— Michelle Grover was appointed as the first chief technology officer of Slalom, a Seattle-based global business and technology consulting firm. Grover previously served as chief information officer for Twilio, and was most recently the interim chief information and digital officer at First Command Financial Services. She was also senior VP of software development for TripIt and Mobile at SAP Concur.
Founded in 2001, Slalom has more than 13,000 employees globally and more than 1,000 employees in its Seattle office. Grover, who will be based in the Bay Area, will join Slalom Oct. 1.
“Michelle is the kind of leader that can quickly identify opportunities and deliver simple solutions for complicated issues,” said Slalom president Tony Rojas in a statement.
— Gregory Davis is the new CEO of electric aircraft manufacturer Eviation. He has served as interim CEO since February, when he took over from co-founder Omer Bar-Yohay as the company transitions to the production phase of its aircraft. Davis will also retain his role as president, which he has held since last May.
Davis previously served as vice president of customer service and product support for Viking Air Limited, which provides utility aircraft services and manufactures Twin Otter aircraft. He also held engineering positions at Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group and is a licensed commercial pilot.
“Gregory has a profound understanding of aerospace engineering and a true passion for aviation,” said Eviation chairman Allen Page in a statement. “Under his leadership, the team has made incredible strides in preparing the Alice, our all-electric commuter aircraft, for its imminent first flight, as well as toward our objectives of FAA certification and commercialization.”
In September, the Arlington, Wash.-based company announced that GlobalX, an air charter operator based in Miami, signed a letter of intent to order 50 Alice commuter aircraft. First delivery is scheduled for 2027.
— Docugami, which helps businesses create and extract information from documents, has six new team members: machine learning engineer David Chang, product manager Alexandra Durbin, software engineer Stephen Erstad, senior account executive Kyler Hamari, product manager Nicholas Ong, and director of business development Peter Zarter.
Docugami raised $10 million in seed funding in 2020, and has signed up early partners and customers including Dropbox, Microsoft, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and Grammarly. The Kirkland, Wash.-based company now has 30 employees.
Other key personnel moves across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
- Univ. of Washington history professor Margaret O’Mara, who writes about the tech industry, is now the UW’s Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair of American History.
- Mike Davidson is taking time off to “chill, travel, and decide what sector to dive into next,” according to a Twitter post. He was most recently VP of Design & Research at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange and held the same title at Twitter.
- Estakio Beltran was hired as digital equity manager of the Washington State Broadband Office, which was recently awarded $30 million from the U.S. government to expand broadband access in five rural counties.
- Nikhil Swaminathan was named CEO of Grist, a Seattle nonprofit media organization that reports on climate and the environment. Swaminathan was previously editor in chief at Grist and has served as interim CEO since he took over from Brady Piñero Walkinshaw this February.
- Nikhil Goel, the chief strategy officer at Vancouver, Wash.-based Absci, has left the company, according to an SEC filing.
- Jerry Hunter is now chief operating officer of Los Angeles-based Snap Inc., where he was previously senior VP of engineering. His previous roles include VP of infrastructure at Amazon.
- Seattle trucking logistics startup Rollzi hired Stu Shannon, a former manager at Convoy and most recently director at Flock Freight, as head of growth.
- Portland, Ore.-based human resources consulting firm Mineral hired Chris Lanier, previously executive VP of engineering at BetterWorks, as its chief technology officer.
- Madrona Venture Group Managing Director Scott Jacobson joined the the board of TrovaTrip, a Portland, Ore.-based marketplace for group travel that announced $15 million in funding, led by Madrona, on Tuesday.
- Vancouver, Wash.-based ZoomInfo hired Andrew Riesenfeld, formerly an executive at DocuSign, as senior vice president of business development.
