Microsoft has appointed longtime legal executive Dev Stahlkopf as its general counsel after leaving the position vacant for two years.
The new general counsel role was created by Brad Smith, Microsoft chief legal officer and president. Stahlkopf has been with the company for more than 11 years. She will now be responsible for most of the company’s legal work and will lead most of the legal teams based at the company’s Redmond, Wash., campus, the company said.
Stahlkopf will report to Smith in the new role. Her appointment is the first time the company has had a general counsel since Horacio Gutierrez left the role to join Spotify in 2016. She was most recently a vice president and deputy general counsel leading the human-resources legal group, and previously spent seven years as a Microsoft associate general counsel.
The company said the move is designed to help align Microsoft’s legal work and accelerate the pace of innovation and new initiatives in the legal realm. It will also enable Smith to focus more on his duties as the company’s president. Executives leading government affairs, corporate social responsibility, Microsoft Philanthropies and other areas will continue to report directly to Smith, whose responsibilities aren’t slated to change.
— Senior Amgen executive Erin Lavelle has joined Seattle company Alder BioPharmaceuticals as its first chief operating officer at a pivotal time for the company. Lavelle spent more than 15 years at Amgen, leading groups in the company’s digital health, finance and business analytics departments.
Her addition comes at a pivotal point for Alder. Just a few weeks ago, the company’s longtime CEO and president Randall Schatzman suddenly stepped down from his roles and vacated his seat on the company’s board. Alder is also in the final stages of clinical trials for its antibody-based migraine treatment, eptinezumab. Once it finishes those trials, the company can submit the drug for FDA approval to launch on the public market.
“I am excited to join Alder at such an important point in the Company’s path toward commercialization,” said Ms. Lavelle. “Eptinezumab represents a meaningful opportunity to transform treatment for migraine patients, and I look forward to working alongside Alder’s talented team of scientists, physicians and employees.”
— WunderVu, the in-house virtual reality production studio of Seattle VR startup Pixvana, tapped tech entrepreneur and executive Rachel Lanham as its new general manager. Lanham will focus on building relationships with clients interested in virtual, augmented and mixed reality products.
Lanham is the co-founder and former COO of digital health company Health123, which was acquired by Samepage Health in 2017. After the acquisition, Lanham joined Samepage and served as the company’s COO. Before founding Health123, Lanham spent more than twelve years at global tech consultant SapientRazorfish, most recently serving as a VP of client partnerships.
“Nearly 20 years ago, I joined a team hoping to ‘invent the digital future’ and revolutionize advertising,” Lanham said in a press release. “Today, I feel the same sense of opportunity, but on a much broader scale. Together, with this great team of creative and technology experts, I believe WunderVu and Pixvana can enable agencies, brands, and enterprises to unlock the potential of immersive VR content and usher in a new wave of audience engagement.”
— AI-powered security startup Stabilitas added Marchex executive Jason Flaks as the company’s chief technology officer.
Flaks most recently founded and led the speech analytics and natural language processing team at Marchex, a customer call management company. He was with the company for six years and formerly spent nine years as a program manager at Microsoft.
Stabilitas makes AI-fueled security technology to help companies protect supply chains, logistics, facilities, and employee safety.
— Investor and executive Chris Kelley, formerly the CEO of Seattle company Context Relevant, has joined San Francisco firm DFJ as a venture principal.
“In his role as principal, Chris is focused on investments in disruptive technologies and data platforms with new and existing portfolio companies. Chris will be based in our Menlo Park office and will continue to invest in early stage opportunities, focused largely in the Bay Area and Seattle,” DFJ Partner Emily Melton wrote in a Medium post announcing Kelley’s addition.
Kelley served as a partner at venture fund Formation 8 for two years, leading the firm’s investment in Context Relevant, now called Versive. When Versive CEO and Founder Stephen Purpura stepped down from the company in 2015, Kelley took over as CEO.
He left the CEO role in 2016 but continues to serve as an advisor to the company. He is also the co-founder of technology mentoring company Catenus Science.
— Revel Consulting, a digital consulting agency that recently relocated its headquarters to Seattle, announced the addition of Harshit Parikh as the firm’s managing director.
Parikh joins the company after more than ten years at digital transformation consultant SapeintRazorfish, where he was most recently the senior technology director for the company’s technology consultancy offerings. At Revel, he will work to implement new digital strategies and will report directly to Revel CEO Vikas Kamran.
“Revel’s been digital since day one, which positions the firm to accelerate in today’s changing consulting market and makes it a powerful draw,” Parikh said in a press release. “Very few firms are digital natives, able to respond at the pace the market demands and put the right pieces in place to deliver the full set of solutions companies are looking for. I’m excited I can be part of Revel as the firm does just that.”
Parikh’s addition comes just a few months after the company added executive and entrepreneur David Overcash as its first chief commercial officer.
— Software consultant Crosslake Technologies has appointed Microsoft and Accenture vet Wayne Filin-Matthews as its global head of software strategy. Filin-Matthews joins the company from banking and financial services giant HSBC, where he was the global head of digital architecture.
Filin-Matthews has previous experience as a developer and manager at Microsoft and global professional services company Accenture.
“I am delighted to join forces with the impressive team at Crosslake Technologies,” Filin-Matthews said in a press release. “The work they are doing to help their clients modernize their technologies from high-level strategy to hands-on implementation is unique, challenging and rewarding.”
— Business data insights firm Neal Analytics tapped former Comcast executive John Frankovich as the company’s new chief customer officer.
Frankovich joins Neal Analytics from Comcast where he led the company’s global digital streaming video consulting division, assisting media clients across the globe. He has previously served as the CEO of consultancies including Ramp Technology Group and Vortex CP.
“Business leaders today are seeking truly robust, integrated and value-based partners. I’m very excited to join this highly regarded team and leverage my experience to help us seize current opportunities and continue to build Neal’s loyal client base,” Frankovich said in a press release.
— Quisitive, a top Microsoft National Solution Provider, added former Microsoft employee Kevin Castillo as its vice president of sales.
Castillo joins the company from Hitachi Consulting, where he was the VP of digital solutions for Microsoft clients. He formerly spent nine years with Microsoft.
Castillo’s addition comes just a week after Microsoft’s corporate vice president of US Enterprise Commercial, Phil Sorgen, joined the board of directors of Quisitive parent company Fusion Agiletech Partners. Fusion is aiming to make the company a premier Microsoft services provider in the coming years.
