Tech Moves: Leafly names CEO; early Amazon exec departs; Microsoft vet named DocuSign CTO; ex-Vicis CEO lands new gig; more

Yoko Miyashita (Leafly Photo).

— Leafly General Counsel Yoko Miyashita will take over as chief executive officer from outgoing CEO Tim Leslie.

Miyashita joined the Seattle-based online cannabis platform last year and previously spent more than a decade in corporate and general counsel at Getty Images, also headquartered in Seattle.

Leslie was appointed Leafly’s CEO in March of 2019 after serving as VP of Amazon Prime Video International. He spent more than 20 years at Amazon and will remain at Leafly for a brief transition period.

Leafly went through two rounds of layoffs this year before raising $3.6 million in May.

— Audio technology company Sonos named Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay to its board of directors. Read the story.

Kamal Hathi (DocuSign Photo).

— DocuSign announced 20-year Microsoft veteran Kamal Hathi as its new chief technology officer. In his new role, he will support the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, the publicly-traded company’s new product aimed at expanding beyond its e-signature platform.

Founded in Seattle and now headquartered in San Francisco, DocuSign joined the Nasdaq 100 in June, bumping off United Airlines. The company still has a significant workforce in Seattle.

Hathi was most recently chief product and technology officer for Trader Interactive, a provider of digital marketplaces and advertising products for the recreational and commercial vehicle industries. He remains on the board of Trader Interactive and also serves on the board of Slickdeals.

Hathi departed Microsoft in 2018; at the time he was general manager for Power BI. He previously worked on the SQL Server Analysis Services and MSN teams.

Dave Marver. (Vicis Photo)

— Former Vicis CEO Dave Marver has been appointed CEO of GTX Medical, a medical device company based in the Netherlands and Switzerland developing technology to treat spinal cord injuries.

A co-founder of Vicis, Marver stepped down from the Seattle-based high-tech football helmet maker in November last year. A month later, the company folded and its assets sold for $2.85 million in April.

Marver is a medical device industry veteran who spent more than a decade at Medtronic. He was previously CEO of JointMetrix Medical and Cardiac Science Corporation.

— Seattle-based Redfin announced Kerry Chandler has joined its board of directors. Chandler is currently the chief human resources officer for global entertainment and sports company Endeavor.

“Kerry’s human resources experience at high-growth businesses adds a crucial area of expertise to our board,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.

Chandler has been a human resources executive at Under Armor, Christie’s, NBA, Walt Disney and IBM.

Former Amazon Books VP Jennifer Cast stands inside Amazon’s first physical retail location in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo)

— Amazon’s vice president of specialty recruiting Jennifer Cast has departed the e-commerce giant. In a post on LinkedIn, Cast wrote that she is taking the summer off to plan the next stage of her career.

Cast initially joined Amazon in 1996 as the 25th employee, and departed in 2001 after a stint as vice president of books, music, video and digital. In 2014, she returned to oversee Amazon Books, the company’s first foray into physical retail. Cast transitioned to her most recent role leading specialty talent acquisition in 2018.

“I believe Amazon’s culture is stronger and employees are just as (if not more) customer obsessed now than when I first joined. Viva Amazon Leadership Principles!” Cast wrote in the post.

— Seattle startup DroneSeed added Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning to its board as an observer. Founded in 2016, DroneSeed uses drones to accelerate the reforestation process after wildfires.

“Technical innovations like this – that benefit both people and the larger environment – are exactly why I’m eager to be on the board,” said Tarpenning.

Tarpenning is currently a partner at Spero Ventures, a San Francisco Bay Area firm focused on early stage venture capital. Spero is an investor in DroneSeed.

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