Power Moves: Hilliary Turnipseed leaves Upside to start consulting firm, Octo gets 2 new executives

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 dc@technical.ly and let us know.

Hilliary Turnipseed, former head of talent acquisition at Upside Business Travel, decided to part ways with the travel booking startup to start her own consulting firm focusing on building and maintaining diverse teams.  She worked at the startup for about two years and was responsible for building a diverse startup engineering team.

With her new venture, she will be providing guidance to early-stage startups looking to build out their people operations function, as well as consulting for larger companies that have placed a high priority on acquiring diverse talent, while implementing innovative inclusion efforts as a form of retention and engagement, Turnipseed told Technical.ly. Prior to joining Upside, Turnipseed managed talent acquisition efforts for companies such as POLITICO, Discovery Communications and Blackboard. 

She will continue to be based in D.C., but will be expanding her efforts both on a national and global scale. 

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McLean, Va,.-based Verodin expanded its leadership team with four key executive appointments in the areas of sales, marketing and business development.

https://twitter.com/VerodinInc/status/1113080054479818756

All four joined Verodin’s management team as the company plans to scale its tech. Here they are:

• Tracey Moon has been hired as CMO, overseeing Verodin’s branding and go-to-market strategy. Moon is the former CMO of Brillion and has held executive positions with FranConnect, GANTECH and Cognizant. She is also the founder of Three72, an organization created to empower women to reach their full potential.
• Lyndon Brown joins the team as VP of business development, focusing on accelerating corporate growth through a growing ecosystem of global strategic and alliance partners. Brown previously worked at Endgame as the company’s first product manager, where he started multiple business development initiatives.
• Michael Persechini was hired as VP of sales for the eastern region, leading account teams serving clients in the Eastern U.S. Persechini joins the team bringing his cybersecurity expertise after working at companies like Cisco, LogPoint, Motorola and AirDefense.
• Neil Hall is now VP of sales for the western region, where he will oversee the client sales and account management teams for the Western U.S. Hall previously worked at Secureworks, where he was also regional VP of the western region.

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Reston, Va.-based Octo Consulting, developer of mission-critical solutions for the federal government across healthcare, national security, civilian and defense agencies, named two new leadership executives that will help lead the company after landing a strategic investment from Arlington Capital Partners.

Jay Shah, executive VP of Octo’s health business unit, has been named Octo’s new COO, succeeding Robert McCord, who has served as president and COO of the company since 2015.

“I am excited to be taking on this new role. Having been at Octo for 11 years, I have seen us go through all the inflection points as we matured into a large business, and I am confident in our ability to build on the successes we have achieved already,” Shah said in a statement.

Octo also recruited Pamela Rothka as its new CFO. Previously, Rothka served as CFO at Buchanan & Edwards for four years and has also held financial leadership positions at Whitney, Bradley & Brown, Hewlett-Packard and Lockheed Martin.

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ScienceLogic has hired Mike Nappi, former VP of product management at ServiceNow, as the company’s chief product officer (CPO).

We are thrilled to welcome Mike Nappi to our executive team as #CPO. Mike is a former founding leader of product management @servicenow #ITOM business unit. https://t.co/sEOkta9EjN pic.twitter.com/nh8smLIJai

— ScienceLogic (@ScienceLogic) April 9, 2019

Nappi will lead ScienceLogic’s product management and innovation efforts, while focusing on driving the company’s adoption of the SL1 platform, an Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) automation engine designed to bring real-time context to operational data and scale automations at machine speed, a press release states.

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Maryland-based cybersecurity firm Tenable has brought on industry veteran Terry Dolce as its first senior vice president of global business development and channels, the Washington Business Journal first reported. Since international operations generated 33 percent of Tenable’s $267.4 million in revenue last year, according to WBJ, Dolce has been brought on to drive and accelerate the company’s international profile. Previously, Dolce oversaw governance, risk and compliance strategy at Crowe LLP.

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D.C.-based public transit tech company TransitScreen welcomed former Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams to its board of directors earlier this month. Having served as D.C. mayor from 1999-2007, Williams currently serves as the CEO and executive chairman of the Federal City Council, promoting economic development in D.C. He also serves on the board of Tysons, Va.-based Freddie Mac.