About Us

Sunny Madra, an experienced entrepreneur, has a track record of successful exits for the startups he founded. These exits include the sales of Autonomic to Ford Xtreme Labs to Pivotal, and most recently Definitive Intelligence to Groq. Currently, Sunny is leading GroqCloud.

Allison Hopkins has 35 years of experience as an HR business leader, advisor & investor working with start-ups, pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies.  Her choices have mostly led her to  companies that were attempting to change an industry and/or in hyper-growth mode.  

The most notable organizations she was a part of are E*Trade, Netflix, Palo Alto Networks and thredUP.  While being the Chief People Officer at thredUP she was also the COO for 2 years and led operations which included HR, distribution centers, customer service, logistics & industrial engineering.  She was also part of the team that took thredUP public.  

Prior to thredUP she was the SVP of HR at Palo Alto Networks and also assisted in taking them public.  She served as Vice President of Talent at Netflix, and Head of Human Resources at E*TRADE.  During her tenure all three companies experienced hyper global growth (Ranging from 180-10,000 people, $250M-$7B in revenue).  She was also the Founder and CEO of Core Elements, Inc., which provided human resources and internal communication consulting to global tech companies.  Core Elements was nominated 6 years in a row as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in Silicon Valley.  

She was nominated & elected to Leadership California and was awarded the YWCA’s prestigious Manager of the Year award. She has had numerous published articles and speaking engagements on the impact of human resources, communication and culture in business. 

Dr. Ford Tamer served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Inphi for nine years until its recent $10B+ merger with Marvell. Under Dr. Tamer’s stewardship, Inphi became the trusted market leader for electro-optics solutions for cloud and telecom operators, increasing revenue from these customers more than 20 times during his tenure, to an annual run rate of about $750 million.

Prior to Inphi, Dr. Tamer served as CEO of Telegent Systems. Before this, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom’s Infrastructure Networking Group, which he grew five-fold to $1.2 billion in revenue within five years, making that business the uncontested leader in infrastructure silicon solutions. He also served as co-founder and CEO of Agere Inc., which pioneered Network Processors (now at Intel as the Ixia product line). After Agere was acquired by Lucent Microelectronics, Dr. Tamer became Vice President at Agere Systems, a spin-off from Lucent. Earlier in his career, Dr. Tamer co-founded, operated, and assisted in the growth of system management software, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy businesses. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Marvell, Teradyne, and Sentons. Dr. Tamer holds a MS and Ph.D. from MIT.

Youngme Moon is the Donald K. Douglas Professor of Business at Harvard Business School, where her research sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and marketing. A renowned branding and marketing strategist, she is the author of the bestselling book, Different, and has sold more than two million case studies on companies sprawling the digital economy. She has spent more than a decade advising, investing in, and guiding fledgling companies with disruptive potential. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mastercard, Unilever, Warby Parker, Sweetgreen, Shoop, Basic.Space, and others. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, and her B.A. from Yale. Prior to joining HBS, she was on the faculty of MIT.

Mr. Simard brings an innovative skill set in technology provider relations and commercialization of technology transfer products within the cybersecurity realm that directly relates to NIST requirements. His expertise was gained over 30 years while working in NSA IAD, where he dedicated himself to continue to improve the security of cyberspace. With a keen ability to support cybersescurity efforts early in their concept phases through development and implementation, combined with strong technical direction capabilities, he is well equipped to provide guidance on achieving a balance between mission and assurance needs to increase the potential for operational use. He will be instrumental in achieving the goals presented by Task Order #2, Building Block Development and Demonstration.

Ms. Teresa L. Smetzer’s career has spanned both the public and private sectors, focused on accelerating the identification and adoption of industry leading digital technologies with the goal of modernizing, advancing, and transforming national security missions. She served over 20 years at the CIA as a technical analyst, senior manager, and most recently as the Director of Digital Futures in the Directorate of Digital Innovation. She previously founded and led Jasmah Consulting until its acquisition by LMI. Earlier in her career, Ms. Smetzer served on the White House Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. She is also the former VP of National Security Programs for Salesforce.

Karen S. Evans is the Managing Director for the Cyber Readiness Institute, which empowers small and medium-sized organizations with free resources to improve cybersecurity. As a three-time Presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed executive, Evans has over 30 years of experience in cybersecurity, national security, technology innovation, service delivery, and supply chain risk management. She served as the first Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response at the US Department of Energy, and has supported numerous agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture and Executive Office of the President at the Office of Management and Budget. Evans also established the US Cyber Challenge, a private-sector nonprofit that partners with universities to train hundreds of cyber experts, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the National Cybersecurity Center and Advisory Boards.

Pete Tseronis worked inside the U.S. Federal Government for 25 years, kicking-off his career at the Pentagon and finishing as a Senior Executive Service member. Pete served four Presidential Administrations, three Cabinet Agencies, the Executive Office of the President, and was appointed Chief Technology Officer at two cabinet-level agencies, the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Education.

An accomplished entrepreneur, business executive, and technology strategist with 30+ years leading public, private, and non-profit entities, Pete maintains several Strategic Advisory Board roles, an appointment to the Internet of Things Advisory Board, and is the Utility Supercluster Chairperson. He also founded Dots and Bridges® to serve as a unique nexus for “Connecting Dots and Building Bridges.” 

Pete received his B.A. in Communications from Villanova University and earned his M.S. in Information and Telecommunication Systems from Johns Hopkins University. Most importantly, Pete is blessed with an incredible wife (Betsy) and four amazing children (Jacob, Joshua, Gabrielle, and Zachary), in addition to an Australian Labradoodle (Phineas Maximus Tseronis).

Medin has been part of the Internet development community for almost 40 years. He recently left Google where he was the vice president of access services. During his time there, he worked on a number of projects to improve access to the Internet, building both fiber and wireless networks, and in shaping spectrum policy and products.

Medin holds several patents in the field of network access technology, and sat on the FCC’s Technical Advisory Committee, and Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. From 2016 to 2022, he served on the Defense Innovation Board, which is chartered to provide recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to drive more innovation and agility in how the department achieves its mission.