GeekWire’s Oct. 26, 2025 roundup tracked six Pacific Northwest personnel changes: former Starbucks chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre announced her retirement; Microsoft security leader Nancy Mounir joined Oracle Cloud Infrastructure; Amazon Lab126 hardware vice president Lindo St. Angel was preparing to leave; and Mark Jewett, Priya Vaidyanathan, and Jim Chi took new leadership posts. These were separate moves, not a coordinated reshuffle, and the available reporting does not establish their employment status after the October 2025 announcements.
Deb Hall Lefevre retires after Starbucks technology leadership
Hall Lefevre announced her retirement in an October 2025 LinkedIn post after leaving Starbucks in September. She had been Starbucks’ chief technology officer and executive vice president. Reuters, as cited by GeekWire, reported her resignation and the interim succession on Sept. 26, 2025 (Reuters).
Her career included more than 16 years at McDonald’s, where she became corporate vice president and chief information officer, followed by executive vice president and chief technology officer at Circle K Stores. In her retirement announcement, she said she planned to spend more time with family while continuing technology work and board service.
Starbucks’ interim succession and restructuring context
Starbucks named Ningyu Chen, formerly senior vice president of global experience technology, interim CTO, according to GeekWire’s report. The change came as Starbucks said it would eliminate approximately 900 non-retail positions and close underperforming stores. The company had also announced about 1,100 corporate job cuts in February 2025. Those workforce actions provide context, but the reporting does not show that they caused Hall Lefevre’s resignation or retirement.
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Nancy Mounir moves from Microsoft to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Nancy Mounir joined Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as vice president of product, with responsibility for the Security Platform team. Her own LinkedIn announcement described the move as a new chapter after her Microsoft tenure. The title should not be expanded to “Oracle security chief”: the reported position is vice president of product, with security programs and platforms among her responsibilities.
At Microsoft, Mounir was a senior director and chief of staff connected to the company’s Secure Future Initiative. She first worked at Microsoft from 2012 to 2015 in supply chain, spent about a year at Amazon in advertising and accounting, and returned to Microsoft in 2016. Her move places experience from a major software company’s security program inside Oracle’s cloud infrastructure business.
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Lindo St. Angel leaves Amazon’s Lab126 hardware group
Lindo St. Angel was expected to leave Amazon at the end of October 2025 after serving as vice president of hardware for Lab126, Amazon’s Silicon Valley devices organization. He joined Lab126 in 2010. Reuters reported the impending departure on Oct. 23 (Reuters), and GeekWire included it in the roundup.
Lab126, launched in 2004, is associated with products including Kindle Fire, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and other Amazon hardware. St. Angel’s departure therefore affects a senior leader in a high-profile product organization, but the available reporting does not establish a Lab126 shutdown, a retreat from hardware, or his next employer.
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Other Pacific Northwest-linked moves
Mark Jewett becomes Komodo Health chief marketing officer
Mark Jewett joined healthcare-data company Komodo Health as chief marketing officer. The company integrates healthcare data and provides insights used in treatment, research, and related work. Jewett previously held senior vice president roles at Informatica, served as chief marketing officer at SmartRecruiters, and was senior vice president and co-interim CMO at Tableau. He also spent 15 years in Microsoft leadership roles.
GeekWire reported that Komodo Health reached a $3.3 billion valuation in 2021; that is a dated valuation, not a current 2026 figure.
Priya Vaidyanathan takes Microsoft AI-skilling product role
Priya Vaidyanathan became a Microsoft director of product and design for the company’s AI-skilling platform. She returned to Microsoft in 2020 after two earlier stints and had been a group product manager. Earlier, she founded meal-kit startup SnapCurry and worked at Amazon as a senior technical product manager.
Vaidyanathan described the mission as helping people build AI skills and confidence. The available account does not identify the platform by a specific product name.
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Jim Chi leads the relaunched Oregon Startup Center
Jim Chi was named executive director of the Oregon Startup Center during its relaunch, a detail attributed by GeekWire to the Portland Business Journal. He also serves as president of Oregon Sports Angels and is a longtime product-management leader. The role extends the roundup beyond large technology companies into Oregon’s startup-support ecosystem.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this October 2025 roundup indicates
The moves span Seattle-area companies, Silicon Valley hardware, New York-based healthcare technology, and Oregon’s startup community. The recurring executive domains are security, AI skills, digital and operational technology, healthcare data, and consumer hardware. That pattern shows senior-career mobility across sectors, but six announcements cannot establish a region-wide hiring, layoff, or compensation trend.
Dates and status to keep straight
- Hall Lefevre’s Starbucks departure was reported in September 2025; her retirement announcement followed in October.
- Mounir’s Oracle appointment was announced on LinkedIn in October 2025.
- St. Angel’s Amazon departure was reported as expected at the end of October, not necessarily completed on Oct. 26.
- Jewett, Vaidyanathan, and Chi were reported in the October 2025 roundup.
All details above reflect the announcements and reporting available in October 2025. Later roles or outcomes are not established by those sources.
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