—Cyanogen, the makers of modified versions of Android for mobile devices, has snagged two executives from Amazon and Qualcomm to expand international operations.
Former Amazon Vice President of Traffic Stephen Lawler is joining the company as senior vice president of engineering, while Qualcomm’s vice president of engineering Karthick Iyer will become Cyanogen’s vice president of global systems.
Lawler previously headed the Bing Maps team at Microsoft, which was recently sold to Uber, before his role at Amazon. The 20-year industry veteran may help the hacker startup build ties in the tech world.
At Qualcomm, Iyer headed up the Android chip business, which positions him perfectly as Cyanogen builds up its business.
Cyanogen secured $80 million in funding earlier this year, partially from Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, to increase market share.
—SurveyMonkey, the online survey website, has named former HP executive Bill Veghte as CEO. The company lost its previous CEO, David Goldberg, to an untimely death from an accident. Goldberg had previously pursued Veghte to join the SurveyMonkey board.
Veghte was COO and head of strategy at HP before he left in June during the leadup to HP’s split. Before his role at HP, Veghte worked for Microsoft for 20 years and oversaw the rollout of Windows 7 as manager of the Windows unit.
SurveyMonkey also announced this week that Goldberg’s widow, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, will be joining the board.
—PlayFab, the Seattle-based backend service for live gaming, has added online gaming giant Kongregate‘s CEO Emily Greer to its board of directors.
“Greer will advise PlayFab on the evolving needs of game developers as the company continues to expand its backend game operations platform,” according to a press release.
Greer’s experience at Kongregate will help her in advising PlayFab on how to deal with developers of all sizes. Her company is one of the biggest publishers of indie games in the industry.
PlayFab co-founder and lead developer Matt Augustine has also been promoted to Chief Technology Officer. He will continue to build technologies to help developer acquire, retain and monetize players.
The company raised $7.4 million earlier this year from Benchmark Capital, Madrona Venture Group and others.
—Frazier Healthcare, a health-focused venture capital firm, announced that former GlaxoSmithKline head Tadataka Yamada has re-joined the company. Yamada will join the life sciences team as a venture partner. He will also serve as senior advisor on the company’s growth buyout team to help the company spot opportunities in pharmaceutical services and spin-outs from large healthcare companies.
Yamada will be returning to Seattle after a stint as Takeda Pharmaceuticals chief medical and scientific officer in Tokyo. Previously, he served as president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program in Seattle, and before that he was chairman of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline.
Yamada already sits on the boards of various Frazier portfolio companies, so his experience will help the investing team determine profitable investments in healthcare industries.
Frazier Healthcare raised $377 million in 2013, $77 million past its goal, to fund future healthcare startups.
—Onvia, a government business intelligence company, has appointed George Stoeckert to its board. Stoeckert is an independent investor.
He previously served as president of Dun & Bradstreet’s North America and Internet solutions division, which provides information on business’s credit. He had also worked as interim director of online recruiting agency Careerbuilder.
Stoeckert is the sixth member of the board, which was expanded for his position.
—Acucela, the Seattle-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, has hired Roger Girard as chief strategy officer. Girard has helped build 14 companies over 40 years in various industries. The board hopes his business acumen will help Acucela grow. The company’s stock has fallen more than 50 percent since its 2013 IPO on the Tokyo stock market.
Girard’s has previous worked with companies in industries ranging from medical devices to software distribution. His most recent post was the chief financial officer for Bellevue-based CareCap.
—Mixpo, a Seattle startup for creating online video ads, hired Kelly Maines as marketing communications manager. Maines will work on B2B communication as well as press relations.
Maines previously freelanced for various clients, working with Microsoft and Telenav, while also analyzing tech trends for various publications such as ReadWrite, VentureBeat and Forbes.
Mixpo recently acquired Portland-based ShopIgniter, which helps marketers to deliver and manage ad campaigns on social media.
—2nd Watch, an Amazon Web Services migration firm, has hired Doug McMaster as vice president of its Managed Cloud service. McMaster previously led data center services at NTT Communications.
He will help the Seattle company expand its services, which include balancing loads across cloud platforms in outsourced IT infrastructure.
2nd Watch named its new CEO last year, along with the announcement of a $10 million funding round.
—Apptio, an enterprise software company headquartered in Bellevue, has promoted co-founder Kurt Shintaffer to Chief Financial Officer. Shintaffer was promoted from his former position of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Finance and Accounting. He replaces Sean Boyle, who stepped down from his position as Apptio’s CFO earlier this year to take a VP of Finance job at Amazon.
Peter Klein, former Microsoft CEO and chairman of Apptio’s audit committee said that Shintaffer is the right fit to lead the financial operations of the fast-growing company. “I have been very impressed with Kurt’s dedication and contribution to the business. After interviewing and considering multiple highly-skilled and qualified candidates for the role of CFO, it was clear that the person most equipped for this role has been here all along,” Klein stated in Apptio’s press release.
Apptio also brought Susanna Morgan, previously senior vice president of finance at Bellevue-based Concur, on board as SVP of Finance and Investor Relations. The software startup — led by Seattle-area entrepreneur Sunny Gupta — was worth almost $1 billion dollars after its last funding round.
— Ossia, an engineering startup working on a wireless charging technology known as Cota, has announced a pair of leadership hires. Dr. Ron Khormaei has been appointed vice president of engineering, while Dr. Siamak Ebadi has been promoted to senior lead RF engineer.
Khormaei comes to Ossia with experience gained from his previous positions at Hewlett-Packard and Logitech, while Ebadi brings technical knowledge of antenna design and electromagnetism from time spent in academia and at his last company, Intellectual Ventures.
“Ron and Siamak join Ossia at a key inflection point, as the executive team gears up for the company’s next phase of growth,” said Ossia founder and CEO, Hatem Zeine in a press release. “Their technical expertise, coupled with their backgrounds in academia and consumer electronics, make them tremendous additions as we look to deliver Cota to consumers and emerging markets.”
Ossia is backed by companies such as Intel Capital and Japanese wireless carrier KDDI. More on Ossia’s technology in this GeekWire story: “This startup figured out how to charge devices wirelessly through walls from 40-feet away.”
— The Federal Communications Commission has reappointed Tacoma cyber-security startup IID’s president and CTO Rod Rasmussen to their Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC).
This marks Rasmussen’s third two-year term on the Council.
“I look forward to continuing to collaborate with some of the world’s best and brightest in their field as part of FCC CSRIC to ensure the nation’s communications system—and the increasing role the Internet plays to help keep it running—stays secure and trusted,” said Rasmussen. IID’s press release also revealed that Rasmussen will serve on The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) Security and Stability Advisory Committee. ICANN is a non-profit that tackles the task of maintaining the security and integrity of the Internet.
— Hulu has announced an addition to their expanding Beijing team. The TV and movies streaming giant has brought Yue Zhuge on board as their new VP of Research & Development.
Most recently CEO of Landscape Mobile (a company she co-founded), Zhuge also spent time at Yahoo! and Microsoft. She heads Hulu team’s researchers and software developers in Beijing.
Hulu has around 9 million paying subscribers, and with this hire plus constant content expansion, the company shows no sign of slowing down.
— EnergySavvy has brought former National Grid U.S. CEO Tom King onto its Board of Directors. King has decades of experience in the energy efficiency industry, spending time as CEO of Pacific Gas and Electric Company as well as National Grid U.S.
“[Tom’s] leadership and insights will help enable EnergySavvy to continue to provide breakthrough and increasingly valuable solutions to our rapidly changing industry. We’re honored to have him join us,” commented CEO and co-founder Aaron Goldfeder in a press release.
Seattle-based EnergySavvy recently teamed up with fellow technology firm Opower, and the two companies are working together to save energy all across their industry.
— Kitchenbowl, a social network for foodies, has hired Siri Angeles as the new director of marketing, and picked up Jacky Yip as Chief Technology Officer.
Angeles comes to Kitchenbowl from a senior marketing manager position at Urbanspoon, while Yip hails from Amazon’s software development team. Yip also previously spent time at Microsoft and Google.
Kitchenbowl brings gourmets and food fanatics together around phenomenal food photos, and gives them the opportunity to discover and share each others’ recipes.
Most recently, Kitchenbowl turned to local angel investors such as Beecher’s Cheese owner Kurt Dammeier and MOD Pizza CEO Scott Svenson for about $1.3 million in funding.
—Undead Labs, an indie game developer from Seattle, brought on former Microsoft Studios senior director Ted Woolsey as general manager. He’ll help the company continue its success on both Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. The company is also branching out into the mobile world in a partnership with Kabam.
Woolsey has a deep gaming background. He started as at Squaresoft, translating popular RPGs like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III and Secret of Mana. He eventually moved on to Microsoft to help build the digital games business for Xbox Live Arcade and he helped establish early connections with Minecraft maker Mojang.
—Icertis, a provider of enterprise contract management software in the Microsoft Cloud, hired Marc Chouaniere to lead all marketing efforts for the company.
Chouaniere previously worked as marketing manager for various divisions within Microsoft. He also worked HL2, then Seattle’s largest privately held marketing agency, and was the marketing director for Intellectual Ventures. His most recent position was the marketing director for Vertafore.
Icertis recently raised $6 million from Greycroft Partners and Fidelity Growth Partners India to grow its sales and marketing team. Chouaniere will help build the company’s brand and image.
