Martha Choe

Martha Choe "left her position as a vice president at Bank of California to run for Seattle City Council in 1991. Over the following eight years, she faced many challenging issues – the 1995 Regional Transit Authority, approving the city’s $224 million dollar civic center master plan, and a substantial overhaul of the city budgeting process. In 1999, Governor Locke appointed her Director of the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, where she rose to the new challenges of attracting new businesses, nurturing existing businesses and developing international trade opportunities to create thousands of jobs in Washington. Then in 2003 she stepped up to lead “Project Olympus,” an appropriately epic title for the eight-month, all-out effort to persuade The Boeing Company to assemble its next-generation airliner here in Washington. You all know the result: the 7E7 Dreamliner will be assembled in Everett, adding a new chapter to this region’s long history with The Boeing Company, and Martha Choe became the state’s first 7E7 coordinator to help initiate that role. In May, she handed that job over to her permanent successor, Robin Pollard, and joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to direct their support of libraries around the world." (2004)