Tech Moves: Recruiting vet Kerry Van Voris leaves Madrona; Chef adds three executive positions; etc.

Seattle tech vet and talent expert Kerry Van Voris has left her position as director of talent at Madrona Venture Group, GeekWire has learned. Van Voris came to the position in early 2015 from Amazon Web Services, where she led executive recruiting for the division.

In a past interview, Van Voris told GeekWire she had joined Madrona because the director of talent position allowed her to be deeply involved with Seattle’s startup scene.

“It was such an opportunity to be with entrepreneurs and to be with startup employees and really help build that ecosystem here in the Pacific Northwest,” Van Voris said.

She also said the position offered a unique opportunity to keep a finger on the pulse of Seattle’s tech scene.

“I don’t think there’s a better perch to be on to be knowledgeable and learning about what’s going on in technology in our big companies, but more so what all of the emerging technologies and companies are doing,” she said.

In an emailed statement, Madrona said Van Voris had moved to the east coast for family reasons, and that the company is in the process of filling the director of talent position.

“Under Kerry’s leadership, our Talent initiatives significantly expanded and matured, placing executives and engineers at our portfolio companies, driving the recruiting function at Madrona, advising entrepreneurs on a variety of strategic talent and HR questions, and broadly serving as a talent hub and connector for the Seattle tech ecosystem. We will miss her but are excited for her next chapter,” the statement said.

Madrona also announced the addition of Linda Lian, a Seattle native and Harvard economics alumni, to its associate team.

— Chef, the heavily funded IT automation startup, announced the addition of three executive positions this week: Marc Holmes joined the company as vice president of revenue marketing; Shanku Niyogi was appointed senior director of product engineering; and Ken Cheney, who has been on Chef’s executive team for the past three years, was promoted to serve as the company’s first chief marketing officer.

“Chef has a large and dedicated open source community as well as a strong brand built on the capabilities we provide leading organizations such as Intuit, Gannett, and Microsoft in their pursuits to be software-driven businesses,” Cheney said in a release. “The opportunity is to take the successful patterns of high-velocity software organizations using Chef and apply them to the mainstream enterprise.”

“Ken has a deep understanding of our customers’ need for automation, scale, and market agility with the long-term vision to expand our awareness in the enterprise,” Chef CEO Barry Crist said in a release. “Meanwhile, the additions of Marc and Shanku strengthen our revenue and product disciplines to best position us for success in 2017.”

Holmes joins Chef from container management company Docker, where he led growth in the software as a service and enterprise business. Niyogi joins the company from a 20-year stint leading enterprise software teams at Microsoft, where he led the creation of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code.

— BMW’s car sharing service ReachNow appointed Simon Broesamle as the company’s chief customer officer, following the recent addition of Leigh McMillan as the head of marketing and communications.

Broesamle was previously BMW Group’s head of market development for on-demand mobility, where he oversaw ReachNow’s launch in April. As ReachNow COO, he will oversee product management, market expansion, technology and marketing.

“I am excited to join the progressive executive team at ReachNow and to ensure the delivery of the company’s transformative mobility services across North America,” Broesamle said in a release. “At our core, ReachNow has a deep commitment to exceeding member expectations and I am convinced that our entrepreneurial team has the right customer-centric spirit to accomplish that.”

— Redmond-based energy startup Planetary Power named Kurt Armbruster as the company’s president and chief operating officer.

Armbruster joined Planetary Power in February to spearhead the launch of the company’s HyGen hybrid generator, which serves off-grid cell phone towers with reliable power. Prior to joining Planetary Power, Armbruster served for almost three decades in a variety of aerospace and software leadership roles.

“Kurt is an outstanding executive who knows how to get fast traction and deliver a quality product. He has earned the additional responsibility as President of our organization,” Planetary Power CEO Joe Landon said in a release. “Kurt has been an invaluable leader in our efforts to build a superior product that will make a positive difference to the environment, facilitate a vital communication link for those in emerging markets and provide substantial cost savings for our customers. Without his leadership, we would not be where we are today.”

— Brian Goldfarb, a cloud vet who has held positions at both Google and Microsoft, is leaving his position at Salesforce to serve as chief marketing officer at Splunk, a Bay Area company that uses machine learning to inform operations intelligence. Goldfarb will lead global marketing and revenue growth.

「Splunkは、組織がデータから価値あるビジネスインサイトを生み出す支援において確固たる地位を築いており、あらゆるデータドリブン戦略に必須のテクノロジーです」とゴールドファーブ氏はリリースで述べています。「マシン生成のビッグデータは、IT、セキュリティ、そしてビジネスオペレーションにおける成功の秘訣です。ますます多くの企業がデータソリューションとしてクラウドに注目するにつれ、Splunkの重要性はますます高まっていくでしょう。Splunkに加わり、成長を牽引し、優秀なグローバルマーケティングチームを率いていくことを大変嬉しく思います。」

シアトルのフレッド・ハッチンソンがん研究センターの研究員、スタンレー・リデル博士が、アメリカがん協会よりバージニア・ホッブス慈善信託研究教授職を授与された。これは同協会の最も名誉ある地位の1つである。

リデル博士は、この分野の多くの人が免疫療法は効果がないと考えていた1990年代初頭から、画期的な免疫療法の研究を続けてきました。

「この賞に選ばれたことを大変光栄に思います。アメリカ癌協会は長年にわたり、この賞を通じて画期的な研究への財政支援と表彰を行ってきました」とリデル氏は声明で述べた。「他の受賞者や、その支援によってもたらされた科学的発見を見ると、素晴らしい仲間たちと並んで受賞できたと実感します。」

ワシントン州ボセルに本社を置き、急成長を遂げている SAP データ管理会社 Winshuttleは今週、ジョン・ピアソン氏が CEO に昇進したことを発表した。

ピアソン氏は以前、同社の北米セールス担当副社長、そして最高売上責任者を務めていました。18ヶ月前にWinshuttleに入社する前は、様々なスタートアップ企業や大企業で、スケールアップと自動化されたデータフローへの移行に注力していました。

「デジタル変革の時代において、Winshuttleのお客様が大きなチャンスと課題を活用できるよう支援できることを楽しみにしています」とピアソン氏は声明で述べています。「Winshuttleはここ数年で大きく成長しており、今後も同社を次のレベルへと成長させていくことに興奮しています。」

Winshuttleは、ブライアン・バーグ氏をカスタマーサクセス担当バイスプレジデントに迎えることも発表しました 。バーグ氏はこれまでOracleと4th Sourceで役職を歴任し、保険テクノロジー企業VertaforeからWinshuttleに入社しました。