News Roundup


This week has been a doozy, as biz leaders topple, Facebook goes to Washington and a landmark fast food union effort moves forward.

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Biz leaders are still reeling from the firing of OBI’s chief executive, former GOP legislator Mark Johnson.  I comment on the firing here. My musings on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook mea culpa, and its impact for C-suite hiring, can be found on this page.


Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle continues to think globally and act locally. Just last week we posted a Q&A with Boyle in which he rails against the Trump Administration’s protectionist trade policies.  Boyle has been equally vocal about the grittiness of urban living; a recent complaint focused on safety threats facing his employees working at the Sorel headquarters in downtown Portland.

Boyle’s occasionally curmudgeonly ways disguise the fact that he is actually one of Oregon’s most engaged, community-minded and transparent CEOs.  As numerous media outlets reported this week, Boyle donated $1.5 million  for a new homeless shelter under the Broadway Bridge. The money will go to a Harbor of Hope, a homeless nonprofit run by real estate developers, among them Homer Williams, who has led the private sector charge to address the ciity’s homelessness crisis.


The Statesman Journal reports that wildlife officials have shot and killed a female wolf in Eastern Oregon. ODFW  issued a permit  that allows for killing two wolves from a pack blamed for attacking livestock. 


Legacy Health has hired a new CEO. Kathryn Correia, former CEO of HealthEast, a health system serving Minneapolis, Minnesota, will replace George Brown, who served as Legacy’s president and chief executive since 2008. Correia’s appointment marks the latest Oregon executive hire following a wave of baby boomer retirements in business leadership circles over the past two years.


Burgerville union effort progresses. After reaching an agreement  with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the fast food company union vote will take place April 22-23, according to the chain’s PR agent, Lee Weinstein.  An interesting side note: Two of the highest-profile labor skirmishes in PDX are unfolding in companies known for being among the most progressive new economy businesses in the city: Burgerville and New Seasons Market. 


More from the OB files: Reporter Caleb Diehl profiles the new crop of luxury apartments springing up in the Pearl District, Slabtown and other inner city neighborhoods. The amenity-rich buildings resemble urban gated communities — for affluent professionals and retirees.  “I don’t want to use the word dorm, but it has an adult dorm vibe to it,” a resident of one of the buildings says. “There’s people cruising the hallways with glasses of wine.”


More from the local/global files:  This morning I got a call from Aberdeen, Scotland company WorleyParsons. The construction and engineering consultancy said the Eugene Water & Electric Board has awarded WorleyParsons a contract to install a battery energy storage system in Howard Elementary School. The installation is part of the board’s long-term planning efforts to build water distribution capacity around the city to serve customers during a large-scale disaster  — e.g. the Cascadia quake.


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