Power Moves: Meet Arlington’s new director of economic development

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

Arlington has a new director of economic development

Following a nationwide search, Arlington County ended up not looking too far for its new director of economic development.

Starting Nov. 28, Ryan Touhill will take on the role of building economic opportunities in the Virginia community. Touhill comes to the post from the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, where he helped out with the Amazon HQ2 project and the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus. Before this, Touhill held government roles for the City of Alexandria in budget and human resources. He’ll be taking over from Shannon Flanagan-Watson, the interim director.

“Arlington is a dynamic and innovative community that has proven it can achieve smart, sustainable growth for businesses and residents alike,” said Touhill in a statement. “I am excited about this opportunity to bring my passion of service to ensure that Arlington County is a top business destination.”

Matthew Power is the new president of MICUA

As of Dec. 7, Matthew Power will be the new president of the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA).

In this role, Power will also be the managing director of the Independent College Fund of Maryland, an organization raising scholarship funds for MICUA students. Power replaces Sara Fidler, who was the organization’s leader since 2019 but left in October of this year. Angela Sherman is currently the interim president.

Before coming to MICUA, Power served as the chief administrative officer for Maryland’s Anne Arundel County since 2020. There, he oversaw the county government and a $2 billion operating budget. He also led the county’s COVID-19 response efforts.

“I’m excited to return to Annapolis and advocate for the priorities of independent higher education and MICUA’s amazing institutions,” said Power in a statement.

Standd founder Julie Saltman is part of Techstars Seattle

Standd, a DC-based knowledge discovery and navigation platform for lawyers, and founder Julie Saltman have been selected for the 14th Techstars cohort in Seattle, Washington.

The Techstars Seattle program has included companies such as Remitly, Outreach and Zipline — all of which became unicorns — and Techstars said the program has reached gender parity for the third year in a row. This cohort will be a hybrid format, with founders meeting in person for the first and last weeks of the program and virtually in between. The cohort began on Oct. 31 and culminates in a demo day in February. Other startups in this year’s cohort were selected from Israel, England, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia.

We are so thrilled to announce we're part of the @TechstarsSEA @Techstars Seattle cohort this year. We're already learning a ton and enjoying getting to know the other amazing companies. Follow us and sign up at https://t.co/Og3cMbTjuq to keep up with our progress! https://t.co/o2CZwaJzLN

— Standd (@Standd_io) November 1, 2022

Here’s who else is making moves around DC:

• Clean energy company Ørsted appointed Maddy Voytek as its new deputy head of government affairs and market strategy in Maryland. Voytek, who comes to the company from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, will assist in partnership with Maryland for Skipjack Wind, a wind turbine project off the coast.
• DC-based CIBT Global, a military services company, appointed Marc Kaplan as CEO. For the past few months, Kaplan has been a board member of the company and is also a senior advisory board member for its majority owner Kohlberg and Co.
• Wes Moore has stepped down from Under Armour’s board of directors due to his election to the role of Maryland governor.
• Alexandria, Virginia business advisory firm Falcon Capital Advisors named Kara Ward as its new managing director and general counsel.
• Fellow Alexandria company Systems Planning and Analysis, a defense tech firm, announced that William Vantine would be retiring as president and CEO. Vantine will remain on the board of directors and current board member Rich Sawchak will take over as CEO.
• Securities and Exchange Commission Chief of Staff Prashant Yerramalli will leave the agency, effective Dec. 31. Current senior counselor Amanda Fischer will be the new chief of staff.
• Roanoke, Virginia enterprise fintech company KlariVis appointed Eric Litz to the role of CTO, succeeding Art Lucia. Litz was most recently the CTO of Delta Data.
• Whereoware, a digital experience agency in McLean, Virginia, named Eric MacKenzie as its new CTO. Previously, MacKenzie held roles at ICF Next and Capgemini.
• Greenbelt, Maryland wifi sensing company Origin appointed Spencer Maid as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1 of 2023.
• Maximus, a government services company in Tysons, Virginia, appointed Juliane Swatt as senior VP of business development, market strategy and growth. Swatt was previously a director at AWS.
  • Additionally, Maximus announced Craig Shinn as its new VP of digital government solutions.
• Suresh Subbaratinam is the new CTO for Herndon, Virginia cyber company Avint. He comes to the role from CACI International.
• Reston, Virginia’s Noblis, a government tech company, added Jim Soltys as VP of business development and chief solution architect.
• Robert Cherry was named the VP of M&A for Cadmus, an Arlington, Virginia tech consulting company.
• Bethesda, Maryland-based DMI, a digital transformation services company, appointed Amy Rall as president of its federal group, where she’ll oversee government business.