On the move: The North Texas tech and startup hires and departures in September

As the unemployment rate in North Texas continues to decline, the local tech and startup scene is reflecting that with a number of new hires last month.

While September saw layoffs at a couple companies with local ties, nearly 20 tech and innovation organizations made new hires. And there are a number of companies, like Redfin and Knox Financial that are making expansions into the region, bringing with them hundreds of potential new positions.

To help keep up with who is coming and going from the Metroplex, we’ve rounded up the top hires and departures in North Texas from September.

Pro tip: You can read daily updates on hirings, departures, funding, M&A and VC activity in our newsletter The Beat.  

New Hires

Dallas-based dating app company Match Group announced hiring Tracey Breeden as its new head of safety and social advocacy, overseeing policies and initiatives across Match’s portfolio of brands. Breeden joined the company from her previous role as head of women’s safety and gender based violence operations at Uber.

Fort Worth- and San Francisco-based alternative asset firm TPG announced promoting Joseph Konzelmann as its new global head of the TPG Client and Capital Formation Group. Konzelmann joined TPG earlier this year and is based out of the firm’s New York offices.

A local tech leader has been chosen to head up a new company. Leaving RealPage as its executive VP and chief product officer, William Chaney joined McKinney-based pest control industry SaaS company PestRoutes as its new CEO. In his new role, he will also lead PestRoutes’ sister marketing platform Lobster Marketing.

Utility industry-focused SaaS provider VertexOne announced some leadership changes to its team. The Richardson-based company hired Lawson Glenn as its new VP of alliances and named Ali Barsamian as its new VP of marketing. Barsamian joined VertexOne in 2020, following VertexOne’s acquisition of WaterSmart. In addition, VertexOne promoted Bill Mareburger, former senior solution architect for web and mobile, to the new role of senior VP of product strategy.

AI-focused technology company Hypergiant Industries, which has offices in Dallas, Austin, Houston, Seattle and Washington, D.C., announced hiring Mohammed Farooq as its new products general manager and global CTO. Farooq will also be joining Hypergiant’s board. He joins the company from his most recent position as general manager at IBM Global TechnologyServices. Farooq came to IBM after it acquired his Austin startup Gravitant in 2015 for an undisclosed amount.Mohammed Farooq, Chief Global Technology Officer at Hypergiant.BEVERLY GUHL

Dallas-based rewardStyle, an internet influencer marketing firm, hired a lead for its shopping app. Catherine “Kit” Ulrich will serve as general manager of the company’s LIKEtoKNOW.it app. Prior to joining rewardStyle, Ulrich most recently served as managing director and venture partner at FirstMark Capital.

Addison-based security information and event management company Securonix announced naming Brett Brown as its new CFO and Dilshan Ratnayake as its new executive VP and chief people officer. Brown most recently served as CFO at GoDaddy, while Ratnayake joins the company from his previous position as head of human resources for Sabre Corporation. In addition to the executive hires, Securonix also said it has added new product engineering leadership but did not disclose further details.

Dallas-based health care startup Catapult Health named Julie Dimoulakis as its new president and COO. Dimoulakis has been with the company since its launch in 2011, serving in a number of roles including VP of client services and director of on-site services. Catapult was recently ranked No. 50 on the DBJ’s Middle Market 50, which highlights the fastest growing companies in the region.

Plano-based cybersecurity startup CRITICALSTART named Carrie Kelly as its new CMO. She takes over the position from her previous role as VP of product marketing – a position she has held since she joined the company in February.

Coppell-based Peak Nanosystems, a polymer film startup focused on the optics industry, announced hiring Wendy Hoenig as its new senior VP of marketing and sales. According to LinkedIn, Hoenig is also the founder and CEO of Houston-based technology development firm H&H Business Development. She also serves on the External Advisory Board for the Rice University Brown School of Engineering and the board of governors for the Plastics Pioneers Association.

UNT at Dallas named Arthur Bradford as its new executive VP for administration and CFO. Bradford previously served as head of stores for JCPenney. He takes over the position from Jim Main, who announced his retirement earlier this year.The University of North Texas at Dallas has named Arthur Bradford as executive vice president for administration and chief financial officer.The University of North Texas at Dallas

TCU’s Neeley School of Business named Ann Tasby as its first director for inclusive excellence, where she will oversee strategy, recruitment and implementation of initiatives to create a diverse faculty and student body. Tasby takes over the role from her previous position as instructor of accounting and faculty liaison for TCU’s National Association for Black Accountants, which she helped launch, and its Accounting Career Awareness Program.

After announcing plans to lay off about 90% of its U.S. workforce, India-based hotel startup OYO, which has its U.S. HQ in Dallas, named Kasra Moshkani as its new head of business in the U.S. Moshkani has been serving as OYO’s regional head of Eastern U.S. business since 2019. The SoftBank-backed company said despite the layoffs, it has added more than 8,000 hotel rooms to its platform in the U.S. since January. At the time of the layoff announcement, OYO said it expects its pandemic-related revenue losses won’t fully recover until the second half of next year.

Richardson-based Reflect Systems, a digital signage and experience company, announced new leadership additions to its sales team, as the company looks to meet increased demand during the pandemic. Reflect hired Tom Walsh and Andrea Varrone as directors of strategic accounts. Walsh joins Reflect’s Chicago team from his previous role as regional sales manager at NanoLumens. Varrone joins Reflect from her previous role as strategic solutions director at Experient. She is also the co-founder Women of Digital Signage, an organization aimed at bringing women into the industry. She will be working from the company’s North Texas HQ.

Southlake-based BPS Agriculture, an agriculture holding company whose portfolio includes biotech startups Farm Shield and Verano365, appointed new members to its strategic advisory board: Alan Gould, Alex Prohodski and Robert Geiger. The group, which has experience in horticulture, genetics and chemistry, among other things, will allow BPS to better develop its products and collaborate with industry groups, the company said. 

As part of its IPO push, Taysha Gene Therapies announced its executive lineup and added new members to it board. Serving under founder, president and CEO RA Sessions II are:

• Suyash Prasad, chief medical officer and head of R&D
• Kamran Alam, CFO
• Fred Porter, CTO
• Emily McGinnis, chief patient officer and head of government affairs
• Jim Rouse, CIO
• Dan Janiak, senior VP of corporate strategy and business development
• Niren Shah, VP of program and alliance management and chief of staff

Dallas-based edge computing platform StackPath, named William Charnock as its new CTO. Charnock joins the startup from his previous role as senior director of network strategy at San Francisco-based cloud computing service provider Fastly. The move follows a $216 million Series B the company landed in March led by Juniper Networks and Cox Communications.

Dallas-based Dottid, a real estate SaaS platform that launched in 2018 and landed a $3.85 million seed round in January, announced hiring William Bailey as its new COO. He joins the startup from his previous roles as general manager at RED Development.CEO Kyle WaldrepContributed

Departures

Frisco-based Complexity Gaming, the Jerry Jones-owned esports organization announced 17-year-old player Owen “oBo” Schlatter has decided to leave the organization’s Counter-Strike Global Offensive team. Schlatter originally joined Complexity in 2019. While the team searches for a replacement, its team coach Jamie “keita” Hall will fill in as a substitute.

The Dallas Empire, Envy Gaming’s Call of Duty League team, dropped James “Clayster” Eubanks from its roster. The move came as the league announced that its upcoming season will switch to a four-on-four format, one less per team than this season. Eubanks joined the team in 2019, going on to helping the team win a world championship this season. He will now become a free agent in the league.

Layoffs

Texas tech giant Dell Technologies, which based in Round Rock and has offices in Dallas, plans to lay off an undisclosed number of its employees. There was no word available on which offices would be affected by layoffs. The company currently has about 165K full-time employees. The move comes amid an internal restructuring, the Austin Business Journal reports.

A subsidiary of Irving-based Exela Technologies is planning to lay off 81 employees in Austin starting in November, the Austin Business Journal reported. The layoffs are due to consolidation and relocations at the company. It maintains more than 120 other employees in the Austin area, it said.

Originally Posted on: https://www.bizjournals.com