Mikal Thomsen spent more than 20 years in the wireless industry. He joined McCaw Communications in 1983 as one of its first employees in the cellular division, and remained with the company in both domestic and international operations for nearly a decade. In 1992, he co-founded Pacific Northwest Cellular, where he served as Managing Director. After a series of acquisitions and mergers, he became Chief Operating Officer of Western Wireless and its subsidiary, VoiceStream. When VoiceStream was spun off as a separate company, he became President of Western Wireless. He served in that capacity until Western was sold to Alltel in 2005.

Mikal serves on the board of a variety of private company boards. In 2011, Mikal led a group of local investors that purchased the Tacoma Rainiers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. He now serves as Chairman and CEO of the team. He has served as Chairman of the Washington State University Foundation and currently remains on the board of the Foundation. He is also former board chair of University Prep in Seattle.

Outside Trilogy, Mikal is an active angel investor in the Seattle community. Mikal graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Business. He and his wife have two sons.

What nuggets of wisdom do you have for entrepreneurs?

Operate from the balls of your feet. Don’t sit back on your heels. Be ready to jump at opportunities and even if they aren’t what you anticipated at the beginning when you started your company. There are going to be some things that come along that you need to be willing to bet the business on, and they’re not obvious to you when you’re starting the business in a lot of cases.