When it comes to naming the top Boston tech hires and departures of the year, it's quite a bit more subjective than something like, say, funding rounds.
There was at least one big personnel move that seemed obvious: the departure of former General Electric CEO and Chairman Jeff Immelt, who was the company's No. 1 advocate for relocating GE's headquarters to Boston. Another public company also made the list: Brightcove, which also had a leadership shakeup this year.
As for other moves on the list, we included one early-stage startup that scooped up a former Obama administration official, companies that are poised to become pillars in the community; venture capital firms; and Uber, which made a hire from Harvard Business School.
Here are BostInno's top 10 Boston tech hires and departures:
• Acquia announced in November that former Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive Michael Sullivan will succeed former CEO Tom Erickson. Sullivan, who is working alongside co-founder and chairman Dries Buytaert, was most recently an executive at Micro Focus, which spun out of HPE into its own company in a merger with HPE’s software business in September. Before joining HP, he led a business unit at risk and compliance software provider Autonomy and served as the CEO and founder of Steelpoint Technologies.
• Brightcove CEO David Mendels resigned in late July following a poor performance on the stock market and pressure from a shareholder and former board member to step down. Andrew Feinberg, the company’s president and COO, took over as CEO.
• The Engine, MIT’s new venture fund and startup accelerator, announced in February the hiring of Katie Rae as its president and CEO, as well as managing partner for its first fund. Rae was previously co-founder and managing director of Project 11 Ventures, a local pre-seed venture capital firm, and she also had served as managing director of Techstars Boston.
• Fuze, a Cambridge-based provider of unified cloud communications software, named Dyn CEO Colin Doherty as its new leader in February while giving former CEO Steve Kokinos the role of executive chairman. Before Dyn, Doherty had served as CEO of BTI Systems and Arbor Networks.
• General Catalyst added Holly Maloney McConnell as a new managing director in September, making her the Cambridge-based venture capital firm's first woman with that position. She was most recently a principal at Guidepost Growth Equity, formerly known as North Bridge.
• General Electric's Jeff Immelt stepped down as chairman of the board in October, three months ahead of schedule. The company previously announced in June that Immelt was stepping down as CEO at the beginning of August. John Flannery, who was previously president and CEO of GE Healthcare, replaced Immelt as both chairman and CEO.
• Localytics, a mobile analytics software provider, named Oracle veteran Jude McColgan as its new CEO in June, replacing the company’s co-founder and longtime leader, Raj Aggarwal. Aggarwal, who helped found Localytics in 2008, will remain “actively involved with the company.” Before joining Localytics, McColgan held leadership roles that focused on mobile at Avast Software, Nuance Communications and TomTom. Prior to that, McColgan worked at Oracle for nearly a decade.
• Uber, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company that has been ensnared in a series of controversies, hired Frances Frei, a Harvard Business School professor, as its first senior vice president of leadership and strategy in June. At the time of Frei's announcement, Recode reported that Frei had a broad mandate, including training managers and executives, developing a sexual harassment policy and helping founder Travis Kalanick, who was forced out as CEO later that month.
• Zemcar, a rideshare startup that provides transportation options for families and their children, announced in October the hiring of Juliette Kayyem, who served as a homeland security official in the Obama administration, as CEO, replacing founder Bilal Khan, who now serves as board chairman and head of product and technology.
• Zipcar, a subsidiary of Avis Group, hired Tracey Zhen as its new president in January. Zhen was previously vice president for TripAdvisor, overseeing multiple brands.
