- Seattle startup Common Room hired marketing vet Drew Spencer Leahy to lead product marketing.

Jen Haller. (Ascend Photo). — Startup veteran Jen Haller has been named partner at Ascend, the Seattle-based pre-seed venture capital firm.Haller first joined the firm in January 2022 as chief of staff, and the new role will expand on her duties offering operational guidance to founders, managing internal operations, and fostering community engagement.“What’s unique about the new title is that it serves as a recognition of the role I play in broadening Ascend’s offerings as an early-stage venture capital firm,” Haller said in a news release Thursday. “On top of our initial investment, we provide our founders hands-on support through every step of the startup journey, from signing articles of incorporation through raising their Series A.”Haller previously worked as operations manager at Seattle startup Attunely; was office manager at Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch; and co-founded The Flight Team, a consultancy specializing in strategic growth. She also served as office manager at Axon, makers of police body cameras and Tasers, where she managed the buildout of the Seattle office from 20 to 150 people. The company’s space — complete with a spaceship-like entrance — won “Geekiest Office Space” at the 2016 GeekWire Awards.Ascend founding partner Kirby Winfield called Haller “an absolute force-multiplier” for the firm

Coverage of the GeekWire Awards , presented by Astound Business Solutions , the Pacific Northwest’s annual startup and technology awards.The 2024 GeekWire Awards CEO of the Year finalists, clockwise from top left: Gaurav Oberoi of Lexion; Linda Lian of Common Room; Ozan Unlu of Edge Delta; Vijaye Raji of Statsig; and Nancy Xiao of Mason.The finalists for CEO of the Year at the 2024 GeekWire Awards include software veterans working on a variety of enterprise problems, from helping companies manage contracts, to better analyzing data, or conducting A/B testing.Keep scrolling for descriptions of each finalist for CEO of the Year, presented by Baker Tilly. And submit your vote here or below.Gaurav Oberoi is CEO and co-founder of Lexion, an Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence spinout founded in 2018. Lexion raised $20 million last year for its AI-powered contract management software. Oberoi previously helped build bill-splitting app BillMonk and also created Precision Polling, an automated survey startup later purchased by SurveyMonkey.Ozan Unlu is CEO of Edge Delta, a Seattle startup whose software platform helps engineering and security teams analyze data. Founded in 2018, the company raised $63 million in 2022. Unlu previously spent more than five years at Microsoft and another 4 1/2 years at Sumo Logic.Nancy Xiao, a previous Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee, is CEO at Mason