DC Power Moves: CareFirst consolidates offices, moves DC headquarters 

It’s been a busy summer in the DMV. 

The past month saw several leadership hires at enterprise technology firms, an accelerator seeking cybersecurity startups for its next cohort and a major health insurer relocating closer to the White House. 

Keep reading to get the details and announcements from CareFirst, Axios HQ, Comcast and more. But first, check out our latest monthly stats on the region’s most-sought-after tech skills: 

CareFirst moves offices

The insurance provider, which is dual-headquartered in DC and Baltimore, announced it’s moving to a new headquarters in the district. This facility will be located blocks away from the White House at the Met Square building.

This move consolidates the six scattered CareFirst locations throughout DC, according to a press release. The new building covers  670,000 square feet and has LEED Gold certification

Officials stressed in the release that this relocation does not “reduce the company’s footprint” but instead would promote efficiency. 

“This location sets up our team for success,” said Angela Celestin, the company’s chief human resources officer. “Our proximity to policymakers, as well as the community we are serving, gives us greater insight into our work.”

Axios HQ expands leadership, launches new product

The Arlington-based communications software company hired Paul Pedrazzi as its first chief product officer. He’s held technical and innovation-focused leadership positions at companies including the cloud services giant Salesforce. 

The firm has also launched an internal, AI-powered communications assistant. The product summarizes and analyzes lengthy text, as well as sends reminders to users. The more it’s used, the more specific and tailored it will become, per a press release. 

“We’ve created a tool that businesses didn’t know they needed, and now organizations are telling us they can’t live without,” said Axios HQ CEO Roy Schwartz

Digital intelligence firm appoints new CIO 

The software company Cellebrite, which primarily offers data management and investigation services in public safety contexts, hired a new chief information officer. The firm is headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel — near Tel Aviv — but has offices in Europe and Vienna, Virginia. 

Sigalit Shavi will now lead innovation and customer support at Cellebrite. 

“It is a great honor to be here and lead a team that empowers and propels Cellebrite and its customers forward,” Shavit said in a press release. “I am passionate about my team’s significant mission of harnessing a clear, modern digital strategy and solutions to make an impact on efficiency and accelerating innovation.”

Previously, she held C-Suite positions at FedEx Express, ECI Telecom, CyberArk and KTrust.

More Power Moves: 

• The DC-based software company and public sector contractor Granicus is building its leadership team by hiring three people to lead partnerships and sales. 
• The Sterling-based IT federal contractor REI Systems appointed a new chief operating officer. Gregory A. Garrett has more than 25 years of leadership experience in IT and cybersecurity, and spent 20 years as a military officer with the US Air Force. 
• The cybersecurity accelerator MACH37 is accepting applications for its fall cohort. 
• Comcast has a new leader of its DC office. Lance West will also serve as executive vice president of federal government affairs. 
• The IT company SAIC in Reston hired Arjun Reddy to lead the firm’s mission advisory services team. 
• Alexandria-based business loan intelligence platform provider Parlay has been accepted into Mastercard’s Start Path Small Business program, which aims to support startups providing fintech tools to small- to medium-sized companies.

This article mentions Comcast, a Technical.ly client. That relationship has no impact on this report.