DI People: Jacobs, ThinkWhy, Texas Medical Association Make Moves

Across North Texas, companies are promoting and hiring people to take on leadership positions within their organizations.

Dallas Innovates covers prominent personnel moves in Dallas-Fort Worth businesses and nonprofits—from the newest startups to well-established companies. Here are the people moves tied to innovation and technology in the region.

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Jacobs names a president of its People and Places Solutions business

Patrick Hill

Dallas-based Jacobs, which offers solutions to solve the world’s most critical problems, has appointed Patrick Hill as its new EVP and president of People & Places Solutions (P&PS).

Hill has a more than 23-decade career at Jacobs serving in several senior leadership positions across multiple sectors and operations around the globe. That includes leading Jacobs’ Telecom business out of Chicago. Most recently, he co-led P&PS’ global business, focusing on Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. He also supported the global functions of Growth, Strategy & Solutions, and Global Design Centers.

“P&PS has enjoyed robust growth over the past several years and is poised to capitalize on major secular trends and infrastructure spend around infrastructure modernization, climate change, health and digital transformation,” Jacobs President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Pragada said in a statement. “Patrick’s appointment aligns with our line of business succession plans, and his visible and forward-leaning leadership style position him as the right leader to drive the next generation of strong growth in P&PS.”

Texas Medical Association Council appoints chair

Dr. John Carlo

Prism Health North Texas CEO Dr. John Carlo has been named chair of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) Council on Legislation, which develops and implements TMAs legislative policies at the state and national levels.

Dr. Carlo will be tasked with leading policy development and legislative advocacy for Texas patients and their practitioners. He has some two decades of service in healthcare leadership roles, and previously served as chair of the Texas Public Health Coalition. At TMA, Dr. Carlo has been a council member since 2018 and served as chair of the TMA Council on Socioeconomics, chair of the TMA Council on Science and Public Health, and a member of the TMA COVID-19 Task Force.

“The adage of ‘the right person for the right position at the right time,’ has never rung more true, than the appointment of John Carlo, MD to chair the TMA Council on Legislation,” said Dr. Mark Casanova, director of clinical ethics and supportive and palliative care at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, in a statement. “John brings the breadth of experience and real-world public health knowledge, coupled with an innate equanimity that positions him to be an effective leader of the COL, but more importantly, an effective advocate for the House of Medicine and the myriad of necessary legislative interfaces, at local, state, and even national levels.”

ThinkWhy expands its executive advisory board

Jim D’Amico

Dallas-based ThinkWhy, an SaaS company focused on creating a new generation of AI-driven labor market solutions, has added Jim D’Amico to its Executive Advisory Board.

D’Amico is a globally recognized talent acquisition leader—and among the top 20 branded HR professionals, per Glassdoor—who currently leads the Global Talent Acquisition practice for Celanese Corporation. He is also a Board member and past Board president of The Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals. At ThinkWhy, D’Amico will offer advice on industry needs and best practices, which includes the use of advanced metrics and data analysis to develop and optimize transformational talent acquisition software solutions.

“Jim is a skilled strategist and advisor to ThinkWhy. He joined our Industry Influencer Panel earlier this year, and it quickly became obvious that we needed him on our Executive Advisory Board,” Claudine Zachara, president and COO of ThinkWhy, said in a statement. “Jim’s experience building best-in-class talent acquisition functions for large global organizations—together with his highly-respected role as a thought leader and mentor in the industry—will accelerate our efforts to bring strategic solutions to our industry.”

Freese and Nichols broadens its government affairs focus

Travis Kelly

Fort Worth-based Freese and Nichols, a professional consulting firm that serves clients across the southeast and southwest, has brought on Travis Kelly to help municipalities and other public entities navigate the legislative and regulatory processes that affect their projects.

Kelly is a policy leader with experience at all levels of government engagement. He has spent more than 13 years focusing on local, state, and federal government affairs, with a decade of that spent in leadership roles supporting the 90-minute Dallas to Houston high-speed rail project. Specifically, his experience includes managing key elements of multifaceted infrastructure projects, analyzing legislative impacts on public projects, understanding funding streams, and engaging with stakeholders.

“Travis has a dynamic range of skills and understands what it takes to move projects forward when there are regulatory, funding and legislative considerations involved,” Alan Greer, Freese and Nichols’ chief business development officer for Infrastructure, said in a statement. “He has exceptional insights into infrastructure issues from his decade of helping bring high-speed transit to Texas. And he’ll be able to help our clients track and understand how new laws and regulations could impact their projects.”

Topgolf names new COO of U.S. Venues, CMO, and chief people officer

Topgolf Entertainment Group’s new Chief Operating Officer of U.S. Venues, Genifer Gray, Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Cottrill, and Chief People Officer Kristi Maynor. [Photos: Topgolf Entertainment Group]

Last week, we told you about former Topgolf COO Craig Kessler being named the new CEO of Dallas’ Buff City Soap. Today, Topgolf made some leadership moves of its own as it scales up for continued expansion.

The Dallas-based global sports and entertainment company has named Genifer (Gen) Gray as chief operating officer for Topgolf’s U.S. venues. Gray had been Topgolf’s VP of operations for the past three years, overseeing the day-to-day experience at Topgolf’s 65 U.S. venues, including venue operations, food and beverage programs, training and leadership development, and golf services.

Topgolf has also hired Geoff Cottrill to be its new chief marketing officer. Cottrill joins the company following his post as head of marketing for Coca-Cola North America, and earlier positions in marketing leadership at Converse, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, and MullenLowe.

In a third hire, Topgolf tapped Kristi Maynor to be its new chief people officer, following her position as partner and global head of the consumer practice at Egon Zehnder, a global leadership advisory firm.

Duane Morris adds an IP partner in Dallas

Holly Engelmann

Duane Morris LLP has hired Holly Engelmann as a partner in its Dallas office’s Intellectual Property Practice Group.

Most recently, Engelmann was a principal at McKool Smith. She is a results-oriented and client-focused litigation and trial attorney who has around two decades of experience handling complex litigation. Her experience also includes client-facing working: She previously served on secondment at Ericsson, working with the company’s patent assertion and litigation groups while managing the internal business and legal aspects of preparing for multi-front patent litigation.

“Holly brings a well-rounded patent litigation skillset to the IP litigation group,” Woody Jameson, partner and chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, said in a statement. “We are confident that she will be a critical value add to our work with existing clients of the firm, and that the firm will be able to support her own clients in all aspects of IP litigation.”

Dottid appoints a new chief technology and operations officer

Senecca Miller

Dallas-based proptech Dottid, which offers a software-as-a-service technology platform for the commercial real estate industry, has promoted Senecca Miller to its chief technology officer and chief operations officer.

Miller most recently just served as Dottid’s CTO. Prior to joining the fast-growing startup, he was a senior cloud engineer at Toyota Connected North America and principal strategic cloud architect at Vari. The appointment comes at a time when Dottid is continuing its momentum, having recently raised more than $4.5 million in a round of capital funding. Miller will continue fueling the work Dottid wishes to accomplish in the CRE space.

“Our people and the culture we are creating is the aspect of Dottid’s growth that gets me the most excited,” Miller said. “At the core, beyond design, beyond ideology, people make great products. We have a team that believes in what they are building. They are committed to fundamentally changing the way people approach, engage, and transact in the commercial real estate space.”

Jet Health gets a VP of HR

Jake Massacci

Fort Worth-based Jet Health, a regional provider of home health and hospice services, has appointed Jake Massacci to serve as its vice president of human resources.

Massacci has more than a decade of HR-related experience, most recently serving as the director of talent acquisition at HMS/Gainwell Technologies. There, he managed a team that handled the recruiting and onboarding of more than 1,000 roles across the combined international organization. Before that, he was the manager of internal recruiting for EmployBridge. He has also worked in a range of managerial positions for the US Army. At Jet Health, Massacci will oversee all HR functions across several locations nationwide.

“[Jake’s] extensive HR career and US Army experience will bode well for the company as we continue to grow through acquisition, attract professionals as well as clinicians and integrate various home health and hospice agencies into our platform,” Jet Health CEO Stacie Bratcher said in a statement. “Jake’s knowledge and expertise are directly in line with our evolving needs, and we look forward to the contributions he will make in his new role.”

TPG gets a new CFO

Fort Worth- and San Francisco-based alternative asset firm TPG has appointed Jack Weingart as its new chief financial officer, effective immediately.

In his new role, Weingart will be responsible for the firm’s finance, treasury, and capital markets functions, along with overseeing its relationships with key shareholders and investors. Throughout his career, he has held a number of strategic leadership, business development, and investing roles, previously serving as managing partner of TPG’s Funding Group and, most recently, as its co-managing partner of TPG Capital.

“Jack brings a unique set of skills and expertise to the CFO role having been at TPG for more than 15 years and having served in leadership functions across the firm,” TPG CEO Jon Winkelried said in a statement. “With deep institutional knowledge of our brand and broad experience across Capital Formation, Capital Markets, and TPG Capital, Jack is ideally suited to help manage the business of the firm and support our continued growth as CFO.”

PICKUP brings on a CTO and CISO

Dallas-based PICKUP, a last-mile delivery solution provider for leading retailers, commercial, and industrial businesses, is boosting its technology team by hiring Jason Zubrick as its new chief technology officer and Tim Delgado as VP of Technology and chief information security officer.

The move comes on the heels of PICKUP’s $15M Series B funding round in March. The technology team will be part of improving its solution to further accelerate rapid growth.

Zubrick has more than 17 years of experience in managing and developing the direction of enterprise-wide technology teams. Most recently, he was the CTO for defi Solutions.

Delgado’s career spans around two decades in infrastructure, software development, architecture, DevOps, and security. He most recently served as the director of Global Security Architecture and Engineering at GameStop.

“The key to the success of PICKUP’s platform is the technology team’s decades of experience across a variety of industries,” PICKUP Founder and CEO Brenda Stoner said in a statement. “Our team is building platforms and services that provide easy and reliable delivery experiences that meet our customers’ present needs, as well as ensuring that future experiences keep customers happy and loyal.”