September 2007
Five New Members Elected to PACE Board
At its annual meeting in June 2007, the Board of Directors for Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE) elected five new members, bringing the total to 28. The newly elected members are Alka Badshah, Sally Gray, Brad Smith, Kathy Surace-Smith, and Randy Talbot. Each new member brings with them a tremendous amount of experience, a fresh perspective, and new energy that will help propel PACE towards achieving its mission to bring the finest performance hall in the region to the Eastside.
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Alka Badshah has over 20 years of experience in management, consulting, and product development in the IT industry. She worked at Microsoft for 11 years in various management and consulting roles related to User Interface. She is an alumna of MIT's media lab and has an undergraduate degree in architecture. Ms. Badshah has been involved in various endeavors including mentoring young people, serving on the Advisory Board of the South Asia Center at the University of Washington, and supporting efforts around child development in Washington State and India. She and her husband, Akhtar, live in Bellevue with their three children.
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Sally Gray currently serves as Vice President / Financial Consultant of RBC Dain Rauscher, an investment firm. Ms. Gray is a former District Governor of Rotary 5030, Past President of Bellevue Rotary, and a former Chair of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, the Eastside Business Roundtable, and Bellevue Community College Foundation Board. She has served terms as a board member on a number of area nonprofit organizations including United Way of King County, Overlake Medical Center, and the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra. Among her honors is the 1993 Eastside Woman of the Year. Ms. Gray lives in Bellevue with her husband, Jim.
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Brad Smith is Microsoft's Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary. He leads the company's Department of Legal and Corporate Affairs which is responsible for all legal work and for government, industry, and community affairs activities. Mr. Smith graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, where he received the Class of 1901 Medal, the Dewitt Clinton Poole Memorial Prize, and the Harold Willis Dodds Achievement Award, the highest award given to a graduating senior at commencement. He was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at the Columbia University School of Law, where he received the David M. Berger Memorial Award. He also studied international law and economics at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Smith and his wife, Kathy Surace-Smith, live in Bellevue with their two children.
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Kathy Surace-Smith is Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of SonoSite, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed medical device company specializing in high-performance, hand-carried ultrasound technology, based in Bothell, Washington. Ms. Surace-Smith graduated from Princeton University and received her law degree from Columbia University School of Law. She is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Overlake School, and serves on several committees of the YWCA of King County. She also previously served on the boards of Overlake Hospital Medical Center Foundation in Bellevue and the Children's Museum in Seattle. Ms. Surace-Smith and her husband, Brad Smith, live in Bellevue and have two teen-aged children.
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Randy Talbot is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SymetraSM Financial, a company that provides people with retirement plans, employee benefits, annuities, and life insurance through a network of independent distributors nationwide. In addition to leading SymetraSM Financial, he is a former Board member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, is currently on the Board of the American Council of Life Insurers, and is member of the Washington Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy organization that affects positive change on critical policy issues in Washington State. Mr. Talbot and his wife, Margaret, live in Bellevue.
