Most Influential People

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: TransFamilies Executive Director, Aidan Key

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: TransFamilies Executive Director, Aidan Key

The founder of the organization Gender Diversity begins a new project with TransFamilies

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. It’s been 12 years since Aidan Key founded Gender Diversity, an organization dedicated to creating supportive, inclusive environments, both physical and emotional, for transgender and gender-nonconforming children. Key is a powerful public speaker, not with…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Spaceflight Industries CEO, Curt Blake

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Spaceflight Industries CEO, Curt Blake

Spaceflight will have overseen some 23 rocket launches ferrying 226 satellites into Earth’s orbit or beyond by year’s end

Spaceflight Industries CEO Curt Blake

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Seattle NHL Team President and CEO, Tod Leiweke

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Seattle NHL Team President and CEO, Tod Leiweke

Leiweke is gearing up for the Seattle NHL team

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. This former Seattle Seahawks CEO—who engineered the hiring of coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider—returned last year, after five years with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and three as chief operating officer of…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith

This year, Smith pledged $500 million to be spent on increasing affordable housing in Seattle

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. Microsoft’s recent renaissance is nothing new; the local tech giant has seen substantial revenue growth since Satya Nadella took over in 2014. (Nadella made our Most Influential list that same year.) This year, Microsoft president…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Evergreens Founders, Hunter Brooks  and Todd Fishman

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Evergreens Founders, Hunter Brooks and Todd Fishman

After opening their first Evergreens in 2013, the two now own 30 locations

Hunter Brooks (left) and Todd Fishman

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Social Justice Fund Interim Program Director, Karen Toering

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Social Justice Fund Interim Program Director, Karen Toering

Toering's black-led Giving Project has raised more than $370,000 from 240 donors to boost black-led organizations

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. As interim program director of the Social Justice Fund, Karen Toering has directed her many talents—as a grassroots organizer, cultural worker, and nonprofit arts and social justice consultant—into the black-led Giving Project. The project, the…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream CEO, Molly Moon Neitzel

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream CEO, Molly Moon Neitzel

Neitzel launched a pay transparency initiative for all employees of Molly Moon's

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. Who hasn’t wondered how much money your boss or cubicle-mate earns? Earlier this year, Seattle-based Molly Moon Neitzel, CEO of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, launched an ambitious pay transparency initiative that allows everyone to…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Homelessness and Housing Advocates, Colleen Echohawk, Matt Hutchins, Nicole Macri and Paul Lambros

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Homelessness and Housing Advocates, Colleen Echohawk, Matt Hutchins, Nicole Macri and Paul Lambros

These four locals are helping change the intertwined homelessness and housing crisis in Seattle

From left: Colleen Echohawk, Nicole Macri, Matt Hutchins and Paul Lambros

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Africatown Community Land Trust President and CEO, K. Wyking Garrett

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Africatown Community Land Trust President and CEO, K. Wyking Garrett

Garrett has been challenging gentrification and advocating for affordable housing and spaces for black-owned businesses

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. K. Wyking Garrett is a third-generation Central District resident who grew tired of watching his community being displaced by gentrification and decided to do something about it. As president and CEO of the Africatown Community…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Sightline Institute Founder and Executive Director, Alan Durning

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Sightline Institute Founder and Executive Director, Alan Durning

Sightline Institute has produced some of the most important writings on the region’s housing shortage

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. Over the past few years, Alan Durning, the quiet, unprepossessing founder and executive director of Sightline Institute, the state’s leading climate and housing think tank, has helped frame the debate on an astounding number of…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Ones to Watch

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2019: Ones to Watch

These 13 visionaries have big things on the horizon

CEO of Grist, Brady Walkinshaw

Seattle’s Most Influential People of the Year 2018

Seattle’s Most Influential People of the Year 2018

We're raising a glass to those working to make this a better place— our 2018 Most Influential People of the Year

This article appears in print in the November 2018 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe. There are plenty of reasons to bemoan the past 12 months: More and more people sleeping on sidewalks and in homeless camps. Ever-worsening traffic. Sky-high housing prices. A never-ending string of #MeToo revelations. Ongoing gun…

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2018: Ones to Watch

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2018: Ones to Watch

Meet Seattle's rising stars

Front row, left to right: Boting Zhang, Yenvy Pham and Priya Frank. Back row, left to right: Marilyn Strickland, Khoa Pham, Quynh Pham, Angela Garbes, Kirsten Harris-Talley and Sara Porkalob

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