Power Moves: Former Under Armour creative lead Jed Jecelin joins Planit

Power Moves is a column where we chart the comings and goings of talent across the region. Got a new hire, new gig or promotion? Tell us: baltimore@technical.ly.

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Jed Jecelin is moving on from a role as creative lead at Under Armour to become executive creative director at Planit, the Federal Hill-based ad agency. At Planit, he will oversee the agency’s entire creative process.

A 20-year industry veteran, Jecelin spent the last 14 years at Tide Point-based apparel brand Under Armour, overseeing creative in categories like running, training, women’s and team sports.

“Planit continues to grow and evolve quickly and I’m confident he will enable our already strong creative team to deliver the outstanding creative excellence that reaches the hearts and minds of consumers and most importantly, lead change and make a difference for our clients,” said Ed Callahan, Planit’s cofounder and creative strategist, in a statement.

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Dr. Amritha Jaishankar is the new executive director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, succeeding Dr. Dan Gincel in the lead position at a key divison of state-backed technology development agency TEDCO.

Dr. Jaishankar is being promoted from the role of director of programs and strategic alliances at the fund, which provides grants and loans to scientists advancing resarch and innovation in the state that can eventually become the foundation for new companies.

“Dr. Jaishankar’s leadership, dedication, and tremendous work with the MSCRF and our stem cell community over past few years make her the ideal person to take us forward,” said Dr. Debra Mathews, chair of the commission, in a statement.

The fund recently approved over $6M to 22 recipients for its second round of 2021, which speaks to a smooth transition from the 14-year leadership of Dr. Gincel to Dr. Jaishankar.

 

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Along with this week’s news that it is opening a 1,500-job U.S. manufacturing facility in Frederick for home COVID-19 tests, Australian digital diagnostics company Ellume announced a pair of key leadership moves at its Maryland-based team..

Jeff Boyle will be the president of the U.S. division of the company, overseeing all domestic business operations. He brings 25 years of experience in the field, including a decade senior roles at diagnostics company QIAGEN.

“[The Fredrick] facility will serve as a foundation for Ellume’s vision to both support the domestic response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and better prepare the U.S. for future public health crises,” said Boyle in a statement.

Dan Mallon will be the company’s vice president of business development and alliance management. He most recently served as VP of business development at biopharma product development company RRD International, and also held senior positions at Gaithersburg-based Emergent Biosolutions and Gene Logic.

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211 Maryland, the central connector to health and human services for the State of Maryland, recently named John Mathena as the organization’s new data manager.

“We look forward to leveraging his experience in data analytics and mapping to further advance the mission of the organization,” said Quinton Askew, president and CEO of 211 Maryland, in a statement.

Mathena will maintain currently developed data dashboards while designing and managing new interactive dashboards that can be customized for user’s needs. Custom dashboards by 211 Maryland provide insights for Maryland-based health and human services organizations, state and local officials as well as public entities to better understand where unmet needs exist in Maryland.

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Symphony Technology Group (STG) announced Jim Obsitnik as CEO and Mike Dunn as CFO for a new company that brings together a series of recently-acquired software companies onto one platform. The executive leadership team will combine CadmiumCD, EthosCE, Warpwire, and CommPartners. This new combined entity will be launched under a new unified company called Cadmium, which focuses on technology for events and educational experiences.

Event tech company CadmiumCD, which is based in Harford County’s Forest Hill, received a majority investment from Silicon Valley-based STG last year. This move means its name will continue going forward. STG said Obsitnik and Dunn will lead the unification of the separate divisions that were acquired under that single organization. Leaders of the individual brands that were acquired, including CadmiumCD cofounders Michelle Wyatt and Peter Wyatt, will remain with the company and become part of the leadership team going forward.

The combined company grew annual recurring revenue by more than 50% in 2020, per STG.

Obsitnik brings over 25 years of experience, working with tech companies including Netscape, Commerce One, Taleo and Capsilon. Dunn, meanwhile, has 15 years of experience in the CFO role, including multiple integrations of acquired software and tech companies.

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Amer Yaqub has joined Frederick-based IT strategy and consulting firm MainSpring Inc. as senior technology advisor. He brings prior experience as VP of business development at Bethesda-based real estatep app Homesnap. In the same role at ScaleUp Executives, he helped develop an online training platform about COVID-19.

“Amer’s deep knowledge of the challenges that businesses, NGO’s and associations face in today’s fast-paced IT environment will be invaluable and comes at a unique inflection point in our company’s almost 30 year history,” said Ray Steen, MainSpring’s Chief Strategy Officer, in a statement.

Donte Kirby is a 2020-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.