—Tony Scott has been named the Chief Information Officer of the United States. He was most recently the Chief Information Officer for VMWare, which he joined in August 2013. Prior to that, he served as the CIO of Microsoft for five years, and he previously held C-level positions at the Walt Disney Company and General Motors.
He’ll be taking over the post from Lisa Schlosser, who was serving in an interim capacity after former U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel left the job to help with America’s response to the Ebola epidemic. In the CIO role, he’ll be charged with guiding IT policy for the federal government, which is no small task. Budget projections show the U.S. government spending more than $86 billion in 2016 on IT alone.
It’s not clear yet what exactly Scott will be focused on during his time at the White House, but the blog post announcing his hire named three core objectives for his position: “(1) driving value in Federal IT investments, (2) delivering world-class digital services, and (3) protecting Federal IT assets and information.”
—Placed hired Aaron Averbuch as its vice president of engineering. In his new role, he’ll be charged with leading the company’s engineering team, and will be responsible for Placed’s software development and delivery.
Prior to his work at Placed, Averbuch was the senior vice president for product and technology at CPXi, and has also served as the CTO of AdReady prior to its acquisition by CPXi.
“As Placed accelerates its growth in location insights, attribution, and targeting in 2015, having someone of Aaron’s depth and variety of engineering experience is crucial,” Placed Founder and CEO David Shim said in a press release. “His hire is yet another indication to our clients, partners, and the industry of Placed’s commitment to a best in class solution for location and measurement.”
—Apptentive hired three new leaders in key positions to further power the company’s business of helping companies communicate with their customers. Emily Carrion has joined the company to lead its marketing and lead generation efforts. She joins Apptentive from Mixpo, where she led marketing communications. Prior to that, she managed marketing and mobile app releases for Point Inside. In addition to her work at Apptentive, Carrion also serves on the board of directors of the Seattle University Entrepreneurship Center.
Nick Ris was brought on board to lead the company’s business development and strategic partnerships efforts. He brings with him 14 years of experience in the mobile industry, having previously served on the management team at MX Telecom and as the Interim General Manager at Catchy Agency, Inc.
Tricia Cervenan will lead product management at Apptentive. She has six years of mobile development experience, with stints at Quicken Loans and ESPN. Named one of Mobile Marketer‘s “Women to Watch” in 2012, Cervenan has spearheaded the launches of 15 products.
“I am especially pleased at the level of talent that we have been able to assemble to help us set a new standard for mobile customer communication,” Robi Ganguly, co-founder and CEO of Apptentive, said in a press release. “These are exciting times at Apptentive as we continue adding to our core team and truly revolutionize the industry. I look forward to the contributions that Emily, Nick, and Tricia will bring to the company.”
—Brian Young and Keith VanderZanden joined the CleanTech Alliance’s board of directors. Young is the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Director of Economic Development for the Clean Technology Sector, and VanderZanden is a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Insurance Services, where he oversees the CleanTech Alliance Health Trust.
“Brian Young and Keith VanderZanden will play important roles on the CleanTech Alliance Board as we continue to push industry growth through collaboration, education and advocacy,” CleanTech Alliance Chairman Stephen Gerritson said in a press release. “Their impact has already been felt across several focus areas and committees, especially our efforts to support the Clean Energy Fund legislation and extending our member healthcare services.”
—Vadium named Mike Kichline to its board of directors. Kichline, the co-founder and CEO of global marketing agency Projectline Services, has 20 years of marketing and business intelligence experience, including stints at Avenue A, Check Point Software, and Wall Data.
“Mr. Kichline brings vast marketing leadership experience and we look forward to leveraging that knowledge as we expand our product portfolio and our geographic and market reach,” said Rod Nicholls, Vadium President and CEO. “I look forward to working closely with Mr. Kichline as the company moves forward in delivering the disruptive technology platform needed to secure our customers’ digital content.”
—Nate Moch was promoted to Vice President of Product Teams at Zillow. He’s a 9-year veteran of the company, where he previously built Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace and its Growth teams. He has held a number of positions at the company since he joined in November 2005, after working for Microsoft as a Software Developer.
