Charlie Ellis

Charlie Ellis, an 11-year veteran of Microsoft who worked on the Excel and SharePoint teams, has joined three-year-old Seattle startup EnergySavvy. Ellis tells GeekWire that he was ready to leave his job at Microsoft, which he said had become more about dealing “with organizational complexity.”

“At EnergySavvy, I found a great combination of an awesome and dynamic engineering team, serious science, and UX that makes that science accessible,” said Ellis. “Knowing it’s a product which does good — reducing our energy demands and dependence on imports, helping create jobs —  while enabling customers, partners, and users to do well sealed the deal for me.”

Founded by former Microsoft employee Aaron Goldfeder, former Amazon.com and Redfin employee Leo Shklovskii and former aQuantive executive Karl Siebrecht, EnergySavvy’s software powers the energy efficiency programs of utilities and government agencies.

Northwest Energy Angels, an angel investment network focusing on clean tech opportunities, has named Brian Arbogast to the board. “I would love to see Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest more broadly, become the best place in the world for a cleantech startup,” said Arbogast, a former Microsoft vice president who has been investing in clean tech startups since 2007.

InfoSpace has named Eric Emans to the position of chief financial and treasurer. Emans, who had previously held that role on an interim basis, has worked at InfoSpace over the past seven years in a number of roles, including chief accounting officer and controller.  “Eric has the right blend of financial understanding and leadership skills to lead us forward as CFO,” said CEO William Ruckelshaus in a statement. Prior to InfoSpace, the University of Washington grad served as director of operations at Corbis Mobile. The appointment follows the departure of CFO David Binder, who left for Blue Nile in July.

AOL executive Brad Garlinghouse and TechCrunch reporter Sarah Lacy are leaving the company, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Meanwhile, Business Insider reports that TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde also plans to quit. Garlinghouse ran the applications and commerce group in the company’s Silicon Valley office, while Lacy served as senior editor of AOL-owned TechCrunch. Earlier this year, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington left the technology news site in a dust-up to run a venture capital firm, backed in part by AOL. TechCrunch writer MG Siegler also left to join Arrington, though he continues to write part-time for the site.

Scott Kurttila, a former business development manager at Amazon.com, will consult with Austin, Texas-based eDoorways International Corp. for the company’s new global merchant services system. eDoorways says that it is building a “gateway for businesses and consumers to exchange ideas, services and products” within a social networking environment.

Know of a notable tech industry move or hire?Emailtips@geekwire.com. More Tech Moves here.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.