Cary Baker. (Impinj photo).

Cary Baker, currently chief financial officer at RealNetworks, will leave the company in February to join Seattle-based RFID maker Impinj as CFO. Baker was previously CFO at HEAT Software and NetMotion. He also held finance leadership roles at Clearwire, Boost Mobile and Sprint.

“I am thrilled to welcome Cary to the Impinj team,” said Chris Diorio, co-founder and CEO of Impinj. “Cary’s CFO experience, deep financial and operational background, and strategic insights will serve Impinj well.

RealNetworks announced Microsoft alum Mike Ensing will serve as interim CFO while conducting a formal search for Baker’s replacement. Ensing held CFO roles at Savers/Value Village and Knowledge Universe. During his eight years at Microsoft, he held several finance leadership roles.

“Mike has a great track record of leadership during times of transformational change, which is a great fit for us.” said Rob Glaser, RealNetworks’ chairman and CEO.

Avalara, which had the best year on Wall Street among Seattle tech companies in 2019, appointed Salim Ali as senior vice president of international. Based in Seattle, he will be responsible for strategies to scale and accelerate Avalara’s growth across all international markets.

Ali comes from California startup Loyakk where he was CEO and CMO for eight years. He previously led marketing and business initiatives at SAP and Veritas Technologies.

Avalara, which makes tax automation software, also recently appointed Ross Tennenbaum as CFO effective March 31, 2020, replacing Bill Ingram, and hired Jay Lee as CMO.

Andy Reinland. (Watchguard Technologies Photo)

Longtime F5 Networks exec Andy Reinland is joining Seattle-based cybersecurity company Watchguard Technologies. Reinland left F5 in 2018 after nearly 20 years at the company.

“Andy is well known in the industry for his strong character, sound judgement, collaborative work style, and of course, his ability to positively impact business growth,” said Prakash Panjwani, CEO of WatchGuard.

Caller ID startup Hiya, currently No. 66 on the GeekWire 200, hired three new executives ahead of plans to scale this year.

The company appointed Kush Parikh as COO responsible for distribution, sales, marketing and business operations. Parikh was previously CEO of PayByPhone and chief business officer at Inrix.

Rachel Cougan is the new head of people managing talent and people operations. She was most recently VP of talent at Textio, Cougan has also held HR roles at Chef Software, Fitch and Tippr.

Former Chief Accounting Officer at Coinstar Rich Deck will lead the finance team as VP of finance. Deck was also controller at Concur and spent the past nine years as a consultant.

RFPIO, which developers request-for-proposal response automation software, has hired four new leaders as part of its strategy to accelerate growth. The Beaverton, Ore.-based startup raised $25 million in 2018 and has moved up the ranks from No. 165 to No. 88 on the GeekWire 200 since then.

“Last year we nearly tripled our user base and increased revenues by more than 250 percent, which led to a doubling of our workforce,” said Ganesh Shankar, chief executive officer of RFPIO.

RFPIO’s leadership additions, clockwise from top left: Paul Nadeau, Mohan Natraj, Angela Earl and Konnor Martin. (RFPIO Photos)

The new additions include:

SVP of Finance Paul Nadeau, who previously held finance and operations roles at software startups NurseGrid and Act-On.

VP of Customer Success Mohan Natraj, most recently a director at enterprise software company Sage and an IBM veteran.

VP of Global Marketing Angela Earl, who has held marketing roles at software companies Tripwire and Exterro. In 2016, Earl launched her own marketing agency which was acquired in 2019.

Regional VP of Sales Konnor Martin who has been a sales leader at RFPIO since 2016. Martin previously did regional sales for Paycom and Comcast.

Compensation software startup PayScale has re-appointed Susan Haberman to its board. Haberman is the U.S. career business leader and senior partner at Mercer, a management consulting firm that has invested in PayScale.

“I’m looking forward to working closely with the PayScale executive team to help them continue their rapid expansion and to empower enterprises that recognize the benefits of modern compensation management,” said Haberman.

Jeremy Showalter. (Jeremy Showalter photo)

Former Microsoft Vietnam executive Jeremy Showalter is now the CEO of Vietnam-based startup Pique. Showalter spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as director of Microsoft Philanthropies. He will split his time between Seattle, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Pique offers personalization software for medium-sized e-commerce businesses using AI research. The company is focused on expanding in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

“I am excited about the growth impact applied AI can have for vertical ecommerce businesses and retail, and after 13 years at Microsoft, including five years in Vietnam, I wanted to focus again on the incredibly dynamic SE Asia region” Showalter said.

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