Kal Raman has quietly stepped down as CEO of GlobalScholar, the company he founded in 2006 and sold to Scantron last year, GeekWire has learned. Raman, the former CEO of drugstore.com, remains a consultant to the company, according to a Scantron spokeswoman.
It is unclear what Raman plans to do next, and he could not be reached for comment this week by GeekWire. However, the technology executive does have plenty of experience in the online retail space. In addition to drugstore.com, he served as a senior vice president at Amazon.com and director of technology at Walmart.
GlobalScholar sold to Scantron last year for $140 million in cash, with the potential to earn another $20 million if milestones are met this year. Formerly InfiLearn, GlobalScholar was backed by Ignition Partners, Knowledge Universe and others.
Seattle technology journalist Nick Wingfield, a mainstay at The Wall Street Journal for 14 years, is moving to The New York Times to cover Apple, Microsoft and other technology companies. He plans to remain in Seattle.
Seattle investment bank Cascadia Capital has hired Paul Louie as a managing director. Louie, the former head of the greater China practice for Takenaka Partners, will assist mid-market companies with mergers, acquisitions and later-stage growth financing with an emphasis on matching companies with Asian investment firms.
Andrew Dixon, a former vice president and marketing executive for Microsoft Canada, has been named vice president, marketing & operations of social business software company Igloo Software.
Buuteeq, a Seattle startup that powers the Web sites of independent hotels, inns and B&Bs, has named Brad Becker as chief experience officer and Rob Frerichs as vice president of sales, North America. Becker was the first product designer hired at Macromedia and later worked as a director at Microsoft responsible for Azure, Silverlight and .NET. Frerichs previously worked in sales at The Seattle Times and LocalMarketers.com. Buuteeq — led by former Microsofties Forest Key and Adam Brownstein — raised $3.5 million earlier this year from a group of prominent Seattle angel investors.
Alex Macnamara, a former Yahoo sales executive who once ran the advertising unit at RealNetworks, has been named sales director of six-year-old Tremor Video.
Seattle outdoor retailer REI has named Rick Bingle as vice president of supply chain, helping the cooperative manage distribution and logistics. Bingle joined REI in 2006 from Microsoft where he was the senior manager of global supply chain.
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