— Maria Renz, a former Amazon executive and technical advisor to Jeff Bezos, joined Gopuff as senior vice president of North America.
Renz was most recently an executive vice president at fintech giant SoFi. She previously spent nearly two decades at Amazon as a vice president leading various groups, including Delivery Experience, and served as CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon subsidiary.
Renz, who joined Amazon in 1999, became the first woman named technical advisor to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, a coveted role she held from 2015 to 2017.
Renz is the latest Seattle-area tech exec to join Gopuff, an on-demand delivery service for convenience store items that is reportedly valued at $40 billion.
“Because of its relentless focus on customers and best-in-class delivery technology, Gopuff is leading the industry and redefining how consumers are shopping today and in the future,” Renz wrote in a LinkedIn post.
— Liangxiao Zhu, a former engineering leader at Microsoft and Meta, joined DoorDash as vice president of engineering.
Zhu started her career at Microsoft, where she was a senior engineer working on Windows Phone, HoloLens, and more. She then spent nearly a decade at Meta, most recently as a senior engineering director working on payments technology.
Zhu will lead new verticals such as grocery and convenience at delivery giant DoorDash, which went public in 2020. The company reported revenue of $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
DoorDash opened a Seattle engineering office in 2020.
— Deidre Boulware, formerly vice president at American Century Investments, will join Leafly as chief people officer.
Boulware has more than two decades of human resources leadership experience and previously held roles at US Pharmacopeia, Willis Towers Watson, Capital One, Ally Financial, and Wachovia Securities.
She joins Leafly just months after the Seattle company went public via a SPAC merger. Founded in 2010, Leafly’s online marketplace lets customers shop and select cannabis products from licensed retailers.
The startup also serves as an educational resource. Its platform has more than 125 million annual visitors and the business generated $36 million in revenue in 2020, with expected year-over-year growth of 19% in 2021 and reaching $151 million by 2024.
Other personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
- Paul Ramsey, chief executive officer of UW Medicine, announced he will be retiring effective July 31. Timothy Dellit, chief medical officer, will serve as the interim CEO for the next two years.
- Michelle Briscoe, former president of Brooks Applied Labs, joined Seattle startup Talus Bio as chief operating officer.
- Brian Adams, a former leader at Zulily and head of portfolio at Amazon’s Alexa Fund, joined FLYR Labs as head of corporate development.
- Miyuki Jane Pinckard, co-founder of Story Kitchen Studio, joined Xbox as global portfolio director.
- Ken Barrett and Scott Fabro joined Seattle startup Arzeda as chief business officer and senior vice president of food ingredients, respectively.
- Dr. Amy Snover, director of the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, will retire on June 15.
- Sean Ellis was appointed to the advisor board at Seattle-based startup Upfocus.
GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper contributed to this story.
