Awards0GWA_banners_300x250-02Talent is the name of the game in the tech industry.

And that’s why today’s category in the GeekWire Awards voting — Hire of the Year — is such a critical one. These companies and organizations picked up leading technologists, investors or executives in their quest to do something extra special.

Last year’s winner of this category was former Microsoft general manager Charlie Kindel, who joined Amazon.com. This year’s lineup includes one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and data mining (Oren Etzioni of the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence); a proven media executive who previously led Slate and msnbc.com (Cheezburger’s Scott Moore); a former Facebook general counsel and one of the region’s leading angel investors (Founder’s Co-op’s Rudy Gadre) and a respected cloud computing executive (Apptio’s Ted Kummert).

Heck, one of the finalists — Errol Samuelson — was considered so valuable that he got sued by his former employer shortly after his arrival at Zillow.

protingent_logo_tagline_cmykAs with each of our categories, the five finalists below were nominated by the community and then selected with the input of our panel of judges. The winners will be announced May 8th at the GeekWire Awards show, taking place at the EMP Museum in Seattle.

A big thanks to our Hire of the Year category sponsor, Protingent, for helping to make the award possible.

Cast your ballot here:



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Rudy Gadre
Rudy Gadre

Seattle angel investor Rudy Gadre joins Founder’s Co-op

Former Facebook general counsel and ex-Amazon.com attorney Rudy Gadre has quickly established himself as one of the top angel investors in the Pacific Northwest, bankrolling startup companies like Jobaline, Walkscore, Porch, Wire and dozens of others.

The Seattle super angel — who has been flying solo as an investor for the past few years— joined venture capital firm Founder’s Co-op in December, teaming up with founders Chris DeVore and Andy Sack as the third general partner.

 

Oren Etzioni
Oren Etzioni

Oren Etzioni leaves the University of Washington for Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Perhaps no one has been more synonymous with the startup ethos at the University of Washington than computer science professor Oren Etzioni, a mainstay on campus for more than two decades and an inspiration for budding entrepreneurs in academia.

Etzioni moved on from academia after nearly 30 years this past September after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen asked him to lead an ambitious new undertaking around the study of artificial intelligence, a multi-million dollar effort that could have huge implications for the region’s tech industry and, more importantly, society as a whole.

 

Ted Kummert
Ted Kummert

Ex-Microsoft exec Ted Kummert joins Apptio as executive vice president of engineering/cloud services

Former Microsoft corporate vice president Ted Kummert joined Seattle-based IT analytics startup Apptio as executive vice president of engineering and cloud operations this past November.

Kummert left Microsoft earlier in 2013, joining Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner. During his tenure at Microsoft, Kummert oversaw development of enterprise software products such as SQL Server, Windows Azure Data Services and Microsoft’s business intelligence and big data offerings.

 

Former Yahoo and Microsoft media exec Scott Moore named president and COO of Cheezburger

moore-scott
Scott Moore.

Scott Moore, the former general manager of Microsoft’s MSN consumer portal and former senior vice president and head of media at Yahoo, joined Seattle online humor company Cheezburger this past September.

“The humor category is taking off in social and on mobile and Cheezburger is well-established and differentiated in both areas as well as with advertisers,” Moore said in September. “I’m excited about the opportunity to build competitive advantage in a growing media category with broad audience appeal and exciting creative challenges. Cheezburger is loved by its audience and is poised to go to the next level as a business. I couldn’t be more excited to join Ben and the team.”

 

A photo of Errol Samuelson.
Errol Samuelson

Real estate exec Errol Samuelson leaves Move Inc. to become chief industry development officer at Zillow

Errol Samuelson, previously the Chairman of Realtor.com, joined industry competitor Zillow last month as its new Chief Industry Development Officer, tasked to help the Seattle startup by forging partnerships between Zillow and players in the real estate industry, including brokerages and Multiple Listing Services.

“My first priority will be to listen, and incorporate the industry’s feedback to evolve Zillow’s technology and partnership programs,” Samuelson said in March.

Samuelson and Zillow were actually sued shortly after his appointment as Chief Industry Development Officer, with Realtor.com parent company Move Inc. alleging that the real estate exec destroyed materials and generally slacked off during his final days at the company.

Vote in previous categoriesStartup of the YearCEO of the YearApp of the YearInnovation of the YearBootstrapper of the YearYoung Entrepreneur of the YearPerk of the YearGeek of the YearNext Tech Titan; and Gadget of the Year.

Tickets are going fast for the GeekWire Awards, and we’re expecting a sell out, so make sure to grab yours today!

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