washington business
Of Note
Former Head of Microsoft Office Takes
Over Push to Fix HealthCare.gov
Another Record Year for Washington’s Wine Grape Crop
President Barack Obama
tapped Kurt DelBene,
the former president of
Microsoft Office, as chief
fixer for the troubled
HealthCare.gov.
DelBene, husband
of first-term Congresswoman Suzan DelBene,
D-Medina, will work for
free and stay on the job for at least six months to
help overcome massive technical problems plaguing the online health insurance exchange since its
Oct. 1 debut.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and former CEO
Steve Ballmer praised the choice, with Ballmer
saying DelBene is a “phenomenal leader who established Microsoft Office as a world-class service for
billions of people.”
It was another banner year for Washington’s wine grapes, which saw production
increase by 16 percent from 2012 — also a
record-setting year.
About 218,000 tons of wine grapes were
crushed last year, according to Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Washington
Association of Wine Grape Growers. The
growth is no surprise to those who have
watched Washington expand its grape
acreage to keep pace with growing wine
production.
Washington had 43,000 acres in wine grapes last year. Ted Baseler, CEO
of Woodinville’s St. Michelle Wine Estates, which uses about two-thirds
of all the wine grapes grown in the state, said he would like to see another
10,000 acres planted to grapes.
The wine industry contributed $8.6 billion to the state’s economy in
2011 and provided about 30,000 jobs, according to a 2012 Washington State
Wine Commission report.
Passages: Forrest “Bud” Coffey, Former AWB Board Chair and Chief
Boeing Lobbyist
Forrest “Bud” Coffey, former vice president of government affairs for Boeing and
a legend in Olympia, died Dec. 19. He was 86.
Coffey, who spent almost 50 years working for Boeing, was also a stalwart at
AWB.