It's tough to get anywhere without the right leadership. That's why technology companies are almost always on the hunt for bright minds that could give them a boost.
Since late February, we tracked 18 key personnel changes across the Austin tech and startup ecosystems — check out all of them below, and to sign up for daily updates from The Beat, Austin Inno's newsletter, go here.
Supply chain software company E2open Parent Holdings said Feb. 28 that it had appointed Jennifer Grafton as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. She replaced Laura Fese, who retied March 1. Fese had served in the position for six years and oversaw the company’s global legal affairs. She is retiring after a legal career spanning more than 30 years. Grafton joined E2open in January 2021 as deputy general counsel, leading its public company compliance and governance efforts. Prior to that, she served as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer of a publicly traded energy and mining business.
Round Rock-based Dell Technologies said March 2 that Tom Sweet, who has been with the company 26 years, will retire as chief financial offiecr at the end of its fiscal 2024 second quarter. He'll be replaced by Yvonne McGill, who is currently Dell's corporate controller. McGill, who joined Dell in 1997, will be the first woman to serve as Dell's CFO.
Local health and insure-tech company RazorMetrics said March 9 that it promoted Gary Epple to chief operating officer. He was previously in charge of the company's product development and implementation team. The company, which specializes in reducing drug spending for health plans and self-insured employers, also named Kashif Dastgir as its vice president of development. He was previously head of engineering at Airlift Technologies and before that was director of software development at Oracle in Pakistan.
Finally, RazorMetrics said it has added Peter Kruger as VP of client operations. He previously held leadership roles at Optum and Vivify Health. RazorMetrics, founded in 2018, has raised about $9 million, according to Crunchbase.
Talent management company Night, which has offices in Austin and Los Angeles, said March 8 it added Jared Jacobs as VP of development for its content production arm Night Studios, which helps YouTubers and other creators package their shows for TV, podcasts and other platforms. He was most recently director of development at Unrealistic Ideas, a production company co-founded by Mark Wahlberg. Before that, he spent more than two years at Blumhouse Productions, where he contributed to unscripted series such as HBO's "What Happened, Brittany Murphy?" and Netflix's "Our Father."
AI processor startup Mythic said March 9 that Dave Fick would replace fellow co-founder Mike Henry as CEO. Fick was previously chief technology officer. The two started the business and have raised $178 million million developing artificial intelligence hardware and software for what's known as "edge computing" — closer to final user devices. Mythic also said it raised $13 million in new funding. Backers included the company's earlier investors, Atreides Management, DCVC and Lux Capital, along with new investors Catapult Ventures and Hermann Hauser Investment.
The new funding comes only four months after the company was said to have run out of capital. Mythic develops AI chips and a software platform to deploy AI solutions from data centers to edge devices. The company says its new funding will help it bring its processor to market.
Austin-based autonomous robotic forklift company Fox Robotics said March 14 that it has appointed Marin Tchakarov as president and CEO. He was most recently CEO at AI supply chain robotics company Kindred Systems, which was acquired by Ocado Group for a reported $262 million in 2020. He replaces co-founder Peter Anderson-Sprecher, who will assume the role of chief technology officer. Charles DuHadway and Anderson-Sprecher founded Fox Robotics in 2018. Last fall, the company raised $24 million in a round led by BMW i Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, SignalFire, Zebra Technologies, Japan Airlines & Translink Innovation Fund, Foothill Ventures and Autotech Ventures.
Austin-based Rain Enhancement Technologies Inc. on March 7 said it added Doug Ireland as CFO. The hire comes as Rainwater Tech prepares to go public via a SPAC merger, elevating the importance of the CFO role. Ireland was most recently head of finance at San Francisco-based cyber insurance company Coalition Inc. He's also been a CFO at Leanplum and Tapingo. Rainwater Tech says that through third-party trials its ionization tech can enhance rainfall between 9% and 18% without using any chemicals. The process can get more rain out of clouds by dragging down ice from high in the atmosphere, CEO Mike Nefkens said in early January.
Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which is based in California but has many of its top executives in Austin, has appointed five new people to its corporate fellow program. Among them is Austin-based engineer Ben Sander. He's a 28-year AMD veteran focused on architectures, machine learning and software performance. He developed the architecture for AMD Opteron CPUs and co-founded the Radeon Open Compute project.
Austin-based marketing company GetEmails LLC, which does business as Retention.com, said March 20 that it added Alexander Lazoff as VP of partnerships. He was previously director of partnerships at New York-based Yotpo. Prior to that, he was retention team lead at SinglePlatform. Retention.com, led by CEO Adam Robinson, says it is on track to reach $18 million in annual recurring revenue.
"Alexander brought on 60 new agency partners within the first month alone," Diana Ross, CRO and co-founder, stated. "Agency partnerships allow us to help more DTC eCommerce brands grow faster, with less lift, and that's what we're all about."
Austin-based IT management software company NinjaOne LLC said March 22 that it added Robert Gibbons as CTO. He has previously been CTO at Casana, Datto and Pica9. The move comes as the company has grown to more than 1,000 employees, up from 100 in 2018. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Sal Sferlazza, along with Christopher Matarese and Eric Herrera, according to Crunchbase.
Austin price optimization software company Zilliant Inc. said March 23 it hired Tanya Cunningham as VP of professional services and promoted Sofia Simaria to VP of science and applications delivery. Cunningham was previously VP of global project delivery at Skedulo. Simaria joined Zilliant in 2017 as director of science and was later promoted to senior director of IQ platform solutions.
Austin-based cognitive assessment and care management platform BrainCheck said March 23 it appointed Kim Rodriguez as CEO. She was most recently a venture partner at S3 Ventures, which has invested in BrainCheck. Prior to that, she was co-founder and CEO of Acessa Health and CEO of Halt Medical.
"Due to our country's aging population, Alzheimer's and other dementias are one of the largest blind spots in our healthcare system," Rodriguez stated. "With the power of BrainCheck's digital platform, we will greatly expand patient access to early detection, longitudinal tracking, and personalized care."
BrainCheck, founded in 2015 by neuroscientists and technologists Drs. Yael Katz and David Eagleman, has raised about $21 million from backers including S3 and fellow Austin-based firms Next Coast Ventures and True Wealth Ventures.
Hyros, a local marketing optimization company, said March 28 it has brought on Inman Breaux as CEO. He was most recently CEO of AirNow Media and was a co-founder at Airpush, which was acquired in 2020. The executive hiring news comes just after the company's recent acquisition by Banzai International for about $110 million in a mostly stock deal. That's part of a broader plan to go public via a $580 million SPAC deal announced last December.
After a rough few months, gym franchise F45 hopes to right the ship with a new CEO and a fresh endorsement from its celebrity backer. F45 Training Holdings Inc. said March 30 that Tom Dowd had taken over as CEO and that actor Mark Wahlberg, who has been a member of it board since 2019, had been named chief brand officer. Dowd, a former senior VP at nutrition retailer GNC Holdings, takes over a company with global reach — it says it has more than 300,000 members at its 2,000-plus locations worldwide, most of which are franchised and are known for 45-minute functional group workouts — but facing investor skepticism. Its share price is down more than 92% from a high of about $15.40 reached in February 2022.
F45 last summer laid off about 110 people, roughly 45% of its workforce at the time. Around the same time, founder Adam Gilchrist stepped down as president, CEO and board chairman.
