The nominations committee is happy to report on the new MIT Enterprise Forum Washington DC & Baltimore board. The board has been voted in and is already hard at work on the upcoming year. The committee is confident that this board will be successful in growing MITEF’s capacity to serve the start-up community here in DC.
The nominations committee was tasked with recruiting a new
Chair as Matthew Falls was term limited. Matt had served as Chair for two
successful consecutive terms of growth for the forum and we thank him for his
enthusiasm and unstinting work on behalf of our chapter. Our ideal candidate
would be someone who is part of the DC startup community, who is an experienced
entrepreneur who wanted to give back to the community, and who had participated
or supported MITEF Washington DC & Baltimore. Our search was successful.
Our new chair is a long-time friend of the forum Cynthia
Traeger. Ms. Traeger has moderated panels and taught entrepreneur skills at
MITEF events. Cynthia Traeger serves as CEO of Pacific, a diversified
technology & media holding company, and concurrently serves as President of
VSI Pacific. She leads Pacific’s efforts
across aerospace, defense, sports, entertainment, and other industries.
Additionally, Cynthia serves as a Trustee to the Board of Trustees, Harrisburg
University of Science and Technology where she chairs the International Affairs
Committee of the Executive Board; and is a Mentor/Advisor to the NIH
Commercialization Accelerator Program and Feedback Sessions. She was a
participant and author with the American Bar Association’s Digital Evidence
Work Group, and a contributor to the Journal of the ACM Special Interest Group
on Graphics. Cynthia is a partner to the State Department’s Global Innovation
through Science and Technology (GIST) program and is an active mentor for GIST
companies. In partnership with GIST, she is an executive mentor to the Research
Competitiveness Program for the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS). She holds multiple patents in the areas of real-time data
analysis for proximity and movement of objects.
Matthew Falls remains on the board as the Immediate Past
Chapter Chair and is the Volunteer Chair. Mark Johnston has moved from
Programming Chair to Vice Chair but will still be involved in programming.
Andrew Polcha has moved from Vice Chair to Nominations but is still advising
the programming committee. Our new Programming Chair is Michael Novak. Michael
worked on the programming committee last year. A list of all the board members
is below. We are currently working to update our website and when it is ready,
we will add the new biographies for your review.
Our other goal was to recruit volunteers who demonstrated an
enthusiasm for supporting startups in DC. To accomplish this, we recruited six
new board members, 30% of the board. Complementing this change four board
members changed roles, 20% of the board. Half the board is returning in their
role from last year. We believe that by bringing new board members on board
will not only diversify the capabilities of the board but will make the chapter
stronger as we move into the 2020s.
|
Volunteer
|
Title
|
|
Cynthia Traeger
| Chapter Chair |
|
Matthew Falls
| Immediate Past Chapter Chair /
Volunteer Chair |
| Mark Johnston |
Chapter Vice Chair
|
|
Helen Shimbo
|
Chapter Treasurer
|
|
Steve Britt
|
Chapter Secretary
|
|
Shyam Chidamber
|
Sponsorship Committee Chair
|
|
Andy Tucker
|
Sponsorship Committee Vice Chair
|
|
Jason Ware
|
Operations Chair
|
|
Michael Novak
|
Program Committee Chair
|
|
Vered Sharon
|
Program Committee vice Chair
|
|
David Beck
|
Membership/Volunteer Chair
|
|
Mahesh Joshi
|
Educational Partnerships
|
|
Scott McKeever
|
Marketing co-Chair
|
|
Kirsten Johnson
|
Marketing co-Chair
|
|
Ed Harrell
|
Program Committee
|
|
Nir Adhikari
|
Program Committee
|
|
Amu Fowler
|
Entrepreneur Ambassador
|
|
Beverly Bugos
|
Outreach Chair
|
|
Larry Trotter II
|
Volunteer Coordinator
|
|
Andrew Polcha
|
Nominating Committee Chair
|
