Jim Smith

Struggling mobile software company Motricity has replaced interim CEO Jim Smith, handing the reins over to Richard Stalzer. Stalzer previously served as president of the company’s Mobile Media division. Meanwhile, chief financial officer Nathan Fong has added the responsibilities of chief operating officer and general counsel Richard Sadowsky has been named chief administrative officer.

“After restructuring the business, launching new products and incubating a clear future strategic direction this is a natural transition to hand-off to the new leadership to execute,” said Smith in a statement. “Rich Stalzer, Nathan and Richard now have the capital, focus, skills and capability to create tremendous value. Motricity has emerged as a new company and is well positioned to capitalize on the growth in the open mobile market.” Motricity, which replaced co-founder and CEO Ryan Wuerch last year, has lost 60 percent of its value in the past year.

Michelle Flandreau

LiquidPlanner, a Bellevue maker of project management software, has named Michelle Flandreau as vice president of marketing. She replaces Liz Pearce who was elevatedto the role of CEO in August. Flandreau previously held marketing roles at Tommy Bahama, Expedia, and Nordstrom.  “I am … eager to work with the LiquidPlanner executive team as they continue to push the envelope of social productivity and bring their new breed of product management software to new markets,” said Flandreau.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini plans to retire from the semiconductor giant in May, ending a 40-year tenure. He is only the fifth CEO of the company in 45 years, reports the Associated Press. “I’ve been privileged to lead one of the world’s greatest companies,” Otellini said in a statement. “After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it’s time to move on and transfer Intel’s helm to a new generation of leadership.”

Tom Button

Seattle area tech companies ArtinSoft and Mobilize.Net have merged operations. The company will operate under the Mobilize.Net name and will be led by Tom Button, the former corporate vice president of Microsoft Developer Division. Button led that the developer division at Microsoft from 1996 to 2003. He joined Mobilize.Net earlier this year. “The ArtinSoft team has an impressively long list of highly-satisfied customers, and provides incredible technical and customer depth. At Mobilize.Net, we bring years of developer tools business and IT services acumen to the combined firm,” said Button.

Liberty Lake-based Itron has named Philip Mezey as CEO, replacing LeRoy Nosbaum. Mezey, who previously served as president and chief operating officer of Itron’s energy division, will take on the new role on January 1. He joined the company in 2003 after Itron acquired Silicon Energy. Also changing jobs is John Holleran who will become Itron’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

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