— Lisa Qian is the first AI Officer for the City of Seattle.
“This strategic leadership position is designed to ensure Seattle harnesses the transformative potential of artificial intelligence while upholding the city’s values and commitment to responsible technology use,” the Seattle Information Technology Department stated on LinkedIn.
Seattle is vying to establish itself as an AI heavyweight, touting the contributions of Amazon and Microsoft, smaller companies and startups, and the University of Washington, among others. In March, the city launched “AI House,” a first-in-the-nation hub designed to bring entrepreneurs, investors, students and community leaders together to propel the field.
Before this role, Qian was at LinkedIn where she served as a senior manager of data science. Past jobs include leadership positions at Seattle logistic company Convoy and at Airbnb.
“As a proud Seattle resident, I’m excited to apply my experience building responsible data science and AI systems toward work that directly benefits our community,” Qian said on LinkedIn.
— Microsoft has recruited a longtime media leader for its AI news product: Julia Beizer, current chief operating officer at Bloomberg Media. Adweek broke the news.
Beizer will report to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, Adweek states, and will work on products including its Copilot Daily news round up and Publisher Content Marketplace, which pays publishers for content that’s used by AI products. (The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft two years ago, alleging they illegally used the media outlet’s content to train its AI.)
Beizer has been with Bloomberg for eight years, helping drive subscriber growth with a focus on marketing, user experience and customer insights. She previously worked at HuffPost and was with The Washington Post for more than a decade.
— Seattle’s DexCare announced Rakshay Jain as its new chief product officer.
Dexcare’s software platform helps healthcare providers manage their system’s capacity and schedule appointments. The startup launched at Providence, spinning out from the healthcare network’s digital innovation group in 2021.
“What drew me to DexCare is that this team isn’t trying to replace systems already in use, but connect them, and create the navigational intelligence that guides where, when, and how patients access care, no matter where they enter the system,” Jain said in a statement.
Jain joins the company from Innovaccer, a Bay Area company providing software for managing healthcare data. He will work remotely from California.
— Sri Chandrasekar is taking a break after nearly nine years as a managing partner at Point72 Ventures. Chandrasekar, who is based in Bellevue, Wash., appears to have resigned from the board of directors of four startups located across the U.S. and in London, while retaining seats at two others.
“To my Ventures team – It was amazing going to battle with you over the last 9 years. I expect nothing but great things from you in the years to come,” he wrote in LinkedIn. “To our Portfolio companies – Working with you is what made the long nights and the non-stop travel worthwhile. If you need me, you know how to find me!”
Prior to Point72, Chandrasekar was a senior vice president at In-Q-Tel in Menlo Park, Calif.
— Jiphun Satapathy is now chief information security officer for Motive, a San Francisco company providing software tools to make operations safer for construction, field service, energy, trucking and other industries. Satapathy, who is based in the Seattle area, previously worked as CISO for Medallia and has held leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Snowflake and elsewhere.
— Janet Greenlee, director of communications at Allen Family Philanthropies, is retiring from her role. Greenlee has spent her career in marketing and communications. She worked for more than a decade at the philanthropy, which was launched by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister, Jody Allen.
