Working Geek – Page 3 of 8

Erik Chelstad on ‘grinding’ at startups and how avalanche safety led to launching Observa

Erik Chelstad wants you to pay a little more attention to the person using the bathroom — not literally, but… Read More

Entrepreneur Arry Yu wants the Pacific Northwest blockchain community to find its voice

For her first 18 years, Arry Yu was selectively mute. Due to a childhood trauma, she spoke very little, but… Read More

Lydia Frank taps journalism skills and PayScale’s data resources to tell the wage equity story

Officially, Lydia Frank is PayScale’s vice president of corporate and product marketing — a promotion that was announced this month.… Read More

Accidental techie turned politician, Laura Ruderman weds both careers as CEO of the Tech Alliance

In the 1980s, when Laura Ruderman was a teen in New York City walking to the gym after high school,… Read More

Feeling down on Seattle? Brian McGowan wants to fix that as CEO of Greater Seattle Partners

Brian McGowan would like to remind you why Seattle is awesome. Of course there’s the natural beauty, the jagged Olympic… Read More

How the specter of irrelevancy helped Microsoft Corporate VP Julia Liuson drive massive change

Yes, Satya Nadella is the visionary Microsoft CEO who five years ago began implementing a massive shift in operations that… Read More

Leafly CTO Paul Barry on the fast growing cannabis industry and how to talk to kids about pot

Leafly is a leading source of information on cannabis products, explaining everything from the type of high experienced from Blue… Read More

When life presents game-changing opportunities, go with the pivot, says ModusBox CTO Kent Brown

Kent Brown has learned to embrace the pivot. Five years ago, when his twin boys turned 18 and Brown became… Read More

Anika Lehde sees promise in the ‘future of work,’ loves bus rides and needs 2 hours of fun daily

Anika Lehde loves to ride the bus, and she doesn’t care who knows it. Lehde commutes between home in Seattle’s… Read More

ACLU’s Shankar Narayan brings transparency to tech — with help from poetry and a giant dog

After Shankar Narayan graduated from Yale with a law degree, he needed a job that would help pay off his… Read More

Tech and product chief Katharine Nester on the power of promoting engineers from within

For companies that are struggling to fill tech roles, Katharine Nester, chief product and technology officer for Ruby Receptionists, has… Read More

DocuSign exec Loren Alhadeff says this unique trait is key to the company’s success

Some companies point to cutting-edge innovations for their success while others boast their customer-centric strategies. Chief Revenue Officer Loren Alhadeff… Read More

Maveron partner Elise Hebb offers tips on running meetings and where she gets her best ideas

Having now raised more than $1.1 billion for venture capital investments over the course of her career, Elise Hebb remembers… Read More

How Rob Girling, a champion of the infamous Clippy, became a leader in ethical tech

For those who remember Clippy — Microsoft Office’s animated paperclip assistant — would you have liked him better as a… Read More

Working Geek: How a Marine Corps credo drives Audian CEO Brandon Bazemore

Brandon Bazemore joined the U.S. Marine Corps while in high school for two reasons: to pay for college and because… Read More

From curbing malaria to better food carts, Xinova’s David Kraft believes in innovation

David Kraft is downright giddy for innovation. “I’m often naive enough to think there is no problem that can’t be… Read More

Working Geek: AWS Director Maureen Lonergan is a risk taker who finds courage in purpose

One might wonder if there’s any risk big enough to really frighten Maureen Lonergan. How about ducking out of the… Read More

Working Geek: Banzai CEO Joe Davy on how to take the hard knocks and come out stronger

When he was still a very young man — like not even old enough to drink legally — Joe Davy… Read More

Working Geek: Will Daugherty embraces risk and experimentation in Pacific Science Center reboot

Will Daugherty was ready to start his next chapter. He’d built expertise and years of diverse experiences at companies and… Read More

Working Geek: Amazon’s Nancy Wang helps women PMs make themselves heard via her nonprofit

While the number of women working in tech jobs in the U.S. has doubled over the past 20 years, they’re… Read More

Working Geek: David Aronchick’s new Microsoft job packs everything cool into one role

When David Aronchick returned to Microsoft last fall, I suspect that many folks there did a little happy dance. A… Read More

Working Geek: Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson uses social media ‘like a stethoscope’ in public health crusade

It didn’t take long for Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson to realize that if she wanted to effectively provide a research-based… Read More

Working Geek: Fred Hutch CIO Kathy Alexion shifts from ‘corporate soldier’ to mission driven

With a resume that includes Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Chase and others, Kathy Alexion confesses to being a “corporate soldier.”… Read More

Working Geek: From Amazon to OfferUp, COO Bill Carr experimented to find the right career fit

OfferUp’s Chief Operating Officer Bill Carr says that he’s not a scientist. At least not in the chemical engineering way… Read More

Working Geek: Neal Gottsacker brings Midwest how-to and startup lessons to Nintex

When Neal Gottsacker decided to take the role of chief product officer at Bellevue, Wash.-based Nintex, he was confident that… Read More

Working Geek: Former Mayor Marilyn Strickland is Seattle Metro Chamber’s uniter in chief

Marilyn Strickland likes mixing things up. She has transitioned between the corporate world of Starbucks, two terms as mayor of Tacoma… Read More

Working Geek: After startup stint, Ari Steinberg leads Airbnb’s operations in Seattle

Ari Steinberg wanted to start a company when he graduated from Stanford University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science.… Read More

Working Geek: DreamBox’s upbeat CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is focused on empowering kids

DreamBox Learning CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson is a quote machine. As she explains the whys and hows of her successful math… Read More

Working Geek: Sage CTO Michael Kellen builds software for medical collaboration and crowdsourcing

As chief technology officer for Sage Bionetworks, Michael Kellen has the rare opportunity to merge the commercial drive of a… Read More

Working Geek: F5’s Kara Sprague sees a maddening gulf between tech and government

Kara Sprague’s dad was an attorney and her first choice for college was Harvard University, leading to a career in law.… Read More