Can you hear them now? Windows Phone hires Verizon campaign vet

Thom Gruhler

Microsoft’s newest Windows Phone marketing executive, Thom Gruhler, is no stranger to advertising in the mobile industry. In fact, you’ve probably had a hard time avoiding his work. As an executive with McCann Worldgroup, the 42-year-old was for eight years the global leader of the agency’s Verizon business, overseeing the team that came up with… Read More…

Activision hires Microsoft game exec as new finance chief

Dennis Durkin

Game publisher Activision Blizzard just named a new chief financial officer: Microsoft veteran Dennis Durkin, a key executive from the company’s Xbox and video game division. Durkin has been the chief operating and financial officer in Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, overseeing areas including profit-and-loss, acquisitions, the division’s third-party games business and execution of its business… Read More…

Roving CEO Matthew Schiltz lands at the helm of Symform

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Matthew Schiltz sure gets around. The Seattle technology executive just three months ago was named CEO of Powerit Solutions, a Seattle company whose software is used to increase energy efficiency at industrial companies. Now, Schiltz has landed a new gig, taking over the CEO role at online storage upstart Symform. Schiltz, who previously served as… Read More…

Drugstore.com CEO Dawn Lepore to depart following Walgreens buy

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Walgreen Co. has completed its $409 million purchase of drugstore.com, the Bellevue online seller of medicine, vitamins and beauty products. As a result of the deal, Walgreens President of e-commerce Sona Chawla will oversee the company’s online efforts. Dawn Lepore, the former drugstore.com CEO and chairman, will serve as an advisor to Chawla during a… Read More…

Tech moves: New hires at Point Inside, RescueTime, etc.

Jason Grimes

We’ve been tracking some key hires in the Seattle tech industry in recent days. Here are a few… Jason Grimes, a former Jobster, Microsoft and Apex Learning employee, has joined RescueTime as vice president of marketing. In the new role, Grimes says that he will help beat “the productivity drum” and assist RescueTime generate new… Read More…

Zulily lands a Big Fish, hooks Michael Vernon as finance chief

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Zulily just hooked one of Seattle’s best known high-tech CFOs, a possible sign of big things to come at the daily deal site for baby products. Michael Vernon, the former chief financial officer at aQuantive and  Zumobi, plans to take over the CFO duties at Zulily after 18 months leading finance at Seattle’s Big Fish… Read More…

Tech Moves: Fascitelli and Barokas together again, and other recent hires

Ralph Fascitelli

We’ve been tracking a number of key appointments in the Seattle tech industry in recent weeks. Here are a few … Barokas Public Relations, a technology PR firm in Seattle, has named a new president and chief operating officer — and he’ll be familiar to many people on the local tech scene: Ralph Fascitelli, the… Read More…

Morrison tapped to lead Verizon Wireless operations in the NW

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Verizon Wireless has named Bobby Morrison as president of the Pacific Northwest Region. He’ll replace Kelly Kurtzman, a 10-year vet of the post who has been promoted to Vice President of Verizon Telecom Operations in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Most recently, Morrison served as executive director of sales and marketing for the Midwest Region. In the… Read More…

Former Microsoft GM Anna Collins named president of PhotoRocket

Anna Collins

Anna Collins, a former general manager at Microsoft, has been tapped as president of PhotoRocket.  Collins spent the past seven years at Microsoft, helping to oversee the company’s Ad Center search advertising business. Prior to that, she worked with PhotoRocket founder Scott Lipsky at aQuantive. “PhotoRocket has demonstrated that they have the product, team and… Read More…

Ignition Partners’ Steve Hooper joins board of InfoSpace

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Steve Hooper, one of the founding members of Ignition Partners and the former CEO of AT&T Wireless, has joined the board of InfoSpace. It is a little unusual to see a venture capitalist take a board seat at a publicly-traded company, especially with one with as much history at InfoSpace. But the Bellevue company is… Read More…