Sure, it’s technically summer time. But that doesn’t mean everyone is on vacation. Some folks are shifting jobs. Here’s a look at some notable Tech Moves over the past few days.
Robert Pease is moving on from Gist, the Seattle startup that was acquired by Research in Motion back in February. Pease joined the company as vice president of marketing in 2009, helping T.A. McCann and others build the personal contact management service.
The marketing exec tells GeekWire that he ‘s getting ready for his “next adventure” which includes consulting, mentoring at TechStars and kicking around a new (undisclosed) startup opportunity that looks to root out inefficiencies in sales and marketing processes.
“I am enjoying ‘being generous’ and helping companies think about how they are building their sales pipelines, developing their customer acquisition funnels, and going to market,” Pease writes in a blog post. “It’s nice to share what worked as well as a few lumps from failure with the desire to accelerate their success and advance my understanding of what is possible.”
Prior to Gist, Pease served as vice president of marketing at MessageGate and Orchestria.
It was lawyer defection week in Seattle as two law firms made key power moves. Cooley — a Silicon Valley firm with offices in Seattle — picked up Bill Christiansen; Emily Wagner and Carol Laherty in the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. All three attorneys — who previously worked at Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC in Seattle — work in life science patent prosecution
Meanwhile, Foster Pepper added six attorneys from the law firm of Black Lowe & Graham to create the firm’s first intellectual property practice.
The attorneys making the jump include Richard Black, a registered patent attorney and founder of Black Lowe & Graham. Others making the move to Foster Pepper include: Joel B. Ard, P.G. Scott Born, Douglas A. Grady, Richard A. Koske, and Richard C. Vershave.
“We were courted by many Seattle law firms, but it quickly became clear that Foster Pepper was highly committed both to us and to our clients and has the breadth of capabilities our clients need,” Black said in a release. The move is part of plan by Foster Pepper to position itself to become one of the leading full-service intellectual property and technology law firms in the Pacific Northwest.
Vertafore, which develops software for the insurance industry, said that it has appointed Mark Sonders to the position of vice president of sales and client services. He previously worked at Thomson Reuters. The company also announced that Matt McKernan, president of carrier and MGA markets, will leaving the company in the coming weeks to “pursue other opportunities.” Also, Bill Bunker, president of agency markets, will take on a brief interim role as senior vice president of professional services and support.
Marc Stolzman, the former CFO at Blue Nile and Imperium Renewables and former senior vice president of finance at Starbucks international, has joined retailer Zumiez as chief financial officer. He replaces Trevor Lang who left the retailer of skateboard and snowboard apparel and gear in June. In addition to stock grants and options valued at $900,000, the 45-year-old Stolzman will earn $310,000 in base salary
Know of a notable tech industry move or hire in the Pacific Northwest? Email tips@geekwire.com. Previous Tech Moves columns can be found here.
