Tech Moves: Microsoft Research gets new leader; Amazon head joins AI startup; JPMorgan issues departure
Igor Tsygansky he is now the vice president of Microsoft Research (MSR) as past president Peter Lee aside to be the president of Microsoft Sciencewhich includes physical, biological and medical fields.
“My new role is designed to reduce my administrative responsibilities and allow me to spend as much of my time as possible on technical work,” Lee said on LinkedIn. That will include an initial focus on the development of “AI-enabled patients, populations and labs, and their potential to revolutionize biomedical research.”
Lee, who took over MSR in September 2022, was previously a professor of computer science at Carnegie Melon University for more than two decades. He thanked Tsyganskiy for “taking on a great job leading Microsoft Research – I have no doubt that he will take MSR Labs to greater heights.”
Tsyganskiy will continue to serve as global chief information security officer, a role he has held since 2023. In his LinkedIn post, Tsyganskiy emphasized MSR’s role at the forefront of computing, pointing to advances in AI, deep programming and scientific discovery that have gone into Microsoft products and academic publications.
A commitment to basic research is critical to Microsoft’s success, he said, adding that “as the pace of innovation increases it is equally important to continue to conduct successful research, and translate these advances into real-world impact.”
– Mamtha Banerjee he leaves his role as a leader JPMorgan Chase’s Seattle Tech Center. Banerjee, a Seattle-based technology industry leader, joined the financial services giant in 2022 and assumed the leadership role last June.
The Seattle Tech Center was founded in 2018 to tap into the region’s talent pool and last year it has grown to 380 people.
Banerjee was previously with Expedia Group for seven years and serves as an advisor to the University of Washington’s Master of Science in Entrepreneurship program.
– Vivian Sun is leaving his role as head of automation at Amazon after more than two years with the company.
Sun, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is now the robotics company’s vice president of marketing and strategy. Genesis AIbased in Palo Alto and Paris.
A veteran startup builder with roots in AI, robotics and autonomous driving, Sun was featured by Automotive News as one of the “100 Leading Women in the North American Automotive Industry.”
– Truveta‘s hiring run continues. A Seattle area health data company called Sapna Prasad as its new VP of research data. Prasad, who is based in Washington, DC, joins Clarify Health Solutions where he held leadership roles for more than six years.
The company recently announced more than ten new hires and in January appointed Dr. Johnathan Lancaster as president and chief scientific officer.
– Bluesky CEO Jay Graber announced Monday that he is stepping down and transitioning to a new role as chief innovation officer of the broadcast social network. Read more.
– Jessica Nguyen he is now president, chief strategy and legal officer Sandstonea New York company that uses AI to support legal work.
Nguyen is based in the Seattle area and was the deputy general counsel for AI innovation and trust at DocuSign for nearly two years. Prior to that, he was chief legal officer at Seattle’s Lexion, which was acquired by DocuSign for $165 million in 2024.
His Pacific Northwest roots include serving as the first in-house attorney for Payscale and Avalara, and he spent nearly four years at Microsoft on the Office 365 legal team.
– Julie Keefwho recently left Seattle’s Redfin as VP of product, shared his next role. Keef moved to another company in the real estate space, taking the title of managing consumer product in New York’s. The compass.
“Since my days in NYC, I’ve been a fan of Compass from afar. The agents, product, and bold strategy have always impressed me,” Keef said on LinkedIn.
– Nick Boone he is now the global head of demand and marketing at Scalais a Bellevue-based AI startup founded by Smartsheet CEO Rajeev Singh and former Accolade CEO Ardie Sameti. The company last month raised $8.5 million in a seed round.
Boon worked at Accolade for more than eight years, serving as senior director of the agency’s recruiting and marketing operations until the company was acquired by Transcarent last year. He stayed with the combined businesses for a short time.
Scala is building an “active intelligence platform” for contact centers – large customer service operations that companies across healthcare, travel, and finance rely on to handle millions of interactions.
– Maybe Monsters expanded its senior leadership team with two new hires and a promotion. The video game company is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and has an office in Bellevue, Wash., where founder and CEO Harold Ryan is based.
- Jonathan Lander appointed as the publishing officer. He was previously at Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studios.
- David Reid joins as chief marketing officer and will be located in Bellevue. Reid is a longtime gaming executive who was the founder of Seattle-based startup MetaArcade and recently went out on his own.
- Mark Subotnickbased in Portland, is now chief product officer after serving as head of studios and partnerships. He has been with this company for more than three years.
– Biotech startup The Nautilus appointed its first hire, named Amber Faust as vice president of sales as it increases commercial operations. Faust, who will work remotely, joins the Seattle-based company after working at biotech businesses including Seer, Olink, SomaScan and others.
“I’m excited to help scale the commercial progress of Nautilus by connecting researchers to pursue massive proteomics, data, and solutions through a platform that can meaningfully expand what’s possible in drug development and beyond,” Faust said in a statement.
Nautilus has built a proteome analysis platform that allows researchers to identify and quantify the thousands of proteins present in biological samples.
– Abscia Vancouver, Wash.-based company that uses AI to make drugs, named Dr. Ransi Somaratne as chief medical officer, joining Vertex Pharmaceuticals where he served as senior VP of clinical development. Previous roles include leadership positions at BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Amgen.
Absci Chief Innovation Officer Andreas Busch will retire on March 31 and will continue to serve as co-chairman of the company’s scientific board.
– Theo Angelis was appointed to Washington State Supreme Court. The K&L Gates partner has 25 years of legal experience and has worked extensively in intellectual property and emerging companies. Angelis is a past president of the Middle East Law Society of Washington and will be the first Justice of Middle Eastern descent on the state Supreme Court.
– Matt Rubright he is now the CEO of Jama startup that deals with bugs in software development. He was previously chief customer officer at the 6-year-old company, joining last April. His previous employers include DataGrail, Candidate and Silicon Valley Bank.
Rubright, based in Seattle, succeeds Dani GrantHe said he is leaving to recover from a health issue. “Grant’s vision, leadership and tenacity are undeniable,” he added.
– Suchitra (Suchi) Mohan is the founder of a Sammamish, Wash.-based startup called learntheropes.aiwhich he describes as “a native AI learning system designed to help organizations empower their people with the right learning content, tailored to their learning style, skill level and goals, reducing the stress employees feel about a new job.”
Mohan is a serial entrepreneur and worked as a technology architect for Microsoft for almost a decade at its Bangalore offices. Most recently he was the founder of AI startup Oikyu.
– Theo Michel joined Seattle’s Bayou Energy as a senior product engineer. Earlier in his career, Michel was with Microsoft’s Xbox Live for over 17 years. The clean energy startup recently named Yoon Loong Wong (Andrew) as chief of staff.
– Brian Marrs has been promoted to the position of general manager of energy markets Microsoftpreviously working in the position of senior director. He has been with this company for almost nine years.
