Working Geek

How surviving a civil war in Sri Lanka fostered startup passion for this Usermind executive

by Lisa Stiffler on February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 at 10:09 amComment

An upside to surviving nightmarish life experiences: it’s great for keeping things in perspective. At least that’s the case for Arun Theivendirarajah, Usermind’s vice president of product. Theivendirarajah grew up… Read More

Expedia VP Sandy Anuras on managing a team spanning 15 offices and 12 time zones

by Lisa Stiffler on February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 at 2:15 pmComment

As vice president of Global Marketing Technology at Seattle’s Expedia, Sandy Anuras is managing a team of 300 employees spread across 15 offices spanning 12 time zones. Keeping a group… Read More

Accolade’s Britt Provost on HR as anthropology and the role of culture in a company’s success

by Lisa Stiffler on February 8, 2020February 8, 2020 at 8:15 am1 Comment

Britt Provost was interested in studying anthropology when she went to university, but wound up pursuing an undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Washington and an MBA… Read More

Pursuit of her family’s traditional trade propelled Hulu VP Julie Madhusoodanan into media’s future

by Lisa Stiffler on February 1, 2020February 1, 2020 at 8:58 amComment

Julie Madhusoodanan credits family tradition for giving her the nudge to leave a comfortable gig and almost two decades at Microsoft for a role at Seattle’s Hulu office. For generations,… Read More

‘It’s not control and command’: Changepoint’s Matt Scheuing on the mythology of the CEO

by Lisa Stiffler on January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 at 1:56 pmComment

What do companies working on project and business management, navigation technology, tax preparation, documentation automation software, on-demand transportation, telecom services, and speech recognition have in common? Nothing, really. Except that… Read More

Tech’s his instrument: How Code Fellows CEO Jeff Malek reprogrammed his rock star dreams

by Lisa Stiffler on January 17, 2020January 20, 2020 at 5:44 pmComment

In the early 1990s, Jeff Malek moved to Seattle to find his fortune and make a name for himself in an emerging field that was gaining strength and attracting talent.… Read More

WeWork Labs’ Elizabeth Scallon is ready to tackle world’s big, scary challenges: ‘It’s up to us’

by Lisa Stiffler on January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 at 9:18 am1 Comment

Elizabeth Scallon sees potential and opportunity everywhere. Now the head of WeWork Labs for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, Scallon’s curiosity was sparked in middle and high school by… Read More

How Amperity CFO Amy Pelly overcame her apprehension about joining another startup

by Lisa Stiffler on December 28, 2019December 28, 2019 at 9:54 pmComment

After 25 years in the tech trenches, Amy Pelly knows a thing or two about startups. Pelly’s career includes early stage startups that ended in acquisitions, another that grew from… Read More

How Karat’s engineering chief gets things done and runs effective meetings by talking less

by Lisa Stiffler on December 21, 2019December 21, 2019 at 11:54 amComment

Zach van Schouwen, vice president of engineering for Karat, landed his job through a Craigslist ad. It was 2016 and he was on sabbatical, living in Brooklyn in New York… Read More

How fun, Frisbee and horses shaped the career of Intellectual Ventures’ deep science guru Brian Holloway

by Lisa Stiffler on December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 at 1:08 pmComment

Some candidates decide whether to take a job based on its title or compensation, the nature of the work, or perhaps whether the organization is big or small. Brian Holloway,… Read More

UW President Ana Mari Cauce on being a threefold ‘first’ and the most important lessons of college

by Lisa Stiffler on December 7, 2019December 7, 2019 at 9:58 amComment

In the not-so-distant past, the idea of becoming president of the University of Washington was unimaginable to Ana Mari Cauce. “When you look backward it all makes sense. But looking… Read More

Microsoft VP Gretchen O’Hara on helping launch Women in Cloud, the work-life continuum, and more

by Lisa Stiffler on November 30, 2019November 30, 2019 at 9:14 am 3 Comments

Gretchen O’Hara is a diehard Microsoft fan. You might have guessed as much given that she’s worked for the Redmond, Wash.-based cloud and tech giant for more than two decades,… Read More

How Pixvana COO Rachel Lanham plotted a career course along the frontiers of technology

by Lisa Stiffler on November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 at 10:21 amComment

At a glance, Rachel Lanham’s career appears to have zigzagged, moving from digital advertising to optimizing healthcare to the latest in virtual reality: XR, or extended reality. But there is… Read More

How Yapta CEO James Filsinger maintains culture while growing corporate travel startup

by Lisa Stiffler on November 17, 2019November 17, 2019 at 12:07 pm1 Comment

When James Filsinger took over as president and CEO of Yapta, the Seattle-based online travel company had 15 employees. Seven years later, Yapta has grown more than fourfold, expanding to… Read More

Puppet CEO Yvonne Wassenaar on Portland vs. the Valley, scaling a business, and diversity

by Lisa Stiffler on November 9, 2019November 9, 2019 at 8:45 amComment

Not only has Yvonne Wassenaar worked in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area most of her career, it’s also where she grew up. But recently, she got a… Read More

USAFacts President Poppy MacDonald resists the clickbait in favor of fostering honest debate

by Lisa Stiffler on November 2, 2019November 2, 2019 at 8:30 amComment

When former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer launched USAFacts, a nonpartisan clearinghouse of government data, the site was a great fit for numbers-minded folks like himself who are happy diving deep… Read More

Fuel Talent CEO and employment matchmaker Shauna Swerland wants to know what fuels you

by Lisa Stiffler on October 26, 2019October 25, 2019 at 3:20 pm 2 Comments

Sure, machine learning tools can bring efficiency to companies searching for new employees. But after 25 years helping businesses build their teams and find new talent, Shauna Swerland is confident… Read More

How life lessons learned from baseball help drive Avalara exec Liz Armbruester

by Lisa Stiffler on October 19, 2019October 20, 2019 at 2:34 pmComment

Liz Armbruester clearly remembers her moment of reckoning. She was dropping off the oldest of her two sons for his first day of high school. Her kids, it suddenly felt,… Read More

How does a kid on an Alaskan homestead learn to code in the ’80s? Ask Slalom Build’s Ian Cook

by Lisa Stiffler on October 12, 2019October 15, 2019 at 9:49 am1 Comment

Slalom Build‘s Ian Cook grew up in a house that his family built in Kenai, Alaska, population 7,800. There was no indoor plumbing until he reached fourth grade and no… Read More

How Jarod Greene went from teaching math to running product marketing at Apptio

by Lisa Stiffler on October 5, 2019October 5, 2019 at 7:49 amComment

A gig in a call center might not strike one as a likely launch pad for a successful tech career, but Jarod Greene saw potential. After graduating college with a… Read More

Adaptive Biotechnologies CEO Chad Robins on the power of mom and being a good listener

by Lisa Stiffler on September 28, 2019October 4, 2019 at 11:28 amComment

Adaptive Biotechnologies‘ CEO and co-founder Chad Robins can attribute some of his company’s notable success — see its $300 million IPO in June and the $400 million previously raised —… Read More

CFO-turned-VC Hope Cochran on music degrees, managing chaos and the reality behind her resume

by Lisa Stiffler on September 21, 2019November 4, 2019 at 10:40 amComment

Sure, you can look at Hope Cochran‘s LinkedIn page and follow her path through Stanford University degrees in economics and music, tracing her professional journey through successful startups, multiple gigs… Read More

Erik Chelstad on ‘grinding’ at startups and how avalanche safety led to launching Observa

by Lisa Stiffler on September 7, 2019September 23, 2019 at 12:23 pmComment

Erik Chelstad wants you to pay a little more attention to the person using the bathroom — not literally, but metaphorically. Chelstad is co-founder and chief technology officer of Observa,… Read More

Entrepreneur Arry Yu wants the Pacific Northwest blockchain community to find its voice

by Lisa Stiffler on August 29, 2019August 30, 2019 at 10:41 amComment

For her first 18 years, Arry Yu was selectively mute. Due to a childhood trauma, she spoke very little, but watched the people and interactions around her very much. She… Read More

Lydia Frank taps journalism skills and PayScale’s data resources to tell the wage equity story

by Lisa Stiffler on August 24, 2019August 23, 2019 at 3:21 pmComment

Officially, Lydia Frank is PayScale’s vice president of corporate and product marketing — a promotion that was announced this month. But parts of the job remind Frank of her first… Read More

Accidental techie turned politician, Laura Ruderman weds both careers as CEO of the Tech Alliance

by Lisa Stiffler on August 17, 2019August 16, 2019 at 10:44 amComment

In the 1980s, when Laura Ruderman was a teen in New York City walking to the gym after high school, she would pass a homeless man at the 86th Street… Read More

Feeling down on Seattle? Brian McGowan wants to fix that as CEO of Greater Seattle Partners

by Lisa Stiffler on August 10, 2019August 10, 2019 at 1:19 pmComment

Brian McGowan would like to remind you why Seattle is awesome. Of course there’s the natural beauty, the jagged Olympic and Cascade mountains, the shifting blue-hues of Puget Sound, the… Read More

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