Good afternoon, Seattle
Metro Chamber members and partners. Hi.
My name is Susan Loosmore,
I'm the executive vice president and strategic advisor for T-Mobile.
And your outgoing board chair.
Our theme today is Evergreen Roots, Global Reach.
And I'm excited today to kick off the program
by interviewing one of our longtime historical members.
This particular member literally has deep roots
that has allowed them to grow globally.
Anyone want to take a guess?
Well, I'm here, with Marie Catherine
McAleer, Washington State
manager for Weyerhaeuser.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mary Catherine for being here today.
We have two questions for you.
First question
one, what year was where warehouses founded here in the state of Washington.
And two.
Tell us a little bit about the fact that you are now headquartered in Seattle,
and how has this helped foster your global reach and impact?
- Thank you for inviting us to share our story today.
So warehouse A is celebrating our 125th year anniversary
after being founded here in Washington in 1900.
The company's origins are rooted
in the pioneering spirit of early 20th century America.
When Frederick Weyerhaeuser, a German immigrant,
an accomplished lumber man, saw the vast potential in the forest.
The Pacific Northwest,
With the purchase of 900,000 acres of timberland in Washington
from the Northern Pacific Railway land in southwestern Washington.
We still own Weyerheauser
Legacy began
being headquartered in Washington state, has played
an instrumental role in shaping Weyerhaeusers global reach and impact.
With its strategic location on the Pacific Rim, offering direct access
to international markets, particularly across Asia.
The state has historically been a critical region
for the export of American timber forest products.
The region's ports, infrastructure, and forward thinking business climate
have facilitated efficient operations and open doors for global partnerships.
Ensuring Weyerhaeuser is competitive in a rapidly evolving market.
The Seattle region is renowned for fostering innovation
and embracing sustainability, an ethos that very much aligns with warehouses
core values of safety, integrity,
citizenship, sustainability and inclusion.
Guided by commitment to sustainable forest management,
where warehouse has leveraged its ties to the region's leading universities
skilled workforce and robust partnerships
to pioneer responsible forestry practices.
Guided by a commitment,
the company has implemented advanced strategies for regeneration,
biodiversity protection and long term ecosystem health,
ensuring that working forests continue to provide economic value
while preserving natural habitats and the beauty of the Evergreen State.
As stated by Frederick Weyerhaeuser, this is not for us,
not for our children, but for our grandchildren.
Warehouses 1900 founding in Washington.
An amazing place to grow Douglas fir trees set its path for success.
We are proud to be a founding member of the region's business community.
Thank you.
- Try to see
since I've had a light glaring in my eye.
Hello everyone!
I have had the pleasure and the privilege to serve
as your chair of the Seattle Metro Chamber this last year,
and I'm so thrilled to be here with over 650 of you here today
to celebrate our theme, Evergreen Roots and Global Reach,
an important reminder that in order to have flourishing
businesses in our region, we must tend to our roots
and nurture the community and region that we are planted in.
I'm so proud of the work the chamber has done this last year,
and I'm delighted to pass on the gavel
to another amazing business leader,
who will continue to guide the Chamber's leadership going forward.
Teresa Hudson, Corporate vice President,
Trusted Technology Group at Microsoft, will now serve
as our new chair of the Board of Trustee for the new program year.
Teresa.
Teresa is an attorney
going on 17 years at Microsoft, where she played various leaderships,
a role that will all bode well for the chamber.
So with that, thank you.
And please join me in welcoming Tracy to the stage.
- I'm surprised Susan gave that up.
She really was excited about the gavel last year.
Thank you.
Susan, thank you for being the chair we needed.
We'll talk more about the current business climate in a bit.
During the fireside chat.
But challenging times require leaders who look ahead,
who figure out what needs to get done and who get it done.
Susan did exactly that in her role as board chair.
She worked with Change the Chamber staff to look ahead,
to think about how an organization can change.
She put in place a compensation committee.
She thought about staff retention.
She worked with the chamber staff and with Rachel on to think about succession.
And we're lucky she did, because it turns out we needed all those things.
Season has been an active chair.
She has been on several chamber trips, and she regularly engages
with chamber staff, chamber members and elected officials.
And she's been extraordinarily helpful in onboarding me
and sharing information, and in just being generally gracious and lovely.
I feel really lucky to count you as a friend, Susan.
Thank you.
I'm really excited to take on this role of chair.
You'll hear more in the conversation Brad and I will have in a bit,
but this is a challenging moment for our state and for our region.
We have a hard task ahead to reset the conversation
about how healthy business and healthy employers are
One of the core pillars of a thriving community.
I deeply believe in the role that employers and businesses
play in a region to bring stability
and opportunity and community.
And I think it's fair for people in our region to ask that we show up
as more than just businesses, but as active members of the community.
Employers in this room do that every day,
but we have work to do to reframe and reset the conversation.
I'm excited for the role the chamber can and must play
in that conversation, but we can't do it alone.
We need to do it in partnership with others around the state.
Luckily for us, we will have an extraordinary partner
at the Washington Business Roundtable in Rachel.
Thank you. To Rachel.
You bring what the region in state need, a sense of optimistic pragmatism.
You have been willing to roll up your sleeves, ask
the hard questions is always grounded in actual data.
And to get the work done.
And for where we are right now, we really need that.
I am so sad that you won't be of the chamber this year,
but I am delighted about what it means for the broader business community
in the state of Washington.
As for the future of the
chamber, we've just kicked off the process to find a new CEO.
Susan will lead the search committee and Ada Healey will co co-chair.
And I'm excited that the committee will convene
and start the process to find the chamber's new president and CEO.
I'm excited to work with Gabriella in her role as the interim CEO of the chamber.
After 15 years, she knows the chamber, she knows the members,
and she will be a great steward of the chamber.
And with that, I will say thank you.
I'm excited, and I'll hand it back to Susan.
- I have the pleasure to introduce you to Carla Marie Monica of Ardmore.
We have two questions for you today.
So, number one, why did you choose Seattle,
as the region to put your roots down?
And two.
What year did you start? Armoire. So
work in this one.
There we go. Hi.
Thank you very much. That's okay.
Armoire has been in Seattle since 2016,
and I know when the outside world looks at our city,
they don't really think of us as a fashion city.
But we know the truth.
We have one of the most iconic fashion retailers in the world
here with Nordstrom.
So that was one of the reasons.
But the heart of what armoire does is personalization.
And helping women find clothing they love and that they feel comfortable in.
And we can't do that without the data, which we can't do without the tech.
And we all know Seattle is famous for the tech,
and this is one of the rare cities where you get both.
You get the roots of fashion, the roots of tech.
So that is why we are here.
And we're excited to continue growing our roots in this community.
- Thank you.
Carla Marie, we're so glad you're here and that you chose us.
Now, switching
gears, please join me in welcoming to the stage
Rachel Smith, outgoing CEO and president
of our Seattle Metro Chamber.
- Well, good afternoon.
Welcome, and thank you all for being here today.
Members, partners, elected officials, colleagues and friends.
And thank you to our incredible board chair this past year,
Susan Lewis Moore, our incoming chair, Theresa Hudson, and vice chair.
Hey, want to show me for their leadership
and to our sponsors for making today possible?
We have so many sponsors
and you can see our proud recognition of them everywhere you look today.
Your program on the walls and right here in front of me.
But I would like to give a special thanks to our presenting
sponsor, Kaiser Permanente, and our featured sponsors, AP
Alaska Airlines Business Health Trust, encore,
JPMorgan Chase, Lyme, Northwest Health Care Response Network,
PNC Bank, Premera Blue Cross, and Seneca Group.
Thank you so much.
And to the Westin
team leadership and staff, thank you so much for hosting us today.
But most of all, thank you to the nearly 2500 amazing
members of the Seattle Metro Chamber and our chamber
staff and partners.
Okay,
before I go any further, I'll address the elephant in the room.
This will be my last annual meeting as the CEO of the chamber.
Now, I did not attend my first chamber annual meeting as the CEO,
And this certainly will not be my last.
But it will be my last one serving in this role.
Starting next month, I'll be taking over as president of the Washington Roundtable.
So still advocating on behalf of the business
community right here alongside all of you, but with my sights
set statewide and more squarely towards Olympia.
So it is definitely out of the frying pan and into the fire.
So when I was putting my speech together today
with this new news, I decided to use my time to tell a story
or to make a few observations and some just some actions
that I think our employer community can take collectively.
When we think about the Puget Sound region,
we all have a picture in our mind is skyline framed by mountains,
a neighborhood cafe, or a stadium roaring with fans.
But for me, and I suspect many of you,
it's always been more than just a snapshot.
It's a portrait of possibility, painted over decades
by people who dared to build something big.
So I wanted to tell you this story.
Some of you know that I worked for Greg Nichols,
who was Seattle's mayor from 2002 to 2009.
And whenever he was welcoming a big group to Seattle, he said this.
He said, In Seattle, we have a great history of innovation
and creativity and a history of visionary entrepreneurs.
Bill Boeing, who came to Seattle for the timber, became
obsessed with flight and started a company building airplanes.
That company would go on to build the 707, which ushered in the
just age, which helped shrink our globe.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen in the information
technology, our very own Microsoft, who created the knowledge industry
that we are in today, and how that too helped shrink our globe.
And maybe most creative of all the good folks at Starbucks
who figured out how to charge $4 for a cup of coffee,
which people will wait in line for across the globe.
He said this every single time.
And inevitably it got nods little laughter at Starbucks expense,
but always nods, rapid nods of understanding.
The audience understood the picture that it painted of economic prosperity,
good jobs, a place of opportunity
and potential where individuals could start a company
so important that it could, as Greg would say, change the world.
That was nearly 20 years ago.
But that story lives on in entrepreneurs and innovators who are here
because of the legacy of these global companies,
It's why our theme today is Evergreen Roots, Global Reach.
But today, that picture is competing with another, more challenging story,
one where headlines and the experiences of many in of our community
are about public safety, homelessness, housing affordability, broken systems.
And yes, we tell that story too, because it's true.
It's real, and we have to face it head on.
It's the story of public safety in Seattle.
I'll bet everyone in this room knows that the Seattle Police Department
lost more than 700 officers over these last few years.
And I'll bet that you've read
that there are nearly 17,000 people experiencing homelessness in King County.
And I suspect you know that we need upwards
of 300,000 new homes to keep up with population growth
at the chamber.
Our story is that we are working
tirelessly on all of these issues with your support.
And the good news is there is positive progress on each and every one.
The Seattle Police Department has brought on 122
new recruits and started the CARE department.
Thousands of people living outside have been connected with shelter
services and housing.
We've invested in new affordable housing and allowed
for more density in our neighborhoods, and I am proud that the chamber team
has worked on all of those to make them happen.
But amongst that, here's what we don't talk about enough.
How many jobs do we need in King County by 2040?
How many future jobs in Washington state will require a four year degree?
How many welders, how many electricians?
How many skilled laborers do we need?
And what are we doing about the jobs
or the employers we've lost to competitor regions?
Answers to those questions should also be front and center in our stories.
Now for an observation.
Our economic picture feels cloudy and uneven.
When the portrait of our region gets painted, whether for locals or outsiders.
It should be like a monet, maybe messier, unclear when you're up close,
but when you step back, it's clear and powerful as a picture.
But right now, it doesn't feel that way.
And our regional challenges, many emanating from Seattle,
honestly, are significant.
One of the things that I say often is that Seattle's biggest exports are good
ideas and bad ideas, and one of the things that we have been exporting to Olympia
is an agenda of policies that are either untested
or already tested here, and the experiment did not go as planned.
That is certainly true in the tax and regulatory proposal environment.
And boy, there's a lot of action on taxes right now.
Last session, Washington state passed significant new taxes on businesses.
Seattle is going to have a measure
on the ballot this year to increase the B in O locally.
King County has already passed, and Seattle will also likely pass
a new sales tax for public safety and since 2019, Seattle has passed
the payroll expense tax and increased it twice, passed a sweetened
beverage tax, a short term rental tax, and a transportation network company tax.
That is on top of rules and new proposals for business like minimum wage,
secure scheduling, building emissions performance standards, tenure protections.
And I could go on. And you may agree with all or some of these policies I do,
but it's
impossible to think that this volume of tax and policy change on economic
activity in just a few years isn't going to have an economic impact,
not to mention the big economic moves happening at the federal level.
And just as a quick aside, there's a lot of talk of Trump resistance these days.
And let me just say this the very best resistance
to anything that would seek to undermine us is a strong,
safe, sympathetic, stable and successful Seattle.
But that back to what I was saying.
You know, your chamber supports tax measures,
including the upcoming Every Child Ready levy in Seattle,
which will help young people get ready for your jobs.
But in my observations, all of this has sort of two inescapable truths.
One, our government officials
need to make the case for all this new revenue and get results.
And two, these big economic moves have not always been sufficiently vetted,
especially for the impact on affordability and job creation.
We can do it better, I know it.
So given all that, let me leave you with some action items.
Because if we want our economic picture to be that Mona
messy up close, but the clear picture when you step back,
it is up to us to put those brushstrokes back on the canvas
with your stories and data and advocacy
and optimism and relentlessness.
Take Matt Oppenheimer, a banker turned CEO
who saw firsthand the challenges immigrants faced
trying to send money home.
So he built Remitly that now serves millions of customers
in over 100 countries.
Or Fred Hutch or Uwajimaya
all embody our theme of evergreen roots and global reach.
All are what my former boss, Greg Nichols, was talking about.
So what do we need to do?
Hold our leaders accountable to clear goals, transparent measurements,
and results that we can see and feel we need our business leaders
and their people to double down on advocacy, working with elected
officials, and building relationships with community leaders.
We need to lead with solutions and be problem solvers to bring new ideas
to the table, to champion the good ideas from others
and to help turn both into real outcomes.
And I am absolutely confident we can do that.
Before I exit the stage
for the last time as CEO, I want to just say what I am so proud of.
I am so proud of what we have accomplished at the chamber.
Our solid financial picture, healthy membership growth, strong
political position, and great events and programing.
Planned for you this year. And it is all all
thanks to the amazing chamber staff team.
Please join me and a round of applause for them.
I also want to sincerely
thank the Chamber Board of Trustees, and I want to celebrate.
Gabriela Buono, interim President and CEO of the chamber.
Congratulations, G.
I know you and the team will do your thing to great
impact and great success.
Absolutely.
So in closing,
yes, the picture isn't perfect yet, but the canvas is still ours.
We have the brush in hand.
We will continue to paint the picture of a region built to last.
And your Seattle Metro chamber, your chamber
as it has for these 143 years,
will work in service and leadership to you to accomplish that.
Thank you all really so much.
- Thank you.
Rachel.
Your visionary leadership will be so missed.
All right.
We have one more interview today, and that's with a local staple PCC.
I am,
I think he needs a standing ovation.
I am joined by, Krish
Srinivasan
And he is the president and CEO of PCC.
And we have two questions for you today.
One is how long has PCC been here in Seattle?
And two, why have you worked so hard to continue to grow?
- Right.
Thanks, Susan, and thanks, Rachel.
Always fun to follow you on in any forum.
But PCC Community Markets has been in the Seattle communities
since 1954, when we began as a group of families just,
looking to find and source good food for themselves and their families.
So now, for more than seven decades, PCC has stood at this,
at this confluence of people, planet and profit.
And we do this through the unique lens that
and a unique belief that, good food
should not be a choice or a hard for choice for anybody in this community.
Thank you.
So today,
we are the largest retail food co-op in the country.
And we have 120,000 members,
in Seattle, in the greater Seattle community,
where we also have, 16 stores.
We have for, for the longest
time, focused and cared about the quality standards that go into what we carry
about caring for the community and about ensuring that we do this
in a way that, takes care of our environment as well.
So whether it's ensuring that the salmon that we eat locally,
takes good heed and care of the local orca population,
whether it's ensuring that local farmers have access to,
to food banks and other sources of food rescue that could use their food
in times of hardship for both sides through a growing for good campaign
or whether it's simply ensuring that little kids
have a piece of free fruit to pick up at our stores
until they get big enough to carry a watermelon.
That is.
We have always stood and we have always stood behind this belief that
good food matters and to do it in a way that supports our community.
Today, we opened our 16th
store, a few weeks ago in downtown Seattle.
And beyond that, we also put, all of our employees and our office
back in the downtown community, showcasing our belief that we play a part,
we all play a part in the revitalization of our city center.
And so, you know, whether it's the fact that, PCC members,
in the 80s, were instrumental in crafting what eventually became the USDA standard
or whether it's doing all these things that I talked
about in the local community around good food and access to good food.
Seattle is a place that has so much to offer, and we feel
privileged and lucky to be able to do what we do for all of you.
Thank you.
- Thank you Krish.
We are so, fortunate to have you back downtown.
Love it.
All right.
And so please join me in switching gears to welcoming to the stage
Doctor Monika Wells.
She's with Kaiser Permanente, and she is today's presenting sponsor.
- Welcome, everyone.
And it is a pleasure to see so many familiar faces in the room.
I was, telling one of my colleagues today, this is one of my favorite
events to go to.
And I have been for the last several years, so thank you for having us.
My name is Doctor Monika Wells.
I'm an internal medicine physician and the district medical director
for Seattle for Kaiser Permanente Washington.
I'm delighted to share a few words as today's
presenting sponsor, and I look forward to introducing our esteemed speakers.
So Kaiser Permanente and our predecessor organization
have been a proud member of the chamber since 1976.
So quick math.
Next year will be 50 years, and a lot has changed in almost 50 years.
And some things haven't.
As my daughter has informed me recently, Bellbottoms are back.
The chamber is such an important organization, and the challenges
of leading to this particular time only continue to increase.
As Rachel and I'm sure many others today will comment on,
now more than ever, our organizations and ourselves
need to rise to the occasion to support our communities.
I am so proud to share that in 2024, Kaiser Permanente invested
more than $110 million in our community to support access to care,
housing, mental health, food security, and education.
Yes. Our staff, including our physicians, donate
donated more than 6000 employee hours as volunteer work in 2024.
I was proud to be among them.
Working at an adult day health center, volunteering on Martin Luther King
Junior Day, and supporting the 10th annual Seattle King County Clinic this spring.
I know that many in this room are also very proud to support the Seattle
King County Clinic, which under Julia Coulson's leadership,
served more than 3000 patients this year, providing support,
much of it free, most of it free for dental, vision and medical care
for patients who came for more than from more than 200 zip codes.
People travel far and wide to come to this event, and if you've been there,
then you know how impressive, rewarding, and truly special the clinic is.
When we look at the challenges that we face as leaders,
we know that there are many complex factors affecting our work.
And yet just showing up continues to be
one of the most important and profound things that we do.
I'm proud to be among so many of you in this room
who share this focus on fostering strong communities.
I will now transition us to hear
from two more amazing leaders who are also focused on doing their part.
First, I'd like to reintroduce Teresa Hudson, Teresa, corporate vice
president for the Trusted Technology Group at Microsoft.
The Seattle Metro Chamber's incoming board chair
and a passionate advocate for the Seattle business community
and the people and communities who help it to thrive.
Teresa will be engaging in a fireside chat
with Microsoft Vice Chairman President Brad Smith.
He leads a team of roughly 2000 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals
located in 54 countries and operating
operating in more than 120 nations.
Evergreen roots. Global reach. Indeed.
Today, Brad and Teresa will discuss what to expect in year 51 from Microsoft,
their own unique approaches to civic leadership, and why it's important,
more important than ever for businesses to engage in fostering strong communities.
I welcome you both to the stage.
- Well, it's great to be here.
You had a great year, Teresa.
I did add an extra goal for her next year.
You just told me.
Oh, you knew this before now.
Lead a chamber that will recruit a great successor to Rachel Smith.
So that's that's going to be on the review for next year.
- Well, I'm really excited
about this conversation as I was thinking about it.
I sort of thinking about three
different periods of time when I first moved to Seattle.
I came from San Francisco, and I remember thinking that Seattle
was getting right with San Francisco was getting wrong.
It was a place that was proud of its business community.
It was proud of its brands.
It was focused on innovation, and people were really engaged.
Fast forward to the Covid crisis and the community really came together.
And really,
you know, business and government and nonprofit and people in the area
really rallied together.
They actually changed the trajectory, trajectory of my career.
I said, hey, this is so much fun.
Can I do more of it?
And then I fast forward to where we are now,
and I'm pretty worried.
I'm worried that the policies that we're seeing
are making it more difficult to start a business, more difficult
to grow business, and ultimately maybe more difficult for businesses to stay.
What's your assessment of where we are right now?
Well, not surprisingly, you and I agree on this.
That's why
I think that the actually puts it very well.
Yeah.
For the roughly 25 years now that I've been responsible
for the overall, engagement of Microsoft,
you know, in this region and around the world,
I've always felt that our work is guided by one overriding principle.
You can't have a healthy business unless you have a healthy community.
And I think we and others have done an enormous amount
to help invest in having a healthy community.
We did not seek to toot our own horn,
either as a company or, in my view, as a business community.
But in the last couple of years,
I feel that people, especially in Olympia and
to some degree in western Washington, have forgotten.
You can't have a healthy community if you don't have healthy businesses.
And so, you know, we see now a political agenda,
especially at the state level, but also here in the city of Seattle,
focused on the parts of the community that people feel need more help
to be healthier. That's fair.
But they've lost sight of the fact that we're all in this together.
And if we can't sustain economic development, if we can't sustain
a healthy business community, we will not have a strong economy.
And if we do not have a strong economy, none of the other aspirations
that people have will be realizable.
We need to bring us all back to a common perspective.
Reset the conversation.
I think, as Rachel rightly put it, and grounded
everyone, in fact, in how the economy works.
- Yeah.
You know, we've been such a strong community
where we've led the way in cloud computing and AI,
in aerospace and biotech, in philanthropy.
What do we risk losing if we continue on this path?
- Well, we risk leadership in most of these spaces.
And I love the reference to Matt Oppenheimer,
because Matt represents the next generation of entrepreneurs,
the next generation of business successes,
maybe because we don't talk about ourselves enough.
And I hate talking about our selves, which is part of the reason that we don't.
People don't realize what the business community does,
but I just look at Microsoft.
Yeah, we have 60,000 employees.
But, you know, we've donated not just paid taxes.
We've donated almost a quarter of $1 billion in central Washington
for sewer and water and civic improvements around our data centers.
We've donated half $1 billion on the East side to build
a transit center, to build bridges, to improve the sewer system.
We've donated $750 million
to preserve and build 12,000 affordable
housing units in the greater Seattle area.
We donated $80 million for Covid relief.
We voluntarily paid $125 million to people
who could not work because they didn't have jobs on our campus.
Throughout the pandemic, low paid
or the lower paid hourly workers.
We've donated $70 million
to the University of Washington to build out GIX.
We have donated $40 million
to the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship Program.
And I think most important of all, if the run rate continues, we will donate
almost $1 billion this decade to match
the donations of our employees
to almost 5000 nonprofits.
The stars in the sky that shine over this state
in terms of what a healthy community means.
And it's not just Microsoft.
Look at what Amazon is doing.
Look at what Boeing has done for decades.
Look at what every company, every small firm is doing in its own way.
Add it all up.
This is what makes this community not only great,
it is what makes a healthy community possible.
And I did not quote
a number for a single tax payment.
So people who think that the only thing that businesses do
for the greater good is pay taxes are missing
what's going on here?
- Yeah.
So you've you've long
led sort of civic engagement, civic leadership in the region.
And that builds on Microsoft's long history.
Bill gates mother was a great philanthropist.
Bill was as well continues to be.
And you have absolutely led that at Microsoft.
How would you think about how that's evolved
in terms of facing the challenges of the day?
- Well, I would say two things.
First, to me, the great shame.
And I'm just so unfortunate, is I do feel that we had for a number of years
and even decades of consensus,
broadly speaking, of the business community, what I'll call
a political community, the nonprofit community.
And, you know, while people focus on the fact
that we don't have a state income tax, we have lots of taxes.
State revenue has risen.
Tax revenue has grown.
And in fact, the revenue, the resources of our state
have grown at a rate that has exceeded
inflation and population growth put together.
And that is what has made it possible not to solve all of our problems,
and we have them, as Rachel was pointing out.
But to do a lot of great things.
And in the last three years, really since the pandemic,
I think that consensus has fallen apart.
And so now we have a political community in a limited, in Olympia
that unfortunately, in my view, seems to be dominated at the moment
by a constant quest to find new taxes they can raise
without taking account of all the taxes they've just raised.
And this is coming back to a screen near you in the coming months.
As we get to the next session in January.
And we've lost sight of what was, in my view,
a foundational element of the state consensus as well.
Economic development, a focus on the economy.
And I would argue that when Gary Locke was governor, when Christine Gregoire
was governor, this was a significant part of the public dialog,
but especially as we went in into sort of five, seven,
eight years ago, we went through the pandemic.
It evaporated as a topic.
And one of my personal frustrations
is I'm asked more by the governor of New Jersey
than I've been the last decade by the governor of Washington to support
public private partnerships that will help us grow
and improve the state, but also invest in economic development.
You know, Bill Boeing and Bill gates,
oh my gosh, thank goodness they were here.
But you cannot build on a sustainable basis
an economy of the scale we now have,
on frankly, the good fortune of having
a couple of people decide that this is where they want to build their business.
We have to focus on the economy.
Look, James Carville coined the famous political phrase decades ago.
It's the economy, stupid.
Let's get the economy back into the conversation.
- I think you have an audience of willing listeners,
and I think people would love to know, you know, other people who are frustrated.
What should other people in this room do?
How should they think about engaging?
What's your advice to them? - I have
two requests here.
First.
If you're here from a nonprofit,
whether it's a small one or as large as the United Way,
or as important to a public institution as the University of Washington,
you have asked us for help every year for decades.
You deserve every bit of help we ever provided.
You have done amazing things for this state.
But if we're going to succeed going forward, now is the time
when we need your help.
We need your voice.
We need our lawmakers in Olympia to understand
that we are all in this together.
And even though you might actually be the beneficiary of a new tax increase,
what we're putting at risk is something that we cannot afford to jeopardize.
The way the state now is.
So please, you know, the right way, in a smart way.
Do what you can.
But for most of us here who come from the business community,
there is one realization
above all else I think we need to consider.
Look behind you.
There's no Calvary coming.
If we're going to win this fight,
we're going to need to fight it ourselves.
We're going to need to rally.
We're going to need to marshal resources.
And I guarantee you can count on Microsoft,
just as we have led the way in so many philanthropic endeavors.
You can count on us for our financial support
for the kind of education campaign
that this state needs to understand what the business
community requires in order to be prosperous.
And the good news is, it's not just about money.
More important than your money is your voice.
Your voice not only here in Seattle
and in King County, but in Olympia.
We need to get out and we need to do it.
I think, in the way Rachel described.
We can't just make it about ourselves because that's frankly sort of boring.
We need to meet people where they are.
We need to show, as we always have, that we have our own vision for more affordable
housing, for safer streets, for better schools, for more access to universities.
But we need to use our voice
to help the legislators in Olympia understand
that if we're going to continue to prosper here, invest here,
we need the kind of state policies that make it possible to stay here
and to keep and grow jobs here.
Rachel's going to have to lead it on the state level.
That's why, as a board member of the Washington Roundtable,
I was so enthusiastic about making Teresa’s job harder this year.
We need a great leader here.
We need a great community all around.
That's what we need to bring ourselves together to do.
- Yeah.
And I think one thing that gets lost in this conversation, we sort of
think about business is some like abstract concept.
And I think Rachel's done such a great job of talking
about the business community as the employer community.
These are employees, people who live in your neighborhood, who,
you know, go to schools here, who use the parks, who use the community
centers, who who take advantage of the arts and all of that stuff.
You, Brad, have chosen to make Seattle your home.
And as we are kind of thinking about we going forward, I mean,
what makes you continue to choose Seattle?
What is your sort of hope for the future of Seattle if we can get this all right?
- Well, I will always remember when I first arrived in Seattle, I was a young lawyer.
I was working in London at the time, and I came here for a meeting at Microsoft.
This was July 21st, 1990, a beautiful summer day.
I'd grown up in the Midwest.
I actually didn't appreciate
that the water and mountains were so extraordinary until I arrived.
I will always remember I landed at SeaTac.
I got in a taxi.
I asked the driver to take me to Microsoft.
The folks there said, don't worry, all the taxi drivers know how to find Microsoft,
not mine.
- Oh no.
- We were going all over Western Washington,
and finally
I asked the fellow in the front seat if he had a map, and he said, sure.
And I said, great, let me study the map.
He handed me the map.
I looked at it and I said, excuse me.
This map is of Washington, D.C.,
not Washington State.
In some ways, that was a little emblematic of the time.
What I discovered when I moved here in 1993 was this gorgeous part
of the country, this wonderful community, but at an economy
that was still fundamentally grounded in aerospace
and natural resources, especially timber and fishing.
So we've had this wonderful, wonderful.
Call it 30 year run.
There are very few parts of the United States, and frankly,
not that many parts of the world
that have seen the progress over the last 30 years.
And now the problems that come with progress,
especially when you're slow to bring people back together,
as we have been in this part of the country.
The first thing I think we have to do
is recognize, don't take our success for granted.
Progress for community cities is not linear.
One of the things I'm constantly struck by because I travel so much,
is cities and states, and even countries that had their time in the sun
and then started to experience a sunset.
Now some of them, like where I grew up in the upper Midwest, finally,
after 40 years, are starting to come back and that's wonderful.
But we are at a critical moment,
and I think my hope,
my wish, my dream for this region,
is that we can figure out how to build
another 30 years of extraordinary success.
It won't be like the last 30.
We're not starting where we were then.
We have problems now that we didn't have three decades ago.
But it always starts with ambition,
a recognition that the best way to pursue
an ambition is to invest in your strengths,
and then use those strengths to reach out and address your weaknesses.
In this case, a recognition
that our strengths are what you've been hearing throughout this.
It is a T-Mobile, a Starbucks in Alaska, a Costco, a Nordstrom.
It's all of the new entrepreneurs that are here.
It's all the family businesses that have been a linchpin of this economy
for more than a century.
Family businesses that will not be able to stay here
if the estate tax remains where it is.
And so, above all else,
we're only going to be good
if we continue to aspire to be great.
If we settle for less,
I think we're going to be going downhill rather than up.
- Yeah, we live in such an amazing place.
When you think about it.
I mean, you described the The View and Rachel talked
about the snapshot and everybody, I think in their head
had a point of view, like they could picture a specific vista.
We've got great sports.
I know you happen to be a very good Mariners fan.
And we've got we've got great
business that we can grow on and continue to grow.
But I do think we will need everybody in this room
to really lean into that conversation.
And I appreciate the call to action.
Any sort of last words of advice?
- I would just say this.
Look, you know, as somebody who's been going to Olympia off
and on for 30 years and this last year
been a lot more on.
No company is too big, no business is too small.
No person is too old or too young
to be influential there.
State capitals in the United States are actually not big places.
You know, people come together in one or 2 or 3 buildings.
Don't underestimate what your voice can do.
It's all about showing up.
It's all about sharing your story.
I think it is about showing people that we do care about our community.
In fact, even I will argue more than about ourselves.
But we need to have the right foundation
and the right economic policy to continue to grow this state.
So when the call comes, whether it's Rachel
and her new role, when it's the folks leading this chamber,
when it's your friends or colleagues,
answer the call, we need you.
We need to come together.
We need to build our own future.
That's what it's about. - Thank you. Brad.
We always learn from Brad.
Thanks, Brad.
- Thank you, Brad and Teresa for your call to action and great conversation.
Teresa, we are lucky to have you as our board chair.
And Brad, honored to have you here today.
And hello to all of you.
I'm so happy to see you here.
This is one of my
this is one of my favorite events of the year.
I always
feel proud of what we accomplished and just look forward to what's to come.
And I really do love seeing all of you in one place.
I am Gabriela Buono, and I have the pleasure of being the interim
president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
I have been at the chamber for over 15 years, and probably know
most of you in this room, and most of you probably know me as gee.
We might have been on a
trip together having tea at the president of Icelands house.
Or I may have cheered for you at your karaoke performance
at the leadership conference, chatting with you at a business
after hours, or emailed you because your membership dues were late.
But I'm sure that's not anybody in this room.
Serving guests customer members has always been part of my career.
I started in the private sector, was there for nearly
a decade, worked for the Seattle SuperSonics and Storm.
Of course the Sonics left.
Might come back, I don't know, but the four time championship
Storm are still in town. Yes.
I actually have a ring from their first championship
in 2004, and usually I'm the only one in the room who can say that.
But I know I have a couple of colleagues, former colleagues in the audience
who also have them too. Unlike my CEO predecessors.
My chamber career was pre chamber career was not in government.
But I think I learned some similar skills like resilience.
Sometimes you lose, but you still got to go to work
the next day and take on what's coming next or negotiation
like trying to get that Sonics player back in the room to sign more autographs.
I'm kind of
joking, but it's all really true and good life skills.
But what really has prepared me the most is my 15 years
here at the chamber, ten of those years spent advancing in leadership roles.
I have a deep institutional knowledge of this chamber
and have built so many great relationships.
Chips with all of you, which is really my favorite part.
So let me say this from a place of deep experience
and gratitude, you are a members are the chamber.
You are why we exist and you are how we lead, and you're showing up.
You are here today.
You've been in the room
at committee meetings, advocacy briefings, leadership conference.
You've shared your stories, raised your voices and partnered
across sectors, solving problems that you just can't solve alone.
Your engagement makes this chamber strong.
We exist because of you, and it only works because of you.
So if you take one thing from today, let it be this.
The best way to shape what's next is to keep showing up.
Because showing up isn't just participation, it is stewardship.
The portrait Rachel painted from her first day to today is powerful,
but it's not complete without her continued brushstrokes.
So let's answer her call to action and keep building a region
for the generations to come, with evergreen roots and global reach.
And I have one very important order of business
to take care of here before I'm done, and that is to recognize Rachel Smith.
Rachel has led us with courage,
clarity and care in complex moments.
She has been our steady voice.
When others hesitate, she acts.
I have shared this so many times with her
that every CEO I've seen at the Chamber has given us something.
One made us more professional, one helped us find our confidence.
And Rachel, well, she was the one that did. She.
All the talk that had happened over the years became action under her.
She elevated our voice, sharpened our focus, and delivered real results.
And she's done it all just by being her optimistic self.
She has been my colleague, my mentor and my friend,
and behalf of the entire team and this membership that you have built.
Rachel, thank you so much.
And now
you're going to hate this, but will you come back up here?
And I would also like to invite Mayor Bruce Harrell also up to the stage.
- Good afternoon everybody.
Good afternoon everybody.
All right.
This is not scripted because Rachel said, what are you doing here?
And she knew I had a pretty jam packed.
There's not a lot going on in the city these days.
And so I was going to break the monotony of a day.
I have a great idea, by the way.
A great idea is, we are trying to transform this incredible city
in having a strong,
business environment
with policies and implementations of policies to make sure businesses
could thrive and employ people, be on the cutting edge of, innovation
and high tech and biotech and strong, effective public safety policies.
And, and let's
make sure we redefine the city in the wake of some challenges we're having in DC.
And at the same time, let's just have a change
at the Chamber of Commerce right in the middle of all this things.
That's a great idea, by the way.
I'm being a little facetious.
I being facetious, because it's been absolutely a joy to work with
Rachel and I have a proclamation going to read.
And as I embarrass her,
I want to thank all of you as being phenomenal members and a community
that I think some could argue, I don't say overlooked or taken for granted.
Sometimes we think our outstanding business growth is organic.
It's not organic.
It's because strong leaders like Rachel
and strong business partners, like many of you, are making it happen.
It is not to be assumed that this is organic growth in a great city.
So here comes a few.
Whereas and Rachel bear with me, I won't read the whole thing.
It's not my first rodeo on these things.
Whereas since 2021, Rachel Smith has
led transformative growth and recovery as president and CEO of The
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, increasing engagement of large, medium
and small employers, and spearheading major initiatives
in housing, transportation and regional economic resilience.
And Whereas, Rachel Smith launched the index,
which is a survey of Seattle voters that aligns civic and business priorities
and has become a key resource for policymakers, media and the community.
Whereas a strong and savvy advocate,
Rachel Smith, has advanced economic equity through programs like
the Community Business Connector, which has provided critical support
to thousands of Bipoc owned businesses and earned national recognition.
And thank you
for your leadership, there point of privilege.
And Whereas Rachel Smith's pioneering leadership has forged strong public
private partnerships from the award winning KCF as verified
playbook to collaboration on affordable
housing, parks and climate action efforts in Seattle.
And Whereas Rachel embodies
the values of our one Seattle vision.
Building an equitable, innovative
and thriving city where we all can be proud to call home.
And whereas the City of Seattle honors Rachel Smith's deep legacy
of principled advocacy, collaborative leadership,
and a bold vision for the future of this region, now, therefore, I,
Bruce Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, do hereby proclaim
September 9th, 2025 to be Rachel Smith Day.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Rachel.
Thank you.
Well, I'm going to just invite G back up here.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate this so much.
And, if it's not totally obvious, I'm a little awkward, when people are.
So thank you all very much.
I really do appreciate it.
And, you know, I just love doing this work, and I love doing it with all of you.
And I'm going to keep doing it.
Keep loving it.
Keep doing it with all of you and G.
I can't wait to see what you do. Thank you.
- Thank you again, Rachel.
And thank you, mayor, for being here today.
Okay, one more thing.
Before I release you to happy hour, I just want to answer the question
I get the most.
And that is. Yes. You can call me G.
Okay, let's go celebrate.