This is TalentSeer’s AI News Roundup for the first half of July 2020. You can find the most relevant and recent news about AI talent, aimed specifically at tech leaders, VCs, and members of the AI field. Subscribe here to receive these roundups twice a month via email.
Princeton AI Professor, Sebastian Seung, to Lead Samsung Research
Samsung Electronics promoted Dr. Sebastian Seung as the new head for the company’s research unit to improve the company’s competence in AI. Seung will be responsible to oversee all fifteen global research and development hubs and seven A.I. research centers. Seung, a Princeton University computer scientist who specializes in A.I. and neuroscience, joined the company in 2018 as the chief research scientist for Samsung Research. [Read More]
MongoDB Hires Former Grab Executive, Mark Porter, as New CTO
MongoDB, the database platform company based in New York, announced that Mark Porter will step down from his Board of Directors position to be the current CTO in a recent press release. Porter was previously CTO at Grab, Southeast Asia’s app that delivers everyday services varying from food delivery to ride-hailing to financial services for millions of people. President and CEO of MongoDB states that Porter has an extensive background in cloud computing, distributed systems, and database engineering. [Read More]
UK HealthTech Startup, Healx, Appoints Meri Williams as New Chief Technology Officer
The Cambridge, England-based AI-powered HealthTech startup, Healx, appointed Meri Williams to be the new CTO. Williams will now center her work on Healx’s investment in AI data by using modern product engineering approaches to develop drug discovery tools. Prior to joining Healx, Williams was CTO at UK challenger bank, Monzo, where she helped improve the engineering and data team by 500%. [Read More]
MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan joins Whip Media Group's Board of Directors
Whip Media Group, the leading data-driven content value management platform for the world’s largest entertainment organizations, appointed Michael Kassan to join the company’s board of directors. Kassan is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of MediaLink, a leading strategic advisory firm that was sold to Ascential in 2017. Kassan was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2019 and was named on Adweek’s “Power 100” list and on Variety’s index of the 500 most influential business leaders in 2018. [Read More]
COVID-19 Caused 70,000 Tech Startup Employees to Lose Their Jobs Globally
The coronavirus pandemic caused about 70,000 employees from tech startups worldwide to be jobless since March. According to a new report by BuyShares, startups from Silicon Valley such as Uber, Groupon, and Airbnb, were most impacted by the outbreak with more than 25,000 employees laid off. The layoff at tech startups is a challenge for companies exploring innovative digital solutions to compete in the post-pandemic market. [Read More]
2020 State of AI Report Publishes Global Talent Trends during COVID-19, Jeremiah Brazeau Hired by Twilio as CTO, Mark Cusack Appointed as CTO for Yellowbrick, Former Airbnb Talent Leader Sunita Solao Joins Convoy as VP of People, and more.
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Amazon VP Sukumar Rathnam to be CTO for Uber, Brain Corp Hires Ex-VP of Uber ATG Jon Thomason as CTO, Maria Karaivanova Appointed as Co-Founder at WhyLabs, Ex-Head of WeWork Labs Elizabeth Scallon Joins Alexa Fund, TensorIoT Hires AI Veteran John Traynor as VP, Mohammed Farooq Becomes CTO for Hypergiant Industries.
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Ex-Uber Chief Scientist, Zoubin Ghahramani, Joins Google Brain; AWS Promotes Sales Leaders Teresa Carlson and Greg Pearson; Elissa Fink Joins Qumulo’s Board of Directors; Jim Larimore to Join Riiid Labs as Chief Officer for Equity in Learning; Oxford University to have a New Institute for AI Research.
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