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This historical roundup covers Pacific Northwest leadership announcements reported by GeekWire on April 8, 2022. It includes appointments at USAFacts, Inventprise and RealNetworks, along with executive departures and other changes across technology, biotech, gaming and public service. The roles and company details below describe the announcements at that time, not necessarily current status.
USAFacts named Tanuja Korlepra its CTO
In April 2022, Bellevue-based USAFacts appointed Tanuja Korlepra chief technology officer. GeekWire described her as a former product-management leader at Microsoft and Amazon with more than 20 years of software-engineering experience. She was reported to oversee a team of about 15 people, working on systems for analyzing and ingesting information.
Founded in 2017 by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, USAFacts is a civic-data initiative focused on making government information more accessible and supporting fact-based public debate. Korlepra said the opportunity to make nonpartisan data more accessible—and useful to informed debate—was a reason she joined. She was also involved with the Global Fund for Women and the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology.
GeekWire’s April 8, 2022 report is the source for the appointment and contemporaneous details.
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Zillow CMO Aimee Johnson announced her departure
Johnson was leaving Zillow after about three years as chief marketing officer. She said she planned to spend time with her family and consider her next career move. Before Zillow, she held leadership and executive roles at Starbucks for 14 years. Zillow thanked her for strengthening its brand and market position.
The announcement came after Zillow shut down its homebuying division and laid off about one-quarter of its staff in late 2021. That timing is context; the report did not establish that the restructuring caused Johnson’s departure.
Inventprise appointed Yves Leurquin CEO
Redmond, Washington-based vaccine company Inventprise appointed Yves Leurquin CEO, succeeding founder Subhash Kapre. Leurquin had held executive roles in vaccine programs at Takeda and Janssen. Kapre became executive chairman and retained a seat on the company’s board.
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The announcement came amid support for a pediatric pneumococcal-disease vaccine candidate. GeekWire reported that Inventprise had recently received $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the first tranche of a commitment of up to $90 million. The $90 million figure was the potential total commitment, not the amount reported as already received.
Michael Cooley became president of RealNetworks’ KONTXT business
RealNetworks appointed Michael Cooley president of KONTXT, its messaging and telecommunications business. Cooley had been general manager for enterprise IoT at Kajeet and brought more than two decades of ecommerce leadership experience at Fortune 500 companies and startups, including Sprint and Deloitte.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
KONTXT was described as software using machine learning and natural-language processing to detect and block fraudulent text messages, images and phone calls. RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said the service blocked millions of spam and phishing text messages daily; that is a claim attributed to the company’s announcement, not a current measure.
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GeekWire described Seattle-based RealNetworks as applying AI and computer vision in media and telecommunications. It cited $58.2 million in 2021 revenue and 14% growth in the company’s AI-based business. Those are historical figures reported at the time, not current financial results.
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Other Pacific Northwest personnel changes in the roundup
- Phil Greenberg: The Fred Hutch investigator was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research, with his term beginning in April 2022.
- Jeff Ross: The design manager at NetherRealm Studios joined Bellevue-based Crystal Dynamics as design director.
- Karen Akinsanya: Schrödinger’s president of R&D for therapeutics joined Seattle-based Nautilus Biotechnology’s board.
- Maddie Clayton: The former Microsoft and Meta software engineer joined Bellevue-based mapping-software company Proxi as director of engineering.
- Laurel Buckner: The former managing director at WestRiver Group joined Riverstone Holdings.
- Mark Vasconi: The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s director of regulatory services was appointed director of the Washington State Broadband Office.
What the 2022 moves show about the region
Taken together, the announcements span civic data, consumer technology, vaccine development, telecom software, gaming, biotech, investment and public broadband. They also represent different kinds of change: executive appointments and departures, a founder-to-executive-chair transition, board additions and an elected professional-association presidency. The roundup documents what was announced in 2022; it does not assess whether those appointments succeeded or establish which roles the individuals hold today.
Read GeekWire’s original April 8, 2022 roundup. Its placement in the publication’s Tech Moves archive confirms the historical context.
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