Washington's top financial executives celebrate at CFO of the Year Awards

By Becky Monk, Assistant Managing Editor
Published in Puget Sound Business Journal

Washington's top financial executives celebrate at CFO of the Year Awards

Puget Sound Business Journal honored CFOs from Microsoft, Chef Software, ExtraHop Networks, Port of Seattle, Bensussen Deutsch and Associates, Bloodworks Northwest and CRISTA Ministries Thursday night at its 10th CFO of the Year Awards.

PSBJ Publisher Emory Thomas Jr. and columnist Patti Payne welcomed nearly 200 people to the Bellevue Westin to celebrate the region's top financial stewards.

CFO of the Year winners and sponsors celebrate with Junior Achievement's Gareth Black and Blair Coldrick. Back row, from left, Deloitte's Ed Thomas, Port of Seattle's Dan Thomas, Bloodworks Northwest Bob Gleason, BDA's Jared Collinge, Chef's Curt Anderson, CRISTA Ministries' Doug Sutten, ExtraHop's Palvi Mehta and U.S. Bank's Mike Katz.

Two students from Washington Junior Achievement, Blair Coldrick and Gareth Black helped open the ceremony that included a video in which they interviewed the 2016 CFO of the Year winners.

The winners are: Bloodworks Northwest's Bob Gleason, CRISTA Ministries' Doug Sutten, BDA's Jared Collinge, ExtraHop's Palvi Mehta, Chef Software's Curt Anderson, Port of Seattle's Dan Thomas and Microsoft's Amy Hood.

Honorees then took the stage and shared details about their lives, including that Thomas had once played keyboard in a rock band and that Anderson likes to "race things."

Collinge shared a piece of advice he once learned from a mentor that keeps him humble: "One of my old bosses told me 'You're only as good as your last quarter,'" he said.

If they could have any other job other than CFO, Collinge said he would play baseball, Mehta said she would remodel homes and Thomas said he would have liked to be a film director. "As I'm standing here on stage today," he said. "I'm imagining this is the Academy Awards."

Like the Academy Awards, the winners each thanked their families and their teams. An emotional acceptance speech from Mehta talked about coming to the U.S. when she was six years old. "My parents had nothing," she said. "They have worked their tails off and built a great life and taught all of us kids how to do that." She also said she wanted to thank "all of the CEOs who didn't go with the conventional choice" when hiring her.

To read about each of the 2016 winners, go here.