—Long-time Seattle executive Hank Skorny has joined Neustar as SVP of the Internet of Things (IoT). Previously, Skorny was at Intel in the Seattle area, where he was VP of the Software & Services Group and GM of Intel Services Division, where he was responsible for software services across device and operating systems. As part of the new role, Skorny will relocate to San Francisco, where Sterling, Va.-based Neustar operates its West Coast office.
Previously, Skorny held several executive roles at Northwest companies, including RealNetworks, Thumbspeed, AOL Mobile and InfoSpace. He said he’s excited about joining Neustar because it’s “big enough to do cool things but small enough to focus,” he said. “Internet of Things impacts all of Neustar’s customers. From its identity management and domain name and registry systems to cloud-based security solutions, Neustar has all the ingredients necessary to lead the next generation of IoT services.”
—Speaking of the Internet of Things (IoT), Mike Foley, the former executive director of the Bluetooth SIG in Kirkland, Wash., has joined Los Angeles-based RF Digital. At RF Digital, Foley will be working on Simblee, a Bluetooth module that creates ‘disposable’ apps that make it easy for consumers to use the Internet of Things. For eight years ended in 2012, Foley oversaw the Bluetooth SIG, acting as the group’s spokesperson, and taking charge of specification publications, marketing initiatives, and regulatory efforts.
Foley, who will continue living in Seattle, said “Simblee is a massive step forward for connecting devices via simple mobile apps and then getting that data to the Cloud. Simblee is the future. I’m very pleased to be part of this fast moving, innovative team.”
—Amazon.com has hired the former No.2 executive at the Air Line Pilots Association to help with Prime Air, which has the goal of delivering packages via unmanned drones. Sean Cassidy, who was a commercial pilot for Alaska Airlines and former member of a Transportation Security Administration aviation-security advisory committee, has joined Amazon to oversee “partner relationships,” reports The Wall Street Journal, which quotes information from his LinkedIn page.
—In a blog post, Vinit Bharara says his new startup is starting to take shape after the co-founder of Diapers.com sold the company to Amazon. Bharara says The Mid is a new site devoted working families that are squeezed for time and anxious about the future. To get things going, he has hired Paul Smurl as its COO and President. Previously, Smurl was the head of all digital at The New York Times, and before that, general manager of core digital products, including nytimes.com. It also recently acquired ScaryMommy.com, a parenting site founded by Jill Smokler.
—Bellevue, Wash.-based ScaleOut Software, has hired Chris Villinger as VP of business development and marketing. Previously, Villinger worked at Royal Philips in the Netherlands. “I am excited to join ScaleOut Software, an organization transforming the industry by enabling enterprises to bring operational intelligence to their production systems,” he said. “I look forward to ensuring continued growth and awareness of this impressive company.” In addition to Villinger’s appointment, ScaleOut is also expanding its sales initiatives, by promoting Dan McMillan to VP of sales.
—Following Big Fish’s $885 million acquisition by Churchill Downs, Shmuel Tennenhaus, the company’s VP of Marketing, says he has left the pond. After five years at the company, he’s looking forward to taking some time off and looking for new opportunities. “It’s an awesome city and I can’t leave it,” he said.
—Act-On Software, the leading provider of marketing automation for small and mid-sized businesses, has made three new hires: Kate Johnson as CFO, Ravi Balwada as VP of Global Cloud Operations, and Kevin Bobowski as VP of Demand Generation. The Beaverton, Ore.-based company, which helps automate marketing automation for small and mid-sized businesses, said the hires are to help accelerate the company’s growth.
Johnson was previously chief accounting officer and VP of Finance at Jive Software; Balwada joins Act-On from BMC Software, where he worked as VP and GM of its global SaaS business; and Bobowski is joining after working at both Offerpop and ExactTarget.
“Kate, Ravi and Kevin share Act-On’s vision for marketing automation and know what it takes to drive sustainable business growth,” said Raghu Raghavan, CEO of Act-On Software. “They bring a wealth of leadership and expertise to Act-On as we continue to expand our business and drive operational efficiency.”
—Distelli, a Seattle cloud infrastructure startup, has named former Chef executive Todd Feinroth to the position of vice president of sales and marketing.
“Distelli is solving a critical problem for software engineers who are spending far too little of their valuable time writing code that has direct revenue impact on their business because they have to write and maintain code deployment scripts, manually deploy code and keep track of all the changes they make across their server ecosystem,” said Feinroth. “The customers who have purchased Distelli have already realized significant cost savings and improved efficiencies. I’m tremendously excited to join a company with such promise and help them deliver on an aggressive commercial agenda.”
Feinroth previously served as vice president of global sales for CFengine, and before that was chief revenue office of Chef. He also worked at Edifecs, Opsware and Legato Systems. Led by former AWS executive Rahul Singh, Distelli raised $2.8 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others earlier this year.
—Seattle supercomputer maker Cray Inc. named Catalin Morosanu as vice president of sales for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Morosanu previously worked at Intel and SGI.
“Catalin brings an impressive sales and technology background in the global enterprise and supercomputing markets to Cray, and he will be a valuable member of our team as we expand our compute, storage and analytics offerings in one of our fastest growing regions,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “We have a strong base of established customers in EMEA, and I am excited to have Catalin head up our efforts to develop new partnerships with new customers in both the commercial and traditional supercomputing segments in these important countries.”
