Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Cathy Smith, CFO of Starbucks. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Starbucks announced Cathy Smith as its chief financial officer. Smith was most recently at Nordstrom for two years, and has held CFO roles at Bright Health, Target, Express Scripts, Walmart and others. Her longest role was at the defense and space juggernaut Raytheon.
Smith succeeds Rachel Ruggeri, who was at Starbucks for more than two decades, ascending to the CFO role in 2021.
The coffee giant announced layoffs of 1,100 corporate employees, including 612 in Seattle. It marks one of Starbucks’ largest layoffs and comes as CEO Brian Niccol turns to tech to help turn around the slumping business after taking over in September.
— Avanade, a Seattle-based tech consulting and services company, announced a slate of C-suite hires. The company, which formed as a joint venture of Accenture and Microsoft, tapped that history in building the new line-up:
Chief Operating Officer Danielle Brady was at Accenture for more then 25 years in leadership roles in Dallas and Sacramento.
Chief Marketing Officer Ashley Gatehouse previously worked at QUANTIQ, a Microsoft “Inner Circle Partner.”
Rani Gopalakrishnan, global lead of advanced technology centers, was with Accenture for 11 years based in India.
Chief Growth Officer Ruth Rowan was previously CMO for Avanade for three years.
Chief People Officer Nisha Verma has been with Accenture for nearly 20 years, based in Singapore.
In September, Rodrigo Caserta became chief executive of Avanade, succeeding Pamela Maynard.
Dr. John McHutchison, CEO of Tune Therapeutics. (Tune Photo)
— Tune Therapeutics named Dr. John McHutchison as its new CEO. McHutchison comes to the role from Velia, which he led for nearly two years, and was previously chief executive of Assembly Biosciences. As chief scientist and head of R&D at Gilead Sciences, he led the development of curative treatment for chronic Hepatitis C.
McHutchison takes over from Dan McHugh, a Tune co-founder who served as interim CEO for the past year.
Tune, which has headquarters in Seattle and Durham, N.C., in January announced a $175 million funding round. The biotech company is using a pioneering technology called epigenetic editing to control gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence itself. It recently launched its first clinical trials in New Zealand and Hong Kong, testing a treatment for chronic Hepatitis B
Dr. Luke Walker, chief medical officer of Umoja Biopharma. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Seattle’s Umoja Biopharma named Dr. Luke Walker as its chief medical officer. He will oversee the company’s clinical research, including two clinical stage cancer studies using CAR T cells. Walker comes to the role from Harpoon Therapeutics, which was acquired last year by Merck. He has held leadership roles at Seagen, Cascadian Therapeutics and Oncothyreon, and was an oncologist at The Everett Clinic.
Umoja in January disclosed a $100 million Series C round.
Nayaki Nayyar, CEO of Siteimprove. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Siteimprove announced Nayaki Nayyar as its CEO and John Damgaard as chairman of its board of directors. Nayyar was previously CEO of Securonix, a cybersecurity company that reached a billion-dollar valuation.
Siteimprove, which helps companies improve their website functionality, is based in Copenhagen and has an office in Bellevue, Wash., which is home to 50 employees and a majority of its executive leadership team.
Siteimprove’s former CEO, Shane Paladin, is now chief executive and president of SmartRent, a smart home automation company serving property managers and renters. SmartRent recently hired Ali Shaffer, a former chief of staff at Siteimprove, as EVP of strategic operations.
Andrea Varsavsky, COO for Sage Bionetworks. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Andrea Varsavsky is now chief operating officer for Seattle nonprofit Sage Bionetworks. Varsavsky has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare technology and previously led data strategy, product development and analytics initiatives at companies including Evidation and Medtronic.
Sage works to facilitate collaboration between healthcare scientists globally, is advancing the use of artificial intelligence in research, and promotes clinical trials.
— Niccolo de Masi is now president and CEO of IonQ, a Maryland-based company that last year opened an approximately 100,000 square-foot quantum computer manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash. De Masi previously served on IonQ’s board of directors and was CEO of the software company dMY Technology Group.
He replaces Peter Chapman, who led the company for roughly six years and prior to IonQ was director of engineering at Amazon Prime.
— Shiftboard, a Seattle company providing of workforce scheduling software, appointed Bill Phillips as its new vice president of professional services. His past employers include WorkJam, Ceridian and others.
Phillips replaces Peter Draper, who recently retired after more than six years with the company.
— Greg Tito, a former Wizards of the Coast communications manager and deputy director for the Washington Secretary of State, is now director of communications at Ravensburger North America, a toy and puzzle maker.
