most influential

Most Influential: Broker Laura Miller

Most Influential: Broker Laura Miller

Former restaurateur Laura Miller is the go-to agent for chefs seeking something more than kitchen he

If they ever create a James Beard Award for brokering restaurant deals, Laura Miller is a shoo-in. In a town where restaurants open more frequently than Twilight sequels, even in a bad economy, Miller is the go-to agent for chefs seeking something more than kitchen help. A former restaurateur, Miller likes to work with chefs…

Most Influential: Our Selection Panel

We couldn’t have identified the region’s most influential people without the assistance of our 2010

We are grateful to:Nancy Auer, M.D., board of trustees chair, Swedish Medical Center; John Carlson, KVI-AM commentator; Bob Frause, CEO, the Frause Group; Daisley Gordon, executive chef, Campagne and Cafe Campagne; Stacy Graven, executive director, Meydenbauer Center; Linda Hartzell, artistic director, Seattle Children’s Theatre; Leslie D. Helm, editor, Seattle Business; Alvin Alexander Henry, director of…

Most Influential: Football player Jake Locker

Most Influential: Football player Jake Locker

Quarterback for the University of Washington football team

He stayed. Jake Locker could have taken the money and run unimpeded to the nearest wealth management firm. As one of the best college quarterbacks in the nation last year—on a so-so team—Locker had the talent to jump from college football to the National Football League. But he chose to honor his commitment to the…

Most Influential: Mike McGinn and Dow Constantine

Mayor McGinn and Executive Constantine made their mark

One sports a revolutionary’s beard, a feisty personality and a bike habit. The other evidences a Boy Scout mien, a let’s-get-along approach and a well-exercised iPod.  Both have nearly one year in office, Mike McGinn as mayor of Seattle and Dow Constantine as King County executive. Each has made his mark—by notably different methods. First-time…

Most Influential: King-5 News Susannah Frame

Most Influential: King-5 News Susannah Frame

King-5 News Investigative Reporter Susannah Frame

When Susannah Frame launched her “Waste on the Water” series in March, detailing a state ferry system financially running amok, she unleashed a wave of citizen ire seldom seen in Seattle. Among her revelations: a decades-long tradition of reimbursing some ferry employees—mostly relief and so-called “special project” workers—for their time and mileage to and from…

Most Influential: Partners on the Cascadia Center

Most Influential: Partners on the Cascadia Center

Partners Miller Hull Partnership, Point 32, Schuchart, and The Bullitt Foundation collaborate to dev

The adage “If you build it, they will come” is in full experimental application at the corner of 15th Avenue and E Madison Street on Capitol Hill, where the city’s largest Living Building project is beginning to show signs of life. A collaboration among the Miller Hull Partnership (architect), Point32 (developer), Schuchart (general contractor) and…

Most Influential: Consultant Mike Donlin

Program consultant for Seattle Public Schools' prevention-intervention services, Mike Donlin spearhe

The Pew Research Center reports that 30 percent of U.S. teens say they have been affected by hurtful text messages, Facebook posts and the like. Mike Donlin wants to cut that number to zero. A program consultant for Seattle Public Schools’ prevention-intervention services, Donlin spearheaded creation of a new cyberbullying curriculum this year for Seattle…

Person of the Year: The Police Officer

We are not accustomed to seeing police officers as victims

We are not accustomed to seeing police officers as victims. Or as villains. But the past year in the Puget Sound region has focused our attention on law enforcement personnel so relentlessly, so vividly, that no year in recent memory can compare. Between October 31 and December 28, 2009, six officers—one from the Seattle Police…

Most Influential 2010: Dave Ross and Tom Douglas

Most Influential 2010: Dave Ross and Tom Douglas

Radio host Dave Ross and Restaurateur Tom Douglas show their patriotism and democracy

On April 1, Dave Ross, host of The Dave Ross Show on KIRO-FM, opened his morning broadcast with the news that One Reel, the nonprofit organization that runs the Fourth of July festivities at Lake Union, had failed to secure a corporate sponsor and was canceling the event. It was no April Fool’s joke. “It…

Most Influential: Seattle Storm Lauren Jackson

Forward Lauren Jackson help lead Seattle Storm to victory

Possibly the finest player in the Women’s National Basketball Association this decade, Lauren Jackson reminded basketball fans in 2010 that experience, maturity and talent are an awesome combo platter on the menu of leadership skills. At 29, Jackson’s body has experienced enough bruises and breaks to qualify her for a lifetime of guest appearances on…

Most Influential: Ones to Watch

Seattleites whose actions are soon likely to affect our city and our daily lives

Common SenseShe had been in office only a few months when Seattle City Council member Sally Bagshaw earned a citywide high-five for seeking to delay a proposed (and controversial) Dale Chihuly museum project at the Seattle Center. Convincing the center that it should at least entertain other proposals for how to use the former Fun…

Most Influential: Sandra Jackson-Dumont

Deputy Director of Education and Public Programs/Adjunct Curator, Seattle Art Museum

Four years ago, when Sandra Jackson-Dumont was working at the Studio Museum in Harlem, she received a call from then-director Mimi Gates at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Gates was looking to fill a deputy director position for community outreach at SAM. “I recommended several people,” Jackson-Dumont recalls. “Then she called back for me.” Just…

Most Influential: Founder Kim O’Donnel

Kim O'Donnel is not only a writer, but the founder of Canning Across America

“It was like spontaneous combustion.” That’s how Kim O’Donnel describes the response to her off-the-cuff Twitter suggestion that maybe there should be a national day dedicated to canning. O’Donnel, a former Washington Post food writer who moved to Seattle two years ago (and who at the time of her Twitter post had canned only once…

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