ABOUT SW Idaho Business Alliance
We help lift your business to new heights.
How It All Started
Coming Soon!
Meet Our Team
Mike Olsen
President and Founder
Occupation: Photographer and Home Improvement
Business: Mike Olsen Photography LLC and MQI Home Improvement LLC
Hometown: Bellingham, WA
Hobbies: Photography, Shooting Sports, Motorcycles
Board Emphasis: Strategic planning, membership, team cohesion, and results analysis
Inspiration: Opportunities to help others succeed.
Why I’m passionate about SWIDBA: SWIDBA is a platform used to support businesses, communities, and non-profits to grow and succeed. Through our various activities, we can see the results of our strategic plan. Each success motivates me to grow our organization and do everything we can to continue to contribute to those successes.
Email: mike.olsen@swidba.org, mike@mikeolsenphotography.com, mqi.olsen@outlook.com
Ben Longcor
Vice President East
Occupation: Property and Casualty Insurance Broker
Business: Idaho Select Insurance
Hometown: Star, ID
Hobbies: Playing softball, coaching youth baseball/softball, and my non-profit Friends of Baseball
Board Emphasis: Partner/Sponsor relations, growing our membership footprint, Assisting in day to day operations of the organization
Inspiration: I am very inspired by today’s youth, I see it in my own two children daily. Knowing what they are capable of, how savvy and smart they are, inspires me to continue to be better and do better myself. They truly are our future, and I am excited to see where they will take it!
Why you’re passionate about SWIDBA: The strength of small growing communities like Star, Id. Since I moved here from Seattle three years ago, it has been inspiring to see this community expand. While there have been, and will continue to be growing pains along the way, it’s still a wonderful small town. I have come to love this community and enjoy having my family here. It is inspiring to see so many small businesses in Star and the surrounding cities, I want to do what we can to help them grow and thrive. I wholeheartedly believe there is enough business and commerce out there for all of us, we just need to work together to find it.
Email: benjaminlongcor@gmail.com or blongcor@IDSelectIns.com
Stephanie Pike
Vice President West
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Rebecca Gordon
Director of Marketing,
Communication & Digital Media
Occupation: Development
Business: Flash Tech Services
Hometown: Star, ID
Hobbies: Hiking, Trail Running, Being Outdoors
Board Emphasis: Marketing & Communication
Inspiration: How can you not be inspired by a community that comes together to make the world a better place?
Why you’re passionate about SWIDBA: Owning a small business is a challenge, and an organization such as SWIDBA helps us to succeed. Business to Business is a wonderful concept, but business to community is an amazing thing.
Email: rebecca@flashtechnicalservices.com
Kim Sitton
Treasurer
Occupation: REALTOR®
Business: Idaho Life Homes a team at Silvercreek Realty Group
Hometown: Lived most of my life in a small town north of Houston, but now call Star home.
Hobbies: Cooking, fishing, quilting, knitting
Board Emphasis: I am the Treasurer. I have always loved the numbers.
Inspiration: My family
Why you’re passionate about SWIDBA: I love that SWIDBA brings people from local businesses together and hosts events for the community and all funds raised are given back to local charities.
Email: kim@idaholifehomes.com
Dana Partridge
City of Star Liaison
Occupation: Public Information Officer, City of Star
Business: City of Star
Hometown: Star, ID
Hobbies: Cooking, Traveling, Camping, Gardening
Board Emphasis: City of Star Liaison
Inspiration: People and groups that are passionate about serving others.
Why you’re passionate about SWIDBA: SWIDBA is a well-organized group that actively supports small businesses and charities.
Email: dpartridge@staridaho.org
Cyndi Seybold
Secretary
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Victor Islas
Star Middleton Fire District Liaison
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Our Values
Through loyalty to our focused charter, “Connecting the community through business collaborations and charitable outreach,” the SW Idaho Business Alliance seeks to achieve its mission of promoting and enhancing commerce, strengthening our communities and relationships, and supporting and sponsoring charitable endeavors. We have confidence in our effort that these critical objectives will lead toward systemic change and actions that benefit Commerce, Community, and Charity, which will foster the economic development and improvement of lifestyle in the SW region of Idaho.
Essential to all our activities are:
Nurturing strong, self-reliant business organizations and charitable establishments with extended capacity for success
Building robust communities through collaboration to provide a foundation for positive change, enhancement, and cohesion
Developing leadership to build upon the needs and values of people and to inspire the aspirations and potential of others
Encouraging responsible citizen participation to help foster social unity
Promoting the social and economic and charitable empowerment of all individuals and communities to preserve fundamental democratic principles, while respecting diversity to maintain a sustainable business, community, and charitable environment
Our Code of Ethics
Respect and courtesy for the business entities we partner with, communities we work in, and charities we support. We believe in integrity and ethics in our actions, responsibility, and accountability for our decisions and their consequences, and finally, transparency in our operations. We’re committed to acting honestly, truthfully and with integrity in all our transactions and dealings. Avoiding conflicts of interest. Appropriately handling actual or apparent conflicts of interest in our relationships. Treating our members fairly. Treating every individual with dignity, courtesy, and respect. Being a good corporate organization and complying with both the spirit and the letter of the law. Acting responsibly toward the communities in which we work and for the benefit of the business organizations, communities, and charities that we serve. Being responsible, transparent and accountable for all our actions.