Steven Maheshwary has joined Anthropic as a go-to-market lead in strategic partnerships, transitioning from his previous role at Amazon, where he spent 12 years. At Amazon, he was the head of growth for AI startups and foundation models on AWS, and he also contributed to the tech sector's growth in Washington state.
In his new position, Maheshwary emphasizes the need for AI to be a force for transformation that aligns with human values. He sees Claude, Anthropic's AI product, as representing a powerful yet safe vision for the future of artificial intelligence.
In other industry news, Irene Plenefisch, a senior director at Microsoft, is retiring after more than 15 years with the company. She has expressed pride in representing Microsoft and is now considering her next steps.
Meanwhile, Nikhil Hasija has left his role as vice president of engineering at Okta, where he had joined after the acquisition of his startup Azuqua. He is currently contemplating his future endeavors.
Lastly, Caitlin Rollman has returned to Microsoft as a partner product manager after previously serving for nearly a decade. She expressed excitement about the opportunity to rejoin the tech giant.