“Observant, diligent, steadfast, what a brilliant mind.” These words were used by fellow Leadership Tri-Cities (LTC) classmates to describe Paul Harmsen. In the nearly decade and a half I have worked with Paul, I saw a dimension of him that was different and impressive Wednesday evening, June 17, 2015 as he graduated.  

Last week our own Bob Sable graduated among the Leadership Clark County (LCC) class of 2015. He joins the ranks of several other MacKay Sposito employees who have previously graduated from LCC, including: Rob Palena, Gary Folkerts, Zack Martin, and myself.

Since 1994, over 650 people have gone through the 9-month-long program that was originated to help develop effective leaders to serve this community. The program is set up to expose the participants to a wide variety of topics, issues, and challenges facing our community. It also provides students the opportunity to learn many things about themselves and gain real world knowledge, such as how to effectively work with other personality types different from their own.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of participating on a panel for one of the Vancouver Business Journal's Boardroom Executive Sessions, titled: Leveraging Social Media to Grow Your Business. My co-panelists were Noland Hoshino of High Five Media, Shon-Lueiss Harris of SB Ventures Group/New Vansterdam, and fellow Washington State University Vancouver grad Gary Nasca of Riverview Community Bank.