Philly Tech Week 2020

Keith Clinkscales CEO, KTC VENTURES

Media executive Keith Clinkscales — whose award-winning career has impacted media and urban culture across platforms — is highly regarded as an innovator, strategist, and thought leader.

Clinkscales has partnered with AT&T to create the “Humanity of Connection” series through his KTC Ventures. The partnership will pivot to deliver targeted content to the emerging field of streaming services currently impacting the media landscape.

That natural progression — relationships morphing into partnerships — has been a staple of Clinkscales’ career. His dedication to urban audiences has created never-before-seen outlets, like his brainchild The Shadow League, Since its inception in late 2012, The site has grown to become a leading destination for sports, race and culture.

An Emmy Award-Nominated and a two-time Peabody Award Winner, Clinkscales has earned over 60 credits as an Executive Producer of films and documentaries. Most notably Clinkscales was one of the creators of ESPN’s critically acclaimed “30 for 30” documentary series.

In 2013, REVOLT Founder and Chairman Sean Combs appointed Clinkscales as Chief Executive Officer of REVOLT Media & TV. With Clinkscales at the helm, REVOLT ushered in the third largest, independent network launch in cable television history.

In the 1990s, Clinkscales worked alongside the legendary Quincy Jones to launch Vibe magazine, the premier publication for hip-hop/R&B music, fashion and entertainment news. Clinkscales served as CEO of the publication and established Vibe’s successful digital presence, vibe.com.

Clinkscales earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a magna cum laude graduate

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.

Shamique Thompson is a front end software engineer at AWeber. Endlessly curious and relentlessly motivated, she has dedicated herself to being a master of all things software. A graduate of Brown University, Shamique decided to embark upon her journey to master the art of Software Engineering after receiving her certification from Penn's Coding Bootcamp.

Tiffany is a dedicated leader passionate about creating sustainable social impact through social entrepreneurship and more importantly, empowering people. She's been nominated for the Greater Philadelphia Social Innovation Award and also recognized by Generocity, Social Innovation Journal, Philadelphia Citizen, Wharton Business Radio, and Penn News as a leader of social entrepreneurship. Tiffany is the Founder & CEO of Fulphil, which she created to empower the youth to pursue their passions through entrepreneurship on the micro scale within cities to create a collectively broader effect. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Hult Prize Ivy.

She is a current graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing a dual degree in M.S. Nonprofit Leadership (Cl ‘19) while holding her B.A. in Sociology, concentrating in Health and Medicine (Cl ‘18). She has also worked for City of Philadelphia's Office of Innovation and Technology.

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.

Christian is the Global Director for Savings Groups at CARE and the Founder and CEO of Chomoka, a start-up social enterprise unlocking economic opportunity for savings groups and their members through digital innovation. Currently live in Tanzania, Chomoka combines an Android-based record-keeping system with a digital marketplace to help people engage with the rapidly evolving digital economy. Over 10 years with CARE, Christian has served in a range of roles focused on program design, management, measurement and learning to support CARE’s efforts to eliminate hunger and food insecurity, increase access to finance and promote economic development. Christian has worked in the international development arena for 20 years across Asia, Africa and Latin America. He began his career as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan. Christian holds degrees from Boston College and the George Washington University. He lives with his wife and two young sons in Narberth, PA.

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.

Archna Sahay is a Sr Consultant with J Nowak Strategy, a strategic advisory firm based in Philadelphia. Archna's primary areas of focus include urban innovation and public-private partnerships. Prior to this role, Archna was the director of entrepreneurial investment for the City of Philadelphia. As Director, Archna was responsible for the economic and business development of the tech sector for the City. She launched various programs to help connect entrepreneurs to resources needed as they built their businesses in Philadelphia. Archna also managed StartupPHL, the City's platform for supporting entrepreneurship and startup activity in Philadelphia which also included management of an early stage venture fund and a grant program. She helped guide the growth of the platform from providing sources of funding to startups to also incorporating thought leadership, open innovation concepts and equitable and inclusive ecosystem development. Archna began her career in finance working for over 10 years at leading investment management firms working closely with high net worth clients.

Archna served as an Advisor for the 2018 SXSW Cities Summit and is currently on the boards of Philadelphia Community Corp, a non profit salvage organization combining workforce development and sustainable building and deconstruction practices as well as Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, a non profit whose mission is to provide a soft landing for new immigrants through education, training, employment and entrepreneurship.