Kevin Leneway, a veteran engineering leader at the Pioneer Square Labs startup incubator in Seattle, is joining OpenAI as a solutions architect on the company’s startups team.
Leneway, a longtime member of the Seattle tech community, has led engineering efforts at PSL since 2017. Before that, he co-founded presentation software startup Haiku Deck in 2010 and was a developer evangelist at Microsoft for five years.
In a LinkedIn post, Leneway said he’ll remain in Seattle and continue his work with local startups. “I’ll find out more details about the specifics of the role soon, but my personal goal is to make a tighter connection between OpenAI and the Seattle startup ecosystem,” he said.
The hire reflects OpenAI’s growing presence in the Seattle region. The AI giant opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., in 2024, and acquired product development platform Statsig for $1.1 billion earlier this year.
— Madrona hired Eric Wong as director of portfolio growth. Wong joins the Seattle venture firm after marketing leadership stints at Symend, Jirav, Prompt.io, Conga, Tier 3, Docusign, and other companies.
In his new role, Wong will help Madrona’s portfolio companies with their go-to-market strategies. “I have had many opportunities in my career, but I can sincerely say, this is the one I am most excited about,” he said on LinkedIn.
— Seattle healthcare tech startup CueZen added Dr. Ramesh Rajentheran as CFO and head of Asia. Rajentheran has more than two decades of experience at the intersection of healthcare and finance. He co-founded MiyaHealth and Hisential, and is an operating partner at TVM Capital Healthcare.
CueZen, which sells software designed to boost personalized healthcare programs, raised $5 million earlier this year.
