We’ve been tracking a number of key appointments in the Seattle tech industry in recent weeks. Here are a few …
Barokas Public Relations, a technology PR firm in Seattle, has named a new president and chief operating officer — and he’ll be familiar to many people on the local tech scene: Ralph Fascitelli, the former CEO/founder at Imagio Advertising and Public Relations, who sold that firm to J. Walter Thompson.
It’s an unlikely reunion for Fascitelli and Howie Barokas, who left Imagio 13 years ago to start his firm. Barokas (who will remain CEO at Barokas PR), explains that he purposefully picked his original office space at the time in Pioneer Square, near Imagio.
“I wanted to be as close as possible to Ralph so he’d have to see me every day in Pioneer Square and remind him he had competition,” Barokas says.
Eventually they started talking again, restarted their friendship, and now they’ll be working together with the goal of building the dominant mid-size PR firm for tech and education in the Northwest.
•Seattle biotechnology upstart Immune Design continues to add horsepower in the executive offices, tapping former Elan CEO Carlos Paya as CEO. He takes over from co-founder Steve Reed who will now focus on scientific and strategic partnerships. Reed previously co-founded Corixa.
• Korrio, a maker of youth sports automation technologies, has named Kip Fern as product manager and Roger Reina as director of East Coast Sales. Fern most recently served as director of product development for EA Sports, while Reina is the former University of Pennsylvania wrestling coach (holding the title for most wins in Penn history). Korrio is led by Steve Goldman, former CEO of Isilon Systems.
• Dr. Tom Furness, a professor and founding director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington, has joined Visualant as a senior scientific advisor. Visualant is developing optical sensing and data capture technologies for use in homeland security, forgery/fraud prevention, brand protection and process control applications.
• Bill Clifford, a 10-year veteran of Redmond online game company WildTangent, has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of WildTangent Media. In the new role, Clifford will oversee the company’s advertising business as well as efforts in social media and mobile gaming. He also will lead the company’s international expansion efforts, reporting directly to CEO Mike Peronto.
• Powerit CEO Matt Schiltz, the former CEO of DocuSign, General Software and CourtLink, has been appointed to the board of cloud-based storage startup Symform. Schiltz joined Powerit as CEO last month.
• Varolii has named Craig Kruck, the former vice president of technology at All Star Directories and former senior vice president of technology and operations at Cobalt Group, as vice president of professional services.
• Boeing named company veteran Steve Morrow the new president and CEO of its Insitu subsidiary, which develops unmanned airborne systems. He replaces Steve Sliwa, who retired April 1.
Know of a notable tech industry move or hire in the Pacific Northwest? Email tips@geekwire.com
