Power Moves: What Anthony Vaughan brings to MindStand Technologies as new VP of partnerships

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.

Anthony Vaughan, the founder of the Harford County-based E1B2 Collective, has joined MindStand Technologies as VP of partnerships. He’ll bring his expertise in employee experience and building businesses through consulting and partnerships to the startup.

MindStand — which Technical.y named to its 2021 RealLIST Startups — was founded by former UMBC students to foster healthy online communities via artificial intelligence. This hire shows that the company is looking to partner with orgs to use its AI technology to root out harassment, hate speech and emotional distress in those communities.

“I’ve been living [strategic partnerships] day in and day out since the beginning of my existence as a professional,” Vaughan told Technical.ly. “The only food that I ate was the food I was willing to kill through these strategic partnerships. I bring another level of grit and strategic capability to the table.”

MindStand is currently in the Techstars Equitech Accelerator. Both Vaughn and MindStand CEO Michael Ogunsanya share a vision that the leaky-bucket scenario that leads to Black and brown people leaving or avoiding big tech firms can be fixed.

“I was excited [to join MindStand] because of Michael personally and what he’s trying to do and doing it so young,” Vaughan said. “At a product level and work level, I think creating more transparency, honest moments and inclusivity is always a really good idea.”

TEDCO hires Katherine Hill Ritchie as senior director

If you’re an early-stage founder looking for funding, there’s a new name to know in the VC game.

Katherine Hill Ritchie. (Courtesy photo)

As of this month, TEDCO, Maryland’s investment arm for tech companies, has a new senior director of venture funds: Katherine Hill Ritchie. In the role, she’ll be partnering with founders for early-stage investment, specifically those ranging from $500,000 to $2 million.

TEDCO said Hill Ritchie is a longtime pro in the investment world. In addition to her 19 years of work in the space, she founded investment firm Private Capital Investments, has been an angel investor and is a member of Citrine Angels and on the investment committee of the University Impact fund.

“As someone who grew up in Montgomery County and graduated from the University of Maryland, I am so excited to work with the team to focus on investing in and advancing early-stage innovators in my home state and also championing TEDCO’s social impact mission,” Hill Ritchie said in a statement.

Zuul has a new CEO

Columbia, Maryland-based cybersecurity firm Zuul has appointed John Parmley as the CEO to lead the company in market expansion. He brings his experience on revenue execution and building out sales teams from Claroty Inc., where he served as general manager of the Americas, along with experience as CEO of the USA arm of network security company Safe-T and area VP for Tufin Technologies.

“I am proud to lead Zuul as we deliver game-changing security solutions to the extraordinarily vulnerable and complex critical infrastructure market,” Parmley said in a statement. “By taking a multifaceted approach, emphasizing availability over recovery, Zuul enables security teams to protect the people, servers, devices and networks that underpin critical business functions, while also managing compensating controls that get lost within siloed security solutions.”