Monica Harrington has worked in a variety of high-profile roles in the tech industry. She was a senior marketing executive in Microsoft’s application and consumer divisions for eleven years, went on to be the founding CMO at video game company Valve and was later a senior policy adviser at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
After several years working as an advocate, Harrington has now taken on a new role as CMO of Vancouver, B.C., based clean energy company Exro Technologies.
The company’s technology is designed to make fuel-powered generators and electric motors, often used in vehicles, more reliable and efficient. Those devices make up half of the world’s electricity market today, and Exro says the same technology could be used to make renewable energy sources more efficient as that market expands.
“I’m delighted to join the Exro team,” Harrington said in a statement. “Exro has the potential to be an important player in the transition to clean energy. I love the intersection of doing good and doing well, and Exro offers the opportunity to do interesting work that combines both elements. As a pilot, I’m also intrigued by the potential Exro has to help make unmanned aircraft more efficient and reliable.”
— Seattle journalist and media entrepreneur Jenni Hogan has left her role as an executive at Tagboard, GeekWire has learned. Hogan has taken on a role as the chief marketing officer of California-based sports company Universal Tennis.
She remains an investor in Tagboard, which acquired her social media management company TVInteract in 2014.
“I left for personal growth and new challenges,” Hogan told GeekWire in an email, noting that she had led TVInteract and then worked as the COO of Tagboard for four years. Before founding TVInteract in 2013, Hogan was a well-known broadcast journalist in the Seattle area. A native of Australia, she was captain of the University of Washington Husky Women’s Crew Team, winning two national championships.
— Synthetic biology company Arzeda announced that veteran biotech executive Bill Baum has joined its board of directors. The move comes on the heels of the company’s $3.2 million addition to its series A round, bringing its total funding in the past year to $15.2 million.
Baum has held executive positions across the biotech and synthetic biology industry and most recently served as the CBO and chair of biological manufacturing company Genomatica.
“Arzeda’s protein design technology will dramatically improve how we make food, chemicals, and the advanced materials we need for daily life, including many that have never been possible before,” Baum said in a press release. “Arzeda’s founders have built an incredible team and I believe we are just scratching the surface of what their technology can accomplish.”
The company uses a combination of software modeling and fermentation to design and manufacture custom-built proteins for various industries, including agriculture and materials manufacturing.
