— After 14 years at Microsoft, Dev Stahlkopf is joining Cisco in August as executive vice president and chief legal officer. She has served as Microsoft’s general counsel and corporate secretary since 2018.
Stahlkopf will replace former Cisco Chief Legal Officer Mark Chandler who retired in May after 25 years with the networking technology company.
Prior to starting as an attorney in Microsoft’s employment law group, Stahlkopf was an attorney at Seattle law firm Perkins Coie. She currently serves on the Board of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.
The announcement came on the heels of new memo outlining how Microsoft is reorganizing its legal team as it prepares to navigate increasing technology regulation across the globe.
— Seattle-based tax automation company Avalara appointed Srinivas Tallapragada and Bruce Crawford to its board of directors. The new additions expands Avalara’s board to 11 members.
Tallapragada is currently president and chief engineering officer at Salesforce. He was previously an engineering executive at Oracle and SAP.
Crawford is a retired lieutenant general and former chief information officer for the U.S. Army. He is currently SVP of strategic development, growth and sales at technical services firm Jacobs.
In the past year, Avalara has announced four acquisitions and grew its revenues with the pandemic-driven surge in e-commerce.
— Seattle sales software startup Outreach, now valued at $4.4 billion, added three new executives and announced the opening of a new office in Atlanta. The new executives joining Outreach’s leadership team are:
- Mohan Achar as vice president of customer support. He was most recently an executive at business communications provider 8×8 and led customer support at Marketo.
- Neil Amrhein as vice president of value consulting. Amrhein worked at Ariba and then SAP, following its acquisition of the business commerce network.
- Vlad Melnik as vice president of global business development and partnerships. He was most recently vice president of global alliances at SaaS company Reltio and previously a senior director at Splunk.
Outreach has not yet opened its physical office in Atlanta but is already hiring there. This will be the company’s fifth office outside of its Seattle headquarters.
CEO and co-founder Manny Medina cited its existing customer base in the Southeast and Atlanta’s diverse talent pool as two reasons for the expansion.
— Former chief security officer (CSO) of Microsoft’s cloud and AI security division Gunter Ollmann, joined security analytics company Devo Technology as chief security officer. He left Microsoft this month after four years.
Prior to working for the Redmond tech giant, Ollmann was CTO at NCC Group, IOActive and Damballa. He previously worked on security strategy at IBM.
— Ag-tech startup RipeLocker appointed Damon Corey as its new COO. He was most recently a director at Pace International, a post-harvest food company previously co-owned and led by RipeLocker CEO and co-founder George Lobisser.
Founded in 2016, RipeLocker sells and leases its patented containers to preserve flowers and produce while in transit. The Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based company closed a $5 million funding round in April and has raise $12 million to date.
— Greater Seattle Partners announced Virginia Mason Franciscan Health CEO Ketul Patel as the new co-chair of its executive council. He succeeds former Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden who retired in March.
The regional trade and investment organization’s other co-chair is Phyllis Campbell, head of the Pacific Northwest region for JP Morgan Chase and former president and CEO of The Seattle Foundation. Chris Mefford is currently serving as interim CEO following the departure of founding CEO Brian McGowan in May.
— Kirkland, Wash.-based Optimal appointed Richard Vedder as a board advisor. Vedder is a professor emeritus at Ohio University and currently a senior fellow at The Independent Institute, a think tank based in Oakland, Calif. He previously ran the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
Founded in 2004 by CEO Sung Rhee, Optimal provides data, rankings and research about higher education for prospective students. Vedder will advise the Optimal team about high education content and be an op-ed author for the platform.
