Juno Therapeutics CEO Hans Bishop at the 2016 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong)

— The former head of Juno Therapeutics, Hans Bishop, signed on as CEO of Grail, a Bay Area biotech focused on the early detection of cancer. Bishop replaces former Grail CEO Jennifer Cook, who left for family health reasons.

“GRAIL is guided by its bold vision to improve cancer survival rates by creating a single blood test that can detect multiple deadly cancer types at one time,” Bishop said in a statement. “For much of my career, I’ve been involved in the fight against cancer, and during that time, I have seen real progress for patients. However, cancer is still the second leading cause of death globally, and I believe early detection is key to changing that.”

Bishop will continue to serve as the executive chair of the board of directors at Sana, a secretive Seattle biotech startup led by former Juno CFO Steve Harr. Sana is reportedly working on a series A funding round with the goal of raising between $800 million and $1 billion, according to Axios.

Juno — a Seattle-based spin out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute — raised $264 million in an initial public offering in 2014 just a year after it was founded with capital from Arch Venture Partners, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and others. A developer of CAR T immunotherapies to genetically reprogram a patient’s immune cells, Juno was sold to Celgene last year for $9 billion.

Prentis Wilson, vice president and general manager of Amazon Business, is leaving the company, GeekWire has learned. Wilson has led the division since it launched in 2015 and previously worked on the group’s predecessor, AmazonSupply. Before joining Amazon, he held senior roles in sourcing at Cisco and Honeywell.

Amazon Business sells office supplies and other wholesale goods to companies in a challenge to retailers like Office Depot and Staples. The division may not be a household name, but it clears $10 billion in sales each year and reaches more than half of Fortune 100 companies.

Amazon confirmed Wilson’s departure. Wilson did not respond to a request for comment.

Chris Pitchford. (Chris Pitchford Photo)

Chris Pitchford, co-founder of Seattle-based workplace management startup Shyft, is leaving the company for business strategy firm Ally. Pitchford was vice president of workforce solutions at Shyft and will be vice president of sales at Ally.

Seattle-based Ally, recently featured in a GeekWire Startup Spotlight, provides management solutions for Objectives and Key Results (OKR), a framework for running teams and businesses that helps companies track and stay aligned with specific goals.

“I am extremely grateful for all the experience I gained in helping grow Shyft,” Pitchford said in an email. “Ally’s growth is explosive, the OKR phenomenon is gaining more and more traction every day, and the product is solving a real pain point I’ve felt in working with high growth companies in the past. Ally is one of the those rare exciting SaaS products that experience huge demand right out of the gate as demonstrated by their customers like Slack, Remitly and KPMG.”

Shyft co-founder and CEO Brett Patrontasch did not respond to a request for comment. Shyft raised $6.5 million last year for its tech that helps workers in the service and retail industries communicate and swap shifts.

Pamela Maynard. (Avanade Photo)

Avanade, a tech consulting and services company born out of a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, hired Pam Maynard as its new CEO. Maynard is an 11-year veteran of the company who most recently served as president of strategic solutions and innovation. She replaces Adam Warby, who has been CEO since 2008 and will step down in August.

“I am proud and delighted to serve as Avanade’s next chief executive officer,” Maynard said. “This is an exciting time in the marketplace. Our clients are looking to drive innovation and growth in the digital era, and we are ideally positioned to help them tap into the enterprise-wide potential of Microsoft technology.”

Read more about Maynard here.

Todd Joseph. (Apptio Photo)

— Business software company Apptio continues to bolster its executive ranks with the hiring of Todd Joseph as chief customer officer. Joseph comes from marketing automation firm Marketo, where he was senior vice president of technology and cloud operations.

Joseph’s appointment follows the recent addition of former AWS executive Scott Chancellor as Apptio’s chief product officer.

“Adding world class executive talent from some of the industry’s top enterprises uniquely positions Apptio to provide the market leading software for managing digital investments at enterprises of all sizes, all around the globe,” Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta said in a statement. “I’m excited to welcome Todd and Scott to Apptio as they bring an unparalleled passion for customer value, innovation, and execution.”

Last year, Apptio was bought by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in a massive $1.9 billion deal.

Flora Ku and Rohre Titcomb. (Female Founders Alliance Photo)

— The Female Founders Alliance hired Flora Ku as program manager and promoted Rohre Titcomb to the role of vice president of operations.

Ku spent the past eight years managing events and operations at the University of Washington’s Buerck Center for Entrepreneurship.

Titcomb joined the alliance at the start of this year as director of operations, prior to which she was a project manager at civic organization Girl Rising. A passionate frisbee player and owner of professional ultimate frisbee team the Cascades, Titcomb also co-founded apparel company Five Ultimate and three other startups.

The Seattle-based Female Founders Alliance, which aims to help women entrepreneurs land funding, partnered with startup incubator WeWork Labs earlier this year.

Greg Miller. (TransformativeMed Photo)

— Health technology startup TransformativeMed hired Greg Miller as chief growth officer. Miller was most recently senior vice president at healthcare analytics firm Health Catalyst.

“TransformativeMed workflow solutions remove frustrating EHR friction and I’m excited to be part of a team that is making a critical difference in the lives of clinicians and empowering them to deliver better and safer patient care,” Miller said in a statement.

The company also named former Providence Health & Services CEO Dr. John Koster to its board of directors.

Eric Winquist. (Bigleaf Photo)

Eric Winquist joined the board of directors at Bigleaf Networks, a software-defined networking startup based in Beaverton, Oreg. Winquist founded Jama Software, the maker of a product development platform used by major companies like Qualcomm and SpaceX that raised $200 million last year.

“The path Bigleaf is one is reminiscent of the path I saw at Jama,” Winquist said in a statement. “It’s a company with incredible growth opportunity in a market that is desperate for the technology they deliver. I’m excited to be part of their journey and help them become another piece of Portland’s success story.”

Amanda Woolley. (Amanda Woolley Photo)

Amanda Woolley is heading up communications for sales automation startup Outreach. Woolley was most recently senior communications manager at home improvement marketplace Porch and was at Zillow prior to that.

“I love working for companies that focus on efficiency and solving problems for their customers. Outreach is already the clear leader in the sales enablement space and it’s an exciting time be joining the organization,” Woolley said in an email.

Outreach became a billion-dollar company after it raised $114 million from investors in April.

— Rapidly-growing sales tech startup Highspot recently announced three new hires reporting to vice president of product Jon White. Former Dropbox product manager Robert Baesman joined Highspot as principal product manager; Catherine Khesin, most recently at IntellaSphere, is an associate product manager; and former Stashimi head of product Patrick Kirchgaessner is a senior product manager.

Highspot raised a $60 million round this week and last month leased a new office on the Seattle waterfront with room for 450 people.

Jennie Santoro was hired by infrastructure firm HNTB as the company’s Seattle architecture studio leader, based in the firm’s Bellevue office.

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