Paul Hutton | Founding Partner and President
Mr. Hutton has spent over 30 years in executive and senior management positions leading technology and business strategy development for companies including Nordstrom, Weyerhaeuser, Reliance Group Holdings, Gulf & Western and Blue Shield.
Mr. Hutton has been intimately involved as a leader in the advancement of high technology education, having served on the American Electronics Association’s Higher Education Task Force. He was apponted to two terms on the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board to the NSF's National Workforce Center for Emerging Technology, and was recently re-appointed by the Governor to the Board of the Washington Technolgy Center. He also served as Director of Technology at the Lake Washington Technical College, guiding the college through a major, multi-campus upgrade of their technology infrastructure in preparation for their conversion to a baccalaureate institution.
Mr. Hutton’s served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives (Mergers and Acquisitions) and Vice President of Engineering for Captaris, Inc., where he developed new product strategies, drove acquisitions, and created new sustaining business partnerships and products which helped Captaris’ revenues grow rapidly from $38 million to over $110 million. Captaris became the leading producer of Unified Communications products worldwide, and counts IBM, Cisco and Microsoft among its key business partners.
Mr. Hutton similarly provided turnaround leadership to AGENA Corporation, a well respected business providing insurance industry software systems. Mr. Hutton was hired by the board as Vice President Products and Marketing and reformed the entire product line introducing the first Windows based products used by insurance agents. Mr. Hutton established a key relationship with Microsoft who promoted their products both internationally and in their Comdex presentations. As a result the company sales grew from $25 million to $89 million over 4 years.
Mr. Hutton is also an advisor to Cognition Partners, a venture consulting firm in Bellevue, WA; and Partner and COO with iQ Enterprises, a web-based company that recruits graduate students for prestigious private universities across the nation.
Mr. Hutton has undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science and an Executive Certificate in Technology Leadership from MIT's Sloan School of Management.