Ellen (Elly) Walkowiak is the Assistant Director of the City of Tacoma, Washington, Community

& Economic Development Department. She has worked for over 25 years in land use planning

and economic development. She has extensive experience in strategic planning, negotiating

complicated, multifaceted development agreements, brownfields redevelopment, attracting

domestic and foreign investment, Opportunity Zones, acquiring infrastructure funding, and

lobbying at the Federal and State levels to enable community vitality.

Since September 2007, Elly has been involved in some of the most complex and challenging

economic development projects in the City of Tacoma. She led the highly technical negotiation

and pre-development activities on the new $150 million Marriott Tacoma Downtown Convention

Center hotel—the largest downtown private foreign investment in the City’s history. In 2017,

she won a lifetime achievement award for excellence in public service from the Center for

Creative Land Recycling.

Elly has an M.S. in Resource Administration and Management from the University of New

Hampshire and a B.A. in Environmental Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh as well

as professional certifications in economic development, finance and public management.

Trent specializes in real estate development, as well as project and construction management. He has more than 30 years of experience in the industry and has been intimately involved in overseeing the development of more than $600 million in real estate projects.

Prior to forming Trent Development, he was a partner of The Metropolitan Companies, established in 2007. Previously, Trent was the managing principal of TGM Management LLC, where he managed the development of a 700-acre master planned golf course community, the renovation of a mixed-use 235-unit condominium conversion and the construction of a new 66-unit apartment building. Prior to TGM Management LLC, Trent was a partner in both The Sterling Group and The Triple T Group, where he managed the renovation and adaptive reuse of numerous apartment building and warehouse conversions.

Trent is known for his ability to coordinate complicated projects in order to achieve great results. In addition to an extensive Seattle-based portfolio, he has worked on projects in Japan, Vancouver, BC; San Francisco and Camdenton, Missouri.

Eugene Gershman is a seasoned business executive with nearly 20 years of experience in real estate and construction. His expertise ranges from finance to technology and he prides himself with ongoing search for innovation and growth.

Gershman started his career by working for his father’s construction firm through high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA from University of Washington, Foster School of Business.

After a short stint in financial services, Eugene formally joined the family business in 2004. Under his leadership GIS successfully managed several real estate development projects ranging from construction of luxury single‐family custom homes to large commercial projects.

Some notable projects include Park 12, a luxury townhome development in Bellevue, WA; GIS Plaza in downtown Bellevue - a boutique mix use development; Madison Plaza in Kent, WA – the first building in the City to achieve a 4-star BuiltGreen certification and recognized as the tallest building in Kent at completion; as well as several others.

Gershman is a respected industry leader and has been recognized for his contributions to the industry. He spoke at industry conferences and has been quoted in print publications such as Puget Sound Business Journal, Daily Journal of Commerce and The Registry.

Kai is an avid builder of relationships and seeker of solutions with 20 years’ experience in strategic marketing. Over the course of her career, she’s played an integral role in advising and securing multi-million-dollar Civil Engineering, Design-Build, and Professional Services contracts with Federal, State, and Local governments, as well as private sector clients around the globe.

In her current role as Marketing Director, Kai’s consultative approach helps draw the connection between each client’s unique set of needs for high performing structures and spaces and the purposeful convergence of automation, technology, and manufacturing VANTIS uses in partnership with conventional construction methods to develop tailored solutions.

Since joining Abbott in 2003, Doug has been a key player in many of the company’s ongoing business development, operations, growth, and performance efforts. An ardent champion of Abbott’s core values, he empowers teams to incorporate our guiding principles throughout their day-to-day activities. With a construction career that spans over three decades, Doug frequently shares his wealth of knowledge and perspective at various industry speaking engagements. He is also committed to supporting local communities—from implementing Abbott’s Safety for a Cause program to allocating resources to assist many charitable causes such as Food Lifeline and the Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation. Doug received his Bachelor of Science in Construction Management and Business Administration from the University of Washington.

Mandy is Founder and Owner of Inspire Consulting based in Tacoma and serving clients in the Puget Sound, West Coast, and throughout the US. Mandy and her team provide AEC community services in Business Development, Talent Acquisition, and Commercial Real Estate Creative Services. She spearheads Inspire Mentoring providing needed skills and connections to foster the growth of new and transitioning professionals in the ARE community. Mandy is WBE and OMWBE certified, is a licensed commercial broker and serves on a number of boards including the University of Washington Tacoma Real Estate Advisory Committee and two City of Tacoma Advisory Groups. Additionally, she is an active member of CBA, NAIOP, and CoreNet.

Avanulas “Vann” Smiley serves as the Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration at the University of Washington Tacoma. Vann has over 32 years of leadership and management experience in the public sector, private sector and military.

Prior to assuming his current role, Vann served as the Executive Director for the One Washington Program within the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM). Vann served as the Vice President for Marketing and Business Development for an energy company, and served for nearly five years with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in a variety of assignments, most recently as the Chief of Staff/Deputy Secretary. He also served as the department’s Assistant Secretary for the Financial Services Administration (FSA)/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Senior Director for the Operations Support & Services Division (OSSD).

Vann spent a year as a Program Manager with a small defense technology firm and served 24 years in the Active Army with multiple combat deployments. He worked primarily in Light Infantry and Special Operations Units, was the equivalent of a Chief Operations Officer (COO) for a very large and globally dispersed organization, and commanded multiple organizations ranging in size from 200 to 3,000 personnel to include a Military Garrison, which is equivalent to being a City Manager for a 41,000-person community.

He is a Washington State native.