Outreach and Flyhomes marketing chiefs depart; startup studio Pienza grows team

— Margaret Arakawa has left her role as chief marketing officer at sales automation startup Outreach. Arakawa spent nearly 20 years at Microsoft before joining Outreach in July 2019. In an email to GeekWire, she confirmed she’s moving on to something new but declined to share more details.

© Provided by Geekwire
Margaret Arakawa. (Photo courtesy of Margaret Arakawa)

“Margaret has moved on to a new venture,” Outreach spokeswoman Amanda Woolley said in a statement. “We thank her for all she contributed to Outreach and wish her well.”

Load Error

Seattle-based Outreach, one of a handful of “unicorn” companies in the region, raised a $50 million Series F investment round in June, increasing its valuation to $1.33 billion and total funding to $289 million. That follows a $114 million round raised at a $1.1 billion valuation in April 2019.

More than 4,000 companies such as Adobe, Splunk, SAP, and others use Outreach to automate and streamline communication with sales prospects.

— Former FlyHomes CMO Ryan Steingard is now chief growth officer at Persona, which was acquired by Nestlé Health Science last year. Based in Snoqualmie, Wash., Persona provides personalized daily vitamins and operates an independent brand.

“We have a mission to help customers live healthier and happier lives, and given all that’s happened in 2020, what’s not to like about that?” said Steingard.

Steingard joined Seattle real estate startup FlyHomes in 2018. He previously was a director at Remitly and Zulily.

© Provided by Geekwire
Brian Goldfarb. (Amperity Photo)

— Cloud industry veteran Brian Goldfarb is now chief marketing officer at Seattle startup Amperity. Goldfarb was most recently CMO and SVP of business development at Chef Software, which was acquired earlier this year.

He also served as CMO at San Francisco, Calif.-based Splunk; led marketing teams at Salesforce and Google; and spent almost a decade at Microsoft in product marketing.

Founded in 2016, Amperity has attracted brands such as Alaska Airlines, Patagonia, Kroger, and others that use the company’s software to fine-tune their targeted marketing campaigns by connecting disparate data sources about individual customer habits. The company has raised $87 million to date, including a $50 million Series C round last year. It added Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson to its board last month.

© Provided by Geekwire
Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best speaks at the 2019 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong)

— Carmen Best, who resigned as Seattle police chief in September, joined the AI ethics board at Axon, a company that develops law enforcement technology such as body cameras and its TASER devices.

Best spent almost 30 years in policing and is now a contributor at MSNBC and a law enforcement analyst for KING5.

She is the 12th member of Axon’s AI ethics board, which is dedicated to guiding the company as it develops AI technologies with consideration for transparency, accountability and the impact on communities. Axon is based in Seattle and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Related: How technology is trying to address bias in policing — and why experts say it won’t be enough

— Starbucks announced current vice chair of its board of directors Mellody Hobson will succeed former JCPenney CEO Myron Ullman, III as non-executive chair when Ullman retires in March 2021.

Hobson has been a member of the coffee giant’s board since 2005 and is currently the co-CEO of asset management firm Ariel Investments.

© Provided by Geekwire
Dave Rigotti. (Dave Rigotti Photo)

— Marketer-turned-entrepreneur Dave Rigotti is joining newly-launched B2B startup studio Pienza as its first entrepreneur-in-residence.

Rigotti is the former VP of marketing at Seattle marketing analytics startup Bizible, which was co-founded by Pienza Founding Partner Aaron Bird. He then joined Marketo after its acquisition of the Bizible in 2018. Rigotti most recently was a marketing director at Adobe, which acquired Marketo.

— Seattle-based home improvement marketplace Porch appointed Matthew Cullen as its general counsel and secretary and Joshua Steffan as VP and group general manager of inspection and real estate.

Cullen spent the past six years at Expedia Group, most recently as co-head of global M&A and integrations for legal. Steffan was most recently COO at San Diego residential real estate startup Home Bay.

Earlier this year Porch announced the company would go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that values the company at $523 million. The 8-year-old startup also recently named five new board directors.

— Digital remittance startup Remitly announced Saema Somalya as its new general counsel and the addition of Bill.com Chief Experience Officer Bora Chung to its board.

Somalya was most recently SVP and deputy general counsel at Fifth Third Bank, a consumer bank headquartered in Ohio. She succeeds Aaron Gregory, who served as general counsel since 2015. Gregory has left Remitly and is currently seeking a technical co-founder for a new fintech startup, according to a post on LinkedIn.

Prior to Bill.com, Chung held roles overseeing payments and product for eBay, Apple and PayPal.

— Kirkland, Wash.-based REGIE.io appointed co-founder Matt Millen as CEO. The email prospecting software spun out of St. Louis, Mo.-based Sapper Consulting where Millen was most recently chief growth officer.

Prior to Sapper Consulting, Millen served as CRO for Seattle warehousing marketplace startup Flexe and as SVP of revenue at Outreach. He also was VP of business sales at T-Mobile.

Other recent Tech Moves from across the Pacific Northwest tech industry: 

• Independent Seattle grocery chain PCC Community Markets named former Kroger VP of ecommerce Suzanne Monford as president and CEO.
• Construction technology startup HeadLight hired Patti Brooke as vice president of marketing.
• Electronic signature powerhouse DocuSign appointed Gateway Health President and CEO Cain Hayes to its board.
• Seattle-based provider of message marketing software Tatango hired Kevin Fitzgerald as chief revenue officer.
• Clearwater Analytics, a Boise, Id. company that develops software for investors, hired Ivan Matviak as senior advisor of insurance. The company also added former J.P. Morgan and BlackRock Managing Director Lee Beck, former State Street SVP Alasdair Reid and former Unum Group VP Rob Hensley as strategic advisors.