OLYMPIA — Michael Fong, a regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration and former Snohomish County official, was named Wednesday as the next director of the state Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n
Fong, a native of Spokane, has held the federal post<\/a> since January 2022. Before that he worked for Snohomish County, overseeing its pandemic response and recovery effort. He also worked a stint as a senior deputy mayor for the City of Seattle.<\/p>\n “Mike has a wide breadth of experience managing major progressive economic development programs on behalf of Washingtonians, and building successful coalitions,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a press release. “He has the integrity and the skill set required to lead the Department of Commerce and to deliver on the agency’s expansive mission of strengthening communities.”<\/p>\n Though Fong worked less than a year for Snohomish County, he made a strong impression on his boss.<\/p>\n “Mike Fong has the rare ability to combine compassion and strong leadership in everything he does,” Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers said in a statement. “He cares about all of our communities, both small and large, and wants to see families thrive. He is the leader Washington needs right now for the Department of Commerce.”<\/p>\n Fong replaces Lisa Brown, who left the post earlier this year and is now running for mayor of Spokane. He will begin work for the state May 8.<\/p>\n Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; Mike Fong oversaw county’s pandemic recovery efforts in 2021. He’ll take the reins of large state agency next month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":526,"featured_media":792316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2023\/04\/12\/former-snohomish-county-official-to-lead-wa-department-of-commerce\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Former Snohomish County official to lead WA Department of Commerce","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2023\/04\/12\/former-snohomish-county-official-to-lead-wa-department-of-commerce\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2023\/04\/12\/former-snohomish-county-official-to-lead-wa-department-of-commerce\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/32405904_web1_TSR-Mike-Fong-EDH-200804.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/32405904_web1_TSR-Mike-Fong-EDH-200804.jpg"},"articleSection":"Local News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jerry Cornfield"}],"creator":["Jerry Cornfield"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2023-04-12T08:30:00Z","datePublished":"2023-04-12T08:30:00Z","dateModified":"2023-04-12T08:30:00Z"},"rendered":"