Tech Moves: Siblings at Seattle startup swap roles; Microsoft CVP departs to focus on DEI; and more

Jim Xiao (left) and Nancy Xiao. (Mason Photos)

– The IoT startup Mason announced that founder and current CEO Jim Xiao will swap roles with his sister and current Mason President Nancy Xiao.

“I’m confident Nancy is the right person to build on Mason’s swing,” said Jim.

Prior to joining Mason in 2019, Nancy was a Product Manager at Oculus VR and Facebook.

Siblings Nancy and Jim Xiao. (Bricklayer photo)

Jim founded Mason to address the challenges he saw in hardware development. Mason’s solution provides customers with customized hardware and software for single-purpose Android devices. Customers come from sectors such as healthcare, retail, hospitality and government.

The company was originally founded in Detroit, participated in YCombinator in 2016 and moved to Seattle. A graduate of the University of Washington, Jim previously worked for Microsoft in China, was an analyst at Detroit Venture Partners, and was an executive at a wireless communications company.

“Jim is a visionary and he plays a vital role in helping our customers innovate and find new solutions for some
old problems, solved by technology and innovation – he will focus on this in his new role as
President, ”said Nancy in a statement.

In 2019, the startup closed a $ 25 million Series A funding round, led by Coatue Ventures. After the investment, Arielle Zuckerburg, partner at Coatue Ventures and Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, joined the board.

Since then, Mason’s workforce has doubled to over 50. Total funding to date is $ 25.1 million.

Gavriella Schuster. (Women in cloud photo)

– According to her website, longtime Microsoft executive Gavriella Schuster left the company to focus on initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion. She worked for Microsoft for more than 25 years, most recently as CVP of the One Commercial Partner Team.

Schuster currently serves on the board of directors of Women in Cloud, the Women in Technology Network, the SHE community and a strategic advisor to Berkshire Partners.

In January, Schuster was a keynote speaker at the annual Women in Cloud Summit, speaking about the four principles of their BeCOME framework for gender equality in the tech industry.

I’m excited to announce that I have left Microsoft after 25 years and have teamed up with several prominent organizations to address one of the most critical blockers of future technology innovation – diversity, equity and inclusion. #DEI #Will https://t.co/dbr3loBrfW

– Gavriella Schuster (@ gavriels1) August 18, 2021

Jonathan Fleischer. (Reddit photo)

– Reddit hired Jonathan Flesher as vice president of business development. Flesher is moving to the Seattle area due to Reddit’s flexible work policy that allows employees to work remotely, in person, or a combination of both.

Flesher joins Reddit from Discord where he was head of business development. He previously held leadership positions at Zynga and Betable.

– SingleFile, a Seattle-based compliance filing startup, raised additional seed funding and added Aaron Finn as its new CEO. Finn was most recently SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at PeopleConnect. Read the story.

– Seattle-based 3D laser printing startup Glowforge has added Ralph Clark, CEO of ShotSpotter, and Sarah Kauss, founder of S’well, to its board of directors.

The other current members of the Glowforge Board of Directors are Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe, Revolution Ventures Managing Partner Steve Murray, Foundry Group Co-Founder Brad Feld, and Glowforge Founder and CEO Dan Shapiro.

Bobby Morrison. (Panopto photo)

– Panopto corporate video platform has named Intuit CRO Bobby Morrison to its board of directors. Morrison previously served as an executive at Microsoft and Verizon. He also served on the DocuSign Advisory Board.

– Andreas Pihl, COO of AbSci, will retire from Washington State’s newly listed biotech company next year, according to a file.

AbSci, based in Vancouver, Washington, made its public debut last month. The drug development platform is led by founder and CEO Sean McClain.

– Machine learning startup Kurvv has added Microsoft veterinarian Jeff Croft as co-founder and chief revenue officer. Meanwhile, Kurvv’s founding CTO Vince Roche has left.

The company’s platform offers a machine learning solution for companies that do not employ data scientists. Originally aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, the pandemic caused Kurvv to focus on industrial companies.

Kevin Kuck. (Pushpay photo)

– Pushpay of Redmond, Washington, promoted Kevin Kuck to Chief Operations Officer. Kuck joined Pushpay in 2014. The company also announced that long-time CFO Shane Sampson will be leaving in October.

Earlier this week, Pushpay announced the acquisition of streaming video company Resi. Pushpay, which provides a technology platform for religious and nonprofit organizations, appointed Molly Matthews as its new CEO earlier this year.

– Cannabis retail SaaS company KlickTrack has named Bardia Dejban as its new CEO. Dejban, who is based in the Los Angeles area, was most recently the CEO of e-commerce software company Volusion.

Co-founder and former CEO Steve Kessler will move to an advisory role and remain on the board of the Bainbridge Island, Washington-based company.

From left: Johner Riehl and Michele Spring Fajeau. (Zebra partner photos)

Seattle-based public relations firm Zebra Partners named Johner Riehl VP of Games and Content and promoted Michele Spring Fajeau to VP of Family and Technology.

Riehl joins the company from Wonacott PR, where he led the gaming practice as Vice President. He is based in San Diego. Fajeau originally joined Zebra Partners in 2011 and most recently started the games and toys business. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

– Seattle-based adoption matching platform PairTree has added four new team members:

The new additions will double the team’s headcount and come in at $ 2.25 million after the starting round.