Martha Bejar. (Mitel Photo)

Redmond, Wash., based predictive analytics company Versium has a bold goal: help companies make sense of all the data they have, but don’t know how to use.

The startup was founded by former InfoSpace founders Chris Matty and Kevin Marcus in 2012, and it has now made two key additions to its board: Martha Bejar independent director of CenturyLink and Mitel; and Bill Owensformer U.S. Navy Admiral and longtime telecom exec.

Bejar has a long history in the telecommunications and technology industries. She spent 18 years in executive positions at Nortel, served as a corporate vice president at Microsoft, and later served as the CEO and president of Flow Mobile.

She currently serves as an independent director for several companies including CenturyLink, Canadian telecommunications company Mitel and Seattle-based WiFi startup Unium. She also serves in several advisory roles and is the co-founder and CEO of the Red Bison Advisory Group.

Bill Owens. (Public Domain Photo, via Wikicommons)

“Versium is a leader in the emerging predictive analytics market. Not only has the company secured substantial partnerships with leading blue chip companies, it’s also maintained revenue growth of more than 100 percent annually. It will be exciting to help Versium build upon its momentum as an industry leader as additional professional services firms, marketing agencies and enterprise customers leverage their technologies,” Bejar said in a press release.

Owens served in the Navy for much of his career, spending years as a commanding officer on submarines, including during the Vietnam War. He went on to serve as the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bill Clinton.

Since leaving the Navy, Owens has cultivated a 20-year career in the telecommunications industry. He served as CEO of Nortel Networks from 2004 to 2005, independent director of CenturyLink for a time and also founded telecommunications consultancy Amerilink Telecom Corp, which consulted with Sprint and Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies on a planned deal between the companies.

“We are extremely proud to announce the addition of Admiral Bill Owens and Martha Béjar to our Board,” Versium co-founder and CEO Chris Matty said in the release. “Versium is going through a period of significant sales growth, and now is the right time to expand our board as we continue on this trajectory. Bill and Martha bring to our board more than 50 years of combined experience in leading some of the world’s most recognized companies, which brings extensive industry connections that will be an invaluable asset to our team.”

Julie Jensen

Capital One announced Friday that former Amazonian Julie Jensen has joined the financial services company’s Seattle office as the VP of its digital design team.

Jensen joins the company after spending two years leading UX for Amazon Business and Amazon Registry Services. She previously spent eight years as a UX manager at Microsoft, where she helped launch Office 365, and has also held positions in digital and web experience engineering at Central Washington University, Teague Aviation Studio and USAAA.

At Capital One, she will lead the Seattle-based digital team in building customer-facing digital tools.

“I’m excited to join the stellar digital design team at Capital One and drive forward innovation in investing tools,” Jensen said in a press release. “We really want to see financial awareness become a normal part of people’s daily lives. With more of that human touch, we will encourage more people to improve their financial behaviors and reach their financial goals.”

Joan Burke. (DocuSign Photo)

DocuSign, a digital signature company with major operations in Seattle and San Francisco, announced a new addition to its leadership: longtime human resources exec Joan Burke is joining the company as its chief people officer.

Burke joins DocuSign from marketing technology company Marketo, where she served as SVP of human resources and marketing. She previously held executive positions at Responsys — now Oracle Marketing Cloud — and real estate brokerage ZipRealty, among others. At DocuSign, she will lead the company’s HR efforts.

“I’m delighted to join the DocuSign team and partner with Dan and the leadership team to continue building a category and culture that inspire customers, developers, partners and employees to go digital,” Burke said in a press release. “It’s a unique opportunity and I couldn’t be more excited to lead the people function at such a fast growing, successful company where everyone you speak to – whether customers, developers, partners or employees – exclaims ‘I love DocuSign!’ at the first mention of the company’s name.”

Tony Kippen. (Limeade Photo)

— Workplace wellness company Limeade announced that Tony Kippen has been promoted to serve as the company’s new VP of business insights.

Kippen joined the startup in 2015 and was responsible for building its business insights team, driving the integration of technologies including predictive analytics and machine learning into Limeade’s business decisions.

Before joining Limeade, Kippen served as the CEO and president of data consultant Megode Systems.

“There is so much opportunity in bringing even more big data and machine learning approaches to social, employee engagement and well-being programs,” Kippen said in a press release. “I’m excited to uncover new paths for users, companies, Limeade and myself. It’s so important, and almost a completely untapped opportunity.”

Elisa Steele. (Namely Photo)

— Elisa Steele, a former Microsoft and Skype executive, has joined the board of New York-based HR technology company Namely as its first independent board member.

The company provides a far-reaching human resources platform that handles payroll, benefits and other HR tasks. It opened the year with a $50 million fundraising round.

Steele was previously the CEO of Jive Software, a Bay Area company that produces communication and collaboration tools. She previously spent time as the corporate vice president and chief marketing officer of Consumer Apps & Services at Microsoft and was formerly the CMO of Skype and Yahoo.

“We’re thrilled to add Elisa as our first independent board member,” Namely Founder and CEO Matt Straz said in a press release. “She brings a wealth of expertise—including how to scale a SaaS business and how to perfect the end-to-end customer journey. Her experience will be invaluable as Namely continues on our path of steady growth.”

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