Steering Strategic Resilience: Leadership Insights from AAA Washington

Carrie Wilson is the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary at AAA Washington, a leading Pacific Northwest member driven organization with over 1.2M members and business lines in emergency roadside assistance, travel advisory, and insurance. As the CFO, Carrie takes pride in helping steward the access, advisory, and assistance AAA Washington provides its members as the largest personal line insurance agency in the state and trusted partner in towing, over 120 years strong. With a proven track record of leading companies through digital, operational, and financial transformations, Carrie combines entrepreneurial spirit, collaborative partnership, and strategic mindset to drive success.

During her career, Carrie has managed a $200M investment portfolio, was integral in establishing an insurance company, and executed a $200M out-of-court debt and equity restructuring. She excels in financial and investment leadership, steering organizations through innovative changes that blend technology, data, and people to achieve operational excellence. Carrie’s leadership focuses on building corporate culture and driving passion and purpose in the workplace.

Carrie graduated from the University of Washington Foster School of Business with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant in Washington State. Carrie’s board service experience includes: Junior Achievement of Washington, Auto Club MAPFRE Insurance Company, and Cedar Crest Academy Parent Board. In her free time, Carrie enjoys the outdoors with her family where they ski, rock climb, and hike in the Cascades, fish in the San Juan Islands, and cheer on the Dawgs at Husky Stadium.

Cindy Bolton is an accomplished senior financial executive with over 25 years of leadership integrating strategy, finance and operations in global organizations, startups and non-profits.  A hallmark of her career has been advising and leading complex organizations in dynamic market settings. While most of her career has been focused on growth, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Cindy identified and implemented -25% in cost reductions to offset a -20% drop in revenue, delivering profitable results every year of the pandemic. Cindy is experienced in governance as well having served as Audit & Finance Chair on three boards.

Currently, Cindy is the Chief Financial Officer of the Seattle Art Museum, the leading visual art institution in the Pacific Northwest, spanning 3 sites including a 9-acre outdoor sculpture park, a landmark 1933 art deco building, 240,000 square feet of class A real estate in downtown Seattle, and $375 million in net assets, where her responsibilities have included finance, treasury, investments, debt financing, HR, legal, risk management, real estate, facilities, and overseeing the museum’s earned revenue businesses (admissions, retail operations, private events, and foodservice) that comprise 20% of the museum’s annual revenue. She is the staff lead for the museum’s Audit Committee, Finance Committee, and Investment Committee, and presents regularly to the museum’s Executive Committee and Board of Trustees.  

Cindy is Audit & Finance Committee Chair for PCC Community Markets, the nation’s largest co-op grocer with sales of $450M, and Board Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair for KEXP, an influential listener-supported radio station whose online and on-air service reaches over two million people per week. More recently, Cindy joined the AAA-Washington board and currently serves as Board Vice Chair and Finance & Audit Committee Chair. 

Heather Snavely is President & CEO of AAA Washington. She is the first woman to lead the organization, which serves 1.2 million members across Washington and Northern Idaho.

Snavely’s aspiration is quite simple: To inspire people to do what they love with people they enjoy in service to a purpose that speaks to their heart. She leads with transparency, curiosity, kindness, and optimism. Under her leadership, AAA Washington is acknowledged as one of Washington state’s best places to work and was named the Association of Washington Business 2024 Employer of the Year.

Throughout her 30-plus year career, Snavely achieved success across a diverse landscape of industries including retail, toys and games, gaming and entertainment, consumer technology and sporting goods. She was most recently the VP Marketing role at PCC Community Markets, the nation’s largest consumer member-owned grocer. Prior to PCC, she led global marketing at Brooks Running Company and global consumer communications for Xbox.

Snavely sits on the boards of Auto Club MAPFRE Insurance Company, American Commerce Insurance, Association of Washington Business, and KEXP, an arts organization considered one of the most influential listener-supported radio stations in the world. A published writer and engaging speaker, she was honored in 2024 as one of the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Women of Influence.

A Minnesota native and de facto Prince fan, Snavely earned her Master of Business Communications from St. Thomas University, in St. Paul, Minn., and Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in Japanese from the University of Minnesota.

Snavely and her husband live in Seattle where they raised two passionate Sounders fans who now live on the other coast. She does her best thinking on morning runs and never passes up the opportunity to travel, see live music, or talk pop culture.