In July, real estate company CBRE ranked Austin No. 6 overall among the top 50 markets and No. 5 in the United States for the overall strength of its tech talent, based on 13 metrics meant to gauge a location's depth, vitality and attractiveness to companies. Austin came in behind the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York City, Washington D.C. and Toronto and ahead of Boston.
Austin's ranking was unchanged from 2022, but it was a sign that the city's tech ecosystem remains strong. The report showed Austin ranks No. 3 for the highest concentration of software engineers, trailing only the Bay Area and Seattle. And it ranks No. 3 for the highest concentration of tech talent within the core tech industry, topped only by the Bay Area and Seattle.
So, it's no surprise that tech talent continues to flow through the city. In our July 2023 tech hiring roundup, we cover 13 key executive moves. Check them out below.
Austin-based enterprise software company E2open Parent Holdings Inc. said July 10 that it appointed Greg Randolph as chief commercial officer. Randolph was most recently chief revenue officer at Quest Software, an enterprise management and security software company. Prior to that, he led go-to-market efforts in a few roles at CA Technologies.
The company was founded in 2000 and is led by CEO Michael A. Farlekas. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ETWO ticker. The company also noted that it is eliminating its chief operating officer role upon the departure of Peter Hantman, who is leaving the company to pursue new opportunities.
Austin-based Wursta, a cloud consultancy, hired Alexander Freeman as vice president of finance. Freeman will handle budgeting, control and process improvement in his new role. Fast-growing Wursta was one of ABJ's Fast 50 companies in 2022, when it also landed at No. 601 on the Inc. 5000 list with three-year revenue growth of 235%. Freeman's previous stops have included Diebold Nixdorf, HID Global, American Express and Visa.
Early-stage venture capital firm Silverton Partners announced July 13 the hires of Rob Taylor as operating partner and Addie Rasche as senior associate. Taylor is well-known to the VC firm — he was co-founder and CEO of logistics startup Convey, a former Silverton portfolio company that was acquired for $255 million by Project44 in 2021. Before that, Taylor was president of BlackLocus, an e-commerce software company that was acquired by The Home Depot for $55 million in 2012.
Rasche formerly oversaw strategic growth and new projects at C3 Presents. She was also a part-time associate at Silverton while pursuing her MBA at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. The new hires come as Silverton works to deploy the $248 million fund announced last summer — its largest ever.
Austin HR tech startup ThisWay Global said July 18 it appointed Mike Pauletich as chief partnerships and growth officer. His previous roles include VP of HR technology partnerships at Jobcase, and executive positions at Mya Systems, Entelo, eQuest, Jibe and Recruitology. The company, led by founder and CEO Angela Hood, has raised $3.9 million in funding from backers including Central Texas Angel Network and Geekdom Fund, according to Crunchbase.
Device security startup Hypori, which is headquartered in Virginia and has its tech hub in Austin, said July 19 that it appointed Vernon O'Donnell as chief customer officer. He was previously chief product officer at Project44, a supply chain company in Chicago that acquired Austin-based Convey in 2021. He was also previously chief customer officer at STATS Perform. Hypori, led by CEO Jared Shepard, earlier this year closed an $18 million series B funding round.
Austin-based fintech startup Episode Six said July 25 that it has added Brian Muse-McKenney as chief revenue officer. He was previously chief business officer at HSBC Platforms and chief innovation officer of HSBC Global Payments Solutions.
E6 co-founder and CEO John Mitchell said that Muse-McKenney has had a long-standing relationship with E6, which includes a role as a non-executive director at the company from 2020 to 2023, and he stayed on after HSBC's investment in E6's series A round in 2020. The hiring news comes a couple months after E6 raised a $48 million series C round. The payment processing and digital ledger company has raised nearly $100 million in total.
Austin brand insights and reviews company Bazaarvoice Inc. said July 25 that it has appointed Chris Nuttall as executive vice president of corporate development. He previously held a similar role at Simpli.fi, an adtech company based in Fort Worth. Before that, he was a vice president at Qurate Retail Group.
Austin- and Houston-based BrainCheck, which has developed tests to evaluate cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer's and dementia, said July 25 that it has appointed Chelsea Dugan as vice president of marketing. She was previously senior director of downstream marketing and strategy at Boston-based iCAD Inc., which uses AI to detect breast cancer. BrainCheck, founded in 2015, has raised $26.2 million, according to Crunchbase.
3D structure printing startup Icon on July 27 named Robert Harmon as general counsel, overseeing legal and regulatory affairs. He was most recently associate general counsel and director at Amazon, including support for the company's Fresh stores. He was also AGC of economic development, energy transactions and physical stores real estate with Amazon. Before that, he was deputy general counsel and director at Tesla. Icon has raised $451 million to date.
Austin-based real estate tech company Ojo said July 27 that it has promoted Jerimiah Taylor to chief real estate officer. He was previously vice president of real estate and mortgage services. Before that, he was executive vice president at Mellohome. He also co-founded Brokerkit, which was sold to a private equity firm in 2019. Ojo's previous chief real estate officer, Chris Heller, will shift to president and work alongside founder and CEO John Berkowitz. Ojo has raised more than $140 million to date.
Austin-based tech advisory and research firm The Futurum Group said July 28 that it has appointed Nati Katz as its first vice president of strategic communications. Katz was previously senior director of external communications at Honeywell. Prior to that he was senior vice president at WPP's Burson Marsteller. The news follows the company's acquisition in May of Austin-based B2B marketing firm Visible Impact for an undisclosed amount. The Futurum Group is led by CEO Daniel Newman.
Austin-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company Plus Therapeutics Inc. said July 27 that it has appointed Pius Maliakal as vice president of clinical operations. Maliakal will be focused on advancing the company's clinical trials of ReSPECT-GBM and ReSPECT-LM, which treat rare and difficult-to-treat brain and breast cancers. He was previously director of clinical science at PTC Therapeutics and director of clinical development at Eagle Therapeutics.
Last year, the company was awarded a $17.6 million grant to accelerate its cancer fighting radiotherapeutic drug. The funding came from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which was created by the Texas Legislature and is backed by Texas voters.
This story has been updated to note Episode Six raised $48 million in its series C round.
