Tech Diversity & Inclusion Allies at SXSW
D&I has always been a priority at SXSW and they are intentional about making sure that panels and speakers have diversity of gender, skin color, and thought. It’s a big priority in Austin and at Capital Factory, too. Here are the D&I people that you want to meet with their LinkedIn and Twitter contact info!
Austin Diversity Evangelists
Mellie Price
Director of Diversity
Capital Factory
Managing Director, Health CoLab
Dell Medical School
Mellie Price is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, and now university commercialization disruption at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas. Her day job is Head of Commercialization but she is also the Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Capital Factory, leading the Austin Diversity Council and advocating for women and LBGTQ in tech.
Heather Brunner
CEO
WPEngine
Heather Brunner is one of the most successful tech CEO’s in Austin’s history, recently raising $250 million in funding from Silver Lake for WP Engine, the leading digital experience platform built on Wordpress. Heather is an outspoken advocate for women in tech leadership roles and building an inclusive and diverse workforce.
Preston James
Co-founder & CEO
DivInc
Preston is at the center of everything Diversity & Inclusion in Austin. He’s a former Dell exec that worked on their startup team with Ingrid Vandervelt, a Capital Factory mentor, and the co-founder of DivInc, Austin’s pre-accelerator program for diverse founders, which is hosted at Capital Factory.
Hugh Forrest
Director
South by Southwest (SXSW)
Hugh has been a huge force behind making SXSW one of the most inclusive tech conferences. When you submit a panel suggestion for SXSW, you must explain how the group represents diverse backgrounds, ethnicity, and perspectives and you must include at least one female in every group of 3 or more panelists or presenters. They are serious about this and enforce it. Hugh is an ally who uses his influence from SXSW to encourage diversity everywhere.
Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette
President & CEO
Huston-Tillotson University
Dr. Pierce Burnette is an experienced leader in higher education with a deep commitment to student success. Dr. Pierce Burnette knows the meaning of “humble beginnings” and has combined her intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), entrepreneurial spirit, and technical knowledge to forge successful careers in engineering, information technology, and education.
Eugene Sepulveda
CEO, Entrepreneurs Foundation
Director, Capital Factory
Sr. Advisor, Austin Mayor Steve Adler
Eugene has long operated at the intersection of business, government & nonprofits, locally and nationally. An early Human Rights Campaign board member and longtime Austin LGBTQ leader, Eugene co-chaired President Obama’s & the DNC’s LGBTQ Leadership Council. He was Austin’s first tech banker and the CFO of a semiconductor startup who then taught social entrepreneurship and international business at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. He and his husband, Dr. Steven Tomlinson, received national press as one of the first out couples both teaching in a major university’s MBA program.
Ingrid Vandervelt
CEO & Founder
EBW2020
Ingrid Vanderveldt is the Chairman and CEO of Empowering a Billion Women by 2020 (EBW2020). Previously, she was the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence (“EIR”) for Dell Inc. where she oversaw entrepreneurial initiatives worldwide helping to build a $250 million business segment and founded the $125M Dell Innovators Credit Fund, Dell Founders Club, and the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs during her 3-year term.
Jan Ryan
Director, Creative Entrepreneurship & Innovation
University of Texas at Austin Design School
Jan is a Capital Factory Mentor and founder of Women@Austin, a mission-driven community to accelerate the success of female entrepreneurship in Austin through mentoring, increased visibility, and a focus on networks crucial for funding. Jan brought together 16 of Austin’s most successful women two years ago to help guide the success of this initiative, with a goal to triple the number of women-led deals in Austin that get funded. The strategic vision is to make Austin the most supportive, accessible city in the nation for women to launch a business. The popular Quarterly forums for Women@Austin, and the monthly Roundtables, are consistently sold out with Waiting Lists, and have attracted the region’s fastest growing women-led businesses.
Kerry Rupp
Kerry is a Capital Factory Mentor and founding partner of True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in women-led companies in the sustainable consumer and consumer health verticals.
SXSW Panel: The Female Journey in the World of Start Ups
Stephen Straus
Founder
KUNGFU.AI
Stephen is a Capital Factory Mentor, serial entrepreneur and former General Partner at Austin Ventures. He’s also the creator of The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge, which is in pre-launch mode with the goal of unveiling the website in the next few months. You can learn more about about The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge and take the pledge here.
Carolyn Rodz
HelloAlice
Featured in Fortune, Inc., Fast Company, Entrepreneur and more, Alice was founded by three-time Latina entrepreneur Carolyn Rodz. Carolyn now serves as an advocate for women entrepreneurs, connecting them to sources of capital, strategic partners, and mentors to create businesses that scale. She is committed to closing the gender gap prevalent in the startup environment by helping female founders implement key strategies for sustainable, accelerated business growth. Carolyn was recognized by Inc. as a “17 Women to Watch in 2017,” by Entrepreneur Magazine as a 2016 “Woman to Watch,” and was selected to participate in the United Nations Foundation Global Accelerator. She is a member of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, a Fortune Most Powerful Women attendee, and has received numerous accolades, including being chosen as a Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur and American Express.
SXSW Panel: Attracting VC Investment Outside of Silicon Valley
Holly Gibson
Founder
Austin Women Who Code
Holly loves the Austin tech community and serves it as the Founder of the Women Who Code Austin, a network of 2800+ women in tech. Women engineers make up only 14% of software engineers; she is dedicated to getting more women into the tech industry. She hosts technical and networking events for developers and designers in Austin and also facilitate partnerships with local tech companies.
Marcus Carey
Founder & CEO
Threatcare
Marcus is the founder and CEO of Austin cybersecurity startup Threatcare. He got his start as a Navy Cryptographer and later went on to work for the NSA. Marcus is a local advocate and mentor to military veterans and underrepresented founders.
Tricia Katz
Senior Engineer
Outdoor Voices
Tricia builds digital experiences at Outdoor Voices, an active lifestyle brand that makes sportswear for Doing Things daily. As a technologist, she believes in building applications that have a positive impact, make our life simpler, and more enjoyable. She is dedicated to diversity and inclusivity in the tech community and has played a leadership role with Country Girls Can Code, Women Who Code, and The Ann Richards School Foundation.
SXSW Panel: Digital Meets Physical: Getting Started With ARKit
April Downing
CFO
WPEngine
April Downing is the CFO of WP Engine and a force of nature — but in particular I’m highlighting her here because she has overseen many of the diversity initiatives that have made WP Engine one of the most diverse, inclusive cultures that is consistently recognized as one of the best places to work.
Joseph Kopser
Army Veteran, Entrepreneur
Candidate for U.S. Congress TX-21
As CEO of Ridescout (now Moovel), Joseph was an advocate for transgender rights and made sure that his company had an inclusive and welcoming culture that allowed each person on the team to be themselves and contribute their best efforts.
Barbary Brunner
CEO
Austin Technology Council
A self-described, “Geek Girl”, Barbary Brunner’s 25-year career includes senior executive roles at world-wide leading technology brands and a successful strategy and organizational development consultancy, prior to her joining the Austin Technology Council as CEO.
SXSW Panel: The Intersection of Co-Working and Wellness
Jennifer Aldoretta
Director of Operations
Threatcare
Jennifer is the Director of Operations for Threatcare, where she has led the development of radical diversity and inclusion initiatives, including Threatcare’s open salary policy. She is committed to improving representation in Austin’s technology landscape. Previously, Jennifer cofounded the women’s health startup, Groove, to expand access to reproductive health education.
Joseph Beard
Partner
Perot Jain, L.P.
Joe Beard joined Perot Jain as a Partner in 2015. His career has spanned several different industries including investment banking, semiconductor manufacturing, the military and a few years as an entrepreneur. He spent several years advising CEOs on raising capital, strategy, and how to create maximum value out of M&A and IPO transactions. Joe enthusiastically led Perot Jain’s support for Capital Factory’s Dallas $100,000 Diversity & Inclusion Investment Challenge.
SXSW Panel: Creating a Venture Capital Eco-System
Visiting Diversity Evangelists
Rodney Sampson
Partner
TechSquare Labs
Rodney Sampson currently serves as Chairman at Opportunity Ecosystem an ecosystem building platform; Partner, Tech Opportunity Fund, a $100 million diversity scholarship fund; Founder of Kingonomics, the nation’s leading advocacy and learning platform for minorities and under-served communities to learn, navigate and master the capital markets and investment ecosystem; and Partner at TechSquare Labs. Sampson previously served as the 1st Head of Diversity at Mark Burnett Productions, executive producers of the hit ABC show, ABC’s Sharktank.
SXSW Panel: Elevating Blacks in Tech
Mark Mathewson
Managing VP & CTO Small Business & Canada Technology
Capital One
Mark is immensely passionate about diversity, especially in the technology industry. As a member of Capital One’s Diversity & Inclusion Council, he conceptualized and launched the Blacks in Tech initiative (BIT) to amplify the focus on celebrating and increasing representation of black engineers and leaders at Capital One.
SXSW Panel: Elevating Blacks in Tech
Arlan Hamilton
Founder & Managing Partner
Backstage Capital
Arlan is an emerging venture capital fund manager, and tour manager to Atlantic Records recording artist Janine & The Mixtape. Having founded and published the internationally distributed indie magazine INTERLUDE, and toured extensively as a live music production professional, she enters the venture investing world from an unconventional path. Arlan is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT.
SXSW Panel: Return on Inclusion: Investing in Diverse Startups
Charles Hudson
Managing Partner
Precursor Ventures
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC, where he identified investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces.
SXSW Panel: Return on Inclusion: Investing in Diverse Startups
Sutian Dong
Partner
Female Founders Fund
Sutian Dong is a Partner at Female Founders Fund, an early-stage fund investing in the exponential power of exceptional female talent. Founded in 2014, the fund has built the most recognized brand focused on leading female-run opportunities in internet and software startups. The fund has invested in 27 companies, and select investments include: ELOQUII, Tala, Zola, WayUp, and Thrive Global.
SXSW Panel: Return on Inclusion: Investing in Diverse Startups
Kai Bond
Investor
Comcast Ventures/Catalyst Fund
Kai leads investing for Catalyst Fund, Comcast’s investment fund dedicated to diverse and underrepresented founders. He also leads the efforts for Comcast Ventures consumer seed and frontier tech investing in New York City. Prior to Comcast Ventures, Kai was the General Manager of the Samsung Accelerator in NYC.
SXSW Panel: Return on Inclusion: Investing in Diverse Startups
Megan Rose Dickey
Reporter
TechCrunch
Megan Rose Dickey is a reporter at TechCrunch focused on diversity, inclusion and social justice. She previously spent two years at Business Insider covering tech startups focused on the shared economy, IoT and music industry.
SXSW Panel: Journalists Shattering the Business Status Quo
Eileen Carey
Founder & CEO
Glassbreakers
Eileen Carey is the Founder & CEO of Glassbreakers, a diversity and inclusion enterprise software company. She is a contributing writer for Techcrunch, Forbes, Fortune, Inc, Mattermark and is passionate about social justice in the workplace.
SXSW Panel: Inclusion + Tech: How To Get It Right
John Henry
Entrepreneur & Investor
Harlem Capital
John Henry is a Dominican-American entrepreneur and investor. He started his first company at 18, where he grew the business and successfully lead it through an acquisition just two years later. He later launched Cofound Harlem, a non-profit incubator in Harlem, and currently serves as a Managing Partner at Harlem Capital, a diversity-focused early stage VC firm.
SXSW Panel: Inclusion + Tech: How To Get It Right
Shamina Singh
President
Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
Shamina Singh is the Executive Vice President, Sustainability & President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. In this role, she is responsible for advancing equitable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. Previously, Shamina was Mastercard’s Global Director of Government Services and Solutions where she worked to digitize social subsidy programs in over 40 countries.
SXSW Panel: The Spirituality of Philanthropy
Sydney Thomas
Investment Assoc
Precursor VC
Sydney is the Investment Associate and Head of Operations at Precursor Ventures. She is also the co-founder of the Women of Color in VC network, an Advisor to Skydeck, the Berkeley Accelerator Program and a VC-in-Residence at Pipeline Angels.
Black Women & The Invisible Billion Dollar Startup
Kandace Cooks
Diversity & Inclusion Business Partner
Uber
As Diversity and Inclusion Business Partner, Kandace supports the Community Operations business function, develops strategy to increase the promotional velocity of underrepresented employees, and manages global employee resource group strategy. Kandace organized and led an UberHUE diversity and inclusion task force that garnered executive support and resulted in the creation of Uber’s diversity and inclusion team. Prior to joining Uber, Kandace worked on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness team at Teach For America helping build an equitable internal culture.
Maria Medrano
Director, Inclusion and Collaboration
Cisco Systems
Maria leads Cisco’s global Inclusion and Collaboration strategic initiatives and employee community strategy, which are designed to fuel exponential growth for the company’s employees, customers and partners. Her team drives broad adoption and integration of inclusive behaviors, and works with executives to instill accountability and change.
SXSW Panel: Inclusion + Tech: How To Get It Right
Rachel Hunter
Director, D&I Communications
Comcast NBCUniversal
Rachel Hunter is the Director of Communications for Corporate Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) at Comcast NBCUniversal. She is responsible for developing and implementing communications strategies that further Comcast’s D&I brand, both internally and externally, and position the company as a thought leader in the space.
Tara Galvin
Exec Dir Diversity & Inclusion
Comcast NBCUniversal
Tara Galvin serves as Executive Director of Corporate Diversity and Inclusion at Comcast NBCUniversal. In this role, she leads the team that creates strategies and campaigns that support the company’s position as a leader in Corporate America for diversity and inclusion initiatives.
SXSW Panel: Inclusion + Tech: How To Get It Right
Megan Smith
U.S. CTO
President Obama
Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. As the third U.S. chief technology officer, Smith helped the President and federal teams harness the power of technology, data, and innovation to advance the future of our nation and the world. Smith recruited top tech talent to serve across government collaborating on pressing issues, from data science, AI and open source, to inclusive economic growth and criminal justice reform. Her teams focused on broad capacity building by co-creating all-hands-on-deck initiatives, including the public-private program TechHire, the Computer Science for All initiative, and the Image of STEM campaigns.
SXSW Panel: Democratizing AI for Individuals & Organizations
Aubrey Blanche
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Atlassian
Aubrey Blanche is the Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Atlassian. Her work spans the talent lifecycle from increasing access to technical education through recruiting, retention, and advancement of all Atlassians. She relies heavily on empirical social science in her work, and has developed a new team-level paradigm for external diversity reporting. She believes that leading with empathy is the key to driving meaningful, sustainable change and creating highly effective teams.
SXSW Panel: Tech-no-color: Advancing Women of Color in Tech
LaFawn Davis
Global Head of Culture & Inclusion
Twilio
LaFawn Davis is the Global Head of Culture & Inclusion at Twilio, focused on elevating core values, leadership principles, inclusion, diversity and belonging through creative methods of education, inspiration and global employee engagement. She is a strategic leader with 15 years of experience in cultural change. Prior to joining Twilio, LaFawn led PayPal’s culture and inclusion strategy and grew a robust career in People Operations at Yahoo and Google — focused on recruiting programs, D&I, performance and career management, employee engagement and business partner roles. Throughout her career, LaFawn has cultivated her passion for diversity through strategy and data insights, deepening relationships and strengthening communication channels within underrepresented communities in the technology industry.
SXSW Panel: Tech-no-color: Advancing Women of Color in Tech
Janet Ikpa
Diversity Equity & Inclusion Lead
Hired
Janet Ikpa is the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lead at Hired. She drives Hired’s diversity and inclusion strategy, and ensures it’s aligned to business goals by partnering with business leaders, employee networks and strategic stakeholders. She focuses on increasing the level of inclusion and diversity awareness, commitment and strategic action to attract, hire and develop underrepresented communities in tech.
Prior to joining Hired, Janet was the Diversity Strategist & Program Manager at Twitter and co-lead of @Blackbirds Twitter’s employee resource groups for members of the African diaspora.
SXSW Panel: Tech-no-color: Advancing Women of Color in Tech
Bernard C. Coleman III
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Uber
Trey Boynton
Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Duo Security
Duo Security
Trey’s work life is centered around creating change so that all people are valued, celebrated and able to offer their unique contribution.
Sadiq Kahn
Mayor
City of London
Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London in May 2016 winning the largest personal mandate in the history of British politics. Before entering politics, Sadiq studied law at university and went on to work as a respected human rights lawyer for more than 10 years. Sadiq is a outspoken advocate for women’s rights and that is one of the main focuses of his visit to SXSW this year.
SXSW Convergence Keynote: Mayor Sadiq Khan
Austin Diversity Organizations
Divinc
DivInc is a pre-accelerator for tech startup founders who are women or people of color. We love hosting DivInc at Capital Factory and working with them to make our community more diverse and inclusive. With the help of DivInc, we recently held three $100,000 D&I Investment Challenges in Austin, Dallas and Houston and made investments in Kiss & Tell, ShearShare and GroupRaise.
Google for Entrepreneurs
Austin is a Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub (one of a dozen in North America)
Capital Factory
We know there is a big problem with diversity and inclusion in tech, but we’re not sure what the perfect solution is — so we try everything. We host every diversity related meetup, hackathon, class, accelerator and other programming that we can find. We provide space and we promote them to our community. We actively search out diverse founders and mentors to join our community.
This year we put our money where our mouth is and launch three $100,000 investment challenges targeting diverse entrepreneurs in Austin, Dallas and Houston. The results were pretty astounding… we had hundreds of incredible applications come in from across Texas and narrowed it down to 5 extremely strong finalists in each city before choosing the winner. The result wasn’t just three new startups with diverse teams — in addition to the three winners we met dozens of other entrepreneurs who we continue to work with through our Accelerator program or direct investment.
