Mark Griffith — Amazon employee No. 1,037 and the third hire for what would become Fulfillment by Amazon — is retiring after more than two decades with the Seattle-area tech giant.

Griffith spent most of his career at FBA, which handles shipping, customer service, and returns for third-party businesses. He was director of software engineering for FBA and then for Amazon payments. His final role was director of seller fulfillment services.

Griffith penned a lengthy reflection on Substack in which he shares his career journey, what he learned from working at the company, and pithy personal and professional advice.

“I have given my ALL to Amazon for 8 hours+ a day for a long time – but I’ve never given it everything – that is too dangerous – I don’t live to work – I work to live. I work hard; I try to work empathetically and smart and help others – but I am ready to let others carry on,” Griffith said.

— DigitalOcean named Vinay Kumar as chief product and technology officer of the infrastructure-as-a-service company. Kumar, based in Seattle, was previously with Oracle for more than 11 years, leaving the role of senior vice president of cloud engineering.

Paddy Srinivasan, CEO of DigitalOcean, highlighted Kumar’s experience building cloud and AI platforms at scale, his “tremendous product strategy acumen” and his understanding of the “operational rigor required for mission-critical workloads.”

— Chris Hundley has joined Seattle RFID tech company Impinj as executive VP of enterprise solutions.

“Impinj has built an incredible foundation as the market leader in RAIN RFID, with strong momentum helping businesses wirelessly connect billions of items across use cases including loss prevention, shipment verification, and asset management,” Hundley said on LinkedIn.

Hundley is the founder and former CEO of the marketing automation startup Siftrock, which was acquired by Drift in 2018. He was also chief technology officer and president of AudioEye, which aimed to make digital technology inclusive for people with disabilities.

— Lindsay Bayne is now senior director of advocacy at UiPath, a New York-based company that helps businesses automate repetitive, complex tasks.

Bayne was previously at Microsoft for more than a decade, leaving the role of director of the Growth Innovation and Strategy Team.

“I’m honored to join and partner with this incredibly talented team, advocate for our incredible customers, and help showcase the real-world impact of automation and AI,” Bayne said on LinkedIn.

— Christin Camacho is now head of go-to-market for BuildQ, an AI platform for clean energy development and due diligence. Camacho joins the company following nearly seven years at LevelTen Energy, a Seattle-based clean energy marketplace, where she served as vice president of marketing. She previously worked at Redfin.

“BuildQ’s AI accelerates every stage of development for large wind, solar, and storage projects. Ultimately, that means more clean energy projects get built, faster, and that’s a mission I’ve dedicated my career to,” Camacho said via email.

In her new role, Camacho will work with Maryssa Barron, a former LevelTen colleague and founder and CEO of BuildQ.

— Lowell Bander, founding general manager of Seattle’s 9Zero, is changing roles at the climate tech entrepreneurial hub. Bander is taking the title of ecosystem advisor as the organization looks for a new leader. Bander is also an advisor on Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s transportation and environment transition team.

— Nate Frazier is now community liaison for the Oregon AI Accelerator. The Portland organization aims to coordinate the state’s entrepreneurial groups, investors and universities to foster AI innovation.

— The Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology has named the first cohort for its SeaBridge Fellowship, a research training program. In March, the effort received a $10 million grant from the Washington Research Foundation. The scientists will receive two years of financial support plus funding for career development, mentorship training and networking. They include:

• Changho Chun, a postdoctoral scholar in the University of Washington’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine who is doing research that could aid in treating ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
• Ian Linde, a postdoc in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch Cancer Center studying the conditions under which gene mutations lead to breast cancer tumors.
• Abigail Nagle, a postdoc in the UW Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology investigating communications between connective tissue and heart muscle tissue.
• Stephanie Sansbury, a postdoc in the UW Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Protein Design researching processes around engineered protein nanoparticles in pursuit of therapeutics.
• Zachary Stevenson, a postdoc in the UW Department of Genome Sciences studying synthetic cellular circuits to broaden the scope of cell programming.
• Julie Trolle, a postdoc in the UW Department of Genome Sciences aiming to engineer cancer-fighting T cells that express multiple genes, thereby improving their ability to kill tumor cells.
• Arata Wakimoto, a postdoc in the UW Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology investigating embryonic development as relates to congenital spine and neural tube disorders.
• Rachel Wellington, a postdoc in Translational Science and Therapeutics Division of Fred Hutch researching cellular recording technologies in the differentiation of stem cells.

Jigar Thakkar is now vice president of Amazon Quick Suite, a platform that uses agentic AI to automate business workflows, research and data access. Amazon launched the tool in October 2025.

Thakkar is returning to Seattle after more than seven years at New York-based financial services firm MSCI, where he worked as chief technology officer and head of engineering.

Before MSCI, Thakkar spent nearly two decades at Microsoft where he was the founding engineering leader of Microsoft Teams and held the title of corporate VP. He joined the tech giant in 1999 as a software developer on the Microsoft Money team.

“I’m excited about Jigar’s customer-centric approach and ability to scale transformative products, his passion for agent technology, and his experience building platforms that serve millions of users,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of agentic AI at AWS, in announcing the news.

— Sara Vaezy joined healthcare consulting firm Chartis as chief product and technology officer. Vaezy previously spent nearly a decade at Providence, where she was chief transformation officer with the Renton, Wash.-based multi-state healthcare provider.

This is Vaezy’s second stint at Chartis — she previously worked at the Chicago-based company from 2010 to 2015.

“We viscerally know the healthcare system is broken and needs to change. Clinicians are overburdened, patient care isn’t always well coordinated or affordable, and costs continue to increase unsustainably,” Vaezy wrote on LinkedIn. “This is an opportunity to help Chartis navigate a landscape that’s rapidly changing and actually do something about it, along with clients.”

Vaezy is also a clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

— After raising $60 million last year, legal-tech startup Supio has named two new executives:

• Niki Hall is now chief marketing officer, joining the Seattle-based company from Five9, a startup that helps brands connect with customers. She was previously CMO at the French startup Contentsquare. 

• Kelli Dragovich, who has worked in HR for more than two decades, has taken the role of chief people officer. Dragovich was mostly recently CPO at Pendo and has served in leadership at companies including Google, GitHub, Yahoo, Intuit, Quizlet and others.

— Chronus named Ankur Ahlowalia as CEO of the Seattle-based mentoring software platform.

“I’m delighted to lead a company that has pioneered mentoring software and is now leveraging artificial intelligence to make mentorship more accessible, personalized, and impactful for all employees,” Ahlowalia said in statement.

Ahlowalia joins Chronus from the Dallas-based software company Korbyt, which he led for more than five years.

— Variant Bio has appointed Dr. Craig Basson as chief medical officer and president of research and development. The Seattle-based drug discovery company is working with genetically diverse populations globally to develop new therapies.

“Craig’s career uniquely spans deep human genetics, rigorous clinical science, and successful drug development at scale,” said Andrew Farnum, Variant’s CEO. “His leadership and experience translating genetic insights into medicines will be instrumental as we move our programs into the clinic.”

Basson has worked for more than 25 years biotech and academia. He joins Variant from Bitterroot Bio, which is focused on using immunotherapy to treat cardiovascular disease. Other past roles include leadership at Boston Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and instructional roles at Harvard Medical School and Weill Cornell Medical College.

— Longtime Seattle-area tech leader Larry Colagiovanni is now leading AI product innovation at outdoor gear retailer REI. Colagiovanni’s career has included multiple stints at Microsoft, most recently as lead of product vision and strategy for Microsoft Shopping where he launched the company’s first conversational shopping assistant.

Other past roles include partner at Madrona Venture Labs, C-suite roles at Limeade, and leadership titles at eBay and Decide.

Colagiovanni said on LinkedIn that the role “brings together my passion for the outdoors with my belief in human-centered AI that supports better discovery, decision-making, and experiences.”

— Diego Oppenheimer is now an executive fellow with the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. The serial entrepreneur founded Algorithmia, which was acquired by DataRobot.

“Couldn’t be more excited to continue helping to build companies, invest in founders, and now helping shape the next generation of AI-native entrepreneurs,” he said on LinkedIn.

— Smarsh, a Portland, Ore., company that helps customers manage their business communications to identify regulatory and reputational risks, announced multiple leadership changes:

• Ian Goodkind is now chief financial officer after previously working as CFO of Jamf where he successfully led the organization through its 2020 initial public offering.
• Kamesh Tumsi is chief product officer, joining from HealthEquity where he was senior VP and head of product.
• Goutam Nadella, former CPO at Smarsh, is now the chief strategy officer.

— Northwest Quantum Nexus (NQN), a group supporting quantum research and innovation across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, named three leaders serving in a volunteer-capacity to spearhead its transition from an informal partnership into a formalized organization:

• Joseph Williams is executive director, having served as an NQN co-founder and co-chair. Williams was previously the interim director of the Washington State Broadband Office within the Department of Commerce. Williams has held various leadership positions for government agencies.
• Charles Marcus, a University of Washington physics professor who holds the Boeing Johnson Endowed Chair in Materials Science and Engineering, will serve as NQN chief scientist.
• Arry Yu is now NQN’s director of external affairs. Yu co-founded the Cascadia Blockchain Council, established the U.S. Blockchain Coalition, and was on the board of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA).

— Sarah Clifthorne is now interim director of the Washington State Department of Commerce as a permanent leader is being sought. Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed Clifthorne to the role following the recent resignation of Joe Nguyễn.

Clifthorne has served as deputy director at Commerce since February 2025 and was previously a policy director with the Washington State Senate. She has also worked in union leadership.

— Rachel Fukaya is now vice president of marketing at Textio, the Seattle startup that helps companies write job listings and other communications. Fukaya has been with Textio for more the two years and previously worked at multiple public relations companies. She was formerly VP of PR at Walker Sands.

— Stephen Delano is now principal software engineer at Seattle’s Yoodli, an AI roleplay startup recently landed a $40 million investment.

Delano joins Yoodli after five years at Tomo, a digital mortgage startup launched by former Zillow executives, where he was a founding engineer.

He previously spent more than a decade at Chef, a Seattle-based automation technology company that was acquired in 2020 for $220 million.

— Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is replacing Seattle City Light CEO and general manager Dawn Lindell. The new mayor has selected Dennis McLerran, the former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head for the Pacific Northwest region, for the role pending confirmation by the Seattle City Council. Lindell served as CEO for two years.

Wilson on Wednesday announced additional leadership changes within the City of Seattle with the selection of these acting directors:

• Quynh Pham at the Department of Neighborhoods
• Amy Nguyen at the Office of Arts and Culture
• Beto Yarce at the Office of Economic Development
• Lylianna Allala at the Office of Sustainability and the Environment
  

— Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for the real estate platform Redfin, joined the board of governors of Center for Land Economics. The education and research organization promotes equitable land and property assessments.

— WestRiver Group announced that Craig Lange has joined the Seattle-based firm as managing director and lead of the Disruptive Growth Fund. Lange spent more than three decades with the heavy machinery company Caterpillar.

Andréa Mallard, who spent the past seven years leading marketing at Pinterest, joined Microsoft AI as its new chief marketing officer.

Mallard started in her new role two weeks ago. She said she was drawn to Microsoft’s AI group “to help build a technology that truly earns the trust needed to serve human potential.”

“AI is already the most consequential technological shift of my lifetime,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “It will shape our children’s lives in ways that are difficult to predict.”

Before joining Pinterest in 2018, Mallard was CMO at Athleta and Omada Health. She’s currently a board director at Hydrow, Kajabi, and TwentyFirstCenturyBrand.

Microsoft AI, led by Mustafa Suleyman, launched in 2024 and focuses on consumer products and research.

— Claudine Cheever, vice president of global brand and marketing at Amazon, is replacing Mallard as the new CMO at Pinterest.

Cheever spent nearly a decade at Amazon in global marketing roles, where she oversaw various functions and campaigns.

“What really hooked me is how Pinterest stands apart from other social and search platforms,” Cheever wrote on LinkedIn. “The platform is rooted in intention, not reaction. People come to Pinterest to save, curate, evolve their interests, and shop. That’s not just inspiring. It’s fundamentally different.”

Jo Shoesmith, global chief creative officer at Amazon, will replace Cheever on an interim basis as the company searches for a permanent replacement.

“Claudine has been a creative leader, building durable global brand architecture and sophisticated creative systems that operate at scale across our Stores business,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re grateful for her impact on our brand and teams, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter.”

San Francisco-based Pinterest also hired former DoorDash and Spotify exec Lee Brown as its new chief business officer.

— Irina Ghose was named managing director for Anthropic’s India operations. Ghose spent 24 years at Microsoft, most recently as managing director for Microsoft India.

India represents the second-largest user base for Anthropic’s Claude product, Ghose wrote on LinkedIn.

“From digital natives and software firms to large enterprises and public-sector institutions, India is entering a phase of scaled deployment that will enhance competitive advantage and shape the future,” she wrote. “AI tuned to local languages will be a force multiplier across society – from education and healthcare to workforce development and job skills.”

— Doug Bowser, former president of Nintendo of America, joined the board of Hasbro.

Bowser spent more than a decade at Redmond, Wash.-based Nintendo of America, leading the video game giant as president and COO from April 2019 until last year, when he retired in December. He oversaw the successful launch of the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Bowser previously worked at Procter & Gamble and Electronic Arts.

Hasbro, which owns Renton, Wash.-based Wizards of the Coast, also added Carla Vernón, CEO of The Honest Company, to its board.

— Trisha Berard, a longtime Seattle-area HR leader, joined Evergreen Goodwill as senior vice president of people and culture.

Berard was most recently a senior director at McKinstry and vice president of HR at Eddie Bauer. She also spent 12 years at Amazon, where she was a global strategic HR leader, along with stints at Starbucks and RealNetworks.

Evergreen Goodwill employs more than 2,000 people across the Seattle region and operates 23 nonprofit thrift stores.

“Evergreen Goodwill’s mission of empowering individuals, supporting communities, and creating sustainable training and employment inspires me,” Berard said in a statement.

Libby Johnson McKee, a former customer returns leader at Amazon, joined Evergreen Goodwill as CEO in 2024. Shelley Salomon, vice president of global business for Amazon, sits on the nonprofit’s board.

Satish Thomas, a 20-year veteran of Microsoft who spent two decades at the Redmond tech giant, is taking a new job at Google.

“I’m joining during what feels like one of the most consequential moments in tech history — right in the heart of the AI era,” Thomas wrote on LinkedIn. He did not specify what role he’s taking at Google.

Thomas said Microsoft “shaped me in ways I never imaged.” He began his two-decade run at the company as an intern. “I’m deeply grateful to the amazing people and teams I’ve had the privilege to work with,” he said. “Leaving isn’t easy — but some opportunities are so special and unique that you just have to go for them.”

Thomas spent the past six years as a corporate vice president at Microsoft, where he led strategy, product management, and engineering execution for Microsoft Cloud for Industry. He previously held leadership roles in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft AppSource.

— Raji Rajagopalan has a new role at Microsoft: GitHub’s vice president of engineering.

Rajagopalan has been with the tech giant for more than 20 years, joining the company as a software engineer. She’s leaving the Microsoft Foundry Team for the new role.

“My goal is to help GitHub continue to be the place loved by devs, where innovation happens and human-agent workflows thrive, as we move into this new era of AI-driven development,” Rajagopalan said on LinkedIn.

— Katie Bardaro is senior VP of customer experience at Avante, a Seattle startup building software to help companies decrease HR administration workload and reduce overall benefits program costs. It also offers an AI assistant designed to provide benefits guidance to employees.

“What drew me here is the opportunity to work at the intersection of data, AI, and total rewards, all while helping companies and employees navigate one of the most complex (and impactful) parts of the employee experience: benefits,” Bardaro said on LinkedIn.

Bardaro was previously chief customer officer at Syndio, a company that analyzes workplace pay equity issues and provides strategies for fixing disparities. Prior to that she was at Payscale for more than a decade.

— Vivek Sharma is leaving Stripe for a cryptic new venture focused on “AI’s potential to fundamentally change how people work.”

Sharma, who has held executive roles at Microsoft and Meta, didn’t provide further details about the stealthy startup in a LinkedIn post, but did name his collaborators:

• Tore Hanssen, who was a founding engineer at Statsig, the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup acquired in September by OpenAI. He previously worked at Meta.
• Robert Masson, a senior staff data scientist at Meta’s Seattle office, clocking nearly 11 years with the company before going to Atlassian early last year.
• Calvin Grunewald, who spent nine years as a Facebook director of engineering, based in Seattle. He was most recently at Stripe.

“More details coming soon,” Sharma said of the startup. “But if you want to be an early adopter or just want to chat, please reach out!”

— Jeff Carr is now CEO of Atana, a startup building workplace training content that incorporates behavior-based learning and development. Carr joined the Bellevue company in August as president. He succeeds Atana co-founder and former CEO John Hansen, who will remain as executive chair.

In announcing the news, Hansen said that Carr “aligned with Atana’s vision immediately and has been instrumental in bringing us into new opportunities and new strategic relationships in a very short period of time.”

Carr has held multiple CEO roles in the past, including leadership of workforce training company Inkling and at the HR company PeopleFluent.

Atana originally launched in 1993. Hansen, a startup veteran and longtime lecturer at the University of Washington, acquired the business in 2016 and oversaw the expansion of new learning content.

— Longtime Microsoft gaming leader Larry Hyrb shared on LinkedIn that he was laid off from Unity after 18 months on the job.

Hyrb, known by his longtime handle “Major Nelson,” left Microsoft in 2023 after more than two decades in corporate communications, promoting the launches of games and other products. He was the host of one of the company’s earliest podcasts, Major Nelson Radio, which later became Xbox Podcast.

At Unity, a San Francisco-based gaming company, Hyrb worked with the Community and Advocacy Team, supporting connections among creators, developers and gamers.

— Serial tech entrepreneur Jay Bartot is now a technical advisor and chief technologist for TheFounderVC, a Seattle-based venture capital firm that launched in 2024.

Bartot is also co-founder and CTO of the software startup AirSignal, an affiliate professor at the UW, and a startup mentor at Creative Destruction Lab.

Bartot said on LinkedIn that he looks forward to working with the TheFounderVC team “to help exceptional early-stage founders build the next generation of great Vertical AI companies and products.”

— Auger, a startup building logistics and supply chain software, named Tucker Reimer as principal of supply chain innovation. Reimer joins the Bellevue startup from the Johnsonville sausage company where he served as vice president of global planning and analytics.

Dave Clark, the former Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO and Flexport CEO, launched Auger in 2024 with $100 million in Series A funding.

— Lucas Dickey joined Stripe as a product builder focused on Stripe Atlas, a tool that helps entrepreneurs incorporate their business.

Dickey said on LinkedIn that he has used Atlas four times to start his own companies and aligns with Stripe’s goal of “making the administrative layer a breeze — and helping new companies start strong from day one.”

His startups include Deepcast, a podcast platform, and Fernish, a decor-focused business that was acquired.

Glenn Kelman, the longtime CEO of Redfin and one of the most recognizable leaders in the U.S. real estate industry, is stepping down.

Kelman’s departure comes six months after Redfin completed its $1.75 billion acquisition to Rocket Companies. His last day is Friday.

“Redfin just completed our first phase as a Rocket company, integration,” Kelman wrote in an email to employees that he also posted on LinkedIn. “We’ll start the second, much-longer phase at next week’s all-company meeting, which is much-greater scale. Approaching that, I had to decide whether to be at Rocket for years.”

Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna will run Redfin until the company finds a permanent new leader. Kelman will remain in an advisory role through April 1.

“Instead, I want to try finding another mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate,” Kelman wrote. “I’m grateful that Rocket has turned out to be such a good owner of Redfin, and that Varun has been such a kind leader.”

Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin in July brought together the nation’s largest mortgage lender with the tech-enabled Seattle-based real estate brokerage. The deal valued Redfin at more than double its market capitalization prior to the acquisition’s public announcement in March 2025.

In an email to staff, obtained by GeekWire, Krishna described Redfin as the “front door to Rocket.”

“We are betting big on Redfin’s future,” he wrote in the memo. “More investment in brand, hiring, traffic growth, and innovation. We will aggressively play to win, with the full strength of Rocket behind this team.”

Krishna added: “Redfin is on the precipice of one of the most exciting transformations in its history, and we’re leaning into it.”

Kelman joined Redfin in 2005, a year after it launched, and helped guide the company from a small Seattle startup into a nationally known real estate brokerage and technology platform. Redfin went public in 2017 in a deal that valued the company at $1.73 billion.

Known for his candid communication style, Kelman frequently spoke publicly about housing affordability, agent compensation, and the structural challenges facing the real estate market. In recent years, he oversaw workforce reductions and cost-cutting measures as higher interest rates slowed home sales and forced real estate tech companies to recalibrate growth expectations.

“Glenn pioneered home search as we know it today and transformed a visionary startup into the Redfin we know today,” Rocket said in a statement to GeekWire. “He built a company that saved thousands of homeowners money and made the American Dream more accessible. We wish Glenn well in his next chapter.”

In his note to employees — titled “Unemployed, In Greenland” — Kelman said he’ll look for a “mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate” for his next opportunity.

He described Redfin as “the only real estate company to take full responsibility for our customers, from click to keys.”

“For most of Redfin’s history, our website expansion was slowed by our brokerage, and our brokerage expansion was slowed by employing our agents,” he wrote. “But standing behind our service was always worthwhile. Now with portals, lenders and brokers racing to stitch together their services, our patient approach has turned out to be the best way to help people all the way home.”

Redfin grew revenue by 7% in 2024 to $1.04 billion, with a net loss of $164.8 million, up from $130 million in 2023. Its stock had fallen more than 30% in the month leading up to the acquisition announcement in March.

Detroit-based Rocket Companies went public in 2020. In addition to mortgage lending products, Rocket also sells personal loans and other fintech offerings. Last year Rocket acquired mortgage lender Mr. Cooper Group in a $9.4 billion stock deal.

— Jon Pollock is now chief product officer of Acumatica, the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software giant that was acquired last year by Vista Equity Partners.

Pollock joins Acumatica from childcare management software company Procare Solutions, where he was CPO and general manager of Procare’s ChildPlus division. He previously held leadership roles with Worldpay, Asurion, Dell, Polaroid and others.

“Jon has the experience, vision, and strong track record of leading dynamic teams to execute our product strategy and empower the people who use our software every day,” John Case, CEO of Acumatica, said in a statement.

Case succeeds Ali Jani, who was with the company for 16 years. Early in his career, Jani co-founded a PC manufacturing startup and a company providing software for business management operations.

— Mo Malakoutian is now the mayor of the City of Bellevue. Malakoutian joined the Bellevue City Council in 2023, was elected by his colleagues to serve as deputy mayor beginning in 2024, and was chosen as mayor this month.

Malakoutian previously worked at Amazon for more than eight years, leaving the role of senior manager of learning and development in October. He is currently the executive director of the University of Washington’s Consulting and Business Development Center with the Foster School of Business.

Malakoutian replaces Lynne Robinson, who was mayor since 2020. She remains on the Bellevue City Council.

City councilmember Dave Hamilton was appointed deputy mayor of Bellevue.

— Software engineering leader David Bettis is leaving Amazon after two decades. Bettis was most recently with Amazon Web Services, including roles focused on the company’s telehealth initiative. Earlier in his career, Bettis worked on the company’s Halo product, Amazon Go’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology, Kindle and other initiatives.

Bettis said on LinkedIn that he stayed at Amazon for so long because of the opportunity to work on emerging businesses, which provided “new and exciting opportunities, while staying under the same roof.”

More recently he had “explored a couple paths internally, but nothing sparked the same excitement I’d felt in previous roles. That’s when I realized it was time for a bigger change.”

The engineer added that he’ll spend most of this year deciding what full-time role comes next — maybe a smaller company, teaching, something entrepreneurial — and that he’ll be staying in Seattle.

— In another Amazon departure, Steven Hatch has resigned from his role as head of engineering with AWS Bedrock. Hatch, based in New York City, has been with Amazon for nearly 18 years, working in areas including with Audible, Amazon Prime delivery experience, computer vision and most recently in AI.

Hatch said on LinkedIn that he’s “closing a chapter that changed how I think, lead, and build. I’m proud of my achievements. But the real story was about the people, the learning, and the craft.”

Hatch did not disclose his next move, but said there would be “more soon.”

— Warren McNeel left T-Mobile after more then 25 years with the Bellevue-based telecom juggernaut. McNeel has been in the wireless sector for three decades, and most recently served as T-Mobile’s senior vice president of information technology.

McNeel said on LinkedIn that he wanted to spend time with his family “and begin thinking about the next chapter of my professional journey.”

“I’ve had the privilege of leading some of the best technology and product teams in the industry,” he added. “I couldn’t be more proud of the innovations, technology transformations, and results these teams delivered.”

— Seattle-based Gates Foundation appointed Sri Mulyani  Indrawati to its governing board. Indrawati was Indonesia’s first female minister of finance and the former managing director and chief operating officer of the World Bank.

“She adds fresh perspective for the board as it guides the foundation’s direction over the next 20 years,” said CEO Mark Suzman.

The Gates Foundation announced two additional leadership changes:

• Hari Menon is now president of the organization’s Global Growth and Opportunity Division. Menon has been with the foundation for nearly 20 years.
• Ankur Vora is president of the newly-created Africa and India Offices Division as well as retaining his role as chief strategy officer.

— Reverb, a Seattle-based HR consulting and leadership development firm, is officially expanding into the Colorado market with the hiring of Renee Fischer. Fischer, who resides in Denver, is a business development and human resources consultant.

— Sabah Öney joined the board of directors of Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Öney is the president and CEO of Dispatch Bio, a Bay Area startup that is developing a treatment for solid tumors. He is also a co-founder of the protein design company Vilya.

— Seattle-based Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving clients globally, promoted Kerri Hagen to managing director within the its Financial Sponsors Group. Hagen has been with the firm for more than three years.

— Seattle software engineering startup FlintLab named Diwakar as its head of engineering. Diwakar, who was previously based in India, joins from the semiconductor company AMD. Past employers include Ericsson, RSA Security and others.

FlintLab launched in 2024 and describes itself as an “AI-powered infrastructure platform as a service” company. Co-founders Krishna Seerapu and Jinesh M.D previously held roles at Amazon and elsewhere.

— Life Science Washington announced four new members of its board of directors:

• Arden Yang, vice president of Innovation at the Allen Institute
• LisaMarie Curda, a partner focused on audit and assurance with Deloitte
• Jie D’Elia, CEO of the bio-pharmaceutical company SystImmune
• Chris Holt, vice president of cell therapy external manufacturing with Bristol Myers Squibb

— Amazon’s Uwem Ukpong has a new title, moving from vice president of Global Services to VP of AWS Industries.

Ukpong has been with the tech giant for more than four years, joining from energy technology company Baker Hughes.

Ukpong’s resume is dominated by a 22-year stretch at Schlumberger, a Houston-based software and internet company that has offices internationally.

— Alicia Teel is now acting director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development. She was previously deputy director of the department, which supports small businesses and economic growth.

Teel began her career at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce where she worked for more than 15 years.

At the Office of Economic Development, “[o]ur talented team is dedicated to leading projects and making investments that open up access to economic opportunities across our city, reduce the racial wealth gap, and encourage innovation and growth,” Teel said in a statement.

In announcing the appointment, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson thanked former director Markham McIntyre “for his leadership supporting small business recovery after the pandemic.”

McIntyre was in the role for four years. He also previously held leadership positions with the Chamber of Commerce, leaving the title of executive VP.

— Manik Gupta is leaving his role as corporate VP of Microsoft Teams.

“With Teams, I had the opportunity to combine my consumer DNA with learning the scale and complexity of the enterprise. The lessons, playbooks, and friendships I’ve gained will stay with me always,” Gupta said on LinkedIn.

Gupta, who is based in California, joined Microsoft in 2021. He said he’s exploring career options in AI, adding that “I’m convinced that the hardest and most interesting work in AI now lies in turning powerful models into products people can rely on every day.”

— ESS appointed Drew Buckley as CEO of the Oregon-based, long-duration energy storage company. Buckley joined the battery company in August as leader of its investor relations and capital market strategy. He previously spent 17 years as a technology-focused partner at the financial services firm William Blair.

“Drew brings an incredible track record of success, with the experience and industry relationships necessary to lead ESS to its next stage, manufacturing and delivery of our first Energy Base projects, and broader commercialization expected to commence this year,” said Harry Quarls, ESS board chairman.

ESS also named Kate Suhadolnik as chief financial officer from her current role as interim CFO. Suhadolnik has been with the publicly-traded company for more than four years.

Eric Dresselhuys resigned as ESS CEO in February and Kelly Goodman, who had been vice president of legal, became the interim chief executive. Goodman is now chief strategy officer and general counsel.

— Savanna Thompson is chief business operations officer role at fusion company Helion Energy after serving as VP of people & workplace Operations. She has been with the Everett, Wash., business for more than three years.

“As we move from building fusion machines to deploying fusion power plants, this role reflects the importance of scaling our teams, systems, and infrastructure that support our ambitious goals,” said Helion CEO David Kirtley in announcing the promotion.

Thompson joined Helion from 98point6, a Seattle telehealth company.

— Jackie Ostlie has returned to Microsoft, taking the role of director of AI initiatives in Microsoft Learning.

“I am incredibly grateful to Rachel Richardson for the opportunity and am excited to be back with some of the world’s smartest, kindest, most supportive humans in tech,” Ostlie said on LinkedIn.

Ostlie rejoins the company after a leadership role at Google Cloud Learning. Her career has included positions with multiple Seattle-area organizations including Veeam Software, Expedia and the nonprofit World Vision.

— After recently landing a $40 million investment, Seattle AI roleplay startup Yoodli appointed two new leaders.

• Emma Day is principal recruiter at Yoodli, leaving a comparable role at Seattle-based tech hiring platform Karat. “Yoodli has the rare and beautiful combination of an incredible mission — to help people communicate with confidence, a world-class team and a TON of growth ahead,” Day said on LinkedIn.
• Grayson Hay is principal software engineer, building on similar past roles at CodeSee, Tableau Software and Microsoft. Hay’s varied career also includes cinematography and bungee fitness instructor.

— Seattle cryptocurrency company Coinme named Hazen Baron as its general counsel. Baron is based in Arkansas and past employers include Walmart, fintech company Stronghold, and others.

Late last month Coinme announced an agreement with Washington state regulators to pause a temporary cease-and-desist order, clearing the way for the company to resume operations in the state.

— Jason Cavness, a Seattle-based U.S. market development partner for TechBank, is now a fellow with Earth Venture Capital, a Vietnam-based firm investing in climate tech internationally.

— The Microsoft Alumni Network, which represents more than 290,000 former Microsoft employees, has expanded its board of trustees, appointing eight new members:

• Declan Bradshaw, a 22-year employee based in Dublin and Redmond, Wash., who led Xbox’s European launch.
• George Durham, a leader of community engagement, global Technology for Good programs, and other roles after joining in 2004.
• Erendira Gonzalez, who over three decades led multicultural teams and launched the first Microsoft Technology Center in Latin America.
• Bill Kirst, who served as the director of change for Commercial Systems & Business Intelligence.
• Laura Luethe, who leads strategic content and communications as Microsoft HR’s director of communications.
• Somanna Palacanda, a 23-year employee who leads International Social Impact for Microsoft Elevate.
• Michelle September, who spent nearly 20 years at Microsoft and worked in account management, industry leadership, among other roles.
• Andrew Winnemore, VP of Microsoft for HR People Operations.

In addition, Larry Hryb, a longtime Xbox leader, was named vice chair of the Microsoft Alumni Network board.

— Karthik Ramakrishnan, who spent the past 14 years at Amazon where he helped develop the company’s AI strategy, has taken a VP role within the Data Cloud organization at Google Cloud.

“We are entering the ‘Agentic Era,’ and my focus is helping this world-class team build the autonomous data platform of the future,” Ramakrishnan wrote on LinkedIn. “I can’t wait to dive back into the ‘hard things’ and see what we can build together next.”

Ramakrishnan helped launch Amazon Alexa and develop the Amazon Nova foundation models. “My work at Amazon spanned the full evolution from conversational AI to multi-modal AGI,” he notes on his LinkedIn profile. Before joining Amazon in 2012, Ramakrishnan spent three years at Microsoft following the company’s acquisition of Tellme Networks, where he was a senior platform engineer. He started at Google in September.

Last month, Rohit Prasad, the executive who led Amazon’s AI initiatives and overseen the creation of its homegrown Nova AI models, left the Seattle-based company.

In a memo sent Dec. 17, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy named Peter DeSantis, a 27-year company veteran and top cloud infrastructure executive, to lead a new organization that combines its Nova and model research teams with custom silicon and quantum computing.

Amazon last month unveiled its Nova 2 models at its annual re:Invent conference. The company is attempting to close the gap with AI rivals including OpenAI and Google in the race to develop increasingly capable AI systems.

— C.J. Mahoney, a corporate vice president and top legal executive at Microsoft, joined Meta as its new chief legal officer. Axios first reported the move.

Mahoney spent the past five years at Microsoft, first as a deputy general counsel focused on international trade and Azure, then later as a corporate vice president and general counsel for product, services, and go-to-market legal. He previously was a deputy U.S. trade representative from 2018 to 2020 during President Trump’s first term.

Mahoney replaces Jennifer Newstead, who departed for the general counsel role at Apple.

Microsoft promoted longtime exec Jonathan Palmer to chief legal officer in September, following the departure of Hossein Nowbar, who is at ServiceNow as president and chief legal officer.

Desney Tan, who rose from researcher to corporate vice president and managing director of Microsoft Research, announced Monday that he’s leaving the company after 21 years.

Tan became known in part for research in “whole body computing,” physiological sensing, brain-computer interfaces and other novel forms of human-computer interaction. His work spanned areas including Windows multi-monitor functionality, handwriting recognition, motion tracking for Xbox Kinect, and the technology behind the Microsoft Band fitness tracker.

In more recent years, he shifted his focus to healthcare, for a time leading Microsoft Health Futures, the company’s health and life sciences “moonshot factory.” He oversaw major partnerships including Microsoft’s collaboration with Adaptive Biotechnologies.

“New year, new adventures,” Tan wrote on LinkedIn, adding that he’s “signing off with a heart full of gratitude and a deep sense of pride.” He thanked colleagues at Microsoft Research for “the warm home, the unwavering trust, and the inspired pursuit of impactful innovation.”

In a message to GeekWire, Tan said he’s intentionally keeping his options open, without anything concrete lined up yet, so he can experiment with a few different things. 

Beyond Microsoft, he serves on the boards of ResMed and the Washington Research Foundation, and advises startups including surgical navigation company Proprio and cognitive health startup NewDays. He’s also senior advisor and chief technologist at Seattle-based incubator IntuitiveX, and holds an affiliate faculty position at the University of Washington.

— Steven Maheshwary, a former generative AI leader at Amazon, is now a go-to-market lead in strategic partnerships at Anthropic, the AI giant behind Claude and backed by Amazon.

On LinkedIn, Maheshwary described AI as “a catalyst for significant transformation and a raw energy that must be shaped, guardrailed, and democratized to be genuinely useful.”

“I believe Claude represents a distinct vision of what AI can be: powerful and capable, while remaining safe and aligned with human values,” he added.

Maheshwary was with Amazon for 12 years, most recently as head of growth for AI startups and foundation models on AWS. During his tenure, he also served as former Gov. Jay Inslee’s technology sector lead, working to grow Washington state’s tech and AI economy, and was a Fulbright grantee for the U.S. Department of State.

— Irene Plenefisch, a longtime government affairs leader at Microsoft, is retiring after more than 15 years at the Redmond tech company. Plenefisch, most recently a senior director at Microsoft, previously worked at SonoSite for 12 years.

“I have been proud to represent Microsoft, an important and amazing company, in its home state and around the country,” she wrote on LinkedIn, adding: “I’m not going to lie; the path for channeling all the energy, competitiveness and enthusiasm for being in the middle of it all is not completely clear. But I am confident in my decision.”

— Nikhil Hasija left his role as vice president of engineering at Okta. Hasija joined the security company following its acquisition of Azuqua, a Seattle startup he founded in 2011. Hasija also spent more than four years at Microsoft.

“I’m starting to think about what’s next,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “I’m increasingly drawn to problems centered on leverage, speed, and new ways of working. To everyone who made this journey worthwhile, I’m glad our paths crossed, and I welcome that again.”

— Caitlin Rollman is back at Microsoft as a partner product manager. She was previously at the tech giant for nearly a decade ending in 2020, leaving the role of principal PM manager for the Office platform.

Rollman said on LinkedIn that she got a call from Microsoft and was “offered the opportunity to build something new from the ground up, at a company I respect, with people I adore. I couldn’t say no.”

Rollman left Microsoft to work as senior director of product management for Highspot, a Seattle company that sells enterprise software to help make salespeople more efficient.

Last year she co-founded and was CEO of Talvita, an AI-native human resources management platform.

— Brian Surratt is now officially deputy mayor at the City of Seattle in new Mayor Katie Wilson’s administration.

Surratt spent nearly four years leading Greater Seattle Partners, a public-private sector initiative that seeks to attract investment, companies and jobs to the Seattle region. He also previously led the City of Seattle’s economic development arm and was a vice president at Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Wilson was sworn in on Friday, becoming the city’s 58th mayor.

“Seattle has shaped my belief in what is possible when public service, community engagement, and economic opportunity come together,” he wrote on LinkedIn last week. “To step back into City Hall at this moment — when our city is focused on restoring trust and building civic pride, tackling our homelessness crisis, expanding housing and economic opportunity, and building a more affordable, inclusive, innovation-driven future — is both humbling and energizing.”

— Dr. Emma Rocheteau has taken the role of clinician scientist at Microsoft AI in London.

“Throughout 2025, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’re at an inflection point where medicine and AI are finally coming together to solve some of healthcare’s toughest challenges,” Rocheteau said on LinkedIn. “To be able to contribute to this is a dream come true for me, and it represents exactly what I’ve been working towards for the past 12 years.”

Rocheteau joins Microsoft from NHS, the United Kingdom’s publicly funded National Heath Service. She was briefly a research intern for Microsoft in 2019 during which she focused on health intelligence.

— Ashlee Drake Berry joined Seattle-based immigration tech company Casium as head of legal. Berry is leaving a role as principal corporate counsel at Microsoft where she focused on legal compliance in the hiring of immigrant and non-immigrant employees globally.

“This role has stretched me, challenged me, and given me the chance to work with some of the most talented and generous colleagues I’ve ever known,” Berry said on LinkedIn.

Berry previously worked on immigration employment issues at Vialto Partners and Envoy Global. Casium spun out of the Seattle-based AI2 Incubator in April 2024.

— Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno is now the communications and marketing lead at Yoodli, a Seattle startup that sells AI-powered software to help people practice real-world conversations such as sales calls and feedback sessions. The company last month announced $40 million in new funding.

Quiamno has been running a public relations consultancy over the past year. She was previously the global diversity, equity and inclusion leader at Amazon’s Prime Video and Amazon Studios for more than three years, ending in January 2025.

Quiamno was co-founder and CEO of Future for Us, an organization promoting professional development for women of color that was acquired.

— Adam Stern, an environmental and clean energy leader, is co-executive director of the Seattle-based electric vehicle nonprofit Coltura. Stern, who resides in San Francisco, joins Janelle London in the shared role.

Former co-executive director Matthew Metz founded Coltura in 2014 to promote EV adoption through research, analysis and policy support. He is transitioning to a full-time role as CEO of EVQ, a public benefit corporation and tech platform that spun out of Coltura to support consumers and organizations in the purchase of EVs.

“While Matthew is stepping away from his day-to-day role at Coltura, his impact will continue to be felt for years to come — in the policies passed, the ideas normalized, and the momentum built toward a cleaner transportation future,” the nonprofit said in announcing the changes.

— Joseph Williams has stepped down from his post as interim director of the Washington State Broadband Office within the Department of Commerce. Williams, who has held leadership positions for government agencies and was with Microsoft for nearly a decade, said on LinkedIn that he’ll be sharing news of his next role later this month.

Jordan Arnold was appointed in December as the permanent Broadband Office lead, effective Jan. 2.

And in case you missed it, Commerce Director Joe Nguyen is leaving his post this month to become the president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber. A new Department of Commerce director has not been named.

— Carter Rabasa, an entrepreneur, investor and former employee of multiple Seattle-area tech companies, joined Box as head of developer relations. Rabasa previously held similar roles at IBM, DataStax, and Courier. He was also with Twilio for more than five years.

— Invest in Washington Now, a nonprofit promoting tax reform, shared that Treasure Mackley is resigning as executive director, effective Jan. 9. Mackley was in the role for more than five years, helping pass the state’s capital gains tax. She previously held leadership positions with Planned Parenthood.

— The Washington Technology Industry Association announced five internal promotions, including Nick Ellingson, now vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship.

— Rhizome Research, a Seattle biotech startup, announced that John Proudfoot, a former U.S.-based director in the Medicinal Chemistry Department at Boehringer Ingelheim, has joined as a scientific advisor.

Rad Power Bikes has a new CEO as the Seattle-based electric bike manufacturer navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Angelina “Angy” Smith, who has been chief financial officer at the company since April, assumed the leadership position earlier this month, becoming Rad’s fourth CEO in three years.

Smith previously held CFO and other finance roles at a number of companies, including TrovaTrip, Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp., Thrive Causemetics, glassybaby, Mixpo, Razorfish and aQuantive. She was vice president of finance at Zulily for almost five years.

Smith replaces Kathi Lentzsch, who took over the CEO role in March. Lentzsch previously ran Bartell Drugs as CEO before the company sold to Rite-Aid in 2020.

Lentzsch replaced Phil Molyneux, the former Sony president who stepped down earlier this year after leading Rad for more than two years. Rad founder Mike Radenbaugh led the company until stepping down in 2022.

Rad filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month even as the company said it was still working toward a sale that would keep the popular brand alive.

Conceived in 2007 and launched as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2015, Rad Power Bikes rose to become a leading seller of e-bikes in North America, employing hundreds and raising more than $329 million. But after the pandemic-era sales boom dropped off, the company was hit by layoffs and economic headwinds, including tariffs.

Rad announced in November that it was facing “significant financial challenges” and in danger of shutting down in January.

In its bankruptcy filing, Rad reported total liabilities of nearly $73 million, more than double its assets of $32 million. The filing also revealed a steady drop in gross revenue — from $129.8 million in 2023 to $103.8 million in 2024, and $63.3 million so far this year.

Eleven years after United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno partnered with Blue Origin to create a new rocket engine, he’s joining Jeff Bezos’ space venture as the president of Blue Origin’s newly created National Security Group.

The move could signal a major shift in the commercial space race as Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin revs up its competition with SpaceX. Bezos welcomed Bruno to his company on social media, and Bruno told Bezos that “we are going to do important work together.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman added his congratulations via the X social-media platform.

In Friday’s announcement of the change, Blue Origin said Bruno would report to CEO Dave Limp. “We share a deep belief in supporting our nation with the best technology we can build,” Limp said in a post on X. “Tory brings unmatched experience, and I’m confident he’ll accelerate our ability to deliver on that mission.”

Bruno, 64, led ULA for 11 years following a 30-year career at Lockheed Martin. Not long after taking the reins at ULA in 2014, Bruno sat beside Bezos to announce a close collaboration on the development of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, which is used on ULA’s Vulcan rocket as well as Blue Origin’s orbital-class New Glenn rocket.

Since then, SpaceX has displaced United Launch Alliance as America’s dominant launch company. In 2014, ULA executed 14 launches while SpaceX executed six. So far this year, SpaceX has registered 165 launches, while ULA has registered six.

Bruno is expected to lead Blue Origin’s efforts to win more contracts for national security launches using the New Glenn rocket. In 2024, Blue Origin joined ULA and SpaceX on the list of approved providers for such launches, but New Glenn has flown only twice. Blue Origin needs to execute two more successful launches to complete the Space Systems Command’s certification process.

United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Last year, there were rumors that ULA was the subject of acquisition talks, perhaps involving Blue Origin or Sierra Space, but so far those rumors haven’t panned out.

Earlier this week, Lockheed Martin’s Robert Lightfoot and Boeing’s Kay Sears announced that Bruno was leaving ULA “to pursue another opportunity” — and named John Elbon as the joint venture’s interim CEO. Elbon previously served as ULA’s chief operating officer. He joined ULA in 2018 after a 35-year career at Boeing.

Starbucks named Amazon exec Anand Varadarajan as its new chief technology officer, tapping a leader with extensive experience in Amazon’s grocery technology and supply chain operations.

Varadarajan, a 19-year Amazon veteran, will succeed Deb Hall Lefevre, who left the company in September, according to the announcement Friday by Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol.

It comes as Starbucks works to revamp technology in its stores to improve order flow and speed of service. It’s part of the “Back to Starbucks” turnaround effort Niccol launched after becoming CEO in September 2024.

Separately, Starbucks said in its latest 10K filing that it needs to keep improving its marketing, data analytics, and AI tools or risk losing consumer interest and market share.

Ningyu Chen had been serving as Starbucks’ interim CTO since Lefevre’s departure.

Varadarajan “knows how to create systems that are reliable and secure, drive operational excellence and scale solutions that keep customers at the center,” Niccol wrote in the memo, also praising him for caring “deeply about supporting and developing the people behind the scenes that build and enable the technology we use.”

At Amazon, Varadarajan most recently led technology and supply chain for the company’s worldwide grocery business, including Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh. He previously held software engineering roles at Oracle and several startups.

Varadarajan will join the coffee giant as executive vice president and CTO on Jan. 19, reporting directly to Niccol and joining the company’s executive leadership team. 

He holds an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and master’s degrees from Purdue (civil engineering) and the University of Washington (computer science). 

Niccol noted in the memo that Varadarajan is a marathon runner working toward completing all seven World Marathon Majors, and a coffee enthusiast who starts most days with a tall latte.

— Nintex CEO Amit Mathradas announced that he’s leaving to take the helm of Five9 beginning on Feb. 2. Mathradas has led Nintex, a Bellevue, Wash.-based workflow automation company, for nearly three years. His previous roles include chief operating officer at Avalara, general manager at PayPal, and a 14-year run at Dell.

Five9 is a California-based software company specializing in AI-powered customer experience solutions.

“It is an honor to join such a dynamic company that I have long admired as being at the cutting edge of AI-driven CX,” Mathradas said on LinkedIn.

— Starting Jan. 1, Zoë Stemm-Calderon will take the role of executive director at the Raikes Foundation, where she has worked for a decade. She is transitioning from her current position as senior director of Youth Serving Systems.

During her tenure, Stemm-Calderon has managed yearly investments of $20 million directed toward initiatives focused on K-12 and higher education, along with youth homelessness programs.

Jeff and Tricia Raikes are the co-founders of the foundation, which launched in 2002. Jeff Raikes was at Microsoft for close to three decades and served as CEO of the Gates Foundation for more than five years. Tricia Raikes is co-founder of Giving Compass.

— Emily Heffter is now senior director of thought leadership and research for Workday, a finance and HR software company with offices in Seattle. Heffter joins the company from Qualtrics, where she was vice president of global communications. She was previously Zillow Group’s director of corporate communications.

“I’m joining Workday’s amazing communications team to help tell one of the most dynamic stories in the business world: the future of work.” Heffter said on LinkedIn. That includes “how people, technology, and leadership are evolving together — and helping business leaders see around the corner.”

— Seattle’s Lance Ludman has joined SurveyMonkey as its new chief financial officer. Ludman was most recently CFO at the social impact company Benevity. He also served as CFO at DreamBox Learning, a Bellevue, Wash.-based edtech company that was acquired in 2023.

SurveyMonkey CEO Eric Johnson praised Ludman’s “unique leadership style,” adding in a statement that “he maintains a persistent curiosity and business-partnership mindset.”

— Yatharth Gupta has joined Google’s Kirkland, Wash., office to work on cloud storage as director of product management.

Gupta is the founder and former CEO of Codified, a startup that aimed to help companies get a better handle on how to manage internal data access standards. Codified launched in 2023 after incubating at Madrona Venture Labs. Gupta told GeekWire that the company is winding down.

He was also a general manager at Microsoft for more than 14 years, where he helped lead Azure-related data access and management projects. More recently Gupta was a senior vice president of product management at enterprise database company SingleStore.

— Seattle-area rocket company Stoke Space appointed Matt White to its board of directors. White is executive vice president and CFO for Linde and serves on the board as a representative for Industrious Ventures.

— Laurent Boinot, Microsoft’s head of power and utilities in the Americas, has joined the board of LF Energy, an open-source foundation supporting energy deployment.

— Vivek Ladsariya, general partner and managing director at Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, joined the board of Seattle startup Tin Can, makers of a Wi-Fi-enabled landline-style phone for kids.

— Washington Research Foundation named Joe Albe as the new manager of grants and venture research at the organization, which helps universities and other nonprofits in the state commercialize and license their technologies. Albe recently earned his doctorate degree in immunology from the University of Washington.

The foundation also announced its 2026 postdoctoral fellows:

• Stefany Cruz, a software engineer working at the UW on agentic Al technologies.
• Winston Dredge, who joins the UW to research the impact of genetic variation on early human development.
• Nastacia Goodwin, a neuroscientist who will study the impacts of climate change on bee behavior at the UW.
• Kunal Lodaya, a chemist coming to the UW to work on high-capacity redox flow batteries.
• Allyson Martin, an entomologist joining WSU to study pollinators in orchard settings.
• Jongbeom Park, a molecular biologist studying the effect of developmental and environmental variations on mammalian newborns at the UW.
• Zoe Rand, who joins the UW and NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center to study harmful algal bloom detection and management.
• Nathaniel Ritz, a neuroscientist joining the Institute for Systems Biology to investigate host-microbe communication.
• Jonas Wilhelm, a biochemist coming to the UW’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) to create catalysts for greenhouse-gas removal.
• Marcus Wong, who joins the UW to study immune responses to malaria and other infectious diseases.
• Chuanyun Xu, a biologist joining the IPD to design proteins for cellular sensing and control.
• Lu Yu, a biochemist using DNA nanotechnology to advance targeted cancer therapy at the UW.

— Lisa Qian is the first AI Officer for the City of Seattle.

“This strategic leadership position is designed to ensure Seattle harnesses the transformative potential of artificial intelligence while upholding the city’s values and commitment to responsible technology use,” the Seattle Information Technology Department stated on LinkedIn.

Seattle is vying to establish itself as an AI heavyweight, touting the contributions of Amazon and Microsoft, smaller companies and startups, and the University of Washington, among others. In March, the city launched “AI House,” a first-in-the-nation hub designed to bring entrepreneurs, investors, students and community leaders together to propel the field.

Before this role, Qian was at LinkedIn where she served as a senior manager of data science. Past jobs include leadership positions at Seattle logistic company Convoy and at Airbnb.

“As a proud Seattle resident, I’m excited to apply my experience building responsible data science and AI systems toward work that directly benefits our community,” Qian said on LinkedIn.

— Microsoft has recruited a longtime media leader for its AI news product: Julia Beizer, current chief operating officer at Bloomberg Media. Adweek broke the news.

Beizer will report to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, Adweek states, and will work on products including its Copilot Daily news round up and Publisher Content Marketplace, which pays publishers for content that’s used by AI products. (The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft two years ago, alleging they illegally used the media outlet’s content to train its AI.)

Beizer has been with Bloomberg for eight years, helping drive subscriber growth with a focus on marketing, user experience and customer insights. She previously worked at HuffPost and was with The Washington Post for more than a decade.

— Seattle’s DexCare announced Rakshay Jain as its new chief product officer.

Dexcare’s software platform helps healthcare providers manage their system’s capacity and schedule appointments. The startup launched at Providence, spinning out from the healthcare network’s digital innovation group in 2021.

“What drew me to DexCare is that this team isn’t trying to replace systems already in use, but connect them, and create the navigational intelligence that guides where, when, and how patients access care, no matter where they enter the system,” Jain said in a statement.

Jain joins the company from Innovaccer, a Bay Area company providing software for managing healthcare data. He will work remotely from California.

— Sri Chandrasekar is taking a break after nearly nine years as a managing partner at Point72 Ventures. Chandrasekar, who is based in Bellevue, Wash., appears to have resigned from the board of directors of four startups located across the U.S. and in London, while retaining seats at two others.

“To my Ventures team – It was amazing going to battle with you over the last 9 years. I expect nothing but great things from you in the years to come,” he wrote in LinkedIn. “To our Portfolio companies – Working with you is what made the long nights and the non-stop travel worthwhile. If you need me, you know how to find me!”

Prior to Point72, Chandrasekar was a senior vice president at In-Q-Tel in Menlo Park, Calif.

— Brian Fleming is stepping away from Sucker Punch, the Bellevue, Wash.-based game studio he co-founded 28-years ago. “I’ve decided it’s time to shake up the snow-globe,” he wrote on LinkedIn, adding that he’ll stay at the company — part of PlayStation Studios — through April to assist with the leadership transition. Jason Connell and Adrian Bentley will take over as co-studio heads on Jan. 1.

— Jiphun Satapathy is now chief information security officer for Motive, a San Francisco company providing software tools to make operations safer for construction, field service, energy, trucking and other industries. Satapathy, who is based in the Seattle area, previously worked as CISO for Medallia and has held leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Snowflake and elsewhere.

— Janet Greenlee, director of communications at Allen Family Philanthropies, is retiring from her role. Greenlee has spent her career in marketing and communications. She worked for more than a decade at the philanthropy, which was launched by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister, Jody Allen.

Steve Clayton has emerged as a retro renegade at Microsoft, seeking to show that print books and magazines still matter in the digital age. Now he’s turning the page on his own career.

Clayton, most recently Microsoft’s vice president of communications strategy, announced Monday morning that he’s leaving the Redmond company after 28 years to become Cisco’s chief communications officer, starting next month, reporting to CEO Chuck Robbins.

“In some ways, it feels like a full-circle moment: my career began with the rise of the internet and the early web — and Cisco was foundational to that story,” he wrote on LinkedIn, noting that AI makes infrastructure and security all the more critical.

He leaves behind two passion projects: 8080 Books, a Microsoft publishing imprint focused on thought leadership titles, and Signal, a Microsoft print magazine for business leaders. He said via email that both will continue after his exit. He’s currently in the U.K. wrapping up the third edition of Signal. 

Clayton joined Microsoft in 1997 as a systems engineer in the U.K., working with commercial customers including BP, Shell, and Unilever. He held a series of technical and strategy roles before moving to Seattle in 2010 to become “chief storyteller,” a position he held for 11 years.

That put Microsoft ahead of the curve on a trend now sweeping corporate America: The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “storyteller” job postings on LinkedIn have doubled in the past year.

As chief storyteller, Clayton led a team of 40 responsible for building technology demonstrations for CEO Satya Nadella, helping shape Microsoft’s AI communications strategy, running the corporate intranet, and overseeing social media and broader culture-focused campaigns.

In 2021, Clayton moved into a senior public affairs leadership role. During that period, he was involved in companywide efforts related to issues including AI policy and the Microsoft–Activision deal, before transitioning to his current communications strategy role in 2023.

In his latest position, Clayton has focused on using AI to transform how Microsoft runs its communications operations, reporting to Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw.

Kevin Leneway, a veteran engineering leader at the Pioneer Square Labs startup incubator in Seattle, is joining OpenAI as a solutions architect on the company’s startups team.

Leneway, a longtime member of the Seattle tech community, has led engineering efforts at PSL since 2017. Before that, he co-founded presentation software startup Haiku Deck in 2010 and was a developer evangelist at Microsoft for five years.

In a LinkedIn post, Leneway said he’ll remain in Seattle and continue his work with local startups. “I’ll find out more details about the specifics of the role soon, but my personal goal is to make a tighter connection between OpenAI and the Seattle startup ecosystem,” he said.

The hire reflects OpenAI’s growing presence in the Seattle region. The AI giant opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., in 2024, and acquired product development platform Statsig for $1.1 billion earlier this year.

— Madrona hired Eric Wong as director of portfolio growth. Wong joins the Seattle venture firm after marketing leadership stints at Symend, Jirav, Prompt.io, Conga, Tier 3, Docusign, and other companies.

In his new role, Wong will help Madrona’s portfolio companies with their go-to-market strategies. “I have had many opportunities in my career, but I can sincerely say, this is the one I am most excited about,” he said on LinkedIn.

— Seattle healthcare tech startup CueZen added Dr. Ramesh Rajentheran as CFO and head of Asia. Rajentheran has more than two decades of experience at the intersection of healthcare and finance. He co-founded MiyaHealth and Hisential, and is an operating partner at TVM Capital Healthcare.

CueZen, which sells software designed to boost personalized healthcare programs, raised $5 million earlier this year.

— T-Mobile appointed Jon Freier as its new chief operating officer. He succeeds Srini Gopalan, who was named CEO of the Bellevue, Wash., telecom giant in a surprise move that took effect last month.

Freier joins the C-suite from his previous position as president of the T-Mobile Consumer Group, a title he has held since 2021. But he has been with the company for much longer: Freier began his professional career at Western Wireless in 1994 when he was 19 years old. That business became T-Mobile after Germany’s Deutsche Telekom took over as majority shareholder in 2001.

The company disclosed Freier’s promotion in a filing. T-Mobile has undergone additional leadership reshuffling in recent months, expanding the role of its chief technologist and marking the departure of its chief communications and corporate responsibility officer and its business group president.

— Alex Berezhnyy is now chief technology officer for RentSpree, a Seattle company that supports the rental application and screening process, and helps manage lease documents and payments.

Berezhnyy was previously at the real estate platform Redfin for more than a decade, leaving the role of vice president of engineering. Prior to that, he was at Amazon where he served in a variety of software development manager roles in retail systems and Kindle education.

“[Berezhnyy] brings deep technical expertise, a track record of building strong teams, and a bold vision for how AI will shape the future of renting,” RentSpree posted on LinkedIn.

— Paige Johnson has left her role as Microsoft’s vice president of Education. She is relaunching EdCatalyst Group, an Oregon-based consulting business that she previously ran for nearly three years that supports companies, nonprofits and public organizations in using AI to expand their impact.

“My years at Microsoft were an extraordinary chapter. I learned so much about how AI is reshaping industries — from education and media to public sector and financial services,” Johnson said on LinkedIn.

Earlier in her career, Johnson was with Intel for nearly two decades, creating and scaling a professional development program that trained millions of teachers worldwide.

— James Newell is chief financial officer of WayTrade, a commodity trading company focused on renewable fuels including sustainable aviation fuel.

Newell, who will work remotely from Seattle, was previously a general partner with Voyager Capital, an investor in early stage companies in the Pacific Northwest.

“I found the perfect opportunity to make a meaningful impact at a company that itself makes a meaningful impact, and I get to do so alongside incredible people,” Newell said on LinkedIn.

— After 15 years with Amazon Web Services, Julien Ellie has resigned from his job as senior principal engineer. Ellie praised his colleagues who helped shape cloud computing, but said the company he joined and what AWS has become are no longer the same.

“From where I sit, process has taken precedence over customers, and rules have replaced high judgment. The culture has shifted from high trust to low trust, and from impact-driven to ‘who you know.’ That doesn’t align with the builder mindset that brought me here,” Ellie said on LinkedIn.

Prior to Amazon, Ellie was at Microsoft for nearly a decade.

— Jonathan Assayag has left his Sunnyvale, Calif., role with Amazon where he served as general manager and director of the company’s smart eyewear program. During more than nine years at the tech giant, Assayag worked on products including Echo Frames and Smart Delivery Glasses.

“These were true zero-to-one efforts that pushed ambient computing, Voice AI, and AI-assisted workflows into new territory. They challenged me both as a builder and a leader, sharpening how I think, make decisions, and drive impact,” he said on LinkedIn.

Assayag also thanked his team members and company leaders. He did not share his next move.

— Gravyty, a Seattle-based company that facilitates alumni donations and higher ed student engagement, named Lisa Haubenstock as its new chief customer officer. Haubenstock joins Gravyty from shipping logistics company Truckstop, and has held roles at Amazon and the education company Everfi.

“Gravyty presents an opportunity to tie together so much of my previous experience with a truly dedicated global team working to build something great,” Haubenstock said on LinkedIn.

— Bobby Franzo is now CEO of WatchMeGrow, a Lacey, Wash.-based company that provides cameras and live video streaming in the childcare, pet-care and senior-care spaces. He succeeds John Lewison, who led the company for 24 years and is now a board member and advisor.

Franzo is the founder of PB&J TV (Peanut Butter and Jelly TV), a streaming service that merged with WatchMeGrow earlier this year.

“What started as an idea to give families peace of mind has evolved into a company shaping how technology supports safety and quality during the most important years of a child’s development,” Lewison said on LinkedIn. He added that Franzo “is exactly what the company needs at this moment, and I’m thrilled he’s at the helm.”

— CreateMe, a California-based clothing manufacturer using robotic assembly lines, announced two leadership changes:

• Nick Chope, who is located in Portland, Ore., has been promoted to chief engineer and head of manufacturing. Chope has worked in robotics and automation at Microsoft, Apple, his own firm and elsewhere.
• Seattle’s Natasha Chand is now executive advisor, having previously worked as the global CEO of Amazon Softlines Private Label, which includes clothes, footwear and accessories.

— Lauren Weinberg is now a board advisor at Adora, a Seattle-based marketing technology startup that emerged from stealth in October. Her past roles include leadership positions at Peleton Interactive, Square, Yahoo and elsewhere.

Veteran tech operators with ties to Seattle are launching a new investment firm aimed at what they see as two of the biggest opportunities in today’s economy: AI and cyber intelligence.

VQ Capital is a “thesis-driven, AI-native investment platform” that partners with multibillion-dollar family offices. The firm is headquartered in New York but co-founder Brian Lent plans to build a hub in the Seattle region, where he was an early Amazon leader and later started Medio, a predictive analytics startup acquired by Nokia in 2014.

Lent is teaming up on VQ Capital with longtime colleague John Kim. They first worked together when Lent recruited Kim to join Medio. Kim later went on to become a product exec at Expedia, Vrbo, and PayPal.

Other managing partners include Yotam Avrahami, a former partner at New Vista Capital and Deloitte, and Praveen Hirsave, a former Expedia and Babylon exec who also spent nearly 15 years at IBM.

VQ Capital says it will concentrate on two main themes:

• “Golden Dome” for cyber intelligence — funding technology that unifies isolated cybersecurity tools.
• AI transformation of consumer companies — helping marketing-led brands rebuild customer acquisition, marketing, supply chain, fulfillment and core operations into “compounding, AI-native systems.”

“We believe the biggest winners of this era will be built by small, extraordinary teams capable of out-maneuvering incumbent giants,” Kim said in a statement.

The firm argues that the old pattern of gradual, Moore’s Law-style progress has given way to what it calls an “era of compounding change,” driven by hardware advances, new AI models and large-scale data.

VQ Capital also departs from the standard venture fund structure. Instead of raising a large, long-lived fund up front, the firm works with family office partners on a deal-by-deal basis. The firm describes its approach as a hybrid of private equity discipline and venture-style investing.

Avrahami, a veteran of the Israeli Special Forces, initially started the firm as YA6. He later partnered with Kim and Lent to re-launch as an AI-focused investment platform — what is now known as VQ Capital.

After Nokia acquired Medio, Lent worked at HERE Technologies for two years before launching real estate tech startup Plunk, which closed in 2024. His most recent gig was with Auger, a well-funded logistics startup in Bellevue led by former Amazon exec Dave Clark. Lent was chief analytics and data officer, and departed after seven months to help launch YA6, which evolved into VQ Capital.