Winter is here, and the D.C. tech community is restocking desks and shuffling c-suites before 2020 arrives. We rounded up some of the biggest names that switched companies, stepped down or got promoted and ordered new business cards in November.
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The founder of Social Tables, Dan Berger, led the event tech startup through a successful decade before it was acquired by Cvent. Now the D.C. entrepreneur is stepping down from the castle he built. In an email to employees (parts of which he shared publicly), Berger said he was working on a book about operating companies that’s scheduled to publish in 2020, “exploring a few entrepreneurial endeavors” and that he’s likely to move back to New York City next year.
Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms, hired a new global chief legal officer who’s settling into the D.C. area, the WBJ reports. Donald Vieira, former partner at law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, will become the firm’s only high-level executive based here. The VC group was founded in 1972 and made early investments in Oracle, Apple and Cisco, going on to back companies including FireEye, WhatsApp and DoorDash. Last year alone, it was involved in 58 venture capital deals.
Cybersecurity firm Bricata announced two additions to its executive team, Andre Ludwig as chief product officer and Jason Moore as VP of sales. Ludwig brings 20 years of technical experience to the company after serving as VP of cyber products at QOMPLX and several positions at Capital One. Moore came over from Mainline Information Systems, where he served as general manager for emerging technologies after holding several other leadership roles at other tech companies. Bricata claims that since the end of 2017, it has more than doubled its customers and tripled its annual recurring revenue.
Optoro, a maker of software for retail returns, made a major shift in its D.C. executive team with three big hires. Katy McCarthy, Optoro’s new CFO, was previously chief financier and then chairman and CEO of Geeknet, after spending 18 years at GE and becoming CFO of its healthcare division. Peter Spellman is taking the role of Chief Technology Officer. He previously founded tech companies iWant, SupplyScape and TraceLink, and served as CTO of Performaworks and INTTRA after beginning his career at Mitre Corp. and Microsoft. Pankaj Kulkarni is coming on as Senior VP of Product after leading product and M&A for GetWellNetwork, a provider of patient engagement software. He previously held product management roles with multiple B2B companies, including Siebel Systems.
Spanish firm Submer Technologies, a developer of data center cooling systems with its North American HQ in Ashburn, named Scott Noteboom as its new CTO. Noteboom previously served as the head of infrastructure strategy, design and development at Apple and as VP of engineering and operations at Yahoo. In his new role, based out of San Jose, he’ll help drive strategic innovation across Submer’s product line and autonomous infrastructure platform.
Virginia Tech found a founding director in Sara Hooshangi, who will lead its computer science program at the upcoming Innovation Campus in Alexandria. Hooshangi, a faculty member at George Washington University’s College of Professional Studies since 2010, will join Tech in January to build the tech-centric curriculum. She previously created and ran the Integrated Information, Science and Technology program at GW, with other work focused on improving programs for nontraditional engineering students and increasing diversity in STEM fields.
Rockville-based IT services integrator VariQ hired former FBI and NIH executive John Dvorak as its first chief technology officer. He will lead the development of its innovation center, QLabs, for cybersecurity, software development and cloud enablement. After his time in government, Dvorak served as chief information officer for Salient CRGT and as CTO for Information Innovators Inc. He’s also an active angel investor in the D.C. area and an adviser for companies in the cybersecurity, AI, law enforcement and emerging technologies sectors. Read more from WashingtonExec.
Manassas-based ATCC, one of the largest biotech resource and standards organizations, brought on Raymond Stapleton, Jr., as president and COO. Stapleton will coordinate ATCC’s corporate operations and co-lead its commercial center, overseeing the standardization, manufacture and distribution of new tools and reagents to researchers. Prior to joining, he was senior VP of technical operations at biotech firm Iovance Biotherapeutics and spent 15 years at Merck.
Rockville-based health IT and software company CNSI announced John Gaddi as its senior VP of finance. He was most recently VP of finance at Peraton, a national security company.
ANSER, a not-for-profit research institute that studies national security, risk and weapons technologies, announced Steve Hopkins as its new president and CEO. He takes on the role Dec. 1. He takes over for President and CEO Carmen Spencer, who is retiring but joining the company’s board.
