How playing ‘all the sports’ as a kid helped this tech leader avoid getting pigeonholed in his career

Chonchol Gupta, founder of Rebirth Analytics, with his wife, Dr. Michelle Gupta, a pediatric urologist, traveling in New Zealand’s Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. (Photo courtesy of the Gupta family)

While many kids these days go all-in on a single, competitive sport, Chonchol Gupta’s mom had a different idea.

“When I was growing up my mom put in me in all the sports and told me, ‘You don’t need to win. You just need to learn to play,’” he said.

And that willingness to experiment with different athletic pursuits and resist getting pigeonholed has translated into a career bridging disciplines and pulling lessons from multiple sectors.

Gupta is founder of Rebirth Analytics, a Spokane, Wash.-based startup that launched in 2018 and provides AI-driven risk assessment services for businesses. It focuses on risk reduction between suppliers and buyers, lenders and borrowers, and insurance companies and the insured. The work requires him to incorporate data on fintech, supply chains, health and safety, intellectual property, insurance, fraud and geopolitical risk.

“It’s an incredible opportunity,” he said, “to analyze a world of information from different verticals all around the globe.”

Gupta, who holds a degree in civil engineering and an MBA, began his first startup in 2009. The company worked on lending to underserved and minority-owned businesses, including those in New Orleans that were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. During that time he invested in Mama Mountain Spirits, a distillery in West Virginia — his mom’s home state — that had struggled to get financial support because alcohol is in the “sin” industry.

The Guptas out at the ballpark for a minor league baseball game in Spokane, Wash. in pre-COVID days. (Photo courtesy of Gupta)

His diverse resume includes serving for more than a year as vice-consul for the British government promoting transatlantic investment and trade. In recent years he acquired and sold a Microsoft consulting firm and was in leadership at a Seattle IoT business. Since 2014, Gupta has been an honorary ambassador for the nation of Georgia, working on innovation and technology.

With Rebirth Analytics, he is eager to be in a role to again support minority-led businesses.

“People count minority companies out when it comes to economic downturn and changes,” he said, “but what we’re happy to show is that minority companies are performing as some of the strongest companies.”

We caught up with Gupta for this Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.

Current location: Spokane, Wash. with offices across the globe.

Computer types: For data-heavy applications and my non-cloud financial data analytics, the MSI GS75 Stealth 9SG is a beast.

Mobile devices: Apple iPhone Pro Max 11. During the pandemic I try to work from various outdoor locations and the Microsoft Surface Pro X is a perfect device — I really enjoy the full Microsoft experience with LTE connectivity. I recommend one for anybody who is tired of working inside all day.

Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: Microsoft’s Office 365 Suite has given my global team a seamless way to work virtually. Even before the pandemic, we relied on the cloud-based tools to collaborate and stay connected, no matter where in the world our team was traveling.

However, my favorite cloud services and software tools are the ones Rebirth Analytics provides, to help large enterprises mitigate their risks and keep supply chains running smoothly!

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a chance for Choncol Gupta to experiment with an al fresco workplace environment. (Photo courtesy of Gupta)

Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? Since our downtown office building has been closed, I’ve been working from my home office. My wife has been kind enough to let me turn the garage into a virtual command center, and our garden into a virtual green space. (One challenge: preventing the Keurig from getting ruined by the sprinklers.)

Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? Make sure you find joy and happiness in your work. Your career is such a big part of your life, you should be enjoying it. Having worked in post-Katrina New Orleans and dealing with post-Brexit United Kingdom, it’s important to know that change is inevitable. It is important to be flexible and open to change, and to build your work-life and company to be flexible and resilient. This need for resiliency is being played out on a massive scale during COVID-19.

Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? LinkedIn is a great tool to keep up with industry trends, but during the pandemic, FaceTime has become my favorite. It’s a great way to make sure everyone has changed out of their pajamas by 2 p.m., and for our baby to keep in touch with her grandparents.

Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? None, now that this question reminded me to send that email I’ve been putting off! They usually stack up during the day while I’m busy with other work, but I have trouble going to bed if there are unanswered emails that need responses. 

Number of appointments/meetings on your calendar this week? Only 14. Our team does a great job of managing and taking responsibility for projects, which lets me focus on bigger picture work.

How do you run meetings? I like to listen. We are lucky to have incredibly brilliant and talented people on our team who often have deeper subject-matter expertise than me. It would be a leadership failure to not spend meetings listening to what these great people have to say. Once everybody talks things through, there is typically a natural consensus resolution to any tough decisions.

Everyday work uniform? During the pandemic it has been some great LL Bean shorts and a cotton t-shirt. One nice part of everybody working from home is that most people are now choosing comfort. 

How do you make time for family? We’ve been enjoying weekends in the RV during the pandemic, exploring Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. Although the pandemic has kept us apart from family, I make sure to FaceTime my parents every day so they can see their granddaughter.

Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? A walk in the park and Frisbee-time with our dog is a great stress reliever. It’s a good workout too, since I have to go find the Frisbee when the dog doesn’t bring it back.

What are you listening to? Jazz. I’ve always been a fan, but living in New Orleans really got me hooked.

Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? I start my day with the Wall Street Journal, and always check Supply Chain Brain, Pymnts and our internal geopolitical news feeds at some point each day. 

Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? Having a 7-month-old limits my pleasure reading, but my daughter likes “Big Bear, Small Mouse” so that book is always close. I’ve become a big fan of Audible. It’s a great way to get through cleaning baby-related stuff. You can usually find a book by thriller and mystery authors Jo Nesbo or Angela Marsons queued up.

Night owl or early riser? I feel like this last set of questions all has the same answer: I have a 7-month-old baby … there is no sleep pattern.

Where do you get your best ideas? From talking and listening to people. I love learning about the pain-points of different industries, and finding solutions to help mitigate their troubles.

Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? My father has been running his engineering firm since 1984, is one of the hardest working people I know, and loves his work. I try to emulate his ethics and tenacity. He taught me to always do what is right in business, and best for your clients.

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Former Microsoft leader and FiftyThree co-founder Georg Petschnigg on TikTok, Surface Duo, more

Georg Petschnigg. (WeTransfer Photo)

Georg Petschnigg learned a lot during an 10-year career at Microsoft, where he worked on various consumer products such as PowerPoint and Microsoft Courier. He also got an inside look at how the tech giant integrated various acquisitions of companies including Visio, Danger, and Nokia.

We caught up with Petschnigg to get his take on Microsoft’s bid for TikTok, its new Surface Duo device, and more. Petschnigg left Microsoft in 2011 to help launch FiftyThree, best known for developing the popular drawing app Paper and presentation tool Paste. File-sharing company WeTransfer acquired Paper and Paste in 2018, expanding the company’s reach into creative tools. Petschnigg is now chief innovation officer at WeTransfer.

What was your initial reaction to Microsoft’s pursuit of TikTok?

My first thought was that a Microsoft acquisition of TikTok makes total sense when you think about Microsoft’s business and history. Microsoft has put significant muscle and resources into artificial intelligence and machine learning, and invested hundreds of millions over the years in building out Microsoft Research. These investments have paid off in many ways, like with Azure Cognitive Services and Cortana, but Microsoft doesn’t have a great AI-based vehicle for entertainment.

The beauty of TikTok is that it combines content distribution to a large audience with technical, media and user interface inventions with ML at the core. These are all areas that Microsoft has experimented with, but hasn’t truly put together in a compelling end-to-end manner for consumers. In this way Tik Tok defines a new paradigm for software which Microsoft wants to be part of.

If Microsoft does indeed acquire part of TikTok’s operations, how do you expect the company to handle it? Will it follow similar acquisitions in the past or be different?

Microsoft has gotten smarter in handling acquisitions over the years, especially when it comes to integrating tools or apps into their broader ecosystem. I saw many acquisitions at Microsoft and incorporated key learnings when Paper and Paste, the creative/productivity apps I developed at FiftyThree, were acquired by WeTransfer in 2018.

A good model here is the acquisition of Accompli which became Outlook for Mobile or Bungie (developers of Halo). The leadership of those teams were empowered to drive cultural change within Microsoft. Accompli helped Microsoft understand mobile development for iOS and Android. Bungie brought in AAA gaming DNA. With TikTok, Microsoft could accelerate the embrace of ML at the core of software development. That said, TikTok would probably remain a standalone app vs. being integrated into the larger Microsoft suite.

(Bigstock Photo)

What are the biggest upsides or opportunities to Microsoft acquiring TikTok? And what about downsides or challenges?

There’s enormous opportunity to interpret content within videos. TikTok has perfected a blend of entertainment and machine learning – every time you watch a video, TikTok interprets your micro-interactions (scrolls, dwells, taps) to determine the next video to show you and keep you entertained.

Microsoft’s entertainment business has primarily focused on gaming and they haven’t developed any entertainment apps for consumers. With TikTok, they acquire a partner to extend consumer reach with a really powerful AI core.

An acquisition also means that Microsoft draws a spotlight to itself around data collection, a conversation that, by and large, they’ve managed to address better than say Google or Facebook, but certainly will draw them into a geo-political fray.

You say TikTok is Cortana for entertainment. What do you mean by that?

Up until now digital assistants like Alexa or Siri just never had a good answer if you would ask them “show me an entertaining video.” Often even the jokes it tells are canned. However, showing you entertaining videos is what TikTok is really good at doing — that’s what made me think TikTok could be Microsoft’s Cortana for entertainment.

It’s not a coincidence that TikTok has surged in popularity; the developers created a really powerful and compelling blend of machine learning that gives people content they want to see, and a simple UX that keeps people in the app. When people use TikTok for the first time, it understands their gender, region, age, and content interests. No other app does this so quickly and easily. TikTok also goes against the grain of most media or social apps that require you to choose categories of interest (Pinterest), rate films (Netflix), or follow people (Facebook) before you get to see content.

Surface Duo. (Microsoft Photo)

You led the incubation for Microsoft Courier. What are your thoughts on the Surface Duo? Do you think Microsoft will be able to establish a new form factor?

I have so many thoughts here, but in short, yes, I think Microsoft will establish the Duo as a new form factor. It will go further than that. It will define Microsoft’s take on mobile productivity and creativity.

The core insight for Courier, and the dual screen design, came from Abigail Sellen’s research in the “Myth of the Paperless Office.” She shared that the fold, two pages side-by-side, are integral to cognitive tasks such as comparing, organizing, sorting – the building blocks of making sense of digital work. Single screen solutions on mobile just do not feel right. The screen is either too small, or in the case of the iPad side-by-side still feels wonky. With Courier we saw the power of the form factor, and the foldable design means you get twice the screen.

Microsoft is very serious about this idea and embraced it. The fact that Microsoft is shipping this device with Android shows that they are putting the user experience first and technology ambitions second. Keep in mind that Ballmer canceled Courier over concerns that it would not fit in the One Windows strategy. Times have really changed.

Lastly I wouldn’t be surprised if Google and Microsoft invest in a new app store based on Android for the Surface Duo. I can see a new ecosystem of applications for productivity and creativity emerging around this form factor.

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Tech Moves: Museum of Flight’s new education leader; Avalara vet joins Banzai board; and more

Dana Riley Black. (Museum of Flight Photo)

— Seattle’s Museum of Flight announced Dana Riley Black as its new vice president of education. The position includes overseeing the Boeing Academy for STEM Learning.

Black is the former assistant superintendent of Everett Public Schools and previously worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of Washington and Logan Center for Education. She received a doctorate in Education Leadership and Curriculum Studies from Miami University.

— Jennifer Ceran, CFO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Smartsheet, joined the board of NerdWallet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., NerdWallet is a site offering consumers financial tools and advice.

Ceran also recently joined the board of Smartsheet’s Bellevue neighbor Auth0. Earlier this year, she announced she plans to retire as CFO after transitioning to a successor.

— Bay Area subscription software company Zuora appointed Microsoft Corporate VPs Sarah Bond and Omar Abbosh to its board. 

Bond oversees Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem and was previously senior vice president of emerging business at T-Mobile. She is based in Seattle.

Abbosh recently joined the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant as CVP of cross industry solutions. He spent more than 30 years at Accenture, most recently as CEO of communications, media and technology for the global professional services company. He is based in London.

Kevin Riegelsberger. (Shiftboard Photo)

— Former Avalara President and COO Kevin Riegelsberger joined the board of Banzai, a Seattle-based event marketing automation provider, as an independent board director. He currently serves as a director for Seattle startups TangoCard and Shiftboard.

Riegelsberger retired from Avalara in 2016, but returned to the Seattle company in December 2017 as interim head of engineering and development as he brought on a full-time replacement. Riegelsberger spent six years at Avalara, where he served as president, head of operations and head of the strategic initiatives group.

Suren Singh. (Photo courtesy of Suren Singh)

— After 25 years at Microsoft, Suren Singh departed to join Seattle-area cloud governance startup CoreStack. Singh was most recently senior director of hyperscalers and managed service providers. He joined Microsoft in 1995 and was an early member of the hosting and applications services team, which he described in a post on LinkedIn as his fondest memory.

“I am very excited to join CoreStack’s exceptional team,” Singh told GeekWire. “Multi-cloud compliance and governance continues to be a huge challenge for enterprises.

At CoreStack, Singh will be vice president of global partnerships and alliances. Founded in 2016, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company raised $8.5 million earlier this year.

— Veterinary technology startup Petriage named Joseph Coury as its new CEO. Co-founder and former CEO Allon Freiman will now be the company’s chief strategy officer.

Coury was most recently CEO of OMNI Practice Group, a service provider for dental practices, and was SVP of the veterinary division at California Bank of Commerce. Freiman co-founded Petriage four years ago with Chief Veterinary Officer Shlomo Freiman.

Also, Petriage VP of Sales and Marketing Wendy Hennig was promoted to chief growth officer. She has been with the company since 2018.

— Cybersecurity researcher Tarah Wheeler was named to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s advisory board.

I am so overjoyed & humbled to be part of the @EFF’s advisory board. We all have some feelings of helplessness right now, and to be part of this organization that does so much good in the world, and to contribute even a bit, is just everything right now.

Thank you so much. https://t.co/cJDOSLbVbS

— Tarah (@tarah) July 22, 2020

Wheeler is the author of the 2016 book “Women in Tech”, founder of Seattle startup Fizzmint and currently an international security fellow at think tank New America.

— Former Seattle Genetics SVP and Chief Information Officer Andrew Chen has joined Santa Monica, Calif.-based Kite Pharma. Chen arrived at Seattle Genetics in 2018 and prior to that spent more than a decade at global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

— Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Fellow James De Yoreo has been named a 2020 “Distinguished Science Fellow” by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

De Yoreo is a materials scientist and co-directs the NW IMPACT joint research collaboration between PNNL and the University of Washington. In addition to the recognition, he will receive $1 million in funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy over three years to pursue new research.

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Tech Moves: Museum of Flight’s new education leader; Avalara vet joins Banzai board; and more

Dana Riley Black. (Museum of Flight Photo)

— Seattle’s Museum of Flight announced Dana Riley Black as its new vice president of education. The position includes overseeing the Boeing Academy for STEM Learning.

Black is the former assistant superintendent of Everett Public Schools and previously worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of Washington and Logan Center for Education. She received a doctorate in Education Leadership and Curriculum Studies from Miami University.

— Jennifer Ceran, CFO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Smartsheet, joined the board of NerdWallet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., NerdWallet is a site offering consumers financial tools and advice.

Ceran also recently joined the board of Smartsheet’s Bellevue neighbor Auth0. Earlier this year, she announced she plans to retire as CFO after transitioning to a successor.

— Bay Area subscription software company Zuora appointed Microsoft Corporate VPs Sarah Bond and Omar Abbosh to its board. 

Bond oversees Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem and was previously senior vice president of emerging business at T-Mobile. She is based in Seattle.

Abbosh recently joined the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant as CVP of cross industry solutions. He spent more than 30 years at Accenture, most recently as CEO of communications, media and technology for the global professional services company. He is based in London.

Kevin Riegelsberger. (Shiftboard Photo)

— Former Avalara President and COO Kevin Riegelsberger joined the board of Banzai, a Seattle-based event marketing automation provider, as an independent board director. He currently serves as a director for Seattle startups TangoCard and Shiftboard.

Riegelsberger retired from Avalara in 2016, but returned to the Seattle company in December 2017 as interim head of engineering and development as he brought on a full-time replacement. Riegelsberger spent six years at Avalara, where he served as president, head of operations and head of the strategic initiatives group.

Suren Singh. (Photo courtesy of Suren Singh)

— After 25 years at Microsoft, Suren Singh departed to join Seattle-area cloud governance startup CoreStack. Singh was most recently senior director of hyperscalers and managed service providers. He joined Microsoft in 1995 and was an early member of the hosting and applications services team, which he described in a post on LinkedIn as his fondest memory.

“I am very excited to join CoreStack’s exceptional team,” Singh told GeekWire. “Multi-cloud compliance and governance continues to be a huge challenge for enterprises.

At CoreStack, Singh will be vice president of global partnerships and alliances. Founded in 2016, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company raised $8.5 million earlier this year.

— Veterinary technology startup Petriage named Joseph Coury as its new CEO. Co-founder and former CEO Allon Freiman will now be the company’s chief strategy officer.

Coury was most recently CEO of OMNI Practice Group, a service provider for dental practices, and was SVP of the veterinary division at California Bank of Commerce. Freiman co-founded Petriage four years ago with Chief Veterinary Officer Shlomo Freiman.

Also, Petriage VP of Sales and Marketing Wendy Hennig was promoted to chief growth officer. She has been with the company since 2018.

— Cybersecurity researcher Tarah Wheeler was named to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s advisory board.

I am so overjoyed & humbled to be part of the @EFF’s advisory board. We all have some feelings of helplessness right now, and to be part of this organization that does so much good in the world, and to contribute even a bit, is just everything right now.

Thank you so much. https://t.co/cJDOSLbVbS

— Tarah (@tarah) July 22, 2020

Wheeler is the author of the 2016 book “Women in Tech”, founder of Seattle startup Fizzmint and currently an international security fellow at think tank New America.

— Former Seattle Genetics SVP and Chief Information Officer Andrew Chen has joined Santa Monica, Calif.-based Kite Pharma. Chen arrived at Seattle Genetics in 2018 and prior to that spent more than a decade at global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

— Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Fellow James De Yoreo has been named a 2020 “Distinguished Science Fellow” by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

De Yoreo is a materials scientist and co-directs the NW IMPACT joint research collaboration between PNNL and the University of Washington. In addition to the recognition, he will receive $1 million in funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy over three years to pursue new research.

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Seattle schools leader recommends remote-only classes when school resumes in September

Toys lie where they were last played with at a closed playground in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

The superintendent for Seattle Public Schools Wednesday announced that she supported continuing entirely remote instruction when school resumes in September. The district previously favored a hybrid approach of some in-person classes and some online learning.

The school board will vote on the recommendation from Superintendent Denise Juneau at its regular meeting on Aug. 12. The district has approximately 54,000 students.

In an announcement the district said it would “continue the remote learning model until the risk of significant transmission of COVID-19 has decreased enough to resume in-person instruction.”

In a statement Juneau said, “The current trajectory of infection in King County and the most recent data and information from public health makes it clear that resuming school in-person this fall is impossible.”

The Lake Washington School District, which includes the city of Redmond and Microsoft’s headquarters, is giving families the option of a hybrid approach or all-remote learning, as is the Tacoma School District south of Seattle. The Bellevue and Renton school districts, both located east of Seattle, announced Wednesday afternoon to do remote learning for at least the start of school.

The American Association for Pediatrics and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine have advocated for reopening schools for in-person instruction in combination with safety precautions.

On Monday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washington state rose 71% over the past week, reaching a new weekly high of more than 6,800 reported cases, according to GeekWire’s calculations from state Department of Health data. State officials have called it an “explosive situation.” Younger children, however, appear less likely to contract and spread the disease. The state reported that 11% of the current cases are in 0-19 year olds, which lumps together elementary-age kids and teens.

The decision to resume school with only remote learning is supported by the Seattle Education Association, which is the teachers’ union, and the Principals Association of Seattle Schools.

The district is pledging to make improvements in its online education. That includes:

Teacher training in order to provide live instruction for students.Consistent, predictable scheduling using common platforms. (One often heard complaint about the spring’s online learning was the number of different educational platforms used made tracking assignments and instruction extremely challenging for students and parents.)Providing specialized support for students that qualify for extra help.Racial equity training for educators.An effort to provide support for childcare and at-home learning by working with the parent-teacher association, the city and community partners.Providing meals for students and families in need.

Editor’s note: Story has been updated with new information from other Puget Sound-area school districts.

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Tech Moves: Zillow hires NYC leader; ex-Airbnb president joins Tapas Capital; Big Fish exec returns to EA; Slalom’s first CMO; and more

Caroline Burton (left) and Matt Daimler. (Zillow Photos)

— Seattle-based Zillow Group announced leadership changes on its marketing team and in its New York office. Matt Daimler is now senior vice president of product. He was most recently general manager of StreetEasy, the New York real estate site Zillow acquired in 2013, and of Zillow Group NYC. He will be succeeded by 6-year Zillow veteran Caroline Burton.

Additionally, Zillow hired Ravi Kandikonda as SVP of integrated marketing. Most recently SVP of marketing at Comcast, Kandikonda will report to CMO Aimee Johnson.

— Bellevue, Wash.-based mobile marketplace OfferUp hired Amazon Web Services and Real Networks veteran Michael Eggers as its chief financial officer. Read the story.

— Former Big Fish Games Managing Director and President Jeff Karp returned to Electronic Arts as senior vice president of mobile games. Karp joined Seattle-based Big Fish Games in 2018. He previously led youth-sports platform Sports Illustrated Play, which was acquired by Comcast/NBC, and was an exec at social gaming pioneer Zynga. This is Karp’s third stint at Electronic Arts.

Greg Greeley. (Tapas Capital Photo)

— Former Airbnb President Greg Greeley joined Bellevue, Wash.-based Tapas Capital as a venture advisor. Greeley was at Amazon for more than 18 years. Before departing in 2018, he was vice president of Amazon Prime and delivery experience.

“I’m really excited to be joining the firm as an advisor and having the opportunity to roll up my sleeves alongside Tapas’ founders on their journey of building cool, customer-centric and highly scalable products,” said Greeley.

Tapas Capital is an early-stage technology venture firm currently raising its second venture fund. To date, the firm has invested in Pacific Northwest startups Avocor, Bamboo Learning, Give InKind, RevelHMI and Vega Cloud.

— Suchi Srinivasan is now vice president of corporate strategy for Dell Technologies. She was most recently an associate partner at McKinsey and Company. Srinivasan co-founded Watts at Work, an energy analytics service, and was a director of business development at Microsoft. She is based in Seattle.

Sangeeta Prasad. (Slalom Photo)

— Seattle management consultancy Slalom appointed Sangeeta Prasad as its first global chief marketing officer. Prasad was most recently CMO for New York-based Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory and search firm.

She spent more than a decade as a senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase and also worked for American Express and Proctor and Gamble. Prasad will relocate to Seattle and be part of Slalom’s leadership team.

— Amazon-owned Audible’s new chief content officer Brad Schwartz departed after a month. Bloomberg reported that the exit comes after a dismissed sexual-harassment lawsuit naming Schwartz came to light. Schwartz was previously president of Pop Media Group, the defendant in the lawsuit.

— Former Amazon executive Peter Faricy has departed Discovery after joining the TV firm as CEO of direct-to-consumer in September 2018. Faircy was responsible for the media company’s new streaming service which has not yet launched, The Information reported. A vice president at Amazon, Faricy led the Amazon Marketplace and spent more than 12 years at the tech giant.

Bhavana Mathur. (Ekata Photo)

— Seattle-based Ekata hired Bhavana Mathur as its vice president of product. Ekata spun out of Whitepages last year and sells enterprise identify verification products.

Mathur was most recently VP of product management at Tune, a Seattle mobile and marketing analytics startup that was recently acquired by Canadian tech company Constellation Software. Prior to Tune, Mathur held product management roles at Apptio, Vertafore and Expedia Group.

— Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) announced that Paula Rosput Reynolds will take over as chair of the board. Reynolds is currently CEO of Preferwest and joined SCCA’s board in 2018. She takes over from Karen Glover.

Reynolds is a past chair of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s board of trustees and also serves on the board of directors for General Electric, BP and BAE Systems. She is the former CEO of Safeco Insurance and energy services companies AGL Resources and Duke Energy.

Lisa Nelson. (Microsoft Photo)

— Co-founder and former managing director of Microsoft’s venture fund M12 Lisa Nelson is now an advisor to Flying Fish Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm.

Nelson is a strategic advisor for Nelsoli Ventures, a member of the board for Seattle startup Tribute, and also an advisor for New Zealand VC firm Movac.

— Another Microsoft alum, Carter Rabasa, joined the advisory board of Tribute, a digital mentorship platform. Rabasa is currently CEO and founder of Fizbuz, a networking site for developers. He is an investor, lead organizer of the CascadiaJS conference, and former product manager at Twilio.

Chris Petersen. (University of Washington Photo)

— Chris Petersen, the former head coach of the University of Washington football team, was named Fritzky Chair in Leadership at UW’s Foster School of Business for the 2020-2021 academic year. The faculty position, established in 2002, brings distinguished leaders to campus.

“I have always been passionate about leadership, team building and human performance and am looking forward to facilitating a collaboration between business and sport leaders,” said Petersen.

Petersen’s surprise retirement from coaching last year offered lessons about work and life, especially for anybody in high-stress work. He is known for his “Built for Life” coaching philosophy.

— First Mode, a Seattle engineering firm founded by veterans of the Planetary Resources asteroid mining venture, added eight new team members. The new hires include VP of Marketing and Communications Colleen Rubart and its first industrial designer Kurt Fischer.

Rubart was most recently director of marketing and communications for Trait Biosciences, based in Santa Fe, N.M. Fischer was previously director of industrial design and UX at high-tech football helmet maker Vicis, which shuttered last year and sold its assets to an investment firm.

See all the recent hires, including an alum from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.

Kurt Bilafer. (Banzai Photo)

— Seattle-based event marketing automation provider Banzai appointed Kurt Bilafer as chief revenue officer. Bilafer is an investor in the company and previously served as an advisor. He advises several other startups, including Tribute, is a fund manager for Seattle Angel Conference, and held executive roles WePay, Amazon, and SAP.

— Health tech startup Medcurity hired Matt Bayley as its chief security information officer. He joins the Spokane, Wash.-based company from medical IT service provider Engage.

Medcurity also announced a $500,000 investment from early-stage investment firm SeaChange following a $200,000 funding round in May. The new funding is already being used to expand sales and marketing efforts with the addition of Arielle Van Peursem and James Parrish as sales executives.

— Seattle startup Mason, which offers “mobile infrastructure as a service” tech, expanded its executive team:

• Merlin Love as head of sales. Love was most recently VP of sales and marketing at Berkeley, Calif.-based 3D Robotics. He is based in California.

• Minh-Duc Nguyen as head of quality. Nguyen was most recently head of product quality for fitness startup Tonal. He is based in California.

• Sophia Bianchi as head of people. Bianchi has led recruiting efforts at Redfin, Uber, Amazon, Sonos and Facebook. She is based in Seattle.

• Carl Franzetti as head of operations. Franzetti most recently was director of supply chain operations for clinical software maker YPrime. He is based in Pennsylvania.

— Former Spokane, Wash. mayor David Condon joined the board of Spokane startup Oddjobbers. Condon is currently the vice president for Eastern Washington at Premera Blue Cross.

Founded by recent Gonzaga University graduates, Oddjobbers is a platform for college students to connect with residents and businesses for jobs including lawn mowing, moving or graphic design. The company has raised $310,000 from investors including Condon and angel investor Tom Simpson, who is also a member of the board.

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