Philly Tech Week 2019

Garrett Brown invented the Oscar-winning Steadicam® stabilizer and used it on nearly 100 movies beginning with ‘Rocky’. His Skycam®, Mobycam and Divecam still pursue athletes worldwide and in ‘09 chased their inventor into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

A legend in Hollywood for 40 years, Garrett still lives and works in Philadelphia, venturing out around the globe to teach camera workshops and inventing seminars.

Brown is a 2013 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, but he is neither a scientist nor an engineer—just an extraordinarily motivated, at-times comically challenged, incredibly persistent human being.

Mukund leads the engineering, development and operations of data platforms, data engineering and data science at Grubhub. Mukund has over 25 years experience building and scaling data platforms on multiple technologies including Cassandra, Hadoop, Oracle, Mysql etc. to support large e-commerce businesses. Prior to joining Grubhub, Mukund has worked as senior director of technology for Priceline.com, managing their data platforms, architecture and data engineering. Mukund is passionate about efficiently modeling data and architecting solutions to enable businesses to extract value from data assets.

Ryan leads the sales department at DirectLync. He has over 10 years of experience helping small businesses achieve their goals by optimizing various technology platforms. In his previous roles, Ryan oversaw a variety of marketing activities and was responsible for vetting and implementing different marketing tools and services. Ryan loves the outdoors, spending time with his wife and 3 children, and is an avid sports fan and dog lover

Alex Cohen is the founder of TwentyTables, a mobile platform that empowers marginalized consumers to rediscover the convenience of professionally prepared food, while also helping to feed communities’ neighbors in need. TwentyTables won SXSW Pitch 2019’s ‘Best Bootstrap’ award for cost-effectively creating a socially conscious marketplace that reduces food waste and benefits the hungry. Prior to founding TwentyTables, Alex was a lawyer, carpenter, humanitarian and teacher.

Tracey is a sought after expert, advisor and advocate for women in technology. She is co-founder and CMO of Philadelphia-based software developer firm Chariot Solutions, founder of the Women In Tech Summit series, and founder of TechGirlz. Tracey is a frequent commenter on women in technology-related careers, and advises a number of leading companies on their STEM programs. She has shared insights and solutions from the stage at leading conferences, as a contributor to Huffington Post and Forbes, and as a speaker at the Philadelphia Women’s March. Tracey began her career in retail management and advertising sales, before acquiring child transportation company KangaKab and expanding it to Pennsylvania. In addition to leading the branding and marketing strategy for Chariot, she helped grow the company 5x since its launch. Tracey sits on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Women’s Commission, is a founding board member of Philadelphia Startup Leaders, board member for WXPN and Creating IT Futures.

Mark Switaj is Founder & Chief Executive Officer of RoundTrip, a startup providing healthcare professionals with a simple portal that connects patients with on-demand, non-emergency medical transportation.

Lisa Gelobter is the CEO and Founder of tEQuitable. Using technology to make workplaces more equitable, tEQuitable provides an independent, confidential platform to address issues of bias, harassment, and discrimination.

With 25 years in the industry and products that have been used by billions of people, Lisa has a deep and proven track record in software. She has worked on several pioneering Internet technologies, including Shockwave, Hulu, and the ascent of online video.

Lisa’s experience ranges from small, entrepreneurial startups to large, established organizations. Most recently, she worked at the White House, in the U.S. Digital Service, serving as the Chief Digital Service Officer for the Department of Education. Previously, Lisa acted as the Chief Digital Officer for BET Networks and was a member of the senior management team for the launch of Hulu. She has an expansive background in strategy development, business operations, user-centered design, product management, and engineering. Lisa brings consumer focus and transformative practice to bear in technology, media, and the social sector.

She is also proud to be a Black Woman with a degree in Computer Science. Go STEM!

Michelai Graham is a creative investigative and multimedia reporter. She completed her M.A. in journalism and public affairs with an investigative journalism focus in July 2018. Prior to graduate school, Michelai acquired a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in media & information from Michigan State University, where she served as co-writer during a study abroad program to India. She also serves as the chapter journalist for the Washington DC Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she is also an active member.