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Now, here are the top hires, promotions, departures and layoffs from Austin technology startups from November 2018.
Hires, Promotions & Board Appointments
Absolute, an endpoint visibility and control company, announced that it has named Christy Wyatt as its CEO. Wyatt was formerly the CEO with security company Dtex Systems and has held leadership positions at Blackberry, Motorola, Apple, and Sun Microsystems. Absolute is headquartered in Vancouver and has its U.S. HQ in Austin.
TrustRadius, an Austin software reviews company, has made several key hires, the ABJ reports. Scott Brittain was named VP of engineering. Andrew Lamb became VP of sales. Meanwhile, Russ Somers is the new VP of marketing and Tom Sloss is the new VP of finance. Brittain was previously CTO at Snap Kitchen. Lamb was a senior director of sales at ObjectRocket. Somers is a former marketing leader at TrendKite. And Sloss is the former COO of Swivel.
Tanner Cerand has been named VP of investment research at BuildGroup, an investment firm founded by Rackspace alumni Lanham Napier, Jim Curry and Klee Kleber, and Pete Freeland from General Catalyst. Prior to this, Cerand was director of business development at Vista Equity Partners. BuildGroup has raised $330 million to invest in software companies.
Favor, an Austin delivery service that was acquired by H-E-B, announced three new executives. Angela Lee was appointed VP of finance. Jay Doughty was named VP of sales and Daniel Guzman became managing counsel. Lee has been with Favor since 2015, and she previously worked at uShip. Doughty was previously VP of sales at Granify. Guzman was most recently in-house counsel at H-E-B.
Testlio, a San Francisco-based app testing company that went through the Techstars Accelerator in Austin, named Austinite Steve Semelsberger as its new CEO. Semelsberger was an early mentor for the company, became an advisor in 2014 and invested in the company’s seed round in 2015, according to a blog post. Prior to this, he founded Alder Growth Partners in Austin. He is also the former CEO of YouEarnedIt and a former executive at Demand Media.
Kony, an Austin app development platform, announced it appointed Rilla Delorier to its advisory board. Delorier is executive vice president and corporate strategy officer at Umpqua Bank.
Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm with offices in Austin, today announced it is expanding its credit platform and has appointed David Flannery as president of its Vista Credit Partners business. Flannery will oversee Vista’s credit strategy and extend its capabilities in alternative corporate credit markets. Before joining Vista, Flannery was a senior managing director at GSO Capital Partners, which is Blackstone‘s credit investment platform. Before that, he was a portfolio manager at Anchorage Capital Group.
Lifesize, an Austin video conferencing company used by Netflix, Twitter and other big names, added Matt Hibbard as its new CFO. Hibbard was previously CFO at Distil Networks. Prior to that, he was CFO at Xoom, which IPOed in 2013, according to the ABJ.
Departures & Layoffs
David Edmonson, executive director of the Austin Tech Alliance, is stepping down from his role, the organization announced. ATA’s board is now launching a search for a new director. Edmonson will stay on until Nov. 23. Then Sarah Ortiz Shields, an ATA program manager, will take over as interim executive director. Edmondson has taken a new role as head of the Texas and Southeast region for TechNet, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C.
