Top Boston Tech Hires, Promotions (and Departures) in November

We're making it official. This monthly roundup is no longer just about hires and departures; it's about promotions too, as reflected in the updated headline.

Big personnel moves happened last month at a number of companies, including DraftKings, Turbonomic, GasBuddy, Rapid7 and athenahealth. We also learned that two more executives departed Startup Institute after Diane Hessan left in June.

All Set, the Liberty Mutual-backed home services app, hired Purvi Harley as its vice president and head of marketing. She was previously head of DigitasLBi's digital strategy and analysis team.

• Hexadite, Boston cybersecurity company, added Cylance CTO Glenn Chisholm to the company's board of directors.

• SevOne, a network and digital infrastructure company, tapped Ed Zaval as SVP of Global Services. He originally joined SevOne in November 2015 to lead the global support team. He was previously in charge of global services for Coriant and Sycamore Networks.

• Advanced Cyber Security Center, a nonprofit which promotes the cybersecurity industry in Massachusetts, named Michael Figueroa as executive director. He was previously cyber innovations and services lead at Draper Laboratory.

• Rapid7 hired Imprivata's former CFO, Jeff Kalowski, for the same role. In addition, former SanDisk CFO Judy Bruner joined Rapid7’s board.

• Acquia hired Tom Cochran as its VP of public sector. Cochran was previously the director of digital technology at the White House under President Obama. The company made a few other executive hires: Jairo Romero as CRO (former CRO at DrillingInfo), Peter Troost as SVP of engineering (former CTO at Radius Worldwide) and Michael Ehrich as VP of security and information services (former SVP of finance at ERGOS Technology Partners).

• DraftKings hired James Chisholm as director of public affairs. Chisholm is the former chief of staff to Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley.

• GasBuddy made two hires: Sarah McCrary as VP operations and Michael DiLorenzo as VP of marketing. McCrary was previously at Heartland Payment Systems, and DiLorenzo was previously at Drizly.

• IDEO hired Allan Telio as director of growth in October. He was previously Boston director and vice president at Startup Institute.

• Starry hired Katie Bickford as VP of sales in October. She was previously VP of global admissions at Startup Institute.

• Nexamp hired outgoing State Sen. Ben Downing, D-Pittsfield, as VP of new market development.

• Turbonomic (formerly VMTurbo) hired Bill Veghte, a longtime executive at HP and Microsoft, as its executive chairman.

• Pillar, a Boston venture capital firm, added Backupify and Talla founder Rob May as a venture partner.

• Polaris Partners, a Cambridge venture capital firm, hired Brendan Hannigan as a partner who will focus on tech infrastructure deals. He was previously the head of Cambridge-based IBM Security and, before that, CEO of Q1 Labs, which IBM acquired.

• Magic Leap, a Florida-based mixed reality startup, hired Artur Adib, former CTO of Boston-based Pwnie Express, as a principal engineer. He had joined Pwnie Express in July.

• Feelter, a Tel Aviv-based startup, added angel investor and former PayPal Boston executive David Chang as executive chairman.

• Cybric, a Boston cybersecurity startup, added the following people to its advisory board: Jim Bandanza, former SVP at RSA, the Security Division of EMC; Rear Admiral Michael Brown, VP of global public sector at RSA and former director of cybersecurity coordination at the Department of Homeland Security; and John DeLong, former director of compliance at the NSA.

• CrowdComfort added Sarah Abrams to its board of directors. She is currently SVP of global real estate at Iron Mountain.

• Tettra hired Shauni Deshmukh, a former engineer for U.S. Digital Service at The White House, as head of engineering; and Oscar Morrison, formerly at Wanderu, as a software engineer.

• Athenahealth announced that Diane Holman is set to become the company’s chief people officer. She was previously VP of global talent management at TE Connectivity.

• Ipswitch, a Lexington-based IT and network management software provider, appointed Michael Grossi as its EVP of strategy and alliances. He was most recently EVP and CRO at Xura, a Wakefield company that is getting acquired by Siris Capital Group.

• NeuroMetrix promoted Frank McGillin to SVP and chief commercial officer. He was previously SVP and general manager of the company’s consumer business.

• Yotta announced in November it had hired Rich Stendardo, a former executive at Endeca and DataXu, as its CEO. He replaced Vick Viren Vaishnavi, who departed earlier this year.

• SavingStar hired Bob Carr as its VP of engineering. He was previously VP of engineering for backend services at Placester.

• Seventh Sense, a Boston biotech company, hired Stuart Blitz as its chief business officer. He was previously as AgaMatrix.

In photo collage (clockwise, starting top-left): David Chang, Shauni Deshmukh, Rob May, Rich Stendardo, Bill Veghte, Purvi Harley, James Chisholm and Sarah McCrary. Photos either provided or from LinkedIn.

Think we missed someone? Email me at dylan@bostinno.com.

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