Last year was a milestone year for WTIA in many ways. Our organization launched important new initiatives, including Ion Collaborators, a civic innovation program that engaged 1,700 volunteer hours from participants. We added 134 new member companies, including a handful of our dedicated President’s Club members increasing their investment due to enthusiasm for our impact and progress. New members helped our organization grow by nearly 20 percent in just one year. We are at our largest today, with a total of more than 800 members that represent more than $1.8 trillion in market capitalization and 250,000 employees in our state.
WTIA contributed to important policy decisions impacting the local and national technology industries. Working with state lawmakers, we helped draft Gender Pay Equity legislation and supported the passage of the country’s most comprehensive Paid Family Medical Leave law. Both elevate the state of Washington on a national stage and make us more attractive when recruiting tech talent to our region. We were also instrumental in obtaining operational funding to allow UW to double its Computer Science degree capacity. These policy achievements will have a lasting effect on enabling innovation and growth, and directly support our priority of addressing the urgent need for talent in our industry.
With the ongoing dedication and engagement of our member companies, we’re enabling productive collaboration between education institutions, technology innovators and the government. This was evident at the annual CEO Forum, which inspired discussions among key stakeholders about what tech employers need from the education sector. More than a dozen tech leaders invested a full day working with faculty at five community and technical colleges to re-tool their Computer Science curricula and ensure graduates can get hired.
The change and advancement we are fostering today will be felt by the generations of future entrepreneurs, engineers, programmers and scientists that fill our state’s elementary schools, high schools and universities. In 2018, we will build on the past year’s momentum, focusing on important actions in closing the diversity gap for girls, women, people of color and immigrants, and addressing the need for talent among local technology companies.
The technology industry in Washington state is unstoppable right now, and the WTIA will continue to be a powerful unifying, independent voice for the industry.
“With the ongoing dedication and engagement of our member companies, we’re enabling productive collaboration between education institutions, technology innovators and the government.”
Michael Schutzler
President and CEO
Apprenti placements were 88% women, people of color and veterans
$125,000
Raised $125,000 at inaugural Gala for apprentice training
91% of WTIA Benefits Program companies renewed
$60,000
Apprenti graduates increased their salaries an average of $60,000
$50,000,000
$50,000,000 in healthcare services provided by WTIA Benefits Program
$7,000,000
Secured $7 million in state funds for Apprenti, STEM programs at the University of Washington and K-12 computer science programs
In 2017, WTIA made strides in becoming a key player in the Washington startup ecosystem, and has significantly increased awareness of our organization as a resource for startups. Activities on this front included forging of partnerships with all the major investor firms and groups in our region, involvement as organizers of Seattle Startup Week and the launch of the WTIA Startup Club website and startup guide. Membership continues to grow steadily alongside the creation of new programs. We continue to draw members from outside the industry with burgeoning technology teams, including Boeing and Nordstrom.
134
134 new member companies
867
867 companies with active memberships
4,000,000
Member companies employ 4M people worldwide and 250,000 in WA
4,000
4,000 founder and CEO contacts in our database
Total 2017 Budget
$10.8 M
2017 Expense Breakdown
Our innovative Apprenti(™) Program created a proven, reliable pipeline for underrepresented groups such as minorities, women and veterans to gain training, certification and placement within the talent-hungry tech industry. In 2017, Apprenti changed the lives of more than 100 apprentices, training them for roles with retained wages up to $105,000 per year and strong career growth capacity. Local companies, including Amazon and Microsoft are scaling their involvement, and we expanded the program to Oregon and Northern Virginia.
“Apprenti is truly changing lives and the talent landscape. One graduate, who was driving a delivery truck prior to joining the programs, is now fully employed at his apprenticeship company with a $100,000 salary…”
– Maud Daudon, Executive Leader, Career Connect WA
105
105 apprentices placed in three states
88% of placements are women, vets, and persons of color
1,175%
Program applications grew by 1,175%
100% of apprentices have completed their apprenticeship were retained by their companies as full-time employees
$82,250
Apprentices earn an average salary of $82,250 upon graduation
98% complete their apprenticeships
WTIA provides group buying power to member companies looking to offer their employees high-value benefits without the excessive costs and administrative headache. Last year began the ramp of our 401K Multiple Employer Plan and beta testing for a clever partnership with Verizon that offers member companies low-cost, unlimited data plans for employees and their families. The addition of new providers, personalized broker communications and a streamlined renewal process helped retain a record number of member companies and expanded our addressable market.
10,000
More than 10,000 people served across health insurance and 401k plans
375
375 employers are members of the WTIA Trusts
91% membership renewal retention
$41,500,000
$41,500,000 in 401k MEP assets
39% increase in membership over 2016
19
19 companies signed up for Verizon phone plan beta
A new civic leadership program, Ion Collaborators brings together tech, government, and nonprofits to tackle community challenges. In its pilot year, the program asked volunteers work directly with the community to determine an issue and address it under strict deadlines and with no budget or financial/political reward. To date, this has resulted in projects that focus on livability, accessibility, and economic disparity.
1,700
1,700 volunteer hours in six months
18
18 Ion Collaborators represented a wide range of organizations, companies and government departments
3
3 projects completed, including an online resource to help people working in Seattle discover affordable places to live with easy commute times
WTIA had several budgetary and public policy objectives last year. Working with our allies and partners, we actively sought and secured funding for Apprenti training, growing the University of Washington Computer Science program and computer science education in K-12 schools. WTIA served as an advocate, subject matter expert and facilitator on key issues, with milestones including:
$7,000,000
Secured $7 million in state budget for our key funding initiatives
Actively engaged in passing the Paid Family Medical Leave (SB 5975) legislation, one of the country’s finest policies for this important issue
With the tech industry’s leadership on Gender Pay Equity as our foundation, we maintained ongoing efforts to support HB 1506, legislation that holds employers accountable to outcomes and steers away from variations in process across different industries
Provided subject matter expertise and advising to lawmakers for the Biometrics (HB 1493) bill that was signed into law by the Governor
Involvement in key discussions around Non-Competes (HB 1967), Online Privacy (HB 2200) and Telecom Infrastructure Investment (SB 5711)
“I had the privilege of working with WTIA and CEO Michael Schutzler in helping draft comments for the White House for the International Entrepreneur Rule, which were adopted in the final version of the rule. It was an honor being part of the entire process. I am grateful to see the rule become a reality.”
– Tahmina Watson, Watson Immigration Law
FullConTech Spring 2017
With Comcast as the presenting sponsor, we introduced a theme of “Civic Collaboration,” a bold evolution of our belief that we must use our influence within the tech industry to enable collaboration with other sectors. This drew many new attendees, including community-based organizations, and we integrated Seattle CityClub’s “Civic Health Index” research into the event.
FullConTech Fall 2017
Building on the Spring event’s “Civic Collaboration” focus, we engaged organizations addressing immigration and agriculture, and emphasized the need to work across differences to solve the massive and seemingly intractable issues in our state and country. In a continuing effort to bridge sectors by coming together to tackle common challenges, we convened tech, agriculture, immigrant advocacy organizations and elected officials on the theme of the “Immigrant Workforce.”
Training Camp and Draft Day
These events, sponsored by Premera and Coding Dojo, connected triple-vetted top graduates from lesser-known schools with tech employers. From the 96 nominees, 19 finalists advanced to Draft Day for interviews with hiring partners including Limeade, Lyft, RealSelf, PeopleConnect, Skytap and Tableau. Among the successes were two candidates who received full-time jobs at Tableau.
“WTIA events like Galaxy Gala are “a great way for us to get immediate value from our WTIA membership. WTIA is ahead of the curve…”
– Valerie Harvath, Cloutera
“WTIA’s 2017 Tech Crawl, where local tech companies open their doors and let job seekers check out their offices, is a great chance for devs to learn about new companies and get a bigger glimpse into company culture, and helps tech companies attract developers.”
– Izzy Baer, Code Fellows
“Thank you so much. I really feel super super lucky that I even got the chance to interview with Tableau. They are such amazing people and it’s such an amazing team. I just feel really lucky to be a part of these events.”
– Draft Day participant
Galaxy Gala
The WTIA’s first-ever fundraiser was a huge success, hosting more than 500 attendees and raising more than $125,000. The event auctioned off rare opportunities to network with top industry leaders, including a two-hour business planning and career consulting session with Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer, Amazon.com, and a racetrack ride with Heather Redman and her VC partners at Flying Fish Partners.
CEO Forum
In partnership with AppConnectNW, we hosted the CEO forum to inspire an active discussion about what tech employers need from schools. Participants were widely positive about the outcome of the event, and one sponsor said, “I just wanted to thank you for kicking off our AppConnect work in such a profound way yesterday… we could not have been more impressed or appreciative of your event. I wanted to thank you for all that you continue to do.”
Tech Crawl
Reinvented for 2017, the Tech Crawl series had more than 250 attendees and received high praise from sponsors and participants. One of the hosts at Extrahop said, “I loved the diversity of the attendees. There were people from all across the board in the tech community and tons of job seekers!” The folks at Zonar said, “We have some participants as candidates in the process for openings at Zonar! We look forward to participating in future events.”
Greg Beams, Partner, Ernst & Young
Sarah Bird, CEO, Moz
Bradd Busick, CIO, MacDonald Miller
Jamila Conley, VP IT Services, F5
Gena Cook, CEO, NavigatingCancer
Dave Cotter, CEO, ReplyYes
Kha Dang, GC, Drift Marketplace
Evan Fein, CFO, Impinj
Elissa Fink, CMO, Tableau
Roe Ganzarski, CEO, BoldIQ
Ben Golden, GC, TUNE
Kristen Hamilton, CEO, Koru
Mike Horwitz, VP Engineering, Comcast/ThePlatform
Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair, UW CSE
Al Lewis, VP Industry Relations, Bellevue College
Trish Millines-Dziko, Executive Director, TAF
Derrick Morton, CEO, FlowPlay
James Newell, Partner, Voyager
Darcy Nothnagle, Head of Ext. Affairs, Google
Vanessa Pegueros, CISO, DocuSign
Alex Pietsch, AVP Industry Relations, Washington State University
Irene Plenefisch, Director Government Relations, Microsoft
Tim Porter, Partner, Madrona
Carol Rava, CEO, Tech Alliance
Cefe Quesada, Managing Director, State Street
Seth Rapkin, SVP Morgan Stanley/Pike Place Partners
Heather Redman, Partner, Flying Fish VC
Craig Sherman, Partner, WSGR
Jennifer Shettleroe, VP Operations, Emergency Reporting
John Suk, Director, GE/Current
Eileen Sullivan, Sr. Manager Gov Relations, Amazon
Shannon Swift, CEO, Swift HR Solutions
Karl Triebes, VP and GM, Amazon Web Services
Dan Waggoner, Partner, DWT
Joseph Williams, ICT Sector Lead, WA Department of Commerce
Steve Wood, Owner, Airnote LLC
Gilbert Wootton, Partner, Accenture
Portia Wu, Director Workforce Policy, Microsoft
