SXSW's new CFO
SXSW LLC, the company behind the annual conferences and festivals, said today that it has named Leanna Rossmann as its new CFO. She was most recently VP of finance at Warner Music Group. Before that, she was VP of finance and controllership at The Walt Disney Company, a role she took on after Disney acquired Twentieth Century Fox, where she had been VP and global head of fox music finance and accounting.
Rossmann takes over for Sheri Furley, who is retiring after being CFO and, before that, controller at SXSW since 2015.
Austinites on Inc's female founders list
Six Austin-based women were named to Inc.'s 2024 Female Founders list. Among them were Allison Ellsworth, co-founder of prebiotic soda startup Poppi; Angela Hood, founder of job matching company ThisWay Global; Cortney Lebens, co-founder of Muy'Ono Resorts and Blurred Vines; Arielle Olfers, founder of advertising firm The Southern Influence; Katie Spies, founder of pet food company Maev; and Jen Young, co-founder of RV booking startup Outdoorsy and RV insurance company Roamly.
HiddenLayer wins AFWERX contract
Austin AI security startup HiddenLayer said today that it has been selected by AFWERX, the innovation wing of the U.S. Air Force, for a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II contract worth $1.8M to help with security for the Air Force's AI systems.
It's the latest proof point for the startup, which was founded in 2022 and is led by co-founder and CEO Chris Sestito. Last year, the startup raised a $50M series A and was also an Austin Inno Fire Award winner.
"The opportunity to extend the use of our AISec Platform to secure the US Department of Defense's most critical models, while also accelerating commercialization in the private sector, is a significant milestone for HiddenLayer," Sestito stated. "We are honored to collaborate with AFWERX and researchers at the University at Buffalo to advance research on adversarial AI attack methods, further driving our mission to help enterprises protect their most valuable technology."
Austin misses out on new data cooling company HQ
Triangle Inno writer Lauren Ohnesorge reports that a British technology firm has picked North Carolina for its new U.S. headquarters. Iceotope Technologies, which creates cooling solutions for data centers, plans to open its first U.S. office in Research Triangle Park. Nathan Blom, chief commercial officer, said the short list came down to Austin, Phoenix and the Triangle. Keep reading.