Neel Anand is a sophomore at Wilmington Charter High School. He became President of First Hack Delaware Chapter in 2016. Neel has taught grade school students how to code their own games and start to explore Java. Neel is also on the core Learn.Lead.Launch! team and is hoping to bring coding skills to local students
Ryan Haydu has earned advanced degrees which include a Master of Arts in Communication and a Master of Business Administration. He has an extensive background in business management, sales, training, analytics and leading teams. He also has experience teaching Effective Public Speaking at the college level, participated in Toastmasters and gives presentations on a routine basis. Ryan lives in Delaware with his wife and three daughters.
John Himics is a partner at First Ascent Design, a digital marketing firm in Wilmington, Delaware. He built his first website over a decade ago and has been a tinkerer ever since. A mechanical engineer by training and programmer by passion, he applies his knowledge of lean systems to develop clean and effective websites and applications that deliver on business goals. John has contributed to tech publications and taught programming classes in Wilmington. He also teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing at the University of Delaware Horn Program.
Mac Nagaswami is the founder and CEO of Carvertise – an OOH Media-tech company that specializes in car advertising. Founded in 2012, Carvertise has been servicing major institutions in the mid-Atlantic such as University of Delaware, Thomas Jefferson Hospital, ShopRite, the State of Delaware, and Wilmington University. Mac graduated cum laude from the University of Delaware in 2014 with a B.S. in Finance.
Meghan Pasricha is Co-Founder& CEO of Global Youth H.E.L.P. Inc., a nonprofit organization that trains young people to become leaders in their communities through service. In 2001, Pasricha worked to mobilize youth for the successful passage of Delaware’s Statewide Smoking Ban. Pasricha currently works at a private equity firm in NYC while earning her MBA at Harvard Business School to train young people to become leaders in their community. She believes that young people are not the leaders of tomorrow, we can be leaders today.
Mona Parikh currently serves as Adjunct Professor and Tech Community Liaison at the University of Delaware Horn Program in Entrepreneurship, and Managing Director for Start It Up Delaware at the Coin Loft. She is the lead organizer of Startup Weekend Delaware and the Delaware Tech Meetup, which took home the award for Tech Meetup of the year in 2016. Last year, in addition, she was selected to represent Delaware as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention. This year, she was asked to serve on the transition team for New Castle County Exec Matt Meyer, and she also served on the economic development task force at the request of Gov John Carney. Prior to her startup-ecosystem-building-life, Mona spent seven and a half years as a corporate restructuring lawyer in Wilmington. She serves on the board of directors for Downtown Visions as well as the Charter School of Wilmington.
Kris Vaddi, Ph.D. is a drug discovery scientist and the founder of two cancer focused startup companies Prelude Therapeutics and Orsenix, and a not-for-profit venture Sidus Healthcare. Prior to his new ventures, Kris had a 14-year career at Incyte starting as a founding scientist and championed the discovery of Jakafi® (ruxolotinib) for Myelofibrosis and Polycythemia Vera and Olumiant® (Baricitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis. Kris started his career as a post-doctoral fellow at DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company. Kris received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from APAU in India and his Ph.D. from Univ of Florida. Kris is a passionate advocate for youth entrepreneurship, serves on the board of Horn Center for Entrepreneurship at Univ. of Delaware and mentors UD students pursuing startup ventures. He lives in Chadds Ford, PA with his wife Lakshmi and two sons, Tej and Neel.
