As Colorado's startup ecosystem grows, companies are hiring more frequently than ever before.
As a result, the competitiveness in hiring and retaining talent is rapidly increasing across the state.
Looking back at personnel movement in 2019, we saw a number of game-changing hires, promotions and appointments that will help guide these companies to success in 2020 and beyond.
We compiled some of the top tech and startup hires of 2019 below:
Denver’s Galvanize, a technology coworking and education company, hired Bill Cummings as executive VP, enterprise to lead its corporate training business. Cummings joined Galvanize from Cognizant where he was the senior director and a founder of the Cognizant Digital Engineering business. Galvanize also brought on a new CEO, as Harsh Patel has taken on the role and Karl Maier joined as executive chairman. Former CEO Al Rosabal stepped down after coming on in early-2018. More on the hires here.
Colorado Springs-based food waste startup FoodMaven announced in September that Ben Deda was named CEO, as Patrick Bultema moves to chairman of the board. Prior to joining FoodMaven, Deda held senior and executive leadership roles at Vertafore, Galvanize, FullContact and TruStile in operations, sales, marketing and support. He is also a co-founder and board member for Denver Startup Week. More here from the Denver Biz Journal. [Subscriber Content]
Denver on-demand healthcare startup DispatchHealth’s added two additional members to its executive team this year, as Jennifer Meyer joined as chief development officer and Nabeel Meghji as chief product officer. In 2019, the company also announced an expansion to three additional markets, Springfield, MA, Tacoma, WA and North Texas, bringing its total market count to 18.
Denver's Swiftpage, a small business software platform, announced in December that Steve Oriola, who has served on the company's board for more than a year, will take over as president and CEO. Oriola has been the CEO of three SaaS companies, including Pipedrive, a New York-based SaaS customer relationship management provider to small businesses, as well as Julius and Crossboard Mobile. More on his hire from the Denver Biz Journal here.
Turbine Labs, an AI-powered executive intelligence platform, announced in March that it appointed Tom Teynor as its COO. Prior to joining Turbine Labs, Teynor founded Divination Consulting – a management consultancy focused on helping startups and growth-stage companies. He previously held C-level executive positions at three startups, including Ascent360, a SaaS-based marketing technology company; Coolerado Corporation, a cleantech air conditioning manufacturer; and Alysis Technologies, a SaaS-based financial technology company.
Denver’s SpotX, a global video advertising and monetization platform, announced in April that it appointed Jeanne Leasure as its first vice president of people. Leasure leads and oversees all global HR, training, career development, recruiting and employee experience functions within SpotX, working out of the company’s Denver office. Leasure led the HR department at Boa Technology for the past four years before joining SpotX.
Colorado Springs-based Cherwell Software, a service management software company, announced in May that Gary Golden was appointed as CFO. Golden previously served as CFO of Bottle Rocket, a mobile app design and development consultant, and at Westec Intelligent Surveillance and Sabre’s European region. This is the second executive hire at Cherwell we caught in 2019, as the company brought on Andre Cuenin as CRO in January.
After nearly six years at the helm of Catalyst HTI, Mike Biselli announced that he’ll be moving to BurstIQ as the company’s chief community officer. He had been an advisor to the company since 2015 and will continue to serve as a partner at Catalyst moving forward. BurstIQ, a Denver-based blockchain health care software startup, announced that it closed a $5.5 million Series A led by Austin’s Elsewhere Partners in October. More on the funding here. More on the move from Biselli here.
Denver’s HomeSphere, a construction tech company, announced a management shakeup in September that made Greg Schwarzer, formerly the company’s CRO, its president and COO. Glenn Renner, who previously held the title of president and CEO, will retain both his CEO and board positions. This move comes as HomeSphere transitions from a tech-enabled services company to a business-to-business software platform. More here.
CyberGRX, a Denver-based global cyber risk exchange provider, announced the addition of a new board member and three individuals to its executive team in October. Bob Carrigan joined the board, Adam Cecil joined as CFO, Jessica Reiter as CMO and Frank Price as VP of product. These hires help contribute to the company’s continued expansion into new markets as it comes off a $30 million Series C last fall. More on the hires here.
Denver's CirrusMD, a chat-first virtual care solution, appointed Justin Chang as VP of the CirrusMD provider network and Julie Kopp as VP of product. Prior to joining CirrusMD, Chang spent nearly five years as a VP at Kaiser Permanente Colorado where he served in various quality, innovation and care delivery executive roles. Kopp has over 20 years of product and product delivery experience across industries, including healthcare, telecom, oil and gas and cybersecurity. More here.
