— Two co-founders and former executives of Seattle-based Shield AI introduced their new roles at Palo Alto Networks, the California cybersecurity firm that acquired their startup in April.
Ian Swanson, Shield AI’s previous CEO, is vice chairman of AI safety for Palo Alto Networks. The latest deal marked the third acquisition of an organization that Swanson helped launch. He was additionally CEO and co-founder of Sometrics, which American Categorical purchased, and of DataScience, which was acquired by Oracle.
Shield AI’s former President Daryan Dehghanpisheh is now Palo Alto Community’s go-to-market lead for AI safety in North America. Dehghanpisheh’s previous employers embrace Amazon Internet Providers, Intel and The Howard Hughes Company.
Badar Ahmed, Shield AI’s third co-founder and chief technologist and product officer, has not shared a brand new title.
Whereas acquisition phrases weren’t disclosed, sources reported the Shield AI deal was valued at greater than $500 million. The corporate launched in 2022 and was ranked No. 10 on GeekWire 200, our listing of prime privately held startups within the Pacific Northwest.
— Chainguard, a totally distant cybersecurity firm valued at $3.5 billion, introduced two new members of its C-suite:
- Quincy Castro is now chief info safety officer. Castro, who is predicated in Chicago, involves the position from the open-source software program platform Redis. Different previous employers embrace Wabtec, GE Transportation and the Nationwide Safety Company.
- Eyal Bar is Chainguard’s chief monetary officer. Bar was beforehand at monday.com and has 16 years of expertise in finance and operations. Bar, who lives in New York, has labored for Verifood, EY, Motorola Options and others.
Chainguard launched 4 years in the past and disclosed a $356 million funding spherical in April. The corporate is formally headquartered in Kirkland, Wash.
— Alan Higginson, a long-time board member and present board chair for F5, is retiring from his position, the corporate shared in a July Securities and Trade Fee submitting. Higginson is not going to stand for re-nomination on the Seattle tech firm’s annual shareholder assembly subsequent spring, which can carry his tenure to 30 years. He grew to become board chair in 2004.
Higginson was beforehand president and CEO of Hubspan, an e-business infrastructure supplier, and president of Atrieva, which gives superior knowledge backup and retrieval know-how.
— Gilbert Wootton, managing director of Accenture’s Seattle workplace, has retired after greater than 35 years with the worldwide skilled companies firm.
“I plan to ski lots (water and snow) over subsequent six months and spend important time with [my wife] Carolyn,” he stated on LinkedIn, including that his “intention is to maximise the third section of my life.”
Wootton at present serves on the boards for Windfall, the Washington Know-how Business Affiliation (WTIA) and the College of Washington Middle for Gross sales and Advertising and marketing, in addition to on the advisory board for the UW’s Mechanical Engineering Division, from which he graduated.
— Former Microsoft and SAP govt John “JG” Chirapurath is now president of DataPelago, a knowledge processing firm headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. Chirapurath, who is predicated in Seattle, involves the position from SAP, the place he served as govt vice chairman on the enterprise utility firm.
His profession additionally contains 14 years at Microsoft, which was briefly interrupted for management roles at ProQuest and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. On the Redmond, Wash.-software tech large, Chirapurath was most lately a vice chairman with Azure.
— Ken Wong is now the lead of Databricks‘ lately opened R&D heart in Vancouver, B.C. The brand new location will give attention to synthetic and enterprise intelligence, real-time analytics, and next-gen enterprise knowledge purposes.
“With Vancouver’s heritage as one of many birthplaces for analytics, the town has a deep pool of knowledge and AI expertise for Databricks to attract from,” the corporate stated.
Wong was co-founder and CEO of Datajoy, which Databricks acquired in 2022, roughly two years after it launched. Previous to Datajoy, Wong was at SAP, Microsoft and Tableau Software program.
— Kyle Wiggers has joined Ai2 because the Seattle nonprofit’s communications lead. Wiggers involves the position from TechCrunch the place he led the information outlet’s AI protection. Wiggers has been a journalist for greater than a decade and was beforehand at VentureBeat, XDA Builders, Digital Developments and different publications.
— Friday Harbor, a Seattle startup utilizing AI to supply mortgage documentation, named two additions to its management workforce:
- Chris Simms is now head of strategic partnerships, becoming a member of the corporate from Mutual of Omaha Mortgage.
- Gregory Buehler is a founding product engineer, having previously labored at Seattle startups Supio, Pebble Well being, Skilljar and others.
Friday Harbor launched final 12 months and in April introduced a $6 million seed spherical. The startups’ two co-founders had been previous entrepreneurs-in-residence at AI2 Incubator.
— Scowtt, a Kirkland, Wash., buyer acquisition startup, named Abhishek Priya as its first head of engineering. Scowtt gives advertising and marketing software program to investigate potential buyer leads and predict which can end in gross sales. Priya, who is predicated in California, involves the position from Everlaw and is a previous engineering supervisor for Meta and Microsoft. Early in his profession he was with Intel for greater than 11 years.
Scowtt lately introduced Eric Schwartz as its first chief income officer.
— Tyler Churchill is now a companion at Bonfire Ventures. Churchill, who is predicated in Seattle, has been with the agency for greater than six years and joined as a summer season intern. Beforehand he was a senior affiliate with OCA Ventures.
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