— Rachel Smith, president and CEO of the Seattle Metro Chamber, is leaving her role at the business advocacy organization to become president of the Washington Roundtable.
Smith has led the chamber since 2021, guiding it through the COVID recovery, supporting BIPOC-owned businesses, working on Sound Transit expansion and other issues.
Over her career, Smith has worked in numerous Seattle-area civic roles including leadership in King County and City of Seattle government offices. She will continue engaging with the Seattle Metro Chamber in her new role at Washington Roundtable, which is a nonprofit that works to influence public policy and is composed of senior executives from major companies in the state.
Gabriella Buono, the chamber’s chief impact officer, will serve as interim president and CEO while the board of trustees seeks a permanent leader.
— Michael Atalla is leaving F5 after nearly four years, resigning from the role of senior vice president and head of worldwide marketing. Atalla said it was “hard to capture” what his time has meant at the Seattle-based security and application delivery giant.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the smartest, kindest, most relentlessly curious people in the business — and I don’t take that for granted,” he said on LinkedIn.
Atalla’s career includes nearly 14 years at Microsoft, ending in 2016 as a director with the Office 365 group. He also co-founded The MJJM Group, which advises business clients on product growth and supports fundraising efforts. Atalla has not disclosed his next step.
— Generative AI principal engineer Hitesh Jain is leaving Meta. Jain has been with the company for more than 13 years, most recently working to personalize AI chatbots so they are “helpful and engaging,” he said in his LinkedIn profile.
In announcing his departure, Jain said he joined the Meta straight out of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in India. “Moving halfway across the world to the U.S. was an unexpected leap — but one of the best decisions of my life,” he added. “What started as just a job quickly became a defining chapter of my journey. Over the years, I had the privilege of working from Seattle, [Menlo Park, Calif.], and Dublin.”
Tech companies are scrambling to hire top AI talent, with Meta reportedly offering salaries of $100 million per year. Jain did not name his next role, saying, “It’s the start of a new chapter for me. Stay tuned for what’s next.”
— Adriana Gil Miner stepped down from her role as chief marketing and strategy officer at Iterable. Miner held the post for more than three years, and said on LinkedIn that she loved the chance to “market to marketers” at the San Francisco-based B2B company.
“Few marketers get the opportunity to meet the people behind the brands you love and use every day,” Miner said on LinkedIn.
Before joining Iterable, Miner held leadership roles at multiple Seattle-area companies, serving as senior vice president of marketing for Tableau Software and CMO of both Qumulo and Artefact. She did not share her next move.
— Former WatchGuard Technologies CEO Prakash Panjwani joined the board of directors for Starfire Sports. The organization provides coding classes, drone summer camps, and other free, after-school sports programming for underprivileged kids in South Seattle.
“I strongly believe that we have a tremendous opportunity to influence our youth in their early years by offering them exposure to everything from sports to STEM so that they are better prepared to contribute positively to society,” Panjwani said in a statement.
— Seattle industrial analytics company Seeq named Anton Chilton to its board of directors. Chilton was with manufacturing and supply chain solutions company QAD for more than two decades, rising to the role of CEO. Seeq uses AI, analytics, and monitoring to data that helps industrial businesses optimize their operations.
Chilton replaces previous board director Ashley Kramer.
