Simon Poile

Another day, another executive departure from RealNetworks. Yesterday, we reported that chief financial officer Michael Eggers — a 14-year veteran of the company — was stepping down. Now, we’ve gotten word that Simon Poile has left the digital media company to become director of software development for Amazon.com’s Kindle Store.

Poile worked at RealNetworks for two years, and before that served in marketing and engineering roles at Nokia, Intrinsyc Software and Microsoft. In his new role at Amazon, Poile plans to lead global development for the Kindle Store. Amazon is looking at expanding the Kindle’s footprint overseas, and Poile will help lead the charge into new markets.

As we noted yesterday, RealNetworks has lost a number of top executives in recent months, including CEO Bob Kimball and chief strategy officer Hank Skorny. Real appointed Thomas Nielsen, a former Adobe executive, as CEO in November.

Sony Corp. plans to promote Kazuo Hirai — the executive who leads the company’s PlayStation division — to the role of president as soon as this April, reports Reuters. The role is currently held by Sony CEO Howard Stringer, and analysts say the decision is part of a succession plan at the electronics maker.

Calico Energy has named smart grid experts Jesse Berst and Dr. Subramanian Vadari to the company’s advisory board. Berst is founder of SmartGridNews.com, while Vadari heads Modern Grid Solutions.

Oncothyreon Inc., a Seattle biotech company, has named Diana Hausman as Chief Medical Officer.  She joined Oncothyreon in August 2009 from Zymogenetics as vice president of clinical development.

Amar Sethi has joined Seattle’s Pacific Biomarkers as chief scientific officer, joining the company from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Founded in 1989, PBI provides biomarker laboratory services and contract research services to pharmaceutical and medical diagnostic manufacturers in clinical trial research.

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