The D.C. tech scene features well-established legacy institutions and fledgling startups, and it can seem like the people leading them are playing a game of musical chairs.
In 2019, we saw a wide variety of hires and departures, which DC Inno has rounded up every month. The tech jobs we've reported on include top talent at private companies, nonprofits, think tanks, universities and more.
Here are monthly snapshots of D.C.'s top tech personnel changes in 2019.
January
Giant Oak, a data analytics company with software-as-a-service offerings for government and enterprises, brought on Mike Cerick as its chief revenue officer and Brian Spindler as VP of engineering. Spindler came from 15 years of experience in building SaaS products, and Cerick previously worked in critical infrastructure sales with the Department of Defense. Adobe appointed Kelly Olson to key role in liaising with Washington as its head of industry strategy for the public sector. Olson was previously acting director of Technology Transformation Services (TTS) at the General Services Administration. Arcadia, a clean energy broker for homeowners and renters, named Alexis Juneja as its SVP of people and impact. Juneja previously had advisory roles at Framebridge, Girls Night In and Vox Media. Arcadia re-branded from Arcadia Power in December.
February
- Axios, known for its “smart brevity” news format, brought on Jess Szmajda as CTO to head up its subscription products. Szmajda came to Axios from D.C.-based Optoro, a returns management platform for retailers.
- Data analytics software company Babel Street appointed retired Major General Mark Quantock as EVP of strategic accounts, whereby he'll build up the company's military and government client list. Quantock is a U.S. military intelligence veteran with more than 37 years of experience.
March
- The Public Interest Registry, the Reston-based nonprofit operator of the .org domain, made three big additions in March: Judy Song-Marshall as chief of staff, Joe Abley as CTO and Anand Vora as VP of business affairs. PIR had gotten a new president and CEO, Jon Nevett, just months prior in December.
Territory Foods, a local health-focused meal prep and delivery startup, named Abigail Coleman as its new CEO. Coleman was formerly head of e-commerce and VP of marketing and strategy at Amazon subsidiary Quidsi Inc. She's also head leadership roles at Mondelez International and Kraft Foods Group. Tenable, a publicly traded cybersecurity firm in Columbia, Md. brought on Terry Dolce as its first VP of global business development & channels. He was previously at advisory firm Crowe LLP, where he oversaw governance, risk and compliance. Dolce was also global sales chief of staff at RSA Security.
April
- Cyren, a publicly-traded cybersecurity firm, announced that Brett Jackson would be its new CEO. He officially came on in May after the planned departure of Lior Samuelson, who is still Cyren's chairman. Jackson was most recently CEO of Nashville-based artificial intelligence startup Digital Reasoning.
- Kamal Advani became the new CEO of BridgeStreet. The company runs an online platform to book corporate housing stays across the globe. Advani had been on BridgeStreet's board and is also the managing director of Versa Capital Management, BridgeStreet’s controlling shareholder.
- Octo Consulting Group named two new executives. Jay Shah moved up from VP of Octo’s health business unit to being the company's COO. He took over for Robert McCord, who had been president and COO from 2015. Pamela Rothka, formerly a top exec at Buchanan & Edwards, was brought on as Octo's new CFO.
May
Herndon-based satellite startup HawkEye 360 scored Chris Herndon as its chief information officer. An IT veteran, Herndon has served White House deputy assistant to the president and the director of White House information technology. Stanley Pierre-Louis became the new CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. The group is a major lobbying presence for the gaming industry. Pierre-Louis had been acting CEO for some months after the departure of Mike Gallagher, the job's previous holder. Pierre-Louis was previously the ESA's general counsel. Before that, he was general counsel for intellectual property at media conglomerate Viacom.
June
- Alexandria-based Amify, which tailors marketing plans for brands operating on Amazon, named Andy Cipra its new chief marketing officer. Cipra had spent years leading marketing efforts for brands such as Procter & Gamble, 3M and Dish Network.
- Snag (formerly Snagajob), named Mathieu Stevenson as its new CEO. The company, runs a search platform for hourly jobs. Stevenson had been with Snag since January its as chief marketing officer. The CEO post was vacated by Fabio Rosati, who had held it since July 2018. Rosati is still Snag's executive board chairman.
- Tech association group CompTIA hired Cinnamon Rogers as its executive VP for public advocacy to lead the group's expanding federal, state and international advocacy efforts. Rogers previously held executive and leadership roles with the Telecommunications Industry Association, Discovery Communications and Time Warner Inc.
July
Andy Hooper became the new president and COO of local pizza chain &pizza. The newly minted job was a step up for Hooper, who headed up HR as the company's chief people officer before. The move followed the hires of executive chef Erik Bruner-Yang and CFO John Reepmeyer. C’pher Gresham took over as CEO of SEED SPOT, social entrepreneurship-focused incubator. He succeeded Courtney Klein, who stepped down after an eight-year run. Since 2014, Gresham had held various roles with SEED SPOT before landing the top job. Accenture named Julie Sweet as its global CEO in July, although she wouldn't step into the role until September. Sweet had previously served as the Arlington-based consulting giant's North America CEO and general counsel.
August
ICF named John Wasson as its CEO, officially taking over in October. Wasson is the technology services company's first new chief in decades, succeeding Sudhakar Kesavan. Wasson had been COO since 2003 and president since 1999. The Fairfax-based firm logged $1.3 billion in revenue in 2018 and has more than 6,000 employees. The Public Interest Registry brought on Laurie Tarpey as its chief financial officer. Tarpey came with more than 20 years of experience in financial strategy, having held executive roles at top-100 accounting firm Raffa PC and nonprofit Northern Virginia Family Service. Digital media firm ICX Media hired Serge Matta as president and CEO. Matta was previously president of geo-location firm GroundTruth and president and CEO of comScore. He replaced Michael Avon, who stayed on as as ICX’s executive chairman.
September
- DXC Technology, a publicly traded IT solutions provider, named Mike Salvino as its new president and CEO. Salvino came from being managing director at private equity firm Carrick Capital Partners. DXC formed in 2017 when Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise services arm merged with Computer Sciences Corp. Salvino replaced Mike Lawrie, who retired after leading the DXC from its inception.
- Amify made two big hires in September: Anthony Hoang came on as CTO and Samantha Byrd joined as chief people officer. Hoang was most recently CIO of retailer CliqStudios and has worked with brands including Target and Evereve. Byrd previously led HR strategies at MasterCard subsidiary Applied Predictive Technologies, and more recently served as VP of human resources for Envision.
- College Park-based Phishing protection startup Inky Technology brought on John Lyons as chief revenue officer to handle the money as it expands in the cybersecurity sphere. Lyons has held executive leadership roles at ThreatConnect, ThreatTrack Security and Tenable.
October
- The Silicon Valley VC behemoth Sequoia Capital hired Don Vieira as a D.C.-based chief legal officer and partner. Vieira had been an expert on CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates in D.C. Sequoia previously had little presence in Washington.
- Edtech giant 2U brought on Jennifer Ogden-Reese as its new chief marketing officer. Ogden-Reese joins 2U from SeatGeek, where she served as CMO for three years. 2U also hired former NeuStar Chief Financial Officer Paul Lalljie as its new CFO.
- Former EverFi CFO Lisa Mayr became the new CFO at MicroStrategy, an enterprise software provider based in Tysons. She replaced Phong Le, who was working as CFO and COO while also overseeing sales and services. In addition to EverFi, Mayr held executive roles at Blackboard and LivingSocial.
November
- Optoro, which makes a platform to help retailers manage returns, had three big personnel changes in 2019. New CFO Katy McCarthy was previously founder and CEO of Geeknet, parent of ThinkGeek. Peter Spellman came on as CTO after working in the same title at companies iWant, SupplyScape, TraceLink, Performaworks and INTTRA. And Pankaj Kulkarni became Optoro's new SVP of product after leading product and M&A at GetWellNetwork.
- Virginia Tech hired Sara Hooshangi as the founding director of the forthcoming computer science master's degree at the school’s planned Innovation Campus in Alexandria. Hooshangi comes from George Washington University’s college of professional studies, where she founded the Integrated Information, Science and Technology program.
- Rockville-based IT services integrator VariQ named John Dvorak as its first CTO. A former technology executive at the FBI and NH, Dvorak will lead the development of VariQ's innovation center, QLabs, for cybersecurity, software development and cloud enablement.
December
Accenture brought on Tim Irvine to lead its recently expanded D.C.-based Accenture Federal Digital Studio, which works on designing digital innovations for federal clients. Irvine was previously headed up North America operations for Fjord, Accenture's design-focused subsidiary. Local school fundraising platform GiveCampus made its Julie O’Connor as its first CFO and Ryan Riddle its director of partner operations. The company now has 30 employees in D.C. and San Francisco. ANSER, a nonprofit research institute focused on national security, risk and weapons technologies, named Steve Hopkins as its new president and CEO. He takes the place of President and CEO Carmen Spencer, who is staying with the company on its board of directors. Hopkins was previously ANSER's COO.
