Professional Development
Career development / Cybersecurity / DEI / Entrepreneurs / Hiring

Power Moves: Meet the first chief diversity officer at The Motley Fool

Plus, Herndon cyber firm Avint has a brand new COO and a number of other end-of-year hiring and promotion moves from DC-area tech companies.

Starting this week, Rachel Williams is assuming a new role as the first chief diversity and inclusion officer at The Motley Fool, a financial services and media company based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Williams comes to the company from her previous position as head of diversity for X, the research and development arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Previously, she has also held diversity and inclusion roles at event ticketing firm StubHub and review giant Yelp.

In the new position, she’ll be focused on recruiting, leadership development, employee engagement and retention. She’ll also advise the product and marketing teams as the company expands into additional diverse communities.

“I’m completely bought into The Motley Fool’s mission and vision,” said Williams, in a statement. “Financial literacy, access to wealth creation, and removing barriers to investing are some of the great societal equalizers. I can’t wait to join The Fool as we aim to tackle the audacious goal of making the world smarter, happier and richer.”

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Cybersecurity and management consulting firm Avint announced Lisa Starkweather as its new COO this month. She will oversee daily operations for the Herdon, Virginia-based company.

New COO of Avint Lisa Starkweather.

Starkweather comes to Avint from a role as director of programs at security firm Cyber Defense Technologies in Dulles, Virginia. She has also worked in a number of operations roles at NASA, supporting its human research program.

Starkweather said she decided to join the Avint team after seeing the company’s success in a short period of time and hearing the story of CEO Marcie Nagel. Avint was founded by Nagel in 2018.

“With Avint being a young company, the opportunities are endless as we continue to mature the organization,” Starkweather told Technical.ly. “Not to mention, every Avint team member I’ve met is hungry and dedicated. Those ingredients are required for a recipe of success.”

In the new role, Starkweather said she hopes to help solidify Avint’s presence in the federal space, as well as obtain Defense Contract Audit Agency compliance and CMMI-Services Level 3 certification. She also hopes to focus on employee retention as well as recruiting.

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Here’s who else is starting up a new gig in the DMV this month:

  • Tom Skelton, CEO of Arlington, Virginia health information network Surescripts, has announced that he will step down from the position, effective December of 2022. He will continue to lead the company and search for a successor over the next year.
  • Morning Consult, the downtown DC-based enterprise tech firm, added Jessica Cuellar, previously of Politico, as its managing director for content operations; Lisa Whalen as automotive and transportation analyst; Amy He as deputy team lead of analysts and Amy Cesal as senior director of design and data visualization.
  • ECS, a Fairfax, Virginia-based engineering firm focused on cybersecurity and AI, is promoting COO John Heneghan to president of the company following the retirement of current president George Wilson. Alongside other directors that have been moved to the position of VP, the firm also promoted Greg Adams to senior VP.
  • After a decade with the organization, Erica Williams is the new chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, headquartered in DC. Christina Ho, Kara Stein and Anthony Thompson were also added as members of the SEC.
  • Alisha Anderson has rejoined DC-based consulting firm for federal government sectors Avascent. In the new role, she’ll be leading the effort to scale the company’s ESG and impact advisory options.
  • Christine Detrick is the latest addition to the board of directors at Capital One, headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
  • Arlington’s Airlines Reporting Corp has appointed John McCorry as CIO and Karla Gill as VP of business technology.
  • Following an acquisition by DC marketing agency Yes&, Tracey Betts, CEO of Springfield, Virginia digital management firm Boldr, is a new senior VP at Yes&.
  • McLean IT services firm OBXtek Inc has added Timothy Cole to the team as a business development executive.
  • Jennifer Krusius has joined DC investment firm ABS Capital Partners as a venture partner. Previously, Krusius was a venture partner at Columbia Capital, based in Alexandria.
  • Professional services firm Serco, based in Herndon, has appointed Trey Theimer as chief growth officer and senior VP.
  • Herndon geospatial firm BlackSky has added Amy Minnick as its new chief commercial officer.
  • INKY Technologies, a College Park, Maryland firm specializing in email phishing scam protection, announced Shlomi Gian as its new chief revenue officer. Gian comes to the role as CEO of CybeReady, a California security company.
  • Galway Sustainable Capital, a DC investment firm focused on ESG, has added Sarene Marshall as its chief sustainability officer.
  • Aerospace and government defense tech firm Enlightenment Capital, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, appointed Brett Lambert to its advisory board.
  • Omnispace, a Tysons, Virginia mobile communications firm, appointed Lynne Dorward as vice president of regulatory affairs and Molly Gavin as vice president of international regulatory and spectrum policy.
  • Following an expansion to the DC region, JP Foley and Charlie Clavelli were named as principals by tech consulting firm Eigen X, headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Foley and Clavelli will manage the new practice.
  • Kenyon Crowley is the new health analytics leader at Accenture Federal Services, an Arlington-based IT services firm.
  • Kevin Walsh, a veteran of IBM, joined DC government relations firm Invariant, where he’ll be holding an advisory role on privacy, supply chain, cybersecurity and emerging tech policies.
Companies: Morning Consult / The Motley Fool / Capital One / Accenture / Google / SEC
Series: Power Moves / How to Get a Tech Job Month 2021
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