—Seattle venture capitalist Lucinda Stewart is moving into a new profession, taking on a role as an executive recruiter at SpencerStuart. Stewart, who worked at OVP Venture Partners and Frazier Healthcare, said that she wanted to “double down” on her favorite part of the venture capital business, which was “building world class teams and watching them win.” She will be based in Seattle, working in the firm’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice. In addition to Stewart, the firm has named former Microsoft manager Michael Rawding as a consultant. Founded in 1956, SpencerStuart now operates 54 offices worldwide.
“This expansion in Seattle comes in response to a growing demand from clients in the Pacific Northwest for executive search and talent advisory services, and is a reflection of the dynamism of the regional economy,” said Jason Baumgarten, who founded Spencer Stuart’s local office in Seattle. “Our team of consultants is deeply rooted in the local community and works globally across the full range of relevant industries and functional areas.”
—Exsilio Solutions has hired Scott Kerfoot as COO, joining the Redmond-based marketing and technology consulting company after 13 years at Microsoft. “During my tenure with Microsoft I got to work with a lot of consulting companies and I can’t remember any of them that have such a strong combination of traditional development consulting coupled with strong creative and marketing as well as value adds like the virtualization platform,” said Kerfoot. “As someone from the outside looking in, this combination of strength building on strength is unique and I want to be a part of it.” At Microsoft, Kerfoot served as the Director of Principal Architect Evangelism, and he worked on the team that created the Microsoft BizSpark Program.
—Jive Software has hired Elisa Steele, a former marketing executive at Skype and Yahoo, as executive vice president of strategy and chief marketing officer. She most recently served as corporate vice president and chief marketing officer of consumer applications and services at Microsoft, overseeing brands such as Bing, IE and Lync. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, which employs a large staff in Portland, competes with Microsoft’s Yammer unit. Jive CEO Tony Zingale made some headlines earlier this year when he said that Microsoft is the company “where innovation goes to die.” “Elisa is a unique leader with both consumer and enterprise experience who fundamentally knows how to communicate the value businesses bring to customers,” said Zingale in a statement. “Her specific talent lies in creating and marketing products that delight customers, build loyalty and ultimately transform brands.
—T-Mobile announced in a SEC filing Wednesday that Srikant M. Datar, a board member designated by Deutsche Telekom, resigned from the board and then was immediately reappointed. “In connection with the closing of the company’s equity offering … the stock ownership percentage of Deutsche Telekom, the Company’s majority stockholder, was diluted to a level that reduced, from eight to seven, the number of directors that Deutsche Telekom has the right to designate under the Company’s certificate of incorporation and the Stockholder’s Agreement between the Company and Deutsche Telekom,” the filing said. “Effective immediately following Mr. Datar’s resignation, the Board re-appointed Mr. Datar as a director of the Company, to fill the vacancy resulting from his resignation, and as a member and the Chair of the Audit Committee of the Board.”
—Randy Stewart has joined Seattle startup EveryMove as a product manager, helping to shape the product’s future. “I love helping companies create and manage rocket ship growth both in terms of users and employees,” said Stewart, who previously worked at Cheezburger and Boxbe. And personally, I love the idea of using game mechanics to help fit people stay fit and motivate people who aren’t to get fit (I fall into the latter bucket).”
—Former Decide.com CEO Mike Fridgen has joined the advisory board of Yabbly, an interesting match given that Yabbly and Decide.com (before its sale and closure earlier this year) both were tooling around in the social commerce arena. Interestingly, both Fridgen and Yabbly co-founder Tom Leung spent time together at Harvard Business School more than a decade ago. “Only a few months ago Mike was busy running Decide.com as its CEO, with a vastly different approach to Yabbly’s community-driven recommendations,” said Leung in a blog post. “Decide was a big data play for consumer shopping, leveraging tons of data to democratize pricing information for consumers. Its approach caught the attention of eBay and the worldwide commerce leader acquired Decide in September. Now Mike is busy at eBay taking the big data approach to pricing for eBay sellers – improving their prices on merchandize and increasing sales.” Other advisors include BuddyTV co-founder Andy Liu and Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh.
—The Washington Technology Industry Association has named Patti Brooke as vice president of government affairs and member programs. She replaces Lew McMurran, who will continue as a consultant to the organization. Brooke previously worked at Sound Thinkers and served as the assistant director of the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Business Services Division, where she managed the State Department of Tourism, International Trade, Economic Development and Marketing. Prior to that, she worked at Microsoft.
“We are grateful to have Patti join the leadership team,” said Michael Schutzler, who recent joined as CEO of the WTIA. “Patti is a rare find. She has deep tech industry marketing expertise and she has relevant experience working in our state government. Even more powerful is her reputation as a collaborative leader with high integrity. Patti will be instrumental in helping the WTIA evolve to better serve our industry and to build productive working relationships with policy makers.”
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