— Jon Pollock is now chief product officer of Acumatica, the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software giant that was acquired last year by Vista Equity Partners.
Pollock joins Acumatica from childcare management software company Procare Solutions, where he was CPO and general manager of Procare’s ChildPlus division. He previously held leadership roles with Worldpay, Asurion, Dell, Polaroid and others.
“Jon has the experience, vision, and strong track record of leading dynamic teams to execute our product strategy and empower the people who use our software every day,” John Case, CEO of Acumatica, said in a statement.
Case succeeds Ali Jani, who was with the company for 16 years. Early in his career, Jani co-founded a PC manufacturing startup and a company providing software for business management operations.
— Mo Malakoutian is now the mayor of the City of Bellevue. Malakoutian joined the Bellevue City Council in 2023, was elected by his colleagues to serve as deputy mayor beginning in 2024, and was chosen as mayor this month.
Malakoutian previously worked at Amazon for more than eight years, leaving the role of senior manager of learning and development in October. He is currently the executive director of the University of Washington’s Consulting and Business Development Center with the Foster School of Business.
Malakoutian replaces Lynne Robinson, who was mayor since 2020. She remains on the Bellevue City Council.
City councilmember Dave Hamilton was appointed deputy mayor of Bellevue.
— Software engineering leader David Bettis is leaving Amazon after two decades. Bettis was most recently with Amazon Web Services, including roles focused on the company’s telehealth initiative. Earlier in his career, Bettis worked on the company’s Halo product, Amazon Go’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology, Kindle and other initiatives.
Bettis said on LinkedIn that he stayed at Amazon for so long because of the opportunity to work on emerging businesses, which provided “new and exciting opportunities, while staying under the same roof.”
More recently he had “explored a couple paths internally, but nothing sparked the same excitement I’d felt in previous roles. That’s when I realized it was time for a bigger change.”
The engineer added that he’ll spend most of this year deciding what full-time role comes next — maybe a smaller company, teaching, something entrepreneurial — and that he’ll be staying in Seattle.
— In another Amazon departure, Steven Hatch has resigned from his role as head of engineering with AWS Bedrock. Hatch, based in New York City, has been with Amazon for nearly 18 years, working in areas including with Audible, Amazon Prime delivery experience, computer vision and most recently in AI.
Hatch said on LinkedIn that he’s “closing a chapter that changed how I think, lead, and build. I’m proud of my achievements. But the real story was about the people, the learning, and the craft.”
Hatch did not disclose his next move, but said there would be “more soon.”
— Warren McNeel left T-Mobile after more then 25 years with the Bellevue-based telecom juggernaut. McNeel has been in the wireless sector for three decades, and most recently served as T-Mobile’s senior vice president of information technology.
McNeel said on LinkedIn that he wanted to spend time with his family “and begin thinking about the next chapter of my professional journey.”
“I’ve had the privilege of leading some of the best technology and product teams in the industry,” he added. “I couldn’t be more proud of the innovations, technology transformations, and results these teams delivered.”
— Seattle-based Gates Foundation appointed Sri Mulyani Indrawati to its governing board. Indrawati was Indonesia’s first female minister of finance and the former managing director and chief operating officer of the World Bank.
“She adds fresh perspective for the board as it guides the foundation’s direction over the next 20 years,” said CEO Mark Suzman.
The Gates Foundation announced two additional leadership changes:
- Hari Menon is now president of the organization’s Global Growth and Opportunity Division. Menon has been with the foundation for nearly 20 years.
- Ankur Vora is president of the newly-created Africa and India Offices Division as well as retaining his role as chief strategy officer.
— Reverb, a Seattle-based HR consulting and leadership development firm, is officially expanding into the Colorado market with the hiring of Renee Fischer. Fischer, who resides in Denver, is a business development and human resources consultant.
— Sabah Öney joined the board of directors of Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Öney is the president and CEO of Dispatch Bio, a Bay Area startup that is developing a treatment for solid tumors. He is also a co-founder of the protein design company Vilya.
— Seattle-based Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving clients globally, promoted Kerri Hagen to managing director within the its Financial Sponsors Group. Hagen has been with the firm for more than three years.
— Seattle software engineering startup FlintLab named Diwakar as its head of engineering. Diwakar, who was previously based in India, joins from the semiconductor company AMD. Past employers include Ericsson, RSA Security and others.
FlintLab launched in 2024 and describes itself as an “AI-powered infrastructure platform as a service” company. Co-founders Krishna Seerapu and Jinesh M.D previously held roles at Amazon and elsewhere.
— Life Science Washington announced four new members of its board of directors:
- Arden Yang, vice president of Innovation at the Allen Institute
- LisaMarie Curda, a partner focused on audit and assurance with Deloitte
- Jie D’Elia, CEO of the bio-pharmaceutical company SystImmune
- Chris Holt, vice president of cell therapy external manufacturing with Bristol Myers Squibb
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