— There’s extra shake-up inside Microsoft’s gaming unit as Lori Wright introduced she is leaving “within the coming weeks.” Wright spent 9 years at Microsoft, most lately main international partnerships and enterprise improvement and advertising and marketing for Xbox.
“I depart with overwhelming gratitude for the journey of a lifetime. As for what comes subsequent, I’m hoping for lots of lovely sunrises and sunsets, and discovering what lies within the house in between,” Wright mentioned on LinkedIn.
Wright’s departure follows information final week that Haiyan Zhang is leaving Microsoft for Netflix. Zhang spent greater than 13 years at Microsoft, holding positions throughout Microsoft Gaming, Microsoft Analysis and Xbox Studios, most lately as basic supervisor and accomplice for Gaming AI.
Xbox is now led by Asha Sharma, the brand new CEO of Microsoft Gaming who lately took over from longtime chief Phil Spencer.
— Luke Tavis, chief accounting officer of Seattle-based remittance firm Remitly, is retiring later this month.
He’ll proceed to function a vice chairman till June to help an orderly transition, in response to a regulatory submitting.
Tai-Hong Fung, at present VP, Controller, will change Tavis on April 1. Fung joined Remitly in February after a protracted profession at Starbucks and Microsoft.
Remitly co-founder and longtime CEO Matt Oppenheimer stepped down final month. The corporate is now led by veteran tech and finance government Sebastian Gunningham. Oppenheimer stays as chairman.
— Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian, posted about his departure from the enterprise software program big. GeekWire beforehand reported about Rajan stepping down earlier this month, citing a regulatory submitting from Atlassian, which additionally introduced it was shedding 10% of its workers.
“I’m extremely pleased with what the group has completed — scaling our engineering group globally, strengthening our platform foundations, and delivering merchandise that energy teamwork for tens of millions of groups all over the world,” Rajan wrote.
Rajan spent almost 4 years on the collaboration software program firm. He was beforehand a VP of engineering at Meta and led the the corporate’s Pacific Northwest engineering hub. He additionally spent greater than twenty years at Microsoft in varied management roles.
“As for my subsequent chapter, I’m excited by the present know-how panorama – particularly with the speedy acceleration of AI – and the alternatives it presents. Keep tuned for extra on my subsequent transfer!” he wrote on LinkedIn.
— Brian Goldfarb joined cybersecurity firm SentinelOne as government vice chairman and chief advertising and marketing officer. Goldfarb, who is predicated in Seattle, was most lately CMO at SolarWinds, the Texas-based IT infrastructure firm.
Goldfarb was additionally CMO at cybersecurity firm Tenable, and beforehand led advertising and marketing efforts at Amperity, Chef Software program and Splunk.
“Returning to cybersecurity feels energizing,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “It’s a class I care deeply about. It’s mission-driven, fast-moving, and more and more vital. And what makes this second particularly compelling is the place the market is headed: towards AI-native, AI-ready platforms that may assist safety groups transfer quicker, function smarter, and keep forward of an more and more complicated menace panorama.”
— Thomas Pfenning, a company vice chairman at Microsoft who joined the corporate in 1995, introduced his retirement in a LinkedIn put up that cited his early work on MSN and the Home windows 2000 networking stack. Extra lately he helped develop the Azure Edge suite. “Even the lengthy hours — together with these late-night CRI periods — are reminiscences I’ll preserve, primarily due to the camaraderie and the spirit of the folks I used to be working with,” he wrote.
— Cynara Lilly, a former government director of advocacy and communications at The Ballmer Group, took a brand new position at Silicon Valley startup Hippocratic AI as chief communications officer. “That is the type of position you dream about — sitting on the intersection of breakthrough know-how, public coverage, and a mission that would genuinely enhance and lengthen lives all over the world,” Lilly wrote on LinkedIn.
— Seattle recruiting tech startup Provn named Taylor Brazelton as its new CTO and co-founder. Brazelton beforehand was a senior software program engineer at Microsoft, the place he labored with Provn CEO Nikesh Parekh. Provn launched in November. “Taylor was and is all the time out in entrance and now I get to study from him on a regular basis!” Parekh wrote on LinkedIn.
— Vishnu Nath, vice chairman and GM at Microsoft, introduced his departure after almost 15 years on the Redmond tech big main teams engaged on Microsoft OneNote and Copilot Notebooks. “Microsoft has been greater than a office for me — it’s been a spot the place I’ve grown as a frontrunner, taken dangers, realized from failures, and celebrated a number of the most significant wins of my profession,” he mentioned on LinkedIn. Nath mentioned “extra to come back” on his subsequent step.
— Alexandra Holien is interim CEO at Ada Builders Academy, a Seattle-based nonprofit that trains under-represented folks in tech. Holien, a 10-year veteran of Ada who has been interim CEO beforehand, replaces Tina-Marie Gulley, who’s departing this week after two years as CEO. “Ada Builders Academy is stepping boldly into its subsequent chapter, laser-focused on constructing the perfect technologists the business has ever seen,” Laura Ruderman, CEO at Expertise Alliance and an Ada board member, wrote on LinkedIn.
— Scott Ruffin, former CEO of e-commerce startup Pandion, introduced he’s main a brand new firm referred to as Kupu that describes itself as a affected person monetary safety platform within the healthcare sector.
— Diana (Lustenader) Cappello joined Seattle AI role-play startup Yoodli as director of options engineering. Cappello will work remotely and was beforehand a director at Eightfold.
— Jesse Rebello is now managing director at Seattle-based vitality effectivity firm Edo. Rebello was a longtime exec at ENGIE Impression.
— Luke Waters joined gaming firm PHYND as vice chairman of engineering. Waters was head of information engineering at USAFacts and held engineering roles at KenSci and Microsoft.
