Meet Claira, the workforce solution of the future

Katie spent eight years in global workforce development building competency models and helping companies and policy organizations prepare for the future of work. She regularly speaks and writes on a variety of topics including diversity hiring, AI ethics, and automation impact on the workforce.

Having worked in many types of jobs - cleaning hotel rooms, making sandwiches, and assembling windows on a factory line, she believes valuable competencies are used in every role every day, everywhere. the problem isn’t people, it’s the hiring system.

Katie holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPA from the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a BA in Political Science from Hope College.

An expert in software development and leading engineers, Cece has spent their entire career building high-impact products and teams. With more than a decade of experience, Cece has worked at startups, large companies, and at an agency where their clients included Home Depot and Herschel Supply Company. Cece is an innovator, with competencies that include full stack development, process management, machine learning integration, and more.

A proponent of teal organizations, they believe that empathy, trust, and accountability are keys to success in and out of the workplace. In their free time, Cece runs a co-housing organization, enjoys rollerblading, and likes to talk about how far their hometown of Albany is from NYC (hint: farther than you think!).

Cece graduated with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from SUNY Albany with a concentration in Mathematics. While there, Cece was a teaching assistant in the Department of Computer Science.

Marko is a specialist in machine learning and Python development. He has worked on numerous projects involving big data and NLP.

Marko wants to use his engineering talents to modernize the outdated human capital system. Outside of engineering, Marko is interested in geography, history, and physics. He is a lifelong learner and is always looking for new ways to expand his knowledge.

Marko is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Engineering at Miami University.

Elan joined Claira after more than a decade as a founder, director, and consultant at major nonprofits. Across multiple multi-million dollar program portfolios, he founded initiatives, built digital experiences, and developed growth strategies that impacted hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries.

Outside of Claira, Elan advises promising early stage startups on growth, go-to-market strategy, and product development as a mentor at MassChallenge, a top international startup accelerator. At MassChallenge, he also serves as an accelerator judge. A lifelong entrepreneur, Elan has worked in an array of positions. In college, he was a freelance photojournalist and included the Wall Street Journal, Harvard University, and the Times of Israel on his client list.

Elan holds an Masters in International Economics and Finance from the Brandeis International Business School and a Bachelors in Business from Brandeis University.

Ian spent nearly 20 years in the semiconductor industry, leading large cross-functional global teams. Most recently, he has held roles as an executive and product management director with expertise in strategizing, developing, and launching leading-edge and innovative products.

Ian has had bad experiences on both sides of the broken hiring system, as a job seeker and an employer seeking diverse talent.

As a lifelong learner, Ian received an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, with a business analytics certificate. He also holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering, and an undergraduate degree in computer engineering, from McGill University in Montreal.

One of Susan’s early experiences made her aware that a career can take an unexpected turn. She was recruited, as a theater major, to manage manufacturing collaboratives at the Industrial Technology Institute. She had never been in a manufacturing facility and was woefully ignorant. However, Susan’s boss was intrigued that as a theater director/actress, she could “read the room; the text and subtext” and asked her to attend high-level meetings between the Department of Defense, major national and international manufacturers and technology companies who were developing manufacturing and e-commerce standards.  It was an aha moment!. Skills matter. Skills are transferable. Susan’s career changed – dramatically.

Since that experience, Susan has always been passionate about how what people know and can do translates to work. In her over  30+ year career, working for and with an array of private and public sector organizations spanning education, manufacturing, technology, government, non-profits, and the arts, Susan has led and implemented myriad practical and sustainable initiatives – all designed to create a borderless system of work and learning where competencies are currency, where talent is drawn from everywhere, and where what people know and can do matters most. Armed with an eclectic portfolio of experiences and products, Susan brings unique competency expertise tools, techniques and models to Claira. And she’s thrilled to support a company that’s at the forefront of using competencies to unleash human potential. So many possibilities.

A lover of design, nature, and art, Susan spends as much time as possible immersed in all three and traveling to the East and West coast to spend time with her daughters and grandchildren. 

Susan holds a Masters in Organizational Communication and Performance Studies and a Bachelors in Developmental Drama, both from Eastern Michigan University. She participated in a doctoral program in Knowledge Management at Walden University.

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Kevin brings over 37 years of expertise in the technology industry, spending the past 25 years as a board member and a Chief Customer Officer for startups and Fortune 250 companies. His passion for leadership, diversity, and helping customers has always been at the center of his work. He has led global teams as large as 15,000 and businesses that exceeded $6.5b in annual revenue.

Kevin currently shares his wealth of industry knowledge through his firm KR Advisory Services. There he supports C-Suite executives as they develop strategic goals, build a diverse leadership team, and develop strong communications skills for achieving customer, financial, and team goals.

Kevin graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in Management and Marketing.

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Mark Newberg is the founder and President of Stockbridge Advisors, an impact and ESG-focused consulting firm. He brings over a decade of experience in the impact economy and works directly with senior leaders of organizations and high-growth companies, embedding impact and ESG into the core of their enterprises in order to solve problems worth solving.

Prior to founding Stockbridge Advisors, Mark was a policy advisor to the New Orleans City Council (post-Katrina) and a senior policy advisor at the United States Small Business Administration, where he was actively involved in the federal government’s initial impact policy efforts, high-growth innovation initiatives, and both economic and disaster recovery program. He also served as the Director of Impact Strategies for a transatlantic law firm, and as the Deputy Director of the Global Innovation Summit.

Mark has been a MassChallenge mentor and a judge since he returned to Boston and is actively involved in both the FinTech program and MassChallenge’s early-stage initiatives. He is also an Innovator-in-Residence at the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, a mentor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and a judge for the Louisiana Startup Prize. Mark was also the lead author of the Desktop Manual for Impact Policymakers.

Mark holds a BA from Tulane University, and a JD from Tulane Law School.

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Richard Kosowsky is passionate about leveraging technology, AI and data science to affect and lead change. He enjoys early-stage opportunities where, as a visionary he plots the path forward, as an engineer brings his intense focus to bear, and as a leader manages the growth from zero to scale. His current area of interest is data- driven AI/ML software companies with unique datasets, strong management teams and SaaS business models.

Rich has extensive experience in management, business development, technology development and financing through a variety of C-suite roles at companies ranging from technology giant QUALCOMM to small startups. As a serial inventor, Rich has proactively protected intellectual property through multiple patents and trademarks. Rich has also mentored 50+ companies through MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, focusing on storytelling, go-to-market strategy, the financial model and fundraising.