Kelly Breslin Wright. (Gong photo)
– Former Tableau executive Kelly Breslin Wright has been named President and COO of Gong, an AI sales startup based in Palo Alto, California. Wright joined Gong’s board of directors in March.
A former Tableau employee, Wright spent 12 years with the Seattle-based company leading sales. Before leaving in 2016, she was EVP of Sales.
She currently serves on the boards of Fastly and Lucid. Wright is also an Associate Professor in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.
“I am very excited to return to an operational role that brings together my lifelong passion for sales, data and culture,” Wright said in a statement.
In her new role, Wright will lead Gong’s marketing, customer support and sales teams.
In a post on LinkedIn, Wright said she couldn’t miss an opportunity that was “so incredibly exciting.”
“The more I got to know the team, the more energetic I became,” she said.
Gong closed a $ 250 million Series E funding round last month at a valuation of $ 7.25 billion, up from $ 2.2 billion in August. Total funding to date is $ 584 million.
Companies using Gong’s Revenue Intelligence Platform include LinkedIn, Zillow, and PayPal. The company currently employs 600 people in its offices in Israel, Dublin and San Francisco.
– Sudip Chakrabarti left Madrona Venture Group and moved to San Francisco Bay Area VC firm Decibel Partners. During his time as a partner at Madrona, Chakrabarti focused on investing in enterprise and cloud-based infrastructure companies.
Congratulations to @chakrabartis who joined @DecibelVC – we will miss you and look forward to working with you in the future! https://t.co/ByMHx1Ndtb
– MadronaVentureGroup (@MadronaVentures) July 14, 2021
As a long-standing investor, Chakrabarti came to Madrona in 2018 and was previously a partner at the Silicon Valley companies Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
Deanna Oppenheimer. (Photo by Anthony Bolante, The Image Arsenal, courtesy of Slalom)
– Seattle-based consulting firm Slalom has added former Barclays and Washington Mutual executive Deanna Oppenheimer to its board of directors.
Oppenheimer is the founder of the consulting company CameoWorks and BoardReady, a non-profit organization that promotes diversity on the board.
Your admission expands the board of Slalom to five members. Slalom was founded in 2001 and currently employs more than 9,500 people worldwide.
– Tango Card digital reward startup has hired Mary Shelley as chief people officer. She was most recently VP of Human Resources at SeekNow and is based in Kentucky.
Seattle-based Tango Card helps businesses send digital rewards. The startup currently has more than 200 employees and added former Avvo manager Monica Williams as CFO earlier this year.
Diana Lansinger. (SDN photo)
– SEEVA Co-Founder Diane Lansinger has been named CEO of Staging & Design Network (SDN), a furniture rental marketplace for the home staging industry founded by Tricia Tomlinson.
Tomlinson and Lansinger were originally connected through a peer mentoring group for women running tech startups. After stepping down as CEO, Tomlinson will remain Chairman of the Board.
Lansinger was most recently CEO of SEEVA Technologies, a startup for autonomous driving technology that she founded with her father.
In 2018, SEEVA Technologies raised $ 2 million and hired several new executives. However, the startup that developed technologies that help self-driving cars navigate in poor weather conditions lost momentum over the past year.
“SEEVA Technologies was negatively impacted by the impact of the global pandemic on the automotive industry and is now only modestly operational,” Lansinger told GeekWire in an email.
“However, the patents we hold still have value, and I expect they will find a suitable home with a more established player once the vertical stabilizes,” she added.
In her new role, Lansinger is tied to a completely different vertical: real estate. The hot real estate market in the Seattle area keeps making headlines.
Based in Everett, Washington, SDN manages furniture inventory and storage for owners while providing a platform for stages to rent or buy furniture. The six-year-old company is backed by Unlock Venture Partners, Second Century Ventures and angel investors.
– RealWear, headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, hired Rama Oruganti as its new Chief Product Officer. RealWear sells industrial augmented reality headsets used in manufacturing, utilities, healthcare and other sectors.
Oruganti is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and most recently was Director of Product Management at HP. He is the co-founder of the social shopping app Zizifus and previously worked at Magellan GPS and John Deere.
Ryan Hoge. (Collector Universe Photo)
– Collectors Universe, a third-party authentication service for collectibles, has named Microsoft veteran Ryan Hoge as the first ever chief product officer.
Hoge was with Microsoft for 16 years, most recently as a group program manager for the Windows 11 user experience. He will be responsible for product management for Collectors Universe subsidiaries Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).
– Satellite company BlackSky hired Andy Stephenson as vice president of international business development. He lives in the UK
In February, the company, which splits its workforce between Seattle and Herndon, Virginia, announced plans to go public through a nearly $ 1.5 billion SPAC deal.
– Seattle-based Denali Financial Consulting promoted Jennifer Edson to the roles of COO and CFO and hired Jere O’leary as Director of Client Development.
Denali was acquired earlier this year and startup veteran Rebecca Lovell was named CEO. Denali co-founders Chris Dishman and Jaennae ‘Dinius retired at the end of June.
Edson was most recently the project CFO for Denali clients and previously ran her own accounting practice. O’leary was most recently Director of Business Partnership at Create 33, the former “incubator” of Madrona Venture Group, where Lovell was previously Executive Director.
[Editor’s Note: GeekWire is a Denali client.]
– Seattle HR firm Reverb has added Avanade manager Dave Gartenberg as a consultant. Previously, he was Chief Human Resources Officer at Avanade and Slalom. Gartenberg and Reverb founder Mikaela Kiner are a Microsoft alum.