Skip to content

Movers & Shakers: Seattle’s Most Influential People of the Year 2019

Meet this year’s class of our Most Influential People: 35 Seattleites who are altering the fabric of our city

By Edited by Linda Morgan November 12, 2019

Seattle Skyline
Seattle Skyline

This article originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.

We are the crane capital of the country, and that means we are still growing at an astonishing—and sometimes unnerving—rate. With exceptional growth come exceptional people, and we celebrate them here. These luminaries help elevate the city  to new heights, seeking solutions to challenges that accompany transformations in housing, homelessness, city government, the environment, business, the arts and more. Our Most Influential People of 2019 differ in their backgrounds and areas of expertise, but they all share a positive vision for Seattle and our region and work tirelessly toward that goal.

Seattle Times Reporter Dominic Gates

Public Officials: Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, U.S. District Judge James Robart, City of Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil

Recompose Founder Katrina Spade

Arts Education Advocate Lara Davis

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile

HistoryLink Executive Director and Cofounder Marie McCaffrey

Former General Director of the Seattle Opera Aidan Lang

Common Ground Music Project Founder Shontina Vernon

yəhaw̓ Curatorial Team, Satpreet Kahlon, Tracy Rector and Asia Tail

Outgoing CEO and President of the Bullitt Foundation: Denis Hayes

Ivar’s Seafood Restaurants President Bob Donegan

Southern Resident Orca Task Force

President and CEO of Visit Seattle Tom Norwalk

Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz

TransFamilies Executive Director Aidan Key

Spaceflight Industries CEO Curt Blake

Seattle NHL Team President and CEO Tod Leiweke

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith

Evergreens Founders Hunter Brooks and Todd Fishman

Social Justic Fund Interim Program Director Karen Toering

Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream CEO Molly Moon Neitzel

Homelessness and Housing Advocates Colleen Echohawk, Matt Hutchins, Nicole Macri and Paul Lambros

Africatown Community Land Trust President and CEO K. Wyking Garrett

Sightline Institute Founder and Executive Director Alan Durning

Ones to Watch: Brady Walkinshaw, Aparna Rae and Sage Ke‘alohilani Quiamno, Harlan and Chad Robins, Ambika Singh, Carmen Best, Stephanie Formas, Guy Palumbo, Andrew Engelson, Jarret Stopforth, Yin Yu and Angela Dunleavy-Stowell

Follow Us

From the Archives: Most Influential—Before That Was a Thing

From the Archives: Most Influential—Before That Was a Thing

Remembering the kind of leadership that built Washington—and still echoes today.

Washington state once had Dan Evans, a leader whose impact still endures, and who governed with a sort of principled presence that helped shape the soul of our region. A three-term governor and later U.S. senator, Evans embodied a kind of civic leadership that feels both mythic and arguably elusive now. He was pragmatic, optimistic,…

The Coach: Sonia Raman

The Coach: Sonia Raman

The history-making coach leading the Seattle Storm into the future.

In the early 2000s, Sonia Raman was on the traditional track to a successful career in law, but coaching basketball kept bouncing back to her. A lifelong fan of the sport, Raman—who played at Tufts University and coached throughout her collegiate and post-grad career—eventually heeded the call, making a pivot that would change her life….

The Civic Spacemaker: Tommy Gregory

The Civic Spacemaker: Tommy Gregory

A next-gen curator improving your airport experience.

“I love the saying, ‘sleep when you are dead.’” Few embody it like Tommy Gregory—tireless artist, curator, and connector who seems to be everywhere at once, installing work, throwing receptions, or plotting the next show. Gregory joined the Port of Seattle as senior project manager in 2019, just as airport art collections were gaining global…

The Piano Teacher: Payam Khastkhodaei

The Piano Teacher: Payam Khastkhodaei

The instructor rethinking the approach to music lessons.

When Payam Khastkhodaei began teaching piano to a family friend’s daughter in his Bothell home at 16, he relied on the same method he had been taught as a kid—classical songbooks, rigid practice, and pieces he never connected with. It didn’t take long to see she was losing interest. “I had learned from the Alfred…