Philly Tech Week 2020

Veniece Newton, is a true entrepreneur of today who has been connecting people and products through her relationship building for more than a decade. In her early years, while working in promotions and marketing in the music industry for Arista Records in NYC she learned the importance of people and how they connect the dots. Eventually, she developed an entrepreneurial spirit that could not be denied. Her innovative and unparalleled ability to harness the power of relationship building has given her tremendous respect in the business community. Always ahead of the curve, 15 years ago she founded an online fashion/lifestyle television in which she oversaw a production team of 30 from Hong Kong, Alaska, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. While travelling the world, she interviewed A list celebrities, cover red carpets for many high-profile events. The years of varied experiences, allowed her to eventually find her way to what she truly loved, and that is being involved in the community. As a natural connector, she is a member of several committees and enjoys consulting others with their business ventures. She serves as the Diversity Liaison for the Philadelphia International Airport in which she works specifically to improve workforce while pursuing an Executive MBA at the Fox Temple School of Business. However, one of her strong passions lies in working with youth. She not only has a flair for business and connecting people, but she also has a heart of gold. For the past 10 years, she has devoted her time to empowering the next generation of leaders. She is a panel member for the District Attorney’s Youth Aid Panel and the Founder of Community Angel Foundation; a nonprofit organization that gives back by encouraging, empowering and educating our youth to be future leaders through 4 pillars focusing on volunteerism, education, career and culture. Everything Veniece involves herself with, always includes giving back. It wasn’t no different when she made it to the "Final Four" during the Camden Catalyst startup competition for her innovative idea of ENGAGEathon! And it wasn't farfetched in knowing that her startup would involve community engagement. ENGAGEathon is a customizable software platform that tracks and promotes community engagement, outreach and social impact which will be used by corporations, school districts and organizations. Veniece has a mission to bring our communities together in a positive and effective way; and she will not stop until her mission is complete. Her latest project, Cypher City is a nationwide livestreaming cypher competition in which the public votes through all social media platforms. Cypher City is a very exciting because it allows Veniece to acknowledge the importance of diversity & inclusion and provides a platform for aspiring lyricists to express themselves through words. Veniece is a woman of today and an inspiration for many to believe in yourself and have hope for all.

Josh is a founding Partner at First Round Capital, a seed-stage technology venture fund. Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization.

In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – and took it public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1996. Josh founded Half.com in July of 1999, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000 — and Josh remained with eBay for three years, running the Half.com business unit and growing eBay’s Media marketplace to almost half a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise sales. In late 2003 Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world's first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later.

Josh founded First Round Capital in 2004 to reinvent seed-stage investing. Since that time the firm has invested in over 300 emerging technology startups – becoming one of the most active venture capital firms in the country. Josh has consistently ranked on the Forbes “Midas List” of the top 100 tech investors. He has been named as one of the top ten ‘angel investors’ in the United States by Newsweek magazine, one of "Tech's New Kingmakers" by Business 2.0 magazine and a "Rising VC Star" by Fortune magazine. Josh also is the proud winner of a second place ribbon in the 2011 Nantucket Watermelon Eating competition.

Josh is an inventor on thirteen U.S. Patents for his work in Internet technology. In June 2000, he was awarded Ernst and Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for the Greater Philadelphia region.

Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

As a host and correspondent, Guy has interviewed more than 6,000 people including Richard Branson, Kelly Clarkson, Christopher Hitchens, Condoleezza Rice, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Roxane Gay, Eminem, Taylor Swift, and many, many others.

Guy is the host and co-creator of three NPR programs. TED Radio Hour and How I Built This are heard by more than 14 million people each month around the world. He is the co-creator and co-host of NPR’s first-ever podcast for kids, Wow In The World. For Spotify, he’s hosting the music interview show The Rewind. In 2017, Guy became the first person in the history of podcasting to have three shows in the top 20 on the Apple Podcast charts.

TED Radio Hour is a co-production of NPR and TED that takes listeners on a journey through the world of ideas.

How I Built This is a podcast about the greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. In each episode, the founders of some of the world’s best-known companies and brands take us through their triumphs, failures, and insights. In 2016, it was named one of the top ten podcasts of the year by iTunes, and Inc Magazine called it “the best podcast to take on the new year.”

Wow in the World is a show for kids 5-10 about science, wonder, discovery and the amazing things happening in our world. The Guardian called it “a kids podcast with plenty for parents, too!”

Guy joined NPR in 1997 as an intern for All Things Considered and worked virtually every job in the newsroom from temporary production assistant to breaking news anchor. His first job was the assistant to NPR’s legendary news analyst Daniel Schorr.

In 2000, at the age of 25, Guy was made NPR’s Berlin bureau chief, where he covered Eastern Europe and the Balkans. During his six years abroad, he reported from more than 40 countries including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Macedonia.

Between 2004-2006 he left NPR to work in television as CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent. In 2006, Guy returned to NPR to serve as defense correspondent where he covered the Pentagon and the US military. For his reporting from Iraq, Raz was awarded both the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Daniel Schorr Journalism prize. His reporting has contributed to two duPont awards and one Peabody awarded to NPR. From 2009 to 2013, Guy was weekend host of NPR News’ signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Considered.

Guy is also an avid cyclist who makes his own bone broth and cashew milk

Lisha is a venture builder and investor, startup advisor, and business strategist and operator who has served on all sides of the business table. She is the founder of Arable Ventures LLC., a boutique innovation consulting and advisory practice helping organizations develop full scale operating models to deliver innovative solutions. Prior to launching Arable Ventures, Lisha was the founder and head of Vanguard’s Innovation Studio, where she led the vision for enterprise innovation and owned the ongoing delivery of a venture portfolio focused on addressing white spaces with the potential to transform businesses and disrupt the financial services industry.

Throughout her work, alongside crafting effective strategy and operations enabled through technology and data wherever possible, Lisha has always placed high emphasis on growing the best functioning teams and company culture. She is an active investor with 37Angels, an early growth stage women's syndicate focused on increasing representation of diverse founders and funders, and serves as mentor and advisor to startups across the consumer, enterprise, and fintech sectors. She is also an adjunct professor @ Temple's Fox School of Business, teaching on open innovation & strategic partnerships. Lisha currently lives in Brooklyn and travels often in pursuit of new adventures.

Mr. Robert A. Celestin, Esq. has practiced entertainment law in New York City for over 25 years. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Mr. Celestin started his legal career as an associate at the corporate law firm, Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler in New York. He then went on to work in the legal department of Clive Davis’ Arista Records before becoming the VP/GM of Uptown Records, Inc., (“Uptown”), the label responsible for merging hip-hop and R&B and launching the careers of “Mary J. Blige”, “Jodeci”, “Guy” and others. At Uptown, Mr. Celestin worked alongside Andre Harrell and Sean “P-Diddy” Combs. He later went on to work for Untouchables Entertainment, Inc., as VP/GM and was instrumental in the success of rappers “Pete Rock and CL Smooth”; R&B trio “Intro”; and R&B vocalist “Donnell Jones”. Mr. Celestin went to work with his mentor, entertainment attorney Louise West, Esq., in representing “Timbaland”, “Missy Elliot” and “Ginuwine”. Mr. Celestin also managed the Grammy nominated and platinum selling Pop/R&B group “City High”. Presently, Mr. Celestin’s law firm, the “Law Offices of Robert A. Celestin”, represents and provides strategic advice and counsel to independent record label start-ups and production companies, recording artists, music producers, songwriters, reality TV stars, DJ’s and others. Present clients Include “Desiigner”, “6ix9ine”, the Estate of the late “Xxxtentacion”, “Fatboy SSE”, “Dj Self”, “Ezinma”, “Winners Circle Publishing”, “Anthony Flammia”, “JTK Pro Beats” and many more.

Stephanie Harris is a back end software engineer at AWeber, where she builds software that enables customers to easily create awesome content for their emails. After earning her undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, Stephanie transitioned into tech by joining the Fall 2015 cohort of the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp in New Brunswick, NJ. She was able to land an internship shortly after graduating, and eventually a fullstack engineering job before moving to AWeber in 2018.

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.

Gavin Roy is currently the Interim CTO at AWeber. With over 25 years of experience in the Internet industry, Gavin is responsible for the technical architecture and operational stability of several large-scale web properties. He is the author of “RabbitMQ in Depth,” and actively contributes to several open source projects and communities, including Erlang, Python, PostgreSQL, and RabbitMQ. Gavin is a member of several professional organizations, including the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation (EEF), Python Software Foundation (PSF), and the IEEE.