Listen to the first ever taping of Seattle Growth Podcast before a live audience at the Impact Hub in Seattle. University of Washington's Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship organized the event on October 17th, 2016.
Host Jeff Shulman moderated a panel of three individuals who have made immeasurable contributions to Seattle and will play a major role in its future: Maggie Walker, John Connors, and John Creighton.
Maggie Walker is well known in Seattle as a philanthropist and civic leader. Walker was a founding member of Social Venture Partners and of the Washington Women's Foundation. She is Chair and Board President of Global Partnerships. She is Vice Chair of the National Audobon Society Board of Directors. She is a member of the UW Foundation Board of Directors and the Seattle Art Museum Board of Trustees where she previously served as President. She is a board member of Friends of Waterfront Seattle. She is an advisory board member for the University of Washington's College of the Environment, the Evans School of Public Policy, and the College of Arts & Sciences.
Walker previously served as chair of The Bullitt Foundation's Board of Trustees, co-chair of the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) Board of Trustees, chair of the Washington Women's Foundation (founding member and first Chair) and was the first vice-chair of The Seattle Foundation Board of Trustees.
John Connors is a managing partner at Ignition Partners, an early stage, business software venture capital firm. Connors was named to the 2013 Forbes Midas List, a ranking of the world's top venture capital investors, and to Business Insider's 2013 list of top enterprise technology VCs. Connors joined Ignition in 2005 after a distinguished career as a software-industry executive.
Connors spent sixteen years at Microsoft in several high-level, strategic roles. From January 2000 to April 2005 he was senior vice president of finance and administration, as well as the company's chief financial officer. Connors is a member of the board of directors of Nike (NKE), Splunk (SPLK), FiREapps, DataSphere, Motif Investing, Chef, Azuqua, Tempered Networks, and Icertis.
John Creighton has served on the Port of Seattle Commission since 2006. He came to the commission with broad experience as a lawyer specializing on complex international transactions in the port cities of Singapore, Helsinki and Istanbul prior to returning home to Seattle. Creighton currently has a solo practice focused on business law and public policy.
As a commissioner, Creighton has focused on keeping the Port strong as a jobs creation engine while increasing the agency's commitment to the environment and making it a more accountable, socially responsible public agency.
Creighton grew up on the Eastside and graduated from Interlake High School in Bellevue. He earned a B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, a J.D. from Columbia University and a Certificate of Administration from the University of Washington Foster School of Business.
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