Philly Tech Week 2020

Ethan is the Data Engineer at Seer Interactive — finding new ways of automating and leveraging machine learning to move Seer into the future of digital marketing.

Some fun projects include changing PPC ad sentiment to increase click-through-rate and identifying low quality sites on paid placements to save clients money.

Previously, he was an SEO Team Lead, where he focused on providing team members with guidance on strategy and tactical implementation.

His passion lies in using the newest, latest tools to automate process and create net new business opportunities for clients.

Outside of work he loves cooking, biking, yoga, climbing, fine cocktails and Taco Tuesday.

Angela Benton is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Streamlytics, a next-generation data intelligence ecosystem which helps everyday people and companies ethically access consumer data streams. Prior to her role at Streamlytics she founded the first accelerator for minorities globally in 2011, NewME was acquired in December 2018.

To date, Ms. Benton has received numerous accolades, some of which include Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and their Most Influential Women In Technology, Business Insiders’ 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology, ADWEEK’s 2020 Women Trailblazers, and many more. She’s been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Inc, Forbes, Good Morning America, and the Wall Street Journal where she was a featured essayist for the paper’s 125th Anniversary edition on The Future of Entrepreneurship.

At the helm of Streamlytics, Angela continues to uncover untapped spaces in technology and innovation.

Jack Markell served two terms as Delaware’s Governor, completing his tenure in 2017. During his time in office, Delaware’s job growth was the best in the region and one of the best in the country. Under his leadership, Delaware won the top spot in President Obama’s Race to the Top competition and high school graduation rates saw some of the best increases in the country. Markell served as Chair of the both the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association and as President of the Council of State Governments. He also served for ten years as Delaware’s State Treasurer.

Beginning his career in the private sector, Markell helped lead the wireless technology revolution as the 13th employee at Nextel, where he served as senior vice president for corporate development. His other business experience includes a senior management position at Comcast Corporation and work as a consultant with McKinsey and Company. Since leaving office, Markell serves on a variety of corporate and non-profit boards.

Markell was born and raised in Newark, Delaware, and graduated from Newark High School along with his wife, Carla. He went on to receive an undergraduate degree in economics and development studies from Brown University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Markell is a Henry Crown Fellow and a Rodel Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He and Carla reside in Wilmington, Delaware. Their children, Molly and Michael, are in their 20s.

Lisa is Seer’s Data Strategy Lead based in Philadelphia. She harnessed a passion for data and her tenure within digital marketing and business operations to focus on pushing Seer forward in utilizing data-driven strategies. Her favorite thing to do is dig deep into data to help clients solve complex business questions. Her second favorite thing to do is convince Wil of the virtues of bridge tables & ngrams.

Before Seer, Lisa worked in roles across the board in digital marketing and software with positions at TIG Global, MICROS Systems, and Oracle. Recently hitting ten years in the industry, Lisa started her career in PPC before branching into SEO, product management, program management, R&D, and finally Data Strategy. She has experience with clients at all levels and across most major industries. In her role as Data Strategy Lead, Lisa gets to touch a ton of Seer’s clients in one way or another, which is one reason she loves what she does.

Lisa is a graduate of the University of Delaware. In her free time, she enjoys eating at every new restaurant in the city and doing all things outdoors with her husband Bernard, kids George and Annie, and their too-energetic pup Deacon.

Christine Raetsch currently serves as Duolingo’s first Head of People, building the company’s HR practice. Duolingo is the most popular language-learning platform worldwide, with over 300 million users and the mission to make education free and accessible to all.

Prior to joining Duolingo, Christine was a senior executive at Vanguard, where she spent the first 20 years of her career. In her last role at Vanguard, she served as the Global Head of Culture and Inclusion, where she created and led the center of expertise on culture, employee engagement, diversity, and inclusion for Vanguard’s 15,000+ global employees. In addition to HR, Christine had roles in client management (managing a $50B book of business), risk management (creating the risk management program for our largest division), operations management (leading a team of 250+ employees), and process improvement (earning a Six Sigma Black Belt designation). Christine received her M.B.A. and M.A. from Villanova University. She maintains the GPHR and SHRM-SCP HR professional designations.

Christine is passionate about making her community strong and vibrant. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and is a partner with Social Venture Partners Pittsburgh, a non-profit accelerator. She also provides HR consulting for many arts- and culture-focused non-profits in the Pittsburgh region. In what remains of her free time, she loves being outside: biking, running, playing tennis, and kayaking on all the great rivers in Pittsburgh. As a relative newcomer to the Pittsburgh area, Christine is enjoying all that Pittsburgh has to offer in terms of arts, culture, the outdoors, and so much more!

Some individuals are going through life, just living the everyday ‘grind.’ Then you have those who live with a purpose, who honestly want to improve their surroundings in their community. Dr. Leslie Grace is one of these people in the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Professor Grace has always been self-driven and a little more mature than her peers in her thinking. Even as a young girl, she clearly knew what her life goals were going to be. A younger Leslie Grace was in newspaper articles at the age of 16/17 years old. She had well thought out opinions even then, wise beyond her years by today’s standards. She was a young lady with determination and big dreams to chase, which fueled her mind daily.

Professor Leslie Grace is an educator, social entrepreneur, philanthropist, and will be a new author this upcoming spring. This amazing single mom lives to empower the young people in her community. The Elements Of The Community Inc provides educational, media relations, financial literacy and entrepreneurship programming to communities around the United States. Dr. Grace has taught thousands of young children & adults how to open their own businesses and manage their finances. “Why do we teach our young people to be good workers, instead of teaching them to be good owners? We must stop limiting the potential of our youth.” Dr. Grace truly understands that real freedom comes from being financially free, because that is the only way that those from the inner cities will have a chance to live the “American Dream.”

The exposure that the young people are getting about today’s financial situation here in America, and how to avoid those landmines, will surely result in a financial behavior change, totally different from what their parents had experienced in their youth. Dr. Grace is truly dedicated to increasing the financial capabilities of young Americans and their immediate family members. She is so committed to teaching her young students about ownership over their lives, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Dr. Leslie Grace is well educated, but don’t be thrown off by how young this educator looks. She has definitely done her time in institutions of higher learning. She lives by the motto, “What Is The Point Of Having All The Degrees And You Are Not Helping Change Lives.” This young lady has more degrees than a thermometer and welcomes any information that will continue to educate her.

Dr. Grace has won numerous community and innovation awards from the business world locally in the city of Philadelphia. Dr. Grace was nominated to attend the United States Women Summit, hosted by the White House in 2016, because of her dedication to women and their families. The release of two books are on the horizon this spring for Dr. Leslie Grace, that will help change the landscape of children and their families globally. She is not afraid to step out in front and be the game changer in her community. She definitely won’t let grass grow under her feet (and that is just the way she likes it).

On May 16, 2016, Mayor James Kenney appointed Adam Thiel to serve as the 20th Fire Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia. Commissioner Thiel is responsible for leading the Philadelphia Fire Department’s 3000-plus uniformed and civilian members in every facet of protecting our Nation’s 5th-largest city from fires and emergencies arising from all hazards.

In February 2014, Adam was appointed to serve as a Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In that role, he helped provide strategic direction, policy advice, management oversight, and operational coordination for eleven agencies with an overall budget of more than $3.1B and 30,000 employees. Deputy Secretary Thiel was directly responsible for the Departments of Emergency Management, Fire Programs (including the State Fire Marshal's Office), Military Affairs (Virginia Army/Air National Guard), and State Police, along with the state’s Homeland Security and Resilience portfolio. Adam served as the Governor’s deputy Homeland Security Advisor (dHSA), deputy Chief Resilience Officer (dCRO), Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC), and FirstNet State Single Point of Contact (SPOC). He facilitated the Secure Commonwealth Panel and Rail Safety/Security Task Force, co-led the state's National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) project team to a $121M Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant award, and collaborated with local, state, federal, military, and other stakeholders in managing all aspects of Virginia’s homeland security enterprise, including cybersecurity consequence management, unmanned systems deployment, and critical infrastructure protection. Deputy Secretary Thiel was senior advisor to the Virginia 9-1-1 Services Board, executive sponsor of the Virginia Cyber Response Working Group, principal investigator for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-funded Regional Resilience Dashboard project, and a member of the: National Capital Region (NCR) Homeland Security Executive Committee, DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Executive Steering Committee, Virginia Aviation Security Committee, Virginia Area Maritime Security Executive Committee, Virginia IT Infrastructure Sourcing Program Steering Committee, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) Executive Committee, and DHS Non-Traditional Aviation Technology (NTAT) Threat Task Force.

As fire chief for the City of Alexandria, Virginia—a diverse and densely populated urban community in the National Capital Region—from 2007-2014, Chief Thiel managed the city’s building/fire code administration, all- hazards emergency response, fire communications, emergency medical services, fire/arson investigation, and emergency management functions. He chaired the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System (NVERS) Steering Committee and served on several other regional preparedness and homeland security groups.

Commissioner Thiel’s 28 years’ experience spans five states (MD, NC, VA, AZ, and PA) as a chief fire officer, incident commander, company officer, fire and emergency services instructor, hazardous materials team leader, paramedic, technical rescuer, structural/wildland firefighter, swiftwater rescuer, and rescue SCUBA diver; he has directly participated in planning, response, and recovery efforts for multiple Presidentially-declared disasters and National Special Security Events (NSSEs), including the 9/11 tragedy, hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, an earthquake, major blizzards, international sporting competitions, and political events.

In 2002, after almost seven years with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department where he also served on the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2068 Executive Board and Human Relations Committee, Adam was appointed to lead the Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP) through a critical post-9/11 transition and state fiscal crisis. Executive Director Thiel helped Virginia’s state fire agency modernize systems, add capacity, enhance diversity, and improve efficiency by engaging employees and stakeholders in strategic planning, implementation, and program evaluation. He was a member of the Commonwealth Preparedness Working Group, Virginia Emergency Response Council, State Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Advisory Committee, and Child Day-Care Council.

In addition to public service, Adam has co-founded two successful consulting practices advising clients including federal, state, and local agencies; institutions of higher education; non-profit organizations; law firms; and Fortune 500 companies in crisis management, leadership, training development, risk analysis, and business strategy. He was a senior fellow at the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI), is widely published, has presented at more than 50 conferences in multiple states/countries, taught graduate-level courses at several colleges and universities, and co-edited the International City/County Management Association’s iconic “green book” Managing Fire and Emergency Services, 4th Edition.

Commissioner Thiel completed doctoral coursework in Public Administration (ABD) and Public Policy at Arizona State University and George Mason University, respectively; earned his M.P.A. degree from George Mason University; received his B.S. in Fire Science from the University of Maryland University College; and earned his B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently a student in the University of Pennsylvania’s Organizational Dynamics graduate program and has completed the Virginia Executive Institute, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, and the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Leaders Program.

Adam is a Certified Emergency Manager® (CEM), Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (FIFireE), and holds several National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)-standard professional qualifications. He currently serves on multiple boards and committees, including the NFPA Technical Committee on Emergency Service Organization Risk Management; Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Fire Council and Firefighter Safety Research Institute; George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security Board; the American Red Cross Eastern Pennsylvania Region Board; and the Philadelphia Police Athletic League Board. He is a former chair of the National Fire Academy Board of Visitors and also served on the NFPA Fire Service Section Board. Adam is a 2017 Leadership Philadelphia Fellow and a 2018 USA Eisenhower Fellow.

Fire Commissioner Thiel is an Ironman® triathlon finisher, Crossfit® athlete, bicyclist (road and mountain), SCUBA diver, kayaker, martial arts practitioner, and aspiring gardener. Most importantly, Adam is the father of two energetic and accomplished teenagers.

Cerron was confirmed as the Secretary of Labor on January 24, 2018 where he leads state efforts to connect Delaware businesses with talented workers, and develop relevant workforce development and training programs.

Prior to that he was Acting Director of the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO), Cerron managed the dissolution of DEDO and the creation of the new Division of Small Business, Development, and Tourism within the Delaware Department of State. He served as the Division’s Director, leading a team responsible for providing key services to Delaware businesses, administration of the Delaware Strategic Fund, and marketing Delaware as a premier tourist destination.

During his time at DEDO and the newly-created division, Cerron had led the state’s efforts to attract businesses and good-paying jobs to Delaware, keep them here, and ensure that Delaware remains a leading state for businesses to grow and thrive.

Cerron grew up in Washington D.C. and moved to Delaware to study Political Science and Law Studies at Delaware State University. Driven by a desire to make a positive impact and following his passion for public service,

Cerron has worked as a Legislative Aide for the Delaware State House of Representatives, New Castle County Deputy Director for U.S. Senator Tom Carper and State Projects Director for then-Congressman John Carney, and Legislative Liaison for Governor Jack Markell.

Cade lives in Wilmington with his wife, Kasmira, and two daughters, Jonnie and Toni.