— Nintex CEO Amit Mathradas announced that he’s leaving to take the helm of Five9 beginning on Feb. 2. Mathradas has led Nintex, a Bellevue, Wash.-based workflow automation company, for nearly three years. His previous roles include chief operating officer at Avalara, general manager at PayPal, and a 14-year run at Dell.
Five9 is a California-based software company specializing in AI-powered customer experience solutions.
“It is an honor to join such a dynamic company that I have long admired as being at the cutting edge of AI-driven CX,” Mathradas said on LinkedIn.
— Starting Jan. 1, Zoë Stemm-Calderon will take the role of executive director at the Raikes Foundation, where she has worked for a decade. She is transitioning from her current position as senior director of Youth Serving Systems.
During her tenure, Stemm-Calderon has managed yearly investments of $20 million directed toward initiatives focused on K-12 and higher education, along with youth homelessness programs.
Jeff and Tricia Raikes are the co-founders of the foundation, which launched in 2002. Jeff Raikes was at Microsoft for close to three decades and served as CEO of the Gates Foundation for more than five years. Tricia Raikes is co-founder of Giving Compass.
— Emily Heffter is now senior director of thought leadership and research for Workday, a finance and HR software company with offices in Seattle. Heffter joins the company from Qualtrics, where she was vice president of global communications. She was previously Zillow Group’s director of corporate communications.
“I’m joining Workday’s amazing communications team to help tell one of the most dynamic stories in the business world: the future of work.” Heffter said on LinkedIn. That includes “how people, technology, and leadership are evolving together — and helping business leaders see around the corner.”
— Seattle’s Lance Ludman has joined SurveyMonkey as its new chief financial officer. Ludman was most recently CFO at the social impact company Benevity. He also served as CFO at DreamBox Learning, a Bellevue, Wash.-based edtech company that was acquired in 2023.
SurveyMonkey CEO Eric Johnson praised Ludman’s “unique leadership style,” adding in a statement that “he maintains a persistent curiosity and business-partnership mindset.”
— Seattle-area rocket company Stoke Space appointed Matt White to its board of directors. White is executive vice president and CFO for Linde and serves on the board as a representative for Industrious Ventures.
— Laurent Boinot, Microsoft’s head of power and utilities in the Americas, has joined the board of LF Energy, an open-source foundation supporting energy deployment.
— Vivek Ladsariya, general partner and managing director at Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, joined the board of Seattle startup Tin Can, makers of a Wi-Fi-enabled landline-style phone for kids.
— Washington Research Foundation named Joe Albe as the new manager of grants and venture research at the organization, which helps universities and other nonprofits in the state commercialize and license their technologies. Albe recently earned his doctorate degree in immunology from the University of Washington.
The foundation also announced its 2026 postdoctoral fellows:
- Stefany Cruz, a software engineer working at the UW on agentic Al technologies.
- Winston Dredge, who joins the UW to research the impact of genetic variation on early human development.
- Nastacia Goodwin, a neuroscientist who will study the impacts of climate change on bee behavior at the UW.
- Kunal Lodaya, a chemist coming to the UW to work on high-capacity redox flow batteries.
- Allyson Martin, an entomologist joining WSU to study pollinators in orchard settings.
- Jongbeom Park, a molecular biologist studying the effect of developmental and environmental variations on mammalian newborns at the UW.
- Zoe Rand, who joins the UW and NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center to study harmful algal bloom detection and management.
- Nathaniel Ritz, a neuroscientist joining the Institute for Systems Biology to investigate host-microbe communication.
- Jonas Wilhelm, a biochemist coming to the UW’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) to create catalysts for greenhouse-gas removal.
- Marcus Wong, who joins the UW to study immune responses to malaria and other infectious diseases.
- Chuanyun Xu, a biologist joining the IPD to design proteins for cellular sensing and control.
- Lu Yu, a biochemist using DNA nanotechnology to advance targeted cancer therapy at the UW.
