— M12, Microsoft’s venture capital arm, announced a formal advisory board drawing from industry experts and past mentors. The inaugural advisory board members, all from within the Microsoft organization, include:
• Distinguished Scientist Matthias Troyer
• VP and Distinguished Engineer Saurabh Tiwary
• Diversity and Inclusion Global Practice Leader Jocelyn Moore
• CVP of Security, Compliance and Identity Ann Johnson
• GitHub CTO Jason Warner
“The formation of our Advisory Board marks a new way that we can provide value as a fund: tapping best-in-class industry experts from Microsoft to help inform our investment focus and to advise our portfolio companies,” said M12 General Manager Samir Kumar, in a post announcing the new board.
— Former Integris CEO Kristina Bergman is now a partner at Pender Ventures, the new technology venture capital arm of Vancouver, B.C.-based PenderFund. Pender Ventures has approximately $100 million in assets under management and recently closed a $25 million fund.
The new role takes Bergman back to her home country as she relocates from Seattle to British Columbia. A former Microsoft product manager, Bergman was previously a principal at Bellevue, Wash.-based venture capital firm Ignition Partners. In 2016, she co-founded Integris, a data privacy startup, which was acquired by privacy software giant OneTrust in June.
— Former Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson joined specialist venture capital firm C5 Capital as an operating partner. He will help identify founders and technologies for the firm in the space, cloud computing and cybersecurity industries.
Meyerson spent 15 years leading Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin, leaving the company in 2018. He is currently the founder and CEO of consultancy Delalune Space.
Other recent Tech Moves from across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
- Gender-neutral underwear company TomboyX announced former REI VP Leslie Garrard as chief operation officer, taking over for co-founder Naomi Gonzalez. Gonzalez will now be the company’s director of strategic growth. The Seattle-based startup also promoted Ryan Letson to CFO.
- Restaurant payments device-maker TableSafe appointed David Selby to its board of directors.
- Former M12 managing director Lisa Nelson was named to the eighth cohort of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, dedicated to incubating solutions to global problems in New Zealand.
- Wenatchee, Wash.-based startup Legwork, which creates software for the dental industry, hired Alex Cuevas as its chief operation officer and newest member of the executive team.
- Startup vet Ted Ellis joined Optimize.health, previously known as Pillsy, as chief engineering officer. The Seattle health tech startup raised $15.6 million in September.
- Well-funded sales engagement startup Outreach hired former NetSuite executive Harish Mohan as SVP of revenue excellence and operations.
- Microsoft CVP of IoT and Mixed Reality Sales Rodney Clark joined the board of national consulting firm West Monroe.
