It's an interesting time to be a person on the move.
Even though Boston has begun to ease up its public health restrictions, allowing some office workers to head back in to headquarters, most local tech companies are in no rush to abandon the remote life. Hiring managers have adapted to all-digital hiring and onboarding processes, which applies to executives, too: Martech startup Drift hired a new chief revenue officer without holding even one interview in person.
This month, Drift was one of many startups and tech firms across sectors that brought on new executives. A total of 26 people took on roles with the word "chief" in their title in May, by our tally.
There were major departures as well. HubSpot president and chief operating officer JD Sherman announced plans to leave the company effective July 1. In more dramatic moves, health care startup Haven lost its CEO, Atul Gawande, whose departure reportedly came after months of internal strife.
By the way, our sister publication the Boston Business Journal recently put together a roundup of the highest-paid tech CEOs in Massachusetts.
Below are all the major hires and fires that took place in Massachusetts last month.
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 rwalrath@americaninno.com. See you in the inbox!
Aware, a supplier of biometrics software and services, appointed David Barcelo CFO.
Imara appointed Stephen M. Migausky as general counsel.
TCR² Therapeutics appointed veteran finance executive Stephen Webster to its board of directors.
Robotics startup Berkshire Grey appointed Christine Washburn chief marketing officer.
Tinder‘s former chief product officer joined the advisory board of digiD8.
Marcelo Bigal, who joined Versant as a venture partner after stepping down from the chief medical officer position at OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, is heading up Ventus Therapeutics as CEO.
ZeroNorth appointed Chris Riley SVP of sales.
HubSpot president and COO JD Sherman will be leaving the company effective July 1. He will be taking the summer to spend time with his family, a HubSpot spokesperson said.
Gemini Therapeutics appointed Marc E. Ukni chief medical officer.
Carbon Relay hired Joseph Wykes as chief sales officer.
Cybereason hired Rafik Hajem as VP of strategic markets.
Bedford-based MITRE named two additional senior visiting fellows: Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, and Nadia Schadlow, former U.S. deputy national security advisor for strategy.
Southborough-based Virtusa Corp. hired Ashish Devalekar as the managing director for Europe and the Middle East. The company provides digital strategy, engineering and IT services.
Boston-based Syniti, a global data solution provider, appointed Janet Mesrobian SVP and general counsel.
Waltham-based Dragonfly Therapeutics appointed Dr. Tapan Maniar SVP and head of clinical development.
Cambridge-based fintech company MineralTree hired Robert Brook as VP of engineering. He previously held the same role at Nielsen.
TimeTrade Systems got a new CEO: William Clark, who has held executive roles at Savi Technology, Deltek and Hyperion Solutions.
Robotics startup Berkshire Grey named Sri Solur the SVP and GM of a new business unit.
Chelmsford-based AutoGuide Mobile Robots, which creates high-payload autonomous mobile robots, appointed Mike Harper VP of sales and marketing.
Globalization Partners appointed Todd Goffman general counsel.
Boston-based Quick Base, which develops a low-code platform for operational agility, hired Ed Jennings as CEO. Jennings most recently served as COO at Lexington email security company Mimecast.
Knox Financial, the startup that helps homeowners become landlords, hired Matt Marra as VP of growth.
Waltham fintech startup Jassby appointed David Laubner to the role of chief revenue officer. Laubner recently held a senior marketing role at Amazon.
Cambridge autoimmune disease company Artax Biopharma announced a new management team:
- Joseph Lobacki, CEO
- Chris VanDeusen, chief scientific officer
- Richard P. Polisson, chief medical officer
- Karen LaRochelle, chief business officer
- Andres Gagete, COO
Haven, the health care startup created by created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, confirmed reports that Atul Gawande will step down as CEO of the company, and will serve instead as chairman. STAT later reported that Gawande's departure came after a frustrating two years marked by high turnover in key positions, potential duplication with the work of one of its founding companies, and halting progress toward its goals. The company has reportedly struggled to retain many of the new hires, including data scientists and software engineers.
Drizly Group, the parent company of alcohol delivery startup Drizly and new cannabis e-commerce startup Lantern, hired several new executives:
- Cathy Lewenberg as COO of Drizly
- Meredith Mahoney as president of Lantern
- Deborah Poole as a director on Drizly Group’s board
- Jaci Flug as Drizly Group’s general counsel
Nuance Communications appointed Diana Nole EVP and GM of its health care business.
Redwood City, Calif.-based late-stage enterprise data startup Delphix is bringing on Alex Hesterberg in Boston as its chief commercial officer.
Cambridge-based edtech startup edX promoted Nina Huntemann to VP of learning.
Stacey Caywood became the CEO of Wolters Kluwer‘s health division in Waltham as of June 1.
Routable AI, a Cambridge-based on-demand vehicle routing and management platform, hired James Cox as COO. Cox previously held high-level product roles at Canoo and Uber.
Boston-based Akcea Therapeutics hired Michael D. Price as EVP and CFO.
MOLTEN, a Cambridge-based cloud infrastructure platform that digitizes and streamlines core operations of media and entertainment organizations, hired Denise Denson as CFO.
Pandion Therapeutics appointed Dr. John S. Sundy chief medical officer.
Boston-based Nexthink, a digital employee experience management company, appointed Meg Donovan chief people officer.
Vecna Robotics appointed Denis Lussault VP of autonomy.
Cambridge-based Pegasystems hired Carola Cazenave as VP, global partner ecosystem, and Daniel Österberg-Holm as VP, alliances, channels and specialist sales, EMEA.
Martech startup Drift hired Todd Barnett as its new chief revenue officer. He started on April 13, after going through a month-long interview process involving phone calls, video chats, emails, WhatsApp and text messages.
Bedford-based Progress, a provider of application development and digital experience technologies, appointed Jeremy Segal VP, corporate development.
Cambridge-based Vor Biopharma appointed Nathan Jorgensen CFO.
Cambridge-based TCR2 Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing the next generation of novel T-cell therapies for patients suffering from cancer, hired two new executives: Gregg McConnell joined TCR2 as head of business development, while Viera Muzithras joined as VP of regulatory affairs.
Flagship Pioneering appointed Fabrice Chouraqui to the newly created dual role of both CEO-partner of Flagship Pioneering and CEO of Cellarity. The firm also appointed general partner Ignacio Martinez the founding president and CEO of Invaio Sciences.
PatientKeeper appointed John M. Kelly CTO.
SimpliSafe hired Don LeBlanc as the company’s first-ever chief commercial officer, according to an email to BostInno.
Michael Brown joined Cogo Labs as VP of the startup’s people team, according to an email to BostInno.
Carbon Relay hired Josh Viney as vice president of product. The company just received a $63M equity investment in February.
