The Rockefeller Foundation brought on Steven VanRoekel as its chief operating officer. VanRoekel was chief information officer for the U.S. under President Obama, a role in which he helped the government to create open data policies and move toward cloud computing. He also worked on the administration’s response to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
Prior to his public sector work, VanRoekel was a leader in the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft and worked on the launches of the original Xbox and Windows XP. He has also worked as an assistant to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the Gates Foundation developed its global health strategy.
“It is [the Rockefeller Foundation’s] history of harnessing science and technology and always aspiring to be a best-in-class partner able to drive impact at scale around the world that makes me proud to serve as chief operating officer,” VanRoekel said in a statement.
VanRoekel previously served as a consultant to the foundation.
The Rockefeller Foundation funds global initiatives such as increasing healthcare access, creating sustainable food production and promoting economic development. The charitable organization managed more than $4 billion in 2016, the most recent year for which data is available.
—Cryptocurrency startup Coinme snagged Jonathan Maron to be its chief marketing officer. Maron was most recently a senior advisor at the Broad Reach Group and has also led marketing teams at HTC, INRIX, LG and Sony Ericsson.
“Coinme is on a mission to help people everywhere understand and utilize the power of digital currencies as a delightful medium-of-exchange, and be accessible anywhere in the world, so everyone has a fair chance for financial prosperity. I look forward to help bring about this important social change,” Maron said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Coinme partnered with Coinstar to launch a bitcoin purchasing feature at Coinstar kiosks.
— DigiPen Institute of Technology appointed Christopher Comair to be the chief operating officer of its Redmond, Wash. campus. Comair was most recently director of business operations at DigiPen, where he’s worked for the past nine years. Comair is the son of Claude Comair, DigiPen’s president.
DigiPen is a 30-year-old university that specializes in game development. In addition to the Washington campus, the school has campuses in Singapore and Bilbao, Spain.
Former Geek of the Week Jason Chu will remain COO of DigiPen’s international operations.
— Logistics company Expeditors hired Matt Dyor as the director of its strategy group. Dyor was most recently a product manager at Amazon where he worked on a transportation optimization product. An army veteran, Dyor also co-founded Payboard, which helped online retailers increase sales, and spent several years with Microsoft.
“At Expeditors, I have the opportunity to work with startups innovating in the fantastically complex logistics space, as well as startups that are building breakthrough technologies that can be applied in the logistics space, such as machine learning, sensors, blockchain, and intelligent data infrastructure, including those startups here in the Seattle tech community,” Dyor said in an email.
— Blockchain-based card game developer Cryptogogue added Jordan Weisman to its board of directors. Weisman is the CEO of video game developer Harebrained Schemes and has started five game companies. He was behind both the Shadowrun and BattleTech game franchises.
Seattle startup Cryptogogue is developing Volition, a collectible card game that does away with physical cards. Instead, players can buy, sell and trade cards over the blockchain and print them out when it’s time to play.
“Cryptogogue is inventing a whole new way to publish and distribute collectible hobby games. Its decentralized business model combined with print on demand technology is extremely empowering for players,” Weisman said in a statement.
