— Vahé Torossian has joined Seattle firm Tola Capital as a venture partner.
Torossian was at Microsoft for more than three decades, resigning from the tech giant in 2023 as corporate vice president of worldwide business applications. He then went to Builder.ai, a London-based software development platform. At the startup, he held multiple roles including deputy CEO and chief revenue officer. He left the company in May.
“Joining Tola Capital represents a unique opportunity to draw on my global executive experience and most recent start-up chapter,” Torossian said on LinkedIn. “I have seen firsthand the immense potential for early-stage ventures to power the enterprise AI landscape.”
While at Microsoft, Torossian worked with Tola Capital managing director Sheila Gulati. “At Tola Capital we partner with our portfolio companies to accelerate their growth, and for this purpose, I can think of no one better equipped to guide our CEOs than Vahé,” Gulati wrote on LinkedIn.
Tola specializes in early-stage, AI-powered enterprise software startups. It has $700 million of assets under management and more than 40 portfolio companies.
— The Allen Institute announced Sarah Norris Hall as chief financial officer and senior vice president. Hall previously worked at the University of Washington for 16 years, where she served as vice provost of planning and budgeting and senior VP.
The Seattle-based Allen Institute called out Norris Hall’s leadership at the UW in implementing its financial systems and processes, streamlining operations and improving reporting.
“I’m deeply honored to join the Allen Institute — an organization whose mission to understand life and advance health is both vital and inspiring,” Norris Hall said in a statement. “The chance to contribute to foundational science with the potential to transform lives is a rare and meaningful opportunity.”
— Ryan Cudney is joining Boeing later this month as vice president of a new external communications and analytics team. The organization brings together the aerospace giant’s media relations, social media, analytics, insights and tools operations.
Seattle-based Cudney was previously at public relations firm Edelman for more than 12 years, leading the company’s Pacific Northwest team, which has offices in Seattle and Portland. While at Edelman, he worked with Boeing and helped build the agency’s aviation client base.
Boeing and Alaska Airlines this week settled one of the lawsuits brought against them regarding the mid-flight door blowout in January 2024. A Boeing 787 crashed last month in India, killing 260 people.
— Tanvi Tushar Shah is joining Microsoft AI in London to work as a product manager on the “voice and vision experience” for its Copilot product. Shah comes to the role after six years of working on voice AI agents for Google.
“Now, the challenge is not just technical,” Shah said on LinkedIn. “It’s deeply human. How do we make AI feel like a true companion? A sounding board that is present in the moment, emotionally attuned, and helpful by default.”
— Amperity, a Seattle-based startup that helps companies collect and manage customer data, named Grigori Melnik as chief product officer. Grigori has worked in product leadership experience for more than 25 years for companies including Microsoft, Splunk, MongoDB, Tricentis and most recently, Cribl.
Amperity, which reached a billion-dollar valuation in 2021, last month moved into a new downtown Seattle office space, occupying a full floor in the Qualtrics Tower.
— Richard Harris is taking on the dual roles of fractional chief AI officer and fractional chief managing director of U.S. operations for Expertlancing Research Services. Harris was previously vice president of licensing for Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures for 14 years ending in 2014.
Harris will help guide the New Delhi-based company’s expansion in the U.S. market and he called out Expertlancing’s “commitment to innovation and excellence in IP and Tech Advisory services” in a post on LinkedIn.
— Florin Rotar, who recently left his role as chief AI officer for Avanade, is now part-time strategic advisor for Seattle’s Pay-i. The startup was founded by Microsoft veterans and in May raised $4.9 million from investors. Pay-i aims to help businesses figure out whether AI initiatives actually deliver business value.
Rotar was with Avanade for 25 years, joining as its first employee in Europe.
— Mark Hadland is now CEO of the Vancouver, B.C. startup CommonX.
Hadland was the founder and CEO of Seattle-based technology experience design firm Level 11, which worked with corporate brands including Disney, Starbucks, Philips and Carnival. Level 11 was acquired by Launch Consulting Group in 2020. Hadland has held leadership roles at companies including Cisco and CGI, and was with Accenture for nearly 13 years.
CommonX offers a product called Orchestr8, which it describes as an “AI experience operating system designed to deliver personalized, predictive, and human-intelligent services across mobile, wearables, kiosks, and immersive environments.”
— Seattle AI startup Vercept hired Flora Ku as head of operations after five years at Madrona Venture Labs, where she was also led operations. Other past roles include positions at Female Founders Alliance and the UW’s Foster School of Business.
Vercept is developing an AI-powered Mac app, dubbed Vy, that can understand computer screens and execute tasks based on natural language commands.
Vercept co-founder Matt Deitke is departing to join Meta’s Superintelligence Lab.
— The Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass appointed Jeff Wallace as chief financial officer. Wallace was at Starbucks for more then seven years, serving as vice president of finance for U.S. retail operations. Other jobs include roles at LexisNexis and Lexis Securities Mosaic, and others.
— Annie Liu is now a strategic advisor with Wyze, a Kirkland, Wash., company offering smart home devices including security cameras and video doorbells. Liu is a founder and CEO of InnoFi Partners, a strategic advisory firm, and was previously a managing director for Charles Schwab. She worked with the financial firm for more than 24 years.
Wyze was founded in 2017 by a trio of Amazon veterans and has raised $110 million in 2021. It’s expanding from the consumer market into commercial and enterprise customers.
— Kate Wilson, a former leader at Highspot, is the co-founder of a company in stealth mode, describing it on LinkedIn as “a new venture focused on rethinking performance and career development—applying AI in deeply practical ways to help people do their best work.”
Wilson left Highspot after more than seven years, where she served as senior director of solution architects. The Seattle company, which sells enterprise software to boost efficiency for salespeople, had multiple rounds of layoffs in 2023. Earlier this year it began hiring again and reported significant revenue growth.
— Seattle’s WestRiver Group named Brian Huang as an investment associate. Huang joined the company from Piper Sandler. WestRiver invests in early- and growth-stage businesses and its portfolio includes DocuSign, Cheq, Topgolf, Viome and others.
— The Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS) elected six members for new terms on its board of directors:
- President-elect Doug Call, senior vice provost and regents professor at Washington State University (WSU)
- Secretary Ljiljana Paša-Tolić, laboratory fellow and lead scientist at Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
- Rita Fuchs, professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience at WSU
- David Takeuchi, associate dean for Faculty Excellence at the UW
- Michael Goodchild, distinguished professor emeritus of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara
- Julie Kmec, chair and professor of Sociology at WSU
The nonprofit also announced 36 new members to its organization, a list of whom can be found here.
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