—David Rosenthal is returning to Madrona Venture Group. Rosenthal, a former investment banker at UBS and a member of The Wall Street Journal’s venture and corporate development group, left the firm two years ago in order to earn his MBA from Stanford University. He’ll serve as a principal at the Seattle venture capital firm.
While at Stanford, Rosenthal worked at Meritech Capital, a leading late-stage venture firm that’s backed companies such as Tableau, PopCap and Zulily.
“We could not be more excited to welcome David back to our team,” said Greg Gottesman, managing director of Madrona Venture Group. “He is such a unique talent. Our entrepreneurs just raved about working with him. We are confident he will make a big impact for Madrona and the broader entrepreneurial community.”
In addition to Rosenthal, Madrona also announced that Todd Davis has joined as a senior talent professional. A former tech recruiter at ADP, he joins Hakon Verespej and Robin Andrulevich in the Madrona talent group.
—David Aronchick, the Seattle entrepreneur who previously led Hark.com and most recently worked at Amazon.com, has accepted a new job at fast-growing Chef. Aronchick will run product marketing. Chef’s Jay Wampold noted Aronchick’s experience at Microsoft and Amazon, as well as his “entrepreneurial mentality.” Aronchick previously worked in program management roles at Microsoft, including jobs with Internet Explorer Security and Windows Client Strategy. Chef, formerly known as Opscode, raised a $32 million venture round in December. It is a maker of IT automation software.
—Seattle location analytics startup Placed announced that Tim Barnes has joined as chief product officer. Barnes is a former vice president at Vivaki and Razorfish, and most recently founded Fabric Worldwide. Placed raised $10 million in funding in June, bringing in the cash from Madrona and Two Sigma Ventures. “The ability to quantify consumer’s offline behavior with digital touch points will systematically transform the way media is measured, and I believe Placed is the platform to deliver on this vision,” said Barnes.
—Attorney Joe Skocilich has joined the practice of Seattle high-tech law firm Focal PLLC. Skocilich previously was a founding partner of of Adler, Vermillion & Skocilich, representing technology and design companies in Seattle and New York. He previously worked at White & Case in New York, representing issuers and underwriters getting ready to go public.
—Branding and design firm Hornall Anderson has promoted Erin Crosier to VP of client development; Maureen Estep to VP of client service; and Jay Picard to VP of brand strategy. “I’m very excited about the new additions to our executive team,” said John Anicker, CEO and President of Hornall Anderson. “They have all proven to be key players in the health and growth of our company, and I have great confidence that through their leadership roles, they will continue to inspire, advise and guide their teams in an effective and cohesive direction.”
—Edward Jiang is stepping down as CEO of StudentRND, handing over the reins of the Seattle area non-profit to program director Tyler Menezes. Jiang started the organization five years ago with the mission of getting more students engaged in technology projects. Now, he says it is time to move on.
“We’ve reached the end of our first phase for StudentRND, made evident when we hosted CodeDay Spring 2014 in 22 cities across the United States,” writes Jiang in a blog post. “With this first phase, we’ve taken StudentRND farther than anyone could have ever dreamed when we first started in my backyard. In my mind, I see “mission accomplished”, even though there is so much more I know we need to do.”
Jiang says that he’ll stay involved in the organization, just not on a day-to-day basis.
—Seattle insurance company AssureStart has named Greg Tacchetti to the position of president and CEO. He’s also joining the board, filling the role of Mike LaRocco who stepped down as CEO due to family reasons. Tacchetti co-founded the company, and most recently served as COO. “Greg is an accomplished leader who will oversee AssureStart’s ongoing national expansion,” said Dan Schultz, president and chief operating officer of American Family Mutual Insurance Company and member of the AssureStart board.
Know of a notable tech industry hire? Email tips@geekwire.com. More Tech Moves here.
