Tech Strikes: PNNL director returns to Wash. Dept. of Commerce; Seattle comms exec departs Forbes

— Joseph Williams is returning to the Washington state Division of Commerce to steer data and communication expertise (ICT) sector improvement, after serving because the Seattle director of the Pacific Northwest Nationwide Laboratory from 2019 to 2022. 

Williams, a mainstay of the Seattle tech group, beforehand led ICT sector improvement for the division, from 2016 to 2019. His areas of focus in his return will embody quantum computing, cybersecurity, and synthetic intelligence, working with business leaders and others to strengthen the state’s place, in line with an announcement from the division.

Amongst different priorities, Williams will report back to the Washington state Legislature on 2022’s Blockchain Work Group invoice (SB5544); and assist the state safe federal funding made doable by the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act handed in 2022, the division stated.

“We’re delighted to have Joseph again on board and put his deep information, experience and relationships to work creating new partnerships and avenues to safe historic federal funding alternatives that may profit communities all through the state,” stated Commerce Director Mike Fong, in an announcement saying Williams’ return to the function. 

— Longtime Seattle-area communications exec and startup founder Invoice Hankes, a fixture within the Seattle tech group, is leaving his function as Forbes’ chief communications officer on the finish of the yr, he posted on LinkedIn, describing his expertise there as “the consideration of a lifetime.”

It was “the wildest trip of my profession: a public providing by way of SPAC that was in the end canceled, adopted by nationally-publicized controversies surrounding two subsequent acquisition makes an attempt, all whereas selling our world-class journalism and occasions world wide.” 

Hankes based Sqoop, a startup that offered real-time knowledge alerts to journalists, and served as director of PR for Microsoft’s Bing and a VP of communications at RealNetworks.

— Arka Majumdar, an affiliate professor in Electrical & Pc Engineering and Physics on the College of Washington, has been named a 2024 Optica Fellow. The fellowship acknowledges his work in optics, notably in low-power optical data science and imaging, enabled by low-dimensional supplies, nanophotonics, and meta-optics, which encompass “tens of millions of nanostructures which might be smaller than the wavelength of sunshine,” in line with a UW article.

Majumdar can also be co-founder and technical adviser at Tunoptix, a Seattle startup creating broadband meta-optics imaging to allow skinny, light-weight computational imaginative and prescient techniques.

— Former Amazon principal software program engineer Andrew Hoffman is now chief technologist at Collect AI in Pittsburgh. Hoffman was a founding engineer at two robotics firms that Amazon acquired: Kiva Programs, which is now Amazon Robotics, and Canvas Know-how.

— Sean Cassidy, Amazon Prime Air’s director of security, flight operations and regulatory affairs, has left the corporate, in line with an inside memo reported by CNBC. He was a key determine for Amazon’s drone supply operations in its relations with the Federal Aviation Administration.

— Deako, a Seattle-based firm that makes modular good lighting techniques, expanded its government workforce with the hiring of Chris Miller as chief monetary officer and David Cathey as chief income officer. The corporate says it has bought greater than 15 million merchandise so far, and posted a 55% improve in gross income year-over-year.