— Electronic Arts (EA) announced Chris Suh as its new Chief Financial Officer effective March 1. Suh is currently CVP and CFO of the cloud and AI group at Microsoft. He spent more than 25 years at Microsoft, starting as an internal auditor.
“I am incredibly motivated to join a global leader in interactive entertainment at a time of industry growth and transformation,” said Suh.
Suh will replace Blake Jorgensen, who announced his intention to leave last year. Suh recently joined the board of Atlanta digital advertising platform Cardlytics.
— Athira Pharma named Vaxcyte CEO Grant Pickering to its board of directors. He is the first new board member appointed since co-founder and former CEO Leen Kawas resigned and left the board after an image manipulation investigation.
Following Kawas’ departure, Mark Litton, who previously served as COO, was named CEO and joined the board.
— Regional trade and investment organization Greater Seattle Partners has announced Brian Surratt as its new president and chief executive officer. His appointment comes after extensive research following the departure of founding CEO Brian McGowan last year.
Surratt was most recently executive director for the Puget Sound region at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a community development organization. He was previously Vice President of Real Estate Development and Community Relations at Alexandria Real Estate Equities and spent more than a decade working for the City of Seattle.
– Shiv Singh, former executive vice president of Expedia Group, is now director of marketing and customer experience at online lending marketplace LendingTree.
The former Visa and PepsiCo executive oversaw brand strategy at Expedia Group, where he spent less than a year.
– Zulily co-founder Mark Vadon has joined the board of directors of Athletic Greens, maker of a nutritional powder. It is also an investor in its latest $115 million funding round. The New Zealand startup is now valued at over $1 billion.
Vadon currently sits on the board of Seattle companies Rad Power Bikes and Flyhomes. He is currently CEO of “blank check” firm Big Sky Growth Partners, which raised $300 million last year.
— Publicly traded Seagen has named Lee Heeson as executive vice president of international trade. He succeeds Tuomo Pätsi, who retires this month.
Heeson was most recently President of International at Vifor Pharma. In his new role, he will be responsible for Seagen’s business operations, based in Bothell, Washington, outside of the United States. He will be based at Seagen’s international headquarters in Zug, Switzerland.
— Andy Skalet, co-founder and former CTO of BrandVerity, is now a partner at Xyonix, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence consultancy.
Founded in 2008, BrandVerity provides brand protection services and was acquired by Partnerize in 2020. Prior to BrandVerity, Skalet was a software engineer at Seattle startups Evri and Judy’s Book.
Xyonix was co-founded by former Socrata CTO Deep Dhillon and engineer Carsten Tusk, who both also worked at Evri.
–Seattle startup Proprio has announced Tommy Carls as vice president of marketing and product management. He was previously vice president of research for Medtronic’s spine and biologics division.
Proprio develops surgical tools that use computer vision, AI and virtual reality to produce real-time images for surgeons. Founded in 2016, the University of Washington spin-out has raised just under $30 million.
— Sounders FC has hired Tyler Cox as the new director of analytics for Seattle Professional Football Club. He comes from Arsenal FC where he spent eight years in various analytical roles.
A graduate of Western Washington University, the new role will bring Cox back to the Seattle area.
“I look forward to joining such a successful organization and keeping the Sounders at the forefront of football analysis,” Cox said.
Ravi Ramineni, vice president of analytics and research at Sounders FC, a Microsoft alumnus, is leaving the organization after nine years. He will join Blue Crow Sports Group, based in Houston, Texas.
– Reverb CEO Mikaela Kiner has announced that COO Sarah Wilkins will be the Seattle-based human resources firm’s first partner. Wilkins joined Reverb in 2018 and previously worked as a consultant at Alvarez & Marsal and Hitachi Consulting.
[Editor’s Note: GeekWire is a Reverb client.]
– The Cancer Consortium, which includes Fred Hutch, the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, has named Mignon Loh and Elizabeth Swisher as deputy directors. The National Cancer Institute also announced that its service area extends from 13 counties to all of Washington State.