It almost always takes new blood to grow a strong business. That’s why fresh hires, especially in key executive positions, are so important.
We track many of those hires, promotions and departures in the Austin Inno Beat newsletter, along with insights on how those personnel moves may impact a startup’s fortunes or an entire industry. Sign up for the Beat to get it each day in your inbox.
Now, let’s check out the July 2017 hirings, promotions and departures.
Rackspace Hosting Inc., a San Antonio-based company with offices in Austin, brought on Louis Alterman as its new CFO and executive vice president. He previously worked at Atlanta-based Earthlink Inc. before it was acquired by Windstream Holdings Inc.
Arrive Logistics beefed up its executive team, hiring Blaine Barnett as chief strategy officer and Chelsea Woodhead as executive vice president of people. Barnett joins Arrive from Illinois-based logistics provider AFN, where he was the company's president, and Woodhead comes from Austin-based custom sign manufacturer BuildASign.com, where she was its chief people officer.
Stockholm-based Snow Software, which has its North American HQ in Austin, made a bunch of new local hires. Marlon Oliver was appointed vice president of Sales and is relocating from Snow's UK office to Austin, where Snow CEO Axel Kling is also based. The company also announced it appointed several other sales leaders -- Craig Nunley for the South, Kevin Suckow for the East, Wendy Dolan for the Midwest and Chris Miller for the West coast.
Spanning Cloud Apps, an Austin-based data protection company, hired Chad Savoy as its vice president or worldwide sales. Savoy was previously vice president of sales at Vyopta, and he has led sales teams at Datadog and SolarWinds. Spanning also named former SolarWinds executive Paul Strelzick as executive chairman of Spanning's board of directors. In another move, Spanning promoted its director of engineering, Andrea Adams, to vice president of engineering. Finally, the company named Brian Rutledge as its principal security engineer. He was previously a security consultant for Trustwave.
Capital City Innovation Inc., the nonprofit in charge of the Innovation District near Dell Medical School, appointed Chris Laing as its first executive director. Prior to this, Laing was vice president of science and technology at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia. Before that, he worked at Philadelphia-based Integral Molecular, a biomedical company working on treatments for cancer and other diseases. The Innovation District is an area intended to house businesses, nonprofits and other organizations focused on health outcomes. It will run from Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard along the UT campus on the north to Lady Bird Lake on the south, and from Interstate 35 on the east to Trinity Street on the west. Merck & Co. Inc. is one of the first companies intending to locate a tech office there.
eRelevance Corporation, an Austin-based marketing automation startup, appointed Andy Acaru as vice president of field sales and John Nippler as vice president of business development. Acaru has worked in various leading sales roles, including director of North American sales, at Cynosure. Nippler was previously national director of portfolio sales at Merz North America.
Experian Consumer Services, the company that acquired Austin's CSID last year, hired Austin tech veteran Anand Srinivasan as COO of its Experian Partner Solutions business. Srinivasan has previously held several high-profile roles, including chief of staff to the CEO at HomeAway and roles at Dell.
Shopgate, Inc., an Austin-based e-commerce startup, appointed Ken Aponte as vice president of customer success. Aponte was previously a senior director at Austin-based Personify.
Austin Young Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Matt Glazer is stepping down from his post. His last day is Sept. 15. Glazer led the organization for more than three years. Learn more in this ABJ post.
