Introducing our 2016 BOMA Heroes

The BOMA Hero Awards recognize members in our organization that have displayed hard work, dedication and were real stand outs among our membership. 

2016 BOMA Heroes

	Aaron Blankers is the Assistant Vice President and Sr. Property Manager at Washington Holdings. Aaron is the Co-Chair of the Emerging Professionals Committee, a fantastic speaker at events, and recent star of the BOMA News Updates. He can always be counted on to be the Emcee of an event, mediate a panel or lead a discussion. Not only is he always willing, he does a fantastic job.  Aaron can think on his feet and speak very effectively to a group. He has a true passion for the Emerging Professionals Community, bringing talent into the industry and developing that talent into future leaders. He has been on the Emerging Professionals Committee since day one and has now himself emerged into a true leader at BOMA Seattle King County.
	Bill Babbitt is the Chief Engineer at CBRE. Bill Babbitt has been a BOMA member since 1999, and has been instrumental as a member of the Code & Utility Committee, and co-chairing the Operations and Maintenance Committee. He has been an immense help in keeping our groups informed regarding state, municipal and electrical code changes, tracking membership changes, and taking meeting notes for distribution to others. I think the most important thing to mention is his positive attitude and dedication to helping other members as well as his advocacy of BOMA in general. BOMA Executive, Rod Kauffman, says he regularly calls Bill when he has an engineer’s question and Bill is always ready to help and has great ideas.
	Kelli Thode is in Business Development with Paul Davis Restoration. As chair of the Industry Partner Committee, Kelli has grown the committee into one of the largest in BOMA. She is organized, efficient and keeps people involved in the committee. She leads by example both with charisma and by volunteering and recruiting volunteers for each and every major BOMA event. As Industry Partner Chair, she represents all Industry Partners on both BOMA Executive Committee and the Board and always comes prepared with great suggestions and ideas. She is also one of the kindest people that you will meet.
	Ronni Whetsell is the Assistant Property Manager at Wright Runstad & Company. Ronni has been involved in the Emerging Professionals Committee for three years. In 2016, she took the lead as head of the Mentor Program. She has put countless hours and a ton of work into revamping the program based on member suggestions from surveys. She has created fantastic programming for the structured mentor events and has put in place a method for communicating with mentors and mentees in a streamline and meaningful way. Ronni has great ideas that she brings to fruition and is a fantastic leader of the BOMA Mentor program.

Earl Wayman is a Senior Property Manager at Kidder Mathews. Earl is the Education Committee Chair and a Board Member and is heavily involved in BOMA. His background as a school principal and teacher has made him an excellent instructor for the Foundations of Real Estate Management course which he has taught for several years. He regularly attends BOMA events and is always promoting BOMA and helping out where he can.

Joe Malaspino is the Director of Engineering for Kidder Mathews. Joe not only leads an important BOMA committee (BOMA’s Code Committee) but has also spearheaded an effort and led a group of our colleagues in a nearly year-long effort to seek a reasonable and fair outcome with respect to the new regulations on energy use disclosure and building tune-up requirements being adopted in the City of Seattle. Joe has volunteered countless hours and his unique insight and experience while representing the best interest of BOMA members to help craft fair and reasonable regulations.