We report on hiring announcements and executive departures in the Austin Inno Beat newsletter, along with insights on how these 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 top hires, promotions, departures and layoffs from Austin technology startups from May 2018.
The Texas Conference for Women announced three new leaders for its board of directors. They are: Tamara Fields, managing director at Accenture; Jane Gasdaska, change management lead at Phillips 66 and Lisa McLin, VP of sales and channel chief at Rackspace.
R/GA, a tech-driven design and media firm, added eight new people to its 45-member team in Austin. Those include Senior Copywriter Devin Brown, Senior Art Director Miles Gilbert, Design Director Juan Pedro Gonzalez, Group Production Director Jess Jabbar, Connections Strategy Director Brian Nguyen, Account Director Carlos Orozco, Management Supervisor Charlotte Robertson and Creative Director TJ Walthall.
JD Weinstein, a former Capital Factory venture associate and former principal at WPP Ventures, joined Oracle as its head of startup ecosystem in Austin. Weinstein tweeted about the news.
IT software startup Zenoss appointed George Kanuck as its VP of worldwide sales. Kanuck was previously head of global sales and marketing at Trustonic, a joint venture with ARM and Gemalto.
Bazaarvoice CEO Gene Austin, who has led the company since 2013, left his position, the ABJ reported. His last day was April 30, and the company said he was leaving to “pursue other interests.” The marketing and reviews tech company has appointed Joe Davis, an operating executive with Marlin Equity Partners, which owns Bazaarvoice, as acting CEO.
Hostway, an Austin cloud hosting provider, hired Chandler Vaughn as its chief technology and product officer. Vaughn was most recently chief product and technology officer at Austin-based FATHOM.
April Downing, former CFO at WP Engine, has taken a new job as COO at Civitas Learning. Downing previously worked with Civitas as a financial consultant in 2012 and 2013 as the company was raising its Series B funding. But she is perhaps most known for her role as CFO at WP Engine, helping lead the company as it grew to $100M in revenue and raised a $250M investment from Silver Lake, one of the largest funding events in Austin startup history. Prior to Civitas and WP Engine, Downing was CFO at AlterPoint; CFO at Dachis Group; and co-founder of Skyence, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a related move, the ABJ reported that WP Engine promoted David Brolsma to CFO and named Tina Dobie as its first chief customer officer. It added its general counsel, Chad Costello, to its executive team.
Barbary Brunner, who has led the Austin Technology Council since 2016, has taken a new job at Phunware. The move comes ahead of Phunware’s exit to the public markets after its deal with Stellar Acquisition III closes in coming months. Sources say the ATC will appoint an interim CEO soon. Brunner has an extensive career in tech. She was CMO at Experian‘s Pricegrabber business; VP of marketing at Yahoo!‘s media division, director of global planning at Microsoft‘s MSN business and executive producer at Sierra Online. Check out this ABJ profile to learn more about Brunner’s career path.
The Austin Technology Council appointed Amber Gunst as interim CEO. Gunst, who was most recently the head of sales and membership services for the ATC, has an extensive career in business development. Prior to joining ATC, she was an account manager at Kforce, a global staffing agency. And, before that, she a sales executive for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
ESO, which crunches data and builds software for emergency responders, has added Christopher Raps as its VP of sales. Raps was most recently VP of sales for Nasdaq, Inc. He has also worked in sales at Safeguard World International, Harland Clarke and IBM.
Square Root, an enterprise store management software maker, added Bill Kennedy as chief strategy officer. Kennedy has been an advisor to the company for five years, and he was previously director of engineering for security products at IBM/Tivoli. He also founded Beacon Professional Services, which was acquired by SailPoint in 2010, and Waveset Technologies, which was acquired by SunMicrosystems, which was merged into Oracle.
LiveOak Venture Partners, an Austin venture capital firm, announced it added Mike Marcantonio as principal and Mason Rathe as senior associate. Marcantonio was previously a principal at Blue Heron Capital, a Richmond-based tech investment firm, where he worked on health care and tech business services. Rathe, who writes a weekly email newsletter about Austin VC and startup activity, was an intern at LiveOak while getting his MBA at UT. He previously worked in the tech and life sciences division of Comerica Bank, which invested in early-stage companies.
