Andy Turner has resigned as dean of Pacific Lutheran University’s School of Business. The sudden decision came Thursday, after the board of directors of Turner’s private equity firm unanimously requested that he focus solely on his growing responsibilities there.

Turner was named dean in November 2006, after six months as acting dean. He intended to serve as dean while continuing to work as a partner in Northern Lights Ventures.

Turner felt an obligation to the investors and chose to pursue the firm’s goal of transforming the money management business, the school said in a press release.

University Provost Patricia O’Connell Killen said Turner’s departure
will not delay implementing the vision of the School of Business to
become the best small-college business school on the West Coast.

Killen will move immediately to put interim leadership in place, the school said.

Shares of Safeco Corp. dropped the most in two months after first-quarter underwriting profit from auto insurance declined 68 percent.

The stock fell $1.81, or 2.7 percent, to $64.93 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Bloomberg News reported today.

The number of customers with Safeco auto policies declined 3.5 percent in the first quarter to 1.74 million, and underwriting profit in that segment fell to $17.2 million, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today. The number of accidents per insured car rose from a year earlier.

“Personal auto remains the area of weakness,” said Matthew Heimermann, an analyst with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York.
The accident rate had a “low single-digit percentage increase,” due to severe winter weather, said Executive Vice President Michael

Lacey-based Venture Financial Group, parent of Venture Bank, on Tuesday announced that first-quarter income – $3.2 million – increased by 39.1 percent over income in the first quarter of 2006. The $3.2 million was the highest first-quarter income the bank has reported.

At the end of the first quarter, Venture had assets of $1.062 billion, an all-time high and an increase of 8.6 percent over the same period in 2006.

“The first quarter 2007 is a milestone for Venture Financial Group,” said Ken Parsons, Venture’s chairman and CEO.

“Commercial loans have seen good growth. Construction and land development have been strong for us. We’re getting more customers,” said James Arneson, Venture president.

Alaska Airlines pilots were picketing today near the airline's SeaTac headquarters.

The informational picketing was just the opening ritual in what could be a difficult year of negotiations for a new contract for the 1,500 pilots.

Those pilots took an average 26 percent pay cut two years ago when an arbitrator ruled that the salaries should be reduced to bring them in line with industry averages.

Alaska offered after that ruling to soften the paycuts, which reduced first officers' pay as much as 34 percent, in return for a five-year contract with a mid-term adjustment, but the pilots voted that proposal down.

The pilots want to recover lost ground from an airline that is one of the few legacy carriers not forced into bankruptcy after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

The airline says that despite the pay cuts and cost-cutting all around, its per-seat, per-mile costs have again risen to the top of the pile because airlines such as Delta, United and Northwest have shed debts, forced labor concessions and dumped retirement plans in bankruptcy reorganization. As Delta emerged from bankruptcy this week, for instance, its seat-mile costs were reported to be about 7 cents a mile. Alaska says its costs are about 7.8 cents a mile.

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Qwest and Comcast both came out today with updates on how the company’s are doing selling phone and Internet services to consumers.

The two telecommunications providers are competing heavily to woo customers with new services and special offers.

Qwest: The number of customers who buy high-speed Internet through Qwest rose 167,000 to 2.3 million. Primary residential phone lines totaled 7.2 million. Qwest operated in 14 Western states including Washington.

Consumers spent an average of $52 for Qwest’s non-wireless services, up from $49 a year ago and from $51 in the previous three months.

If cable competition intensifies, Qwest may have to increase its spending on marketing and selling its own services, said Todd Rosenbluth, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s in New York told Bloomberg News.

Comcast: Comcast Corp. predicted that its telephone service will more than quadruple to 11 million lines in less than two years, the company told investors today.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts is driving drive growth by selling packages of the three services, known as the “triple play.”

As many as 25 percent of homes passed by Comcast’s cable lines will be using Comcast phone service in 2009, Roberts forecast today.

Comcast also said Tuesday that cable revenue will rise 12 percent a year through 2009 on demand for packages of TV, telephone and Internet services.

Looking for an afternoon snack? Stop by Pizza Hut from 3 to 5 pm today, where the company's site says it's giving away slices of hand-tossed pizza.

The giveaway gimmick is the latest in the chain pizza wars. Pizza Hut doesn't hide from its competition on this one, touting its reworked hand-tossed pie as better than Domino's and Papa John's. But will it beat Subway's? The sandwich chain has been testing pizza for a decade now and announced last month that you'll see its personal pizzas in June, pepperoni and all.

Sea-Tac continues to enhance it's foreign connections with the announcement today of a new non-stop flight to Mexico City.

Aeromexico, Mexico's largest airline, will be begin flying to Mexico's capital on July 4. The flight will continue to Guadalajara.

The announcement marks the return year-round non-stop service to Mexico from Seattle. Alaska Airlines flies non-stop to the tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Cancun seasonally from Seattle.

Aeromexico will fly Boeing 737-700s on the flight which will leave Seattle at 8:30 a.m. and arrive in Mexico City at 3:40 p.m. The return flight will depart Mexico at 6 p.m. and arrive in Seattle at 9:35 p.m.

Years ago, Mexicana Airlines flew from the Puget Sound area to Mexico but abandoned that route for more lucrative ones.

The Aeromexico announcement is the second this year of a new foreign connection for Sea-Tac. Air France earlier this year announced a new non-stop flight to Paris.

Reports have surfaced of possible other Sea-Tac overseas connections: Virgin Atlantic to London, Phillipines to Manila and a Chinese carrier to China.