Who were the board chosen candidates who were defeated by withhold vote in the 2025 election

 Excerpt from Alex Halverson's article on March 7, 2025 for the Seattle Times. Note at the end that none of them responded to requests for comments. 

Two of the candidates are incumbents Liz Huebner and Michael McAfee, whose terms expire this year.

Huebner sits on the board of skin care brand Curology and was a chief financial officer for Getty Images more than two decades ago, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

McAfee is the CEO of PolicyLink, a national research institute. He also worked in for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to his LinkedIn profile.

A candidate for an open spot on the board is Monica Schwartz, an executive vice president and chief digital officer of BJ’s Wholesale Club. She also worked for years at Home Depot, Bank of America and eBay, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Huebner, McAfee and Schwartz didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nor did REI.

At the end they were rejected by 115,000 votes according to the UFCW. Let us hope the corporate ticket is rejected again in 2026.


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