Who's working where now in Boston tech? For our monthly roundup of “player personnel” news, we counted several CFOs on the move, with recent appointments in key financial roles at Acquia, BlueSnap and Endeavor Robotics—not to mention, a former CFO at Brightcove joining Watertown-based 3D printing startup Markforged.
In more C-Suite updates, both Imprivata and Quick Base hired new CTOs, while Pixability made changes to its team of executives with the appointments of a new chief revenue officer (like Localytics) and a new COO (like Acquia and EverTrue). Also, Mimecast, a Lexington-based email and data security company, closed the month with a new chief strategy officer among its execs.
As far as we could tell, only one new CEO was announced in May: Sarah Travers, who will replace Bill Jacobson as chief executive of Workbar.
Last but not the least, moves in the companies' boards can be traced at Dover Microsystems and Wayfair.
FYI, we cover “player personnel” news in the BostInno Beat newsletter every weekday. Stay on top of who’s going where by signing up right here. And if your company just made a key new hire, let me know at lmaffei@americaninno.com. See you in the inbox!
• Acquia appointed former Akamai executive Chris Andersen as CFO, while former Micro Focus and Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive Stephen Reny assumed the role of COO.
• Babson College announced the names for its Babson Women in Technology Board, which includes Maryfran Johnson, executive director of CIO Programs at IDG, and Sara Spalding, senior director at Microsoft NERD Center. In addition, Kerry Salerno was appointed chief marketing officer and VP of marketing; Salerno was previously at Northeastern University for 14 years, where she ultimately served as VP of enrollment, marketing and recruitment.
• Battery Ventures announced that General Partner Michael Brown has joined the board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association. Brown is based in Boston and specializes in investments in business software and financial services.
• Online payments company BlueSnap appointed Chris Menard as its new CFO. Prior to joining BlueSnap, Menard served as EVP and CFO at another payments company, Cayan, where he was responsible for overseeing the firm’s general and administrative functions.
• Edtech company Cengage promoted its SVP Laura Stevens as the new EVP and general counsel. In her previous role, Stevens designed and recruited a 50+ person legal team to reflect a rapid print-to-digital transformation.
• Keith Frankel is stepping away from CreativeMornings to pursue his startup full-time. Here's more on his new customer collaboration venture, Parlay.
• Dataxu, a provider of programmatic marketing software, is adding Benjamin Katz as SVP of engineering and CIO to its team. Prior to joining dataxu, Katz was CTO at Cinch Financial and Gazelle.
• Dockwa, which has offices in Newport, RI and Cambridge, has hired Jeremy Crane as VP of product development. Previously, he was VP of software product development at Indigo.
• Cybersecurity startup Dover Microsystems created an advisory board including Dr. Richard Soley, executive director of the Industrial Internet Consortium; Michael Wallace, an expert on critical infrastructure security and current joint leader of NIAC’s Working Group on Cybersecurity; and Rob Kornblum, a 25-year startup veteran and former venture capitalist.
• Chelmsford, Mass.-based Endeavor Robotics named David Adams as its first CFO. Adams has served as CFO at defense contractors Tribalco and QinetiQ North America, BBJ reported.
• Boston-based startup EverTrue, which makes marketing software for philanthropic giving, announced a bunch of hires: Niall Hawkins has been promoted to COO; Courtney Camps has been promoted to VP of customer success; Eben Pingree has been promoted to VP of product and Myles Lane has been promoted VP of finance and operations.
• FinMason, a Boston-based fintech firm, announced the appointments of Rahul Prakash Sheth as head of analytics and John Stahr as VP of product-analytics. Most recently, Sheth was a director at Fidelity Investments and Stahr served as principal product manager at Eagle Investment Systems.
• Formlabs has a new global marketing lead: Jeff Boehm, who is joining the designer and manufacturer of 3D printing systems from NuoDB, where he was CMO.
• GasBuddy, a mobile app that lets drivers discover rest stops, expanded its sales team with a bunch of key hires: Jordan Grossman, previously at Waze, joined as EVP; Jamie Albano from Freckle IoT joined as VP of data sales and licensing; Suzanne Lampert, from Cardlytics, will be VP, East Coast sales; and two new sales directors, Erich Berendt, from AdColony, as senior director of East Coast sales; and Jennifer Jones, from Megan Media, will be the new director of sales.
• Glasswing Ventures, a Boston-based VC firm that invests in AI and cybersecurity startups, has named several corporate execs to an advisory council. The group of advisors includes Barbara Goose, chief marketing officer of John Hancock, and Steve Chambers, executive chairman and former CEO of Jibo.
• Harvard University is hiring former EPA head Gina McCarthy. Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head and Boston native, McCarthy will lead a new climate science center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
• Healthcare IT security company Imprivata announced the appointment of Wes Wright to CTO. Most recently, Wright held the same role at Sutter Health.
• LevelUp announced the appointment of Mike Mirkil to the newly created role of VP of restaurant insights and analytics. Mirkil has over 20 years of restaurant experience working with brands such as Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill.
• Mobile engagement platform Localytics announced it has added new members to its executive team. Marty Siewert has joined the company as chief revenue officer and Matt Katz has joined as head of customer success. Additionally, many long-time employees have been promoted: Scott Bleczinski to chief alliance officer, Lisa Skinner to VP of marketing, Kristin Cronin to VP of people, culture and communications, Jon Wu to VP of financial planning and analysis and Brian Preti to VP and controller.
• Watertown-based 3D-printing startup Markforged has hired Kevin Rhodes, former CFO of Boston-based Brightcove.
• Lexington-based Mimecast, an email and data security company, appointed Christina Van Houten as chief strategy officer. In her career, Van Houten held positions at Oracle and IBM.
• E-commerce platform Moltin has added former Demandware CEO Tom Ebling to its board of directors.
• Osram has announced the appointments of three executives in C-level and VP roles: Juan Lopez has been named CFO for Osram’s Sylvania Lighting Solutions and Traxon Technologies; Philip Semprevio has been named COO for Osram’s Digital Systems group; Yavor Kolarov has been named VP of sales in the U.S. and Canada for Osram’s Digital Systems. All three will be based in Wilmington, Mass.
• Pegasystems appointed Rupen Shah as VP of independent software vendor (ISV) alliances and strategy, a newly created role. He joined “Pega” from Salesforce.
• Pixability has added two more execs to its C-suite. Nancy Lazaros has been promoted from CFO to the newly created COO position. Todd Taplin is now CRO. He was previously CRO of Celtra and VP of Adobe’s Advertising division. They also added Grant Stratemeyer as VP of Biz Dev and Anthony Mazzarella as VP of Strategic Accounts.
• Burlington, Mass.-based retail analytics company Profitect appointed Andrea Weiss to its board of directors. Weiss has over 30 years of experience in retail and multi-channel commerce and currently serves as the CEO of Retail Consulting Inc.
• Quick Base has announced George Mashini as CTO. He was previously CEO of Catavolt, Hexagon’s cloud and mobility platform.
• Resilient Coders added David Mendels as a board member. Mendels is the former CEO of Brightcove.
• Skyword, a content marketing software and services company based in downtown Boston, has appointed Paul Alexander, chief marketing and communications officer of Eastern Bank, to its board of directors.
• Threat Stack has named Pete Cheslock VP of technical operations. Before joining Threat Stack in 2014, he was at Dyn as director of dev tools.
• Boston-based online home furnishing site Wayfair appointed Andrea Jung to its board of directors. Jung was the former chairman and CEO of cosmetics and personal care company Avon Products Inc and serves as the current president and CEO of microfinance organization Grameen America.
• Workbar, an eight-year-old co-working space in Boston, announced Sarah Travers as its new CEO. Bill Jacobson will step down as CEO but will stay on as an owner and board manager. Travers joined Workbar as head of business development in December.
If you think I’m missing someone from the list, email me at lmaffei@americaninno.com
