Seattle data analytics startup MotherDuck is expanding its nest with two new leadership hires.
Frances Perry has taken the role of engineering manager. She was previously at Google for 16 years, rising to the level of engineering director of Google Compute Engine.
Margaret Lawrence Rosas joins the team as head of customer success. She was formerly vice president of the “Department of Customer Love” at data analytics startup Looker, which Google acquired in 2020. Rosas spent the next three years in director roles at Google and was most recently on a career break.
MotherDuck CEO and cofounder Jordan Tigani, also a former longtime Google employee, called Rosas’ decision to join the startup a “huge honor” and said Perry helped him “get oriented and feel part of the team” at Google.
“After working her way up to the rarefied part of the engineering ladder, [Perry] jumped into building systems with people rather than code,” Tigani said in a post on LinkedIn. “Looking forward to working with her to help develop the idea of management at MotherDuck as a craft, not a tax.”
MotherDuck announced a $52.5 million round in September, bringing total funding to $100 million. The startup launched in April 2022.
— Pallavi Sinha joined Seattle startup Humanly as vice president of growth. She most recently held leadership roles at Seattle software development firm Mason, and previous employers include Sauce Labs, Reflektive and others.
In a LinkedIn post, Sinha described the current job market in disheartening terms and said she feels lucky and proud to take a role at Humanly, which helps companies automate recruiting.
“Between the ongoing layoff updates and job hunt nightmare stories from extremely skilled colleagues, I was hearing about and feeling more imposter syndrome and job search disillusion than I’ve ever experienced professionally,” Sinha said.
Humanly’s Prem Kumar won CEO of the Year at this year’s GeekWire Awards. The company announced a $12 million round in June, bringing its total funding to nearly $18 million.
— Scott Chancellor is now CEO of Aircall, a New York-based customer communication platform targeting sales and support teams. Chancellor’s past roles include chief product and technology officer for Apptio, a Seattle-area software company acquired by IBM, and a director and general manager at Amazon Web Services. He was most recently CEO of Silicon Valley-based Humu.
— Boeing announced Chris Raymond as CEO of Boeing Global Services and Brian Moran as chief sustainability officer, effective Jan. 1.
— Madin Akpo-Esambe is now part of the investment team at Tacoma Venture Fund. Akpo-Esambe is co-founder of Trava, an AI-powered travel planning tool and marketplace that helps friends and families create travel itineraries.
The Tacoma Venture Fund launched in 2020 and invests in early-stage startups across the Pacific Northwest, with a particular focus on the Tacoma, Wash., area south of Seattle.
— Next-generation battery materials startup Sila appointed former Intel and General Electric exec Abbey Omokhodion as its new chief financial officer. Sila last month broke ground in Moses Lake, Wash., on its first automotive-scale manufacturing facility. The company is based in California.
— Three former executives of the climate friendly housing technology company Green Canopy NODE — Aaron Fairchild, Andy Wolverton and Susan Fairchild — have left to create Cambia Capital, a sustainability-focused real estate investment firm. Read more.
— Bamcamp partner Jim Sheward joined the board of Seattle startup Strike Graph, which just announced new funding.
— The Washington Research Foundation awarded three-year WRF Postdoctoral Fellowships to 15 early career scientists, its largest ever cohort. The funding begins next year and the researchers will work on projects at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the University of Washington, Washington State University and Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The full list of awardees is here.
