James is from Union City, CA and joined Google 2 years ago. He is a Staffing Channels Specialist recruiting Program Managers for Google Cloud Platform. In addition, he serves as the Global Co-Lead for VetNet partnering with VetNet Googlers, Google Product Area teams, Executives, External Orgs, and Community Leaders to establish Google as a top company for Veterans. Prior to Google, James was in technology sales at a Bay Area startup and university recruiting in San Diego, CA. During his time in the Army, he was a medic supporting Civil Affairs Soldiers and State Department Diplomats in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. James holds a Bachelors and Masters degree, and is a proud parent of a very popular Goldendoodle. 

Chief Innovation Officer for the Texas Air National Guard. Alex has a distinguished career as an aviator flying multiple aircraft to include the F-16, MQ-1, and MQ-9 in combat operations around the world supporting Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, and Nomad Shadow. He is currently responsible for synchronizing and driving the innovation strategy within the Texas Military Department and acting as a liaison between academia, local businesses, and the DOD innovation ecosystem which includes AFWERX, Defense Innovation Unit, Air Education Training Command Technology Integration Detachment,  Pilot Training Next (PTN) program, and the Army Future Command. In addition, Alex also serves as an action officer for the disruptive innovation division under the Deputy Chief of Staff, Headquarters Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, leading a portfolio of over 80 projects and $200 million focused on:

• C4ISR
• Remotely Piloted Technology
• Manned-Unmanned Teaming
• Homeland Defense
• Emergency Disaster Response
  

Jenny Fielding is Managing Director at Techstars who has run multiple accelerators including Internet of Things and Fintech focused programs. Prior to joining Techstars, Jenny headed up Corporate Venture and Digital Innovation at BBC Worldwide where she made strategic investments and led business development deals. She has also started several tech companies, most notably Switch-Mobile, a mobile VoIP company that was acquired in 2009. Jenny began her career as a lawyer, spent time in banking at JP Morgan and is a graduate of Columbia University.

Currently working on an Executive MBA from MIT, Zach has had a long career in cybersecurity for NSA, BAE and USAF. At DIU he leads Texas in accelerating commercial innovation for the U.S. Department of Defense, with the ultimate goal of enabling our men and women in uniform to address our toughest national defense challenges. Using rapid contracting authorities, direct access to the warfighter, broad access to the commercial technology sector and a diverse team of service members and entrepreneurs, DIU is delivering solutions in months rather than years. Our portfolios include:
• Artificial Intelligence
• Information Technology
• Life Sciences 
• Autonomy
• Space

David is Founder of Austin based Lumen Insurance and a Commercial Insurance Producer. He launched his career with a multi-location Austin based insurance agency with a 60 year history. The agency was part of an aggregator making among the top 10 of largest Insurance Aggregators in America. His primary areas of expertise were in technology and real estate with a focus on complicated professional liability issues.

David’s prior success was heavily attributed to his ability to connect with and understand C-Level Executives. He leveraged business acumen and communications skills to uncover issues and align the best solutions for his clients. David was particularly astute with the use of technology, analytics, and creative problem solving.

Military and Industry Leadership

David’s leadership expertise comes from his formal training and field experience leading airmen as a Combat Crew Commander and Flight Commander in the Air Force. David spent over 6 years in the Air Force serving as a nuclear weapons officer. His industry leadership includes serving on the board for the Independent Agents of Austin and Young Agent Advisory Council for the Independent Agents of Texas. David is also a graduate of the highly selective Leadership Austin Emerge Program. His non-profit leadership includes various boards and committees and he is the current President of the Capital City A&M club focused on raising scholarships for the local youth.

Matthew Walden is passionate about transforming good ideas into scalable business models. In his role at Google in the Online Partnerships Group, Matt manages Google partnerships with hundreds of iOS and Android developers, assisting them with growing their business ideas through Google’s development (Firebase), monetization (AdMob), and advertising (Google Ads) platforms. In particular, Matt has been active in the games industry, especially in piloting new business models of hybrid IAP+Ads monetization.
Originally from Los Angeles, Matt has an educational background in Economics and Political Development from Brigham Young University. Before Google, Matt has did DHS-sponsored work with DC-based tech incubator Affinis Labs to create products that help resolve the global refugee crisis. Matt comes from a family of veterans, and sees the community as an important force for good in the entrepreneurship space.

James is from Union City, CA and joined Google 2 years ago. He is a Staffing Channels Specialist recruiting Program Managers for Google Cloud Platform. In addition, he serves as the Global Co-Lead for VetNet partnering with VetNet Googlers, Google Product Area teams, Executives, External Orgs, and Community Leaders to establish Google as a top company for Veterans. Prior to Google, James was in technology sales at a Bay Area startup and university recruiting in San Diego, CA. During his time in the Army, he was a medic supporting Civil Affairs Soldiers and State Department Diplomats in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. James holds a Bachelors and Masters degree, and is a proud parent of a very popular Goldendoodle. 

Long time Silicon Valley technology and startup veteran, known as SEO’Brien on the internet for my extensive past in the search industry. Now Texan, I work in Venture Capital Economic Development, serving the investment and venture capital economies. I have a passion for media innovation and seeded and run MediaTech Ventures, a media industry venture development group. I'm also a Director of Founder Institute for Texas.

Historically, I'm seasoned marketer with an early career at Yahoo! and HP. From there, I led the early growth of startups such as Outright.com (Acquired by GoDaddy), Zvents (Acquired by eBay’s Stubhub), and MicroVentures (Venture Capital). Strong technical background considering the role I tend to play today; I built my first website in the '90s and operate my personal site to hone my skills. I was featured in the book, Online Marketing Heroes, and continue to blog business at seobrien.com.

For over a decade, Nathan Ryan has been developing forward-thinking, people-focused leadership, business, and creative skills. His self-education began when he dropped out of college to accept a job at The Walt Disney Company, and continued when he founded Proxart, a non-profit organization and publication with a mission to create and support artistic communities around the world.

Those leadership roles––in strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship, technology, and design thinking––prepared him to assume an advisory role for Emmy-winning culinary media company, Life & Thyme. Shortly after, Nathan was a co-founder of internationally-recognized digital agency, Toi, where he developed relationships with clients from startups like Genee and Set For Service—both of whom went on to be acquired—to major corporations like Verizon and Red Bull.

As CEO of Toi, Nathan managed the company’s strategy, financials, operations, marketing, and sales, and emphasized the importance of both employee and client satisfaction. There, the new realities of freelance culture came into focus for him, inspiring Toi’s partnership with WeWork to host roundtable and speaking events around the country. Discussions focused on the future of the Creative Class intended to share solutions for a more equitable future––for freelancers, agencies, and other businesses that work with contract labor.

In 2017 he co-founded Blue Sky Partners, which helps business leaders, startups, and companies of all sizes put sustainable systems in place so they can scale.

Jorge-Luis Manresa, is currently charged with establishing rapid acquisition
processes across Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and AFWERX-Austin
technology hub. In his current position, Jorge has enabled business
processes to reach non-traditional business entities, start-ups and regional
academic centers.  Previously, Jorge led as Deputy Division Chief, Air Force
District Washington (AFDW) Contracting Division, where he led 25 contracting
professionals with the administration of AFDW's $1.2 billion contract
portfolio. He also served as the Source Selection Decision Authority over
the Headquarters Air Force National Capital Region, Enterprise Information
Technology and Infrastructure services contract. Prior to his tour in
support of Headquarters Air Force, he served as the lead Contracting Officer
supporting NATO & Jordan's F-16 Training Systems Foreign Military Sales
program, USAF MQ-1 & MQ-9 aircraft sustainment program, and USAF E-3
Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft sustainment program.
Jorge also served as a Professional Military Instructor at Air University,
Spaatz Center for Officer Education, Squadron Officer School (SOS). He
obtained both his Baccalaureate in Aviation Business Administration (2000)
and Master of Business Administration in International Commerce (2006) from
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida. Jorge has also
obtained an unlimited Contracting Officer's Warrant from Air Force Materiel
Command, completed Air Command and Staff College, and attended the Program
on Negotiations Certificate Program at Harvard Law School.

Andy joined the People Ops team at Techstars to help scale our employee training and development programs.Most recently, Andy spent 2 years providing internal operational support to our accelerator programs by helping improve systems, processes, training, tool development, and knowledge share. Before that, she spent 3 years helping establish the Austin and Cloud accelerator programs. Prior to joining Techstars, she led business case competitions and executive mentorship programs while attending the University of Denver. During her time in Denver, she gained experience with the challenges of scaling companies at RG2 Franchise Consulting, the Daniels Consulting Firm, and Biotrends™ International. Before earning her masters, she helped operate a small aviation company in Mexico City.Andy has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA with Management Consulting and a focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Chief Innovation Officer for the Texas Air National Guard. Alex has a distinguished career as an aviator flying multiple aircraft to include the F-16, MQ-1, and MQ-9 in combat operations around the world supporting Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, and Nomad Shadow. He is currently responsible for synchronizing and driving the innovation strategy within the Texas Military Department and acting as a liaison between academia, local businesses, and the DOD innovation ecosystem which includes AFWERX, Defense Innovation Unit, Air Education Training Command Technology Integration Detachment,  Pilot Training Next (PTN) program, and the Army Future Command. In addition, Alex also serves as an action officer for the disruptive innovation division under the Deputy Chief of Staff, Headquarters Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, leading a portfolio of over 80 projects and $200 million focused on:

• C4ISR
• Remotely Piloted Technology
• Manned-Unmanned Teaming
• Homeland Defense
• Emergency Disaster Response
  

Jennifer Marrs is the Director of Community Outreach for AFWERX Austin Hub, where she connects academia, technology companies, startup founders, and technology incubators/accelerators, to the U.S. Air Force innovation ecosystem. She is also a product manager at AFWERX where she is involved with due diligence on acceptance into the various AFWERX programs. She also leads ongoing support with product development, fundraising, and establishing key partnerships for portfolio companies as they scale. In addition to her role in AFWERX, she is currently a Captain in the Texas Air National Guard serving as the Chief Innovation Officer for the 136th Airlift Wing.
She graduated 2016 from the McCombs School of Business with a Masters in Science Technology Commercialization.

Brandon is senior in high school interning at ValorUp to gain entrepreneurial skills. His goal is to attend college. Brandon loves to socialize, learn new things, being outdoors, playing sports and working with vehicles. He enjoys challenges because of everything he learns overcoming them.