Power Moves: Onyx Point spinout Sicura promotes Lisa Umberger to CEO

Power Moves is a column where we chart the comings and goings of talent across the region. Got a new hire, gig or promotion? Email us: baltimore@technical.ly.

Lisa Umberger has been promoted to CEO of Sicura.

Kendall Moore will take over Umberger’s former position as the Baltimore cybersecurity company’s chief product officer. Sicura spun out of Onyx Point, an 11-year-old government contracting company from Hanover that focuses on IT infrastructure and security, in 2021.

Umberger takes the reins of a company whose engineers had spent three years developing its Sicura DevOps product, which was making nearly $1 million in revenue before even receiving outside investment, as Technical.ly reported in September.

“We’re DevOps nerds passionate about security and compliance, and we built the product we always wished we’d had,” Umberger said in a statement. “Now, we’re helping other companies, their teams and their customers prevent breaches and security drift while giving engineering and DevOps teams their time back.”

United Way has a new innovation exec

Laura Johnson. (Courtesy photo)

Laura Johnson has joined the United Way of Central Maryland as its new SVP and chief innovation and data research officer.

A statement provided to Technical.ly noted that she brings 25 years of nonprofit experience with organizations such as the National Summer Learning Association, the National Aquarium, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and The March of Dimes‘ Georgia chapter.

In her new position, Johnson will be designing and launching a new enterprise to address complex community challenges across United Way’s core areas of housing, health, economic advancement and education. In particular, she will oversee program research and development; marketing, innovation and partnerships; capacity building for nonprofits and community leaders; and the development of data-driven tools to inform community-wide decision making, per the org.

“There is power and promise in partnering with our neighbors as we rebuild, heal, and tackle the complex challenges of our time,” Johnson said in the statement. “It is an honor to serve the community I love and to join this organization as it enters its next 100 years of service — laser focused on accelerating community solutions.”

Chesapeake Conservancy hires a second senior data scientist

Michael Evans. (Courtesy photo)

Michael Evans, Ph.D., joins Data Science Lead/Senior Data Scientist Kumar Mainali, Ph.D. at the Annapolis-based Chesapeake Conservancy to advance the organization’s mission to conserve and restore the natural and cultural resources of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Both will work in the Conservation Innovation Center.

Evans comes to the organization with experience as conservation data scientist at Defenders of Wildlife. He earned his Ph.D. in natural resource management from the University of Connecticut.

Mainali and Evans will both work on a novel biodiversity mapping project that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to model future distribution of species in the Chesapeake Bay.

“We aim to build a set of machine learning models and AI systems to guide us in our conservation efforts at parcel level to protect the parcels today that will matter most to species in the future,” Mainali said in a statement.