— Steven VanRoekel, a longtime former Microsoft chief and U.S. chief data officer underneath President Obama, is now CEO of Earth Species Undertaking (ESP). The non-profit analysis lab is utilizing synthetic intelligence to raised perceive animal communication in creatures from carrion crows to beluga whales.
VanRoekel, who relies in Bend, Ore., stated his profession has centered on driving affect at scale, and that ESP is poised for large breakthroughs.
AI can “unlock the mysteries of our planet, particularly round animal communication,” he stated in an ESP weblog. “As soon as we start unlocking that thriller, we might see shifts on the size of Copernican or Galilean moments in historical past: new science, new understanding, and maybe most significantly, new relationships with our planet.”
— Krzysztof Duleba joined LinkedIn’s Bellevue, Wash., workplace as a distinguished engineer in its infrastructure program. Duleba has spent his profession at Google, working there for 18 years in roles throughout search, advertisements, maps, AI and cloud. In separate posts on LinkedIn, Duleba shared his profession journey.
“Eighteen years in the past, a child from rural Poland walked into Google with no concept what he was moving into. He walked out a really completely different engineer, a father of three, and — he hopes — a greater particular person,” Duleba wrote in saying his Google departure.
And relating to his new function: “LinkedIn is in the midst of a serious infrastructure transformation, and the timing issues. I contemplate getting reliability economics proper throughout this window, earlier than agentic growth totally hits, the distinction between drowning within the AI wave and catching it.”
— London-based Dennis Stansbury is resigning from Amazon after greater than 18 years. He has held a wide range of management roles in European places of work, most just lately serving as a principal product supervisor for Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios in the UK.
“I began in Seattle in March 2008, shortly after Kindle launched however earlier than Prime Video or Alexa had been seemingly even concepts,” Stansbury stated on LinkedIn, including that he’s going “to take a while off and put extra thought into what’s subsequent.”
— After practically 14 years at Amazon, Miranda Chen is leaving her function as a director and technical advisor for leaders in worldwide company and enterprise growth. Chen, who relies within the San Francisco Bay Space, didn’t point out her subsequent transfer.
“I first began working for Amazon at A9, a Bay Space subsidiary, the place we might evaluation the important thing metrics for our complete offsite promoting enterprise in a single weekly assembly,” she stated on LinkedIn. “Now now we have Amazon places of work worldwide and Amazon Advertisements is a meaningfully giant enterprise.”
— Scott Lawson, Amazon director of International Actual Property and Services (GREF) design and development, is leaving his function. Seattle-based Lawson has been with Amazon for practically 9 years. He was beforehand with Clark Building Group engaged on developments nationwide. Lawson hinted on LinkedIn that data on his “subsequent chapter” can be coming quickly.
— Danielle Decatur is vice chairman of group engagement and communications for Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a startup primarily based in Seattle and Houston that’s coordinating between landowners and energy suppliers to supply ready-to-build websites tailor-made for knowledge facilities.
“I’ll be devoted to enabling knowledge middle infrastructure that works for and instantly advantages communities,” Decatur stated on LinkedIn. The sector is going through pushback over considerations about power costs and environmental impacts of the amenities.
Decatur was beforehand at Microsoft for greater than 14 years, working most just lately as director of power and sustainability. Cloverleaf co-founder Brian Janous is Microsoft’s former vice chairman of power. Earlier in her profession, Decatur served with the U.S. Air Pressure and with FEMA.
— Augmodo named Bradford Snow as chief expertise officer. The Seattle startup is creating wearable tech for retail retailer workers and Snow will concentrate on Augmodo’s technical imaginative and prescient and innovation technique.
Snow joined the corporate from Axon, which sells taser gadgets and physique cameras. His profession additionally contains management roles at a number of tech giants the place he labored on a wide range of digital actuality applied sciences similar to AR and VR gadgets at Meta; Amazon’s Alexa AI and well being and wellness wearable tech; and HoloLens initiatives at Microsoft.
— Abhishek Mathur is now chief expertise and product officer for ServiceTitan, a California software program big constructing an agentic working system to serve trades similar to plumbing, electrical and roofing by automating workflows and supporting technicians within the subject.
“This sector stays one of many largest untapped alternatives for expertise to drive significant affect,” Mathur stated on LinkedIn.
Mathur, who relies within the Seattle space, has held engineering management roles at Meta and was at Microsoft for greater than 11 years. He was most just lately at Figma as senior VP of engineering.
— Anush Kumar is now founder and CEO of Clever Methods, a Bellevue, Wash.-based startup that goals to “rework operational workflows” with AI instruments.
“We’re on a mission to assist enterprises cease piloting and begin producing,” Kumar stated in a LinkedIn publish that features hyperlinks to 5 articles explaining the crew’s strategy.
Kumar was beforehand head of product for agentic automation at Atlassian. Different previous roles embody VP of expertise at Expedia Group, senior VP of product at Zendesk, and director roles at Oracle and Avanade. His first tech function was lead product supervisor at Microsoft.
— Chris Cappello joined Provn as vice chairman of selling. Cappello has labored in a number of advertising and marketing roles for firms together with WE Communications, Marina Maher Communications and M-Squared. He and Provn CEO Nikesh Parekh each labored earlier of their careers at HouseValues, which rebranded as Market Chief.
Provn, a brand new Seattle startup, needs firms to scrap the normal resume and change it with portfolios of actual work and challenge-based assessments.
— Fred Hutch Most cancers Heart appointed two new leaders. Dr. Mazyar Shadman and Vyshak Venur had been named as deputy chief medical officers, efficient April 1. Shadman will function deputy CMO for classical hematology, hematologic malignancies, transplant and immunotherapy, whereas Venur will function deputy CMO for stable tumor and acute care providers.
And two Fred Hutch researchers acquired endowed chairs: Dr. Soheil Meshinchi, a world chief in therapies for acute myeloid leukemia, was awarded the Dylan Burke Endowed Chair in Immunotherapy; and Holly Harris acquired the inaugural Bus Household Endowed Chair in recognition for her work in prevention, early detection and precision oncology for uterine, ovarian and breast cancers.
— Seattle’s Marianne Bichsel, former VP of exterior affairs at Comcast, has launched Engaged Public Affairs, a PR and coverage agency advising “leaders on the intersection of presidency, public belief, and company duty.” Bichsel’s co-founders are Julie Anderson, who has served in metropolis and Washington state authorities, and Natasha Jones, a longtime chief in King County authorities.
— Theodora, a Seattle-area wine suggestion app, appointed Lindsey Singhavi as its founding advertising and marketing lead.
— In case you missed it, GeekWire took deeper dives into these latest notable tech strikes (in no explicit order, besides possibly the primary merchandise):
- Taylor Soper named director of Seattle’s AI Home after exceptional run at GeekWire
- Allen Institute for AI CEO Ali Farhadi steps down as nonprofit navigates shifting AI panorama
- USAFacts faucets former DataKind CEO Lauren Woodman as new president
- Microsoft EVP Rajesh Jha retiring after 35 years in newest exit from senior management crew
- Atlassian layoffs affect 63 staff in Washington as CTO steps down
