From Tech Giant to AI Pioneer: Jon Jones Joins CoreWeave as CRO

In a significant career move, Jon Jones has transitioned from his role as Vice President of Global Startups and Venture Capital at Amazon Web Services to become the Chief Revenue Officer at CoreWeave. This New Jersey-based AI computing company, which recently went public, gains Jones’s three decades of industry experience spanning from startup founder to enterprise executive leadership. Despite the move, Jones will continue to be based in Seattle, bringing his extensive knowledge of the tech ecosystem to his new position.

“I’m thrilled to join CoreWeave at such an important moment,” Jones stated about his new role. “AI adoption is advancing at an extraordinary pace, and lasting success depends on pairing world-class technology with the right go-to-market strategy to move new ideas from inception to implementation and scale-out.” His expertise in helping startups scale will be particularly valuable as CoreWeave continues its growth trajectory in the competitive AI computing market. Jones’s transition represents another example of executive talent movement between established tech giants and innovative AI-focused companies looking to capitalize on the artificial intelligence revolution.

Meanwhile, F5, the Seattle-based company whose hardware and software are crucial components of global internet infrastructure, has appointed Michael Montoya as Chief Technology Operations Officer. The timing of this appointment coincides with F5’s disclosure of a major security breach linked to nation-state hackers who reportedly maintained “long-term, persistent access” to some of the company’s product development and engineering systems. Montoya, who resigned from his position as Chief Operating Officer at cybersecurity company BlueVoyant and stepped down from F5’s board of directors to take on this new role, brings substantial experience to address these challenges. His background includes nearly 13 years at Microsoft across two separate stints and previous roles as Chief Information Security Officer at both Equinix and Digital Realty, making him well-equipped to help F5 navigate its current security difficulties.

The travel industry is seeing executive movement as well, with longtime Expedia Group executive Umang Choudhary joining Singapore-based travel platform Traveloka as Vice President of Product. Choudhary’s more than 14 years at Seattle-based Expedia, where he last served as VP of Product and Content before departing in 2022, gives him deep insight into the travel technology sector. After leaving Expedia, he briefly worked with logistics startup Convoy and served as a contractual Chief Product Officer for Moxee Technologies. In academic leadership, Seattle University will be searching for a new president as Eduardo Peñalver prepares to leave his position to become president of Georgetown University. Peñalver, who has led Seattle University since 2021 and is noted for creating “a legacy of growth and innovation,” will step down in March and begin his new role at Georgetown on July 1, 2025. Before joining Seattle University, Peñalver served as dean of Cornell Law School and holds a law degree from Yale Law School, having clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

The startup ecosystem continues to evolve with Phil Gousman joining Casium, a Seattle-based immigration solution startup launched last year from the AI2 Incubator, as Head of Product Operations. Gousman previously worked as a director at marketing company Tune and joins Casium from LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), where he led strategy and operations for data products related to fraud prevention and identity verification. As an attorney who provided in-house counsel at Tune before moving to manage partnerships and acquisitions, Gousman brings valuable legal and operational experience to Casium, which uses algorithms to streamline the immigration process by assessing visa options, gathering information, preparing documents, and working with immigration attorneys. “We’re going to make ‘immigration’ and ‘delightful user experience’ belong in the same sentence,” Gousman stated on LinkedIn, highlighting the company’s mission to transform what is typically a complex and stressful process.

The venture capital world and healthcare sector are also experiencing leadership changes. Simran Suri has been promoted from senior associate to principal at venture capital firm Maveron, which maintains offices in both Seattle and San Francisco. In consulting, Joel Beherndt has joined SEI Seattle as the head of market development and client strategy, bringing 14 years of experience from Point B to the Bellevue-based consultancy that specializes in AI applications, data analytics, and security services. At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, several key leadership appointments have been announced: Dr. Heather Parsons will head the Breast Oncology Program while continuing her patient care and research into blood-based cancer testing; Jingyi Jessica Li becomes head of the center’s Biostatistics Program and the first recipient of the Donald and Janet K. Guthrie Endowed Chair in Statistics; Dr. Shailender Bhatia receives the inaugural Lyn and Daniel Lerner Endowed Chair in Merkel Cell Carcinoma to support his immunotherapy research; and Dr. Elizabeth Swisher, who leads gynecologic oncology and serves as deputy director of the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium, becomes the first recipient of the Torkelson Family Endowed Chair.