Brad Owens
Brad Owens

—Zillow today promoted Brad Owens to the position of general counsel, overseeing the company’s legal affairs and corporate governance. Owens joined Zillow in 2012 as corporate counsel, playing a key role in the company’s acquisitions. He most recently served as assistant general counsel, and will continue to report to COO Kathleen Philips.

“Brad has played an instrumental role at Zillow, and will make an excellent general counsel,” said Philips, who previously held the general counsel role. “Zillow has grown considerably over the past two years, and I’m pleased to recognize the sizable contributions by Brad in supporting this growth to date, and into the future.”

In addition to helping to manage the blockbuster $3.5 billion merger with Trulia, Zillow is locked in ongoing litigation with Move Inc. over the hiring of Errol Samuelson as chief industry development officer. Prior to Zillow, Owens was an associate at Perkins Coie, assisting with Zillow’s IPO.

Michael Smith
Michael Smith

—E-commerce veteran Michael Smith has left the CEO post at Full Circle Farms, the organic food delivery company that operates on the West Coast. Smith is an online retailing executive who previously led Nordstrom.com, Land’s End and Classmates.com. He previously served as CEO of online handbag rental company Bag Borrow & Steal.

Smith joined Full Circle in January 2013, noting at the time that food delivery was a “really interesting space that is heating up.” Smith tells GeekWire that he was able to turnaround the business and put in place more stable business practices. He also said that founder Andrew Stout wanted to return to the top post.

Sujal Patel and Bill Richter
Sujal Patel and Bill Richter

—Bill Richter has stepped down as president of the Isilon division at EMC, telling GeekWire that he plans to take a short sabbatical before jumping into his next venture. He will hand the reins to CJ Desai.

“After 8 fantastic years at Isilon and then EMC, it’s time for me to move on,” Richter says. “What a ride — from a small company trying to find its way to a billion dollar-plus business that leads the market!  Early on, I had the good fortune to work closely with a visionary like Sujal Patel and then had the thrill of putting my own stamp on the business over the last couple of years.  Going forward, the Isilon will be more closely aligned to other complementary businesses within EMC.”

Michael Kurtzman
Michael Kurtzman

—ThePlatform today announced that Michael Kurtzman as vice president of sales for the Americas and Jouari Santiago as director of sales for Latin America.

“Michael has an impressive track record building and expanding sales channels for new technologies across the digital media industry, and his expertise will benefit our customers and sales organization as we expand our efforts around the globe,” said Marty Roberts, co-CEO of thePlatform. “We are also excited to have Jouari Santiago join thePlatform to strengthen our ability to meet the needs of our customers in Latin America.”

Kurtzman previously served as general manager of technology consulting firm Projekt202, and before that was vice president and general manager at iLoop Mobile. Santiago was the head of product development at Shaw Communications, where he oversaw the company’s broadband video strategies across its portfolio of digital entertainment properties. He will report to Kurtzman.

—Inside Social, a Seattle social media startup, has named Shahzaib Younis as VP of engineering. Younis joins from Microsoft, where he worked on projects such as Lync, Office and Bing. Prior to Microsoft, he co-founded Proximity Innovations. “We’re absolutely thrilled to have him and he will be of paramount importance in building our next big offering: a new social ad-buying platform powered by our social data,” said Inside Social CEO Brewster Stanislaw.

Jason Crew CEO Summit Power
Jason Crew

—Summit Power, a Seattle company that specializes in natural gas-fired power projects, carbon capture projects for enhanced oil recovery and utility-scale photovoltaic solar and wind power projects, has named Jason Crew as CEO. Former CEO Eric Redman will assume the role of co-chairman of the board.

“Summit is one of the world’s premier developers of low-carbon, large-scale power and industrial energy facilities, and a frequent early-adopter of proven, advanced technologies,” said Crew, who previously worked at GE. “The company has a strong track record of deploying high-tech projects which generate strong returns on investment.”

—Heavily-funded Juno Therapeutics has named Hal Barron, president of research & development at Calico, to its board of directors. “Hal is one of the most respected clinician-scientists and successful drug developers in the biotechnology industry.  His unique perspective and experiences at Genentech and Roche, particularly in oncology, will bring valuable insights to our team as we work to bring our CAR and TCR product candidates to patients and disrupt the treatment of cancer,” said Juno CEO Hans Bishop.

Matt Ehrlichman
Matt Ehrlichman

—Porch CEO Matt Ehrlichman has joined the advisory board of EveryMove. “Matt is not only an amazing entrepreneur building one of the fastest growing businesses in the U.S., he’s also very familiar with the Fitness industry from his previous experience as an executive at Active.com,” said EveryMove CEO Russell Benaroya.

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