Power Moves: GreenLight Fund names Ryan Turner as executive director for Baltimore

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

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GreenLight Fund named a leader for its Baltimore site this week.

Ryan Turner will serve as executive director for the venture philanthropy org in Baltimore, which is the multi-city organization’s 10th expansion site.

Turner, who is a Baltimore native, most recently led Community Law in Action as executive director. The youth leadership and advocacy organization developed a youth diversion initiative, and merged with fellow nonprofit The Intersection last year. Turner also founded literacy-focused nonprofit the Akoben Foundation and served as its executive director.

With GreenLight Fund, Turner will lead an effort to bring social innovations to Baltimore that have a focus on addressing racial disparities and helping children and families. The org’s model is centered on bringing solutions that have proven to work nationally to the local communities where it works. It formally expanded to Baltimore in January with the backing of more than 80 local philanthropists and businesses.

“GreenLight’s commitment to partnering with the community and leveraging an authentic lens of equity draws me to this work,” Turner said in a statement. “Baltimore deserves authentic, innovative and equitable-centered programs that work with residents to improve communities. I am proud to be a homegrown Baltimorean assisting in the process of creating change for my city.”

To provide structure to that community partnership, Turner will convene a selection advisory council made up of residents and community leaders to work with GreenLight through its process of selecting projects to bring to Baltimore. In turn, the local branch of GreenLight will seek out national social innovations to bring to Baltimore, who will then be provided with resources to be locally sustainable, the org said. The vetting process typically takes place over a year.

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A recent White House appointment included a familiar leader in Maryland’s research community.

Laurie E. Locascio, who is VP of research for the University of Maryland campuses in College Park and Baltimore, was nominated by President Joe Biden as the under secretary for standards and technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

It’s not the first time she will be up for a federal role. Locascio previously served at the Gaithersburg-based National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she led internal scientific research and laboratory programs across two of the agency’s campuses.

At the University of Maryland, she helmed what has been a decade-long effort to bring together researchers from the two campuses. In fiscal year 2019, the combined effort attracted more than $1 billion in research spending, vaulting it up the National Science Foundation rankings to a top-20 spot.

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ETC-based digital CRM agency Response Labs made the latest addition to its team this month with the hiring of Sydney Caldwell as account supervisor.

Caldwell will join the agency’s client services team, leading campaigns and projects. She brings over a decade of digital marketing consulting and campaign management experience, most recently working in the healthcare marketing industry.

“The needs of our clients continues to increase each month and we need top talent who are able to jump in and run from the start,” said Jen Aldinger, the recently-hired director of client service at Response Labs, in a statement. “Sydney fits that role incredibly well and we’re beyond excited to have her join the team.”

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Over at citybiz, we spotted a hire at Baltimore-rooted management consulting firm Think Systems that seems poised to drive further tech people moves.

Lauren Elphick Kistner was appointed director of strategic hiring at Think. The firm’s area of strategic hiring is focused around recruiting and hiring tech execs and professionals.

Kistner previously worked as VP of talent acquisition and employee retention at a government contracting firm, and also had previous roles at C2 Research Group, G1440 and MRI Global Search.

“Lauren brings to Think an outstanding track record of finding talent as a senior recruiter and business development executive,” said Bryan Wolbert, the EVP and COO at Think who created the division, in a statement. “She offers strong connections in government agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, which is an area that can benefit from Think’s expertise.”

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Baltimore advanced materials company Pixelligent named Wayne Rehberger to its advisory board.

Rehberger is a corporate finance expert, having built finance organizations at public and private companies. This included a stint as CFO and COO at XO Communications, where he led a restructuring that resulted in an acquisition by Icahn Enterprises in 2002, and managing mergers and acquisitions. He also serves on the boards of QTS Realty Trust, Fusion Connect, and Abt Associates, as well as the advisory board of SAP National Security Services, a subsidiary of SAP.

“With outstanding corporate finance experience, as well as a keen operations and business development mindset, he has helped high-growth companies scale and build significant value for stakeholders,” Pixelligent CEO Craig Bandes said in a statement. “His expertise will be invaluable as we transition to volume production on a global scale and position Pixelligent for rapid and profitable growth in our served markets.”

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Hutch, the digital services incubator founded by downtown software firm Fearless, created a new advisory board of members with experience working at the intersection of tech and government. Their goal: to assist in growing the three-year-old Hutch program as it in turn works to grow the number of minority-owned digital services firms.

“I am excited to work with this incredible, dynamic group of leaders, experienced entrepreneurs and experts to grow the Hutch program<” Hutch Program Manager Stephanie Chin said in a statement. “There is tremendous opportunity to diversify not only the tech talent pool, but to create more minority-owned companies to compete in the government marketplace to bring new innovations to transform the way Americans access and engage with critical government services.”

Members of the advisory board include:

• Carla Briceno, CEO and cofounder, Bixal
• George Davis, EVP, Evergreen Advisors
• Koffi Harrison, president and founder, UpLight
• Robbie Holmes, director of digital services and software engineering, Prince William County, Virginia
• Marc Jones, general counsel, CivicActions
• Clair Koroma, chief of staff, U.S. Department of Defense
• Lauren Lockwood, founder and principal, Bloom Works
• Brent Maravilla, principal, Agile Buying LLC
• Celestine Pressley, chief information officer, Office of the United States Trade Representative
• Traci Walker, executive director, Digital Services Coalition
• Nichole Weems, portfolio director, Fearless
• Andrea Wright-Snader, VP of business development, Concept Plus