— Former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amié joined the board of video game retailer GameStop. Also joining the board are William Simon, former president and CEO of Walmart U.S., and J.K. Symancyk, president and CEO of PetSmart. Four current directors will step down in June. These changes are part of a board refreshment process that began last year as the retail gaming company with more than 5,000 stores aims to turn its business around.
The gaming industry needs a healthy and vibrant @GameStop. I look forward to being a part of @GameStopCorp Board and helping to make this happen. https://t.co/pYWFGZ9XKj
— Reggie Fils-Aime (@Reggie) March 9, 2020
Since retiring from his position at Nintendo in 2019, Fils-Amié has been a managing partner at Brentwood Growth Partners, an umbrella company for his consulting and angel investing practice.
— IAC Vice Chairman Victor Kaufman stepped down from Expedia Group board on March 5. Read the story.
— Allen Institute spinout Lexion named Jessica Nguyen its chief legal officer. The Seattle startup has come up with a way for in-house legal teams to get a handle on mountains of paper contracts with the help of AI. Nguyen is a tech veteran who previously served as PayScale’s general counsel, an attorney for Microsoft Office 365, and in-house attorney at Avalara.
“Jessica is an experienced leader who understands our customers and their challenges first hand,” said Gaurav Oberoi, co-founder and CEO of Lexion. “She understands, not just how to make legal teams successful business partners across departments and at the executive level, but also how to work with engineering teams to turn these ideas into intuitive features that legal teams love to use.”
Lexion raised a $4.2 million seed round last year and made CB Insights’ 2020 list of most promising AI startups.
— Portland, Ore.-based vacation rental platform Vacasa announced Mike Dodson as chief revenue officer. Dodson most recently served as CEO at Alexandria, Va.-based Fishbowl, a marketing and analytics platform for restaurants. He previously spent 14 years at OpenTable, including as chief revenue officer for the restaurant reservation service.
“Vacasa’s technology enabled platform is unparalleled in its ability to increase revenue for homeowners and provide guests with seamless experiences,” said Dodson. “I see tremendous opportunity for Vacasa’s growth in a rapidly evolving, $100 billion industry that has gone through a remarkable transformation in the past decade.”
Vacasa, ranked No. 2 on the GeekWire 200 index, continues to grow its executive team under the leadership of interim CEO Matt Roberts, another former OpenTable executive.
—Ted Kummert is joining New York-based UiPath, a startup specializing in Robotic Process Automation, as EVP of product and engineering. Kummert was most recently a venture partner and chief product officer in residence at Madrona Venture Group, one of UiPath’s investors. Kummert spent more than two decades at Microsoft and also served as EVP of products and engineering at Apptio for four years.
“Having worked with UiPath while at Madrona, I had a front row seat on the incredible growth of UiPath and the RPA market,” said Kummert.
“It’s one of the most exciting growth companies out there in one of the fastest growing markets. I am looking forward to working with UiPath’s customers, partners and the entire UiPath team to help our customers gain the benefits of automation and to deliver on the enormous potential of hyperautomation.”
UiPath has a research-and-development office in Bellevue, Wash. and has continued to grow its presence in the region.
— Jacqueline Smalls will join computer science education nonprofit Code.org as chief programs officer. She previously was VP of programs for Black Girls Code and a director at Discovery Education.
Smalls will be responsible for Code.org’s curriculum, professional learning programs, and its nationwide effort to expand computer science opportunities in schools. Code.org said more than 42 million students and one million teachers use the platform while more than 100,000 teachers have participated in a program that prepares them to teach computer science. Both Microsoft and Amazon have contributed more than $10 million to the 7-year-old non-profit, which is headquartered in Seattle.
— Ryan Polley is Marchex’s new chief product and strategy officer. Polley will lead the Seattle-based marketing analytics company’s product and engineering departments. He previously held product leadership roles at advertising technology companies Kargo and Rubicon Project.
— Seattle-based Lighthouse eDiscovery promoted Jen Phillips Karosich to vice president of client services. Lighthouse makes software that helps lawyers quickly sift through mountains of complex documentation. Phillips Karosich was previously managing director at San Francisco-based Discovia, which merged with Lighthouse in 2017. She graduated from Seattle University School of Law and is an active member of the Washington State Bar Association.
— Madrona Venture Labs’ former director of operations Kira Franz is now general manager at Recompose. The Seattle venture plans to commercialize human composting, which will be legal in Washington starting this May. Recompose announced today its raised $4.7 million with plans to open its first facility in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood in 2021.
—After leaving Amazon earlier this year, advertising executive Tim Craycroft is now chief product officer at Checkr. Craycroft spent 14 years at Amazon and led the opening of a new Amazon office in Boulder, Colo., focused on advertising technology in 2017.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Checkr’s platform offers background check technology to increase transparency and fairness in hiring. Craycroft will be based in Checkr’s Denver, Colo. office.
“What drew me to Checkr was the company’s tech-first focus on reinventing a fundamental component of employment, one that hasn’t really changed in decades,” said Craycroft in a statement.
— Business and technology consultancy West Monroe appointed Lee Carswell as a director and promoted Jerin May to senior director. Carswell and May are based in the Seattle office. The firm has nine offices nationwide and lists BECU, Premera Blue Cross and Morningstar among its clients.
— Seattle-based DeepCell Industries added Todd Boren to its board of directors. The product development company focuses on technology for cannabis-infused products and brands which it licenses to distribution partners. Boren is a managing partner of the MacArthur Fund with experience funding cannabis companies.
— Real estate giant JLL appointed Ronald Sally as SVP for its sports, entertainment and higher education sectors in Seattle and the West Coast. Currently based in Denver, Sally spent 14 years at CAA ICON, a sports management consulting firm, and was president of former arena football team Colorado Crush.
