Features Region: West

What is your “core why?” Nichoel Casey adopted this guiding question and principle from motivational speaker Simon Sinek, using it regularly in her work at Willamette Valley Bank, member FDIC. Her “core why?” Successfully leading a business with an integrated risk management approach, she says. That is: Financial institutions should explore integrating the responsibilities of […]

Homebuying. It’s a process that ranks as one of the most important purchases people make in their lives, and one that can be fraught with difficulty. Bill Burding, general counsel for Orange Coast Title in Santa Ana, never loses site of that event’s significance and what it can mean to a family—even if he does […]

If there’s one word that comes to mind when talking to Ben Kwakye, it’s resiliency. From surviving a coup d’état with his family in his native Ghana—and the life-changing circumstances that followed—to a 25-year legal career full of twists and turns, Kwakye has—excuse the cliché—seen it all. Now, this veteran attorney and published author is […]

Scrolling through the company’s website, the wares that make up Rodan + Fields’ product line—everything from serums and acne lines to anti-aging products and masks—look like any you might find at a high-end department store. The branding is straightforward, too: streamlined, simple, unabashedly confident. They certainly don’t seem like the kinds of products that would […]

Employing 70,000 people and operating 55 casinos around the world, along with dozens of accompanying hotels and restaurants, the name of this behemoth is synonymous with nightlife and weekend getaways, as well as a growing presence in interactive virtual reality. Taken together, the legal landscape of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (CEC)—a $4.5 billon enterprise so dynamic […]

While it’s common for a general counsel to wear legal and business hats, there’s another that Bryan Pechersky sports as he goes about his responsibilities for one of the biggest coal mining companies in the Powder River Basin region of Wyoming and Montana. It’s the hat for government affairs, a matter weighing heavy on the […]

For Caitlyn Peskind, the world of real estate was more than a chosen profession; it was a calling—however quiet it might’ve seemed at first. It started with her father, a veteran of the escrow field who instilled in young Caitlyn an early interest in the industry, whether the two were driving around the region looking […]

When Bill Tomaszewski says he’s the luckiest man in the world, he can make a case using his own metrics. He may be far from the richest Bill around—the one with the Gates surname would claim that honor by light years—but he is set financially. The 20 years he spent as a New Jersey cop […]

Complex deals and advising international business clients during her law firm days primed Kirsten Richesson for an in-house counsel role she calls fascinating, but so too did attorneys who challenged her to advance. Richesson is general counsel of Blackhawk Network, a financial technology company headquartered in Pleasanton, California with operations in 26 countries. Blackhawk Network […]

For almost 10 years, NuScale Power LLC has been developing safer, smaller, scalable nuclear power technology. But the company, which has more than 450 employees and receives hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each year, has only a trickle of revenue. The technology NuScale is developing grew out of a Department of Energy (DOE) funded […]