— Joseph Williams is returning to the Washington state Department of Commerce to direct information and communication technology (ICT) sector development, after serving as the Seattle director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory from 2019 to 2022.
Williams, a mainstay of the Seattle tech community, previously led ICT sector development for the department, from 2016 to 2019. His areas of focus in his return will include quantum computing, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, working with industry leaders and others to fortify the state’s position, according to an announcement from the department.
Among other priorities, Williams will report to the Washington state Legislature on 2022’s Blockchain Work Group bill (SB5544); and help the state ensure federal funding made possible by the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act passed in 2022, the department said.
“We are delighted to have Joseph back on board and put his deep knowledge, expertise and relationships to work developing new partnerships and avenues to ensure historic federal funding opportunities that will benefit communities throughout the state,” said Commerce Director Mike Fong, in a statement announcing Williams’ return to the role.
— Longtime Seattle-area communications exec and startup founder Bill Hankes, a fixture in the Seattle tech community, is leaving his role as Forbes’ chief communications officer at the end of the year, he posted on LinkedIn, describing his encounter there as “the honor of a lifetime.”
It was “the wildest ride of my career: a public offering via SPAC that was ultimately canceled, followed by nationally-publicized controversies surrounding two subsequent acquisition attempts, all while promoting our world-class journalism and events around the world.”
Hankes founded Sqoop, a startup that provided real-time data alerts to journalists, and served as director of PR for Microsoft’s Bing and a VP of communications at RealNetworks.
— Arka Majumdar, an associate professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Physics at the University of Washington, has been named a 2024 Optica Fellow. The fellowship recognizes his work in optics, particularly in low-power optical information science and imaging, enabled by low-dimensional materials, nanophotonics, and meta-optics, which consist of “millions of nanostructures that are smaller than the wavelength of light,” according to a UW article.
Majumdar is also co-founder and technical adviser at Tunoptix, a Seattle startup developing broadband meta-optics imaging to enable thin, lightweight computational vision systems.
— Former Amazon principal software engineer Andrew Hoffman is now chief technologist at Gather AI in Pittsburgh. Hoffman was a founding engineer at two robotics companies that Amazon acquired: Kiva Systems, which is now Amazon Robotics, and Canvas Technology.
— Sean Cassidy, Amazon Prime Air’s director of safety, flight operations and regulatory affairs, has left the company, according to an internal memo reported by CNBC. He was a key figure for Amazon’s drone delivery operations in its relations with the Federal Aviation Administration.
— Deako, a Seattle-based company that makes modular smart lighting systems, expanded its executive team with the hiring of Chris Miller as chief financial officer and David Cathey as chief revenue officer. The company says it has sold more than 15 million products to date, and posted a 55% boost in gross revenue year-over-year.
