Anu Sharma. (Madrona Photo)

Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group announced that Anu Sharma is joining its investment team as a principal. Sharma was most recently a senior product manager at Amazon Web Services.

“I’m excited to be part of the team that has seen what growth at successful businesses looks like and is committed to partnering with founders focused on solving problems for their customers,” said Anu.

Prior to Amazon, Sharma co-founded LifeLemon, a consumer apparel e-commerce startup, led marketing at Flipkart, and was a developer at Oracle. She was also an associate at SoftBank Venture Capital in India.

Joy Efron. (Saykara Photo)

Seattle startup Saykara, which offers a mobile AI assistant for physicians, hired Joy Efron as VP of marketing. Efron most recently served as VP of marketing for Glytec, a technology solution for insulin management. She previously held marketing and business development roles at Health Outcome Sciences, ChartLogic, and Remedy Informatics, which all offer technology solutions for the healthcare industry.

Last year, Saykara unveiled a new skill for its virtual assistant, called Kara, that documents an entire doctor-patient conversation without interruption.

Cyber threat intelligence company DomainTools named four new executives to its leadership team:

• James Reynolds as chief technology officer. Reynolds was most recently director of research and development at Mountain View, Calif.-based Synopsys.

• Jeff Day as chief commercial officer. Day has held marketing roles at Amazon Web Services and sales engagement startup Highspot. He previously was VP of marketing at DomainTools from 2013-to-2015.

• Jackie Abrams as vice president of product. Abrams joined DomainTools in 2019 as principal product manager. She previously led product and digital strategy at security services provider WMC Global.

• Jill Boon as vice president of people. Boon was previously VP of people at Seattle startups Porch, Mighty AI and Pro.com. She also worked as a talent acquisition leader for Amazon.

Seattle venture capital investor and business leader Adriane Brown joined the board of directors for Axon, a company that develops body cameras, tasers, and other law enforcement technologies. Brown recently participated in a special episode of the GeekWire podcast about race, tech, and steps business leaders can take towards equity.

Max Schmeiser, an Amazon vet and former head of research and data science at Seattle startup Convoy, is now head of data science at Twitter. Prior to Amazon, Schmeiser served as a principal economist for the Federal Reserve Board.

Redmond, Wash.-based maker of miniature projection display technology MicroVision added AR/VR inventor and entrepreneur Mark Spitzer to its board. He has a background in technology development and management including working on micro-displays for military head-mounted systems and founding the MicroOptical Corporation, which created industrial and consumer eyewear-based AR products. Spitzer retired in 2017 from Google where he oversaw operations for Google Glass and developing VR hardware.

Carmen Rojas. (Marguerite Casey Foundation Photo)

Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation appointed Carmen Rojas as its new president & CEO, Jonathan Jayes-Green as VP of programs, and Rhonda Carter as VP of culture and operations.The Marguerite Casey Foundation is a nationally endowed foundation that supports low-income families advocating for change through grants, strategic communications, and networking.

Rojas succeeds retiring president and CEO Luz Vega-Marquis. Rojas founded non-profit The Workers Lab, which invests in ventures to give power to workers. Jayes-Green most recently worked for the Elizabeth Warren for President campaign as director of national Latinx outreach. Carter previously served as chief of staff at Sound Transit and worked at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and U.S. Dept. of Energy.

— Digital media veteran and Amazon SVP James DeLorenzo has been hired by Apple for its Apple TV+ on-demand video service, according to a report from 9to5Mac. DeLorenzo joined Amazon in May 2016 as the new head of sports for Amazon Video.

Boeing appointed Michael D’Ambrose as its new EVP of human resources, succeeding interim leader Wendy Livingston. The aerospace giant’s former HR leader Heidi Capozzi departed in April. D’Ambrose was most recently chief human resources officer at global agriculture company Archer Daniels Midland Co., and will be based in Chicago, Ill.

Kayla Young. (Life Science Washington Photo)

University of Washington spinout Phase Genomics promoted Kayla Young to chief operating officer. Young joined the startup, which is developing DNA sequencing technology, in 2017 as director of operations. She previously was a program manager at Life Science Washington and has her PhD in molecular physiology and biophysics from Vanderbilt University.

Interpreting Technology CEO Pamela Santangelo and founder and CIO Adrian Santangelo joined Snohomish, Wash.-based cybersecurity startup Cyemptive Technologies as part of its acquisition of the Burlington, Wash.-based IT services and support company.

“The addition of the entire team, along with Adrian’s past background in “white hat” hacking and his deep forensic expertise, adds significant bench strength to Cyemptive,” said Rob Pike, CEO and founder of Cyemptive Technologies.

Pamela Santangelo will be Cyemptive Technologies’ administrative director and Adrian Santangelo will join the leadership team as chief security forensic officer.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hired Srilakshmi Remala as program officer focused on postsecondary culture and outcomes. Remala was previously general manager of the Attain for Students app at All Star Directories, an education marketing and technology company. She’s held product management roles at DreamBox Learning, Washington STEM, and Accenture.

Entrepreneur Zachary Cohn is now head of product at DemandStar, a marketplace for local and state governments to source suppliers that just raised $2 million. Cohn founded government training tool Wonful and travel site Amazing Airfare. He’s helped organize Startup Weekend, Ignite Seattle and Hacker News events.

“Looking forward to helping governments across the country get more vendors bidding on their RFPs, and helping small biz win more bids,” Cohn said in a post on Twitter.

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