Honoring 2022 Business Leadership Award Winners

For the 20th year, the Milgard School of Business is recognizing six Puget Sound business leaders who are making a difference in the South Sound.

Our media partner, South Sound Business, has graciously allowed us to reprint the in-depth profiles they have published in their May magazine issue.

Read more below, or read them on the South Sound Business website.

Each year, the Milgard School of Business at the University of Washington Tacoma presents its Business Leadership Awards in six categories to recognize outstanding leaders in the South Sound. As this yearʼs media sponsor, we are excited to share the winners — and their stories — with our readers. This is the awardsʼ 20th year, and the recipients will be honored May 5 at the campus.

Douglas Reed

President, Green Diamond Resource Co.

Sustainable Business Leader

For Douglas Reed, serving as president of Green Diamond Resource Co. — a fifth-generation, family-owned forest products company — is about much more than sustainability. It is about stewardship and continuing to raise the bar for a thriving future.

“Within our company, we actually prefer the word ‘stewardship’ to ‘sustainability.’ Sustainability has this notion of sustenance or maintenance, and I think, at least in my role, I’m not just a caretaker of the assets and organization. I should be trying to make it better,” Reed said.

Recalling the words of his grandfather, Reed added, “My grandfather used to famously ask the senior managers what they were doing for his grandchildren. If you have that type of culture in an organization, it really permeates.”

As president of the company, Reed carries on the legacy his great-grandfather started with the company’s founding in 1890, and brings to the table a diverse professional background.

Reed joined Green Diamond in February 2012 as senior vice president of the company’s California operations. In January 2014, he assumed the role of president. Prior to joining the company, he served as vice president and general manager of Simpson Lumber Co. from 2008 to 2012, and served as strategic planning manager for Simpson Door Co. from 2006 to 2008. Before that, he was an associate at McKinsey & Co. after his graduation from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

“I spent the first part of my career working in other businesses, and I think that was really valuable,” Reed said. “I was an investment banker out of college. I worked for a tech startup, and then after business school, I worked in consulting.”

It’s these valuable professional experiences, coupled with the deep-rooted culture of Green Diamond, that Reed draws from in his role as company president.

Today, Green Diamond’s long-term commitment to the land remains at the heart of every decision it makes. The company owns and manages working forestland in 10 states. Its Washington, Oregon, and Southern timberlands are independently certified to be in compliance with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Standard. In California, its lands have achieved Forest Management certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.

Furthermore, it harvests less than 2 percent of its lands annually. All harvested areas are quickly replanted with native species to start the forest cycle anew.

“This is an exciting time in forestry. … I think the world is changing a bit to recognize the important role that forests and, to use the buzzword ‘ecosystem services,’ play for society, whether that’s clean water, or clean air, or sustainable building materials, or jobs in some areas that are really hard hit,” Reed said. “And I think there’s opportunity for public-private partnership in how we think about forests to deliver not just the traditional values and traditional goods that the forestry sector has provided, but other things that are positive for society as well.”

Victoria Woodards

Mayor, City of Tacoma

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Community Leadership

“A rising tide lifts all boats.”

That phrase is commonly attributed to John F. Kennedy — and it’s one City of Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards believes in wholeheartedly.

“We’re all given gifts in life, and it really is our obligation to fulfill gifts to uplift others. So, my gift is being able to be in rooms where there aren’t a lot of people who look like me. To be able to have some of the influence I have and some of the opportunities that I have and using it to uplift everyone,” Woodards said.

Tacoma is one of the most racially diverse cities in Washington state. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 40 percent of people living in Tacoma are Latino, African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, multiracial, or Native American.

Unfortunately, communities of color in the city can experience stark inequities, such as significantly higher rates of unemployment and poverty and poorer health outcomes. Woodards, however, is on a mission to drive change.

Woodards, who has called Tacoma home for most of her life, is a graduate of Tacoma’s Lincoln High School and served as a soldier in the Army. In 2018, she became mayor after serving seven years as an at-large member of the city council.

During that time, she launched the City’s Equity and Empowerment initiative, which led to the establishment of its Office of Equity and Human Rights. She also brought partner organizations together for then-President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, and spearheaded the City’s Project PEACE initiative, which bridged community members with the Tacoma Police Department.

As mayor, she continues to champion these causes while expanding her involvement in regional and national conversations on affordable housing, transportation, strengthening youth and families, public safety, growing local business, and creating family-wage jobs.

She has also consistently reaffirmed her support for immigrant and refugee families, and Tacoma remains a Welcoming City committed to providing immigrant and refugee communities with equitable access to City services. In fact, under her leadership, the City appointed members to its first commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

The purpose of the Commission is to better engage Tacoma’s immigrant and refugee communities and to work with community partners to identify and advance positive outcomes for issues specifically impacting the immigrant and refugee communities in the City of Tacoma.

“Our City is doing a lot of work on transformation and equity, and I think success, for me, ultimately, and I know it’s not going to be done just under my leadership, is that everyone who lives in Tacoma, who calls this place home, has an opportunity to fulfill their destiny,” Woodards said.

Constance Trufant

Executive Director, Trufant Family Foundation

Nonprofit Leader of the Year

Constance Trufant admits there was a lot to learn about running a nonprofit when she first stepped in as executive director of the Trufant Family Foundation in 2003.

“(The Trufant Family Foundation) definitely started from the grassroots level, knowing nothing about how to run a foundation and what to do. So, we just began and looked at what we wanted to focus on, and the first thing Marcus wanted to focus on was scholarships because he received a football scholarship,” said Trufant, referring to her oldest son, Marcus Trufant.

Marcus Trufant is a former All-Pro cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks, and played college football for Washington State University. He played for his hometown Seattle Seahawks for 10 seasons, beginning in 2003, after the team drafted him in the first round.

With a desire to help empower his community, he created the Lakewood-based Trufant Family Foundation in 2003, providing scholarships and fundamental support programs to help young people achieve their life’s goals. It was at that time that Constance Trufant, who had worked for the Social Security Administration, stepped in with her husband, Lloyd, to run the foundation.

Over the years, in addition to granting scholarships, the foundation has held numerous community events and fundraisers, like a carnival for kids, celebrity bowling events, a Santa breakfast fundraiser, and a Celebrity Beach Volleyball Extravaganza and Barbershop Beach Party.

Today, the foundation partners with the Tacoma School District’s scholarship program. When students apply for their individual school scholarship program, they also can apply for the Trufant Family Foundation scholarship.

“It’s a scholarship for all of the years that they are in college. So, we have a renewal scholarship. The starting scholarship is $1,000 (per year). So, we give about 20 scholarships a year, and then those kids can renew that scholarship every year,” said Trufant. “The renewal is very simple. They just have to continue to be a full-time student, and they have to write us a letter about their college experience.”

In addition to scholarships, the foundation also works to provide programs of fundamental support. Most recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it partnered with the Tacoma Urban League, Seattle Education Access (SEA), and the Boys & Girls Club of South Puget Sound to help meet community needs, including transportation resources, housing assistance, providing meals to the children of frontline workers affected by the pandemic, and delivering food to seniors and students.

“Now that the pandemic is filtering off , we’re going to continue on with that, probably through that partnership, as well as starting a program on our own, where the kids would just send the applications to us,” Trufant said.

The foundation has no doubt gone through growth and change over the years. She noted that the foundation currently has an advisory board and is in the process of transitioning to a public foundation.

“We (are going to) start doing newer and different things,” she said. “We’re looking forward to that.”

Miriam Barnett

Former CEO, YWCA Pierce County

Women's Leadership

Ask Miriam Barnett what has helped fuel her leadership success and her role as the former CEO of YWCA Pierce County, and she’ll likely say art.

“When I got out of the arts, especially when I was at the YWCA, I felt that the arts were more meaningful and that I could use them in a completely different way,” said Barnett, who long has had a passion for the arts and started her art career making clothing and weaving fabrics for women and children.

After embarking on a nonprofit career in 1987, Barnett would come to discover that she was right.

Barnett started that nonprofit career as the executive director of Allied Arts of Whatcom County, a post she held for nearly 12 years. She moved to Tacoma in 2000 to become the development director of Tacoma Arts Live, and then was offered a double position at the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation as the director of the Fund for Women and Girls and the marketing and communications manager for the foundation. In 2005, she was asked to become the CEO of the YWCA Pierce County, a position she held for about 16 years.

It was, perhaps, during her leadership role at YWCA that the influences from her art background really shone through. As Barnett explained, she would come to learn not only about the healing power of art, but also about its ability to help her view life through a lens of “abundance,” not scarcity.

In 2008, the YWCA purchased and remodeled the Wilsonion Apartments in Tacoma for its domestic violence shelter. When the building opened to clients, every family had their own apartment where they could feel safe and begin their healing process. Barnett ensured all of the spaces where clients would seek services were beautiful.

Barnett noted that she also started workshops for women staying in the shelter, teaching them how to make jewelry.

Then came the remodel of the old shelter into an expanded legal and therapeutic children’s program where, once again, beauty had a significant impact in helping clients heal.

Barnett’s final and largest project before retiring from YWCA Pierce County in July 2021 was the $23.2 million Home at Last permanent housing project. There are 54 apartments there and, once again, beauty played an integral role.

“In all of our buildings, there is so much art as part of the building because I really believe beauty and art make a difference in how people heal,” Barnett said. “… The arts have been more powerful for me in this context than when I was full-time working in the arts.”

Today, Barnett is pursuing new opportunities and, regardless of where those new endeavors take her, you can be sure she’ll approach them through a lens of abundance, as well as beauty.

“Even when there were times when I was doing a big campaign or something and there was a big roadblock, I would find myself starting a little bit down the woe-is-me path, and I’d bring myself back and say, ‘Wait a minute; look at this through an abundance lens.’ It just shifts the framework,” Barnett said. “That is something that I’ve learned, and something that I really love to share.”

Randy Rushforth

Former president, Rushforth Construction

Lifetime Achievement

Randy Rushforth believed the best way to become successful was to create a company culture where everyone wins. And that’s exactly what he did.

His father founded Tacoma’s Rushforth Construction in 1951, and when his father semi-retired in 1978, Rushforth left the construction company he was working for in California to return and take over the family business. He officially assumed the role of president in 1980. Having grown up in the business — stacking lumber, digging ditches, and doing other smaller jobs for his father starting at the age of 12 or 13 — it was a welcome opportunity to carry on the legacy.

“I decided that I could probably get a job anytime, but I’d probably only have one chance to take over my dad’s business. So, I decided to move back and work with him for a few years and then take it over,” Rushforth said.

Rushforth, who was 33 years old at the time, embarked on his new journey as company president with a fresh vision. Bidding adieu to the traditional bidding model, the company began negotiating nearly all of its work.

“We called it ‘team build,’ and we would work with the architects, the engineers, and the owner of the project and, with everybody’s input, design and build the building. It was a different model, and it really worked well for us,” Rushforth said.

During his tenure as president, Rushforth Construction has worked all over the Pacific Northwest, well beyond Western Washington, as developers actively sought to team up with the company.

Depending on the workload, the company employed an average of 175 to 180 people. At the height of its busy periods, it would employ more than 200, and had 15 to 20 projects under construction at any given time.

However, Rushforth doesn’t take credit for his company’s success.

“A long time ago, a businessman that I knew told me that if you want to be a success in business, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, and let them do their job,” he said. “I surrounded myself with people that I thought were excellent at what they did.”

Added Rushforth, “You can’t build a company by yourself, and so I give most of the credit to the success of the company to other people.”

Rushforth also ensured he and his employees were actively involved in the community. For instance, each year the company sponsored dinners and breakfasts, and employees served on local boards. It also created an annual fundraising golf tournament that raised between $40,000 and $50,000 each year. That money would then be given to three to four different nonprofits. In 2009, roughly 30 years after taking the helm, Rushforth decided it was time to slow down and enjoy the fruits of his labor. He sold the business and stayed with the company for three more years before retiring in 2012.

“For 30 years, I would wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning and solve problems. That’s the way my brain worked,” Rushforth said. “It’s stressful, it’s rewarding, (and) there’s a lot of risk, especially in a construction company, but you put a lot of time in it. You earn that success.”

Maya Mendoza-Exstrom

COO, Seattle Sounders

Business Leader of the Year

Lifelong soccer player and fan Maya Mendoza-Exstrom believes that sports can and should be part of the cultural fabric, representing the values of a community. It’s a belief that motivates and inspires her each day in her leadership role with the Seattle Sounders.

“I really look at my role as … someday we won’t make the playoffs, and when that happens, why does someone still buy a ticket? Why does someone still buy a jersey? Why does someone still invest in this club? That’s not a new idea. That’s been part of our club since 1974. … I just get the chance to sit in the chair as a steward of the club,” Mendoza-Exstrom said.

In 2014, she joined the club in-house as general counsel and today serves as chief operating officer. Prior to that, Mendoza-Exstrom, who received her law degree from the University of Washington, was in private practice for seven years at Mendoza Law Center.

Today, she oversees and advises on the legal aspects of all club operations and strategic planning. In addition, she leads all external affairs, including government relations, community initiatives, civic and community relations, and philanthropic efforts.

She has been a key stakeholder for all civic matters related to the organization, from organizing with Seattle city leadership and government officials on the recent efforts to bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to North America (Seattle is a finalist among possible host cities), to managing the citywide logistics around the team’s 2016 and 2019 Major League Soccer Cup championship parades and rallies, to working with the City of Tacoma on the feasibility and development of a soccer-specific stadium to house Sounders FC’s MLS Next Pro league side.

“If you look at the next five years, there is a tremendous opportunity for investment and growth through soccer,” Mendoza-Exstrom said. “And we can do that through all of the lessons learned through COVID. We can do that with a human voice. We can do that recognizing how we grow in a way that grows our values and grows the impact we make in our community, the legacy we can leave.”

Mendoza-Exstrom’s passion, drive, and strong leadership stem not only from her professional background, but also from her lifelong love of the game and the Seattle Sounders.

She started playing soccer at age 4, is a former All-American at the University of Puget Sound, and holds a United States Soccer Federation “B” coaching license. As for the Seattle Sounders, growing up, she watched the club in all its previous iterations, from the North American Soccer League, A-League, and United Soccer League to its current place in Major League Soccer.

“My passion was nurtured from a very early age, and that is something that I’ve never lost,” Mendoza-Exstrom said. “It’s just a huge part of my life.”