Accolade hires security chief; Blue Origin comms leader departs; Redfin names industry relations director; and more – GeekWire

— Kelli Burns joined Seattle-based healthcare company Accolade as its new chief information security officer.

Burns comes from Bellevue, Wash.-based financial services company Symetra, where she held the same role.

Burns also previously worked as a cybersecurity consultant for Ernst & Young.

She will lead the information security business unit at Accolade, the health benefits platform that went public in 2020. Burns will also support the company’s overall compliance and risk management function.

Other personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:

• Redfin promoted Joe Rathwho has been with the real estate company for seven years, to director of industry relations. Roth helped Redfin launch brokerage services in the Cleveland and Columbus markets. He was most recently a director of real estate operations.
• Linda Millsvice president of communications at Blue Originstepped down last week. Mills previously led communications teams at Boeing and Starbucks, and was a vice president at Waggener Edstrom. She will join a new company later this month.
• Healthcare software company Edifecs appointed four new executives to its leadership team: Raymond Bonnettvice president professional services, a former executive at NextGen Healthcare; Mark Filiaultvice president of payer sales, a former vice president of sales at AI health company Diagnostic Robotics; Paul “Chip” Actonvice president of solution consulting, previously of TriZetto Healthcare Products; and Brian Hanleyvice president public sector sales, who was a VP at digital services company Nava.
• Politico reported that Amazon hired Judd Smitha senior Republican staffer on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, as a lobbyist for Amazon Web Services. Smith was key in drafting an antitrust bill that would bar Amazon and other big tech companies from prioritizing their own products on platforms over those of rivals.
• ProfoundBio, which recently raised $70 million, hired medical oncologist Naomi Hunder as chief medical officer.
• Joe Braidwood is now chief strategy officer of Vektor Medicala San Diego-based company developing a way to readily map heart arrhythmias. Braidwood, based in Seattle with other Vektor execs, co-founded social TV platform Scener and was chief marketing officer at SwiftKey, an AI-driven text input company acquired in 2016 by Microsoft for $250 million.
• Cannabis banking company Shield Compliance hired Tony Repanich as its new CEO. Repanich was previously the company’s chief operating office and retains his role as president. Shield raised $5 million in 2019 and serves nearly 4,000 cannabis-related businesses in 35 states. Founder Noah Careythe previous CEO, is now executive chair of the board.
• Advatawhich recently formed from six healthcare companies, promoted Corinne Storm to senior vice president, head of product, and Jamie Snell to chief customer success officer. Ken Halaby was hired as product director, population health and Kristen Henderson as director, channel partnerships.
• Vancouver, B.C.-based Shift Clean Energy, which provides marine and industrial customers with energy storage solutions, appointed Mark Hughes as chief operating officer.
• Michael Griffiths became an advisor for Almas Insightwhich is developing a game-based tool to assess employee and candidate capabilities. Almas raised $1.5 million in seed funding in February.
• Mark Brailov left augmented writing platform Textiowhere he was director of communications, to return to his previous role as a freelance global corporate communications consultant.
• Magnolia Medical Technologies hired Matuizek woman as senior director, quality and regulatory. Matuizek was previously vice president of quality at Just Biotherapeutics and is a veteran of Seattle flagship biotech company Immunex, which was acquired by Amgen.