Little by little, Austin and the rest of the U.S. are getting back to normal as vaccines continue to roll out. And that means people are starting to meet in person for coffees and lunches, as well as job interviews.
That's great news for hiring, and it comes at a time when more tech companies and startups are expressing concerns about how competitive the local scene has become as new companies move into Austin at a fast clip and ramp up hiring.
Below, we've put together a list of the the most interesting hires of May 2021.
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Here we go …
New hires
Longtime city of Austin IT manager Christopher Stewart on May 3 was named the city's new chief information officer. The city conducted a national search, but went with Stewart, who has worked with the city for more than 20 years, including most recently as CIO at Austin Water. He'll be leading the city's tech efforts across communications, transportation and wireless services. He started in the new role May 10.
Austin edge computing startup Olea Edge Analytics said May 4 it hired former Google Energy CTO Ben Wilson as its new COO. The computing startup, which focuses on water distribution and management, raised a $9 million series B last year to reach more city water departments. Earlier this year, it expanded its partnership with the city of Atlanta's watershed management department.
SolarWinds, an Austin-based IT management company, announced May 5 that it added Rohini Kasturi as executive VP and chief product officer; Tim Brown as chief information security officer; and Andrea Webb as senior VP and chief customer officer. Kasturi was previously chief product officer at Pulse Secure. Brown was VP of security at SolarWinds since 2017. And Webb has been with the company since 2002. The hire and promotions come as the Biden administration prepares to issue an executive order to defend against cyberattacks like the one last year that used SolarWinds as an entry point to hack into other systems.
After adding a second HQ in Austin, New York-based Elevate Brands announced it hired Andrea Lambert as CFO, Arkady Gurevich as CTO, Kerry Ann MacIsaac as director of human resources and Anmol Ejaz as director of recruitment. Lambert was most recently senior VP of finance at Accommodations Plus International; Gurevich was most recently head of analytics for HiredScore; Ejaz came from Better.com; and Maclsaac was previously HR director at GEP Worldwide. The hires are part of an overall doubling of the company's staff by year's end — that's about 100 additional employees. Elevate Brands acquires and operates third-party Amazon businesses. Learn more about Elevate's HQ2 in Austin in an April ABJ article.
Mark Rolston, founder and chief creative officer at design and tech firm Argodesign, on May 6 was named an advisory board member of the nonprofit Responsible AI Institute, which is working on an independent, accredited certification program for ethical use of AI.
Austin-based wealth management platform Kestra Holdings on May 11 named Kyle Weckman as its head of cybersecurity and technology risk. Weckman was most recently executive director of security services for Options Clearing Corporation in Chicago. Before that, he worked in security at Accenture and Deloitte & Touche.
Lynn Atchison, former CFO of Austin-based Spredfast and, later, Khoros, has joined the board of directors at The Postage, a Houston-based startup that helps with end of life planning. This adds to a list of board appointments for Atchison, who is also on the boards of Bumble, Absolute Software, Q2 Technologies and Convey.
Chelsea Cain Maclin, who joined Austin-based dating and networking company Bumble in 2016 as its director of marketing, has been hired by San Francisco-based networking startup Lunchclub as its first CMO, Forbes reported.
Austin solar development company Solar Proponent LLC announced May 19 that it added Alan Stringer as its COO. He was most recently CTO at Ceiba Energy Management. Solar Proponent, which is backed by EnCap Investments, Yorktown Partners, Mercuria Energy and SolarPro, is led by CEO Cassandra Rinaldo.
Beam, an Austin nonprofit organization that funds and supports women founders, announced May 28 that it has selected Leigh Christie as its new CEO and executive director. Christie was most recently the senior VP of global tech and innovation with the Greater Austin Area Chamber of Commerce. Before that, she was the executive director of Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas. Beam's current director, Jess Gaffney, is stepping down after two years as the organization's leader to spend time with family and explore new career paths in the for-profit sector.
