Leadership changes shook up the ranks of organizations that support the local innovation ecosystem in 2023. Organizations like Hack.Diversity and Greentown Labs said good-bye to their longtime leaders and welcomed new executives, some of which came from outside the Boston tech ecosystem. Meet these new Boston tech leaders you need to know heading into 2024.
Michelle De La Isla, CEO of Hack.Diversity
This nonprofit was founded in 2016 as a program within the New England Venture Capital Association to provide career and interview coaching to Black and Latino tech fellows and help them secure internships at local companies. Now Hack.Diversity, which has spun out into its own organization, has hired Michelle De La Isla as its new chief executive officer.
De La Isla served as the first Afro-Latina mayor of Topeka, Kansas from 2018 to 2022 and recently completed her master’s in public administration at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School. She also worked as managing director of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and the diversity and inclusion representative for Westar Energy.
The nonprofit said De La Isla’s priorities will include setting Hack.Diversity’s multi-year impact strategy and growing its collaborations.
Kevin Knobloch, CEO of Greentown Labs
The largest climatetech incubator in North America has brought on a former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Energy as its new CEO. Somerville-based Greentown Labs appointed Kevin Knobloch as its next chief executive to replace longtime leader Emily Reichert. Knobloch was most recently president of Knobloch Energy, an independent advisory and consulting firm.
"The climate crisis demands that we accelerate our collective pace of deployment and I look forward to collaborating with our startups, staff, and partners to support that acceleration," Knobloch said in a statement at the time.
Kerty Levy, managing director of Techstars Boston
Kerty Levy was already managing director of Techstars Crypto Boston. But in 2023, she took over as managing director of the Techstars Boston as well. Before moving to Boston, she was most recently managing director of Techstars Iowa. Levy said she has many connections to Boston. She got her MBA from Harvard Business School and has been involved in the startup ecosystem through the HBS network and through her own friends, business acquaintances and business deals.
Emiley Zalesky Lockhart, head of the BalanceBlue Lab
This year, the New England Aquarium is trying something new to support innovation in areas like fishing, farming, offshore wind and coastal resiliency. Its newly launched BalanceBlue Lab will support innovation in startups, but also corporate and industry technical advising. BalanceBlue Lab is already collaborating on a program to educate venture capitalists and angel investors about the scientific, environmental and business aspects of blue technology.
Emiley Zalesky Lockhart is the inaugural head of the BalanceBlue Lab. Prior to joining the aquarium, Lockhart was deputy general counsel and secretary at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She has also worked as a general counsel and policy director in the Massachusetts State Senate, VP and general counsel of the Boston 2024 initiative to host the Olympics and assistant attorney general for Massachusetts.
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