— Brian Cook, former CEO of Nintex and founder of Incredible Capital, is now CEO of WellSaid Labs, a Seattle startup developing AI synthetic voice technology.
Cook helped start Nintex in 2004 and was chairman of the business process automation software company until 2018. He also co-founded Hyperfish, an employee directory startup that was acquired in 2018.
WellSaid Labs spun out of the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence in 2019 and raised a $10 million Series A round in 2021 led by Fuse. The company serves thousands of customers that use its software for corporate training, advertising, product experiences, video production, publishing, audiobooks, and more.
WellSaid Labs founding CEO Matt Hocking will remain at the company as executive chairman.
“I’m really looking forward to leading the company through the next phase of its journey to become a important player in the AI marketplace,” Cook wrote on LinkedIn.
— Cybersecurity and application delivery giant F5 announced Monday that it hired Samir Sherif as senior vice president and chief information security officer.
Sherif is a longtime security leader who spent more than two decades at Citi, most recently as global head of application security. He was also an exec at Imperva and Absolute Software.
Sherif replaces Gail Coury, a former Oracle exec who joined F5 in 2018 and is retiring.
Seattle-based F5 grew revenue by 4% in its fiscal year 2023, to $2.8 billion. The company’s stock is up more than 20% over the past 12 months. F5 will report its latest quarterly earnings Jan. 29.
— Seattle-based tech consulting company Slalom named Amy Loftus as its first chief customer officer and Kristine Santa-Coloma Rohls as chief people officer.
Loftus joined Slalom in 2016. She was previously an executive vice president at healthcare company Accolade, and spent two decades at Accenture.
Santa-Coloma Rohls also joined Slalom in 2016 after nearly 13 years at Booz Allen Hamilton. She’ll continue in her role as chief inclusion, diversity and equity officer. She’s replacing Lucy Hur, who is retiring but will remain a part-time advisor to Slalom.
Slalom provides tech-related services to clients including Allstate, Hyatt, Microsoft, REI, and others. Citing “significant shifts” within its industry, the company cut 7% of its workforce in September, or about 900 employees. It is moving into a new headquarters location in Seattle.
— Patrick Thompson, a Seattle tech vet who co-founded data analytics company Iteratively and was a director of product at Amplitude (which acquired Iteratively in 2021), announced he is leading a new “next-gen CRM” startup called Clarify with former Runway exec Austin Hay and Iteratively co-founder Ondrej Hrebicek.
— Father Paolo Benati, an AI ethics expert based in Rome, will spend one month in Seattle as a distinguished visiting professor at Seattle University. He will support SU’s Ethics and Technology initiative.
— Taher Elgamal, partner at Evolution Equity Partners, and former Mandiant COO John Watters will join the board of Seattle cybersecurity startup Oleria, which just announced a $33 million investment round.
— Aaron Ring, a faculty member at Fred Hutch and serial entrepreneur, received a three-year, $750,000 award from The Mark Foundation for cancer-related research.
