Longtime Technology Alliance executive director Susannah Malarkey is stepping down in January 2016.
APCO senior advisor Susannah Malarkey

APCO Worldwide added former Technology Alliance executive director Susannah Malarkey as a senior advisor to its technology-focused public relations practice based in Seattle.

“Susannah’s insightful counsel and extraordinary expertise will give our clients the guidance they need in times of transformational change,” said APCO’s North American chairman Nelson Fernandez. “We’re proud to have her as part of our team, and look forward to her work in a dynamic and exciting industry.”

Malarkey was the founding executive director of the Technology Alliance, a technology advocacy group founded by Bill Gates Sr. in 1996. While there, she helped drive efforts to grow STEM funding for K-12 education and had a part in launching programs like the Alliance of Angels, Ada Developers Academy and The Science & Technology Discovery Series.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos appointed the company’s managing director for India Amit Agarwal to his S-team, a group of senior leaders who help guide the company and have a direct line to Bezos. The CEO announced the appointment in an email to select employees, obtained by the Times of India.

“Please join me in welcoming Amit to S-team,” the email reads. “Amit and our India team are doing remarkable things. Amit and his experience in India will be a key resource for all of us on S-team as we work to figure out what it is to be a true global company.”

Agarwal has been with Amazon since 1999, where he started as a developer. In 2007, he was appointed as technical advisor to Bezos. He was promoted to vice president and country manager for India when the e-commerce giant first moved into the country in 2013. The company has gone on to become the most trusted web store in the country.

RealSelf vice president of people Lauren Sato
RealSelf vice president of people Lauren Sato

RealSelf named Lauren Sato as the cosmetic procedure review site’s vice president of people. Sato will head up talent acquisition efforts and help develop core principles for the team as it continues to add members. The Seattle-based company doubled the size of its team in the last year and plans to continue rapid growth.

“RealSelf has a unique, purpose-driven culture. We intentionally sought out a non-traditional people leader to preserve our start-up culture and introduce bold employee practices—instead of cookie-cutter HR processes,” said RealSelf CEO Tom Seery. “Lauren’s experience developing creative, team-building programs is a perfect fit for RealSelf. She shares our tremendous passion for instilling confidence in all we do and we are excited to have Lauren on board.”

Sato joins the team after a stint as chief operating officer for investment research company Canopy. She also worked for Year Up as director of operations and strategy.

Glassdoor chief human resources officer Carmel Galvin
Glassdoor chief human resources officer Carmel Galvin

Glassdoor hired Carmel Galvin as chief human resources officer, helping the employment review company as it expands globally and ensuring its infrastructure keeps pace. The company currently has five offices around the globe.

“Glassdoor has disrupted the employment space by putting power and information back into the hand of employees, and I’m excited to expand our HR program and offerings to ensure we are continuing to enable our employees through an inclusive culture and environment, which pays off for both the employee and our company,” said Galvin.

Galvin previously served as senior vice president and chief human resources officer for Advent Software. She has also held human resource positions at Deloitte, CEB, Visa and IBM.

Janrain CEO Jim Kaskade
Janrain CEO Jim Kaskade

Janrain announced Jim Kaskade as the customer identity management company’s new CEO as former CEO and founder Larry Drebes moves to the CTO position. The move comes as the Portland, Ore.-based company uses a recent $27 million funding round to invest in growth.

“Our latest round of funding has allowed us to continue to bring in exceptional talent to Janrain and expand our vision for the future of this company,” said Drebes. “Over the last quarter, Jim and I have been talking about how Janrain is perfectly positioned in the marketplace, and I’m extremely pleased he’s accepted this opportunity to lead our team and serve our clients as our new CEO.”

Kaskade joins Janrain from an executive position at Computer Sciences Corp. Before that, he was CEO of Infochimps, which was purchased by Computer Sciences Corp. in 2013. He has also served as a mentor for the Founder Institute and an analyst for GigaOm.

SkyKick vice president of marketing Chike Farrell
SkyKick vice president of marketing Chike Farrell

SkyKick, a Seattle cloud management company, added three executives to its team as it looks to continue international growth. Chike Farrell is the vice president of marketing; Kathryn Saducas is the general manager of Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Anthony Philips is the general manager of business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“SkyKick’s mission is to help partners succeed in the cloud,” said SkyKick co-CEO Evan Richman. “Today more than 5,000 IT solution providers in 125 countries rely on SkyKick to deliver cloud migration, backup and management services for their customers, which also provides new cloud revenue streams for those partners. With these hires, we’ll be able to better help these partners and expand our global footprint.”

Farrell has worked in business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies across many industries. He also founded his own digital marketing startup and has served as CEO of Caribbean Ideas Limited. Prior to that, he worked in product management and advertising roles in the Online Services Group at Microsoft

Saducas is a Microsoft veteran with leadership roles in cloud services across Asia and Latin America. She also has channel development experience in the IT industry and has worked with online startups and American Express in management roles.

Philips is also a Microsoft vet, spending a decade managing global business development, marketing, media strategy and sales teams at the company. He has also managed international teams working in regional sales around the globe.

Northeastern University dean Scott McKinley
Northeastern University dean Scott McKinley

Northeastern University named Scott McKinley as the new dean of the Seattle campus for the Boston university. The school has a heavy population of computer science majors at its South Lake Union classrooms, and more than 60 percent of them have worked at Amazon.

The university has nearly 500 students total and also offers degrees in business administration marketing, communication studies and international business.

McKinley comes to the school via Cisco Systems where he was the strategic advisor and helped develop a program for postgraduate IT education. He is also the co-founder of Neumont University in Utah, which provided accelerated degree programs in collaboration with partners like IBM and Microsoft.

Zumobi vice president of East Coast sales John McCormick
Zumobi vice president of East Coast sales John McCormick

Zumobi hired John McCormick as vice president of East Coast sales. He will focus on driving sales for the mobile content marketing company’s new Microzine solution.

“We are seeing tremendous demand for our new Microzine product and I am really excited to have John lead our East Coast sales effort,” said Ken Willner, CEO of Zumobi. “John’s extensive experience developing media and content marketing programs with leading brands will bring added depth to our team and accelerate our growth on the East Coast.”

Before joining Zumobi, McCormick was the executive director of sales at The New Yorker. He has also held sales and advertising roles at Conde Nast Media Group, Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

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