Power Moves: Meet Mia Millette, Skyline Technology Solutions’ new CEO

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

Mia Millette was promoted to the CEO role at Glen Burnie-based Skyline Technology Solutions in January, and is looking to spread a passion for technology and inspiration for women leaders in the region.

Millette stepped into the day-to-day leadership role after serving as COO of the IT integrator since 2018. She succeeds Skyline founder Brian Holsonbake, who will now serve as chairman and focus on long-term initiatives.

Already leading the operations, Millette added responsibility for the company’s financial health, as well as strategy.

“I’m excited for this next chapter and being an ambassador for all that is wonderful about Skyline and the technology industry,” she told Technical.ly.

Millette brings more than 20 years of experience in IT, having previously worked for GANTECH and System Automation Corporation. Her interest in tech, however, goes back to second grade and an early model Texas Instruments computer, when she coded a sequence that led to a figure dancing across the screen. She credits her second grade teacher, who was a woman, with inspiring her, and it has led her to seek to pass on that spark to the next generation of women in STEM.

“I hope to lead by example,” she said. “I think there is nothing more powerful than modeling what we hope to see in others. I love working with teams as they navigate complex challenges. I hope that other women see that it is OK to be uncomfortable, it is OK to lead, and it is OK to be the only woman in the room — I encourage everyone, no matter your walk of life, to lean in and show everyone what you’ve got.”

That includes work at the company, when she meets with the team. It also includes work in the community.

“I enjoy spending time with our influential young professionals, particularly women in the organization. As leaders, we all have a hand in encouraging their journey,” she said. “I also feel strongly about one of the cornerstones Skyline’s culture: providing 40 humanitarian hours to each employee annually. I personally utilize that time to deliver presentations, seminars, and speaking engagements with a variety of youth STEM programs.”

Skyline was founded in 2004, and has worked with clients in transportation industry, state IT departments and schools, among other organizations. It has 250 employees. Check out its open roles.

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A nonprofit that has emerged in recent years as an organizing force for the state’s cybersecurity ecosystem has a new executive director.

Tasha Cornish was introduced this week as the new leader of the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI). Based in Baltimore’s Locust Point neighborhood, the 600-member org provides programming and networking opportunities, and has advocated for cyber industry-supported legislation at the the government level.

Cornish brings a background working in nonprofits in public health and social services, having served as executive director of St. Mary’s Outreach Center in Baltimore. In this role, she will be applying skills in fundraising, community outreach, data analysis and partnership management. She also saw the importance of cybersecurity as healthcare systems worked to comply with regulations to protect data and got to know others working in the cyber industry. Cybersecurity has become especially important in the pandemic, amid the shift to remote work and more reliance on digital tools.

Tasha Cornish. (Courtesy photo)

That led CAMI to create a resource called the Cyber SWAT Team, which offers a hotline for businesses and connections to cyber pros in its membership in the event of a breach. Cornish said that initiative remains important in 2021 as the pandemic continues.

Though it emanates from the talent clustered around the federal government’s cyber base at Fort Meade, the state’s cyber community extends around the state, and ranges from firms working on national security to startups offering tools to protect business data. Cornish wants to put CAMI’s strength of “connecting and convening” across cyber, tech, government and education toward building a workforce pipeline that can help to fill thousands of open jobs in the field.

“As a membership organization and as an umbrella institution, we have the ability to bring together people from across these different sectors,” she said.

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Fresh off of a $100 million funding round that closed last month, Remington-based biotech company Delfi Diagnostics announced a pair of new VP-level hires this week. The roles reflect the mix of biology and data tools that the company is applying to create a blood test to detect cancer.

Tara Maddala joined as VP of clinical development. She previously worked at Grail, Inc., a San Francisco company working on a different blood test for early detection of cancer. She served as VP of biostatistics and data management, helping to establish the company’s clinical development team and leading design of initial clinical trials.

Allison Ryan is joining the company as VP of data science. She held that role at Natera, a San Carlos, California-based genetic testing company.

Delfi Diagnostics was named to Technical.ly’s RealLIST Startups 2021, and this is the kind of growth we’ll be tracking from this team and others on the list throughout the year.

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A longtime leader at Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures is stepping into a new role that’s focused on the university innovation arm’s efforts to develop Baltimore’s startup ecosystem: Helen Montag became senior director of ecosystem development.

In this role, she will “leverage Johns Hopkins’ relationships and infrastructure to attract and retain talent, companies, real estate investment and other forms of resources to support researchers and startups in and around the city,” a university announcement stated. It’s a role designed to “further accelerate progress in establishing Baltimore as a technology and innovation hub.”

Montag has been at Johns Hopkins since 1999, and most recently led the corporate partnerships team at JHTV over six years from its creation in 2014. This team is responsible for industry research collaborations across disciplines like life sciences, imaging, biomedical engineering and more.

With Montag’s appointment, JHTV welcomed Paul Nkansah, Ph.D., in January to assume the role of senior director of corporate partnerships. He previously worked as chief scientific advisor at Global Health Consulting and United States Pharmacopeia. Nkansah also spent 14 years at Pfizer as a scientist and principal investigator.