David Shim. (Foursquare Photo)

David Shim, founder of Seattle startup Placed, is stepping down as CEO of Foursquare after about a year in the role. Board member Gary Little will take over as CEO in 2021 after a transition period.

Shim became CEO approximately six months after New York City-based Foursquare bought Placed from Snap, which originally acquired the location data analytics company in 2017. Shim helped launch Placed out of Seattle back in 2011.

Shim plans to return to his entrepreneurial roots.

“Post-Foursquare, I am planning to take a few months to visit the 8 countries that I’m allowed to visit, focus on health and make one final attempt to have a visible six-pack once in my life, and find time to explore a few (non-location) ideas that have been bouncing around in my head,” he said in a post on Medium.

Karan Mehandru. (Trinity Ventures Photo)

— Silicon Valley investor Karan Mehandru departed from Trinity Ventures after 10 years as a general partner. During that time, Mehandru led investments in several Seattle-area startups including Auth0 and Outreach and will continue to serve on both companies’ boards.

He is joining New York-based Steadfast Financial as managing director and head of venture capital. Mehandru will continue to be based in the Bay Area and open a new office for the hedge-fund.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect that Mehandru will be remain on the board of directors of Auth0 and Outreach.

— 343 Industries studio head Chris Lee stepped down as the project director for Microsoft’s Halo Infinite video game, according to a report by Bloomberg. Lee joined 343 Industries in 2008 and was previously a producer at Microsoft Game Studios.

The Microsoft-owned game studio previously announced that the latest Halo franchise installment would be delayed until 2021.

Molly Jones. (WTIA Photo)

— The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) hired Molly Jones as its vice president of government affairs. Jones will be responsible for communicating with member companies and government officials for the trade association. She was most recently a vice president at strategic advisory firm The Asia Group.

“I believe public policy is a powerful change-making platform, and I look forward to representing WTIA in critical conversations happening in our state and at the national level,” said Jones.

— Digital media executive Soumya Sriraman joined Amazon as head of Prime video channels in the U.S., according to entertainment industry news site Deadline.

Sriraman was most recently CEO and president of BritBox, a digital video subscription service jointly operated by the BBC and British media company ITV plc. She previously was EVP of franchises and digital enterprises for BBC Worldwide.

— Coupa Software CFO Todd Ford joined the board of HashiCorp, the billion-dollar San Francisco, Calif.-based cloud company founded by two University of Washington computer science graduates.

Peh Keong Teh. (Symend Photo)

— Former Salesforce SVP Peh Keong Teh joined Canadian debt recovery startup Symend as chief product officer. He spent more than a decade at Microsoft and was a product manager for Oracle’s enterprise cloud offering.

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Symend is a behavioral science and AI platform targeting financially at-risk customers. Teh is based in the Seattle area.

Former Microsoft CFO John Connors, who is also based in the Seattle region, recently joined the company’s board of directors.

— Vancouver, B.C.-based custom footwear startup FitMyFoot, formerly known as Wiivv Wearables, named longtime Microsoft marketing manager Chris Jolley as its new CEO.

FitMyFoot also announced the promotion of Brett Ritter to president. Ritter, a footwear industry veteran, joined the company in 2018.

FitMyFoot fits customers via a mobile app using biomechanics and 3D imaging. Total funding to date for the 6-year-old startup is $7.5 million, according to Pitchbook.

Jeremy Kuhlmann has joined Seattle-based accounting and wealth management firm Moss Adams as a partner in the life sciences practice. Kuhlmann previously spent more than 16 years at global accounting firm EY.

— Mukilteo, Wash.-based Vimly Benefit Solutions hired Venkat CJ as COO and Ryan VanOverbeke as EVP and chief revenue officer. Vimly Benefits Solutions offers a SaaS platform for workforce and benefits administration.

CJ previously held leadership roles at Vera Whole Health, Delta Dental of WA, Intellectual Ventures and Corbis. VanOverbeke was most recently SVP and healthcare partner executive at WEX Health, a financial technology platform for healthcare expenses, and previously worked at UnitedHealth Group.

Seattle-based health care provider First Choice Health promoted Anisha Sood to chief financial and strategy officer. Sood joined First Choice Health in 2019 from Echo Health Ventures where she was a partner.

The company also announced it hired Shruti Singal as vice president of medical management. Singal was most recently a medical director at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield as well as chief medical officer at medical device company MDInnovate.

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