— Seattle-based tax software company Avalara named Ross Tennenbaum as its new president.
Tennenbaum joined Avalara in 2019 and became its CFO a year later. He will continue to serve as CFO while taking on more responsibilities overseeing the company’s main business lines and other departments.
Before joining Avalara, Tennenbaum spent time at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. He helped Avalara go public in 2018.
Avalara launched in 2004, helping online retailers and others better adhere to complex tax regulations. It sold to a private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in 2022 for $8.4 billion. The company has more than 41,000 customers across 75 countries.
— Stefan Weitz, a longtime tech leader who spent more than 18 years at Microsoft, is leading a new company called HumanX that bills itself as a community and forum for AI.
The company, based in New York City, this week announced a $6 million funding round and its inaugural gathering in March 2025. It plans to host events, provide an advisory service, and launch a nonprofit dedicated to responsible AI regulation.
“The challenge for today’s leaders isn’t more AI inspiration or fear, it’s about evaluating and deploying it in ways that are impactful, responsible and sustainable, ensuring a real return on investment,” Weitz said in a statement. “Our focus is to clear and forge that path, making AI accessible, understandable, and most importantly, practical for every organization.”
After leaving Microsoft in 2016, Weitz joined e-commerce company Radial as an executive vice president. He later launched Jetson, a startup developing probiotics, and was its CEO. Jetson shut down in January.
— Seattle-based business and technology firm Slalom Consulting named Christopher Burger as its first chief information security officer. Burger joined Slalom in 2018 and previously worked for Washington Mutual, Corbis, Clearwire, and Russell Investments.
— Seattle startup Common Room hired marketing vet Drew Spencer Leahy to lead product marketing. He previously worked at Incredible Marketing, PatientNectar, KlientBoost, and HockeyStack. Founded in 2020, Common Room aims to help companies build a better conduit with people in their communities and won Startup of the Year honors at the GeekWire Awards in 2022.
— Seattle-area nonprofit The Russell Family Foundation added two board members: Evlyn Andrade, executive director of EarthCorps, and Rashad Morris, principal and founder of Impact Donor Strategies
