In July, the Dallas area climbed to the No. 2 spot among metros with the most tech job postings, according to a CompTIA analysis of job posting data from Burning Glass Technologies Labor Insights, putting it behind only New York and Washington, D.C.
In August, tech companies across the region looked to fill those spots with a spree of leadership and C-suite moves. In total, nearly 30 tech firms and startups added to their roster, with organizations like eIVF, Robin Autopilot and Buff City Soap naming new CEOs. About 11 other companies made additions to their C-suite, while the same amount made other additions to leadership roles. Four companies made board appointments.
There’s likely to be more hires in the coming months, as companies make expansions and relocate to the region. Companies like Dallas fintech Bestow, CarMax and Oatly have plans to hire hundreds, collectively. A potential plan by electric vehicle giant Rivian could bring a manufacturing facility and 7,500 jobs to Fort Worth.
To help keep up with who is coming and going from North Texas, we’ve rounded up the top hires in North Texas from August.
Pro tip: You can read daily updates on hirings, departures, funding, M&A and VC activity in our newsletter, The Beat.
Hiring
Irving fertility-focused software company eIVF named Nimesh Shah its new CEO and Tim Beaulieu as its new chief product commercialization officer. Before joining the Atlantic Street Capital-backed company, which launched in 2002, Shah served as CEO at mobile SaaS firm Ingenious Med. Beaulieu previously served as eIVF's VP of IT. Before that, he served as the VP of development at business solutions firm Newmarket.
BILT, a Grapevine-based app maker that helps users assemble items like furniture at home, added to its leadership, appointing Bill Wade as its new president and chief strategy officer. Wade has served on BILT’s board for the past 18 months. Before taking on the executive role, he served as a senior partner at management consulting giant Bain & Company. The announcement follows a $9 million investment the company raised from Austin firm Silverton Partners.
After launching Founder Institute Texas, Martín Martinez is now the state's executive director - a first-of-its-kind role for the organization. Martinez helped to open all three Texas chapters of the entrepreneurial training and support organization over the past four years and will now serve as the executive director of the Lone Star State. He will also take up the mantel of entrepreneur in residence, working closely with the headquarters on things like events, expansion and recruitment.
Fort Worth’s Nacuity Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on ocular diseases, announced adding Robert Ruffolo to its board of directors. In addition to the board role, Ruffolo serves as chief innovation officer at cosmetic and therapeutic firm Versicolor Technologies.
San Francisco cyber situational awareness firm Vehere brought on Vijay Gullapalli as its new Dallas-based director of engineering. According to Gullapalli’s LinkedIn, he was previously working as an engineer lead at a stealth startup. Before that, he served as senior director and head of engineering at cybersecurity company Optiv.
RumbleOn, an Irving-based automotive buying and selling e-commerce platform, added to its C-suite by naming Matthew McCartin as its new chief marketing officer starting in September. Before joining RumbleOn, McCartin served as CMO and brand president for Vitalize, a sports nutrition subsidiary of Expedia Ventures.
Dallas- and California-based biopharmaceutical company ReCode Therapeutics, which focuses on pulmonary diseases, appointed Angèle Maki as its new senior VP of business development. She joins the company, which closed an $80 million Series A last year, from a previous role as VP of venture science and corporate business development at Eli Lilly and Company.
After reaching a $2.5 million funding milestone in June, Austin-based social music app EarBuds, which has part of its team in Dallas, closed a $3 million funding round led by Austin VC firm Ecliptic Capital. Others in on the round included the Andre Agassi Foundation and LFG Ventures. The startup, led by founder and CEO Jason Fox, a former NFL player, had previously raised $2.1 million from Techstars and a variety of well-known investors, including NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield. The new money is expected to help the company build new tools for its real-time social music app. EarBuds also said it has hired former Apple product manager David Ransom as head of product and former Apple software development manager Sean Moubry as head of engineering. It also added Drew Larner, a VR creator and founding CEO of Rdio (acquired by Pandora), as an investor and senior advisor.
Gore Range Capital, a skin health-focused VC firm that moved from New York to Southlake to launch its second fund last year, brought on Chidi Nwankpa as its newest senior associate. Before joining Gore Range, Nwankpa served as an investor at early-stage deep tech VC firm Creative Ventures.
After acquiring a competitor in the robotic lawn care space in April and landing a McKinney EDC Innovation Fund grant to relocate in June, Robin Autopilot has a new CEO. It’s tapped Chief Product and Strategy Officer Hiten Sonpal, who joined the company last year, to take over the role. Sonpal takes over for Logan Fahey, CEO since 2019 and will become chairman of the startup's parent company, Robin Autopilot Holdings' board.
Nitin Ahuja, the CEO of Irving-based digital transformation firm Aligned Automation, joined the board of Houston nonprofit Comp-U-Dopt, which aims to provide tech access and education to underserved communities. Ahuja will become the 16th member of the growing board as the nonprofit looks to expand across the country.
Valify, a Frisco-based tech firm focused on health care cost management, named Raelyn Wilson its new COO, as well as COO its purchased services arm Valify Solutions Group. Wilson joined the company in 2016, serving as its VP of client services.
Dallas cloud commerce solutions firm Kibo brought on Allison Dancey as its new chief marketing officer. Before joining Kibo, Dancey held a similar position at Austin managed services provider OneTouchPoint.
In a LinkedIn post, Noel Geren announced being promoted to chief technology officer at Fort Worth's collegiate-focused telehealth company TimelyMD. The local serial entrepreneur joined the company in 2019 as its senior VP of technology.
After acquiring Atlanta’s Big Nerd Ranch, a web and mobile app developer, Dallas software developer projekt202 added its former CEO to its own C-suite. Stacy Henry is taking over the role of a chief operating officer of projekt202, which has multiple U.S. offices, in addition to ones in Malaysia and Colombia. Since Big Nerd Ranch’s acquisition, Henry has acted as the general manager of projekt202’s Atlanta office.
Kurt Schaum joined McKinney-based health care SaaS startup MyTelemedicine as its new VP of sales, the company’s executive VP Wayne Orchard announced in a LinkedIn post. Prior to joining the company, Schaum served as the VP of account management at advocacy and assistance company Health Advocate. Last year, MyTelemedicine landed a grant from the McKinney EDC’s Innovation Fund to grow its headcount to 60 over the next three years.
Dallas’ Flite Golf, a technology and management solutions company for golfing venues, brought on Ken May as a senior advisor. May, a former CEO with Topgolf, Drive Shack and FedEx Office, joins as Flite is teaming up with Century Golf Partners, an investment and management company, to implement ball-tracking technology to Century’s courses. According to The Dallas Morning News, Century also has clients interested in using Flite’s tech to create golf entertainment venues similar to Topgolf. As part of the partnership, Flite’s employees are moving into Century’s offices at the Lincoln Centre.
The Dallas Regional Chamber tapped Sharon Carson as its new senior VP of member engagement. Carson joins the chamber from her previous role as director of development at local nonprofit the Wilkinson Center, which aims to prevent and find pathways out of poverty.
Jeanette Cajide joined Dallas technology services company Dialexa as its new VP of strategy. Cajide previously worked for the company between 2012 and 2016 as its VP of corporate development. Before rejoining, she served as the strategy and operations director for Chicago growth strategy firm Clareo.
Local digital transformation services company GlobalStep appointed Roman Kikta to its board of directors. Kikta also serves as the CEO and co-founder of Plano facial recognition AI company Phenometrix and the founder and managing partner of emerging technologies VC firm Mobility Ventures.
Continuing its leadership hiring spree, following a $4.5 million funding round earlier this year, Dallas real estate tech startup Dottid named Cody Beavers as its new director of marketing. Before joining the Dottid team, Beavers worked as a marketing specialist at the event planning and management platform haku. The announcement comes as Dottid has moved into a new 5.5K sq.-ft. space at Preston Center nearly doubles the size of its previous headquarters.
ThinkWhy, a Dallas SaaS company focused on talent acquisition and retention, added Jim D’Amico to its executive advisory board. D’Amico serves as a global talent acquisition leader at Irving chemistry solutions firm Celanese. He also is a past president and current board member of the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals.
After forming in May, Plano-based business and tech service provider Argano named Mark Hermans as its new group chief operating officer. He has served as the COO of Argano portfolio company Arbela Technologies since 2019, after joining the company the year before. The Trinity Hunt Partners-backed company was formed out of three firms – Keste in Plano, InterRel Consulting in Arlington and United Virtualities, which has offices in New York, Mexico and Argentina.
After landing a $15 million Series B round led by NewRoad Capital Partners in March, Plano-based PICKUP, which helps retailers get products to shoppers’ homes, added to its leadership. It's brough on Jason Zubrick and Tim Delgado. Zubrick will serve as chief technology officer, while Delgado will take on chief information security officer and VP of technology. Before joining PICKUP, Zubrick held a similar role at Grapevine's defi Solutions. Delgado most recently served as the director of global security architecture and engineering at GameStop.
Fort Worth- and San Francisco-based investment giant TPG tapped a longtime leader to join its C-suite lineup. It’s named Jack Weingart to the newly-created role of chief financial officer. Before Weingart's promotion, the senior leadership team, led by Co-Chief Operating Officer Ken Murphy, managed all of the firm's financials. TPG has seen a recent C-suite shakeup amid speculation the firm is eyeing going public. In May, Jon Winkelried stepped up as sole CEO after serving as co-CEO with co-founder Jim Coulter since 2015.
After filling two C-suite positions last month, Dallas real estate tech startup Dottid addedits newest member to the lineup. The company announced promoting Senecca Miller to the position of chief technology and operations officer. It’s an expanded role for Miller, who has served in the chief technology officer position since joining the startup in 2019.
Also, Dallas- and Atlanta-based managed security service provider Zyston tapped Jeremy Powell as its new CTO and managing director of consulting and advisory services. Before joining the company, Powell served as the chief information security officer for customer engagement firm Verint. According to LinkedIn, he has also served on Zyston’s advisory board since January.
After joining local early-stage, retail tech-focused VC firm RevTech Ventures as an MBA Venture Fellow in March, Leon Jacobson was promoted to the role of brand launchpad director of the firm. The UT Dallas MBA candidate has helped to lead a few local startups, including senior transportation service Serenity Rides and apparel company GuudWEAR.
Dallas esports organization Envy Gaming is again adding to its roster, not its professional players, but its lineup of content creators. Joining its creator network is Alejandra “Athena,” a Rocket League-focused streamer with more than 1.5 million followers across her channels. Before Envy, Athena was with Germany-based esports organization G2 Esports. She joins other Envy content creators, the Botez Sisters, JustaMinx, BobbyPoff, Sebas and TeeP.
Silicon Valley travel software startup FLYR Labs named Robert Haun, the former director of operations research innovation and planning at Dallas' Southwest Airlines, as its new vice president of AI delivery. The announcement comes as the company, which provides a revenue operating system to the transportation industry, announced opening new offices in Dallas, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. It currently has offices in San Francisco and Kraków. FLYR's website lists four open positions in DFW.
After Buff City Soap moved its headquarters from Memphis to Dallas last year for a smoother logistics operation and closer to its PE backers Guideboat Capital and Crux Capital, the plant-based bath and body product maker announced hiring Craig Kessler its new CEO. Before joining Buff City, Kessler served as the chief operating officer at Topgolf, where he worked since 2016.
