— Location data companies Foursquare and Factual are merging. The combined company will be led by Placed founder David Shim under the Foursquare brand.
Shim was named CEO of Foursquare last year and relocated from Seattle to New York City to lead the company. He originally joined Foursquare as president after the company acquired Seattle startup Placed from Snap last May.
Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and Factual founder and CEO Gil Elbaz will both serve on the executive team and board of the new Foursquare. In December, GeekWire caught up with Shim about his roller-coaster entrepreneurial journey and his vision for location technology.
“It is an honor to be a part of this “dream team” of location, bringing together over 30 years of combined focus in the space,” Shim wrote on LinkedIn.
— Sue Desmond-Hellmann joined the board of directors for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Desmond-Hellmann recently stepped down as CEO of the Gates Foundation after leading the $47 billion philanthropy for more than five years.
A physician and scientist, Desmond-Hellmann served as chancellor at UCSF and was president of product development for Genetech. She previously served on the boards of Procter & Gamble and Facebook.
I’m glad to join Pfizer’s Board of Directors at a time when the world needs scientific and medical innovation more than ever. https://t.co/jFComMgvAi
— Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann (@SueDHellmann) April 2, 2020
— Microsoft hired Rubén Caballero as a corporate vice president, Bloomberg reported. Caballero was previously a longtime Apple engineering exec who led wireless efforts. Caballero will work in Microsoft’s Mixed Reality & AI Division, according to his LinkedIn.
— Longtime Egencia President Rob Greyber has stepped down, according to Skift. Ariane Gorin has assumed leadership of the Expedia Group business travel brand.
Expedia Group acquired Egencia in 2004. Last week analysts lowered Expedia profitability estimates again as questions swirl about future of travel.
— Ross Tennenbaum is officially Avalara’s new CFO and treasurer. The Seattle tax automation company announced in December that former CFO Bill Ingram would be retiring this year.
Tennenbaum joined Avalara in 2019 and previously held leadership roles at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, and helped Avalara with its IPO. In its latest earnings report, Avalara reported that revenue grew by 40 percent to $107 million.
— Pushpay, which creates mobile platforms for nonprofit organizations to gather donations, appointed Lovina McMurchy to its board. The nine-year-old company has offices in Redmond, Wash. and Auckland, New Zealand.
McMurchy is currently a venture partner at Movac, a venture capital firm in New Zealand where she is currently based. However, McMurchy spent almost 20 years in the Seattle area where she held roles at Amazon as general manager of Alexa Shopping, Microsoft as GM of Skype, and at Starbucks where she was director of venture development.
— Katherine Bellows is now a managing director responsible for business development at Seattle-based investment bank Cascadia Capital. Bellows joins Cascadia Capital from Bank of America, where she was a senior vice president for the Pacific Northwest region. She previously spent nine years at GE Capital.
— ZGF Architects, which has worked on Expedia’s new campus, the redevelopment of Microsoft’s Redmond campus, and the F5 tower, hired Flavia Grey to lead its data, research and development group.
Grey received her doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University, where her researched focused on quantifying the interaction between occupants and sustainable buildings. She will be based in Seattle.
— Steven Maheshwary is the new information and communication technology sector lead for Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee.
Maheshwary most recently worked at Amazon as programs lead for underserved populations and special projects. He was a Fulbright fellow with the U.S. Department of State in Malaysia and also worked as an analyst at Microsoft.
“It’s bittersweet leaving Amazon to serve the government (for the second time!) but I’m grateful for my experiences, learnings, and for the folks I have had the privilege of working with over the last few years, especially on the Underserved Populations team,” Maheshway wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “I’m now looking forward to supporting Governor Inslee, Director Lisa Brown, the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), and tech businesses across the state during these difficult times and assisting with our economic recovery efforts.”
— Cloud services provider BitTitan hired Kevin Serpanchy as sales director for the Americas. Serpanchy joins the Bellevue, Wash.-based company from ProQuest which provides technologies for researchers and librarians.
— Portland, Ore.-based online education company Treehouse named Antoinette Josato its new director of learning. Josato has her doctorate in education and previously managed technology instruction programs at St. Louis Community College and Southwestern Illinois College. Treehouse offers courses in online web design, development and other technical skills.
— Washington State University (WSU) announced Mark Leid will be the next dean of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. A graduate of the WSU College of Pharmacy, Leid is currently a professor and associate dean at Oregon State University. He will take over from interim dean Linda Garrelts MacLean in July.
— Phil Van Etten stepped down as CEO of agtech startup Pollen Systems after joining a year ago. Founder Keith McCall will move back into the CEO role. McCall and Van Etten previously teamed up at Azaleos, a Seattle email management startup acquired by Avanade.
Pollen Systems offers agriculture and drone technology for various crops and geographies. Last week, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company announced a new partnership with TerrAvion, a provider of aerial imagery for agriculture.
