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UW Tacoma Business Leadership Awards 2020/21 recipients

Six Leaders Recognized at Business Leadership Awards

July 29, 2021

The Milgard School of Business is celebrating Evie Lynn, Gordon Naccarato, Brad Cheney, Kathi Littmann, Jim Milgard Jr. and Bill Weyerhaeuser at its annual recognition gala.

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On July 29, UW Tacoma and the Milgard School of Business will open their doors for the Business Leadership Awards, the first face-to-face public event on the campus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The awards, first given in 2001 and presented almost every year since then, recognize South Sound business leaders for outstanding service to their company and the community.

This year’s cohort (see below) were originally to be recognized in May of 2020, but the event was postponed as the region, the nation and the world pivoted to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the years, 85 individuals have been recognized through this awards program, in categories such as Business, Small Business and Non-profit Leader of the Year and Lifetime Achievements (both for- and non-profit). New this year are categories recognizing Entrepreneur of the Year and Sustainable Business Leader of the Year.

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Business Leader of the Year

Evie Lynn, ‘61

Careage Corporation

After a childhood on a Puyallup farm, and degrees from both UW and Pacific Lutheran University, Evie Lynn launched a successful career as a therapist and founder of Lakewood Professional Counseling Center. Her career evolved as she began developing office buildings in Lakewood and Gig Harbor, ultimately shifting full-time to real estate management and development. She joined her late husband Gene’s senior-living facility development firm, Careage and now serves as chairman of the board. The firm has developed and built over 400 hospitals, nursing homes and senior living communities in 26 states.

 

Entrepreneur of the Year

Gordon Naccarato, ‘77

Pacific Grill

Armed with a degree from UW — and initially planning a career in the law — Gordon Naccarato found his passion in the culinary arts. Over a career of more than 30 years as chef and restaurateur, he has worked with some of the most talented chefs across the U.S. in restaurants in Los Angeles, Aspen, Miami, New York City, and as a partner in Naccarato Restaurant Group, owners of Tacoma’s former Pacific Grill. His restaurants have been praised in Gourmet, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine and the New York Times, and he has appeared in the PBS series, “Great Chefs of the West.”

 

Lifetime Achievements - Non-Profit

Brad Cheney

Ben B. Cheney Foundation

A member of the Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma, Brad Cheney is president of the Ben B. Cheney Foundation and has led the foundation as executive director since 2002. He also heads Cheney Capital Investments, a real estate development company. His involvement in the South Sound non-profit world is long and deep: Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, University of Puget Sound trustee (his alma mater), the Foundation for Tacoma Students, the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Commission, the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, the UW Tacoma Advisory Board, Charles Wright Academy, and many others.

 

Non-Profit Business Leader of the Year

Kathi Littmann

Greater Tacoma Community Foundation

A public, private and nonprofit leader with more than two decades of executive experience, Kathi Littman joined the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF) in 2015 as president and CEO. She began her career as a middle school English teacher. With graduate degrees in education, she has built teacher-centered professional learning systems for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, launched learning initiatives on U.S. military-base campuses around the world and managed multibillion-dollar construction programs. At GTCF her work has included Pierce County’s COVID-19 emergency response project, the Tacoma Whole Child Partnership, and Census 2020 outreach.

 

Sustainable Business Leader of the Year

Jim Milgard, Jr.

Continental Floral Greens

Jim Milgard, Jr., is an alumnus of Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, the owner and CEO of Continental Floral Greens, a managing partner and founder of Lake Creek Capital LLC, and a managing partner of Great Day Group. Continental Floral Greens is the largest farm-to-market floral greens company in the U.S. It is a global supplier to floral wholesalers and mass market retailers, providing greenery and flowers used in bouquets, wreaths and garlands. Products are raised and harvested sustainably on tracts of land in Washington, Oregon, California and Florida.

 

Lifetime Achievements – For Profit

Bill Weyerhaeuser

Columbia Bank

Bill Weyerhaeuser grew up in Tacoma and has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has served on many civic boards, including LeMay - America’s Car Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Seattle Opera and Pacific Harbor Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He has been a director of the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and a member of the Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital board. He was elected trustee of the University of Puget Sound in 1978 and served as UPS board of trustees chairman from 1994 until 2003. He has served as a corporate director for Clearwater Paper Corp., Columbia Bank (where he was board chair from 2001 to 2018), and Potlatch Corp.
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