Smartsheet names CISO; Amazon attorney retires; and other tech moves

— Ravi Soin has joined Smartsheet as chief information security officer. Soin was previously at Edifecs, where he served on the Bellevue, Wash., company’s leadership team for more than 14 years. Soin’s background also includes nearly a decade at Microsoft, where he was group program manager for Bing social initiatives.

“As we continue to scale and expand our AI capabilities, Ravi’s leadership will be instrumental in reinforcing our commitment to security excellence and delivering a trusted enterprise experience for our global customers,” said Cynthia Tee, Smartsheet’s chief technology officer, in a statement.

Smartsheet, an enterprise software giant also based in Bellevue, turned private again in January in an $8.4 billion deal.

— After nearly 16 years with Amazon, attorney Mark Hoffman has left the company. Hoffman most recently held the title of vice president and associate general council of corporate and securities and head of legal operations. Hoffman began his career at Riddell Williams and was partner at both Gray Cary and DLA Piper before joining Amazon.

Hoffman said at Amazon he was “fortunate to have found such a wonderful group of smart, dedicated, creative, fun, and honorable people with whom to work.”

“Onward to travel, family time, board service, obscure hobbies, and all that the next chapter brings,” he added.

— Former Carbon CEO Derek Tu joined Stacklok as director of product management. The Seattle startup is developing AI assistants, agents and models.

“We’re building a centralized control plane that gives security and IT leaders full visibility and governance over how agents access data and invoke tools — unlocking safe, scalable AI adoption in the enterprise,” Tu said on LinkedIn.

Tu co-founded Carbon in 2022, and the startup was acquired by OpenAI rival Perplexity in December. Tu was previously a tech leader and early employee at Los Angeles e-commerce company Italic, and held product roles at Wayfair, Flywire and 6sense.

— Seattle-area tech leader Himanshu Tayal is now resident expert at AI House, a city hub supporting artificial intelligence startups and the AI sector. The role is part of Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), a nonprofit organization of roughly 225 people that includes some of the field’s top researchers.

Tayal previously worked at Amazon Web Services in generative AI, and was at Microsoft and Amazon.

— Joseph Sunga was promoted to director of product management at Waabi, a Toronto-based autonomous vehicle startup with a cohort of Seattle engineers. Sunga’s past roles include management positions at multiple Seattle companies including Aura, Mighty AI, Amazon and TeachStreet.

— Sarah Bell is now pipeline and portfolio lead for E8 Angels, a Seattle-based, climate-focused investment organization. Prior to her new role, Bell was an operating partner and chief of staff at LeapSheep for nine years, helping startup founders navigate business development challenges.

“[Bell] is passionate about accelerating the clean energy transition while expanding opportunities for both investors and entrepreneurs,” E8 posted on LinkedIn, noting her expertise in climate tech, agtech and space tech.

— Christin Camacho left her role as vice president of marketing for Seattle’s LevelTen Energy after nearly seven years with the company.

“We built awareness that there was a better, faster way to do deals with clean energy projects, helping LevelTen facilitate over $25 billion in clean energy transactions and over 150 [power purchase agreements] since 2018,” she said on LinkedIn.

The startup, which runs an online marketplace facilitating clean energy projects, disclosed in August that it was laying off 60 employees. Camacho is looking for a role in clean energy, corporate sustainability, regenerative agriculture or social impact.

— Nori co-founder Ross Kenyon is executive in residence at Washington Maritime Blue, an organization supporting the maritime sector and sustainability. Kenyon helped launch Seattle’s Nori in 2017, creating a marketplace for farmers to sell carbon removal credits for engaging in climate friendly agricultural practices.

Nori closed last year after raising $17.25 million from investors. Kenyon has since worked with multiple organizations supporting climate tech startups and their founders.

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