— Telluride Foundation, the network with a goal of improving the quality of life for those who live, work and visit the Colorado town, has snagged Techstars vet Marc Nager for the newly created position of VP Innovation. Nager will also become the managing director of Telluride Venture Accelerator.
Well known in entrepreneurial circles, Nager led the charge of promoting startups, helping to transform the Startup Weekend event series into a global phenomenon.
“What a journey the last almost 8 years has been! In case you haven’t heard, I’m stepping out of my full-time role at Techstars and taking on a new, local challenge in my own community,” said Nager in an email to GeekWire
As CEO of the Seattle non-profit Startup Weekend, Nager always led the charge for entrepreneurship, whether in Istanbul or Indianapolis. The 54-hour bootcamps designed to help startups get started has held events in 150 countries and counts more than 193,000 alumni community members.
“Having grown up in a mountain town and having traveled the globe helping startup communities, I’m more than excited to help prove that entrepreneurship really can happen anywhere,” Nager wrote. “It is the future of work, and I truly believe entrepreneurship will not only flourish in beautiful places like this, but it will establish new, sustainable economic and social models that help preserve the heart and soul of communities like Telluride.”
Nager said he won’t run too far from Startup Weekend and Techstars, and to expect to see him “at conferences and summits around the world or facilitating the next event in Western Colorado.”
— Mona Locke, former first lady of Washington and senior vice president of communications and marketing for Intellectual Ventures, is leaving the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm for a job at Concur. The news was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal and her departure was confirmed by GeekWire.
Locke is leaving IV after less than two years, according to the Journal. The patent holding company and invention lab is run by former Microsoft technology chief Nathan Myhrvold.
Prior to IV, Locke was interim executive director of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Puget Sound chapter.
The wife of former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, Mona Locke was first lady of the state from 1997 to 2005.
— Getty Images has announced that Andrew Hamilton has been appointed to the newly-created role of SVP of Data and Insights.
Based in New York and reporting to Getty Images CEO Dawn Airey, the company said in a news release that “Hamilton’s appointment marks the next step in Getty Images’ strategy to extend its core B2B licensing business and establish new revenue streams in the consumer market.”
Prior to joining Getty Images, Hamilton was based in London where he held roles as global head of security and, more recently, global head of strategy and planning at the customer science company dunnhumby.
— NetMotion Wireless, a Seattle-based provider of connectivity and performance management software, has appointed Jim Walsh vice president of North America sales.
Walsh has 20 years of experience in developing successful sales teams across diverse sectors, according to a NetMotion news release. As vice president of North America sales at MobileIron, Walsh drove net new sales from $5 million to $72 million in four years through the company’s IPO.
“I’m excited to join a company with such an outstanding product portfolio and extremely happy customers,” Walsh said. “NetMotion has built an exceptional mobility management solution backed by great customer support. I’m looking forward to building our sales and channel programs to capture the opportunity presented by the rapidly growing demand for enterprise mobility solutions.”
— Voke VR, the virtual reality company that focuses on immersive live-streams of sports and music events, has appointed David Aufhauser chief strategy and product officer.
Aufhauser joins Voke after serving the last four-plus years as general manager and vice president for Pac-12 Networks’ digital operation. According to a Voke news release, he’s spent more than 20 years leading multifunctional teams to build digital media businesses at the nexus of technology, media and sports/entertainment, including Yahoo!, AOL, and Justin.tv.
Now based in Silicon Valley, Voke traces to its roots to Washington State University, where its two co-founders, the husband-and-wife team of Sankar (Jay) Jayaram and Uma Jayaram, previously founded the Virtual Reality and Computer Integrated Manufacturing Lab.
“David’s vast experience and track record for successfully bringing digital products to market will be very valuable to our team,” Sankar Jayaram said. “We have been developing a highly flexible platform that allows us to provide the most immersive live content experiences for fans in sports and entertainment. As we continue to build our team and add leaders like David, our product and unique experiences will continue to grow and will benefit the entire VR content community.”
