Cyndi is a cyber start up operations expert. She has started and run licensing, human resources, legal, facilities, accounting, marketing and sales operations for both Tenable Network Security and Network Security Wizards. As a Gula Tech Adventures managing partner, she is helping our portfolio companies scale and make important decisions about their organizational structure, facilities, product licensing, recruiting strategy, building a culture, managing their cash flow and having the processes in place to succeed and have fun. Cyndi was appointed to the Howard County Economic Development Board and is a 2016 graduate of the Leadership Howard County class. She has a Bachelor of Science in Glass Engineering from Alfred University.

Julie Lenzer has been involved in every part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, from award winning serial entrepreneur, angel investor and community champion to policy and program oversight in the federal, state, and local government.

The former Director of the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, she is currently Associate Vice President, Innovation and Economic Development and Director of UM Ventures, College Park.

Prior to her political appointment, Julie was the Executive Director of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, the co-chair of Startup Maryland as well as co-founder of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Anne Balduzzi is TEDCO’s Director of Advisory Services where she manages the Rural Business Innovation Initiative (RBI2), Rural Pre-Seed Fund, and Network Advisor program. As an early Internet pioneer, Anne’s background includes product and marketing development roles at Viewtron, AOL (as a start-up), and Apple. After working in Silicon Valley, she returned to the East Coast and founded Accelerate Partners. She later founded SameGrain, a vertical AI platform.

Anne has been recognized as one of the region’s Top Women in Tech and holds a patent on data match analysis. She is a frequent speaker and author on entrepreneurship and AI.

Arti Santhanam
Director, Maryland Innovation Initiative

Dr. Santhanam manages the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) program investing in technology commercialization and start-up companies spun out of five participating universities; Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland College Park, Baltimore and Baltimore County campuses, as well as Morgan State University. Established in 2012, MII has invested $29M that has resulted in 77 startups, $160M follow-on funding and 5 exits till date!
Prior to MII, Dr. Santhanam has served as Investment Analyst for the Maryland Venture Fund and Manager for the Life Science Investment Fund at TEDCO, where she was responsible for over $3M of seed investments and served as board observer for multiple portfolio companies.