Update 5/29 5:22 p.m.: Twitter’s senior vice president of engineering Chris Fry plans to step down from his place at the helm of the company and will move into an advisory role, according to Re/Code. Taking his place in the executive role will be Alex Roetter, Twitter’s former vice president of engineering.
We spoke with both Fry and Roetter upon the debut of Twitter’s official Boston-area office back in March. With locally-spawned, acquired companies Bluefin Labs and Crashlytics in-house, the social media firm’s post in the Hub is technically-focused; thus, Fry and Roetter are largely responsible for its oversight. Though both men are based out of the company’s West Coast headquarters, Roetter said at the time that he makes the six-hour flight to Cambridge nearly every quarter.
The story is still developing, but we can expect that the person that moves into the Roetter’s old role at Twitter will also be making frequent appearances in the company’s East Coast office in Kendall Square.
Boston's business elite has been busy this past week. Catch up on who's going where below:
On the heels of filing to raise a new growth fund, local VC Spark Capital brought on a new partner this week. Jeremy Philips, the former senior executive from News Corporation, will join the firm’s investment team. Philips has also been a successful investor in Boston-area travel tech company TripAdvisor.
“We have known Jeremy for many years. Jeremy has an amazing track record as an entrepreneur, a senior executive at News Corporation and a public CEO,” wrote Spark investor Bijan Sabet in a blog post. “And he’s a terrific person and a very good friend.”
He’ll be specifically focused on Spark Growth, which will be based in New York City. The firm is also scouting two new associates to join Philips in the Big Apple.
It was also confirmed this week that four engineers from Springpad’s team, along with the company’s Chief Product Officer Jeff Chow with join Google’s Cambridge office. The news came a few days after Springpad announced that it would be shutting down its service.
Boston’s “TripAdvisor of tours” startup Tourmatters brought on Christel Shea as its editorial director this week. After serving 20 years in the travel industry, Shea will head up the company’s editorial efforts. We recently profiled the startup here.
Woburn, Mass.-based Comindware welcomed aboard Michael Donaghey as its new VP of sales in North America. Donaghey will play key role in increasing the market penetration of Comindware Tracker, the company’s enterprise solution for business process atomization.
Three local companies that recently raised funding are also looking to expand their teams: MIT-spun startup Grove Labs, Providence-based small business analytics company Swipely and employee feedback startup dunwello.
