— Washington STEM announced Milton Lang as the education nonprofit’s new CEO. He has a doctorate in higher education administration from Washington State University and was most recently vice president of student services at Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif.
Lang succeeds former Washington STEM CEO Angela Jones after a nationwide search funded in part by Jones’ new employer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Milton brings seasoned leadership, deep experience in education, and a longtime commitment to paving the way for students of color and those who have been systemically underserved or excluded,” said Liz Tinkham, Washington STEM board chair.
Prior to Ohlone College, Lang was VP of student affairs and chief diversity officer at California State University, Chico. He also held roles overseeing student life at University of California, Davis and Washington State University.
Washington STEM is a nonprofit organization focused on statewide education and social change. Founded in 2011, the Seattle-based nonprofit has 10 partner networks across Washington state, provides communities with investments and open-sourced tools, as well as advocating at the state and federal level.
— James Phillips, president of Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Group, joined Madrona Venture Group as a strategic director.
Phillips is the co-founder and former CEO of Couchbase and Akimbi Systems, which was acquired by VMware. He recently joined F5’s board of directors and is currently an angel investor and startup mentor.
Madrona’s strategic directors help its portfolio companies and investment team. Other strategic directors include Apptio co-founder and CEO Sunny Gupta; Tableau CEO Mark Nelson; Truveta CEO and former Microsoft exec Terry Myerson; and VMware Chief People Officer Betsy Sutter.
— Startup marketing vet David Greenberg joined Foster City, Calif.-based Conversica as chief marketing officer. He was most recently CMO at marketing automation startup Act-On.
Based in Portland, Ore., Greenberg previously held marketing leadership roles at startups Liveops, Customer.io, Puppet and Urban Airship.
Originally launched in Bellingham, Wash., Conversica provides virtual assistants for revenue teams using conversational artificial intelligence.
— Former Tableau executive Adriana Gil Miner is now CMO at San Francisco-based marketing platform Iterable. She was most recently CMO at Seattle hybrid cloud storage startup Qumulo.
At Tableau, Miner was SVP of brand marketing and communications. She previously led marketing for design firm Artefact, its spin off 10,000ft, and for a variety of clients at Weber Shandwick.
— Vancouver, Wash.-based ZoomInfo is expanding its operations to London and appointed Simon McDougall as its chief compliance officer.
Based in the United Kingdom, McDougall most recently worked at the Information Commissioner’s Office, the U.K.’s independent authority for data privacy and protection.
ZoomInfo went public in 2020 and offers business data subscriptions for sales, marketing and recruiting professionals. The company acquired startups Chorus.ai and Insent last year.
— Comcast appointed Matt Quantz vice president of sales and marketing for Washington. Quantz joined the telecommunications giant in 2014 and has been a sales leader in its Chicago, Oregon and Southwest Washington regions.
Comcast currently employs almost 4,000 people in Washington state.
— Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate Expeditions announced University of North Carolina at Wilmington Professor Steve Ross will be the chief scientist on for its 2022 Titanic Survey Expedition which will run from May through June.
Ross and a team of scientists will utilize OceanGate’s five-person deep-sea submersible to conduct a survey of marine ecosystems on and near the wreck of the Titanic.
— Mobile car repair company Wrench hired Kevin Urie as SVP of business and marketing. He joins the 6-year old Seattle startup from British Columbia video game studio Hyper Hippo.
