Boardroom Media (CEO News)
At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top San Francisco based CEO’ operating in the Government space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected]
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Josh Mackanic
Founder & CEO of CivilGrid
Energy industry leader, experienced in organizing and leading multidisciplinary teams to implement large capital infrastructure programs and change initiatives. At PG&E, developed solar power plants on the largest utility owned solar program in the nation, and successfully led the integration of safety automation technology new to natural gas utilities across the country.
Follow Josh Mackanic:
About CivilGrid: Local intelligence for global construction.
Jean-Francois Gauthier
Founder and CEO of Startup Genome
JF (Jean-Francois) Gauthier is a growth executive based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With international experiences in Italy, Canada, France, and the UK, Jean-Francois has played pivotal roles in leading companies towards big growth. Previous roles include COO of Eolica Power, CFO of ConnectAndSell, Inc, and CEO of Iscopia Software. He is currently the CFO and Head of Business Development for Compass.
Follow Jean-Francois Gauthier:
About Exit Reality, Startup Genome: Startup Genome is a research and policy advisory organization for governments that helps accelerates the success of their startup ecosystem.
Jim Steyer
Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media
Jim has spent more than 20 years as one of the most respected experts and entrepreneurs on issues related to children’s policy and media in the United States. As CEO, he is responsible for the overall leadership of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the media lives of kids and families. Prior to founding Common Sense, Jim was Chairman and CEO of JP Kids, a respected family media company. Before that, he served as President of Children Now, a leading national advocacy and media organization for children, which he founded in 1988. Jim began his career as an elementary school teacher and then became a public interest lawyer. He served as a law clerk for the California Supreme Court, as a deputy district attorney, and as a civil rights attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In addition to his duties at Common Sense, Jim teaches popular courses on civil rights, civil liberties, and children’s issues at Stanford University, where he has taught for the past 22 years in the School of Education and Department of Political Science. During that period, he has received a number of Stanford’s highest teaching honors. Jim is also the author of the widely acclaimed book The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children, which draws upon his extensive experience as a leading child advocate, educational media expert, and dad. Over the past decade, Jim has appeared regularly on a variety of national television and radio programs, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, CNN, The O’Reilly Factor, and Larry King. He hosts a regular weekly segment, “Kids and the Media,” on CBS-5 TV in San Francisco, and his work has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal. Jim grew up in New York City and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford. He received his JD from Stanford Law School, where he founded the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. Jim is the father of four children and lives with his family in the Bay Area.
Follow Jim Steyer:
About Common Sense Media: Common Sense Media provides information and education to help kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology.
Ahmad Wani
Chief Executive Officer & Co Founder of One Concern
Ahmad Wani is an earthquake researcher by training. He was named by the Forbes magazine as one of the world’s top thirty innovators, in its Forbes 30 under 30 edition in January 2016. Earlier in his career, he performed structural design and risk analysis for power plants for the Central Government of India. Ahmad holds a graduate degree in Structural and Earthquake Engineering from Stanford University.
Follow Ahmad Wani:
About One Concern: One Concern provides a resilience-as-a-service solution that helps customers uncover, prepare for, and mitigate unpredictable disaster risk.
Paola Santana
Founder and CEO of GLASS
Paola Santana is a lawyer, public procurement expert and tech entrepreneur creating the world’s next political system after democracy. She’s the founder and CEO of Social Glass, a software ecosystem using Artificial Intelligence to power high-performing governments. Previously, she co-founded Matternet, a Silicon Valley company pioneering drone logistics networks. Under her leadership, Matternet engaged with The White House, US Congress, FAA, and NASA to enact the first drone regulation in the United States in 2016, and became the world’s first drone delivery platform authorized for permanent operations over a populated city in 2017. She co-established the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court, and worked at the National Elections Court coordinating the Elections Litigation Chamber. She has also collaborated with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the OECD, developing striking public infrastructure projects and strategic partnerships integrating exponential technologies. She’s best known for her ability to create things from scratch at the intersection of the public, private and regulatory domains, and for her track record introducing cutting-edge technologies into highly-regulated markets. Her most recent experience includes co-drafting the public-private partnership enabling the first multi-state Hyperloop system in the United States. A Fulbright scholar and graduate from George Washington, Georgetown and Singularity University, she’s been featured as CNET Top 20 Latin in Tech, Forbes Top 50 Women of Power in Central America and the Dominican Republic, LinkedIn Top 10 Professionals Under 35 in Enterprise Tech, and served as Lead of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Advisory Group, and appointed member of the first FAA Drone Advisory Committee. She’s currently Faculty at Singularity University, and Mentor for the Social Entrepreneurship Labs Incubator at Stanford University and Google AI.
Follow Paola Santana:
About GLASS: a Silicon Valley e-Commerce startup revolutionizing how governments buy
Mark Vorsatz
Managing Director and CEO of Andersen Tax
Mark Vorsatz is Managing Director and CEO of Andersen Tax. He Co-Founded the firm under the name WTAS in 2002 and spearheaded the firm’s name change, effective September 2, 2014. Mark works exclusively with individuals in the design and implementation of customized income tax and estate planning solutions. His client base is limited to founders and/or substantial shareholders of public companies, owners of closely held businesses, and high net worth family groups. He focuses on preserving wealth for multi-generational families. Mark has over 35 years of experience in tax practice. Before joining Andersen Tax, he was a Partner at Arthur Andersen from 1987 to 2002. Mark served on the firmwide Family Wealth Planning Team from 1982 to 2002 and led the firm’s Private Client Service Group in San Francisco. He also served as Managing Partner and Tax Division Head of Arthur Andersen’s San Jose office from 1990 to 1994.
Follow Mark Vorsatz:
About Andersen Tax: Andersen Tax provides a range of tax, valuation, financial advisory, and related consulting services to individual and commercial clients.
Gary Kovacs
CEO of Accela
Gary Kovacs is the CEO of AVG Technologies with the responsibility for leading the overall direction of the organization. Prior to joining AVG, Gary was the CEO of Mozilla and held senior leadership roles as Senior VP of Markets, Solutions & Products at Sybase (through its acquisition by SAP earlier this year), as General Manager and VP of Mobile & Devices at Adobe and as VP of Product Marketing at Macromedia (through its acquisition by Adobe). Previously, he led the successful creation and growth of Zi Corporation, a company specializing in embedded software and services for mobile and consumer devices. Prior to Zi Corporation, Gary spent 10 years at IBM in leadership positions in product management, sales, marketing and operations within the global software division. He holds a bachelor of commerce and an MBA with distinction, from the University of Calgary.
Follow Gary Kovacs:
About Accela: Accela provides market-leading solutions that help governments to modernize and build thriving communities.
Michael O’Dwyer
Founder & CEO of SwiftComply
Michael O’Dwyer, our CEO, started his working life as an engineer setting up a fat, oil and grease regulatory program for food businesses in Dublin. It was then that he saw how overly-paper based, time consuming and inefficient this process was. Witnessing first-hand how the regulatory system frustrated both restaurant owners and the enforcing city officials, he looked for a technology that could digitize the process and improve fractious relationships. There was none, so he set about building it himself. The result was SwiftComply, the world’s first real-time business-friendly restaurant compliance platform.
Follow Michael O’Dwyer:
About SwiftComply, SwiftComply: SwiftComply helps water authorities protect human health and the environment
Mariel Reed
Cofounder and CEO of CoProcure
Cofounder of CoProcure. Previously with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, where I scaled Startup in Residence, a procurement program connecting hundreds of startups and tens of local governments across the country. Early employee at Coursera, where I 5x’d our growth in Asia. Community organizer, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Georgetown SFS grad.
Follow Mariel Reed:
About CoProcure: CoProcure makes it easy for public agencies to save time and money by purchasing together.
Janice Lin
Founder and CEO of Strategen Consulting
Janice Lin is the Founder and CEO of Strategen Consulting. She brings more than two decades of experience in clean energy strategy, market development, and corporate strategy to Strategen. During this time she has advised a diverse range of clients including renewable energy equipment manufacturers and service providers, large corporations diversifying into clean energy, and real estate developers building sustainable communities. In 2014 Janice co-founded the Global Energy Storage Alliance (GESA), an international non-profit organization, and currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Executive Committee. Prior to that Janice co-founded the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) in 2009, and remains Executive Director. Janice has also serve on the Electricity Advisory Council of the US Department of Energy, the Board of Advisors for the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) and the Energy Storage Committee of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Janice is also a Member of the Advisory Council of the German American Chamber of Commerce, the UCSD Strategic Energy Initiatives Advisory Council, and Co-Founder and Chair of the annual Energy Storage North America (ESNA) conference. Prior to founding Strategen in 2005, Janice held several senior management positions with PowerLight Corporation (now SunPower Corporation), including Vice President of Product Strategy and Vice President of Business Development. During her tenure at PowerLight, Janice led initiatives in product and new market strategies, business development, regulatory affairs, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and customer finance. Janice holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a BS from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences. She is the winner of ESA’s 2013 Phil Symons Energy Storage Award, and NAATBATT’s 2014 Market Development Award.
Follow Janice Lin:
About Energy Storage North America and Expo, Green Hydrogen Coalition, Strategen Consulting: Strategen provides insight to global corporations, utilities and public sector leaders.
Peter Ostrow
President & CEO of Technical Communities
CEO at Technical Communities, Inc.
Follow Peter Ostrow:
About Technical Communities, TestMart: Technical Communities, Inc. is the holding company of TestMart and TCI Marketing Services that help technology companies market and sell.
James Alfano
Founder and CEO of Govlaunch
Prior to Govlaunch, James co-founded EfficientGov, a local government-focused media company which was acquired by Praetorian Digital in 2014. Before that, he spent six years at the Washington D.C.-based consulting firm Marlowe & Company helping over 50 cities and counties secure grant funding and navigate federal regulatory issues. James is a native Washingtonian and a graduate from Dartmouth College.
Follow James Alfano:
About Govlaunch: Govlaunch is the the wiki for local government innovation®
Danielle DeRuiter-Williams
CEO & Head of Growth and Expansion of The Justice Collective
Danielle DeRuiter-Williams, MBA, MA, MURP is a social change strategist and CEO of The Justice Collective. She is committed to organizational transformation that unapologetically centers race and class equity in every context. A gifted trainer and facilitator Danielle brings both humor and vulnerability to her engagements. With clients, Danielle works closely to surface underlying barriers to change and to build the capacity of clients to go beyond what they perceive to be possible to do what is necessary to achieve their equity goals. While leading TJC, Danielle founded and led the development of the San Francisco Planning Department’s first Racial and Ethnic Equity Initiative which includes the creation and implementation of a comprehensive organizational strategy that identifies and leverages opportunities to advance racial equity. Danielle holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies from Grand Valley State University, Master’s Degrees from the University of California Los Angeles in both Urban and Regional Planning and Afro-American Studies and an MBA from Mills College with a concentration in Equitable Organizational Development and Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Follow Danielle DeRuiter-Williams:
About The Justice Collective: The Justice Collective is equal parts strategic initiative consulting, professional development, and online community hub.
Rey Faustino
Founder & CEO of One Degree
Rey Faustino is the Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Alluma.
Follow Rey Faustino:
About Alluma, One Degree: One Degree is a nonprofit technology-driven organization that is revolutionizing the way low-income families access community resources.
John Chen
President and CEO of Camvi Technologies
John is the co-founder and President of Camvi. Prior to Camvi, John was Assistant General Counsel at Yahoo! Inc. Before joining Yahoo!, John was the co-founder of SageN Research, a data analytics company for proteomics research. John is a patent attorney in California and holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
Follow John Chen:
About Camvi Technologies: Camvi Technologies is an Artificial Intelligence company specializing in face recognition and biometrics technologies.
Reed Duecy Gibbs
CEO of NextRequest
Reed Duecy-Gibbs is the Chief Operating Officer and leads product design and business development for NextRequest. He focuses on making applications that are simple, beautiful, and easy to use. Prior to NextRequest, Reed was a fellow with Code for America and before that he was a Fulbright Scholar working on projects to make urban development information more accesible in Istanbul. In his free time he likes running, making things with his hands, and a good IPA. Reed holds a Masters degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Colorado College.
Follow Reed Duecy Gibbs:
About NextRequest: NextRequest makes public records requests friendlier for the public and easier for governments.
