—Trulia promoted Ralph McLaughlin to the position of chief economist, leading its housing economics research team.
In his new role, McLaughlin will provide Trulia customers with insights into the economy, housing trends and public policy as it relates to the real estate industry. Trulia, based in San Francisco, was purchased by Seattle-based Zillow last year for $2.5 billion. Interestingly, Zillow runs its own housing research team.
“Having a dedicated research team at Trulia is part of our commitment to making it easy and enjoyable to find a home. With Ralph’s expertise, we have shed light on how the real estate market has changed in the last few years, focusing on key consumer issues like affordability,” said Trulia president Paul Levine. “Ralph has been an invaluable member of our research team, and with this promotion, I am excited to have him lead the charge and build on the work that has already been done.”
McLaughlin has been with Trulia since 2014, previously serving as the company’s housing economist. Before joining the firm, he working in academia, as assistant professor of urban and regional planning at both San Jose State University and the University of South Australia. During that time, he researched housing supply, urban growth, and economic geography.
—Smartsheet hired Andy Lientz as senior vice president of engineering. The former Microsoft manager will oversee technology operations and engineering for the Bellevue, Wash.-based collaborative work management platform.
“Andrew’s knowledge of both the technology and business aspects of companies allows him to bridge between customer, software, management and developer,” said Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader. “His experience as an engineering leader at growth stage and large companies offers us an added layer of expertise on top of an already deep development team, which will further establish Smartsheet as the collaborative work management platform of choice for enterprises worldwide.”
Lientz has more than 20 years of experience in developing web applications. Before leading teams working on Microsoft’s cloud offerings, he led technology teams at EdgeCast, now owned by Verizon, and Zentropy, which was acquired by Interpublic Group. He also founded Harvest Solutions before it was acquired by Experian, after which he served as Experian’s senior technology vice president.
—Smartsheet also hired Chris Blessington as vice president of corporate marketing and communications.
“With nearly 8 million users, Smartsheet is rapidly becoming the world’s preferred platform for collaborative work management,” Blessington said. “I’m really excited to transform that user momentum into the kind of brand equity that makes Smartsheet as indispensable to enterprises as to individual users.”
Prior to joining Smartsheet, Blessington was employed at ExtraHop Networks. He also worked at Isilon prior to its IPO and through its acquisition by EMC in 2010.
—Henry Albrecht joined C-SATS‘ board of directors. The Limeade CEO and founder will help improve operations and culture at the Seattle-based healthcare technology company.
“Henry brings a unique set of skills to our board,” C-SATS CEO Derek Streat said. “He’s operationally savvy, culture-focused and entrepreneurial. Limeade is the kind of company that we’d like C-SATS to ultimately become, and its track record in terms of selling into the enterprise, enriching health and fitness and building relationships with hospital clients is just tremendous. We’re fortunate to have Henry’s experience, wisdom and counsel at C-SATS.”
Before founding Limeade, Albrecht served as vice president of product management at enterprise software company Bocada and served in several management roles at Intuit.
—TINYhr hired Cody Lamens as a director of mid-market sales. He will work on growing the sales team for the employee engagement software provider’s TINYpulse product.
Lamens previously worked at IdeoClick as director of sales.
Before that, he spent seven years at The Active Network, where he managed a team of sales representatives working with the university athletics industry and eventually working as a sales operations analyst.
TinyPulse, led by veteran entrepreneur David Niu, raised $6 million last month to help companies better assess employee morale.
