Power Moves: Former eBay exec named tech chief at AWeber

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? Email us.

Bucks County email marketing firm AWeber just drafted 25-year tech veteran Young Hong to its CTO seat.

Hong comes to the Chalfont, Pa.-based company — makers of web-based email marketing and automation tools for businesses and independent creators — by way of King of Prussia, Pa.-based Radial, where he spent the last three years as head of omni-channel platforms.

Radial, whose ties to the Philly tech community run deep, was acquired at the end of 2017 by a Belgian company called bpost.

“As always, customer centricity will drive the next evolution of AWeber’s technology roadmap,” Hong said of where he sees himself leading AWeber’s team. “Simply put, customers will realize greater email marketing value through innovative product features that we’ll be deploying at an accelerated pace. We will also continue to scale and enhance our technology platform to reliably support the explosive growth our customers are experiencing by using our solutions.”

Hong, a Penn alum, joined eBay Enterprise in 2009 as Director of Commerce Exchange. He led tech teams at the ecommerce company all through its complex history until his recently announced move to AWeber.

“What’s really cool about this time in our company’s 20-year history is that we are moving faster than ever before,” said Chris Vasquez, AWeber’s director of product. “I’m really looking forward to what Young will enable us to achieve as we position ourselves for the next phase of growth.”

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Girl Develop It teaching assistant and PhillyCHI volunteer Laura Oxenfeld left her UX and business analysis job at Delphic Digital — now Hero Digital, following the company’s acquisition by a West Coast firm — last fall to join consulting firm NorthStar Solutions Group.

Now Oxenfeld’s job was converted by Comcast, and she has joined the comms giant’s Digital Center of Excellence as a Senior User Experience Researcher. She is building a “qualitative user experience research practice within a quantitative optimization and testing team.”

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Another Delphic/Hero alum, Ashley Bernard, will be leaving the company with no specific plan in mind… yet.

Bernard’s departure, along with Amelia Longo’s at dev firm Interactive Mechanics and others in the local tech space, is part of a trend that has millennials stepping down from jobs without a clear plan in sight. Former Technical.ly reporter Juliana Reyes wrote the definitive take in this piece for the Inquirer.

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Stacy Wyn Sarno, director of community engagement at ecommerce company WebLinc, will be honored by immigration nonprofit Nationalities Service Center for her work on a refugee-hiring initiative backed by WebLinc as well as other local firms.

Wyn Sarno will receive the 2018 Margaret Harris Award at the organization’s yearly fundraiser, Global Tastes.