Tech Moves: Smartsheet adds to C-suite; Gradial and Zeno Power name senior leadership
Stephanie Berner. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Smartsheet's leadership shakeup continues with the appointment of Stephanie Berner as its new chief customer officer. Berner comes to the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software giant from Atlassian, where she served as senior vice president. Berner has also held leadership roles in customer success at LinkedIn, Box and elsewhere.
Last week Smartsheet disclosed that long-time CEO Mark Mader is leaving his post while Sunny Gupta steps in as acting CEO. The company also recently named named Tony Giannino as director of security and compliance.
'[Berner's] experience in the work management market, proven track record and deep understanding of the B2B SaaS customer journey will be key as we enter a new era of AI-driven innovation,' Gupta said in a statement.
— Gradial, a Seattle startup using AI agents to help marketing operations teams increase productivity, has added three new members to its senior leadership:
Vikas Kamran joins as president. Kamran was founder and CEO of Revel for nearly 14 years. Infogain acquired Revel in 2020 and Kamran transitioned to chief digital officer for the company.
joins as president. Kamran was founder and CEO of Revel for nearly 14 years. Infogain acquired Revel in 2020 and Kamran transitioned to chief digital officer for the company. Richard Rocca is vice president of sales and comes to the role from Adobe, where he worked for more than a decade.
is vice president of sales and comes to the role from Adobe, where he worked for more than a decade. Chelsea Halliday is now head of marketing. Halliday has held marketing leadership roles for companies including Zillow Group, Vercel and MongoDB.
A.C. Charania. (LinkedIn Photo)
— Zeno Power, a Seattle startup developing nuclear-powered batteries, hired A.C. Charania as senior vice president of space business development. The company, which is co-located in Washington, D.C., announced $50 million of new funding in May.
Charania was most recently chief technologist at NASA and has 25 years of experience in aerospace innovation in the public and private sectors. At Zeno Power, Charania will lead the company's pursuit of deals with NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense and commercial companies.
Charania was also with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, leaving the role of lunar campaign director.
— Longtime Seattle-area investor Brianna McDonald has joined the board of directors at the Angel Capital Association. This spring, McDonald became CEO of a new organization called Ecosystem Venture Group, which blends startup investment funds with services for entrepreneurs and investors.
Phil Levin. (UW Photo)
— Phil Levin is stepping in as interim director of the University of Washington's EarthLab, an institute that spans multiple colleges and departments. Levin is a conservation scientist, professor in the UW's College of the Environment, and lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy of Washington.
'[T]he challenges we face are enormous. Climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental injustice — none of these have quick fixes. But I've never believed our job is to be optimistic. Our job is to be honest, brave, and imaginative,' Levin said in announcing his new role.
Levin succeeds Ben Packard, who served as the inaugural Harriet Bullitt Endowed executive director of EarthLab beginning in 2017. Packard had previous leadership roles at The Nature Conservancy and Starbucks.
— Lauren Olson, former director of fund management at the Seattle-based investment firm Breakwater Ventures, is now the fund operations manager at betaworks in New York. Betaworks this summer announced the close of a $66 million fund to invest in pre-seed and seed state startups. Olson previously worked for the SeaChange Fund and Madrona Venture Group.
— Will Daughterty, president and CEO of Seattle's Pacific Science Center, joined the board of trustees for PCC Community Markets (PCC).
The long-time retail grocery cooperative has also hired Amy Chow as the co-op's new chief financial officer. Chow was previously with the high-end kitchen and cookware store Sur La Table.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Republicans look to make a U-turn on federal commitment to electric vehicles for the Postal Service
WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet, the U.S. Postal Service is facing congressional attempts to strip billions in federal EV funding. In June, the Senate parliamentarian blocked a Republican proposal in a major tax-and-spending bill to sell off the agency's new electric vehicles and infrastructure and revoke remaining federal money. But efforts to halt the fleet's shift to clean energy continue in the name of cost savings. Donald Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, said canceling the program now would have the opposite effect, squandering millions of dollars. 'I think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they're going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process because that's just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that's been wasted," he said. Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed. Electrified vehicles reduce emissions A 2022 University of Michigan study found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That's a fraction of the more than 6,000 million metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university's Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying impacts of climate change. 'We're already falling short of goals for reducing emissions,' Keoleian said. 'We've been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.' Many GOP lawmakers share President Donald Trump's criticism of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service should stick to delivering mail. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said 'it didn't make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force." She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10 billion cost of new postal vehicles. Ernst has called the EV initiative a 'boondoggle' and "a textbook example of waste,' citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance. 'You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that's providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract," Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense. 'For now,' she added, "gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.' Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa's farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project "has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.' The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, or NGDVs, was 'very modest" and not unexpected. 'The production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,' spokesperson Kim Frum said. EVs help in modernization effort The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Joe Biden, who pledged to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks. The 'Deliver for America' plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates back to 1987 and is fuel-inefficient at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires. 'Our mechanics are miracle workers,' said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. 'The parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.' The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet in the federal government. Building new postal trucks In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years. The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck's bill, began service in Georgia last year. Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes. There's also a new creature comfort: air conditioning. Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way. 'I was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,' he said. 'And now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house — they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly — it's really amazing in my opinion.' Where things stand now The agency has so far ordered 51,500 NGDVs, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances. Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned NGDV purchases were "carefully considered from a business perspective' and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money. The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said. Ernst said it's fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased. 'But you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,' she said. 'And that was not a smart move.' Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case. Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier. 'It's the perfect application for an electric vehicle," he said, 'and it's a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.' ____ Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. Susan Haigh, The Associated Press Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Republicans look to make a U-turn on federal commitment to electric vehicles for the Postal Service
WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet, the U.S. Postal Service is facing congressional attempts to strip billions in federal EV funding. In June, the Senate parliamentarian blocked a Republican proposal in a major tax-and-spending bill to sell off the agency's new electric vehicles and infrastructure and revoke remaining federal money. But efforts to halt the fleet's shift to clean energy continue in the name of cost savings. Donald Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, said canceling the program now would have the opposite effect, squandering millions of dollars. 'I think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they're going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process because that's just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that's been wasted,' he said. Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed. Electrified vehicles reduce emissions A 2022 University of Michigan study found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That's a fraction of the more than 6,000 million metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university's Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying impacts of climate change. 'We're already falling short of goals for reducing emissions,' Keoleian said. 'We've been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.' Many GOP lawmakers share President Donald Trump's criticism of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service should stick to delivering mail. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said 'it didn't make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.' She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10 billion cost of new postal vehicles. Ernst has called the EV initiative a 'boondoggle' and 'a textbook example of waste,' citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance. 'You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that's providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,' Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense. 'For now,' she added, 'gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.' Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa's farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project 'has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.' The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, or NGDVs, was 'very modest' and not unexpected. 'The production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,' spokesperson Kim Frum said. EVs help in modernization effort The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Joe Biden, who pledged to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks. The 'Deliver for America' plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates back to 1987 and is fuel-inefficient at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires. 'Our mechanics are miracle workers,' said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. 'The parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.' The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet in the federal government. Building new postal trucks In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years. The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck's bill, began service in Georgia last year. Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes. There's also a new creature comfort: air conditioning. Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way. 'I was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,' he said. 'And now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house — they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly — it's really amazing in my opinion.' Where things stand now The agency has so far ordered 51,500 NGDVs, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances. Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned NGDV purchases were 'carefully considered from a business perspective' and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money. The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said. Ernst said it's fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased. 'But you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,' she said. 'And that was not a smart move.' Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case. Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier. 'It's the perfect application for an electric vehicle,' he said, 'and it's a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.' ____ Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
President Trump's Marijuana Fix? DEA's Program Exposed: Promises Made, Promises Not Kept
"As President Trump weighs marijuana rescheduling in the coming weeks, the DEA's track record reveals years of mismanagement, empty promises, and patients left waiting," stated MMJ CEO Duane Boise. WASHINGTON, D.C. / / August 17, 2025 / President Trump's decision to potentially reschedule marijuana is the first serious step in decades to break through the bureaucratic logjam that has kept patients and scientists waiting. For years, the DEA has promised a functional marijuana research program. For years, those promises have been broken. DEA's Promises on Paper In its Final Rule (85 Fed. Reg. 82333, Dec. 18, 2020), the DEA pledged that marijuana manufacturing licenses would be tied to FDA science and genuine medical research. The agency declared: "DEA will evaluate each application… to determine whether the applicant's proposed activities… will promote medical research." "DEA will require applicants to demonstrate bona fide supply agreements with researchers authorized by the FDA to conduct clinical research." "DEA's goal is to ensure that the United States has a sufficient supply of marihuana to meet the legitimate medical, scientific, and research needs of the United States." These were the promises. The Harsh Reality But DEA's actions told a different story: Licenses granted to companies with no FDA INDs, no clinical trial protocols, and no scientific foundation. No bona fide supply agreements with FDA-authorized researchers - a direct violation of DEA's own Final Rule. Four years later, there is still no adequate, federally compliant supply of cannabis for clinical trials, leaving patients with Huntington's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and other conditions waiting. The only company that meets DEA's own published criteria - MMJ BioPharma, with two FDA-filed INDs and an Orphan Drug Designation - has been stalled while non-scientific registrants received licenses. Promises Made, Promises Not Kept DEA's marijuana program has been a case study in mismanagement: Rules written, then ignored. Patients promised access, then denied it. Science promised priority, then sidelined. President Trump's possible rescheduling decision shines a spotlight on this failure. By moving marijuana to Schedule III, he has forced the issue back into the open and made clear that real reform will require DEA accountability. The Path Forward Patients deserve more than empty promises. They deserve consistent, reproducible, FDA-approved medicines. They deserve agencies that follow their own rules. And they deserve leadership that keeps its word. With rescheduling now on the table, it is time to hold DEA to account for the gap between its promises and its performance. President Trump has taken the first step - now the DEA must be compelled to deliver. MMJ is represented by attorney Megan Sheehan. CONTACT:Madison HiseyMHisey@ SOURCE: MMJ International Holdings View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
