Seattle startup leader Dave Parker has left Seven Peaks Ventures after 18 months. Parker helped to establish a Seattle office for the Bend, Ore.-based venture capital firm.
Parker said he is considering creating an independent startup studio and plans to co-found “a couple of companies” in 2019. “One will be a startup data company that will create a ‘Zestimate’ for startups to benchmark their performance to their peers in both performance and fundraising,” Parker told GeekWire in an email. Parker also plans to expand his 6 Month Startup meetup group for founders to additional cities.
“We’re excited for Dave because we know his founder first attitude, commitment to the Seattle community and NW ecosystem. Dave will stay connected to Seven Peaks as a Fund Advisor in the Seattle area, and we know we’ll be partnering with him again in the future,” Tom Gonser, partner at Seven Peaks, said in a statement.
—Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has a new CIO in Kathy Alexion, who previously supported former CIO Matthew Trunnell in the role. Trunnell is now Fred Hutch’s chief data officer.
Alexion has been with Fred Hutch since 2016 and has pushed the cancer research powerhouse to use cloud technologies to help find cancer cures. Alexion previously served in senior product management roles at Amazon and Microsoft. She also held roles at Chase and HP.
“Our goal is to clear the way and support science so that our researchers can do what they do best, find cures,” Alexion said in a statement.
—Madhu Singh and Anupam Gupta have joined the board of TiE Seattle, the city’s chapter of the largest entrepreneur network in the world.
The founder of Foundry Law Group, Singh was named Business Woman of the Year by the Small Business Administration in 2014. Singh currently serves as chief legal officer at Foundry, which works with early-stage companies on legal planning. Singh also provides pro-bono legal services to nonprofits and microenterprises through Wayfind Legal and serves on multiple advisory boards.
Gupta is chief product officer at 4C Insights, a marketing technology firm. Gupta was previously EVP of media monetization company Vubiquity, which is owned by Amdocs, and founded marketing consultant Sympatico Digital Advisors. Gupta also mentors entrepreneurs at 9Mile Labs, an accelerator for business-to-business software and cloud technology companies.
“We’re delighted at the appointments of Singh and Gupta to the TiE board,” TiE president Sharmilli Ghosh said in a statement. “Both bring a wealth of experience that we believe will help further TiE’s mission of supporting entrepreneurs from ideation to funding.” Singh and Gupta replaced board members Pradeep Rathinam and Sunil Shah.
