Peter Horadan, a Seattle tech executive with a background at Avalara and founding his own startup called Lockstep, has taken on the role of CEO at Vouched, an identity verification startup. Vouched was founded in 2018 and helps companies verify the identity of their customers and users by examining forms of identification such as driver’s licenses. Horadan’s experience in automating manual business processes has prepared him to bring value to Vouched customers, particularly in industries such as banking and healthcare where identity verification processes are crucial. With the rise of deepfakes and other AI-produced content, identifying individuals online has become an increasingly important technology problem that Vouched aims to address.
John Baird, Vouched’s CEO and co-founder, will move to the role of chairman of the board and chief strategy officer as Horadan takes on the CEO position. The company has 25 employees and has raised $18 million in funding, ranking No. 132 on the GeekWire 200 list of top Pacific Northwest tech startups. The tech ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest has seen other key personnel changes, including Dhaval Patel joining Sana Biotechnology as executive vice president and chief scientific officer. Patel brings with him extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having held leadership roles at UCB, Novartis, and academic institutions like the University of North Carolina and Duke University. Sana, which recently went public and has four drugs in human testing, is focused on developing treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and type 1 diabetes.
Aaron Bilyeu has joined Cloverleaf Infrastructure as its chief development officer, bringing his experience from Meta to help with the construction of clean energy facilities powering data centers. Heather Rosentrater has been appointed CEO of Avista Corp., a publicly traded energy company based in Spokane, Washington. Rosentrater, who has been with Avista since 1996, will replace Dennis Vermillion as CEO and join the company’s board. Avista provides electric and natural gas services to customers across the Pacific Northwest and has a long-standing legacy of supporting community vitality through energy initiatives.
In another move in the tech ecosystem, Brady Paron has joined Mast Reforestation, previously known as DroneSeed, as director of carbon market partnership. Paron, who previously worked at Shopify, will help Mast Reforestation in its mission to restore forests damaged by wildfires and become the largest seed supplier in the western United States. These personnel changes across various companies in the Pacific Northwest reflect the dynamic nature of the region’s tech industry, with experienced executives bringing their expertise to companies working on a range of innovative technologies and solutions.
