Power Moves: Meet the new dean of George Mason’s business school

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.

GMU has a new dean

Fairfax, Virginia’s George Mason University has officially appointed a new dean: Starting July 1, Ajay Vinzé will begin a new position as dean of the college’s business school.

Ajaz Vinzé, new dean at GMU. (Courtesy photo)

Vinzé comes to the role after having been dean of the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri, through which he oversaw 4,500 students. He also spent 17 years working in several roles at Arizona State University. In the new gig, he’ll be looking after over 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as five research centers under the school’s wing.

“A trifecta of forces — technology, globalization and changing expectations for higher education (post pandemic) — make these interesting and exciting times,” Vinzé said in a statement. “The Business School at Mason, with its outstanding faculty, dedicated staff and a wonderfully diverse student body, is uniquely positioned to take on these challenges. By leveraging public-private-academic partnerships, we will alter the trajectory of business education and lead the way.”

ThreatConnect adds Balaji Yelamanchili to C-Suite

Arlington, Virginia cybersecurity and threat intelligence company ThreatConnect has appointed Balaji Yelamanchili as its new CEO.

Yelamanchili spent several years in top cybersecurity positions before this most recent post. He was previously the executive VP and general manager for Symantec and a senior VP at Oracle. He has also held executive positions at EMC Corporation, Documentum and Rational Software. He was also an operating partner in the VC economy, assisting cyber companies with their growth plans.

“In our view, ThreatConnect is in an incredible position to help organizations protect and defend themselves by allowing them to be more proactive, more responsive and more confident,” said Yelamanchili in a statement. “[Cofounder Adam Vincent] and the team built a powerful product that some of the largest companies in the world rely on every day. I’m honored and thrilled to lead the company in its next phase of growth.”

In addition to Yelamanchili, the company also added Charles Gold as its chief marketing officer and Toby Bussa as VP of product marketing.

VEDP has a new CEO

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), the state’s economic development authority, officially appointed Jason El Koubi as president and CEO.

El Koubi, who was previously VEDP’s executive vice president, was appointed interim president and CEO after the departure of Stephen Moret. The authority conducted a nationwide search to replace Moret before ultimately choosing El Koubi. In his time at VEDP, El Koubi has worked on such initiatives as the state’s first International Trade Strategic Plan for the state and served on Amazon HQ2’s management team.

“Over the past five years, I have developed a deep fondness for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and profound respect for the many individuals and organizations committed to its continued prosperity and vibrancy,” said El Koubi in a statement. “I am excited to work with Governor Youngkin’s administration, the General Assembly, Virginia’s strong network of regional and local economic developers, and many other valued partners to advance the goals established in our ambitious Strategic Plan for Economic Development of the Commonwealth.”

Here’s who else made recent power moves :

• College Park, Maryland-based OmniSpeech, a noise suppression and canceling software company based in AI, announced David Przygoda as the company’s CEO.
• Open-source intelligence and AI analytics company Babel Street, based in DC, appointed Michael Southworth as the company’s new CEO. He succeeds founder Jeff Chapman, who will move on to be the board’s vice chair.
• Morning Consult, a DC-based decision intelligence firm, added Sonnet Frisbie as geopolitical risk analyst for the EMEA market and Maia Hansen as assistant vice president of engineering. Hansen was most recently the VP of engineering at High Fidelity.
• McLean, Virginia identity verification tech company ID.me added Anand Mehta as chief people officer, where he’ll be responsible for attracting new talent and heading the company culture.
• Mike Smith, a 23-year vet of the Secret Service, is the new chief security officer at Arcfield, a systems engineering firm in Chantilly, Virginia. Lori Becker was also named CFO.
• Music tech company SoundExchange, which is based in DC, added Anjula Singh as CFO and COO.
• Bethesda, Maryland’s GrammaTech, an application security company, appointed Dan Goodwin as general manager of GrammaTech Research, the company’s arm that does cyber research for the federal government. Tom Burns was also added to the company’s board.
• Peter Rodenhauser is the new COO of Corsica Technologies, a managed IT and cyber provider in Centreville, Virginia.
• Philadelphia delivery unicorn Gopuff appointed Annie Palisi, a veteran of Capitol Hill, to lead the company’s federal affairs efforts in DC.
• Rockville, Maryland’s business-focused bank Capital Bank added Sandeep Uthra as CIO and EVP. He comes to the role after a stint as CIO of Truliant Federal Credit Union in North Carolina.
• LangleyCyber, based in Arlington, named Matt Ashburn as its chief strategy officer. Ashburn was previously an officer in the CIA focused on cyber.
• Fairfax, Virginia tech services company CGI Federal added Mark Flugge as its new sustainability and climate change lead to head up the firm’s goal of being net-zero by 2030.
• Following a large period of growth at the company, DC’s Verato, a patent identity software company, named Paige Lisk as its chief people officer.
• Qrvey, an analytics company in Tysons, Virginia, promoted Ben Mathew from the role of chief revenue officer to another as the company’s president and COO.
• Rockville-based Autosled, a marketplace platform for digital logistics, added Tesla veteran Leon Keshishian as CEO.
• LeaseAccelerator, a developer of lease accounting and management tech in Reston, Virginia appointed Ian Dunlop as its new chief product officer.
• Germantown, Maryland’s Amentum named Charlie Mathis as its new CFO, Patricia Munchel as chief people officer and Chico Moline as CIO.
• Sterling, Virginia-based Neustar Security Services, added Michael Smith to the role of CTO. Smith previously worked at Akamai Technologies.
• Detection and response security company Expel, based in Herndon, Virginia, appointed Greg Notch to the role of chief information security officer. Notch comes to the role from a job leading cybersecurity at the National Hockey League.
• Brian Selvy is the new chief innovation officer at Vitech, a systems and digital engineering services company in Blacksburg, Virginia. Previously, Selvy was the project manager for the United States Extremely Large Telescope Program.
• Shawn Wells was named a cybersecurity executive for Accenture Federal Services‘ cyber practice.