Tech Moves: Microsoft exec departs Azure; Xealth gets first CRO; Slalom names Pacific NW leader

— Microsoft technical fellow Marcus Fontoura is leaving the company after serving as Azure Core’s chief technology officer for more than a year. During that time he also published A Platform Mindset, a book exploring how to build scalable systems and effective teams.

@media (max-width: 600px) {
aside.callout { float:none !important; max-width:100% !important; margin-left:0 !important; margin-right:0 !important; }
aside.callout .callout-img { display:none !important; }
}

Fontoura had an earlier eight-year run at Microsoft, where he worked as a technical fellow in Azure and as a partner architect for Bing before departing in 2022 to join fintech company Stone as CTO and head of engineering. Prior to Microsoft, he held positions at Google, Yahoo and IBM.

“I leave with deep gratitude and immense respect for the people and culture that make Microsoft such a special place,” he said on LinkedIn. Fontoura, who is based in Boca Raton, Fla., did not share his next move.

— Travis Moore is now the first chief revenue officer for Xealth, a Seattle-based digital health startup acquired last year by Samsung Electronics.

“The challenge is no longer simply finding more technology. It is connecting that technology to the clinical workflows and turning fragmented tools into coordinated, meaningful care,” Moore said on LinkedIn.

Moore began his career in healthcare 25 years ago as a pediatric nurse before moving into health technology, where he worked in product management, sales and marketing and then transitioned to commercial leadership. He joins Xealth from Eleos Health, a North Carolina behavioral health company, where he served as head of sales.

— Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s Commercial Business, was appointed to GE Aerospace’s board of directors. Althoff has been with the tech company for 13 years.

— Eric Foster has taken a role at Slalom, a Seattle-based business and technology consulting firm, as leader of its Pacific Northwest market. Foster comes from Accenture, where he spent 14 years across three stints, most recently as managing director.

— Digimarc, a Beaverton, Ore., company providing digital watermark technology, named Paul Carreiro as CEO, effective July 6. Carreiro joins from Atlanta’s Elemica, where he has been chief executive and president for two years. He succeeds Riley McCormack, who will remain on the board of directors.

The AI boom is driving business, said a Digimarc release, as “both humans and intelligent systems require scalable ways to verify what’s real, protect what matters, and move forward with confidence.”

— Jose Calzada has joined the VP ranks at Microsoft with a promotion to VP software engineer. Calzada works on the company’s AI platform and has been with Microsoft for 17 years. He joined as a design engineer intern and was later hired permanently to the Outlook team.

— Soracom, a Japanese IoT connectivity company, has named Richard Halliday as CEO of its operations in North and South America. The publicly traded company’s U.S. headquarters are in Bellevue, Wash. Halliday has been with Soracom for more than four years.

— Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has reshuffled her leadership team, moving Nicole Vallestero Soper from her current role as director of policy and innovation to director of affordability, housing, and economic development, Publicola reported. Before joining city leadership, Soper was a principal consultant at Transformative Shifts.

— Scott Whalen of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been honored as the Department of Energy’s National Innovator of the Year. Whalen serves as chief scientist in PNNL’s Applied Materials and Manufacturing group and leads its Thermomechanical Processing team. He holds 23 U.S. patents with 13 more pending.

Source link