— Electronic Arts (EA) announced Chris Suh as its new CFO effective March 1. Suh is currently CVP and CFO of the cloud and AI group at Microsoft. He has spent more than 25 years at Microsoft, starting as an internal auditor.
“I’m incredibly energized to join a world leader in interactive entertainment at a time of such growth and transformation in the industry,” said Suh.
Suh will replace Blake Jorgensen, who announced plans to depart last year. Suh recently joined the board of Atlanta digital advertising platform Cardlytics.
— Athira Pharma appointed Vaxcyte CEO Grant Pickering to its board of directors. He is the first new board member appointed since co-founder and former CEO Leen Kawas resigned and left the board after an image manipulation investigation.
Following Kawas’ departure, Mark Litton, who previously served as COO, was named CEO and joined the board of directors.
— Regional trade and investment organization Greater Seattle Partners announced Brian Surratt as its new president and CEO. His appointment comes after an extensive search after founding CEO Brian McGowan stepped down last year.
Surratt was most recently executive director for the Puget Sound region at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a community development organization. He was previously vice president of real estate development and community relations at Alexandria Real Estate Equities and spent more than a decade working for the City of Seattle.
— Former Expedia Group SVP Shiv Singh is now chief marketing and customer experience officer at online loan marketplace LendingTree.
The former Visa and PepsiCo executive oversaw branding at Expedia Group, where he spent less than a year.
— Zulily co-founder Mark Vadon joined the board of Athletic Greens, maker of a nutrition powder. He is also an investor in its latest $115 million funding round. The New Zealand startup is now valued at more than $1 billion.
Vadon currently serves on the board of Seattle companies Rad Power Bikes and Flyhomes. He is currently the CEO of “blank check” company Big Sky Growth Partners, which raised $300 million last year.
— Publicly traded Seagen appointed Lee Heeson as EVP of commercial international. He succeeds Tuomo Pätsi, who is retiring this month.
Heeson was most recently president of international at Vifor Pharma. In his new role, he will be responsible for Bothell, Wash.-based Seagen’s commercial operations outside of the U.S. He will be based out of Seagen’s international headquarters in Zug, Switzerland.
— Andy Skalet, co-founder and former CTO of BrandVerity, is now a partner at Xyonix, a Seattle-based AI consultancy.
Founded in 2008, BrandVerity provides brand protection services and was acquired by Partnerize in 2020. Prior to BrandVerity, Skalet was a software engineer at Seattle startups Evri and Judy’s Book.
Xyonix was co-founded by former Socrata CTO Deep Dhillon and engineer Carsten Tusk, both of whom also worked at Evri.
— Seattle startup Proprio announced Tommy Carls as VP of product marketing and management. He was previously VP of research for Medtronic’s spine and biologics division.
Proprio is developing surgical tools that use computer vision, AI and virtual reality to produce real-time images for surgeons. Founded in 2016, the University of Washington spinout has raised just under $30 million.
— Sounders FC hired Tyler Cox as the Seattle pro soccer club’s new director of analytics. He joins from Arsenal FC where he spent eight years in various analytics roles.
A graduate of Western Washington University, the new role will bring Cox back to the Seattle-area.
“I look forward to joining such a successful organization and keeping the Sounders at the forefront of soccer analytics,” said Cox.
Sounders FC VP of Analytics and Research Ravi Ramineni, a Microsoft alum, is departing the organization after nine years. He will join Houston, Texas-based Blue Crow Sports Group.
— Reverb CEO Mikaela Kiner announced COO Sarah Wilkins as the Seattle HR firm’s first partner. Wilkins joined Reverb in 2018 and previously worked as consultant at Alvarez & Marsal and Hitachi Consulting.
[Editor’s Note: GeekWire is a Reverb client.]
— The Cancer Consortium, which includes Fred Hutch, the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, appointed Mignon Loh and Elizabeth Swisher as deputy directors. The national cancer institute also announced its service area expanded from 13 counties to the entire state of Washington.
