This is our feature where we recap the biggest tech hires and promotions in Chicago over the past month. Want daily updates on personnel moves, fundings and other Chicago tech news? Sign up for our daily newsletter, The Beat.
Sustainable Bioproducts, a Chicago-based alternative protein biotech startup that raised $33M earlier this year, hired Karuna Rawal as its CMO. She joins SBP from Leo Burnett/Publicis Groupe, where she most recently served as president and group client lead across multi-agency teams for Procter & Gamble and ALDI.
Chicago real estate tech startup Truss hired Andrew Lisy to lead its product team. Lisy comes to Truss from Groupon, where he led supply and merchant experience.
Neal Sáles-Griffin, a well-known Chicago tech entrepreneur and former mayoral candidate, was selected to run startup accelerator Techstars Chicago. Sáles-Griffin, the founder of The Starter League and the CEO of CodeNow, is replacing Logan LaHive as the program’s managing director.
Chicago cannabis firm Cresco Labs hired Mo Dastagir as its next chief information officer. Dastagir comes to Cresco Labs from Sears, where he served as vice president and chief technology officer. Dastagir also previously worked in India as one of the first five employees at Amazon Hyderabad, which became Amazon.com’s India operations.
Mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate hired Suk Shah to be its chief financial officer. Shah comes to Guaranteed Rate after five years as CFO of Avant, a Chicago online lending startup. Prior to that, he worked at Global Commercial Bank and General Electric.
Illinois cannabis firm Revolution Enterprises appointed Tony Hunter to chair of the company's board of directors. Hunter is the former CEO of Tribune Publishing and publisher of the Chicago Tribune.
CareerBuilder announced today that it has appointed Chet Kwasniak to chief financial officer. Kwasniak most recently served as CFO at MW Industries, and before that was CFO of Clear Channel Outdoor Americas.
Sprout Social has named two new people to its board of directors. Karen Walker, the chief marketing officer for Cisco, and Steve Collins, the previous CFO for ExactTarget and NAVTEQ, both joined the board of the fast-growing social media management startup. Sprout raised $40M earlier this year.
Chicago-based fintech organization FinTEx announced that Randy Rivera has been appointed to executive director. Rivera is the creator of the FinTEx Forum and longtime member of the group's advisory board. Founded in 2014 by Jason Henrichs and Lisa Curran, FinTEx works to boost the city's growing fintech community.
Accenture named Shivani Vora the director of its Innovation Hub in Chicago, where the consulting giant works on a number of its tech initiatives. Vora was most recently a managing director within Accenture Strategy.
Chicago healthtech startup SonarMD has added two new people to its leadership team. Beth Houck is joining the company as its chief customer officer and Julie Schokora is joining as chief product officer.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hired Eunice Santos as its new dean of the School of Information Sciences. Santos, who begins her new role Aug. 16, pending approval, comes to U of I from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she was the chair of its computer science department.
Chicago-based MATH Venture Partners hired Josh Leavitt to be its chief financial officer. He will be responsible for overseeing the accounting, financial reporting, operations and administrative functions of the firm and the funds. Leavitt comes to MATH from Green Thumb Industries, where he was a market president.
Chicago’s Origin Ventures announced three promotions to its team. It has promoted Scott Stern and Prashant Shukla to vice president, and Devon Leichtman to director of platform. Origin has invested in local startups, such as Cameo, Tock and Tovala.
