Benoit Dupin
Benoit Dupin

—Benoit Dupin, previously Vice President of Search Technology for Amazon A9, has left the company to go work for Apple. His LinkedIn profile has been changed to reflect his new position as a Director at Apple, and his profile has disappeared from A9’s executive bio page. At Apple, he will be charged with leading improvements to the company’s search products, including Maps and App Store search, according to a report by Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac.

Dupin’s hire is a big move for Apple, which has been criticized for the quality of its search capabilities, especially as the App Store continues to fill with more and more applications for the iPhone and iPad. While the company is currently testing new related search capabilities, developers are finding it harder and harder to get discovered on Apple’s platform. Dupin’s experience with Amazon’s search functionality could help Apple get better at providing results.

Dupin joined A9, one of Amazon’s Silicon Valley-based offshoots, in 2007, to work on search infrastructure, search experience and search relevance before taking up the management role. Prior to his work at A9, Dupin held a number of positions at Canon, Easyplanet and HP.

Dupin is the second high-profile A9 executive Apple has hired in recent years. In 2012, Apple hired Bill Stasior, who was A9’s CEO at the time, to head up its Siri division.

Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this piece.

—Nano-laminated alloy pioneer Modumetal named John Beaver its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to his work at Modumetal, Beaver served as the CFO of Silicor Materials and Sterling Chemicals. In addition, he has served in senior financial positions for a number of other brick-and-mortar manufacturing companies, including Pioneer and Monsanto.

“Modumetal has the potential not only to introduce a revolutionary nanolaminated alloy to the market, but also to do it in a way that will turn the economics and logistics of metals manufacturing on its head,” Beaver said in a press release. “I’m excited to be a part of this historic opportunity and to work with Christina and the leadership team of Modumetal to realize the full potential of this opportunity for our stakeholders.”

christywilson_small
Christy Wilson

—StudentRND named Charlie Kindel, Christy Wilson, and Mike Koss to its Board of Directors. The three tech veterans will be the first outside directors on the board of the Seattle-based non-profit, which works to teach students around the country how to code.

Kindel currently works as a Director at Amazon, and joined the board after his son went through StudentRND’s program. Wilson is the Vice President of Product Operations and Engineering Cross Functions at Splunk, and founder of the company’s Splunk4Good giving arm, which has awarded StudentRND two grants. Koss recently joined Google as a part of the Chrome team.

“My son will be studying Computer Engineering at Cal Poly this fall. Last year he discovered his passion for tech through the StudentRND programs.” Kindel said in a press release. “I’ve seen first hand the positive impact their programs have on kids and I’m excited to help them reach even more.”

Richard Duffy
Richard Duffy

—Acumatica announced that Richard Duffy will be joining the Enterprise Resource Planning software company as its Vice President of Partner Strategy and Enablement. Duffy most recently held a number of evangelism and partner enablement roles at SAP. Prior to that, he worked at Great Plains Software and Microsoft.

“Richard brings years of ERP experience to our already strong leadership team,” Acumatica CEO John Roskill said in a press release. “With his appointment, and the partners who are sure to follow, together we are well positioned to disrupt this $60-billion market.”

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