Every month we recap the biggest tech hires and departures in the D.C. area over the past month. To get hiring and other local innovation news daily, sign up for The Beat newsletter. Here’s our list of the top hires in D.C. tech for May:
1776
- The Washington Business Journal reported on May 4 that one of 1776's managing directors is leaving the company. David Zipper, who has been with the company since 2013, is leaving 1776, according to multiple sources who spoke with WBJ anonymously. Zipper was instrumental in helping 1776 land hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants when he was an aide to former Mayor Vincent Gray. That money was used to buildout 1776 D.C. and to fund the first Challenge Cup startup competition.
- Zipper also isn't the only employee planning to leave 1776 right now, WBJ also reported on May 4. Partnerships manager Meagan Riley; D.C. campus manager Shahier Rahman; and Special Projects Director Carolyn Harrold are also departing. WBJ has more.
Social Tables
- D.C. hospitality tech startup Social Tables is seeing a few departures among its ranks, according to a person close with the matter. As reported on May 5, both Enterprise Sales Director Sabba Nazhand and Vice President of People Sam Cicotello have left and are leaving the company, respectively.
In-Q-Tel
- Business Insider reported on May 16 that Daniel Gwak and Sri Chandrasekar are leaving the Arlington, Va.-based In-Q-Tel, the CIA-linked venture capital firm. The duo will join Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures in a new Palo Alto-based office.
Village Capital
- According to a Medium post from Village Capital's Ross Baird on May 17, the firm is positioning its executive team in a way to best serve their two core tenets: supporting entrepreneurs and making direct investments. With that, current Chief Operating Officer Allie Burns will be taking over the day-to-day management of the entrepreneur programs—which Baird himself used to oversee. Her new role will be as Managing Director of Village Capital.
- At the same time, co-founder Victoria Fram will grow the firm's investment activity as managing director of VilCap Investments. The investment arm invests in about two new companies a month and have 11 full or partial exits to date.
- Baird will now be the president of Village Capital Group, overseeing both entities.
Upskill
- Herndon, Va.-based startup Upskill has a new Chief Operating Officer, according to a press release on May 23. Jeremy Kirsch joins the company from Opower, which was acquired by Oracle in June 2016, where he was the executive vice president and general manager for worldwide sales. In his new role, Kirsch will lead all customer-facing and revenue-generating aspects of Upskill's business, including sales, marketing, business development and so on. Kirsch's hire comes a month-and-a-half after the startup closed its Series B round, which it did not disclose the dollar amount for (but WBJ reported that it was probably a bit more than $10M).
SWaN & Legend
- The "Legend" in SWaN & Legend is stepping down from his role as chief investment officer and heading to a new unannounced role at Revolution Growth, The Washington Business Journal reported on May 24. Todd Klein founded Legend Ventures in 2005 and merged with SWaN Investors in 2012, but now he's said to be departing to Revolution, and Todd Foreman has been hired to replace Klein as managing director. According to SWaN & Legend's website, Klein is a senior adviser with the firm now. It's unclear what Klein's role at Revolution will be.
Technical.ly DC
- Technical.ly DC lead reporter Tajha Chappellet-Lanier has left her role at the D.C. tech news site for a new position at Fedscoop covering the intersection of tech and the federal government. Tajha covered the D.C. tech scene for the past two years, and in her good-bye letter on the Technical.ly DC site, she shares some of her thoughts on why leaving the scene is difficult and answers the two questions she gets the most.
DroneShield
- Viriginia and Australia-based DroneShield has hired Ryan Vervack as its Chief Technology Officer, per an email on May 22. In his new role, Vervack will oversee the company's engineering teams in the U.S. and Australia. Vervack is just the latest appointment DroneShield has made on its engineering teams as it attempts to expand beyond its current technologies. Vervack joins the company from the National Programs division of CACI International, a NYSE-listed defense contractor, where he was Chief Technology Officer.
MemoryWell
- MemoryWell, a spring '17 startup at Halcyon, has hired Theo LeCompte as its Chief Operating Officer, according to an email on May 30. LeCompte was previously deputy chief of staff at the Department of Commerce and the Chief Operating Officer for the Democratic National Convention Committee for the party's 2012 presidential nomination convention in Charlotte, N.C. MemoryWell is a media startup that tells the stories of patients in various health care facilities to give caregivers and understanding of who they are. The startup also won a $130K Launch Award from the WeWork Creator Awards in March.
Terbium Labs
- Per an email on May 18, Terbium Labs promoted current Chief Data Scientist Clare Collnick to Chief Technology Officer and appointed Brett Davis to Vice President of Sales. In their roles, each will focus on ways to promote sales growth, customer satisfaction and innovate the company's Matchlight technology, which the company calls the world's most comprehensive Dark Web data intelligence platform designed to find compromised or stolen data as soon as it appears.
Bricata
- Columbia, Md.-based cybersecurity startup Bricata now has two new vice presidents on staff, according to a press release on May 3. Druce MacFarlane joins the team as vice president of products and marketing from McAfee, while Randy Fallis comes from Cybereason to head up Bricata's sales and customer strategy.
