Seattle venture capital firm Maveron has named Kristen Hamilton to the positon of entrepreneur-in-residence with a focus on startups in the education realm. In addition to looking at new opportunities, Maveron’s Jason Stoffer says that Hamilton also will support the company’s portfolio by “offering hands-on guidance to entrepreneurs on their journey to disrupt the education industry, displace status quo incumbents and grow their companies into market leading consumer businesses.”
Hamilton has consulted with startups, including Maveron portfolio companies Altius Education and Livemocha. After co-founding Onvia, Hamilton went on to serve as chief operating officer of World Learning and global director of educator strategy and marketing at Microsoft. She has a degree in business from The University of Western Ontario, and will be based in the firm’s Seattle office.
“The $2.5 trillion education market bears the weighty responsibility of educating workers to succeed in today’s global knowledge economy and Maveron is one of the few firms with expertise in scalable for-profit education — a massive segment whose time has come for disruptive innovation,” Hamilton said in a statement.”
Integrated Diagnostics, which is developing a blood test to identify lung cancer, has named John Bencich as chief financial officer and Jill Tonachio as vice president of sales. Bencich is the former CFO of Allozyne and Trubion, while Tonachio most recently served as national director of sales for Aurora Diagnostics. “John has a wealth of experience at successfully navigating the financial and operational issues that young life sciences companies face. Jill brings a superb track record of success in diagnostics sales and customer support,” said CEO said Albert Luderer. “With our full commercial team now in place, I am confident that we will have a successful launch of Indi’s lung cancer diagnostic.” That launch is expected later this year.
Mark Heesen, who led the National Venture Capital Association for the past 22 years, has decided to retire after helping to bring on new leadership for the organization. “Words cannot express what a privilege it has been to lead and advocate for the venture capital industry for the past 22 years. It has been an incredible ride, one that has seen tremendous progress and change in our industry and in Washington D.C.,” said Heesen in a statement. “And personally, I have deposited well over a million frequent flyer points in my account, a milestone that has me looking forward to more time at home with my wife Stacy and my daughters Claudia and Amelia.” Heesen was instrumental in raising awareness around the importance of venture capital as the fuel that helps jumpstart new businesses, with board member Ray Rothrock of Venrock noting that Heesen “has contributed immeasurably to the venture capital industry over the last several decades.” Heesen will remain president until a successor is found.
Patent holding firm Pendrell has named David Rinn to the position of vice president and chief financial officer, replacing Thomas Neary who is stepping down from the role Friday. Rinn served as CFO of Ancestry.com from 2004 to 2008, and before that worked in a number of senior finance roles at Microsoft. “As we continue to expand our businesses through organic growth, acquisitions and creative strategic transactions, David’s mix of transactional, financial and operational experience will serve us well going forward,” commented Ben Wolff, chief executive officer of Pendrell. “David is entrepreneurial, energetic and hands-on, making him a great fit with the rest of our team.”
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