—Liz Howekamp Powell, the former vice president of marketing at WhitePages, has landed a new gig as head of organic growth at Seattle startup Pro.com. The home improvement marketplace is led by former Digg CEO Matt Williams, and is backed with more than $17 million from Madrona, Maveron, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and others. Pro.com also is one of “The Seattle 10,” a GeekWire and Museum of History & Industry honor which recognizes up-and-coming startups in the region.
Powell said she discovered the importance of Pro.com after working through a 3-month long kitchen remodel.
“I learned first-hand how price estimates, finding the right professional and booking an appointment can be serious barriers to actually getting the job done,” she said. “Through transparency and convenience, Pro.com is dedicated to simplifying this experience and I’m looking forward to helping the team push innovation within the home services industry even further.” Powell worked at WhitePages for the past five years, and before that worked in PR at Blue Nile.
—Cyanogen, which is building an open-sourced operating system dubbed CyanogenMod that gives Android owners a more customizable, secure and speedy experience, has named Frank Montes as general counsel, reports Re/code. Montes is the former general counsel at Coin Inc., and before that worked as a top lawyer at Facebook and Google. At Google, he helped get Android off the ground. Cyanogen, with operations in the Seattle area and Silicon Valley, raised $22 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Redpoint Ventures and others last year.
—Juno Therapeutics, the heavily-funded Seattle biotech company that just filed for a public offering, has named Frontier Communications Chairman and CEO Maggie Wilderotter to the board. She becomes the eighth member of the board, and while she does not have biotech experience she does have plenty of public company chops. Prior to joining Frontier in 2004, Wilderotter serve as senior vice president of worldwide public sector at Microsoft. She also worked in senior leadership positions at AT&T and McCaw Cellular, and currently sits on the boards of Xerox and Procter & Gamble.
“Maggie’s management acumen and distinguished board service make her a widely respected adviser, and we are delighted she is bringing her wise counsel to Juno’s Board,” said Juno CEO Hans Bishop in a press release.
Juno is working on cancer research, spun out from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Seattle Children’s Research Institute. It is looking to raised $150 million in its IPO, which comes just a year after it was founded. The company has raised $310 million to date from venture capital firms and backers such as Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
—Ravenna Solutions, a Bellevue online admission system for K-12 private schools, has named Danny Dalal as chief technology officer. He joins the company from Evidence.com, the online division of Taser International. Before that, he worked at Microsoft Research, developing secure cloud-based services.
“Danny’s expertise in large scale, highly available web applications, and ability to manage fast-paced, agile software development will be invaluable as he leads our efforts to deliver ground-breaking solutions,” said Linda Haitani, CEO of Ravenna Solutions.
—Anders Maul has left his role at Techstars Seattle, to join one of the recent graduates of the incubator program: Live Stories. Maul previously co-founded Yes Lab and Din Pant.
“I was lucky to have a chance to follow LiveStories during the Techstars Seattle program,” said Maul. “I was really impressed with both the team and the product from the very beginning, so the move to LiveStories was a no-brainer.”
—Former Microsoft and Bsquare employee John Traynor has joined C-Labs as chief operating officer, overseeing sales, marketing, finance and operations. He will report to CEO Chris Muench. At Bsquare, Traynor served as vice president of products and technology. Before that, he worked at Palm, and spent 16 years at Microsoft, including roles in the mobile and embedded devices group.
“John brings substantial business and industry expertise to C-Labs. His experience at Microsoft and other leading technology firms, where he led teams through high-growth transitions and global expansions, is a great match for C-Labs immediate needs and our long-term growth strategy,” said Muench in a release. C-Labs is developing a product called C-DEngine, which connects and controls sensors and devices.
—Previously on GeekWire: Mobile measurement firm Informate names Will Hodgman CEO, moves HQ to Seattle
