Ford 3000 Tractors

In Person: Blue Nile CEO Irvine is very unlike company's founder

Diane Irvine

CEO of Seattle-based Internet jeweler Blue Nile

Age: 52

Born: Libertyville, Ill.

Education: B.S. in accounting from Illinois State University and M.S. in taxation from Golden Gate University

Family: Married, mother of Laura, 19; David, 15; and Jessica, 12

Volunteerism: Founding Member of the Fulcrum Foundation, which provides financial support for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle; serves on board of trustees of Holy Names Academy

Previous jobs: CFO of Plum Creek Timber, partner at Coopers & Lybrand accounting firm

To look at them, Diane Irvine and Mark Vadon are a business odd couple.

Irvine, the chief executive of Seattle-based Internet jeweler Blue Nile, favors dark-blue suits with sensible shoes, keeps her short blond hair tucked neatly behind her ears, and sticks to her talking points.

Vadon, Blue Nile's executive chairman and co-founder, prefers jeans and boots, rarely shaves and talks off the cuff.

"I'm the disorganized, chaotic person," Vadon says. "She's very well-put-together and organized. We've always been a good complement to each other."

But when Vadon met Irvine, he wondered if she might be too buttoned-up.

It was 1999 — the booming dot-com era — and Blue Nile needed a chief financial officer. Vadon, then the CEO, sought help from a headhunter, who produced some 30 candidates. Among them was Irvine, previously the CFO of Plum Creek Timber.

While Irvine impressed Vadon in interviews, she won the job only after grabbing a beer with the Blue Nile staff at Kells pub near their Belltown offices.

"Back then, the company was mostly 20-somethings wearing jeans and T-shirts. Maybe she shows up and sees what's going on and runs out screaming," he remembers thinking.

"But Diane can drink beer with the best of them."

Irvine, a married mother of three, went on to become president in 2007 and CEO in 2008, when Vadon stepped down from day-to-day operations to provide strategic direction.

Last month, Blue Nile reported its seventh straight quarter of year-over-year sales growth, after being hit hard by the Great Recession. It posted a first-quarter profit of $2.4 million on sales of $80.2 million, up 8 percent from a year ago. Its stock, which dropped below $20 in 2009, currently trades in the mid-$40s.

etobdeti: Ford 3000 Tractor

Man/Woman, I see so much energy here or could be just shouting. It would be in the best interest to use the energy to contact respective congressman/woman/senator of their area, ask them / request them to bring/pass legislation like SKIL and PACE. Tell them why this bill is needed. Tell them your problem. If everyone of us call congressman and woman and follow up with them on the progress that would be great. Am I doing it? Yep..Not joking IV members are involved. IV guys can you develop questionnaire which we should ask the operator. What I did is I asked to operator to connect me someone who can help me in bringing immigration legislation. That is how I approached the operator. IV associates what I am getting at is how should people reach right person? As IV people have interacted with many senator office they have better idea what are different staffer there and how they are addressed, and how to reach them. The houses are highly overpriced. Only people making suggestions for buying house "now" are realtors and please excuse me, va_labor, people who want to make 100K profit now on other suckers. Wait one to one & a half years more and you will get these same houses for cheap. va_labor ;) , If you want to make your 100K profit, you better sell you house now, or it might be too late in one or two years :) I recently saw one case where an H1B application was reopened. The LUD was updated even after being approved more than a year ago. The reason was that the company had applied for an L1 visa for another applicant and the case received an RFE and all other immigration cases of the company came under review. The new L1 visa case was denied but the old H1B approval for another applicant did not get any denial or RFE. So make sure you work for a good company and have a clean immigration case, else there are some scares along the way.Thanks Pappu. Those who are celebrating .. consider this.. your employer decides for any reason to not continue filing I-140 or decides to let you go in 6th yr.. earlier you used to have at least possibility of sub labor.. now you are basically straight out of luck.. Also if microsoft needed some genius from China or India to join their team and the guy obviously deserves special consideration due to business need and/or his talent.. they are stuck..! It's not good.. yes desi folks were selling and buying these but remedy is worse than the defect.

The Big Book of Ford Tractors, The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia...Plus Classic Toys, Brochures, and Collectibles

The Big Book of Ford Tractors

Ford Tractors

Illustrated Directory of Tractors

The Field Guide to Ford Tractors