— Cybersecurity giant Tanium appointed Marc Levine as its new CFO, effective May 17. He was most recently CFO at RSA Security.
Levine previously was CFO at C3.ai, Athenahealth, and Blue Yonder, previously known as JDA Software. He spent 25 years at Hewlett Packard, including stints as SVP of finance and corporate controller.
Tanium relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area to Kirkland, Wash. last year. In January, the company raised $150 million, bringing total funding to date past $1 billion.
— Microsoft and Amazon veteran Dirk Didascalou has been appointed the first CTO of Siemens Digital Industries, a business unit of the German multinational company. He will start in September.
Didascalou was most recently VP of IoT at Amazon Web Services and previously Microsoft’s CVP of technology and research, where he worked on the Surface Hub and led the Smart Things team. Prior to Microsoft, Didascalou was an executive at Nokia and previously worked for Siemens’ mobile phones division earlier in his career.
— Actively Learn co-founder Jay Goyal has stepped down as president to spend time with his family. His co-founder Deep Sran is taking over as president of the digital reading platform.
Goyal told GeekWire he plans to take a break and is considering a new venture, likely in education again. “Lots of problems to solve and a couple ideas brewing,” he said.
Founded in Seattle in 2012, Actively Learn was acquired in 2018 by New Jersey educational technology company Achieve3000. Actively Learn operates as a subsidiary of the larger company and currently has 41 employees, 15 of which are based in Seattle.
— Seattle startup Ally.io, which develops goal-setting collaboration software, added three new executives:
- Rajiv Arunkundram as head of product. He was previously a senior director of product management at Smartsheet and Microsoft.
- Rebecca Clements as SVP of people and culture. She previously spent six years at Moz, most recently as chief people officer.
- Kirsten Smith as VP of growth marketing. Based in California, Smith has held marketing leadership roles at startups Gladly, Lever and Glassdoor.
The company launched in 2018 and earlier this year closed a $50 million Series C round. Ally.io currently has 183 employees and plans to increase its headcount to over 300 employees by the end of the year.
— Gilad Berenstein, the founder and former CEO of Seattle startup Utrip, has founded early stage investment firm Brook Bay Capital. Berenstein told GeekWire that Brook Bay Capital will focus on AI/ML, marketplaces and technology for the financial, real estate, retail and travel industries. He declined to provide further details about the firm.
Berenstein founded travel itinerary planning startup Utrip in 2011 when he was 23 years old and led the company until it shut down in 2019. He later joined the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) as an entrepreneur-in-residence for almost a year before founding Brook Bay Capital. Berenstein also currently serves as a mentor and advisor for startups.
— Mónica Guzmán is now director of digital and storytelling at Braver Angels, a nonprofit working to depolarize America.
Guzmán was previously VP of local for media technology company WhereBy.Us and co-founded The Evergrey, a daily newsletter for Seattleites. She is a former GeekWire columnist.
Guzmán is also currently writing a book for publication in 2022 about staying curious and open-minded in divided times. Guzmán also hosts Crosscut’s Northwest Newsmakers speaker series.
— Kirkland, Wash.-based Adaptiva promoted Doug Kennedy to COO and added Mike Bradley as senior director of alliances and channels.
Kennedy joined Adaptiva in 2019 as chief growth officer. He is a former Microsoft, NetSuite and Oracle executive. Bradley is also a NetSuite and Oracle veteran. He was most recently alliance director for the Oracle’s CX Marketing product.
— Seattle accounting software startup Lockstep hired Melissa Hendrick as EVP of marketing. She previously held executive marketing roles at TeamSupport and Yooz.
— Vancouver, B.C.-based Procurify announced Alicia Bedard as VP of marketing and Manohar Ganesan as VP of product and engineering. The company’s software tracks organizations’ expenses and spending.
Bedard was most recently senior director of marketing at Canadian edtech company ApplyBoard. Ganesan joins from Amazon Web Services where he was a senior product manager. He previously co-founded Swarasta, a last mile logistics startup in India.
— The University of Washington’s Continuum College appointed Bryan Blakeley to the newly-created role of assistant vice provost for digital learning innovation. Blakeley most recently was the executive director at Boston College’s Center for Digital Innovation in Learning.
The Continuum College provides continuing and professional education through regular, part-time, weekend, summer and online sessions. In his new role, Blakeley will be responsible for the unit’s digital learning tools and online learning experience.
