Latest news with #WSBO
Geek Wire
01-07-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Tech Moves: AWS leader goes to Siemens; Wash. names broadband lead; NuScale adds to C-suite
Joseph Williams onstage at the 2025 GeekWire Awards with his Public Policy Champion award. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong) — Joseph Williams is temporarily taking the helm of the Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) as it's scrambling to respond to Trump administration changes to a program issuing $42.45 billion of funding to expand high-speed broadband access nationally. Williams previously served as the Information and Communications Technology sector lead for the Washington Department of Commerce, and has worked for Microsoft and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In April he was honored with the Public Policy Champion for Innovation Award at the 2025 GeekWire Awards in Seattle. The broadband office has been working with local partners since 2021 to develop a plan for deploying Washington's $1.2 billion share of the federal funding. In June, the Trump administration redefined the criteria for selecting grant recipients and provided states with a September deadline to submit their spending plans. 'It's a critical time for the WSBO, and I am excited to join and support this important team and their vital mission of bringing internet to all in Washington,' Williams said in a statement. 'My plan is to ensure we can meet the upcoming federal deadlines and award funding to broadband providers across the state as quickly as possible.' Aaron Wheeler, the office's former lead, left the role last month. Commerce is seeking a permanent replacement for the job. Vasi Philomin. (LinkedIn Photo) — Vasi Philomin's new gig has been revealed: executive vice president of data and AI for Siemens. Last week, Philomin told Reuters he was leaving Amazon and his role as vice president in generative AI and machine learning initiatives, but was mum on his future. 'As industries evolve, the real breakthroughs will come from systems that don't just analyze data but interact with the world — systems that sense, reason, and act,' Philomin said on LinkedIn. 'This is Physical AI, and Siemens is uniquely positioned to lead it.' Philomin was at Amazon for more than eight years and led Amazon Bedrock, a tool for building gen AI applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It appears he will remain in the Seattle area. — Donald Thompson is now a distinguished engineer at Microsoft. He's taking the role after serving for three years as a distinguished engineer at LinkedIn, which Microsoft acquired almost a decade ago. Thompson's move marks an official return to the mothership as he previously worked at the Redmond, Wash., tech giant for more than 15 years, departing in 2013. His past positions at the company include multiple initiatives in Microsoft Research leading the knowledge and reasoning team in Bing, co-founding a semantic computing effort directly funded by Bill Gates and other projects. Thompson left Microsoft to launch and lead Maana, a tech company that was acquired by SparkCognition in 2021. He was a distinguished engineer at Splunk before going to LinkedIn. Shahram Ghasemian. (LinkedIn Photo) — NuScale Power announced Shahram Ghasemian as its chief legal officer and corporate secretary. The Oregon-based company is developing small modular nuclear reactors and was the first to have its SMR plans certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ghasemian comes to the role from Centrus Energy, which is producing high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) — the fuel needed by most advanced reactor designs, including those from NuScale. Centrus last week shared that it has produced nearly one metric ton of HALEU, a first-of-its-kind achievement in the U.S. and a key milestone in the Department of Energy's HALEU Demonstration project. Ghasemian was previously director of the DOE's Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, and served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nearly a decade. Sharan Jhangiani. (LinkedIn Photo) — Sharan Jhangiani has left his role at Seattle's Yoodli, a startup using generative AI to analyze speech and offer tips for improving communication skills. Jhangiani was also a co-founder of DubHacks Next, a startup incubator run by students at the University of Washington, and has launched multiple tech ventures. Jhangiani is now CEO of OnePager, a New York City startup helping founders and incubator programs raise venture capital funding. '[T]he founder itch wouldn't go away,' Jhangiani said on LinkedIn. He added to his Yoodli colleagues, 'Miss the team!' Last month Yoodli announced $13.7 million from investors. — Ryan Kiskis is joining the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) as the director of strategic partnerships. Ryan Kiskis. (LinkedIn Photo) '[I]n this new role, I'll be building partnerships with leading public, corporate and startup orgs to accelerate the deployment of AI — AI that is truly open, transparent, grounded in science, and aspirational enough to change the world,' Kiskis said on LinkedIn. Kiskis, who is based in San Francisco, previously worked for Google Cloud as director of startups, engaging with investors and the founder community. Prior to that, he held a similar role for Amazon Web Services. — Boeing appointed former Lockheed Martin executive Jesus 'Jay' Malave as its chief financial officer, effective Aug. 15. The aerospace giant's current CFO, Brian West, will remain in an advisory role. Malave has held CFO and vice president roles at Lockheed Martin, L3Harris Technologies, Carrier and United Technologies Corporation's Aerospace Systems. The company is under renewed scrutiny following last month's crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India that killed at least 270 people. — The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center shared news that Peter Gilbert has received the 2025 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science. The Fred Hutch biostatistician does research focused on clinical trials of candidate vaccines for HIV and other infectious diseases.
Geek Wire
20-06-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Tech Moves: Washington broadband head departs; Suplari co-founder leaving Microsoft; and more
Tech Moves covers notable hires, promotions and personnel changes in the Pacific NW tech community. Submissions: tips@ Aaron Wheeler. (Photo via Dept. of Commerce) Aaron Wheeler is stepping down after nearly a year and half as the director of the Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO), the Department of Commerce announced Friday. Wheeler's last day will be June 27 before he heads back to the Suquamish Tribe, where he previously spent 18 years as an information technology professional with the tribe's government. 'I have had a wonderful time leading WSBO, but working with the Suquamish Tribe again is an opportunity I just couldn't pass up,' Wheeler said in a news release. 'The work in IT and education with the Squamish is a real passion of mine, and my new role allows me to get back to that focus.' Wheeler was appointed by former Gov. Jay Inslee to the Broadband Office role in March 2024. WSBO's mission is to close the digital divide in Washington by ensuring all urban and rural residents and businesses have access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet. Under Wheeler's leadership, the office completed two rounds of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD) applications, according to the Commerce Dept. WSBO was about to open the third and final application round when new federal guidance was released, initiating a significant shift in the state's BEAD process. Other key personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry: Nikesh Parekh. (LinkedIn Photo) — Nikesh Parekh is leaving Microsoft four years after the tech giant acquired his startup, Suplari, which used artificial intelligence to help companies understand and get a handle on their spending. 'Back to building again,' Parekh wrote in a LinkedIn post. 'Building enterprise applications for Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio for the past two years has strengthened my belief that AI will unlock incredible human potential.' Parekh said he is 'going deep on a small number of projects' that he is excited about 'that will democratize opportunity and grow human potential through AI.' — Jessica Nguyen is joining San Francisco-based Paragon Legal as a strategic advisor, she announced in a LinkedIn post. Nguyen is staying on as a deputy general counsel for AI Innovation & Trust at Docusign. She has previously held legal roles at Avalara, Microsoft, Payscale and Lexion, among others. — Hawa Drammeh has been chosen as a summer intern at Seattle-based AI2 Incubator. Drammeh previously interned at Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Blue Origin, and LinkedIn while double-majoring in Computer Science and Biochemistry at the University of Washington. She founded CSEED, a student-run tech/entrepreneurship group at UW. — Eleanor Knight and Matthew Chiu have joined YoungTech, the community for startups in Seattle. Knight, a Business Administration student at the University of Washington, is YoungTech's brand and content strategy associate, in charge of storytelling, digital presence, and community engagement. Chiu, an Information Systems and Marketing student at UW, is YoungTech's business operations and communications associate. He has experience at Highspot and Okta.
