After months of heavy cuts across the tech industry, layoffs appear to be on the decline.
In total, about 1,000 tech companies have laid off more than 232,000 workers this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. The volume of those cuts, however, has dropped dramatically from the highs seen earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, the industry remains hungry for top talent. In August, we tracked 19 key hires across the Austin tech ecosystem. Check them out below.
Steven Chung is the new president at Austin-based ecommerce platform BigCommerce, according to an Aug. 1 announcement. Chung was previously president at California-based automated devops company Delphix. Before that, he was senior VP of worldwide sales, customer success and services for PagerDuty and a senior VP of worldwide sales and business development for Demandware.
The news comes on the heels of BigCommerce's plans to add AI-powered features to its platform using Google Cloud’s AI technologies later this year. Back in May, the company named Daniel Lentz as CFO, replacing longtime CFO Robert Alvarez, who is retiring.
Austin-based Energy Freelance, which helps oil and gas companies hire for key roles and provides project management, said John Harper is its new director of technology. He was most recently VP of technology at Black Box Intelligence. Prior to that, he held roles at Xenex, Garmin International and Balance Innovations. Energy Freelance is led by founder and CEO Ryan Vinson.
Austin-based virtual health care platform Wheel said Aug. 3 that it appointed Kristina Omari as its new CFO. She was most recently executive VP of finance at Austin-based Everly Health. She has also held roles at Adobe, Lyft and Fitbit. Wheel, led by co-founder and CEO Michelle Davey, acquired GoodRx Care's virtual care technology late last year. The startup, founded in 2018, has raised about $215 million, according to Crunchbase.
Austin-based risk management technology company Brinqa Inc. said Aug. 3 that it appointed Gopal Nagarajan as its new chief customer officer. He was most recently VP of worldwide professional services and customer support at graph database management company Neo4j. His resume also includes senior roles at HealthEdge, Attivio and OpenPages. He also co-founded Equilibrium Solutions Corp in 2007. Brinqa, founded in 2008, is led by co-founder and CEO Amad Fida. It has raised $110 million, according to Crunchbase.
Austin-based clinical-stage cancer drug company Molecular Templates Inc. announced in early August that Dr. Gabriela Gruia, former chief development officer at Ichnos Sciences, will become interim chief medical officer, succeeding Dr. Roger Waltzman. Meanwhile, Jason Kim will be president and CFO; Kristen Quigley was named COO; and Dr. Grace Kim is the company's new chief strategy officer and head of investor relations. Jason Kim joined Molecular Templates in 2010 and has held several executive roles there. Quigley has been with the company since 2017 and was previously senior VP of clinical operations. Grace Kim joined the company last year.
Insurtech startup Spot Insurance said Aug. 8 that it has promoted Rodan Prather to chief insurance officer. The company said she has already led the launch of two new products and helped the company expand into Canada. She was previously VP of strategy and insurance product at Bestow Life Insurance. Prior to that she was director of business transformation at R/GA.
Austin-based emergency medical services software maker ESO Solutions Inc. said Aug. 8 that it has appointed Eric Beck as its new CEO and president. He takes the place of founder and former CEO Chris Dillie who is moving over to executive chair of the board. Beck was most recently president and COO of University Hospitals Health System in Ohio. Before that, he was president of the clinical enterprise at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center. He also has a background as a firefighter and paramedic. ESO, founded in 2004, had raised about $45 million before securing a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners in 2021.
Revol Greens, which uses greenhouses to produce and packaged lettuce and leafy greens products, said Aug. 8 it has appointed James Bradley as CFO. He was previously CFO at Red's All Natural. Before that, he was CFO at New Providence. Revol Greens was founded in 2017 in Minnesota, and it has raised about $68M in investment, according to Crunchbase. The company is now based in Austin, and it recently opened a 20-acre greenhouse in Temple.
Austin-based nonprofit PelotonU said Aug. 14 it has appointed Lacey Pittman Tomanek as its new executive director. She was previously COO of Teach For America’s Systems Impact Lab, an initiative founded in 2018. She takes the place of former executive director Hudson Baird, who is leaving the role after more than 11 years to pursue a master’s degree in business from the University of Oxford. Founded in 2012, PelotonU teams up with big employers, including the City of Austin, to help its staff pursue higher education.
Austin-based IT management software company SolarWinds Worldwide LLC (NYSE:SWI) said Aug. 14 it has appointed Kevin Kline as senior staff technical marketing manager. Kline is author of O'Reilly's "SQL in a Nutshell" and "Transact-SQL Programming," and was most recently enterprise solution architect at Amazon Web Services. He previously worked at SolarWinds from 2019 to 2022 as "head geek." Before those roles, he was a database specialist for NASA and worked on the ISS and Hubble projects.
Austin-based price optimization software company Zilliant said today that it has added Chris Lee as chief revenue officer. He was previously CRO at customer feedback software company Latch and is co-founder and CEO of P.O.W.E.R SaaS Advisors, according to his LinkedIn page. He also held executive positions at DocuSign, Salesforce and Siebel Systems.
Zilliant, founded in 1999, raised more than $92 million before being acquired by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC in 2021.
Austin-based indie video game publisher Mad Mushroom said Aug. 19 that it appointed Mike Silbowitz as its CEO. He's founder and chief consultant of Sibs Consulting LLC and has worked with Activision Blizzard, Square Enix, NCSOFT and KRAFTON.
Austin cybersecurity startup Sevco Security said Aug. 16 that it added Kyle Derr as the company’s first CTO. He was most recently chief architect at Austin-based Sumo Logic and before that he held the same role at Austin-based JASK.
Sevco in May reported it had raised about $15 million from eight investors, according to an SEC filing. CEO J.J. Guy co-founded the cybersecurity startup in 2020. The company has raised a total of $36.7 million, according to Crunchbase.
ThisWay Global, an HR company focused on unbiased talent sourcing, on Aug. 17 named Jim Duddy as its chief revenue officer. He was most recently senior VP of sales at Austin-based Rev.com and, earlier in his career, was a director of search and staffing at LinkedIn.
ThisWay Global, led by CEO Angela Hood, is based in Austin. But Duddy will be working from Vermont. The company has raised about $4 million through equity crowdfunding and other investments, according to Crunchbase.
Austin-based wealth management platform creator Kestra Holdings said Aug. 17 that it appointed Jean-Luc Dupont as VP, chief information security officer and head of cybersecurity and technology risk. He'll report to the company's chief information officer, Nick Harness.Dupont was previously VP and CISO of American Credit Acceptance. Before that he was global head of IT security at DEMIA.
Chris Rowland has been named global executive director of diversity, equity, inclusiveness and belonging strategy at Austin-based legal and HR compliance software maker Mitratech, the company announced Aug. 18. He was previously director of commercialization and strategic relationships at Circa, a Milwaukee-based company acquired by Miratech in April. He was also ManpowerGroup’s global diversity officer from 2016 to 2021.
Mitratech, founded in 1987, is led by CEO Mike Williams. The company sold a majority stake to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in 2021 in a deal that valued Mitratech at a reported $1.5 billion.
Austin-based insurtech company Socotra Inc., said Aug. 22 that it has added Sonny Patel as chief product and technology officer. She was most recently senior VP of product, engineering and conversational intelligence at LivePerson, and her resume includes product, managing and engineering roles at Dell, Microsoft and Amazon. Soctra, founded in 2014 in San Francisco and led by CEO Dan Woods, has raised about $94M, including a $50M series C in March last year.
Jia Xu, the former CTO of Honeywell Aerospace's drone operations, has been appointed CEO of Austin-based drone company SkyGrid. He replaces Amir Husain, who was the founding CEO when Austin's SparkCognition and aerospace giant Boeing teamed up to create the company in 2018. Husain is also founder and CEO of SparkCognition. Husain will remain on SkyGrid's board.
In addition to his recent work at Honeywell, Xu has also held leading roles at Airbus, General Atomics and RAND Corporation, according to an Aug. 28 news release.
Austin-based clinical trials sourcing company Elligo Health Research said Aug. 29 that it added Barry Simms as its chief operating officer. He was previously COO at LabConnect. Simms replaces Dawn Sauro, who was promoted to COO in January. She appears to have moved on to become chief growth officer at WCG Clinical. Elligo, which has raised about $171 million since its founding in 2016, is led by CEO John Potthoff.
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