—The Washington State Department of Commerce announced that Joseph Williams has been appointed as the director of economic development for the information and communication technology industry for the state. He will advise Gov. Jay Inslee on the state’s $40-billion industry.
“I’m pleased to welcome Joseph in his new role. Washington State’s dominant ICT industry is continually evolving,” said Governor Jay Inslee. “With his successful industry background spanning the business and academic communities, Joseph will be an excellent liaison between industry and government as we work together to keep our state leading the world in IT innovation.”
Williams was most recently the dean of the school of business, government and economics at Seattle Pacific University. Before that, he was responsible for cloud partner ecosystem at Microsoft, developing many business-to-business relationships for the company. He also worked at Sun Microsystems consulting on business development for various accounts.
—Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center named Steve Stadum as its next executive vice president and chief operating officer. Stadum, who currently serves as chief operating officer of Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, will start with Seattle-based Fred Hutch in July.
“He’s fantastic at building organizations,” Fred Hutch director Gary Gilliland said. “He understands academics, he understands administration, and he knows how to put buildings up. I have the greatest respect for what he did at OHSU.”
At OHSU, Stadum worked with state legislators and private donors on securing rights and funding to match a $500 million contribution from Nike founder Phil Knight. In his new role, Stadum will head operational activities at Fred Hutch and work with area partners in the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He will also likely improve communication between his present and future employers.
“There is a great opportunity to bring together cancer research and treatment in the Northwest,” Gilliland said.
—Zillow Group hired Dan Spaulding as the Seattle-based company’s first vice president of people and culture. Spaulding will oversee human resources, recruiting efforts and internal development teams.
“We are thrilled for Dan to join Zillow Group,” said Zillow COO Amy Bohutinsky. “The most strategic and important part of our business is our ability to hire and retain the absolute best people. … And as an employer of more than 2,200 employees spanning multiple consumer and business brands, we need a leader of Dan’s caliber and experience to lead our people organization and strategy as we continue to grow.”
Spaulding joins Zillow from Starbucks, where he was vice president of U.S. stores and retail operations HR. He has also worked in human resources for Dell and Life Technologies, helping companies’ workforces move through mergers and acquisitions.
—Realtor.com named Vineet Singh as chief data officer. He will lead the data science and engineering teams at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Move Inc. subsidiary.
“This new role underscores the vital importance of economic and consumer data to the online real estate industry,” said Realtor CTO Suhail Ansari. “In addition to supplementing our comprehensive and accurate listing information with better market data, a focus on data science and engineering also enables us to drive a much more compelling and personalized user experience.”
Singh has worked at companies like Intuit, HP, Hitachi and IBM, focusing on data mining, research and analytics. In his new role, he’ll use his data science background to help homebuyers make informed decisions with plenty of data.
—Rocana hired Bryce Hein as vice president of marketing. He will work out of Seattle for the Google-backed analytics company, which has no central headquarters and instead relies on a distributed workforce model.
Hein will be responsible for overseeing communication, marketing and demand generation for the company. He previously served as vice president of marketing at Quantum, managing brand development and demand creation. At ADIC, he held several leadership roles in product marketing and business line management.
