Toolkit

Sarah Olson

Executive Director

Sarah Olson is the Executive Director of Minnestar. She has over 25 years of development experience in all aspects of software (frontend, backend, mobile, middleware, database). Much of that experience included working for local companies such as Cargill, Optum, Thomson Reuters, and The Nerdery. For the past decade, she focused on mobile development, most notably as a senior engineer on both the iOS and Android apps for Trello at Atlassian.

Sarah is a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion and equity in tech. She has spoken at conferences and for local companies about DE&I and volunteered for groups such as Girl Develop It and App Camp for Girls. She started the Twin Cities network of Women Who Code in 2015 and served as Director of that chapter for three years. She also co-founded two non-profits focused on diversifying tech, MNclude and Nova Code Collective.

Valerie Lockhart

Valerie is a multi-media technologist focused on universal design for individualized experiences. She is also Founder of the MN Women in Tech and Executive Director of Code Savvy.

Matt Decuir

Matt is a software engineer and entrepreneur who gravitates towards community problems. Since moving to Minneapolis from Seattle ten years ago, he founded Invisible Network, co-founded OMG Transit, organized Mpls Jr Devs, and created Break The Bubble. He identifies as a Minnestar superfan, and has attended, volunteered at, and spoken at dozens of events in the past. His passion for making our community a more welcoming and inclusive place is only rivaled by his love of pizza (despite being dairy free).

Robert Tomb

Robert Tomb has been messing around with technology since the early days of his career in the 90s. He is a long-time Minnestar community member and volunteer, having organized JavascriptMN, and has been the first volunteer you see when you show up at a Minnestar event for many, many years. Robert is Director of Engineering at Shipt and has a passion for developing talent.

Kevin Jansen

Kevin has spent the past 25 years acquiring, operating, and selling businesses for his own personal financial gain or the financial benefit of his partners or clients. He has a particular passion for entrepreneurial businesses from start-up to $25 million in revenue. His professional experience includes selling 26 companies for others, raising $1 billion through four public offerings of securities, and personally acquiring and operating a 25-employee company that returned 109x his initial investment upon exit three years post-acquisition. Kevin is a three-time cancer survivor, published author, avid traveler, and father of five as part of a blended family.

Tim Herby

Tim is President and Chief Revenue Officer of Fountane, a global technology partner and venture studio. He has been a part of the Twin Cities tech community for over fifteen years, and has had the opportunity to work with many of our leading corporations as an employee, a consultant, and as a business leader. A proud graduate of the Humphrey School of Public Policy, Tim has a passion for public – private partnerships, joint ventures, and building capacity and equity into our economic systems through creative means like the Access Point Program. Proud husband, and golden retriever dad, he adores spending time with family and friends, supporting our tech entrepreneurship community, and competing in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Kathryn Frengs

Kathryn Frengs currently works with the Target Technology team as the Editor in Chief of the Tech @ Target blog, and has previously led internal communication efforts for technology executives at both Optum and Target. She has a passion for storytelling and working with technologists to bring stories about their work to life, and she loves partnering with engineers and leaders on change management, speechwriting, and team communication. Her past experience includes roles in marketing and communications at Google, Apple, and a number of startups in the Silicon Valley area and Europe. Kathryn has a particular drive to work on diversity, equity, and accessibility issues in technology and looks forward to doing so with the Minnestar community.

Heather Mickman

Heather Mickman is VP Platform Engineering + Practices at Optum. Throughout her career, she has built APIs to unlock enterprise data, created awesome platforms, led Ops organizations, and built supply chain software for Fortune 50 companies. Heather has a passion for technology, building high performing teams, driving a culture of innovation, and having fun along the way.

Charles Edge

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.

Fredrick Blocton

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.

Caroline Karanja

Caroline Karanja is the founder and CEO of 26 Letters, a technology enabled equity and inclusion company. Using data, insight and learning opportunities, 26 Letters helps address equity in education and helps organizations understand and incorporate, diversity, equity and inclusion in their attraction, recruiting and advancement efforts. Caroline is also active in the local entrepreneurial and technology ecosystem. She is on the board of the U-YMCA and participates in the community to encourage more youth people to explore their entrepreneurial ventures.

Eve Poeschl

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

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.

Damien Riehl

Damien Riehl is a technology lawyer and technologist with experience in software design, data privacy, and cybersecurity. Damien has 15 years’ experience working for judges and firms on complex litigation. His practice experience includes data privacy (CIPP/US), patents, copyright, trademarks, business torts, breaches of contract, antitrust, financial litigation, and appeals.

In addition to legal practice, Damien began programming in 1985, started web design and development since 1995, designed software by leading a dev team in Lean and Agile processes, and recently began dabbling in Python to perform Natural Language Processing. Damien is currently a Vice President and Engagement Manager at Stroz Friedberg (an Aon company), managing digital forensics and cybersecurity engagements to bolster clients’ data security and resilience — both reactively and proactively.

Lindsi Gish

Lindsi Gish is the founder and owner of gish&co.—a small strategic communications and digital marketing firm in Minneapolis. She’s also a former nonprofiteer, insatiable problem solver, digital enthusiast, Jane-of-many-trades, and self-aware extrovert. After spending a number of years at a regional nonprofit, followed by a global PR firm, Lindsi saw an opportunity to use her significant experience and robust network to develop creative approaches to solve communications and marketing challenges for nonprofits and small businesses—efficiently and cost-effectively. Founded in 2014, gish&co. does just that.

Lindsi also serves on the board of directors for Still Kickin, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that helps awesome people get through awful things, and is a former board member of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) where she was Director of Programming. She was an early participant in such community events as Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul, is a proud Fueled Collective (COCO) member, and attended her first Minnebar in 2007.

Jeff Sellner

Jeff Sellner is a principal at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP. Since joining the firm in 1998, Jeff’s practice focuses on providing consulting, tax and assurance services to software developers, life sciences, technology and other high growth businesses. He has experience working with entrepreneurs on various issues including business strategies, profitability modeling, capital planning, intellectual property management, risk mitigation and succession planning. Jeff leads the firm’s technology industry group and has been a speaker on topics such as strategic and business planning, raising capital, entrepreneurship and starting a business.

Jenna Pederson

Jenna Pederson is a Principal Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services. She works to empower developers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to bring their idea to life through technology. Jenna is a community builder at heart and is passionate about making space for more underrepresented folks in tech and entrepreneurship to come as their full selves. She is a proud Co-founder Emeritus of Hack the Gap, led the Twin Cities Geekettes for a number of years, and served on the City of Saint Paul’s Innovation Cabinet developing a strategy for job and business growth around technology and innovation in Saint Paul. For nearly a decade, Jenna was founder and principal engineer of 612 Software Foundry, where she helped entrepreneurs make their product ideas a reality.