Award-winning immunologist Susan Kaech is the new executive vice president of the Allen Institute’s Immunology Moonshot, an initiative that aims to understand the immune system’s role in human health and disease.
Kaech currently leads the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and will join the Allen Institute in January.
“The appointment comes at a critical time in bioscience when the immune system is regarded as the cornerstone of all diseases and understanding its foundational principles is vital to unlocking new treatments and therapies,” the institute said in a statement.
Kaech’s research includes the investigation of how the immune system remembers infections to develop immunity, T-cell communications, and the role of metabolism in the immune system’s fight against cancer.
— Seattle RFID company Impinj named Arthur Valdez Jr. to its board of directors.
Valdez recently left the role of executive VP of global supply chain and customer solutions at Starbucks and his career includes leadership roles at Amazon, Target and elsewhere.
“Arthur’s expertise transforming and optimizing strategic supply chain and logistics networks for large consumer-facing companies will be invaluable as we continue to advance our vision of connecting every thing,” said Impinj CEO Chris Diorio in a statement.
— Jason Bennett has taken a new role at Amazon Web Services, shifting from VP of U.S. enterprise to VP of worldwide startups and venture capital. Bennett has been with the company for more than 17 years.
On LinkedIn Bennett shared his fondness for working with startups and said he was eager to return to a position serving that community.
“I’m energized by the opportunity to work alongside our teams to support a thriving startup ecosystem — from founders and VCs, to accelerators, and the broader innovation community,” he said, adding that the work “has a lasting impact on the direction of industries and the future of AI.”
— NuScale Power named James Canafax as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. The Tigard, Ore.-based nuclear energy company is developing small modular reactors.
Canafax has decades of legal experience and joins NuScale from Maritime Partners. Past positions include executive leadership at BWX Technologies, which supplies nuclear components and services.
“[Canafax’s] extensive experience in the nuclear industry, deep familiarity with the regulatory environment and track record of guiding organizations through key growth periods make him uniquely suited to support NuScale at this important moment for our company,” CEO John Hopkins said in statement.
— Seattle entrepreneur Elvis Dieguez is now VP of data science, analytics and platforms for the healthcare startup hims & hers. Diegeuz joins the company from symphonie, a Seattle e-commerce marketing platform where he was CEO and co-founder. He was previously at Amazon for more than four years working in business analytics and as a senior manager.
Hims & hers offers a telehealth platform for conditions including sexual health, hair loss, mental health, skincare and weight loss.
“I look forward to leading and working with a ~70 person team who’ve been working hard to make the #healthcare system work for all Americans,” Dieguez said on LinkedIn.
— Biotech startup Synthesize Bio named Ariel Brumbaugh as senior director of business development. In the role, Brumbaugh will help the company partner with biopharma companies interested in using Synthesize’s AI-based research platform to accelerate and de-risk drug development.
Seattle’s Synthesize Bio was founded by leaders from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Last month it announced $10 million in funding from Madrona.
Brumbaugh joined the startup from the San Francisco biotech company Gladstone Institutes.
— Sophie Brougham is director of philanthropic operations for the recently launched Clean Economy Project. Nicknamed CleanEcon, the effort includes past employees of the Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy and is a policy and advocacy platform promoting clean power.
Prior to Breakthrough, Brougham was with the Paul Allen holding company Vulcan (now known as Vale Group) for more than a decade, where she was a senior manager and led programs including philanthropic and grants management.
— Seattle’s Jake Laes is now executive director of AI Tinkerers, a global network of AI engineers and builders. Laes joined the group from Deel, where he helped facilitate partnerships between investors and accelerator programs. Laes is the founder of YoungTech Seattle, and his background includes mentoring and leadership roles at the University of Washington’s CoMotion and Techstars.
— Pranam Kolari, VP of search and recommendations at Coupang, is resigning from his role next month. Coupang is South Korea’s largest e-commerce platform and is headquartered in Seattle. Kolari, based in San Jose, Calif., was previously at Walmart Labs for nearly a decade where his roles included vice president of engineering for search.
— Datavault AI appointed Pete Scobell as VP of global security. The Beaverton, Ore.-based company helps businesses monetize their data and create digital twins of physical objects. Scobell is a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL veteran and will oversee Datavault AI’s security operations, risk management and asset logistics.
— Erin McHugh Saif, a former Massachusetts-based Microsoft executive, is CEO of an as-yet unnamed data and AI venture to serve “place-based partnerships,” which are networks of nonprofits, government agencies, and educational entities that aim to address education, jobs and housing needs.
“With better access to data, these organizations will leap ahead in this moment of AI transformation, gaining faster insight into which programs deliver the greatest improvement to significantly scale their impact,” Saif said on LinkedIn.
The effort has the support of the Ballmer Group, a philanthropic organization co-founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie, and the nonprofit TechSoup.
— Karen Ng was promoted to executive VP of product at HubSpot. Ng has been with the company since 2022, joining as senior VP of product and partnerships. Past employers include Common Room, Google and Microsoft, where she was chief of staff across the company’s developer tools business. Ng is based in the Seattle area.
