Working Geek

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

by Lisa Stiffler on September 7, 2019September 7, 2019 at 10:50 amComment

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

Video

How the specter of irrelevancy helped Microsoft Corporate VP Julia Liuson drive massive change

by Lisa Stiffler on August 4, 2019August 4, 2019 at 3:27 am1 Comment

Yes, Satya Nadella is the visionary Microsoft CEO who five years ago began implementing a massive shift in operations that contributed to making the software and cloud giant the world’s… Read More

Leafly CTO Paul Barry on the fast growing cannabis industry and how to talk to kids about pot

by Lisa Stiffler on July 27, 2019July 27, 2019 at 9:59 amComment

Leafly is a leading source of information on cannabis products, explaining everything from the type of high experienced from Blue Dream versus Bruce Banner strains of marijuana, to testing the… Read More

When life presents game-changing opportunities, go with the pivot, says ModusBox CTO Kent Brown

by Lisa Stiffler on July 13, 2019July 13, 2019 at 1:01 pmComment

Kent Brown has learned to embrace the pivot. Five years ago, when his twin boys turned 18 and Brown became an empty-nester, he jumped from being an employee of Microsoft… Read More

Anika Lehde sees promise in the ‘future of work,’ loves bus rides and needs 2 hours of fun daily

by Lisa Stiffler on July 6, 2019July 8, 2019 at 12:17 pmComment

Anika Lehde loves to ride the bus, and she doesn’t care who knows it. Lehde commutes between home in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and the city’s downtown Pioneer Square where… Read More

ACLU’s Shankar Narayan brings transparency to tech — with help from poetry and a giant dog

by Lisa Stiffler on June 29, 2019July 1, 2019 at 6:43 amComment

After Shankar Narayan graduated from Yale with a law degree, he needed a job that would help pay off his sizable student loans and provide a green card. It was… Read More

Tech and product chief Katharine Nester on the power of promoting engineers from within

by Lisa Stiffler on June 22, 2019June 21, 2019 at 2:06 pmComment

For companies that are struggling to fill tech roles, Katharine Nester, chief product and technology officer for Ruby Receptionists, has some advice: Look internally for your talent. It’s a strategy… Read More

DocuSign exec Loren Alhadeff says this unique trait is key to the company’s success

by Lisa Stiffler on June 15, 2019June 14, 2019 at 5:43 pmComment

Some companies point to cutting-edge innovations for their success while others boast their customer-centric strategies. Chief Revenue Officer Loren Alhadeff says that DocuSign has its own special superpower. “The unique… Read More

Maveron partner Elise Hebb offers tips on running meetings and where she gets her best ideas

by Lisa Stiffler on June 8, 2019June 8, 2019 at 8:53 amComment

Having now raised more than $1.1 billion for venture capital investments over the course of her career, Elise Hebb remembers when she first caught the VC bug. It was the… Read More

How Rob Girling, designer of the infamous Clippy, became a leader in ethical tech

by Lisa Stiffler on June 1, 2019June 2, 2019 at 7:28 amComment

For those who remember Clippy — Microsoft Office’s animated paperclip assistant — would you have liked him better as a typewriter? What about a stapler? Back in the mid-1990s, Rob… Read More

Working Geek: How a Marine Corps credo drives Audian CEO Brandon Bazemore

by Lisa Stiffler on May 25, 2019May 28, 2019 at 10:46 amComment

Brandon Bazemore joined the U.S. Marine Corps while in high school for two reasons: to pay for college and because they offered him the chance to learn more about engineering… Read More

From curbing malaria to better food carts, Xinova’s David Kraft believes in innovation

by Lisa Stiffler on May 12, 2019May 12, 2019 at 11:34 amComment

David Kraft is downright giddy for innovation. “I’m often naive enough to think there is no problem that can’t be solved,” Kraft said. And admittedly it would be a problem… Read More

Video

Working Geek: AWS Director Maureen Lonergan is a risk taker who finds courage in purpose

by Lisa Stiffler on May 4, 2019May 14, 2019 at 1:04 pmComment

One might wonder if there’s any risk big enough to really frighten Maureen Lonergan. How about ducking out of the workforce to take two “gap years” in her career —… Read More

Working Geek: Banzai CEO Joe Davy on how to take the hard knocks and come out stronger

by Lisa Stiffler on April 27, 2019April 27, 2019 at 5:06 pmComment

When he was still a very young man — like not even old enough to drink legally — Joe Davy was on an accelerated path of career discovery that can… Read More

Working Geek: Will Daugherty embraces risk and experimentation in Pacific Science Center reboot

by Lisa Stiffler on April 13, 2019April 12, 2019 at 4:11 pmComment

Will Daugherty was ready to start his next chapter. He’d built expertise and years of diverse experiences at companies and boards including Amazon, Expedia, McKinsey, the University of Washington, the… Read More

Working Geek: Amazon’s Nancy Wang helps women PMs make themselves heard via her nonprofit

by Lisa Stiffler on April 7, 2019April 5, 2019 at 11:26 amComment

While the number of women working in tech jobs in the U.S. has doubled over the past 20 years, they’re still significantly outnumbered by men in the field. Only 24… Read More

Video

Working Geek: David Aronchick’s new Microsoft job packs everything cool into one role

by Lisa Stiffler on March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 at 9:03 am 3 Comments

When David Aronchick returned to Microsoft last fall, I suspect that many folks there did a little happy dance. A Dartmouth grad with undergrad degrees in psychology and chemistry, Aronchick… Read More

Working Geek: Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson uses social media ‘like a stethoscope’ in public health crusade

by Lisa Stiffler on March 23, 2019March 25, 2019 at 7:47 am1 Comment

It didn’t take long for Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson to realize that if she wanted to effectively provide a research-based alternative to the unfounded claims of Jenny McCarthy and others… Read More

Working Geek: Fred Hutch CIO Kathy Alexion shifts from ‘corporate soldier’ to mission driven

by Lisa Stiffler on March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 at 3:31 pmComment

With a resume that includes Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Chase and others, Kathy Alexion confesses to being a “corporate soldier.” But her nearly three years at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer… Read More

Working Geek: From Amazon to OfferUp, COO Bill Carr experimented to find the right career fit

by Lisa Stiffler on March 5, 2019March 5, 2019 at 10:56 amComment

OfferUp’s Chief Operating Officer Bill Carr says that he’s not a scientist. At least not in the chemical engineering way that his dad and grandfathers were. But he is an… Read More

Working Geek: Neal Gottsacker brings Midwest how-to and startup lessons to Nintex

by Lisa Stiffler on February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 at 5:41 amComment

When Neal Gottsacker decided to take the role of chief product officer at Bellevue, Wash.-based Nintex, he was confident that it was going to be a good fit. He interviewed… Read More

Working Geek: Former Mayor Marilyn Strickland is Seattle Metro Chamber’s uniter in chief

by Lisa Stiffler on February 8, 2019February 9, 2019 at 9:01 amComment

Marilyn Strickland likes mixing things up. She has transitioned between the corporate world of Starbucks, two terms as mayor of Tacoma and now CEO and president of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber… Read More

Working Geek: After startup stint, Ari Steinberg leads Airbnb’s operations in Seattle

by Lisa Stiffler on February 2, 2019February 5, 2019 at 9:05 pm1 Comment

Ari Steinberg wanted to start a company when he graduated from Stanford University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science. He tried to convince his three college roommates to join… Read More

Video

Working Geek: DreamBox’s upbeat CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is focused on empowering kids

by Lisa Stiffler on January 24, 2019April 29, 2019 at 9:48 amComment

DreamBox Learning CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is a quote machine. As she explains the whys and hows of her successful math education software company, which raised $130 million in venture capital… Read More

Working Geek: Sage CTO Michael Kellen builds software for medical collaboration and crowdsourcing

by Lisa Stiffler on January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 at 7:11 amComment

As chief technology officer for Sage Bionetworks, Michael Kellen has the rare opportunity to merge the commercial drive of a startup with the mission-driven focus of a nonprofit. Kellen leads… Read More

Video

Working Geek: F5’s Kara Sprague sees a maddening gulf between tech and government

by Lisa Stiffler on January 10, 2019January 9, 2019 at 1:33 pmComment

Kara Sprague’s dad was an attorney and her first choice for college was Harvard University, leading to a career in law. But when that offer didn’t come through and a spot… Read More

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

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

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

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

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

How the specter of irrelevancy helped Microsoft Corporate VP Julia Liuson drive massive change

Leafly CTO Paul Barry on the fast growing cannabis industry and how to talk to kids about pot

When life presents game-changing opportunities, go with the pivot, says ModusBox CTO Kent Brown

Anika Lehde sees promise in the ‘future of work,’ loves bus rides and needs 2 hours of fun daily

ACLU’s Shankar Narayan brings transparency to tech — with help from poetry and a giant dog

Tech and product chief Katharine Nester on the power of promoting engineers from within

DocuSign exec Loren Alhadeff says this unique trait is key to the company’s success

Maveron partner Elise Hebb offers tips on running meetings and where she gets her best ideas

How Rob Girling, designer of the infamous Clippy, became a leader in ethical tech

Working Geek: How a Marine Corps credo drives Audian CEO Brandon Bazemore

From curbing malaria to better food carts, Xinova’s David Kraft believes in innovation

Working Geek: AWS Director Maureen Lonergan is a risk taker who finds courage in purpose

Working Geek: Banzai CEO Joe Davy on how to take the hard knocks and come out stronger

Working Geek: Will Daugherty embraces risk and experimentation in Pacific Science Center reboot

Working Geek: Amazon’s Nancy Wang helps women PMs make themselves heard via her nonprofit

Working Geek: Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson uses social media ‘like a stethoscope’ in public health crusade

Working Geek: Fred Hutch CIO Kathy Alexion shifts from ‘corporate soldier’ to mission driven

Working Geek: From Amazon to OfferUp, COO Bill Carr experimented to find the right career fit

Working Geek: Neal Gottsacker brings Midwest how-to and startup lessons to Nintex

Working Geek: Former Mayor Marilyn Strickland is Seattle Metro Chamber’s uniter in chief

Working Geek: After startup stint, Ari Steinberg leads Airbnb’s operations in Seattle

Working Geek: DreamBox’s upbeat CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is focused on empowering kids

Working Geek: Sage CTO Michael Kellen builds software for medical collaboration and crowdsourcing

Working Geek: F5’s Kara Sprague sees a maddening gulf between tech and government

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