Retired certified public accountant and Spokane community leader Bill Simer says his life would have looked much different had he not happened to meet a young woman and her brother in Spokane more than 50 years ago.

Phyllis Campbell, 2026 Spokane Journal of Business Icon, led an accumulative 50-year career in banking, philanthropy, and board service across the Inland Northwest and western Washington. 

A handful of companies across Eastern Washington and North Idaho have raised millions of dollars in recent months, with the majority of funding falling outside the traditional angel- or venture-backed technology, health care, and consumer industries.

In Spokane and across Eastern Washington, health care affordability is no longer a future concern. It's already shaping decisions that local employers are making today about jobs, growth, and compensation.

Fans watching the Sunday Seattle Mariners game during opening weekend might have noticed a commercial featuring the team’s All-Star catcher and switch-hitter, Cal Raleigh, as the newest, high-performing team member at Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank.

Spokane-based Quantum Financial Planning Inc. is growing with the acquisition of a Spokane Valley-based financial planning company and the addition of a new financial planner.

Washington state is moving forward with the Washington Saves automatic individual retirement account program, with penalties for noncompliance beginning in 2030.

For decades, Washington state's lack of a personal income tax was one of its defining economic advantages, a feature that drew executives, entrepreneurs, and high earners across the region. That era is ending.

Washington lawmakers have repealed a tax exemption for credit unions, disrupting a fast-growing deal market for mergers and acquisitions.