— Pet sitting marketplace Rover appointed Charlie Wickers to chief financial officer. Wickers joined Rover in 2017 and most recently served as vice president of finance. He replaces Tracy Knox, who announced her retirement earlier this year.
Prior to Rover, Wickers was director of financial planning and analysis at IT software company Ivanti and at network security provider Netmotion. He was also manager of finance at Sprint and Clearwire. He starts his new position Sept. 1.
Other personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
- Dennis Durkin was appointed to the board of directors of work management software company Smartsheet. Durkin was formerly chief financial officer of Activision Blizzard, and chief operating and financial officer of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. Both Durkin and Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader are graduates of Dartmouth College.
- Online notarization company Notarize hired Darren Louie, formerly senior director of product management at DocuSign, as vice president of product. Louie, a former Microsoft product manager, will remain in the Seattle area.
- Seattle-based proteomics company Nautilus Biotechnology hired Eric Spence as vice president of instrument engineering and Ken Kuhn as vice president of reagent and platform development. Spence was previously a director at GenapSys; Kuhn was at Encodia.
- Madrona Venture Group hired Audra Aulabaugh as talent manager. Aulabaugh was previously head of people operations at Polly, a Madrona-backed Seattle startup that builds polling software.
- Seattle tech vet Kyle Kesterson is now chief operating officer at Optimal XR, which is “creating a bridge between ancestral traditions and emerging technologies for optimal health and wellness,” Kesterson wrote on LinkedIn.
- Technology services provider Nortal added two Seattle-based VPs: Judy Mirkin as vice president of client services and Ben Burke as senior vice president of consulting.
- Jon Prentice left his position at Lighter Capital as director of the investment team.
- Brett Goodwin is now vice president of marketing at ag tech startup Carbon Robotics. He will maintain his role as CEO of Virtual Value, which he founded.
- Emmanuel Hanon, previously global head of research and development at Viome, is now CEO of Brussels-based Vicebio. He remains with Viome as the strategic therapeutic R&D advisor.
- Lizelle van Vuuren joined as an advisor for Seattle-based life-and-career path platform OwnTrail.
