Tech Moves: Salesforce names president; Microsoft execs coming and going; Amazon departures

— After 28 years at Microsoft, Rohan Kumar is heading to Salesforce as president and chief platform officer, based out of the San Francisco company’s Bellevue, Wash., offices.

The rise of automated AI agents is “reshaping how every company thinks about work, software, data, productivity and customer relationships,” Kumar said on LinkedIn, adding that Salesforce is well positioned to harness the technology for better workflows.

Kumar most recently held the role of corporate vice president of Microsoft Security (see the next Tech Moves item for his successor). Previous positions included CVP of Azure Data and leadership roles in SQL Server, the company’s database management system.

— Naseem Tuffaha is back at Microsoft as CVP of Microsoft Security, stepping into the role vacated by Kumar. Tuffaha spent nearly two decades at the Redmond, Wash., tech giant before departing in 2022 for The Trade Desk and then Pearson, where he served as chief business officer for more than a year.

During his previous Microsoft tenure, Tuffaha held wide-ranging roles including VP of sales for products such as Office 365 and Teams, along with oversight of marketing and operations across the Middle East and Africa.

Away from Microsoft, Tuffaha said he gained firsthand experience navigating the secure implementation of AI solutions — and now wants to improve that process. Microsoft is well-positioned “to make security easier to adopt, easier to use, and easier to trust,” he added.

— Graham Sheldon is now at Docusign as chief product officer, departing his CPO role at UiPath. The Seattle-area executive spent 20 years at Microsoft before joining UiPath in 2022.

He left Microsoft as CVP of product for Teams and served as technical advisor to Satya Nadella back when Nadella was in CVP and SVP roles — before his ascent to CEO. Sheldon also held an engineering manager role in dynamics applied research.

On LinkedIn, Sheldon cited Docusign’s track record of trust across the industry and said he’s excited to work on “the next frontier of agreement innovation” at the San Francisco-based company.

— Hannah McClellan, VP of Amazon Pharmacy Operations, is leaving the company after more than 15 years. During her tenure she served as chief of staff to the CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores and held roles spanning retail automation, Amazon Freight and Amazon Fresh.

“We are grateful to Hannah for all of her contributions to Amazon and our customers, and wish her the best in her next endeavor,” a company spokesperson said. McClellan has not announced her next move.

— Gurinder Raju is departing Amazon after more than 18 years. Most recently general manager of Amazon WorkSpaces for AWS, he previously worked on Webstore, a now-discontinued e-commerce platform for independent sellers.

On LinkedIn, Raju reflected on “owning and growing WorkSpaces into a recognized leader” and the colleagues he’s worked alongside. His summer plans include family time, his dog, travel and indulging his “love of computer science.” Come late summer, he added, “I’ll turn my attention to what’s next. If you feel compelled to share a suggestion or idea, or want to hear mine, feel free to ping me.”

— Kate Coelho has joined Microsoft as director of AI Transformation Change, coming over from ServiceNow where she led AI adoption in customer service and support. Previous stops include Equinix, Point B and Infosys.

“We are already in a new era of work, and Microsoft is helping shape how it continues to unfold,” Coelho said on LinkedIn. “And I get to help with the human side of that transformation. Because technology alone doesn’t change organizations. People do.”

— Chris Grusz has left Amazon after a decade, resigning from the role of managing director of technology partnerships for AWS. He was previously at IBM as director of sales.

In a LinkedIn post, Grusz said that Amazon’s “learn and be curious” principal helped change his career mindset, pushing him to take risks and embrace reinvention. Grusz did not share his new role, but said that while he’s departing from AWS, he’s not going far.

— Tanya Chen is now at OpenAI as a member of technical staff, joining the company from Atlassian where she spent three years as senior VP of engineering. The Seattle-area executive has also worked at Meta and Microsoft.

Chen described her OpenAI onboarding as “a whirlwind of rapid learning” and said she was “energized to dive in together and build next-generation products at the edge of frontier AI.”

— Fred Hutch Cancer Center promoted Nida Shekhani to a newly created role of executive VP and chief strategy and clinical growth officer. She previously served in a deputy capacity and has been with the Seattle organization for nearly three years, joining from UChicago Medicine.

— Everett, Wash.-based shipping tech startup Shipium has promoted David Panitz to chief revenue officer. He joined in 2023 as senior VP of sales and is based in Ohio.

“(Panitz) helped us redefine what kind of company Shipium is, and is the right person to guide our massive growth journey ahead,” CEO Jason Murray said. Shipium launched in 2019 and is No. 117 on the GeekWire 200, a ranked index of the Pacific Northwest’s top startups.

— Matt Wargon has joined Everett-based fusion startup Zap Energy as a senior nuclear engineer. He comes from neighboring nuclear energy company TerraPower, where he spent more than eight years. Zap, which recently announced an expansion into traditional nuclear fission, ranks No. 13 on the GeekWire 200.

— Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska and Hawaiian airlines, has appointed Mike Sievert to its board of directors. Sievert is the former CEO of T-Mobile and currently serves as vice chairman of the board at the Bellevue, Wash.-based telecom giant.

— Bothell, Wash.-based biotech Cocrystal Pharma has named James Sapirstein as its new CEO, succeeding co-CEOs Sam Lee and Jim Martin. Lee, a Cocrystal co-founder, will continue as president and move into the chief scientific officer role, while Martin transitions to chief financial officer. Sapirstein brings a long biotech resume, with past CEO stints at Contravir Pharmaceuticals and Tobira Therapeutics.

— NuScale Power appointed two new members to its board of directors: mining executive Stuart Harshaw and Dale Klein, an engineering professor emeritus at the University of Texas. The Corvallis, Ore.-based company is developing small modular nuclear reactors.

— And in case you missed it: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has served on Microsoft’s board since 2017, will not stand for re-election at the company’s 2026 annual meeting. Read GeekWire’s full coverage here.