Port of Seattle Business Accelerator Centers Women- and Minority-Owned Businesses

by Elizabeth Turnbull

As of last week, the Port of Seattle has been encouraging business owners, especially women and black entrepreneurs, as well as business owners in South King County to apply for the PortGen Accelerator, a business development program designed to help small businesses find future contract opportunities.

As part of the drive to bring about fairer hiring practices, Dave McFadden, the port’s Managing Director of Economic Development, said the accelerator comes from an awareness that the port has more work to do.

“Women and minority companies are not represented in our own supply chain as much as they are in the population,” McFadden told the Emerald in an interview. “We put a little more emphasis on women and minority companies because our analysis shows that we can do better there.”

The PortGen Accelerator consists of mentoring and programs open to companies that have (ideally) been in business for more than five years and are eligible for a potential contract, although the port does not guarantee a future partnership once the program is completed.

Applications for the Accelerator will close on May 15 and will be open to business owners of any demographic group who work in the construction, electrical engineering, specialty services, and general goods and service industries, among others. However, as women and minority owned companies are underrepresented in port contracts, these applicants will receive preferential treatment.

Overall, the port of Seattle consists of the city’s seaport in addition to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The port has had a significant impact on the city as one of the largest employers in the Pacific Northwest, making any injustice in the procurement practice significant.

However, the presence of the port, and the airport in particular, is felt outside of recruitment practices as well, as the communities in South Seattle, which is one of the most diverse parts of Seattle, have to deal with the noise caused by flight routes over the air. A UW research study last year found that communities near the airport such as SeaTac, Des Moines, Highline, Angle Lake, Beacon Hill, and Rainier Valley are exposed to “ultra-fine” particles of concern among other pollutants.

In January 2018, the port adopted a recruitment and contract policy with the aim of threefold increase in contracts with women and minority companies. More recently, following the assassination of George Floyd, the port has also passed a motion to increase support to the Port’s Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Inclusion Office, calling for racial justice and subconscious prejudice training for port workers of all seniorities. In addition, more emphasis has been placed on hiring people from areas in South Seattle.

Port officials, such as Commissioner Ryan Calkins, also hope the Accelerator and other women and minority efforts will help offset some of the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people in this demographic as well.

“[The coronavirus] affected companies owned by women; it affected minority owned businesses, ”Calkins said in an interview with the Emerald. “The most effective way to support the economic recovery is to target the companies that have been hardest hit.”

Elizabeth Turnbull is a journalist with experience reporting in the United States and the Middle East. She has a passion for dealing with human-centered issues and doing so consistently. Her work includes extensive documentation of the protests in Seattle following the assassination of George Floyd, as well as coverage from her time as a writer for the Jordan Times, covering resources and government arrangements for refugees.

📸 Selected image by Rawpixel Ltd under a creative commons license.

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