— There’s more shake-up within Microsoft’s gaming unit as Lori Wright announced she is leaving “in the coming weeks.” Wright spent nine years at Microsoft, most recently leading global partnerships and business development and marketing for Xbox.
“I leave with overwhelming gratitude for the adventure of a lifetime. As for what comes next, I’m hoping for a lot of beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and discovering what lies in the space in between,” Wright said on LinkedIn.
Wright’s departure follows news last week that Haiyan Zhang is leaving Microsoft for Netflix. Zhang spent more than 13 years at Microsoft, holding positions across Microsoft Gaming, Microsoft Research and Xbox Studios, most recently as general manager and partner for Gaming AI.
Xbox is now led by Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming who recently took over from longtime leader Phil Spencer.
— Luke Tavis, chief accounting officer of Seattle-based remittance company Remitly, is retiring later this month.
He’ll continue to serve as a vice president until June to support an orderly transition, according to a regulatory filing.
Tai-Hong Fung, currently VP, Controller, will replace Tavis on April 1. Fung joined Remitly in February after a long career at Starbucks and Microsoft.
Remitly co-founder and longtime CEO Matt Oppenheimer stepped down last month. The company is now led by veteran tech and finance executive Sebastian Gunningham. Oppenheimer remains as chairman.
— Thomas Pfenning, a corporate vice president at Microsoft who joined the company in 1995, announced his retirement in a LinkedIn post that cited his early work on MSN and the Windows 2000 networking stack. More recently he helped develop the Azure Edge suite. “Even the long hours — including those late-night CRI sessions — are memories I’ll keep, primarily because of the camaraderie and the spirit of the people I was working with,” he wrote.
— Seattle recruiting tech startup Provn named Taylor Brazelton as its new CTO and co-founder. Brazelton previously was a senior software engineer at Microsoft, where he worked with Provn CEO Nikesh Parekh. Provn launched in November. “Taylor was and is always out in front and now I get to learn from him everyday!” Parekh wrote on LinkedIn.
— Cynara Lilly, a former executive director of advocacy and communications at The Ballmer Group, took a new role at Silicon Valley startup Hippocratic AI as chief communications officer. “This is the kind of role you dream about — sitting at the intersection of breakthrough technology, public policy, and a mission that could genuinely improve and extend lives around the world,” Lilly wrote on LinkedIn.
— Vishnu Nath, vice president and GM at Microsoft, announced his departure after nearly 15 years at the Redmond tech giant leading groups working on Microsoft OneNote and Copilot Notebooks. “Microsoft has been more than a workplace for me — it’s been a place where I’ve grown as a leader, taken risks, learned from failures, and celebrated some of the most meaningful wins of my career,” he said on LinkedIn. Nath said “more to come” on his next step.
— Alexandra Holien is interim CEO at Ada Developers Academy, a Seattle-based nonprofit that trains under-represented people in tech. Holien, a 10-year veteran of Ada who has been interim CEO previously, replaces Tina-Marie Gulley, who is departing this week after two years as CEO. “Ada Developers Academy is stepping boldly into its next chapter, laser-focused on building the best technologists the industry has ever seen,” Laura Ruderman, CEO at Technology Alliance and an Ada board member, wrote on LinkedIn.
— Scott Ruffin, former CEO of e-commerce startup Pandion, announced he’s leading a new company called Kupu that describes itself as a patient financial protection platform in the healthcare sector.
— Jesse Rebello is now managing director at Seattle-based energy efficiency company Edo. Rebello was a longtime exec at ENGIE Impact.
Read the full article here
