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Tech Moves: Microsoft AI exec joins Niantic Spatial; Allen fund names first investment chief; Zillow AI leader heads to Stripe. by Todd Bishop on Sep 25, 2026 at 7:14 am - Niantic Spatial hired Dave Citron as chief product officer. He joined from Microsoft AI, where he was corporate vice president of product on the Superintelligence team and helped build and launch Microsoft's first frontier foundation models. San Francisco-based Niantic Spatial, spun out of Pokémon Go maker Niantic, builds spatial AI models and services, including a visual positioning system trained in part on images crowdsourced from Pokémon Go players. The company has an engineering team in Bellevue, Wash. The Seattle-area executive was previously senior director of product for the Gemini app at Google DeepMind and worked on Google Meet and Google Duo. He began his career at Microsoft in 2005, helping take OneDrive from its first release to more than 200 million monthly users. "AI is remarkably good at reading and writing, but it still doesn't understand the physical world well enough to act in it safely," Citron said in the announcement. - The Fund for Science and Technology, the Seattle-based foundation responsible for giving away a large portion of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's fortune, named Jane Dietze its first chief investment officer. She starts Jan. 4, 2027, after finishing the year at Brown University, where she has held that role since 2018. Brown says its endowment grew from $3.2 billion to $8 billion over the 10 years through fiscal 2025. Her deputy, Joshua Kennedy, will succeed her. Dietze previously held investment roles at Bowdoin College, Fortress Investment Group and Columbia Capital. The foundation launched publicly in August 2025 with a mandate to deploy at least $500 million over four years in bioscience, the environment and AI for good. It also funds the Allen Institute and Ai2, the Allen Institute for AI. The fund started with a $3.1 billion endowment from Allen's estate and is expected to oversee a large portion of the proceeds from the sale of Allen's sports teams. Its first CEO, Lynda Stuart, stepped down in May. - Nicholas Stevens joined payments giant Stripe as head of product for agentic commerce, working from Seattle, after a decade at Zillow. He was most recently Zillow's vice president of product for AI and data, leading product strategy for the company's AI products and data platform. His LinkedIn profile notes that he drove the partnership that made Zillow one of seven global launch partners for OpenAI's ChatGPT apps platform. He previously worked in product at Prismatic. "I believe AI buying & selling on your behalf can be magical," he wrote. - Scowtt, a Kirkland, Wash.-based startup that uses AI to predict which sales prospects will become customers, named Ben Trenda chief revenue officer. Trenda is an ad tech veteran who worked at Overture/Yahoo, AOL and Rubicon Project, and co-founded iSocket. Scowtt says it is approaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue. - The American Astronomical Society named University of Washington astronomy professor Emily Levesque the next editor in chief of its journals, including The Astrophysical Journal. She takes charge in August 2027, succeeding Ethan Vishniac. - ThriftBooks, the online used-book seller founded in Seattle in 2003, named Carla Anderson Skogland chief financial officer. She had been interim CFO since April. Anderson Skogland, who is based in the Seattle area, was previously CFO of Sono Bello. She spent 11 years at Amazon, and earlier worked at T-Mobile and for more than 15 years at Starbucks. - Michael Mann is stepping down as executive director of Clean & Prosperous, a climate policy group that backed Washington's Climate Commitment Act, once a successor is chosen. He took over on an interim basis from the late founder David Giuliani and led the group for five years. Mann, founder of consulting firm Cyan Strategies, previously led the City of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment. - Lani Ramos joined Yoodli, a Seattle startup that uses AI roleplays for communications training, to build its renewals function. Ramos spent 13 years at Tableau and Salesforce, most recently as director of renewal for North America. - Former Starbucks CFO Rachel Ruggeri joined the board of San Diego-based Jack in the Box. Ruggeri, a Seattle-area finance leader, spent more than two decades at Starbucks and was its CFO from 2021 to March 2025. She also serves on the board of Stryker. - Victor Fetter is stepping down at the end of the year as chief technology and business systems officer at Everett, Wash.-based Fortive after nearly seven years. Rich Noonan, Fortive's chief information security and technology operations officer, will become CIO. Fetter, who is based in Mississippi, plans to expand his board work and angel investing. - And in case you missed it: * Microsoft moved its communications team under President Brad Smith. Brent Colburn is interim communications leader, and longtime comms chief Frank Shaw will serve as an advisor through the end of the year. * Truelist founder Carey Armstrong, a former Zillow vice president, is joining Mainstay as chief strategy officer after Mainstay acquired her startup.

Open Standard OUSD gets full time CEO as Bridge co-founder Zach leaves Stripe. September 25, 2026 - By CoinGape - Original Zach Abrams has been appointed as the full-time CEO of Open Standard, leading the Open USD stablecoin initiative backed by over 140 companies. Confidence: 80% Horizon: medium-term Key numbers. * 1.1 billion (acquisition cost of Bridge by Stripe) * 140+ (companies backing Open USD) * 1 billion (near-term launch liquidity from founding partners) Market drivers (micro). * Appointment of experienced leadership in stablecoin infrastructure. * Significant backing from major financial institutions. * Innovative economic model for stablecoin minting and redemption. Context (macro). * Growing interest in stablecoins as alternatives to traditional currencies. * Increased institutional investment in cryptocurrency markets. Who wins / who loses. * Winners: Open Standard and its founding partners stand to benefit from a new stablecoin model. * Losers: Traditional stablecoin issuers may face increased competition. Scenarios. Base Open Standard successfully launches OUSD with strong institutional backing, enhancing stablecoin adoption. Alt OUSD faces regulatory hurdles or market resistance, limiting its growth potential. What to watch next. * Launch date and performance of OUSD. * Response from existing stablecoin issuers. * Regulatory developments affecting stablecoins. Full analysis. Open Standard appoints Zach Abrams as full-time CEO for OUSD. Open Standard, the company behind the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, has announced the appointment of Zach Abrams as its full-time CEO. This move comes as Abrams transitions from his previous role at Stripe, where he was instrumental in the development of stablecoin infrastructure through his co-founding of Bridge, which was acquired by Stripe in 2025 for approximately $1.1 billion. Abrams, who had been serving as the interim CEO since the project's launch in June, emphasized the need for better economic models in stablecoin adoption. He stated, "At Bridge, we made stablecoins more accessible, but our impact was constrained by issuers' economics and incentives. The world needs better money. We hope to remove these constraints." The Open USD initiative has garnered significant backing, with over 140 companies, including major players like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, BlackRock, BNY, Google, and Shopify, pledging their support. These founding partners are expected to invest over $1 billion in liquidity for the stablecoin's launch, which is anticipated later this year. The structure of OUSD is designed to allow businesses to mint and redeem the stablecoin without fees or artificial volume limits, providing a direct economic interest in its growth. This model positions OUSD as a potential challenger to established stablecoins like Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT, which were notably absent from the initial consortium. With this leadership change and a robust institutional backing, Open Standard is poised to make a significant impact in the stablecoin market, aiming to redefine the economic landscape of digital currencies.

Open Standard OUSD gets full time CEO as bridge co-founder Zach leaves Stripe. Open Standard has appointed Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams as its full-time CEO as he leaves Stripe to lead the Open USD stablecoin venture. Published by Open Standard, the company behind the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, has appointed Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams as its full-time CEO. Abrams announced the move on X, saying he is "leaving Stripe to run Open Standard full time." He said his experience at Bridge showed that stablecoin adoption remained constrained by the economics and incentives of existing issuers. "At bridge, we made stablecoins more accessible. but our impact was constrained by issuers' economics and incentives," Abrams said. "The world needs better money. we hope to remove these constraints." The appointment marks a shift for Open Standard, which launched in June with more than 140 companies backing its Open USD initiative. Who is Open Standard's OUSD CEO Abrams. Your crypto brief. Delivered every week. * Insights that move markets * Trusted by top investors and builders * Stay ahead every week. Want CoinGape to cover your story?