— Microsoft alum Kelly Waldher has joined Google as vice president of marketing for G Suite. Waldher most recently served as EVP and general manager for experience management technology company Qualtrics. During his time at Microsoft, Waldher held various roles on the Office 365 team. At the time of his departure, he was general manager of Microsoft 365.
— Seattle sales engagement software startup Outreach added Sue Bostrom, former EVP and chief marketing officer of international technology conglomerate Cisco Systems, to its board. Bostrom spent 14 years as an executive at Cisco Systems. She currently serves on the boards of ServiceNow, Anaplan, Nutanix, Cadence Design Systems, GitLab and Druva, all in the tech sector.
“In these tumultuous times, organizations need the sales ‘system of action’ that Outreach provides. It is a key building block to driving efficiency and visibility across digitally enabled sales organizations,” said Bostrom.
— Zillow announced its new “health advisor,” former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, who served in the Obama administration.
“As people venture into the real estate market, it’s critical they have precise information and guidelines on how to stay safe during every part of their move,” Dr. Benjamin said in a statement. “From listing, to shopping, to closing documents, we must minimize risk and protect each other. I am pleased to join Zillow in its dedication to public health through this new initiative.”
— Oak View Group, the firm leading the new Seattle Center Arena project, and Seattle Hockey Partners named Hewan Teshome as SVP and general counsel for the new arena and NHL Seattle. Teshome spent three years as counsel for high-tech football helmet maker Vicis which shut down last year.
“OVG is a highly-respected global market leader and it’s an honor to help bring a world-class level of music and entertainment to Seattle,” said Teshome. “I look forward to working closely with the team and am thrilled to help launch the new arena in my hometown of Seattle.”
Other new hires for the global venue development and investment company include:
• Kevin Melsby, most recently director of events and operations at Little Caesars Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons, is director of arena operations.
• Denise Russell, who also comes from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, is director of finance.
• Jessica Sloate is office manager, executive assistant.
— Entrepreneur and early Microsoft employee Steve Wood has joined the advisory board for Toronto, Ont.-based Citizn. The startup describes itself as “the world’s first Societal Network.” It is an AI-driven platform design to help people contribute to national political conversations.
Wood is co-founder and currently a partner at consultancy AirNote. He was a longtime member and former chairman of the Washington Technology Industry Association’s board of directors. He has held leadership at number of technology and telecommunication companies including Perlego, Asymetrix, Starwave, SinglePoint and McCaw Cellular.
“There is tremendous polarization among citizens of democracies around the world. The proliferation of fake news, one-sided information, bots, and misinformation contributes to that divide,” said Wood. “Murray and his team have the right solution at the right time to create a forum for reasoned civil discourse.”
Citizn was founded by Murray Simser, a former director of incubation for Microsoft. He was also VP of business development at SinglePoint which was founded as Wireless Services Corporation by Steve Wood.
— Seattle hybrid cloud storage startup Qumulo appointed Craig Bumpus as its first chief revenue officer. Bumpus was most recently CRO at New York-based software robot startup UiPath. He was also SVP of sales at IT infrastructure company Nutanix.
“I see tremendous opportunity to grow and expand the business as organisations around the world look to leverage file services in the cloud and the data centre,” said Bumpus.
Qumulo also recently hired Barry Russell as SVP and general manger of cloud and Michael Cornwell as chief technology officer. Russell most recently was VP of global cloud sales and business operations at F5 Networks and previously general manager of worldwide business development at Amazon Web Services. Cornwell was most recently a GM of storage technologies at Microsoft and spent more than eight years at Pure Storage, most recently as CTO, Asia Pacific and Japan.
— Former Amazon executive Stephen Avalone is the new CEO of Bluecrew, a Chicago, Ill.-based job marketplace for hourly workers. Bluecrew is owned and operated by internet and media giant IAC. Avalone most recently lead marketing and customer engagement at Zulily and spent nine years at Amazon, most recently as director of direct customer innovation. He was US president of internet service company Rakuten.
“I’m honored and thrilled to join Bluecrew. We have a massive opportunity to help people get back to work by leveraging our technology to transform today’s inefficient staffing process” said Avalone.
Avalone will be based in Seattle and eventually travel regularly to Bluecrew’s Chicago headquarters.
— Electricity marketplace WattBuy hired Mason Hollis as director of engineering. Hollis was most recently a software development engineer on the seller fulfillment services team at Amazon.
“I’m extremely impressed by what WattBuy has accomplished in just a few years and I am eager to join the team to accelerate that progress,” said Hollis. “Many Americans don’t realize they can save money on electricity by doing nothing more than switching their provider, and we are dedicated to making this process easy, transparent and trustworthy.”
The Seattle startup raised a $1.2 million seed round in 2019 and launched a partnership earlier this year with the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its Utility Rate Database.
— Seattle-based marketing software startup Usermind named Jessica Lanier as chief financial officer. Lanier is co-founder and former CFO and COO of Tonic Health, a patient data collection and payments platform acquired by R1, a provider of hospital and health care technology systems. “I am thrilled to join Michel and the Usermind team to help define the new, experience orchestration category,” said Lanier.
The 7-year old company recently laid off 15 employees due to economic impact from the COVID-19 crisis.
— SAP-owned Qualtrics, which is co-headquartered in Seattle and Provo, Utah, announced Omar Garriott as its first global industry lead for education. Qualtrics’ products for educational institutions are used for applications, in the classroom and for alumni relations and giving.
Garriott was most recently senior director of K-12 education solutions for Salesforce. He previously held education product marketing roles at LinkedIn, Apple and Adobe.
— San Francisco-based software analytics company New Relic named Seema Kumar its chief marketing officer. Kumar was most recently CMO at ServiceChannel, a facilities management platform. She spent more than seven years at Salesforce in product management and product marketing leadership roles.
New Relic shut down a small Seattle office in 2016, but maintains a Pacific Northwest presence in Portland where it has an engineering center. Kumar is based in San Francisco, Calif., where the company is headquartered.
— Langley, B.C.-based Adastra Labs, which produces cannabis extracts and provides testing services, named Kyle Boniface as director of production. Boniface most recently lead research and development for cannabis extraction at Zenabis Global Inc, a Canadian medical and recreational cannabis producer. He has a doctorate in chemistry from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
— West Coast commercial real estate firm Kidder Mathews announced Kevin Simpson-Verger has joined its Seattle office as vice president of retail investment sales. Simpson-Verger spent more than five years as a managing broker at KW Commercial, the commercial arm of Keller Williams Realty. Headquartered in Seattle, Kidder Mathews has approximately 900 employees across its 22 offices.
