— Former Washington State Rep. Laura Ruderman is taking charge as CEO of the Technology Alliance, a non-profit organization of tech leaders in Washington.
Ruderman represented the 45th district in the state’s House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. Most recently, she was interim director for the Children’s Campaign Fund.
“While in the state legislature, I worked closely with the Tech Alliance as both an advisor and a participant in their rich programming,” Ruderman said in a statement. “I am thrilled to now have the opportunity to contribute to the future of an organization that was such a big part of my success as a legislator.”
Former Technology Alliance CEO Carol Rava left the organization last summer for a post at Seattle-area higher education startup AstrumU.
“Laura has the right mix of technology industry and public policy experience to enable our organization to continue its longstanding history fostering a vibrant innovation economy for all of Washington state,” said Tech Alliance Board Chair John Wecker.
The Technology Alliance officially planted its stake in the ground in 1996 as an advocate for the tech industry, bringing together players from aerospace, software, life sciences and various research organizations. The idea was to think long-term about the health of the innovation economy in Washington state — an industry that was purring with the success of Microsoft and had just given birth to Amazon.com. It has since helped incubate and spin off organizations such as the Alliance of Angels and Ada Developers Academy while running an annual state of technology luncheon and producing research reports.
—Twitter has a new chief information security officer in Mike Convertino, who will lead its security team from the company’s Seattle engineering office that opened in 2014. Convertino was previously CTO at Seattle-based F5 Networks, which sells software-based security and application delivery products.
“The mission of Twitter is awe-inspiring! It represents the beginnings of a global civil society where all people can engage in rich and yet safe conversations. It’s of critical importance and I can’t wait to get started!” Convertino wrote on Twitter. Twitter’s former CISO, Michael Coates, left the company in March 2018.
Convertino, a former commander with the U.S. Air Force, was profiled as a GeekWire Working Geek last year, offering tips on how to weather information security attacks. When asked what his favorite social media platform was, he didn’t mention Twitter. Surely that’s changed.
— Don’t think you need your own personal cybersecurity service? Rubica has hired Emily Carrion as its first chief marketing officer to convince you otherwise.
“With the rise in corporate hacks, threats to physical security, and bad actors — now is an extremely important time to protect our data and digital identity,” Carrion said in a statement. “That’s why I’m so excited to join Rubica, the first company to bring enterprise-grade cybersecurity to people like you and me.”
Carrion previously served in marketing roles at a number of Seattle companies, including Textio, Apptentive, Mixpo and Point Inside. Rubica aims to stop digital threats before they strike, employing a team of cybersecurity experts from organizations like the Department of Defense, the Marines and MI6.
—Kathleen Zwickert has joined the board of directors at Seattle-based tax software firm Avalara. Zwickert previously led HR efforts at cloud computing firm NetSuite as chief people officer. Prior to that she was at Oclaro, an optical component manufacturer.
“Avalara is solving the global need for tax compliance automation and is working to ensure businesses of all sizes are able to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of transaction taxes,” Zwickert said in a statement. “With a global team addressing a problem for every business, the opportunity ahead is exciting.”
The company also said that Avalara co-founder Jared Vogt has left the board of directors, but will continue to serve on the company’s advisory board. Founded in 1999, Avalara debuted as a public company last summer.
—Boston-based Binx added former Amazon product leader Samar Parikh to its board of directors. Binx supplies medical diagnostic systems to clinics and is working on an at-home STI testing service.
Parikh was an early catalyst behind Amazon’s healthcare push and was involved in the company’s acquisition of PillPack, according to Binx. Parikh left Amazon in December, according to his LinkedIn.
“Over the past several years we’ve witnessed a shift in the way healthcare is delivered, considered, adopted and promoted,” Parikh said in a statement. “I was drawn to Binx because of its unique vision, its clinical and scientific rigor, and because I believe the company is positioned to transform near-patient testing through new delivery models.”
