Former Microsoft open-source executive Jean Paoli, in lime jacket, has been joined by a team of tech veterans at the the new document engineering startup Docugami. (Docugami Photo)

— Document engineering startup Docugami revealed its full team after it emerged from stealth mode earlier this month. Joining CEO Jean Paoli in the executive ranks are:

  • Andrew Begun, co-founder and chief technology officer, a former engineering manager at Microsoft who helped create InfoPath,
  • Martin Sawicki, co-founder, was an engineering manager at Microsoft, where he worked on Microsoft Office.
  • Mike Palmer, co-founder, was also an engineering manager at Microsoft​ and worked on InfoPath.
  • Taqi Jaffri, co-founder, was a principal product manager at Microsoft​ on the Windows​ team.
  • Luis Martí, chief science officer, an artificial intelligence researcher with academic experience at Carlos III de Madrid, Federal Fluminense and Inria.
  • Steve DeRose, head of natural language processing, received his PhD from Brown University. Expert in natural language processing, computational linguistics, and standards related to document processing.
  • Alan Yates, chief business officer, a former Microsoft executive who has worked with a number of tech startups over the past decade in business development roles.

Paoli today also published an open letter on the problem of “document dysfunction.” The startup aims to help companies create everyday documents such as contracts and reports that can then be analyzed and repurposed as if the contents were stored in a structured database.

The former president of Microsoft’s open-source subsidiary, Paoli was also a co-creator of the industry-wide XML 1.0 standard, Microsoft InfoPath and modern Microsoft Office file formats.

Janet Knight. (April Six Photo)

— Marketing agency April Six opened an office in Seattle and tasked Janet Knight, regional group account director, with spearheading the new team. Knight, who relocated to Seattle from the firm’s San Francisco headquarters, has prior experience with marketing firms Ogilvy and Geometry Global.

Knight is joined by account director Peter Harrington, who was formerly a program manager at Microsoft and Getty Images.

“We’ve had our eye on a second U.S. office for a while now, but it had to be right. Thanks to its buoyant technology market and growing client work in that area, Seattle is the right location and now is the right time,” Jill Melchionda, president of the Americas at April Six, said in a statement.

Trevor Downs. (Snap! Raise)

Snap! Raise, a fundraising platform for extracurricular activities, promoted Trevor Downs to the role of president. Prior to joining Snap! Raise, Downs was senior director of strategic business development at Nike.

“This new role provides an opportunity to work across the business to ensure that we achieve our goals and increase our impact around the country,” Downs said in a statement.

“Trevor is a great leader and an even better person to work with,” CEO Cole Morgan said. “Since he joined Snap! Raise almost two years ago, he’s brought to our fast-growing business the right tools and thinking to turn ideas into reality.”

Snap! Raise is growing rapidly and earlier this year appointed Peter Wiederspan as chief financial officer.

Kelly Breslin Wright. (Lucidchart Photo)

Lucidchart, the maker of visual workspace software, added former Tableau executive Kelly Breslin Wright to its board of directors. Wright also serves on the boards of tech startups Amperity, Even Responsible Finance and Fastly, among others, and is a lecturer at the University of Washington. She is on advisory boards for companies including Hyperproof.

“I admire Lucidchart both because of the breakthrough work the team is doing to help people visualize how to make their business better, as well as their commitment to building a strong people-centric culture and top workplace,” Wright said in a statement. Lucidchart is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.

Correction: Kelly Breslin Wright’s role with Hyperproof has been corrected since publication, as has the name Lucidchart, which was previously styled “LucidChart.”

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