RealLIST Connectors: These are the 100 influential leaders to know in Pittsburgh tech

What does it take to construct a thriving tech ecosystem?

Ask 100 folks and also you may get 100 completely different solutions. However whether or not they be expertise, funding, group organizations, business-minded laws or anything, persons are on the coronary heart of the matter. It’s the individuals who dealer enterprise capital offers, individuals who construct the {hardware} behind robots, folks on the lab bench and other people negotiating behind authorities doorways.

On condition that, beneath is Technical.ly’s listing of individuals doing that work and extra in Pittsburgh. In our first RealLIST Connectors for Pittsburgh, we’ve highlighted enterprise capitalists, startup founders, group organizations, nonprofits, civic leaders and extra. This listing is on no account exhaustive (and we actually hope to develop it sooner or later) however think about this primary iteration a quick who’s who in Pittsburgh tech. Did we miss anybody? Join us: [email protected]

Devin Abraham

• Assistant director of enterprise options on the City Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Pittsburgh 
• The URA is well-known for quite a lot of financial improvement tasks throughout the town, a few of which overlap with the native tech and entrepreneurship group. Prior to now 12 months alone, it’s launched scholarships for tech bootcamps, supplied new funding for equitable enterprise incubation areas and created new funding funds to assist early-stage ventures from founders of underrepresented backgrounds. And Abraham’s one of many driving forces behind all of that. All the time looking out for the group’s subsequent challenge, he’s one to know in relation to civic engagement round tech and entrepreneurship.

Alison Alvarez

• CEO and cofounder of BlastPoint
• Along with main AI-powered buyer perception platform startup BlastPoint, Alvarez is an lively voice in Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, often taking part in panels and different occasions. An alumna of Carnegie Mellon College’s pc science program and enterprise faculty, she has a wealth of expertise in leveraging her personal connections, and creating new ones for others.

Priya Amin

• Head of selling at Cleo and entrepreneur in residence at Robert Morris College
• Serial entrepreneur Amin is greatest recognized for launching digital childcare service startup Flexable, which shut down final summer season after 5 years of operation. Throughout that point, she constructed a status as a fierce native entrepreneur with good enterprise acumen and a mission to assist others. In her new function at RMU (which we spoke to her about earlier this 12 months), Amin plans to create much more connections throughout Pittsburgh’s universities and different communities to foster extra collaboration.

Jennifer Apicella

• President of Build412 Tech, director of strategic partnerships and packages on the Pittsburgh Robotics Community and director of engagement at getWITit Nationwide
• Apicella is likely one of the better-known tech and entrepreneurship connectors within the Pittsburgh area. Coming off a decade-long profession in gross sales and enterprise improvement, she pivoted to group constructing via PGH.AI and her present organizations. From internet hosting tech completely happy hours (nearly and in particular person) to serving to launch a marketing campaign that declared Pittsburgh the “robotics capital of the world,” Apicella works behind the scenes on a variety of the town’s massive tech bulletins, and advocates for ladies within the {industry} whereas she’s doing it, as well.

Nehal Bhojak

• CEO at Lumis Corp., adjunct school on the College of Pittsburgh, senior advisor at OneValley Pittsburgh and board of administrators member at Pittsburgh Enterprise Capital Affiliation
• Bhojak labored as the primary basic supervisor of OneValley’s new innovation middle at Hazelwood Inexperienced when it first opened final summer season, earlier than transferring on to her present function for the group. One of many causes she bought that place within the first place was due to her connections to so many within the startup and innovation scene, with the hope that she would draw aspiring founders into the rising exercise of Hazelwood Inexperienced.

Samantha Black

• Founder and government director of the Greenwood Plan
• Established final 12 months, the Greenwood Plan is a nonprofit with a objective to assist “the communal well being of Black communities,” in keeping with the group’s web site. As a part of that, the group launched Emerald Metropolis, a brand new downtown coworking house targeted on fostering and supporting Black entrepreneurship.

Melanie Marie Boyer

• Government director of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Space Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Earlier than taking up her present function in July 2021, Boyer was a gross sales and advertising and marketing government at La Mega Media and a social media strategist at Increased Photographs. Now, she has quite a lot of obligations together with program improvement, occasion planning, advertising and marketing and fundraising.

David Brumley

• CEO and cofounder of ForAllSecure and professor at Carnegie Mellon College
• A tenured professor of pc science and engineering at CMU, Brumley was additionally previously the director of the CyLab Safety and Privateness Institute. He and his crew at ForAllSecure are actually pioneering the native cybersecurity {industry} with their fuzz testing merchandise.

Lynsie Campbell

• Founder and managing director of Higher Work Ventures, basic accomplice of The Fund Midwest and creator of “This Higher Work“
• A serial entrepreneur and former startup czar for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, Campbell has one of many extra vital networks within the native innovation ecosystem. Her ties to public officers, fellow entrepreneurs, native traders and extra make her a significant particular person to know within the Pittsburgh startup scene.

Itha Cao

• Director of digital inclusion and innovation at Neighborhood Allies
• Previous to her present function, Cao was the senior civic innovation specialist for the Metropolis of Pittsburgh, the place she led the city-run accelerator program PGH Lab. She now helps function a company social duty program involving initiatives in workforce improvement, youth tech schooling and group innovation facilities.

Andy Chan

• Lead product supervisor for SWORD Well being and accomplice at Moss Era
• Earlier than taking up his present function at SWORD Well being, Chan was the founder and CEO of VIT, a well being tech startup targeted on office damage prevention, which spun out of Carnegie Mellon College in 2016 as a part of Mission Olympus. He stays lively within the native entrepreneurship group, providing steering to founders seeking to observe an organization exit path much like VIT’s acquisition by SWORD, and co-running a product-focused, entrepreneurs-only occasion group.

Kelly Collier

• Program and ecosystem improvement at LifeX International and entrepreneur in residence on the College of Pittsburgh’s Huge Concept Heart
• Previous to working for LifeX, Collier spent a number of years at UPMC’s inside funding arm UPMC Enterprises, which she joined after rising her personal firm ActivAided Orthotics, which was acquired by Elizur Company in August 2016. She is an lively advocate for Pittsburgh’s burgeoning life sciences commercialization group, and often speaks at group occasions.

Michel Conklin

• Government director of SWPA BotsIQ and board member of the Ladies in Manufacturing Schooling Basis
• Beforehand a center faculty science instructor, Conklin has spent the final a number of years working to steer the native chapter of BotsIQ, a nonprofit targeted on manufacturing workforce improvement. The group often presents programming to native college students to reveal them to potential profession pathways in STEM.

George Cook dinner

John Cordier

• Cofounder and CEO of Epistemix
• Previous to launching information analytics startup Epistemix in 2018, Cordier was the founder and government director of Orenda Well being, a nonprofit targeted on youth wellness. He additionally participated within the Educate for America program in San Antonio. His work at Epistemix has gained recognition at a nationwide scale, with the corporate’s platform being utilized by the CDC, NIH, WHO and extra.

Diana Cugliari

• President and CEO of Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG)
• After 10 years being the managing director of PLSG’s accelerator fund, Cugliari has been in her present function for simply over a 12 months and a half. Now she leads one of many high organizations hoping to carry capital and enterprise alternative to Pittsburgh’s fast-growing life sciences sector, which means she has connections with corporations, universities, traders and different companions right here and past.

Jeanne Cunicelli

• Government vp of UPMC and president of UPMC Enterprises
• Beforehand a managing director at San Francisco-based Bay Metropolis Capital, Cunicelli joined UPMC in 2017 to steer the healthcare large’s initiatives to commercialize in translational science and digital options. The interior funding arm is already a pacesetter in driving native life sciences progress and can little question be a key accomplice in persevering with to take action.

David Dausey

• Government vp and provost at Duquesne College
• Pittsburgh could also be greatest recognized for the robotics prowess helmed by Carnegie Mellon College, however different native universities are additionally contributing to the tech increase right here. An lively voice within the educational and enterprise communities, Dausey has appeared at occasions just like the RustBuilt convention, the place he spoke about his college’s efforts to return to in-person operation.

Leslie Davis

• President and CEO of UPMC
• Davis took over because the chief of certainly one of Pittsburgh’s greatest employers in the summertime of final 12 months, succeeding Jeffrey Romoff who was beforehand the president and CEO of the group since 1992. Davis will undoubtedly be a supply of connections between Pittsburgh’s healthcare {industry}, public officers, establishments, companies and extra.

Colin Dean

• Managing director of Code & Provide and lead AI engineer at Goal
• Dean is the pinnacle of a local people for software program engineers and technologists, bringing them collectively earlier than the pandemic on the Code & Provide coworking house. He’s saved up actions nearly since then, but additionally began to part group occasions again in, together with the group’s in style construct nights, which encourage technologists to downside clear up collectively.

Peter DeComo

• Chairman and CEO of ALung Applied sciences
• DeComo is a longtime supporter of the Pittsburgh startup ecosystem, with expertise working a number of startups right here and contributing to the work of the PLSG. Most just lately, he helped obtain a profitable exit for ALung Applied sciences via its acquisition by LivaNova this spring, marking what could possibly be an enormous early win for the medical gadget {industry} in Pittsburgh.

Max Dennison

• Digital inclusion specialist for the Metropolis of Pittsburgh
• In his function for the town, Dennison coordinates the Rec2Tech program, which brings collectively native college students to study tech abilities like coding in an effort to shut the digital divide. He helped take this system digital in 2020 through the pandemic in an effort to make sure it was accessible to as many individuals as attainable.

Mark DeSantis

• CEO of Bloomfield Robotics
• When he’s not busy serving to to develop certainly one of Pittsburgh’s most promising agricultural tech startups, DeSantis may be discovered instructing graduate programs in tech innovation and entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon College. He’s additionally an advisor to a number of different corporations together with a few enterprise capital corporations, and is the previous cofounder and CEO of one other native startup, RoadBotics.

Ilana Diamond

• Managing accomplice at 412 Enterprise Fund
• Earlier than taking up a management function at certainly one of many burgeoning early stage VC corporations in Pittsburgh, Diamond held positions at Innovation Works, the place she helped handle the AlphaLab Gear accelerator, and later, the Riverfront Ventures VC agency. Previous to that, she held government positions at two corporations, which she led via profitable acquisition offers.

John Dick

• Founder and CEO of CivicScience
• Dick has led Pittsburgh market analysis agency CivicScience since 2007, and just lately helped it break into the promoting tech house with the launch of a brand new firm final 12 months. He additionally connects to the group via his weekly “What we’re seeing” emails, which element most of the tendencies CivicScience is ready to perceive with the information it collects.

Christopher R. Evans

• Director of enterprise improvement, artistic manufacturing, stay motion video & animation at PMI Digital and member of the board of advisors for Well being IT Pittsburgh
• Evans has in depth expertise within the Pittsburgh design and multimedia house, working with native tech corporations like Aurora, Close to Earth Autonomy and 412 Meals Rescue, in keeping with his LinkedIn. He additionally has held a number of advertising and marketing management positions, together with one at Mastech Digital.

Josh Fabian

• Cofounder and CEO of Metafy
• Serial entrepreneur Fabian is greatest recognized for launching online game teaching startup Metafy, which has been some of the profitable early stage corporations in Pittsburgh in latest reminiscence. He’s additionally the founder and former CEO of social media discovery platform Kitsu, and a former designer for Groupon.

Kathryn Fantauzzi

• Cofounder and CEO of Apollo Neuro
• After working as a enterprise improvement marketing consultant for the College of Pittsburgh-based neuroscience crew that first developed Apollo Neuro’s tech, Fantauzzi helped launch the medical gadget firm, which has joined a rising tide of early stage life sciences success within the final 12 months.

Max Fedor

• Director of LifeX Labs
• Fedor joined Pittsburgh’s main life science accelerator after main the Pittsburgh CREATES innovation middle on the College of Pittsburgh. He has additionally held government roles in a number of domestically primarily based life sciences corporations, at the very least two of which noticed profitable exits by way of acquisition.

Mike Formica

• Managing director of {hardware} and AlphaLab Gear at Innovation Works
• Previous to becoming a member of Innovation Works earlier this 12 months, Formica was the president of native robotics agency Neya Methods. He additionally labored as an entrepreneur in residence on the College of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute and was the CEO and founding father of threeRivers 3D.

Ed Gainey

• Mayor of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh
• Gainey is the primary Black mayor of the town of Pittsburgh after beating his Republican competitor Tony Moreno final fall and profitable over incumbent Invoice Peduto within the Democratic primaries final spring. He’s advised Technical.ly a number of instances that equitable tech workforce improvement is a precedence of his tenure within the function.

Juan Garrett

• Government director of Riverside Heart for Innovation
• As chief of financial improvement nonprofit Riverside Heart for Innovation, Garrett works to carry collectively a various vary of founders for the group’s incubator program and different progress assets. He’s been on the group for practically 15 years now, serving to join native entrepreneurs to the folks and supplies they should develop.

Jim Gibbs

• Cofounder and CEO of Meter Feeder
• Although Gibbs is greatest recognized for his tech abilities as a longtime software program engineer and now founding father of parking cost startup Meter Feeder, he’s additionally a particularly lively voice within the native entrepreneurship group. Typically posting on social media in regards to the struggles and advantages of being a founder in Pittsburgh, he’s somebody many look to as an authority on what’s sizzling and what’s not in native tech.

Bob Gradeck

• Mission supervisor on the Western Pennsylvania Regional Information Heart (WPRDC)
• Previous to beginning his work in managing tasks at WPRDC in 2009, Gradeck was a part of the Carnegie Mellon College Heart for Financial Growth, the place he launched the Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Neighborhood Info System. Not too long ago, he’s helped native residents higher perceive WPRDC’s datasets via publishing explanatory weblog posts on the group’s web site.

Geoff Greco

• VP of JLL Pittsburgh
• As one of many native representatives for international business actual property agency JLL, Greco helps fulfill the property wants for native company and expertise corporations. He’s additionally been a voice in the neighborhood, talking on panels discussing actual property tendencies amid return to workplace and distant work insurance policies.

Jason Griess

• Ecosystem director for InnovatePGH
• In his function for InnovatePGH, Griess helps foster new connections throughout analysis establishments, public officers, entrepreneurs, rising startups and established firms each inside Pittsburgh and past. Most just lately, he spearheaded the launch of ASTRI, a brand new database software to grasp the scope of the area’s startup ecosystem.

Bethany Hallam

• Neighborhood supervisor at Neighborhood Forge
• As group supervisor of Wilkinsburg-based financial improvement group Neighborhood Forge, Hallam brings collectively new potential members of the coworking house and enterprise useful resource hub, with a deal with sustaining a various vary of founders, concepts, backgrounds and talent ranges. She can be a council member of the Allegheny County Council At-Giant.

Matt Harbaugh

• Managing director of Mountain State Capital
• Harbaugh leads one of many many rising early stage enterprise capital funds seeking to assist Pittsburgh corporations. To this point, its portfolio consists of notable native tech corporations reminiscent of Locomation, Gecko Robotics, Gridwise, CytoAgents, Meter Feeder and extra.

Alicia Harvey-Smith

• President and CEO of Pittsburgh Technical School
• Because the chief of the Pittsburgh Technical School, Harvey-Smith spearheads one of many main technical diploma establishments within the metropolis. The career-focused faculty presents entry pathways to Pittsburgh’s tech {industry} for a variety of scholars.

Herman Herman

• Director of the Nationwide Robotics Engineering Heart (NREC) and principal methods scientist on the Carnegie Mellon College Robotics Institute
• Along with main NREC for the previous seven years, Herman can be the cofounder and CTO of robotics and AI studio Carnegie Foundry. His management has helped result in the launch and progress of practically 50 corporations in Pittsburgh.

David Hickton

• Founding director of the College of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Legislation, Coverage, and Safety (Pitt Cyber)
• Previous to launching Pitt Cyber, Hickton was the US lawyer for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the place he initiated litigation on milestone instances in cybersecurity. Hickton is taken into account certainly one of a number of leaders of the cybersecurity {industry} in Pittsburgh, which itself is a nationwide hub for analysis within the discipline.

Colby Hollabaugh

• Government director of Meta Mesh Wi-fi Communities
• Hollabaugh took over the management function of this digital fairness nonprofit from Sam Garfinkel this month. Beforehand, he was the operations supervisor, main Meta Mesh’s rollout of wi-fi web service supplier expertise to carry connectivity to extra Pittsburgh residents.

Tarelle Irwin

• Assistant director of improvement and apprenticeships at Fortyx80
• As a pacesetter for Fortyx80, the nonprofit arm of the Pittsburgh Know-how Council, Irwin helps improve group programming to construct alternatives within the tech ecosystem for everybody. Most just lately, Irwin helped launch the ApprentiPGH initiative, which goals to create new pathways into tech by way of apprenticeships with native corporations.

Farnam Jahanian

• President of Carnegie Mellon College
• As president of one of many main robotics and pc science establishments within the nation, Jahanian leads efforts to enhance the college’s programming and entrepreneurial output, along with the everyday obligations of a college president. Underneath his tenure, the varsity has launched a brand new superior manufacturing middle, cloud-based science lab and extra to assist pupil entrepreneurs commercialize their concepts.

Kelauni Jasmyn

• Founding father of Black Tech Nation and basic accomplice of Black Tech Nation Ventures
• Since launching Black Tech Nation in 2017, Jasmyn has led the expansion of a group of Black technologists in Pittsburgh and past, seeking to improve racial fairness in an {industry} that’s notoriously white. To assist do this, she launched an funding arm of the group final 12 months, with the hope of accelerating funding for Black founders.

Matthew Johnson-Roberson

• Director and professor at Carnegie Mellon College’s Robotics Institute
• Previous to taking the reins on the Robotics Institute at the beginning of this 12 months, Johnson-Roberson was an affiliate professor on the College of Michigan, the place he co-directed the Ford Heart for Autonomous Automobiles. A CMU alumnus himself, he has returned to Pittsburgh to extend industry-university partnerships in all sectors of robotics.

Jane Joseph

• Digital and group engagement supervisor at Innovation Works
• In her function at early stage funding and accelerator agency Innovation Works, Joseph is greatest recognized for her capacity to attach founders to assets and other people throughout the entire tech group, from universities to public officers to media shops and extra. As such, she performs a pivotal function in serving to native entrepreneurs obtain their subsequent stage of progress with native assist.

Emily Keebler

• Kiva Pittsburgh program director on the Riverside Heart for Innovation
• Keebler has been concerned with rolling out Kiva in Pittsburgh since 2014, working with native organizations to create alternatives for the corporate’s microloan crowdfunding platform. In working with the Riverside Heart for Innovation, she now does this with a deal with a various vary of founders.

Brian Kennedy

• Senior vp for operations and authorities affairs on the Pittsburgh Know-how Council and board member of the Know-how Councils of North America
• A longtime worker of the Pittsburgh Know-how Council, Kennedy works because the liaison between native authorities and any organizations or corporations related to the council. Most just lately, he has coordinated group assist of the continued disaster in Ukraine.

Majestic Lane

• Chief fairness officer on the Allegheny Convention on Neighborhood Growth
• Previous to his present function on the Allegheny Convention, Lane served because the deputy chief of workers and chief fairness officer for the Metropolis of Pittsburgh beneath former mayor Invoice Peduto. In each roles, he helps make sure that the advantages of Pittsburgh’s rising economic system attain everybody within the metropolis and surrounding area.

John Lange

• Director and founding father of Academy Pittsburgh
• Lange is behind native coding bootcamp Academy Pittsburgh, which focuses on getting folks with restricted tech schooling into software program engineering positions at a few of the metropolis’s high employers. Beforehand a corporation beneath Work Onerous Pittsburgh, the coding bootcamp now operates by itself, providing each a developer and a digital advertising and marketing bootcamp.

Lance Lindauer

• Government director of the Partnership to Advance Accountable Know-how (PART)
• Lindauer helped lead the launch of recent programming from PART earlier this 12 months with the publication of a new complete report on Pittsburgh’s accountable tech {industry} progress. He’s additionally spearheaded efforts to launch the first-ever PART convention, developing in June.

Leah Lizarondo

• CEO and founding father of Meals Rescue Hero and CEO and cofounder of 412 Meals Rescue
• Lizarondo is likely one of the first crop of profitable founders within the latest waves of Pittsburgh entrepreneurship exercise. She works with a number of native organizations via the work of her meals restoration nonprofit, and will increase its volunteer community with the tech-enabled platforms behind Meals Rescue Hero.

Christine Lomago

• Enterprise and improvement supervisor for Faros Properties
• In her present function, Christine manages all actions and enterprise associated to coworking house Alloy 26, Union Health and Nova Place general. With a rising variety of tech and startup organizations and corporations organising store within the North Facet advanced, she’s in control of bringing all of them collectively.

Josh Lucas

• Founder and former government director of Work Onerous Pittsburgh and cofounder of Academy Pittsburgh
• Lucas led innovation useful resource hub and coworking house Work Onerous Pittsburgh for practically 10 years earlier than pandemic-related monetary strains pressured it to close down on the finish of final 12 months. His management of the group and of Academy Pittsburgh put him in contact with a number of technologists, entrepreneurs and freelance employees enthusiastic about making a extra numerous tech and startup ecosystem right here.

Wealthy Lunak

• President and CEO of Innovation Works
• Although Lunak will retire from his place on the finish of this 12 months, he little question has been accountable for constructing the community of some of the lively early stage traders within the nation. He’s additionally helped launch new accelerator packages and group occasions for Pittsburgh-based entrepreneurs.

Sean Luther

• Government director of InnovatePGH
• As chief of InnovatePGH, Luther is accountable for constructing a hub of entrepreneurship round Pittsburgh’s main universities in Oakland. The objective of the group is to not solely carry collectively present companions for brand spanking new innovation, however to draw outdoors corporations and traders to the area as nicely, leveraging the analysis experience right here for business alternative.

Zach Malone

• Accomplice at Magarac Enterprise Companions and principal at Draper Triangle Ventures
• Malone is likely one of the extra lively voices in native enterprise capital, and is likely one of the cofounders of the brand new early stage VC agency Magarac Enterprise Companions, which plans to start out investing in startups throughout Pittsburgh and the Midwest within the very close to future. His connections from his work on the bigger Draper Triangle Ventures will little question assist him and his crew carry extra funding to native founders.

Chris Martin

• President of the Carnegie Bosch Institute, director of analysis and improvement on the Bosch Heart for Synthetic Intelligence, and director of analysis and improvement in clever and safe IoT at Bosch
• Martin has lengthy been lively within the native tech economic system as a pacesetter of Bosch’s Pittsburgh places of work, that are a grounding presence which have introduced different corporations to arrange store alongside what’s now dubbed Robotics Row. A CMU alumnus, he additionally stays actively concerned in bridging the hole between educational experience and business alternative.

Lisa Masciantonio

• Chief workforce officer on the Superior Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute
• Previous to becoming a member of the ARM Institute a number of years in the past, Masciantonio was closely concerned in enterprise improvement at CMU’s Software program Engineering Institute. Now, she focuses on leveraging the ARM Institute’s instructional programming to create extra job alternatives in superior manufacturing for folks seeking to be a part of the tech workforce and its adjoining industries.

Mike Matesic

• President and CEO of Concept Foundry
• Matesic is the chief of the 2002-founded startup accelerator Concept Foundry, which supplies enterprise progress assets and funding alternatives to the startups it really works with. The group’s web site notes that it has over 250 corporations and tasks in its portfolio which have generated over $1 billion in direct financial impression.

Sherri McCleary

• Government director of the Digital Foundry at New Kensington
• Following her work in management roles at a number of {hardware} and manufacturing corporations, McCleary helped launch the Digital Foundry at New Kensington, which is able to function a hub of workforce improvement and tech-focused collaboration. As a part of Penn State College’s New Kensington campus, the hope is that it’ll carry staff each new and previous collectively to modernize the manufacturing facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Michele Migliuolo

• Commercialization knowledgeable at LifeX Labs and managing director of Angel Bridge Companions
• Along with his work for LifeX Labs and Angel Bridge Companions, Migliuolo was additionally the manager director for the Heart for Excellence in Entrepreneurship at Duquesne College till February 2022. A cofounder of 5 startups himself, he’s a neighborhood knowledgeable on constructing companies from the bottom up.

Patrick Mondi

• CEO of Thoro.ai
• Mondi is in control of the Carnegie Robotics spinoff Thoro.ai, which focuses on the event of autonomous cleansing robots. He’s additionally a board member of the Regional Industrial Growth Company and beforehand labored in enterprise improvement for Uber’s Superior Applied sciences Group, which was acquired by Aurora on the finish of 2020.

Catherine Mott

• Founder and CEO of BlueTree Allied Angels
• A longtime native investor, Mott launched BlueTree Allied Angels in 2003 to deal with micro-seed investments in expertise corporations. On the finish of final 12 months, she shared {that a} new fund beneath the agency has raised $12.5 million and was prepared to start out investing in new startups.

Package Mueller

• VP of company improvement at Stronghold Digital Mining and head of community at RustBuilt Pittsburgh
• Earlier than taking up his function at Stronghold final fall, Mueller was recognized for his persistent work in organizing the Pittsburgh tech and entrepreneurship group via RustBuilt Pittsburgh. He nonetheless does a lot of that work, which included the launch of an inaugural convention from the group final 12 months that has plans to come back again this fall.

Package Needham

• Director of Mission Olympus at Carnegie Mellon College
•  Because the director of Mission Olympus, a program via CMU’s Swartz Heart for Entrepreneurship, Needham helps pupil founders develop their ventures past the classroom and join them with assets and networks wanted to turn into profitable startups. Probably the most noteworthy alumni of this system is Duolingo, which stays a pacesetter in Pittsburgh tech right now.

Ellie Newman

• Part supervisor of service improvement for Port Authority of Allegheny County and co-leader of Code for Pittsburgh
• Past working in information assortment and analytics for Port Authority, Newman runs the native Pittsburgh chapter of Code for America, a corporation targeted on bridging the hole between private and non-private makes use of of tech. A number of the group’s work to this point consists of its annual barbecue map for Lent and different new visualizations for open information.

Heidi Norman

• Director of Innovation and Efficiency for the Metropolis of Pittsburgh
• Norman has been a part of the Innovation and Efficiency division for the previous 5 years, and as she’s moved up the ladder, she’s taken on extra duty in managing the division’s many tech-focused packages supported by a $20 million annual price range. She additionally leads strategic improvement initiatives throughout practically the entire metropolis’s tech-focused work.

Nadyli Nuñez

• Government director of AscenderPGH
• Because the chief of AscenderPGH, Nuñez is accountable for bringing collectively a group of early stage entrepreneurs via the group’s incubator and coworking house. She is commonly vocal in assist of native founders and their must develop extra effectively in Pittsburgh.

Stefani Pashman

• CEO of the Allegheny Convention on Neighborhood Growth
• As CEO of the Allegheny Convention, Pashman leads one of many high financial and group improvement organizations within the nation, which encompasses the Pennsylvania Financial system League of Better Pittsburgh, the Better Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.

Invoice Peduto

• Former mayor of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh
• As Pittsburgh mayor from 2014 to 2022, Peduto performed a pivotal function in bringing massive tech corporations to Pittsburgh and serving to new ones develop right here too. He’s now working at CMU as a distinguished school in residence along with working his personal consulting agency, Sabean Innovation.

Conor Platt

• President of Confluence Analytics
• Platt is a neighborhood knowledgeable on ESG investing and decentralized finance. He’s been working within the house since 2014 when he based Etho Capital, and has now moved into trendy functions of the sphere by leveraging the world of DeFi to find new sustainable funding options.

Olga Pogoda

• Principal and cofounder of KRNLS, enterprise operations analyst at Donnelly-Boland and Associates and entrepreneur in residence at Carnegie Mellon College’s Faculty of Pc Science
• As head of KRNLS, Pogoda has labored with a number of native startups and organizations to carry out analysis in tech and financial improvement. Most just lately, KRNLS partnered with RustBuilt Pittsburgh to launch Mimetic, a brand new agricultural tech initiative.

Ven Raju

• Chief data officer at Innovation Works and managing director of Riverfront Ventures
•  Raju spearheads the entire funding initiatives of Innovation Works and its for-profit enterprise capital agency, Riverfront Ventures. He oversees and performs monetary evaluation throughout all new and present investments via the whole group.

Peter Rander

• President of Argo AI
•  An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon College, Rander cofounded Argo AI with Bryan Salesky in 2016 in a race to be the highest autonomous car firm. It’s now certainly one of a number of in Pittsburgh, and is rumored to have a public providing come later this 12 months.

Joel Reed

• Government director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Community (PRN)
• As chief of the PRN, Reed is in control of bringing collectively Pittsburgh’s robotics group in an effort to assist the town stay as much as its self-dubbed title of “robotics capital of the world.” To this point, that’s consisted of some main group occasions, networking alternatives and extra, with membership and funding solely rising.

Mike Regan

• Accomplice at Chalet Capital
• Regan is an investor in a number of native tech startups, together with Agot.AI, the place he’s additionally the chief enterprise officer, and Fifth Season, the place he’s a board member. Particularly targeted on robotics, meals tech and property tech, he and the remainder of his enterprise crew are prone to again extra native corporations sooner or later.

Rachel Reid

• Founder and CEO of Subtl Magnificence
• A graduate of Duquesne College, Reid is the founding father of direct-to-consumer on-line magnificence model Subtl Magnificence. Although the corporate remains to be in its early levels, Reid is commonly referred to as upon to share her insights as a founder at group occasions, just like the RustBuilt Pittsburgh convention final fall.

Sam Reiman

• Director of the Richard King Mellon Basis
• Reiman is in control of one of many largest philanthropic organizations in Pittsburgh, which frequently helps initiatives associated to tech and entrepreneurship. The muse is behind a number of massive tasks, together with the Hazelwood Inexperienced buildings for each the College of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon College.

Theresa Richards

• Mentor for Ladies of Metal Robotics and outreach program supervisor for Carnegie Mellon College
• Richards has lengthy been concerned with Ladies of Metal Robotics — an after-school program for college kids enthusiastic about pursuing STEM because it pertains to robotics, which incorporates constructing and coaching for nationwide FIRST Robotics competitions. She additionally coordinates this system along with her work at CMU, with the college supporting a number of of Ladies of Metal’s initiatives.

Kendra Ross

• Head of Social Impression at Duolingo
• After an extended profession in music and nonprofit consulting, Ross landed at Duolingo final fall to assist advance the corporate’s social impression missions. She’s based inside worker organizations to assist that and has spearheaded initiatives just like the repainting of an East Liberty mural close to Duolingo’s places of work.

Audrey Russo

• President and CEO of Pittsburgh Know-how Council
• Russo has led the Pittsburgh Tech Council for practically 15 years, and in doing so, has helped foster connections throughout the {industry} because it’s grown in Pittsburgh. She’s turn into a go-to particular person for connecting to well-established firms specifically.

Tyler Samstag

• Director of Remake Studying
• As the pinnacle of Remake Studying, Samstag is accountable for the group’s mission of bringing collectively key companions throughout the town to make use of tech to advance and enhance youth schooling. The group has represented Pittsburgh at conferences like SXSW and thru group occasions like its latest Remake Studying Days.

Andre Samuel

• Founder, president and CEO of the Citizen Science Lab
• Samuel is behind a group group that seeks to make science extra accessible to college students, mother and father, academics or just anybody enthusiastic about furthering their schooling with hands-on expertise. Open to all ages, the lab is an opportunity for Pittsburghers to get enthusiastic about tasks in STEAM.

Rhonda Schuldt

• Director of the Huge Concept Heart on the College of Pittsburgh
• Schuldt is in control of the College of Pittsburgh’s inside accelerator for college kids, the Huge Concept Heart. Programming entails entry to assets, mentorship and extra along with a number of alternatives for funding via pitch competitions.

Beth Schwanke

• Government director of Pitt Cyber
• As government director for Pitt Cyber, Schwanke leads the institute’s analysis and programming efforts, selecting what to deal with in its studies and which specialists to host in its common webinars. She helps to make the institute a voice for cyber coverage in all places.

Sean Sebastian

• Accomplice at Birchmere Ventures and accomplice at Black Tech Nation Ventures
• Sebastian is a longtime investor primarily based in Pittsburgh, working at seed stage investor Birchmere Ventures since 1996. Whereas there, he has backed practically 100 corporations to create $14 billion in market worth, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile. He’ll look to observe related success at Black Tech Nation Ventures, the place he and his cofounders are targeted on supporting a various vary of entrepreneurs.

Megan Shaw

• Managing director of life sciences at Innovation Works
• In her function as managing director of life sciences for the area’s most lively early stage investor, Shaw helped launch Innovation Works’ AlphaLab Well being accelerator, which focuses on rising startups working within the life sciences. She’s going to little question assist angle the group to extend its investments into promising life sciences corporations as nicely.

Reid Simmons

• Head of Carnegie Mellon College’s undergraduate program in synthetic intelligence and director of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. AI Maker Area
• A longtime AI knowledgeable at CMU, Simmons took over because the director of a newly launched AI Maker Area inside the constructing that homes each the Tepper Faculty of Enterprise and the Swartz Heart for Entrepreneurship. He’ll assist foster pupil innovation and experimentation in AI via expertise supplied by the brand new house.

Luke Skurman

• Founder CEO of Area of interest.com
• Skurman is likely one of the massive success tales for Pittsburgh entrepreneurship, launching Area of interest in 2002 to assist highschool college students higher evaluation schools earlier than committing to them. Since then, the enterprise has expanded to cowl actual property, work and extra, and Skurman typically shares his classes in entrepreneurship with the Pittsburgh group.

Donald Smith

• President of the Regional Industrial Growth Company (RIDC)
• As head of RIDC, Smith orchestrates financial improvement alternatives associated to industrial and workplace actual property improvement. His LinkedIn web page notes that it’s one of many largest industrial improvement firms in Pennsylvania, with over 8 million sq. ft of workplace house for lease.

Kyle Spangler

• Program director of Pc Attain
• An worker of Pc Attain for simply over 4 years now, Spangler helps carry refurbished tech gadgets and computer systems to Pittsburghers at a reduced value. He helped launch the group’s on-line retailer earlier this 12 months, and has helped discover new methods of closing the digital divide via it.

Invoice Spence

• Co-chairman of the board of administrators at Stronghold Digital Mining
• Spence has an extended and storied profession in power tech all throughout the nation, however he’s now in what might show to be his most fun enterprise but. His roots within the Pittsburgh area helped him discover a approach of utilizing power created by coal remediation to energy Bitcoin mining computer systems. Time will inform if the corporate would be the first of many blockchain-focused corporations to succeed right here.

Robert Szczerba

• Founder and CEO of Carnegie Foundry
• In launching Carnegie Foundry in partnership with CMU and NREC, Szczerba created a spot for early entrepreneurs in robotics and AI to work along with seasoned executives to launch a brand new enterprise. It’s certainly one of few startup studios within the Pittsburgh area proper now.

Mark Anthony Thomas

• President of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA)
• Because the chief of the PRA, Thomas is accountable for the group’s enterprise funding technique and partnerships with the objective of attracting extra expertise to the area. He’s typically current at group occasions targeted on tech workforce improvement.

Chris Urmson

• CEO and cofounder of Aurora
• Urmson has a storied historical past on this planet of autonomous automobiles, beforehand launching the tech with the inaugural self-driving automobile challenge from Google earlier than transferring on to discovered his personal firm proper right here in Pittsburgh. A CMU graduate himself, he’s an ideal image of how the college has churned out vital expertise to the good thing about the native economic system lately.

Stan Waddell

• VP for data expertise and CIO at Carnegie Mellon College
• As the highest tech government for CMU, Waddell advises the college’s computing enterprise and IT coverage improvement and implementation. He additionally serves on the board of Meta Mesh Wi-fi Communities.

Doris Carson Williams

• President and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania
• Outdoors of her regional function, Williams can be an authorized chamber of commerce government with the Affiliation of Chamber of Commerce Executives. She additionally serves on the board of administrators for Highmark, and has served on the boards of the College of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics, the Riverlife Process Pressure and extra prior to now.

Scott Wolovich

• Government director at New Solar Rising
• Because the chief of New Solar Rising, Wolovich orchestrates the group’s efforts to carry collectively Pittsburghers of all abilities and backgrounds to creatively clear up social issues. This consists of, however in fact just isn’t restricted to, these enthusiastic about utilizing tech abilities to advertise digital fairness and different associated causes.

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Sophie Burkholder is a 2021-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Mission that pairs younger journalists with native newsrooms. This place is supported by the Heinz Endowments. -30-