Growing an Inclusive Tech Ecosystem in the Midwest

Marcus Carey

Founder & CEO, Threatcare

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Marcus is renowned in the cybersecurity industry and has spent his more than 20-year career working in penetration testing, incident response, and digital forensics with federal agencies such as NSA, DC3, DIA, and DARPA. He started his career in cryptography in the U.S. Navy and holds a Master’s degree in Network Security from Capitol College. Marcus regularly speaks at security conferences across the country. He is passionate about giving back to the community through things like mentorship, hackathons, and speaking engagements, and is a voracious reader in his spare time.

Sherri Davidoff

CEO, LMG Security & BrightWise, Inc.

Sherri Davidoff is a cybersecurity expert, author, speaker and CEO of both LMG Security and BrightWise, Inc. As a recognized expert in digital forensics and cybersecurity, Sherri has authored courses for Black Hat and the SANS Institute. She has conducted cybersecurity training for many notable organizations, including the Department of Defense, the American Bar Association, FFIEC/FDIC, and many more. Sherri is a faculty member at the Pacific Coast Banking School, where she teaches cybersecurity classes. She is a frequent contributor of education articles and webinars, and occasionally serves as a cybersecurity expert on television. Sherri is a GIAC-certified forensic examiner (GCFA) and penetration tester (GPEN), and holds her degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT. Her new book, ““Data Breaches,”” will be released in the spring of 2019.

Lindsay Knight

Director of Platform, Chicago Ventures

Lindsay manages CV’s Platform, or the firm’s “post-investment” team. She works directly with the firm’s 50+ active portfolio companies on matchmaking talent; building communities; marketing, communication and PR; connecting into customers; and producing private and public events. She’s also a Kauffman Fellow, Class 23.

Prior to joining Chicago Ventures, Lindsay spent time in the Marketing department at Ocean Tomo, an intellectual property merchant bank, where she was part of the team that launched the industry’s first live patent auctions. She later joined CHOUmedia as Vice President, where she worked with clients in the IP industry on marketing strategy and execution.

In 2018, Lindsay launched Chicago Blend, a collaborative effort of venture capitalists in Chicago who know that diverse teams and inclusive environments are critical foundations for both the startups we invest in and our own venture firms. She is a part of the Ms.Tech Associate Council, a social impact organization that helps business women do tech and tech women do business. She also serves on the Governing Board and as President of the Lookingglass Theatre Associates Board, a Tony-award winning theatre that focuses on the spectacular and the physical. She graduated from the Miami University Honors Program with degrees in English/Journalism and Strategic Communication.

She started swimming when she was 5, and has been hooked on triathlons since 2012.

Martina Lauchengco

Operating Partner, Costanoa Ventures

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Martina has over 25 years as a marketing and product executive building and crafting strategies for market-defining software like Microsoft Office and Netscape Navigator. She spent a decade advising companies on product marketing with SVPG and also teaches marketing and product management at UC Berkeley’s graduate school of engineering. As an Operating Partner at Costanoa Ventures, she sits on multiple boards and coaches startups on all things go-to-market. Martina holds a B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University. She’s a native Californian, mother of two beautiful daughters, and happy wife.

Matthew Prince

Co-Founder & CEO, Cloudflare

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Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks, powering more than 10 trillion requests per month, nearly 10% of all Internet requests, for more than 2.8 billion people worldwide. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubliner Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. Matthew is also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.

Harper Reed

Technologist

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Harper Reed is a technologist that predicts the future for a living. He spends most of his life building big things, hacking things, and talking about doing both of those things. As CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, Harper was the first to bring the tech mentality to a political level. He believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Harper also believes his incredible luck has led him to achieve wonderful things like pioneering crowdsourcing at Threadless.com, founding Modest Inc, and guiding the software team at PayPal. You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi and their beautiful and bizarre poodle, Lulu.

Albert Wenger

Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures

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Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.