Simplicity Consulting recently added two new members to its all-female leadership team.
Stephanie Chacharon has taken over as the firm’s marketing director. Chacharon comes to Simplicity from fashion startup Fitcode, which shut down operations this year, according to its website.
Chacharon previously worked at Slalom Consulting in Seattle as well as Deloitte Digital, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“Simplicity’s business foundation is a testament to the power of relationships and the impact and quality of work of our community of experts. I look forward to helping position Simplicity for success in this new phase of intentional growth,” Chacharon said in an email statement.
Carrie Morris has returned to Simplicity after a brief stint away, taking over as employee engagement director. Morris left Simplicity in August 2017, working as a senior account manager at Microsoft and as a consultant for the outreach program Youth Eastside Services in the interim. Prior to initially joining Simplicity in 2011, Morris spent nine years with Edelman, where she worked closely with Microsoft.
“It’s my purposeful intent to help our employees thrive in this new way to work, by empowering them to identify and unleash their superpower so they can achieve long-lasting impact for our clients,” said Morris.
Simplicity, a Kirkland-based marketing and communications consulting firm, was founded by former Microsoft sales director Lisa Hufford in 2006.
—Digital media company Maven brought on Andrew Kraft as chief revenue and strategy officer. Kraft previously led strategic partnerships at AppNexus, an online advertising firm that sold to AT&T for around $1.6 billion in June. Prior to AppNexus, Kraft worked at Collective and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Maven is both a community of independent publishers and a platform for advertising and distribution. The company recently merged with HubPages and Say Media.
“The primary reason I’m joining Maven is their brilliant, pioneering team and vision,” said Kraft in a statement. “Nowhere, at this still-early stage, have I seen such an accomplished group of veteran technology leaders — proven major media engineers and product pioneers — all in one place to drive our mission of supporting the creation of quality content by the top independent media properties.”
—Hussein Mecklai took the reins as executive vice president of engineering at Impinj, a company that connects everyday items to the internet using RAIN RFID technology.
Mecklai comes from Intel, where he served as VP of the product architecture group and worked on the personal computer and data center efforts. At Intel, Mecklai received the Rodney Chipp SWE National Award for Diversity for hiring and advocating for women in technical roles.
Prior to Intel, Mecklai worked in engineering roles at German semiconductor firm Infineon as well as data storage company LSI, now owned by Broadcom.
Seattle-based Impinj applies its connected chips and software to a dizzying array of industries, from tracking luggage in airports to managing inventories in hospitals. The company has struggled with declining revenues in recent quarters despite a surprise increase in the third quarter of 2018. It currently faces a lawsuit from investors that accuses the firm of fraud.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead an innovative team in developing cutting-edge technology, and to develop new and exciting products and services to advance Impinj’s solutions platform,” said Mecklai in a statement.
—Marty Choate joined event technology company Hubb as VP of enterprise solutions. Choate spent more than a dozen years at Microsoft, where he led digital efforts around the software firm’s big events.
Vancouver-based Hubb started in 2015 with the goal of automating event-related tasks such as lead generation for sales and content distribution. Hubb’s past clients include Microsoft, data-visualization platform Tableau and Australian software firm Atlassian. In May, Hubb CEO Allison Magyar was named a finalist for EY’s Pacific Northwest Innovator of the Year challenge.
“Hubb is the best solution on the market and I’m thrilled to be a part of this team as they reach new heights in 2019,” said Choate in a statement.
—Microsoft Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie has been re-elected as chair of Disability:IN, a nonprofit that promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace.
“[Lay-Flurrie’s] tenacity, sincerity and wit are at the core of who we are,“ Disability:IN CEO Jill Houghton said in a statement. “It is under her direction that we are building an inclusive global economy where people with disabilities can participate fully and meaningfully.”
Lay-Flurrie has spearheaded a number of disability efforts at Microsoft, including a $25 million “AI for Accessibility” program that was announced in May.
Editor’s note: Check out previous Tech Moves columns here.
