— It’s a big day for Seattle-based F5 Networks, which just named two senior executives. Mika Yamamoto joined the firm as executive vice president and chief marketing & customer experience officer, and Geng Lin will start in July as CTO.
Yamamoto previously served as global president of Marketo, a marketing software company owned by Adobe. She was also chief digital marketing officer for SAP and worked at Amazon, Microsoft, Gartner and Accenture prior to that.
Lin was chief development officer and head of engineering at J.P. Morgan Chase, where he worked on cloud-based banking products. He also wrote two books on cloud computing and held senior technology roles at Google, Dell and Cisco’s IBM Alliance.
“Both Mika and Geng bring to F5 deep expertise in their respective fields, as well as proven leadership for companies that have undergone business transformations as significant as our own,” F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou said in a statement. “I’m confident that Mika and Geng will help accelerate F5’s transformation to a multi-cloud applications services company.”
F5 recently paid $670 million to buy NGINX, a web server that runs a big chunk of the internet. Its first-quarter revenue numbers missed analyst expectations.
— Bryan Hale signed on as managing director of the incubator at AI2, also known as the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Hale is a Seattle native who was president at Resin.io, which changed its name to Balena last year.
Hale was also an entrepreneur-in-residence at venture capital firm DFJ, which he later joined as an investor. He spent nearly six years at Seattle-based IT automation company Chef.
“I’m excited to join the AI2 incubator team. The next generation of high impact startups in our region will feature artificial intelligence at the core and we are uniquely positioned to help companies bring AI products to market fast and efficiently,” Hale said in an email.
AI2 has been busy tracking China’s ascendance in artificial intelligence and partnering with Microsoft Research to upgrade search tools for scientific studies.
— Groupon hired REI veteran Craig Rowley as chief marketing officer, a position that is based in Seattle. Rowley was vice president of marketing at REI and a force behind the outdoor retailer’s highly successful #optoutside campaign. Prior to REI, he worked at ad firms Saatchi & Saatchi, Carmichael Lynch and Young & Rubicam.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to help develop the next chapter of Groupon’s brand story as we build the daily habit in local commerce,” Rowley said in a statement. “Given Groupon’s scale, there is a huge opportunity for us to fuel a deeper brand connection with our millions of customers and merchants around the globe.”
“Craig is a dynamic marketing leader who’s helped build some of the world’s biggest brands across several global industries,” said Groupon COO Steve Krenzer. “His customer-centric approach will be a key driver as we continue to expand the Groupon local marketplace.”
Groupon opened up an office in Seattle seven years ago and moved into a 42,000 square-foot space in 2016. It is one of more than 100 out-of-town tech companies that have outposts in the Seattle region.
— Aerial imagery and data analytics firm EagleView hired Callan Carpenter as chief revenue officer. Carpenter comes from Autodesk, where he worked for over a decade and was vice president of global named accounts and digital manufacturing sales. He also co-founded Silicon Metrics and held senior roles at Arm Semiconductor and Mentor Graphics.
“My career has always been about helping customers utilize technology to achieve business outcomes,” Carpenter said in a statement. “When I saw how EagleView is using state-of-the-art digital imagery and machine learning to transform the industries they serve, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.”
EagleView, based in Bellevue, Wash., acquired Australian aerial imagery firm Spookfish for $90 million late last year.
— Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies hired former Whole Foods exec Francis Lo as chief people officer. Lo was vice president of human resources at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon. He also held leadership roles at Frito-Lay, PepsiCo and Starbucks.
“Francis’ experience in designing and leading People practices and strategies for large scale, global companies makes him well matched for the role of chief people officer at Adaptive as we continue to scale our business at a rapid pace,” CEO Chad Robins said in a statement.
“This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that is poised to write a new chapter in precision health and positively impact human health and happiness,” said Lo.
— Reverb, a Seattle HR consultancy firm, hired Ayesha Pacholke as senior people operations consultant. Pacholke was most recently chief people officer at Remitly, a startup that lets people send money easily to relatives outside of the U.S. Pacholke also held HR leadership roles at Edifecs, Optimum Energy and Real Networks.
“Ayesha loves developing people strategies that help startups scale quickly. Her energy is contagious,” Reverb CEO Mikaela Kiner told GeekWire in an email.
Reverb also announced that James Pratt, vice president of people development at Gravity Payments, joined the company as an advisor.
— Genesys tapped Tony Bates to succeed Paul Segre as CEO of the company, which sells customer experience solutions. Bates was CEO of Skype and became its president after Microsoft acquired the company in 2011.
— Seattle-based Olis Robotics, which makes software for robots, named Tom Boyer chief commercial officer. Boyer was formerly a vice president at satellite communications company Kymeta. Prior to that, he worked at defense companies SAIC, Ravenwing and BAE Systems.
“Tom’s expertise developing and demonstrating the value of innovative technology will be critical as we accelerate partnership development and launch Olis Robotics’ software platform into new markets,” Olis CEO Don Pickering said in a statement. A spinout of the University of Washington, Olis was formerly known as BluHaptics and was a finalist for AI Innovation of the Year at the GeekWire Awards.
— HNTB Corporation hired Loreana Marciante as emerging mobility solutions engineer, based in the firm’s Bellevue Office. Marciante was formerly senior incubation manager at Vulcan, where she oversaw the $50 million “Smart City Challenge” initiative.
“Loreana is passionate about developing strategic emerging mobility solutions — including electric, automated, connected and shared vehicles — that lead to positive impacts for people, the environment and U.S. transportation as a whole,” Jim Barbaresso, HNTB national intelligent transportation systems practice leader, said in a statement.
HNTB also added Bradley Miller as Seattle group director, based in the firm’s Bellevue office. Miller has been with the firm for over a decade, working on large infrastructure projects in Indianapolis.
“Brad’s demonstrated leadership and knowledge of transportation infrastructure improvements – including aviation, transit and highway projects – will help the office continue to grow and exceed the needs of transportation agencies in Seattle,” said Kevin R. Collins, HNTB Seattle office leader.
