Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/866061
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017 41 on both sides immigrated to the United States from Japan in the early 1900s. Four decades later, to avoid internment during World War II, his mother's family moved to Spokane and later Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "ey were lucky," Doug says. His father's parents, however, were not. In May of 1942, Kiyo and Toraichi Seto and family were forced from their Tacoma home and loaded on a train. ey were incarcerated in Pinedale, California, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans and later at Tule Lake, a desolate expanse of dirt, barracks, and barbed wire near the California-Oregon border. While Doug's grandparents sat in an internment camp, Doug's father, Matthew, served in a U.S. Army intelli- gence unit. For many Japanese-Ameri- can families, this dichotomy—children serving in the U.S. military while their parents remained imprisoned for their ancestry—grew all too familiar. "When I was a child nothing was said about it," Doug recalls. A CAREER OF LEADERSHIP Aer V-J Day, Doug's grandparents returned to their Tacoma home and continued their role as community leaders, including at Whitney Memo- rial United Methodist Church, which Toraichi helped found before the war. Matthew Seto le the service and went into finance. Eventually, Doug would follow closely in his father's footsteps, bringing economic and financial exper- tise to a diverse set of companies. "What I bring has always been that strategic planning and positioning the company for growth," Doug says. "You can take that and apply that to any industry." Doug's work has taken him from a paper pulp company to selling street sweepers. Along the way, he's joined ownership groups and served as exec- utive director of the Lake Washington Schools Foundation. "e WAC is fortunate to have won- derful representatives of the community and of the Club continually step forward to take on the Chairmanship of the Board of Governors," WAC President & CEO Chuck Nelson says. "Doug Seto is quintessentially Seattle, has significant experience here at the WAC, and is a strong and knowledgeable advocate of the WAC. We are excited to work with Doug in this leadership role." During his time at the schools foun- dation, Doug increased fundraising and helped deliver S.T.E.M. education to high school and middle school students. "at was a good accomplishment," he says. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017 41 Doug's interest in giving back to the community remains. In addition to serving on the Boy Scouts' board, he is an emeritus board member at the North- west Kidney Centers, where more than 15 years ago he and his father estab- lished a research endowment in honor of Doug's mom, Kiyoko, who died of kidney failure. Doug's passion for kidney research shows during a recent visit to the Kidney Research Institute, a collaboration between Northwest Kidney Centers and UW Medicine, where he engages director Dr. Jonathan Himmelfarb in a detailed conversation about the latest science and the future of kidney disease management. To the casual observer, it's all quite technical. "Without the Northwest Kidney Centers, the Kidney Research Institute wouldn't exist," Dr. Himmelfarb says. "e partnership has been fantastic on all fronts and has really helped us cata- lyze research dedicated to impacting the lives of those living with kidney disease." BETWEEN GENERATIONS We've been shadowing Doug for a couple of days, and the realms in which he operates are clearly diverse. "I kind of have different worlds I am in all the time," he says. His friends include mil- lennials, baby boomers, and those of his Doug Seto's WAC bio • Member since 1980 • Committee involvement Membership & Marketing 1998–2000 –Second Vice Chair 2000 Finance 2000–2003; 2014–2015 –Chair 2014–2015 House 2006–2014 –Second Vice Chair 2010–2013 HR & Benefits 2014–2015 Food & Beverage 2015–2016 –Chair Executive 2014–current –Treasurer 2014–2015 • Board of Governors Chairman Elect 2016–2017 Chairman 2017–2018