— Microsoft’s Xbox promoted Scott Van Vliet to the role of chief technology officer. Van Vliet, based in the Los Angeles area, has been with the company across two stints totaling more than seven years, with work on Teams and Azure Communication Services.
“I’ve been a gamer my whole life and an Xbox fan since day one, so this is a rare opportunity to bring together two things I care deeply about: building platforms and gaming,” Van Vliet said on LinkedIn.
The leadership change comes three months after Asha Sharma took over as Xbox CEO — a move that surprised some given her limited video game industry background. Van Vliet’s appointment adds gaming experience to Xbox’s top ranks.
Since Sharma took the helm, Microsoft has canceled its AI-powered Copilot assistant for Xbox and added four executives from CoreAI, the company’s engineering group where she previously worked.
— Drew Garner was promoted to a newly created chief AI officer role at Smartsheet, the Bellevue, Wash., enterprise software company best known for helping businesses organize and track work. The announcement is just the latest C-suite change for the company.
Garner said on LinkedIn that his mission stays the same, using “AI that earns its keep with the people doing real work.”
Garner became Smartsheet’s VP of engineering in November, just after Rajeev “Raj” Singh took the helm as CEO. The two have significant overlaps in their resumes, with Garner rising to the role of CTO at Accolade during Singh’s tenure as leader of the healthcare platform. And Garner was a senior director at Concur, the Bellevue-based travel expense giant that Singh co-founded.
— After nearly five years at Amazon, Tim Castree has left to become chief marketing officer at DoorDash. While the food and retail delivery platform is already a large-scale operation, “there’s still a real entrepreneurial energy that fuels the company, and I loved the idea of joining a business where so much of the growth journey is still in front of us,” he said on LinkedIn.
Castree, based in Ohio, was most recently VP of EU Prime and Marketing at Amazon, overseeing brand, performance and growth marketing across more than 15 European markets.
— Stephan Betz is also leaving Amazon after more than 18 years with the company across two stints. He served as director of software engineering and product for Last Mile Tech, most recently focused on driver assistance and safety technologies, including software powering Amazon’s Rivian EVs. Betz is based in Santa Cruz, Calif.
“What’s next? I am going to take a very long, maybe permanent, break and look for ways to give back in these unprecedented times of change,” he said on LinkedIn.
Betz has also held roles at Microsoft, Google, Groupon and Netflix.
— Bryan Sherman is joining Amazon director of Global Partner Development, focusing on Amazon Ads. Sherman works out of Amazon’s New York office and was previously with Monks, the London-based advertising company.
— Seattle Children’s has appointed Katerie Chapman as senior VP and chief operating officer. Chapman spent 23 years at Virginia Mason Medical Center, rising from administrative intern to president of the Seattle health organization, before joining Kaufman Hall as managing director. She comes to Seattle Children’s from that role.
“(Chapman’s) deep roots in the healthcare community and her proven track record in leading high-performing teams make her the ideal person to lead our operations as we continue to grow and innovate for the patients and families we serve,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, CEO of Seattle Children’s.
— Three University of Washington professors have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition for their leadership in work that supports research, public policy and the common good.
- Magdalena Balazinska, director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, was elected for her work in data management and data science and for her leadership in the field.
- Shwetak Patel of the Allen School and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering was elected for his work in ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction and sensor-enabled systems.
- Daniel Schindler of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences was elected for his research on the impacts of climate change, urbanization and land use on freshwater ecosystems.
— Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced two promotions to its senior research leadership team:
- Douglas Mans is now associate laboratory director for PNNL’s science mission areas, spanning the physical, computational, Earth and biological sciences.
- Daniel Stephens has been named associate laboratory director for PNNL’s National Security Directorate.
— Dr. Toshio Tsukiyama, professor and associate director of Fred Hutch’s Basic Sciences Division, has received the inaugural David and Deborah Lycette Endowed Chair for Cancer Research. Tsukiyama, who has been with Fred Hutch for nearly three decades, studies cell function in pursuit of new strategies for targeting cancer cells with novel therapies.
— Michael Waggoner, founder and former CEO of Corumat, a sustainable packaging startup based in Yakima, Wash., has a new role following the company’s recent closure. Waggoner has joined Simplexity Product Development, a robotics engineering firm, as a senior design engineer.
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