Robert Flowers Elected as Chairman of AAA Washington Board of Trustees

Robert Flowers (Seattle), retired senior vice president of Washington Mutual Bank, was elected as chairman of AAA Washington’s Board of Trustees. Flowers was with Washington Mutual Bank for 35 years where he served in several leadership roles, including senior vice president and manager of Commercial Real Estate, before retiring in 2005 as the senior vice president of Community Lending and Investment.  He has been a board member at AAA Washington since 2005.

Flowers is an active member of the community and has served on several other boards including: Washington State Convention Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Seattle Children’s Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington Evans School Advisory Board, African American Heritage Foundation and the Museum Development Authority for the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Sports Commission, and is a former trustee of Evergreen State College.

Newly elected officers of the AAA Washington Board of Trustees include David Madeira (Gig Harbor), CEO of LeMay – America’s Car Museum, who was elected vice chairman; Carolyn Kelly (Seattle), former president and COO of The Seattle Times, was elected Treasurer; and Kirk Nelson (Sammamish) was re-elected as president and CEO of AAA Washington.

New to the AAA Washington Board of Trustees:

• José Gaitán (Seattle), managing member of the Gaitán Group, PLLC, a Seattle law firm. During his extensive career as a lawyer, Gaitán has served as counsel to seven of the Global Fortune Ten companies in addition to serving as counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, Fannie Mae, General Motors and more. He currently serves on boards for the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Independent Colleges of Washington and the University of Washington President’s Advisory Committee. Gaitán recently concluded his term as Chair of the United Way of King County.

• Patti Paris (Moses Lake), CFO of Columbia Colstor, Inc., a public refrigerated warehouse company. Paris has been with Columbia Colstor, Inc. for nearly 15 years. Prior professional experience includes leadership at LeMaster & Daniels, Grant County PUD and 10 years at Pacific Northwest Bell. Paris is also a board member of IARW (International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses), AWB (Association of Washington Business) and an Executive Board member of Grant County Industrial Power User Association.

Returning trustees are: Greg Bever (Spokane), retired publisher of Spokane’s Journal of Business; Gigi Burke (Everett), former co-owner and executive vice president of Crown Distributing; Don Brunell (Vancouver), vice president, Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs; Marilyn Batt Dunn (Seattle), retired senior counsel, UW Medicine Advancement; William Lampson (Pasco), president of Lampson International; Steve Matsko (Spokane), retired regional manager of U.S. Bank; Dennis Okamoto (Seattle), retired executive of US West Communications; and Ken Ryals (Beaux Arts), senior director of citizenship and public affairs at Microsoft.