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In a March 2, 2023 GeekWire personnel roundup, Armoire hired former Microsoft technical fellow Laura Butler as chief technology officer, while Chewy appointed Petabyte Technology co-founder and CEO Michael Hyman as a vice president after acquiring the Bellevue veterinary-technology company. These are historical appointments, not verified current job titles as of 2026.
Two Seattle-area technology leadership moves
GeekWire’s recurring Tech Moves series tracks notable hires, promotions and personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest technology community. Its March 2, 2023 edition highlighted two moves involving companies operating at the intersection of technology and specialized consumer services:
- Armoire hired Laura Butler as CTO. Butler spent more than 20 years at Microsoft and was described by GeekWire as the company’s first female distinguished engineer and technical fellow.
- Chewy appointed Michael Hyman as a vice president after acquiring Petabyte Technology, the Bellevue-based veterinary-software startup he co-founded and led as CEO.
The original roundup was published on March 2, 2023, at 7:26 a.m. The appointments should therefore be read in their original 2022–2023 context. The available evidence does not establish whether Butler remains Armoire’s CTO or Hyman remains in the same role at Chewy.
Laura Butler joins Armoire as chief technology officer
Armoire, founded in 2016, offered online and in-person clothing-shopping options. GeekWire reported that the company had opened a high-tech brick-and-mortar boutique in Seattle the previous year and had raised more than $12 million by the time of Butler’s appointment. Those figures describe Armoire’s position in early 2023, not its current funding or retail footprint.
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Butler’s background was unusually senior for a startup CTO hire. She began at Microsoft as an engineering intern and spent more than two decades at the company. GeekWire reported that she became Microsoft’s first female distinguished engineer and technical fellow.
What “technical fellow” meant
“Technical fellow” was a distinction within Microsoft’s senior technical career ladder—not the same thing as being Microsoft’s chief technology officer or an executive vice president. In practical terms, the title signaled exceptional technical standing and influence within the company’s engineering community. It is best understood as a career milestone reflecting deep technical expertise, rather than as a conventional corporate operating title.
Before joining Armoire, Butler was CTO and co-founder of UpLift Group, a startup that provided information about homeowner associations to home buyers and their agents. That experience gave her exposure to a smaller-company operating environment after her long Microsoft career.
GeekWire also described Butler as an investor in companies and funds founded by women and minorities, including Graham & Walker, First Row Partners, Operator Collective, OwnTrail, PredictionStrike and LoanSense. That investment activity provides context about her involvement in the startup ecosystem, but it was not the reason for assigning her a particular operating responsibility at Armoire.
Why Armoire considered the hire important
Armoire CEO and co-founder Ambika Singh called Butler one of her “true-life heroines” and said Butler could help operationalize the company’s vision and strengthen its service to customers. That is Singh’s assessment, not an independent performance finding.
Still, the appointment logically placed an experienced technical leader inside a consumer business that depended on digital shopping, data and operational execution. Armoire’s model required technology to connect customers with clothing through both online and physical retail experiences. Butler’s role may therefore have supported ambitions around personalization, retail systems, inventory operations or scale. The announcement did not disclose her reporting line, team size, compensation, technical priorities or specific projects, so those possibilities should not be treated as a confirmed product roadmap.
Chewy adds Petabyte co-founder Michael Hyman as a vice president
Michael Hyman co-founded Petabyte Technology in 2019 and served as its CEO. The company, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, developed cloud-based technology solutions for the veterinary sector.
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After Chewy acquired Petabyte, Hyman joined Chewy as a vice president, according to GeekWire’s reporting. The report did not specify his Chewy division, compensation or detailed post-acquisition responsibilities. It also confirmed Hyman’s appointment, but did not establish that every Petabyte employee joined Chewy or that Petabyte’s products continued under a particular brand.
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Acquisition dates and price
Chewy’s filings provide more precise transaction details than the original personnel item. According to Chewy’s 2023 Form 10-K, Chewy entered into a definitive merger agreement with Petabyte on October 23, 2022. The merger was completed on November 7, 2022, making Petabyte a wholly owned Chewy subsidiary.
GeekWire’s 2023 report referred to a November 4 completion date, but Chewy’s SEC filing gives November 7. The SEC filing is the stronger source for the definitive transaction date.
Chewy’s earlier third-quarter filing described an estimated purchase price of $43.4 million. Its later annual filing reported a purchase price of $43.281 million, including $2.881 million in acquired cash and approximately $40.4 million in cash paid net of acquired cash. The difference illustrates why preliminary transaction figures can change in later accounting disclosures.
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Chewy also recorded approximately $39.4 million in goodwill and $1.5 million in developed technology among the acquired assets. These accounting figures do not mean that Chewy paid that amount specifically for software; they describe how the transaction was allocated for financial-reporting purposes.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
Why Petabyte fit Chewy’s strategy
Chewy said the acquisition was expected to strengthen its pet-healthcare products and services. Petabyte’s veterinary-practice cloud software offered a technology foothold in the systems used by veterinary businesses, complementing Chewy’s broader pet-commerce and healthcare ambitions.
Hyman’s earlier experience included executive roles at Oath, work at Amazon in the early 2000s, work at Microsoft in the late 1990s and leadership positions at other startups. That combination of large-company and startup experience helps explain why a founder might be useful after an acquisition, but the available sources do not specify exactly how Chewy used his expertise.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What these moves show about the Pacific Northwest talent market
The two appointments illustrate a familiar Seattle-area pattern: senior talent moving between major technology companies, startups, venture-backed businesses and specialized industries. Butler moved from Microsoft’s senior technical ranks and an entrepreneurial role into the CTO position at a consumer-oriented startup. Hyman moved from leading a veterinary-technology company into a vice-presidential role at its acquirer.
That pattern suggests how regional companies can obtain experience in two ways: by hiring leaders who have operated at large technology companies, or by acquiring a company and adding its founder to the buyer’s leadership structure. It does not, by itself, prove a broader industry-wide trend or reveal either company’s long-term results.
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Other moves in the March 2023 roundup
The Butler and Hyman announcements were the lead items, not the entirety of GeekWire’s roundup. Other personnel changes mentioned in the same edition included:
- Ring appointed Elizabeth Hamren as CEO.
- Boeing appointed Howard McKenzie as chief engineer and executive vice president of engineering, test and technology.
- Inviso appointed David Lazarus as CEO.
- The roundup also included additional board, government, biotech and commercial-real-estate appointments.
Those moves were grouped together because they involved notable personnel changes in the Pacific Northwest; the article did not present them as one coordinated corporate or investment trend.
What remains unknown
- There is no verified current employment update here for Butler or Hyman as of 2026.
- Armoire’s announcement did not disclose Butler’s compensation, reporting structure, team size or specific technology initiatives.
- Chewy’s reporting did not disclose Hyman’s exact division or post-acquisition mandate.
- The available material does not confirm whether Chewy retained all Petabyte employees.
- The sources do not establish whether Petabyte’s software remains a standalone product or how it was integrated into Chewy.
For the appointments, GeekWire is the source of record in this account. For the acquisition’s legal structure, completion date and financial treatment, Chewy’s SEC filings provide the more authoritative detail.
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