Tech Moves: Meta leader for Pacific NW steps down; Phase Genomics adds to C-suite

Paresh Rajwat this summer stepped down from his role as the Pacific Northwest head of office for Meta, which has more than 8,000 employees in the region.

Rajwat held the title of vice president of product management for his 10 years at the company, and additionally led regional operations the past two years. In an email to GeekWire, he called the leadership role “an honor.”

“This region continues to be Meta’s largest tech hub outside of its Menlo Park headquarters with exceptional talent that’s critical for Meta’s success,” Rajwat said. “I’m proud to see the teams grow and play a key role in the most important innovations for Meta across Reality Labs, Gen AI, Infra, Monetization, and the Family of Apps.”

Meta has not announced a new leader for the Pacific Northwest. We’ve reached out to the company and will update if we hear back.

Rajwat’s past employers include Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and others.

He is now involved with angel investing, advising and serving on the board of multiple private companies. Rajwat said he is “loving this new phase” and enjoying sharing his experience with other entrepreneurs.

— Seattle biotech startup Phase Genomics hired David Shoultz as its first chief business officer.

“He brings the right know-how at the right time to accelerate adoption for our suite of technologies that unlock and integrate new layers of scientific discovery,” said Ivan Liachko, Phase Genomics’ founder and CEO.

Phase Genomics has developed technology for sequencing DNA from wide-ranging and tricky to study organisms. Its tools can also pick up chromosomal abnormalities, such as those that are common in tumors.

Shoultz’s resume runs deep in Seattle health companies and nonprofits. Prior to Phase Genomics, he was co-founder and chief operating officer for the Institute for Protein Design spinout Monod Bio. Other former positions include leadership roles at the Gates Foundation and directing the global drug development program at PATH.

— Susan Wyrick, senior vice president of finance and accounting at Sana Biotechnology, is serving as acting chief financial officer, treasurer, and principal accounting officer for the publicly traded company. She assumed the role last week, according to a regulatory filing.

Former CFO Nathan Hardy stepped down this month for personal reasons.

Sana CEO Steve Harr is filling in as acting principal financial officer, according to the filing.

Before joining Sana nearly six years ago, Wyrick was vice president, controller at Juno Therapeutics. While at Juno she was “a key contributor to the company’s successful IPO,” according to Sana’s website.

Sana held a ribbon-cutting event this summer for a new manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash. It also has sites in Seattle, South San Francisco, Cambridge, Mass, and Rochester, N.Y.

The biotech company is testing drugs for cancer, autoimmune disease and type 1 diabetes.

— Tech Alliance CEO Laura Ruderman has joined the boards of directors at Ada Developers Academy and KUOW Public Radio. Ruderman’s past roles include serving in the Washington House of Representatives, running a political consultancy and working as a program manager for Microsoft in the 1990s.

— There’s new leadership at CTL, a Beaverton, Ore., Certified B Corp providing Chromebooks and other hardware and software tools for education and business.

Co-founder and CEO Erik Stromquist, a 32-year veteran of the company, is now CTL’s board chairman. CTL’s new CEO is Jason Mendenhall, who was previously the chief product officer of Mind Education. Mendenhall has worked for education-related companies for his entire career, beginning in the classroom as a high school teacher.

“We’re coming off a year of growth with expansion into new markets, the introduction of new products, and our B Corp certification — all of which have positioned CTL for a bright future,” Stromquist said in a statement.

— Meg O’Conor Bannecker has taken the role of senior communications manager for Microsoft, with a focus on Washington state media and in collaboration with the Corporate Engagement and Legal Affairs team.

O’Conor Bannecker was previously the director of public relations and internal communications for Seattle biotech company NanoString Technologies, which was acquired earlier this year after initiating a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.

— Microsoft veteran David Willis is now chairman of the board of directors for Zensai, an AI-powered employee engagement and performance management platform that was founded in Denmark and has offices internationally.

Willis was at Microsoft for nearly 30 years and held the title of vice president for multiple divisions. Zensai touts its tight integration with Microsoft 365 and Teams.

As the leader of the board, Willis will help oversee the company’s growth as it aims to “revolutionize human resources.”

— Kevin Bognar left his job as global senior vice president of sales at the Seattle company Outreach to help care for his adult son, who suffered traumatic brain injuries after being struck by a drunk driver on Father’s Day. Bognar, a former director at Microsoft, said on LinkedIn that he’s looking for a new role.

“Thanks to amazing outpatient rehabilitation work in Michigan, our son’s progress has been very encouraging,” Bognar wrote, adding that “now is the right time for me to start my search for the next career challenge.”

— Macey McGovern has taken the role of senior strategy consultant at Accenture in Seattle. She was previously the Seattle director of Creative Destruction Labs (CDL).

“It’s been a wonderful ride launching and leading this deep-tech startup mentorship program in Seattle for just over 3 years now. We’ve helped seed-stage and pre-Series A founders raise almost $200 million and create over half a billion dollars in net new equity value,” McGovern said on LinkedIn, describing her time at CDL.

— Nicola Dell, who earned her PhD in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington, has won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship — better known as a “genius grant” — that can be used however she chooses. Dell is an associate professor of information science at Cornell Tech.

— Jaime Shimek, executive director of communications at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is joining the board of directors for Seattle’s Tech Alliance. Shimek has held other roles with the Department of Energy and was a senior policy advisor for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington for eight years.

— Seattle Internet of Things (IoT) networking company Teal Communications announced that Anthony Middleton joined its advisory board. Middleton, a director of products and services at Toronto-based Telus, “brings over 25 years of international experience in the defense, telecommunications and wireless industries,” Teal said in a statement.