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The Top Austin Tech and Startup Hires and Departures in December 2018


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Image via Tom Ju [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

We cover hiring announcements and executive departures in the Austin Inno Beat newsletter each day. Sign up for the Beat to get Austin startup insights delivered to your inbox.

Now, here are the top hires, promotions, departures and layoffs from Austin technology startups from December 2018. 

Hires, Promotions & Board Appointments

Tenfold, an Austin sales software and data startup with about $30 million in funding, named Jeff Cotten as its new CEO. Cotten was previously interim CEO at Rackspace Hosting and was also its chief customer and revenue officer. Tenfold landed a $14 million Series B earlier this year. Its investors include Next Coast Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures and Geekdom Fund. Cotten will start Jan. 19. He replaces Patrick Hogan.

Dropoff, an Austin startup providing same-day deliveries and logistics, named Neil Seth as its CTO and Rey Madolora as its first-ever CFO. Seth was previously CTO at video game subscription service GameFly, which Dropoff CEO Sean Spector co-founded. Madolora was previously part of the founding team at Hangar Technology, and, before that, he was CFO and COO of DJI North America, a drone hardware company. Dropoff is now in 21 metro markets across the country.

ClearDATA, an Austin healthcare cloud data company, named Michael Donohue as its chief marketing officer and Dean Fredenburgh as its chief revenue officer. Donohue is the former CEO of Axial Exchange. Fredenburgh was previously head of the healthcare and life sciences sales group at Amazon Web Services.

Jay Manickam and Matt Chasen, two UT graduates who founded uShip, joined Hitch, a ride-sharing startup that offers rides from Austin to Houston.

Gene Austin, the former CEO of Austin-based Bazaarvoice, has been appointed as president and CEO of Houston-based Quorum Software, which makes oil and gas accounting software.

ReconaSense, a security intelligence company, added Pat Aiello as vice president of global sales and Melanie Meyer Sommer as vice president of marketing. Meyer Sommer was most recently global marketing lead at RSA Security. Aiello was most recently director of enterprise sales at Hikvision.

Convey, an Austin supply chain and shipping analytics startup, announced Lynn Atchison, a former CFO at HomeAway, Hoovers and Spredfast, is joining its board of directors. The startup was founded by Rob Taylor in 2013, and it has raised about $25 million in venture capital from investors including Techstars, Silverton Partners, RPM Ventures and NextGen.

JASK, an AI-based security platformed co-headquartered in San Francisco and Austin, named Mark Boullie as its chief revenue officer. He’ll be based in Austin. Boullie was previosuly with ArcSight, which IPOed in 2008 and was acquired by HP in 2010. JASK also named Monte Sjobakken as VP of business development and Tom Mitchell as VP of sales, West.

Vapor IO, an Austin wireless network platform, named Jacques Greyling as its COO. Greyling came from Rackspace, where he was most recently SVP of global infrastructure.

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce named Brian Cassidy, managing partner at Locke Lord law firm, as its 2019 chair of the board. It also said former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch would be the Chamber’s chair-elect.

Steven K. Richards, CEO of Austin-based Mood Media, announced he will retire on Jan. 15. Richards, a 56-year-old who has led the company for about five years, will stay on as an advisor and director emeritus. Mood Media’s board of directors has already started its hunt for a replacement.


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