Ex-Commerce Department advisor lands at Virginia tech nonprofit

The DC region saw plenty of new hires and acquisitions over the past month, along with layoffs and leadership departures. 

NobleReach announced its new chief innovation officer, while local DC data science startup Prefect cut a third of its workforce. The company joins several government contractors that continue to lay off workers due to federal government shake-ups. 

Keep reading to get the details on those and more regional power moves. Before then, check out some recent data on the most desirable skills for DMV tech positions, including how many job postings request each skill and how much those hired make.

NobleReach taps new CIO  

Sree Ramaswamy comes to the Tysons-based organization from the federal government, where he served as the senior advisor to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo between 2021 and 2024. 

NobleReach focuses on bridging the public and private sectors to boost technological prowess in the US. Ramaswamy will lead the nonprofit’s Science to Venture program, which a press release said links universities, local institutions and federal entities like DARPA and the National Science Foundation to drive innovation at the local level.

“NobleReach’s mission to deepen America’s talent and innovation ecosystem to strengthen our national and economic security is a natural corollary to my work in and out of government on emerging technology and industrial policy,” Ramaswamy said. “We are at a unique moment of enormous challenge and opportunity, and it’s critical that the private and public sectors align to maximize the competitive utility of our research capabilities.” 

Before his time in the Department of Commerce, he worked at McKinsey & Company’s DC office​​ and economic research nonprofit arm McKinsey Global Institute.

Data science startup cuts staff

Prefect founder and CEO Jeremiah Lowin announced in a blog post that he laid off 20 of his workers at the end of March. 

The startup would’ve been forced to find new capital in late 2026 if that staff stayed, he explained online. He instead decided to focus on being profitable and funded through customer revenue.

“A startup can do extraordinary things when it doesn’t operate under the shadow of its next fundraise,” Lowin wrote. “Our decisions can now flow purely from what creates value for our customers, not from what extends our timeline.”

More leadership moves: 

• Loudoun County’s sole Cracker Barrel restaurant may be replaced with a data center campus, the Washington Business Journal reported. The land parcel of 93 acres in Sterling also includes old office buildings and parking lots. 
• President Donald Trump established a group, dubbed the “DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” to double down on immigration enforcement and more strictly monitor crime. Neither Mayor Muriel Bowser nor any other DC leaders sit on the task force.
• CloudBolt Software in Rockville acquired the Arlington machine learning company StormForge. 
• Global investment company Techstars restarted its programming in DC with a newly announced healthtech accelerator. 
• Arlington-based restaurant management and bill payment platform MarginEdge hired Emma Whelan as the company’s new chief financial officer. 
• USAID contractors are laying off hundreds of staffers in the region, according to the Washington Business Journal. For instance, global development firm Chemonics International is planning on laying off 500 workers by the end of May. 
• The regional economic growth-focused Greater Washington Partnership brought on new members to its board of directors: Ellen M. Granberg, the president of George Washington University; Patrick Ryan, managing partner for the DC region at KPMG; and Rob Sharps, chair, president and CEO of T. Rowe Price. 
• Energy management technology firm GridPoint appointed Derek Booth as its new CEO. He previously worked as the company’s chief operating officer. 
• CEO Kim Russo of George Washington University Hospital left her role days before a new hospital she led in developing was set to open, the Washington Post reported. She’s now in the C-suite at OSF HealthCare, which is headquartered in Illinois. 
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s commerce secretary resigned after shake-ups in the state government, the Post also reported. The Republican governor tried to transfer Secretary Caren Merrick elsewhere in the cabinet to promote her deputy and healthtech startup founder Juan Pablo Segura.