We track key hiring announcements and departures in the Austin Inno Beat newsletter, along with insights on how personnel moves may impact a startup’s future. Sign up for the Beat to get it each day in your inbox.
Now, here are the most important hires, promotions, departures and layoffs from Austin technology startups from March 2018. If I missed someone, let me know by emailing bwistrom@americaninno.com.
data.world, a data sharing an collaboration platform, announced DJ Patil, who was former President Barack Obama's chief data scientist, has joined its board of advisors.
Kony, a fintech app developer, appointed Alan Kerr to its board of directors. Kerr is senior VP of software at Diebold Nixdorf, and he previously worked with HP Software, Peregrine Systems and Kofax.
Q2 Holdings, a digital banking company, appointed investment banker Jonathan Price as senior VP of corporate development. He was most recently at BMO Capital Markets, and his career includes stops at Goldman Sachs and Citi.
Jeremy Burton, CMO of Dell Technologies, announced he is leaving the company. It's not clear what he'll do next, but he noted in a press release he has decided to pursue a new challenge. In his place, Dell has appointed Allison Dew, who previously led marketing for the company's client solutions group.
Next Coast Ventures, an Austin VC firm, announced it added Jason Dorsey as a venture partner to help portfolio companies grow. Dorsey is president and co-founder of The Center of Generational Kinetics, which helps global brands connect with millennials.
Liveoak Technologies, a digital customer engagement startup, hired Mike Alderson as head of sales. Alderson was previously in enterprise sales at Dropbox. Prior to that, he worked for 15 years at Advent Software in a variety of senior roles.
Civitas Learning, a startup advancing predictive analytics for higher education applications, has hired Bruce Jones as its new chief revenue officer. He’s the former VP of sales at Micro Focus (formerly HPESoftware). He takes over for Tony Capasso, whose LinkedIn profile indicates he has moved on to become chief revenue officer at Dosh.
JASK, an autonomous security operations center platform, is opening its second headquarters in Austin. Alongside that move, the company announced that Rob Fry, a former senior security architect at Netflix, has moved to Austin to be JASK’s vice president of engineering. JASK, which was backed with investments from Dell Technologies Capital and TenEleven Ventures, said it would expand to Austin last fall in conjunction with the appointment of CTO J.J. Guy, who was a founding team member of Carbon Black.
Spiceworks, an IT solutions and networking company, promoted Nicole Tanzillo from executive director of product operations to vice president of business operations. Tanzillo has been with the company for more than seven years.
Phunware, a mobile app development platform that recently announced it would go public, announced Randall Crowder will be its new COO. Crowder is an angel investor and venture capitalist who co-founded TEXO Ventures and Nove Ventures. Before that, he led the Central Texas Angel Network.
Rock Candy Media, a digital marketing and advertising agency, announced it has hired Nick Gaudio as creative director. He was most recently manager of email and push for theCHIVE.com. Rock Candy Media also promoted Jessica Stockton from digital ads strategist to strategy director. She joined the company in 2016. Rock Candy Media also added Rob Fox as content director. He was previously director of video content and senior content manager for Grandex Inc. Lastly, the company hired Samantha Enders as search engine marketing director. She was previously assistant project manager at Native Commerce.
Kyle Ford, an ESW Capital executive, is becoming CEO of Mobilogy, which is a division of Cellebrite. The move came as ESW Capital, a private equity firm in Austin that acquires software companies, announced it has acquired Mobilogy, which diagnoses mobile device problems, transfers mobile content to new devices and provides analytics for device use at big companies. Terms of the deal weren’t provided.
Shep, a travel tech startup, announced Ellen Keszler will join its board of directors, the ABJ reported. She is CEO at Clear Sky Associates, and she was previously running business travel at Travelocity.
Spanning Cloud Apps, a data protection software company, announced Ericka Tate as its new vice president of people. She previously worked at Simply Hired, Google and Accenture in HR leadership positions.
