La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

It goes without saying that Jim Bergem thinks the world of La Conner, the hometown that helped launch a wide-ranging career that has taken him to the far reaches of the globe.

Bergem, the 1986 La Conner High student body president, calls Spokane home these days. But given that he has made stops in Taiwan and Malaysia while working in media and marketing, the Inland Empire seems just a stone’s throw away.

Bergem credits a lifelong love of sports, plus support from family and his La Conner teachers, with encouraging him to venture beyond the banks of the North Fork of the Skagit River.

“M...