Tech Moves: Washington STEM Appoints New CEO; Conversica and Iterable are hiring marketing vets

– Washington STEM announced Milton Lang as the new CEO of the nonprofit education organization. He holds a PhD in University Administration from Washington State University and most recently served as Student Union Vice President at Ohlone College in Fremont, California.

Lang is succeeding former Washington STEM CEO Angela Jones after a nationwide search funded in part by Jones’ new employer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Milton brings seasoned leadership, extensive education experience and a long-standing commitment to paving the way for students of color and those who have been systematically underserved or excluded,” said Liz Tinkham, Washington STEM Board Chair.

Prior to Ohlone College, Lang was VP of Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer at California State University, Chico. He has also held positions overseeing student life at the University of California, Davis and Washington State University.

Washington STEM is a nonprofit organization focused on nationwide education and social change. Founded in 2011, the Seattle-based nonprofit has 10 partner networks across Washington state, providing community investment and open source tools, and advocacy at the state and federal levels.

— James Phillips, president of Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Group, joined Madrona Venture Group as a strategic director.

Phillips is co-founder and former CEO of Couchbase and Akimbi Systems, which was acquired by VMware. He recently joined the board of F5 and is currently an angel investor and startup mentor.

Madrona’s Strategic Directors support the portfolio companies and the investment team. Other strategic directors include Apptio co-founder and CEO Sunny Gupta; Tableau CEO Mark Nelson; Terry Myerson, CEO of Truveta and former Microsoft executive; and Betsy Sutter, VMware Chief People Officer.

— Startup marketing veteran David Greenberg joined Conversica from Foster City, California as Chief Marketing Officer. Most recently, he was CMO at marketing automation startup Act-On.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Greenberg previously held marketing leadership positions at startups Liveops, Customer.io, Puppet, and Urban Airship.

Originally launched in Bellingham, Washington, Conversica provides virtual assistants for revenue teams using conversational artificial intelligence.

— Adriana Gil Miner, a former Tableau executive, is now the CMO at San Francisco-based marketing platform Iterable. Most recently, she was CMO at hybrid cloud storage startup Qumulo in Seattle.

At Tableau, Miner was the SVP of brand marketing and communications. Previously, she managed marketing for design company Artefact, its 10,000 foot spin-off, and for a variety of clients at Weber Shandwick.

— Vancouver, Washington-based ZoomInfo is expanding its operations to London and has appointed Simon McDougall as its Chief Compliance Officer.

McDougall lives in the UK and most recently worked at the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s independent data protection and data protection authority.

ZoomInfo went public in 2020 and offers business data subscriptions for sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals. The company acquired startups Chorus.ai and Insent last year.

– Comcast has named Matt Quantz as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Washington. Quantz joined the telecom giant in 2014 and was head of sales in the Chicago, Oregon and Southwest Washington regions.

Comcast currently employs nearly 4,000 people in Washington state.

– OceanGate Expeditions, based in Everett, Wash., announced that Professor Steve Ross of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington will be the Chief Scientist for the 2022 Titanic Survey Expedition, which will take place from May to June.

Ross and a team of scientists will use OceanGate’s five-person deep-sea submersible to conduct a survey of the marine ecosystems on and near the wreck of the Titanic.

– Mobile auto repair company Wrench hired Kevin Urie as SVP of Business and Marketing. He joins the 6-year-old Seattle startup of British Columbia video game studio Hyper Hippo.