While Covid-19 has changed personnel plans for many, technology companies and startups from across the state continue to hire during the pandemic. We track the major player personnel moves in our daily newsletter, the Beat. Below, we’ve listed the top Colorado technology and startup hires reported in October.
Denver-based Flowhub, a point-of-sale platform for dispensaries, announced the appointment of former Uber General Manager Leandre Johns as its new chief operating officer. Johns, who is based in Texas, served in the role at Uber from 2012 to 2018 and has since been mentoring and investing in startups.
Denver’s Guild Education announced Chris Garber as its new chief financial officer. The ed tech giant hired Garber from San Francisco-based data connectivity platform LiveRamp, where he was a senior vice president in charge of finance and operations.
There’s a new leader at the Colorado BioScience Association, and she has her eyes on turning the state into a national powerhouse. CBSA announced the appointment of Elyse Blazevich as the new president and CEO of the industry organization. Blazevich comes to CBSA as the company she co-founded and led as chief financial officer and chief operating officer, Securisyn Medical, transitions its leadership team to scale commercially. Blazevich has previously served in a board leadership role with CBSA and replaces former President and CEO Jennifer Jones Paton after she announced her decision to step down in July.
Newly-minted Denver cloud data unicorn Matillion has brought on Naggi Asmar as its first chief engineering officer. Asmar has nearly 25 years of development experience at Bay Area companies, most recently serving as senior vice president of engineering at Medallia. Prior to that, Asmar spent a decade at Oracle as vice president of engineering for Oracle Fusion Middleware. In September, Matillion announced $150M in Series E funding that brought its total capital raised to $310M at a valuation of $1.5B.
Following its July launch, student housing operator Yugo has announced the appointment of Aly El-Bassuni as its new CEO. The Denver-based company's living portfolio is comprised of 95 properties and 45K beds in 75 cities across the world. Prior to joining Yugo, El-Bassuni was COO of Radisson Hotels for the Americas.
QRails, a cloud-based payment solutions startup, has hired Sharon Kirby as its first ever senior vice president of U.K. and Europe operations. Prior to joining the Denver-based startup, Kirby most recently served as director of partnerships at U.K.-based Hastee. Kirby also regularly leads webinars and speaks at events on the topic of financial wellness.
Denver's ToolWatch Corporation, a provider of tool and equipment tracking software, continues to expand with the addition of two new hires on its executive team. Troy Suttle was named the new VP of marketing and Joe Barrow will take over as the new VP of sales. In June, ToolWatch received an undisclosed investment from The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm.
