Amperity — a stealth-mode, AI-fueled marketing startup led by two Seattle startup veterans — has piqued the curiosity of many since GeekWire first reported on its $9 million seed round last year.
The company has been building its leadership team and board of directors in stealth mode, but its latest addition is a big step towards launching into the public sphere: tech industry vet Amy Pelly is joining Amperity as its chief financial officer.
Pelly has previously served as CFO at companies including Basho Technologies, doxo, Gist (acquired by
Blackberry), Tegic (an AOL subsidiary acquired by Nuance), and Wildseed (acquired by AOL). She has ample experience moving startups from early stages to robust corporations, including her eight-year stint at Onyx Software during which she helped the company navigate its IPO and served for a time as interim CFO.
“I am thrilled to be joining Amperity at this phase of its growth. I’ve seen a lot of promising, early stage companies over the last 25 years of my career, but never one with this much market momentum so early.” Pelly said in a statement. “Amperity’s technology goes right at the heart of the problem large enterprises are facing with massive amounts of customer data coming from disparate sources that hamstring a marketing organization’s ability to drive personalized, data driven programs. I certainly come with a bias towards financial return and the ROI I saw from Amperity’s early customers blew me away.“
— The Seattle Times announced that network IT and cloud computing veteran Craig Eidem has joined its executive board as VP of information technology.
Eidem joins the Times from healthcare-focused IT and cloud provider Above Cloud, where he was the CTO. He formerly held CTO positions at cloud tech companies Broadvox and FusionConnect and served as the EVP of technology at MegaPath Cloud Company.
At the Times, he will lead the company’s technology efforts as it aims to bring in new innovation and growth in the digital media space.
“The addition of Craig to The Seattle Times executive team emphasizes our continued focus and commitment to furthering our rapid digital growth,” said Alan Fisco, the Seattle Times’ chief financial officer and executive vice president, in a statement. “As the second-largest newspaper on the West Coast, Craig’s knowledge and background will help build on the phenomenal success we are currently experiencing in growing our digital subscriber volume and revenue, where we are significantly outperforming our peers.”
— Janrain, a heavily funded Portland-based startup that allows companies to enable and track social media sign-ins on their own sites, has announced the addition of Alan Elliot as the company’s vice president of worldwide sales and alliances.
Elliot joins Janrain from cyber security software company PAS, where he served as the company’s senior vice president of worldwide sales. He has also held executive positions at Fidelis Cybersecurity, data security company Proofpoint and identity management software provider Critical Path.
At Janrain, he will lead the company’s global sales and help it navigate a quickly growing market.
“In 2009, analysts were defining cloud computing. Now the global 3000 are all driving a cloud-first strategy,” Elliot said in a statement. “In 2017, I believe these same companies are becoming ‘identity-first’, embracing a consumer identity strategy that makes CIAM indispensable in our highly digital and connected world. Janrain was first to market with CIAM and continues to offer the best identity solutions for enterprises that seek scalability with the cloud, higher levels of security, and mission-critical capabilities.”
— TimeXtender, a Danish software company with North American headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., announced the addition of Peter McQuade as the company’s Chief Commercial Officer.
Before joining TimeXtender, McQuade spent nine years on the executive board of business intelligence and visualization software providor Qlik, most recently serving as global VP of corporate responsibility.
“I’m excited to help lead TimeXtender’s journey into new markets and to be part of a corporate effort that is making great inroads in areas all around the world,” said McQuade said in a statement. “TimeXtender’s Discovery Hub is a first-rate software solution for companies searching for a faster, more secure method to provide governed data discovery throughout their organization. Given the success of Discovery Hub, and the establishment of our ever-growing partner network and customer base, the company continues to experience great demand and a growing presence across a global arena. I look forward to helping to add to that legacy.”
— Brian Pinkerton, the CTO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), is stepping down from his position according to a report from ReCode. CZI is the philanthropic vehicle of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
Pinkerton joined CZI as its CTO in November. He previously spent five years at Amazon’s search and advertisement tech subsidiary A9, most recently serving as the VP of search and general manager.
In a letter to employees obtained by ReCode, Pinkerton said the fast growth of the initiative’s engineering team prompted him to leave. The team was just 3 employees when he joined and totaled 96 when he left, ReCode reports.
— Ryan Graves, the first employee and original CEO of embattled ride-sharing company Uber, stepped down from his position as one of the company’s senior vice presidents Thursday, according to multiple reports.
In an email to Uber employees obtained and published by Axios, TechCrunch and Business Insider, Graves said he will leave the position in September and will focus on his role on the company’s Board of Directors.
Longtime Uber CEO and Co-Founder Travis Kalanick resigned in June after the company faced a number of high-profile scandals.
— Bellevue, Wash.-based Blueprint Consulting Services announced the promotion of Steve Hastings to Principal Architect of Data Science. Hastings joined Blueprint in January and previously served as a consultant specializing in data science and machine learning.
He previously spent three years in engineering positions at expense management company Concur. Hastings will now lead both internal and external data science education efforts at Blueprint and assist the company in data science strategy.
