— Amperity, a Seattle-based startup that helps companies collect and manage customer data, named Bridget Perry as chief marketing officer.
Earlier in her career, Perry was a marketing director for Microsoft for nearly nine years and worked for more than eight years at Adobe, leaving the role of CMO of Europe, Middle East and Africa. She was most recently interim CMO for Later, an influencer marketing company, and has held strategic advisor roles.
“Bridget has led marketing teams through real platform shifts, not incremental change. She knows what it takes to build credibility in a market and scale it globally,” said Tony Owens, CEO of Amperity, in a statement. The company is ranked No. 39 on GeekWire 200, our list of top Pacific Northwest startups.
— Seattle-based Simon Frey was promoted to chief customer officer of Gong. He was previously senior vice president of customer outcomes for the San Francisco startup that builds agentic AI technology to optimize revenue performance and automate workflows.
“Simon has spent years partnering closely with our customers, helping them unlock meaningful growth across their revenue organizations,” said Shane Evans, Gong’s chief revenue architect, in a statement.
Frey joined Gong in 2024 after leaving TaxBit, where he was VP of revenue. Other past employers include Qualtrics and McKinsey. He also served as an advisor to Jargon, which was acquired by Remitly.
— Elizabeth Scallon is now director of healthcare AI startups at Nvidia where she will oversee its global Healthcare and Life Sciences Inception program. Scallon, a longtime leader in Seattle’s startup ecosystem, joins Nvidia from HP where she worked for nearly four years as director of technical and business incubation and strategy.
Scallon is also an affiliate instructor at the University of Washington and has held leadership roles at Amazon and WeWork. She was director of the UW’s CoMotion Labs for five years and co-founded Find Ventures.
“With this role, I’m returning to my roots in biotech and genetics and bringing the skills, experience, and connections I’ve built along the way to do my life’s work,” Scallon said on LinkedIn.
— After nearly a decade at Amazon Web Services, Jenny Brinkley is resigning as director of security readiness.
“I start a new role next week in a rapidly growing space, and I am excited to be part of something transformative once again. To my AWS colleagues, thank you for the kind words and support,” Brinkley said on LinkedIn.
Brinkley, who is based in Portland, Ore., earlier co-founded an AI startup and ran a consultancy.
— Siteimprove announced Jen Jones as its chief marketing officer. The company, which helps businesses improve their website functionality, is based in Denmark and has an office in Bellevue, Wash., where much of its executive leadership team is based. Jones was previously at commercetools.
— Padmashree Koneti had departed her role as chief product officer of Yoodli after roughly five months. The Seattle startup has not yet named a replacement. Yoodli, which is using generative AI to analyze speech and offer tips for improving communication skills, also just hired Alexandra Breymeier as customer success lead. She previously worked at employee referral company ERIN.
— Vandana Shah is now vice president of product for Scowtt, a Kirkland, Wash.-based startup that wants to reshape how advertisers optimize paid campaigns. The company in December announced a $12 million Series A funding round.
Shah joins Scowtt from Ladder. She was previously Google’s director of product management for the advertising platform, working at the Bay Area company for more than 16 years.
“Having spent years leading complex platform initiatives at Google Ads, I have seen the power of building resilient, customer-first foundations at scale. I am thrilled to bring that experience to Scowtt,” she said on LinkedIn.
—- Dinesh Govindasamy was promoted to director of engineering at Meta, supporting teams across Tupperware, Public Cloud and Meta Kubernetes Service. Govindasamy joined Meta in October 2023.
“This milestone is thanks to the mentors, collaborators, and teams who believed in me and pushed me to grow. You know who you are — thank you,” he said on LinkedIn.
Govindasamy, based in the Seattle area, was previously at Microsoft for more than 15 years, leaving the role of group engineering manager in which he led teams working on Azure Kubernetes Service Hybrid and other initiatives.
— Beto Yarce has started his tenure as director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development. Yarce joins the city from the U.S. Small Business Administration where he was regional administrator for the Pacific Northwest.
“I am incredibly honored by Mayor Wilson’s trust in me to lead OED and to help shape the economic ecosystems that make Seattle not only a great place to live, work, and play, but also the best place in the country to open, run, and grow a business,” Yarce said in a statement.
He earlier served as executive director of the Seattle nonprofit Ventures for more than eight years. The organization supports underserved entrepreneurs including women, people of color, immigrants and low-income individuals.
— Rob Lloyd, Seattle’s chief technology officer, will become executive director of the Center for Digital Government at the end of this month. The organization describes itself as “a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.”
“Looking forward to working with peers and leaders across the nation on solving the biggest challenges facing our communities, in smarter ways,” he said on LinkedIn.
Lloyd served as CTO for less than two years. Read more about his departure in earlier GeekWire coverage.
— Dan Rodgers is now chief financial officer for CTL, a Beaverton, Ore., company that manufactures Chromebooks, desktop PCs, servers and Google Meet video conferencing tools. Rodgers’ past roles include leadership at companies including PwC, McCormick and Schmick’s, Nike and New Seasons Market.
“CTL’s commitment to innovation and its dedication to sustainability present a unique opportunity to pair financial discipline with a mission-driven strategy,” Rodgers said in a statement.
— Scott Roberts, a longtime executive at LinkedIn where he is currently an AI product initiative advisor, has joined the board of directors for the San Francisco company Voices.
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