Past Speaker

As Director of Food Programs at Hopelink, Amanda Lopez-Castanon is responsible for food distribution in 5 free food markets and 1 Mobile truck. Amanda's job involves leading a team of 18 people to help clients in need receive over 5 million lbs of food in 2023. Amanda has helped [...]

Brent Beardall is Vice-Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of WaFd Bank, a Washington state chartered commercial bank headquartered in Seattle, Washington (NASDAQ: WAFD). WaFd Bank is the largest bank headquartered in Washington State with over $22 billion in assets and 200 offices located in eight western states. In [...]

Kate moved to Bellevue in 2010 to accept a full-time, tenure track professorship in Art History at Bellevue College, whereupon she taught for eleven years. During her time at Bellevue College she developed the online Art History curriculum, organized exhibits for the Gallery Space and acted as Department Chair, [...]

Mo Malakoutian was elected to the City Council in November 2023, for a four-year term starting in 2024. At his first meeting, his colleagues elected him deputy mayor for 2024 and 2025. The council member served one and a half terms on the Planning Commission, from 2018 until he [...]

Juniper Capital President, Kurt Ursich, brings extensive experience and expertise to Juniper Capital Corp. As an account executive at a local private lender for 13 years and a minority shareholder for three, Kurt was an integral part of his team, funding more than $600,000,000 in loans. Prior to his [...]

Hamdi Mohamed was elected to the Port of Seattle Commission in November 2021. She made history as the first Somali woman elected to public office in Washington State, and the first Black woman elected to the Port of Seattle Commission. She currently serves as the first Black Commission President [...]

Jack Timmons has quite the LinkedIn profile, an eclectic resume that includes stints with Boeing, Paccar and nearly two decades in the Microsoft fold. In 2012, his passion for meats cooked low-and-slow led him to the Texas A & M’s Meat Science department’s summer barbecue camp. That immersive experience [...]

Warren Barkley joined Google in 2021 as the Senior Director leading the AI/ML platform teams. Prior to Google, Warren had a series of executive roles managing AI/ML product groups at Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. For 5 years Warren was the CTO for SMART Technologies, a public company that [...]

Anna Skibska studied at the Academy of Art in Wroclaw, Poland, in the Department of Painting. Diploma awarded in 1984. Polish Minister of Culture and Art Award in the presentation of Art Academy’s Best Diplomas at the exhibition, Diploma ‘84, Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland. From 1985 to1996 Anna [...]