Ex-Meta and Time Warner executive
Mark D’Arcy
is joining
Microsoft
As a corporate vice president involved in developing the technology leader’s consumer-oriented artificial intelligence solutions.
D’Arcy has taken on the role of global creative director for Microsoft AI, with Mustafa Suleyman, who leads Microsoft AI as CEO, overseeing this position.
D’Arcy spent over ten years at Meta in various creative and marketing leadership positions. Prior to that, he was with Time Warner for almost seven years, serving first as Chief Creative Officer and then as President.
The Information
First mentioned D’Arcy’s new position, with Microsoft validating this information to Dailyexe.
D’Arcy will work with engineering, design, and advertising teams to help boost marketing strategy for Microsoft’s generative AI Copilot assistant that is embedded within various applications such as Word and Bing. Copilot competes with several chatbots from companies including OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, and others.
Last month Microsoft
unveiled
A sequence of enhancements to Copilot, featuring a novel personal memory function aimed at retrieving information from a user’s past discussions.
Suleyman
joined Microsoft last year
following his role as head of applied AI at DeepMind before co-founding Inflection AI.
Other key personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
—
WatchGuard Technologies
CEO
Prakash Panjwani
is stepping down from his position and will move to serve on the cybersecurity firm’s board of directors and as a strategic consultant. Vats Srivatsan, who currently holds the role of operating partner at Vector Capital, will take over as interim CEO while WatchGuard searches for a permanent successor.
Over his ten-year tenure at Seattle’s WatchGuard Technologies, Panjwani supervised six key acquisitions, including most recently the acquisition of ActZero in January. Under his guidance, the firm saw its annual recurring revenue increase by over three times and nearly quadrupled its worldwide workforce.
“A few leaders create the sort of lasting impact he has had, influencing both the company’s strategic direction and delivering consistently robust performance alongside operational brilliance,” stated Alex Slusky, founding partner and managing director at Vector Capital, which holds a controlling stake in WatchGuard, in his official comment.
— Longtime Amazon Vice President
Nader Kabbani
is
now
chief operations officer
Hims & Hers
, a telehealth company that sells direct-to-consumer treatments for conditions such as erectile dysfunction and hair loss.
At Amazon, Kabbani was primarily involved in overseeing various healthcare projects where he managed the company’s vaccination initiative—which assisted staff in getting vaccinated against COVID-19—as well as Amazon Pharmacy and PillPack. During his over 18 years with the firm based in Seattle, he also served as vice president for areas such as last-mile delivery, logistics, and Kindle operations.
— Another individual from the Amazon region has assumed a new position:
Parisa Sadrzadeh
, who previously served as theVP of the company’s global delivery services partner program, has been promoted to vice president.
DoorDash
Sadrzadeh spent almost 12 years at Amazon before moving to Bellevue, Washington-based Flexport, where he took on the role of Executive Vice President.
“I have dedicated the last ten years to developing technologies aimed at empowering small enterprises worldwide, and this new phase of my career will leverage that expertise as I transition into the realm of brick-and-mortar retail—a sector I’m incredibly enthusiastic about transforming for the benefit of retailers and their customers alike,” stated Sadrzadeh on LinkedIn.
—
Boundless
, a Seattle-based firm offering solutions to streamline the immigration process, has welcomed two new executives:
-
Gulliver Swenson
Swenson has joined Boundless as Vice President of People and General Counsel. Prior to this role, he spent over six years at Assurance IQ, where he played a key part in guiding the firm through its acquisition by Prudential. His professional journey started with practicing general law at Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland. -
Rachel Pepple
Now serving as the Vice President of Marketing at Boundless, Pepple brings with her a legal background alongside extensive experience. She joins this organization after working at Carbon Direct, where she assisted businesses in handling environmental effects related to carbon emissions. Before joining Carbon Direct, Pepple led marketing efforts at ExtraHop, a cybersecurity firm, holding this position over several years until the company was sold for $900 million.
—
Raymond “R.J.” Ford
He stepped down from his position as general manager at Zillow Group. “Following 15 remarkable years, I’m shutting my Zillow laptop for the final time and feel immensely thankful, humble, and tremendously proud,” he stated on LinkedIn.
In 2009, Ford became part of the Seattle real estate firm and has served as Zillow’s General Manager of Agent Software and Advertising for over nine years. Throughout his time at the company, he was honored with five “Leader of the Year” awards from his team members. Details about his future plans remain undisclosed.
—
Kyle Widrick
is now a venture partner at the consumer-focused investment company
Maveron
. The firm, which got its start in Seattle and has offices in San Francisco, has been growing its presence in New York City, which is where Widrick is based.
“According to Maveron partner Jason Stoffer, Widrick is ‘a serial entrepreneur, an active angel investor who excels particularly in investments related to the forefront of wellness,’” he stated.
announcing
the news.
—
Gensler
, an architectural firm, a design company, as well as a planning agency, were selected
Bert deViterbo
As the managing director of its Seattle branch, DeViterco has spent 14 years with the firm and recently moved over from San Francisco.
Seattle is at a turning point as we emerge from the pandemic, and I am hopeful about the city’s future,” deViterbo stated. “I feel strongly that design can significantly influence the development of Seattle’s sports, technology, science, and educational institutions, thereby promoting shared cultural and economic progress in the area.
—
BuyWander
added
Brent Hendricks
As the leader of operations, Hendricks established Global Neighborhood, a charitable thrift and vintage shop aimed at offering job skills to refugees. He managed this organization for close to two decades.
Based in Spokane, Washington, BuyWander employs artificial intelligence along with other technologies to sift through, categorize, and recognize myriad nearly new and brand-new items, which they then offer via an online auction platform. Customers have the option to pick up their purchases using curbside delivery, while the warehouses function both as storage facilities for these goods and as treasure spots where shoppers can search for bargains. Recently, this emerging company has taken further steps in its development.
raised
$2 million.
— Seattle attorney
Jennifer Dumas
joined
Apollo.io
As a senior lead counselor, Dumas formerly served as the general counsel for the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) and held the position of adjunct professor at Seattle University’s School of Law. Apollo is an advertising firm based in Phoenix.
—
Chuck Cory
, a technology and investment banking pioneer who spent 33 years at Morgan Stanley, has now become part of the board of directors for
Weave.AI
Cory is additionally an angel investor in Weave, a Seattle-based firm offering AI solutions to financial institutions and multinational enterprises. This helps them navigate evolving threats, market changes, intricate regulatory requirements, and novel business prospects.
—
Teradata
hired
John Ederer
from Medina, Wash., has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Ederer served as CFO at both Model N and K2 Software. Based in San Diego, Teradata provides a cloud analytics and data platform designed for AI applications.
—
Justin Donaldson
serves as the lead data scientist for
Curvo
A new company is working on enhancing healthcare supply chain systems. Previously, Donaldson co-founded hushh.ai, a Kirkland-based Washington startup that uses artificial intelligence for internal data analysis. He also spent almost ten years in the Seattle region as a data scientist and engineer at Salesforce.
—
Trellis Health
, a startup co-located in Seattle and San Francisco, formed a medical advisory board. The company is building an online platform for individuals to manage their health data. The board appointees are:
-
Dr. Laurent Bollag
, a University of Washington professor specializing in anesthesia and pain management -
Dr. Yamicia Connor
, an OB-GYN and entrepreneur -
Dr. Hillary Lin
, doctor and entrepreneur -
Dr. David Nichols
, family physician based in Philadelphia -
Kathleen Barnes
, Senior Vice President of Population Health and Precision Medicine at Oxford Nanopore Technologies in Colorado -
Laura Jantos
, who founded and leads LDJ Consulting based in Seattle
— Seattle-area leader
Sean Kell
became part of the board of directors and investment team
Recovery.com
The firm offers web-based materials concerning therapy for substance use disorders and psychological wellness. Kell serves as the head of MD², a membership-only healthcare provider located in Bellevue. Previously, he has held positions such as CEO at Blue Nile, an online retailer specializing in diamonds, and A Place for Mom, along with key roles at Expedia and Starbucks.
— Seattle’s
Circulate
added
Matt Kaeberlein
To its scientific advisory panel. The company debuted last year and is working on technologies and therapies designed to reverse aging and enhance overall well-being. Kaeberlein serves as an affiliate professor at the University of Washington in oral health and holds the position of CEO at the biotechnology start-up Optispan.
