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 March:
Postmates
- Postmates hired former Obama official Vikrum Aiyer as its head of strategic communications and policy. Aiyer was formerly the Chief of Staff for Michelle Lee, the head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and he was a top innovation adviser to Obama focusing on policy areas like self-driving cars and manufacturing. Recode has the story. Aiyer also told DC Inno in an email that he'll be joining the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton (Business) School as a visiting fellow in their public policy arm. He joins a growing list of former Obama officials moving to San Francisco tech companies.
Under Armour
- Under Armour named former General Motors executive Clay Dean as the company's first chief innovation officer on March 13. Basically, that means he's in charge of the apparel (and wearable tech) company's "innovation strategy" and collaboration between the design, marketing and product divisions to serve that strategy. Dean was at GM for more than 20 years, and most recently, he headed up the company's Global Advanced Design organization.
SEED SPOT/Heartful.ly
- Heartful.ly founder Kate Glantz made a pretty big announcement on her Facebook page on March 29. While Heartful.ly is her labor of love, Glantz has decided to focus on it primarily at night and on the weekends, and she's accepted a full-time position at social enterprise incubator SEED SPOT as its D.C. Director of Entrepreneur Initiatives. In the new position, Glantz will lead the accelerator programs and foster a community around SEED SPOT ventures. "It's very likely that Heartful.ly will not ultimately be the winner, but I still feel like one," Glantz said in her post. "And that’s because in this one life that we’ve got, I deviated, took a risk, and through a combination of sheer will, grit, and passion, I made something awesome."
Snagajob
- Double personnel news from part time and gig job marketplace Snagajob: Bay Area tech executive Jocelyn Mangan has been named COO, where she will oversee product management, product design, product engineering and marketing, while Fabio Rosati, former CEO of Upwork, will join Snagajob’s Board of Directors.
- Longtime Twitter DC public policy communications spokesperson Nu Wexler has left the social media company, according to a recent string of tweets. It's not clear where Wexler is heading next, but he is the second notable Twitter DC office employee to leave the company in the past three months. Adam Sharp, who was the company's head of news, government and elections, left in early December. Wexler joined Twitter in 2013 and saw the company through its IPO.
Wedding Wire
- Morgan Gibson has joined Wedding Wire as Digital Content Manager. She previously served as the Digital Editor at Brides magazine.
Tenable Network Security
- Tenable Network Security is announcing the expansion of its executive team with two key hires that will lead the company through its next phase of growth. John Negron, most recently VP of Global Security Sales at Cisco, and Jennifer Johnson, former Chief Marketing Officer at Tanium, have joined Tenable as the company’s first Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, respectively.
White House
- According to Politico's Tony Romm, President Trump has tapped Michael Kratsios, Peter Thiel's chief of staff, to be White House deputy chief technology officer. The head spot of White House CTO, however, remains vacant.
Franklin Square Group
- Former Uber lobbyist Brian Worth has joined the D.C.-based tech lobbying firm Franklin Square Group. Worth left his role as an Uber lobbyist in February after a two-and-a-half-year run with the ride-sharing giant. When Worth joined Uber, the company was spending $200K per year on advocacy. By the time he left, they were spending about seven times that at $1.36M.
PlanetRisk
- Risk analytics company PlanetRisk announced today that they’ve hired a new CEO, Abdul Omar, "to continue their M&A efforts as they continue a period of aggressive growth this year," according to a release.
MorganFranklin Consulting
- MorganFranklin Consulting, a Tysons-based management and technology consulting firm, announced on March 20 the appointment of Chris Mann as Managing Partner. Mann will replace current MorganFranklin Chief Executive Officer C.E. Andrews on April 1 to lead all operations and continue executing the company’s ongoing growth and national expansion, according to a release.
Dcode 42
- Andrew McMahon, the former Senior Advisor for Technology at the General Services Administration (GSA), has joined D.C.'s Dcode42, a government IT-focused accelerator, according to a press release. It's not clear what exactly McMahon's role is other than as a member of the executive team.
CBRE
- CBRE has hired local tenant rep Ezra Weinblatt to lead its tech and media practice group. Weinblatt, who's also known among the local entrepreneurial scene for the c-level tech networking events he helps organize, has repped companies like Social Tables, TrackMaven and iStrategyLabs for their real estate needs.
LiveSafe
- LiveSafe, the Alexandria-based mobile safety communications platform, announced on March 8 the hiring of Noelle Topetzes as General Counsel and Vice President of Corporate Services.
Savi
- Alexandria, Va.-based Savi announced it appointed J. Richard Carlson as Chief Executive Officer. Savi is a big data/machine learning analytic solutions, supply chain management software and sensor technology company. Carlson is the founder and president of Neon Dolphin Technology Group.
3Pillar Global
- 3Pillar Global, a business software product development company, announced March 14 that it has appointed Heather Combs as its new Chief Revenue Officer.
Image courtesy of SEED SPOT
