Several leadership changes were announced across Pacific Northwest technology companies this week, with notable departures at menopause healthcare startup Gennev and biotech firm Aurion Biotech.
Jill Angelo, who established Gennev in 2016 and served as its CEO, revealed she is stepping down from her position as president of virtual health at Unified Women’s Healthcare. The Florida-based women’s health organization had acquired Gennev in 2022, with Angelo transitioning to an executive role at the parent company. In her LinkedIn announcement, Angelo reflected on the acquisition as both a significant milestone and confirmation that women’s health startups can achieve successful exits. Prior to founding Gennev, which focused on telehealth services and products for women experiencing
perimenopause and menopause, Angelo spent over 15 years in marketing and product roles at Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Aurion Biotech underwent a leadership shakeup following Swiss healthcare giant Alcon’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Seattle-based clinical-stage startup. CEO and founder Greg Kunst was removed from his position, with former Chief Scientific Officer Arnaud Lacoste stepping in to lead the company. The leadership change comes amid reported tensions between the companies over Aurion’s IPO plans, which led to legal proceedings in November. Aurion, which develops advanced cell therapies for eye diseases, had recently received special FDA designations expected to accelerate the development of its cornea disease treatment.
In other moves, Seattle-based cloud application platform Temporal appointed Jim Cyb as president to lead go-to-market initiatives, while adding Sahir Azam as its first independent board member. The appointments follow Temporal’s recent $146 million funding round, which valued the company at $1.72 billion. Cyb brings experience scaling SaaS companies like Duo Security and Zendesk, while Azam serves as chief product officer at MongoDB.
Former Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith joined fusion energy company General Fusion as a strategic advisor. Smith’s extensive aerospace background includes leadership roles at United Space Alliance, Sandia Labs, and Honeywell Aerospace.
Healthcare company apree health, formed by the 2022 merger of Seattle’s Vera Whole Health and San Francisco’s Castlight Health, announced Jonathan Porter as its new CEO. Porter previously served as the company’s chief product officer and held similar roles at Bright Health Group and athenahealth.
Ben Pitasky, formerly head of finance and accounting at the
now-defunct Seattle startup Convoy, has taken the position of chief financial officer at California-based trucking efficiency company Alvys. Pitasky’s experience includes roles at Amazon and career platform Handshake.
Additional leadership changes include Anthony Schaller joining Vancouver’s Light AI as chief technologist and president, Simon Morriss becoming commercial director for the Asia-Pacific region at Seattle’s Augmodo, and Group14 Technologies adding Stellantis CFO Richard Palmer and former General Motors manufacturing executive Gerald Johnson to its board of directors.
Engineering firm Sigma Design also expanded its presence in Seattle, with senior VP of strategic accounts Doug Hill and senior director of strategic programs Jim Berton relocating to the new office. The company, headquartered in Camas, Washington, maintains additional locations in Kirkland, Vancouver, Oregon, and Singapore, serving aerospace, defense, technology, and industrial sectors.