Announcing Minnestar’s Newest Board Members

Fredrick Blocton (President of UPNet CSG) has over 30 years experience in entrepreneurship and executive level technology implementation worldwide, designing and developing technology solutions for a variety of corporate, construction and K-12 markets. Past clients include Arne Duncan (former US Secretary of Education), Chicago Public Schools, Dr. Clinton Stapleton, US Virgin Islands, Dr. Mary Guinn, Gary Community School Corporation, Medtronic, and General Mills, US Bank Stadium, and Super Bowl 52.

In addition to his extensive technology experience, Fredrick has a passion for supporting the unique needs of individuals and organizations through his volunteer efforts. He is Chairman of the Board for 180 Degrees, president of the Twin Cities Chapter of BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates), and serves on the BDPA foundation board. He has volunteered with 100 Men strong, Achieve Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Schools, and he is on the board of Osiris Organization which delivers technology training to youth at 36 Recreational Centers in the City of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

He is the current President of UpNet Client Solutions Group; Fredrick holds a degree in Computer Engineering Technology from FIT.

Charles Edge is the CTO of bootstrappers.mn. He holds 35 years of experience as a developer, administrator, network architect, product manager, entrepreneur, and CTO. He is the author of 20 books and more than 6,000 blog posts on technology, and has served as an editor and author for many publications. Charles also serves on the board of directors for a number of companies and non-profits, and frequently speaks at conferences including DefCon, BlackHat, LinuxWorld, the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and a number of Apple-focused conferences. Charles is also the author of krypted.com and a cofounder/host of the MacAdmins Podcast and The History Of Computing podcast.

Eve Poeschl works at Boston Scientific within Interventional Cardiology, and provides broad strategic leadership over the WATCHMAN digital portfolio. She has an entrepreneurial mindset and broad knowledge of technology, with a strong perspective for digital strategy. Eve is active in the community and passionate about diversity and inclusion in tech. She holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, and has worked as a network engineer, developer, solutions architect, and managed teams over the past 20 years.

She founded ServerlessMN, a monthly meetup group dedicated to curating a local community for serverless technology enthusiasts. She’s a judge for the Minnesota Cup High Tech division, a part of the Lunar Startups Expert Network, and is co-founder of MNclude, a safe and supportive group within the technology industry in MN committed to taking actionable steps toward building a diverse, equitable and inclusive tech community. Over the past several years, Eve was a board member for TechnovationMN, current judge for The Minnesota Cup High Tech Division, and a part of the Lunar Startups Expert Network. Eve also made the 40 under 40 list published by the Minneapolis Business Journal in 2020.

Lizzie Breyer Bowman is the managing director for national marketing and marketing capabilities at American Public Media. In this role, she is responsible for marketing for all of APM’s national radio and podcast programs. Prior to joining APM, Lizzie worked as an independent marketing consultant, working with large CPG companies and early-stage startups, and she also spent almost 8 years at General Mills. She holds an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BA in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her pre-MBA career was spent in journalism, at newspapers such as The New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

For the past 8 years, Lizzie has served as the co-chair of the Minneapolis board for No Kid Hungry, the largest national non-profit dedicated to ending childhood hunger. She has a passion for creating greater equity and access to the most important building blocks for future success: food, shelter, education, and technology.

Jenessa White is a Software Engineer at ConvertKit living in Minneapolis. She’s a semi-professional athlete who loves listening to hot takes on tech, music, sports, and food. She has served as treasurer for the UMN Black Student Union as well as Voices Merging, a group promoting urban art in the Twin Cities. They are also active in the Twin Cities community and believe technology can help create change.