As Colorado’s tech ecosystem continues to grow, the state’s top technology companies and startups are hiring more frequently.
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 November.
Denver's GrowGeneration, a hydroponics and gardening retail company, announced that it has named Tony Sullivan as executive VP and COO. As a result, Joe Prinzivalli will leave his current role as COO and take over as CTO. Prior to joining GrowGeneration, Sullivan served as executive VP and COO of Forman Mills and held various roles at Dollar Express and Foot Locker. More on the leadership shuffle here.
Greenwood Village's Forbes M&A Group, a transaction advisory firm, announced that Stephen Quisenberry has joined the firm as managing director. Prior to joining Forbes, Quisenberry founded 105 Meridien, a private label manufacturer of sports bags and luggage. After his first successful exit, he went on to manage and sell several other companies, including Mountainsmith, WindXtreme, Pentrax, Head Luggage and Power Sports Group. More on his new role here.
SEAKR Engineering, a Centennial space electronics company, has appointed Kent Lietzau to lead business development. Lietzau joins SEAKR after several years at United Launch Alliance where he served as VP of strategy and business development. More on the hire here.
Fort Collins-based venture firm Factor[e] Ventures has brought on Jit Bhattacharya, a clean technology innovator and previous CTO of Fenix International. As a principal based in the firm's Nairobi office, Bhattacharya will lead investments into technology-enabled, early-stage ventures that improve lives in the developing world. His main focus will be on companies in the energy access and mobility sectors. More on the hire here.
Oppenheimer & Co, an investment bank, wealth manager and subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings, announced that Andy Livadariu joined the firm's Global Technology Investment Banking Group as a managing director, providing strategic and capital raising advisory services in the enterprise application software sector. Livadariu will be located in Denver and previously was with Piper Jaffray, where he covered application software and led the human capital management practice. Prior to Piper Jaffray, he spent more than a dozen years with GCA, Citigroup and UBS. More on the hire here.
Golden's Meritech, a fully automated hygiene tech company, announced the appointment of Paul Barnhill as chief technology officer and Troy Hale as VP of operations. Meritech offers a line of fully automated hand washing, boot scrubbing and footwear sanitizing equipment. Barnhill takes on this new role after serving as the company's COO and VP of engineering for the past 13 years. Hale previously served as Meritech's VP of field services for six years. More on both hires here.
Denver-based identity security company Ping Identity announced the appointments of Yancey Spruill and Lisa Hook to its board of directors prior to its recent IPO. Spruill currently serves as CEO of DigitalOcean, a privately-held cloud computing company. Hook currently serves on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, where she was appointed in 2012 by President Obama. More on the appointments here.
