Tech Moves: Microsoft quantum lead joins IonQ; Heptio co-founder now CTO at Stacklok; Amazon departure

— Former Microsoft quantum lead Jeff Henshaw has joined IonQ as senior vice president of quantum compute products.

Henshaw said on LinkedIn that he has advised “dozens of quantum companies, from early-stage startups to industry titans,” and cited IonQ’s rapidly scaling quantum systems and a business “roadmap grounded in practical engineering” as draws to the Maryland-based company.

Henshaw spent most of his career at Microsoft, working there from 1989 to 2022 with a two-year break in the mid-2000s to serve as CTO of music tech venture DeepRockDrive. At Microsoft he started on Internet Explorer and Xbox programs before eventually leading the creation of Microsoft’s Quantum Development Kit. Henshaw is also co-owner of the Seattle Seawolves rugby team.

— Joe Beda is now CTO of Stacklok, a Seattle startup developing AI assistants, agents and models. Beda and Stacklok co-founder and CEO Craig McLuckie previously teamed up to launch Heptio, a cloud tech company acquired by VMWare for $550 million in 2018.

Following the acquisition Beda served as principal engineer at VMWare for more than three years and then stepped away from the workforce in 2022.

Earlier in their careers, Beda and McLuckie worked together at Google where they helped create Kubernetes, the open-source container system that simplified how developers deploy software.

Beda shared his thoughts on joining Stacklok in a LinkedIn post, saying he was eager to connect AI “in a safe way, with the rest of our world.”

“It took a lot for me to exit ‘semi-retirement,'”  he added. “I was recovering from burnout and learning how to slow down. But this was just too good of an opportunity for me to pass up.”

— Harshit Shah is now CTO of LVT (LiveView Technologies). Shah was CTO of both Kyruus Health and mental health startup Spring Health and previously served as head of engineering at Amazon Web Services. He also brings more than a decade of Microsoft experience, where he was a group PM manager for products including Bing Search SaaS services and Microsoft Edge.

“Harshit is already diving deep into our mission, using his expertise in GenAI and machine learning to help LVT build the future of edge intelligence,” the Utah-based physical security company said on LinkedIn.

— Pacific Science Center named Kevin Malgesini as its next CEO and president. He succeeds Will Daugherty, who is departing after more than a decade leading the Seattle science education nonprofit.

Malgesini joins from Seattle Children’s Theatre, where he has served for more than eight years and is currently managing director. He was previously development director at Town Hall Seattle and led significant fundraising campaigns at both institutions.

“Kevin is the right person to carry our mission of igniting curiosity and fostering a passion for discovery forward,” said Jembaa Mai, chair of the PacSci board of directors. Mai added that the board was “profoundly grateful to Will Daugherty for the extraordinary foundation he has built.”

PacSci has been navigating serious financial challenges, including reduced admissions during Covid and long-deferred upgrades and maintenance of facilities built for the 1962 World’s Fair. Under Daugherty’s leadership, the organization struck a deal to sell some of its real estate and sharpened its focus on hands-on innovation experiences.

Before leading PacSci, Daugherty held executive positions at Amazon, Expedia and AT&T. He was featured as a GeekWire Working Geek in 2019.

The leadership transition will take place June 1.

— Stefan Karisch, who has led Amazon‘s Air Science & Tech organization as executive director for the past five years, is leaving the company at the end of April. In a LinkedIn post, he called the role a “privilege” and praised his colleagues for making “all the difference.”

Karisch joined Amazon from Boeing, serving in the Seattle area as a chief engineer in digital solutions and analysis for the aerospace giant’s global services division. He did not share his next move.

— John Doyle, global CTO for Healthcare & Life Sciences at Microsoft, has joined the board of Helio Genomics. The California-based healthcare company is developing a blood-based tool for early cancer detection.

— Kevin Varadian is now chief revenue officer for avante. The Seattle startup’s software helps companies reduce HR administrative workload and gives employees an AI assistant for benefits guidance.

“Making sense of benefits requires real two-way communication and the ability to handle messy, unstructured benefits data,” Varadian said on LinkedIn. “Until recently, the underlying technology just wasn’t there.”

Varadian, who is based in New York City, was CRO at HiredScore until its 2024 acquisition by Workday, after which he became head of go-to-market for Workday’s HiredScore AI. He has also held leadership roles at LinkedIn, WeWork and CoachHub.