Phyllis Newhouse
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Phyllis Newhouse has served as our Chief Executive Officer since inception. Ms. Newhouse is known as a pioneer in cybersecurity. Ms. Newhouse is an entrepreneur, retired military senior non-commissioned officer, mentor, founder and Chief Executive Officer of XtremeSolutions, Inc., an Atlanta-based cybersecurity firm (“XSI”), and a founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Athena Technology Acquisition Corp., a blank check company focused on identifying acquisitions of business in technology, direct to consumer and fintech industries. While serving in the United States Army on various assignments, Ms. Newhouse focused on national security and worked on several projects, which outlined the Cyber Espionage Task Force. After her service in the army, Ms. Newhouse founded XSI in 2002, which offers a wide range of IT expertise and provides industry leading, state-of-the-art information technology and cybersecurity services and solutions. XSI has employees in 42 states, with 40% of its workforce made up of veterans. In 2019, Ms. Newhouse founded ShoulderUp, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting and supporting women in their entrepreneurial journeys. Ms. Newhouse currently serves on the board of directors of the Technology Association of Georgia, is a member of the Business Executives for National Security, and since April 2021, has served on the Board of Directors of the Sabre Corporation. She also serves on the executive board and is a member of the Women President Organization. Ms. Newhouse also serves on the Board of Directors of Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization that encourages all girls to be “Strong, Smart, and Bold.” Ms. Newhouse received her B.A. in Liberal Arts Science from Saint Leo College in 1986, she is a graduate of the Institute of Entrepreneurial Leadership program sponsored by John F. Kennedy University, and she received an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from CICA International University.
Grace Vandecruze
CFO
CFO of ShoulderUpTechnology Acquisition Corp and the Founder and Managing Director at Grace Global Capital, a consulting firm providing M&A financial advisory, restructuring, and valuation services. Grace has extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions and capital raising with over 20 years of experience as an investment banking managing director and over $25bln in transactions. Prior to joining Swiss Re, she was a managing partner at Swiss Re and Vice President at a private equity firm. Grace is a CPA who began her career working in public accounting with EY and Grant Thornton.
Rashaun Williams
Chief Financial Officer
Rashaun Williams is a former investment banker turned venture capitalist/technology executive and adjunct professor at Morehouse College. With over 150 investments under his belt and over 40 exits, Mr. Williams is currently an executive at Heliogen the fastest growing renewable energy technology company and general partner in the MVP All-Star Fund, a late stage tech fund. Previously he founded venture capital fund Queensbridge Venture Partners where he was an early investor in companies like Robinhood, Coinbase, Casper, Ring, PillPack, Lyft & Dropbox. Over the last twenty years he has been primarily responsible for bringing capital to emerging, diverse and alternative markets while working at Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, Wachovia Securities & Deutsche Bank. In 2007 he founded Dixsville Partners, a private equity fund investing in infrastructure development and mineral companies in West Africa. Mr. Williams has successfully started, invested in and exited several companies. With a passion for financial literacy and entrepreneurship Mr. Williams founded the Kemet Institute in 2001, a non-profit focused on providing free financial literacy, entrepreneurship and life skills classes to under-served communities and schools. In 2015 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees for Fisk University. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. and summa cum laude graduate of Morehouse College.
Sandra Campos
Senior Strategic Advisor
Sandra Campos is a 3x CEO and 2x Founder in retail and retail technology. She is the CEO of Project Verte, a supply chain technology company, founder of Fashion Launchpad, an edtech platform and has led global lifestyle brands up to $1bn in retail revenues. Ms. Campos has been instrumental in operational turnarounds, digital transformation, and international expansion. Previously, she was the CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Global Group President of Juicy Couture, Bebe, and BCBG, and has spent the past twenty years of her career accelerating global growth through omni-channel initiatives, distributor and franchise partnerships, and operational discipline. As an entrepreneur, she created one of the original celebrity brand management companies and launched Selena Gomez’s lifestyle collection across fourteen categories with $100M in annual retail sales over the course of six years.
Ms. Campos is an advisor for ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp, and is on the Board of Directors for Big Lots and national non-profit Girls, Inc. She also advises CPG founders and retail tech & AI startups and is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist across the globe. She has been named a Latina of Influence, a Female Founders Alliance Champion, a top 100 Latina Leaders, Top Líderes in Business, and a Top Woman in Retail.
Tom Killalea
Senior Strategic Advisor
Tom Killalea is a seasoned technology executive with deep expertise in product development, digital innovation, distributed systems, and security.
Tom is an advisor to technology-driven companies. From 1998 to 2014, he served in various leadership roles at Amazon, most recently as its Vice President of Technology for the Kindle Content Ecosystem. He previously led Amazon’s Infrastructure and Distributed Systems team, which later became a key part of the Amazon Web Services Platform. Prior to that, he was Amazon’s first Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of Security.
Tom is MongoDB's board chair and is also on the boards of Akamai and Capital One. He previously was on the boards of Xoom and Carbon Black. He also serves on the editorial board of ACM Queue (Association for Computing Machinery), and the Technology Advisory Panel of Enterprise Ireland.
Dr. Chenxi Wang
Senior Strategic Advisor
Dr. Chenxi Wang is the Founder and General Partner of Rain Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund focused on Enterprise Software and Cybersecurity investments. A well-known operator, technologist, and thought leader in the Cybersecurity industry, Dr. Wang is a member of the Board of Directors for MDU Resources, a Fortune 500 company. She also serves on the board of advisors for SC media, Secure Code Warrior, Athena Technology Acquisition Corp, and a number of other startups. Previously, Chenxi was Vice-Chair on the global board of directors for the OWASP Foundation, the largest security professional's consortium in the world. Prior to that, Chenxi was Chief Strategy Officer at Twistlock, VP of strategy for Intel Security, and VP of research for Forrester. Chenxi was named by Cyber Risk Alliance and Women Tech Founders as Women Investor of 2021 and 2019. She was recognized as a Women-of-Influence by the SC Magazine, a top trade media for the Cybersecurity industry.
Chenxi’s career began as a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, where she helped found the Cybersecurity Lab of Carnegie Mellon. Chenxi is a trusted advisor to IT executives and a sought-after keynote speaker. She has headlined events worldwide and been featured by top media outlets for her thought leadership work. Chenxi is a Forbes contributor and writes a column for Dark Reading. Chenxi holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.
Vincent Stewart
Chairman of the Board
Since 2020, Mr. Stewart has served as the Chief Innovation and Business Intelligence Officer of Ankura, Inc. Since 2019, Mr. Stewart has served as the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Stewart Global Solutions LLC, an international consulting company focused on cybersecurity, geopolitical intelligence, strategic planning and crisis management services. Since 2021, Mr. Stewart has served as a partner of Pine Island Capital Partners, providing strategic advice to direct investment in innovative companies best suited for addressing current national security challenges in the cybersecurity and intelligence sectors. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Stewart was Lieutenant General in the U.S. Marine Corps who also served as Deputy Director at United States Cyber Command during his final tour of duty. From 2015 to 2017, he served as the twentieth Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He has served as a director of the Board of American Public Education, Inc. since May 2021 and as a director of KBR, Inc. since June 2021. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit corporation, since September 2020. He earned his Baccalaureate Degree from Western Illinois University, and earned his Masters’ Degrees in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, Newport, R.I. and in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington, D.C.
Stacey Abrams
Director
Stacey Abrams has served as the chief executive officer, chief financial officer and secretary of Sage Works Production, Inc. In addition, Ms. Abrams has served as the founder and executive director of Southern Economic Advancement Project since 2019. From 2007 to 2017, Ms. Abrams served as a State Representative of the Georgia General Assembly and as the minority leader from 2011 to 2017. She has been the chief executive officer of Sage Works, LLC since September 2002. She previously served as the chief executive officer of the Third Sector Development from August 1998 until March 2019, as a Senior Vice President of NOWaccount Network Corporation from 2010 to 2016 and as Secretary from 2012 to 2016. Ms. Abrams is also a New York Times best-selling author. Ms. Abrams received a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Spelman College, a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and a J.D. from Yale University.
Lauren Anderson
Director
Since 2013, Ms. Anderson has served as the Chief Executive Officer of LC Anderson International Consulting. She previously held various leadership roles within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) over a nearly thirty-year career where she spearheaded investigations and operations, domestically and internationally, in 24 countries. Since February 2021, Ms. Anderson has served as an Independent Director for Imageware, a public biometrics technology company. Ms. Anderson has served an advisor to the U.S. Comptroller General at the Government Accountability Office on international security, intelligence, criminal justice, law enforcement, and women’s leadership and as an advisor with Stellar Solutions, a global-systems engineering service provider since January 2021. Ms. Anderson has an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from LIM College and holds a B.A. in Psychology from Muhlenberg College. She has completed executive programs at each of Harvard Business School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Cambridge Judge Business School, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany.
Danelle Barrett
Director
Since 2020, Ms. Barrett has served as a Principal at Deep Water Point, a government management consulting firm. From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Barrett served as the Navy Cyber Security Division Director and Deputy Chief Information Officer on the Chief of Naval Operations staff where she led the Navy’s strategic development and execution of digital and cyber security efforts, enterprise information technology improvements and cloud policy and governance for 700K personnel across a global network. From 2015 to 2017, Ms. Barrett served as the Director of Current Operations at U.S. Cyber Command. Ms. Barrett has served as an Independent Director on the boards of KVH Industries, Inc. since June 2020, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York since November 2020, and Protego Trust Bank, N.A. since February 2021. Ms. Barrett earned a B.A. in History from Boston University where she received her commission as an officer from the U. S. Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps. She holds Masters of Arts in Management and Human Resource Development from Webster University, a Master of Arts in National Security Strategic Studies, from U.S. Naval War College, and a Master of Science in Information Management from Syracuse University.
Shawn Henry
Director
Since April 2012, Mr. Henry has served as President of CrowdStrike Services and Chief Security Officer of CrowdStrike, Inc. (“CrowdStrike”), leading a world-class team of cybersecurity professionals in investigating and mitigating targeted attacks on corporate and government networks globally. Prior to joining CrowdStrike, from 1989 to 2012, Mr. Henry worked at the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (the “FBI”), where he oversaw half of the FBI’s investigative operations, including all FBI criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, international operations, and the FBI’s critical incident response to major investigations and disasters. He also oversaw computer crime investigations spanning the globe and received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive for his leadership in enhancing the FBI’s cyber capabilities. Henry lectures at leading universities and is a faculty member at the National Association of Corporate Directors. Mr. Henry has served on the Advisory Boards of the Georgetown University Law Center Cybersecurity Law Institute since 2016, DoControl since 2020, the Anti-Defamation League Center for Technology and Society since 2016, and the Hofstra University School of Engineering and Applied Science since 2012. Mr. Henry has served on the Board of the Global Cyber Alliance since 2015. Mr. Henry earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Hofstra University and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. Additionally, Mr. Henry is a graduate of the Homeland Security Executive Leadership Program of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Janice Bryant Howroyd
Director
Since September 1978, Ms. Howroyd has served as the founder and chief executive officer of the ActOne Group, an international talent and technology enterprise focusing on employment and talent management solutions. Ms. Howroyd has served as a board member of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, as well as the Women’s Business Enterprise National Counsel Global Business Committee, where she works to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses. Ms. Howroyd previously served on the Board of Advisors for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Obama Administration. Ms. Howroyd also served on the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on diversity and digital empowerment to encourage women and minorities to create digital enterprises. Ms. Howroyd received a B.A. in English from North Carolina A&T State University.