three full-time arts leadership positions: a districtwide visual and performing arts manager; a music specialist, which the district hasn’t had for more than 30 years; and a community arts liaison, the only position of its kind in the nation. “This means that there are people at the top level working to help the teachers,” says Semer. “It means that if you want to donate an instrument, there is someone to take it, account for it and get it to the school that needs it. It means that the arts not-for-profit organizations now have a central hub for utilizing their wealth of resources to create helpful partnerships.”

Ultimate goal: Quality arts education for all Seattle public schoolchildren and having the arts gain parity with core academic subjects. “Art saves lives, and is necessary for the heart and soul of our society,” says Semer. Elizabeth M. Economou

Edited by Virginia Smyth; research by Shannon O’leary

Our Most Influential Panel: Our thanks go to these individuals who joined Seattle magazine staff on our 2008 selection panel: Knute Berger, Seattle magazine editor-at-large and Crosscut columnist; Bonnie Beukema, deputy director, League of Education Voters; Dana Bos, cofounder, Three Imaginary Girls; C.R. Douglas, host, City Inside/Out, Seattle Channel; Jean Godden, Seattle City Council member; Nancy Guppy, host, Art Zone In Studio, Seattle Channel; Wier Harman, executive director, Town Hall; Denis Hayes, president, the Bullitt Foundation; Pramila Jayapal, executive director, Hate Free Zone; James Keblas, director, Mayor’s Office of Music + Film; Ed Lazowska, Bill and Melinda Gates chair in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington; Lawrence R. Robinson, M.D., vice dean for Clinical Affairs, Health Sciences Center, University of Washington; and Peter Steinbrueck, FAIA and principal, Steinbrueck Urban Strategies.