LA Tech ‘Moves’: Former Disney CEO Bob Iger Enters the Metaverse, Rivian Snags New COO

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

​Bob Iger and Genies founder and CEO Akash Nigam.
Courtesy of Genies

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Moves, our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.LA). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.


Bob Iger joined virtual avatar startup Genies’ board of directors. Iger served as Disney’s chief executive officer from 2005 to 2020.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian hired Frank Klein as its chief operations officer. Klein was previously an executive at Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna International.

Los Angeles home goods startup Parachute hired Jeff Barker as chief financial officer. Barker was previously chief financial officer and chief operating officer for audio device maker JLab Audio.

Auditboard, a cloud-based risk assessment and compliance platform, appointed Josh Harding as chief financial officer. Harding previously worked for software company SailPoint as senior vice president of finance and operations.

Tabletop game creator Exploding Kittens named Jed Paulson as its chief commercial officer. Paulson most recently served as chief revenue officer at electric bike brand Rad Power Bikes.

Carmen Bona joined talent UTA as its chief strategy and corporate development officer. Bona previously served as a managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group.

Amazon’s movies division announced several internal transitions this week. Former co-head of movies Julie Rapaport has been made sole chief of the division, while previous co-head Matt Newman has taken a new role at Prime Video’s global sports group, where he’ll be in charge of developing original sports docuseries, films and scripted projects.

Imagendary Studios, a mobile game developer and publisher, added Jason Hayes as its audio director and Matt Cordner as senior technical artist. Hayes previously served as music director for Riot Games and Cordner was senior FX artist at Blizzard Entertainment.

Farther, a digital wealth management platform, appointed Aaron Diaz and Sean Kelly as vice presidents at the company’s Los Angeles office. Both Diaz and Kelly were previously financial advisors at Merrill Lynch.

Mark Palaima joined biotech company GATC Health as a strategic advisor. Palaima was formerly eBay’s chief architect.

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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: GITAI Lands $30M, Steno Gains $15M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local space robotics startup raised fresh funding to expand the flight model manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. and increase employment, while a remote litigation platform raised more funding to continue growing its footprint in new markets across the country, develop service channels for its clients and continue expanding its tech team.

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Gitai Secures $30 Million in Funding to Continue Space Robotics Developments

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Gitai Secures $30 Million in Funding to Continue Space Robotics Developments
\u200bPhoto: Gitai

Space robotics company Gitai raised a $30 million Series B extension this week, bringing the total value of the round to roughly $47 million.

The funding will be used to further develop Gitai’s suite of space robots as well as build out its manufacturing footprint in Torrance. Previously Gitai announced it raised a $17.1 million Series B in March 2021; this additional raise is still part of that round.

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