What does a committed community volunteer and influential business leader do in her down time? If it’s Beth Halvorsen, she makes sure her “energy is used for good," which also happens to be the first thing she said when we sat down to talk last week. Looking at her volunteer record alone, she’s been living by those words for over a decade.  

 

Beth is the quintessential Pacific Northwesterner. She was born and raised in a small town in Oregon. She attended Lewis and Clark College and settled in the suburbs of Portland. Her husband had a daughter, Katie, who at the time was in middle school, and who Beth bonded with instantly. When a tragic accident took her first husband’s life, Beth was devastated. She threw herself into her work in commercial real estate and volunteering in the Portland community, and eventually found love again. 

This love, Patrick, lived on the East Coast. They were married in Newport, Rhode Island, and began a family in Boston. Beth worked for TA Associates Realty, becoming the Vice President/Asset Manager, and her career was on the rise. But she wanted to be closer to family and as luck would have it, Patrick, a Microsoft executive, was offered a Seattle-based position, moving the family to Bellevue.

 

Beth’s recipe for a great community is one-part strong business, one-part jobs and growth, a solid public education system, and a strong arts community. This is why they chose Clyde Hill in 2012. Once moved into their new home, the first thing Beth wanted to do was to get involved meaningfully in the community. It was the mission and vision of Bellevue LifeSpring, centered on the needs of children with food and housing insecurity within our school district, that resonated with her. She spent 11 years on the LifeSpring board working hard to raise money and awareness, and remains connected as an emeritus board member lending her deep knowledge and resources to LifeSpring whenever possible.

 

Her philanthropic mindset and commitment in the local Bellevue community is also reflected in her family. Raising three kids in the Bellevue schools, her daughters participated in the National Charity League and her son was a member of the National League of Young Men. Seniors at Bellevue High, Beth's twins, Brynn and Brady, follow their mom’s community-service focus by spending time with Bellevue LifeSpring, YWCA, Bellevue Farmer’s Market, and picking up trash for Keep Bellevue Beautiful. Brooke is a sophomore at Brown University studying Biology and is a member of the Brown Women’s CREW Team. Beth and Katie, her ‘daughter’ from her first marriage, remain close. She lives in Oregon raising Dean and Nora, Beth’s grandkids.  

 

It was volunteer work that piqued Beth’s interest in the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM), the leading museum of modern art and design on the Eastside. Beth, with her background in business strategy and commercial real estate, knows that Bellevue is an amazing community, and its commitment to encouragement, enhancement, and enjoyment of the arts is a key factor in its success. Beth looks forward to serving on the BAM Board and supporting its Interim Executive Director, Kate Casprowiak Scher. Coincidentally, they used to play tennis on the same team at Bellevue Club. She’s excited to start this new chapter in volunteering and is enthusiastic about the direction BAM is headed. The museum will be integral in bringing more arts and culture to our community, which is key to bringing more people to Bellevue as the city itself grows and changes.

 

When not volunteering, Beth is a business strategist and commercial real estate consultant. Prior to starting her own company, she was Executive Managing Director for Colliers, leading brokerage for the Seattle/Bellevue markets, and Managing Director of Asset Services for CBRE for the Pacific Northwest. If that wasn’t enough, she also wrote a monthly advice column for Seattle Business Magazine called “Got a Minute”. She was recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Power 100 list for 2020 and 2021. She is the definition of ‘mover and shaker’, balancing her love of community with her business know-how, and is always willing to share a minute and her abundant energy with others.