— Marcelo Calbucci, a Microsoft and tech startup veteran who started and ran Seattle2.0 before GeekWire acquired it, is moving to London he announced in a blog post on Wednesday.
Calbucci, who moved from Brazil to Seattle 18 years ago to work for Microsoft, said that he is excited to move his family to a mega-metropolis that is “a cultural center on this planet, and with a booming tech and startup ecosystem.”
Calbucci said London’s tech scene has gone from nowhere four or five years ago to surpassing many U.S. cities. He said it is likely to become second only to Silicon Valley in the next five years. While he has no confirmed work lined up, he is considering “several opportunities on the table.”
Calbucci said his obvious preference would be to continue to work with startups and innovation — “and in ideal scenario I would continue to work on a Startup Studio or Innovation Lab” — adding that he would hope to “be a bridge between Seattle and London, helping startups in either side of the world recruit, expand or relocate.”
Calbucci was a co-founder of EveryMove and was most recently part of the team at startup studio Pioneer Square Labs.
Beyond technology, Calbucci is excited by the opportunity to live in Europe and the expand his and his family’s cultural understandings.
He wrote that the decision to move has nothing to do with what’s not great in Seattle. “It didn’t matter for us if we lived in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego or New York. We wanted to move to Europe because of Europe.”
— BitTitan, the Kirkland, Wash.-based cloud services company, has named Frank Johnson-Suglia as ‘MSP-in-Residence.’ He will help shape the company’s partner program and drive global adoption of its flagship MSP enablement platform, MSPComplete, according to a news release.
Suglia was co-founder and former CTO of Strategic SaaS, a Microsoft cloud services partner and IT management company. He brings more than 30 years of experience in technical sales and service delivery management at Fortune 500 Companies including Accenture and Dell.
BitTitan said Suglia will work closely with the company’s partners to showcase and deliver the optimal path to drive new, recurring cloud revenues as modern MSPs.
“Frank understands the pain our partners are going through right now as they try to transform their businesses and become MSPs,” said Vince Fournier, CIO at BitTitan. “Frank will be an invaluable resource for BitTitan’s partners — guiding them in customer acquisition, helping them setup reoccurring revenue streams, and advising them on how to best digitally transform their business in the cloud.”
— IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) is expanding its board of directors with the addition of Steve Cordial and Kari Stoever.
The Seattle based non-profit global health organization called Cordial a “multi-disciplined financial executive with expertise in both non-profit and corporate arenas” and Stoever “a global development expert with experience in public health start-ups and advocacy movements.”
Cordial has served as president of Steve Cordial Consulting for the past 11 years, where he provided interim financial leadership support for a variety of companies. He has also served as CFO and CEO at Somera Communications, CFO at Nexsi Systems, CFO at Xylan Corp. and CFO at Sierra Semiconductor. He started his career as a Division Controller at Texas Instruments.
Stoever currently serves as chief external relations officer at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, Md. Prior to that, she was the director of co-investments at the Nike Foundation’s Girl Effect, where she led a $210 million partnership between the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce new HIV infections in adolescent girls and young women.
“IDRI is fortunate to have a board that includes scientific leaders from around the world; now we are expanding the board to add expertise in strategic areas, including finance and global development/advocacy, that support our continued growth,” Steven G. Reed, IDRI founder, president and chief scientific officer, said in a news release. “Steve and Kari are proven leaders in their respective fields, and IDRI will benefit from their extensive knowledge in the nonprofit field.”
— Dexter + Chaney, Seattle-based developers of Spectrum construction software, has shuffled its executive team, the company announced in a news release.
Company president Norbert Orth will be assuming the additional responsibilities of CEO. He has been at the center of driving the company’s recent growth — setting corporate strategy and driving operational execution through the senior leadership and management teams.
John Chaney, co-founder of the company, will assume the role of executive chairman. He will lead Dexter + Chaney’s board of directors and work closely with Orth to shape the company’s future. Chaney will also continue to work closely with the company’s product and development teams.
“I am extremely proud of the team we have in place here at Dexter + Chaney and am energized to help us in our continued growth,” Chaney said in a news release. “Over the years, Dexter + Chaney has been committed to bringing leading-edge technology to the construction industry and shaping the capabilities of modern construction ERP software. Both the short- and long-term opportunities for our business have me very excited.”
— Galvanize, the company that combines tech office space with a programming school while offering access to investors and mentorship, has made three additions to its corporate leadership team.
Beatrice Spaine has been appointed chief marketing officer. She brings a wealth of marketing and branding experience and joins Galvanize from Lynda.com (acquired by LinkedIn, 2015) where she was VP of consumer marketing. At Galvanize, Spaine will lead the company’s brand and product positioning and build awareness of the company’s offerings.
Ryan Orban has been promoted to chief technology officer. He previously served as executive VP of product and strategy. Before joining Galvanize, Orban served as the founder and CEO of Zipfian Academy, the leading provider of immersive data science education. In his new role, Galvanize says he will use his experience in machine learning, data engineering, and bioinformatics to oversee the vision and direction of Galvanize education programs, as well as instructional design, data analytics, and content production.
Caroline Esmurdoc will serve as general manager of the San Francisco campus of Galvanize and joins the team from Hack Reactor, where she was the chief executive officer. As GM in San Francisco, Esmurdoc will establish the campus’s strategic direction in order to cultivate outstanding student and member experience, grow revenue and manage operational efficiencies and further the Galvanize brand in the local startup and entrepreneurial community.
“The Galvanize team thrives on fast paced, energetic and experienced leadership. Which is why I’m deeply excited and honored to welcome these outstanding tech and education leaders to their new roles and to the Galvanize family and community,” said Jim Deters, CEO of Galvanize. “I am confident that they, along with our existing team of dedicated teachers and professionals, will build on Galvanize’s place as a successful technology industry, education and community innovator.”
Galvanize has a large operation in the heart of Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
