Habon Ali is an Associate on the Policy and Communications team, based in Toronto. Most recently, Habon worked as an Urban Planner with the global planning and design consultancy Urban Strategies in Toronto.

Habon’s professional background has encompassed multiple disciplines, including: community development, waterfront planning, and transportation planning and policy. At Urban Strategies, Habon was responsible for leading large multidisciplinary teams from planning to concept development through to approvals. Prior to becoming a planner Habon worked for the City of Toronto’s department of Economic Development and Culture, focusing on city-building events and initiatives. She also spent many years within the settlement service sector, developing strategic plans and supports to coordinate and enhance local service delivery to newcomers in Toronto.

Habon has a B.A. (Hons) in Political Science and Law & Society, an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Toronto, and is a Certified Project Management Professional. She is a former DiverseCity Fellow and member of the Emerging Leaders Network and has worked collaboratively with city leaders to collectively assess and advance proposals that integrate diverse voices into the planning process.

Habon lives in Toronto has a strong love-hate relationship with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jack Amadeo is a Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

He joined Sidewalk after working at Compass, a real estate tech company, where he built applications to improve an experience many New Yorkers loathe: finding a new home. Before that, he was an engineer at Bloomberg working on high-performance collaboration, messaging, and internal CRM products.

A native New Englander, Jack came to New York to study Math at New York University and has called the city his home ever since. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, with whom he can usually be found exploring the city on foot or by bicycle.

Chris Anderson joins Sidewalk Labs as a software engineer focused on urban prototyping. He last worked at The Office for Creative Research, where he built mapping robots, democratized ad-trackers, and immersive data experiences. Before that, he ran a vagabond software consultancy and was a product manager at Google.

Brian is Director of Infrastructure Investments at Sidewalk Labs, where he leads the investment, finance, and partnership activity for our infrastructure initiatives, including relationships with pensions funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, and asset management firms. Brian is responsible for defining, designing, and implementing new funding models, infrastructure finance, and delivery methods for Sidewalk Labs and its project in Toronto—one of the largest and most complex urban development projects in North America. In addition, Brian leads the evaluation of emerging technologies and services enabling new standards of innovation, sustainability, and affordability in infrastructure, including new construction materials and building and delivery methodologies.

Previously, Brian spent 11 years with the American Infrastructure Fund; he was a Managing Director and senior member of the team since its formation. He was instrumental in the development of many innovative tax efficient capital formation strategies, partnerships, and investments aimed at solving the U.S.’s complex urban infrastructure challenges.

Prior to the American Infrastructure Fund, Brian worked at Scion Capital, a Cupertino-based private investment fund investing in public, private, and structured derivative markets worldwide. Earlier in his career, Brian helped launch and manage Broadview Capital Partners, a Bay Area-based venture capital fund, where he led the fund’s communications and fiber network investments.

Brian holds an MBA in Real Estate & Finance from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Washington. He serves on the Advisory Board of Cornell’s Program in Infrastructure Policy.

Brian was born and raised in Seattle. He previously lived in New York City, but has called Silicon Valley his home for the past 20 years. He resides in Atherton, CA with his wife and five children. When he’s not thinking about how to change the world through intelligent infrastructure, he enjoys personal pursuits such as hiking, mountaineering, and (according to his wife) skiing way too fast for his age.

Catherine Benz is an Associate on the Investments and Partnerships team at Sidewalk Labs. She has prior experience at Ibis Networks, a plug load energy management company, as well as at the World Resources Institute where she was responsible for conducting analyses on U.S. energy infrastructure economics. Most recently, she worked at a mobility startup, Zendrive, where she led and launched the first of their largest data mapping project series.

While at Stanford, Catherine was selected for the Mayfield Fellowship, a competitive investment and entrepreneurship program in the Bay Area. Catherine graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Energy Strategy & Engineering and an MS in Sustainability Science & Practice

Maya Borgenicht is an Associate on the Policy and Communications team, based in Toronto. Maya has worked on urban planning projects in Toronto, Ottawa, and New York City.

Most recently, Maya served as a policy advisor to the Canadian Minister of Indigenous Services and the Canadian Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. In both roles she focused on infrastructure policy, including housing, public transit, and green infrastructure policy. Before moving to Ottawa, Maya worked for Toronto-based, city-building not-for-profits Evergreen CityWorks and Artscape. As a Project Manager at CityWorks Maya managed the organization’s GTA Housing Action Lab initiative and the Move the GTHA mobility coalition. Before moving to Canada, Maya was a Research Associate at the Regional Plan Association in New York City.

Maya has a B.A. in Urban Studies from Vassar College. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband. Maya loves biking around Toronto and exploring Ontario on backcountry canoe trips.

Matt is an Associate Product Manager at Sidewalk Labs. Before joining Sidewalk, he was a Senior Associate Consultant for Bain & Company’s San Francisco office, where he worked on a variety of technology, alternative investment, and energy projects.

Matt earned an Sc.B in Electrical Engineering from Brown University. While at Brown, he co-founded the Techstyle Haus team, which built the world’s first Passivehaus-certified house with a textile enclosure.

Originally from Boston, Matt is one of those Boston sports fans and a stalwart Tom Brady defender. He also likes backpacking, skiing, playing piano, and seeing live music around his Greenwich Village neighborhood.

John Brodhead is Director of Policy and Strategy at Sidewalk Labs and is based in Toronto.

John comes to Sidewalk after a varied career in government and the not-for-profit sector, most recently serving as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Indigenous Services. He previously served as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, as Executive Director of Evergreen CityWorks, as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Premier of Ontario, and as a Vice President at Metrolinx.

John has three children—aged seven, six, and four—and a spouse who is better than him in every imaginable way. Fun fact: John grew up on a farm outside of Ottawa and ran a thriving organic egg business until the age of 8.

Marie Buckingham is Associate Product Manager at Sidewalk Labs. Passionate about energy and the climate, she’s worked on renewable energy policy with the Masdar Institute for the United Arab Emirates, as a senior fellow with the Institute on Science for Global Policy, and as a researcher for Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Marie studied environmental management and economics at Indiana University, and recently completed an MPA in environmental science and policy at Columbia University. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and now lives in Brooklyn. She loves to climb rocks, go on short runs, and experiment with cooking.

Alisa Burnett is an Associate Director of Finance at Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Alisa worked for Droga5, an independent advertising agency on Wall Street. A native New Yorker, Alisa is passionate about her community, public education, and her Caribbean roots. In her free time, you can find Alisa teaching science to TASC students, cheering for Chelsea FC, or searching for cream cheese sales so she can bake cheesecakes.

Kat is a Senior Software Engineer in Sidewalk’s Model Lab.

Before joining Sidewalk she worked at Dropbox where she tech led the company’s web performance efforts. She also worked on shared mobile infrastructure for Dropbox’s mobile apps and on the Dropbox desktop client.

Kat is a native of New York City. She moved to California to study Computer Science at Stanford University where she earned a BS in Systems and an MS in AI.

Laura Capucilli is an Associate, Development at Sidewalk Labs. She began her career in New York City government as an Urban Fellow turned Policy Advisor for City Hall’s operations team. Following the end of the Bloomberg administration, Laura served as a project manager on the renovation and repositioning of the New York Public Library’s flagship branch at Bryant Park.

Laura graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Public Policy and a Minor in Human Rights. She recently earned an MBA from NYU Stern. While at Stern, Laura worked with the Marron Institute’s Urbanization Project on a sustainable development plan for a city in central Ethiopia and at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with its international department. Laura is a morning person, foodie, dog person, and cellist.

Nick is Head of Sidewalk’s Model Lab. Prior to joining Sidewalk Labs, Nick was co-founder and CEO of Flux, a spinout from Google[x] building software tools to help architects and engineers design more efficiently and sustainably.

An entrepreneur at heart, Nick worked at two startups (Aardvark, acquired by Google, and Big Tent, acquired by Care.com) prior to joining Google in engineering and product leadership roles.

Nick holds a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering from UC-Davis and an M.S. degree in Aero/Astro from Stanford University. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and young daughter.

Leo is an Associate, Mobility at Sidewalk Labs. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an M.S. in Transportation. While at MIT, he worked with the City of London, trying to answer the question of how autonomous vehicles will change the way urban populations travel. Before that, he worked as a transportation engineer in government, construction, and consulting while earning his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Raised in the suburbs of Toronto, Leo loves living in new cities (most recently Singapore), playing basketball, and singing in the shower.

Chrystal Dean is our Summer Series Operations Director and is based in Toronto. She has been producing and running events big and small for over 15 years.

Since moving to Toronto in 2012, Chrystal has focused her efforts on organizations and initiatives working to empower people and organizations to create a more equitable and just city. As WorldPride Manager for Pride Toronto, she steered one of the largest international events ever hosted in Toronto, with unprecedented city-wide partnerships and programming, and over 2 million attendees. Most recently, she was Executive Director of the Self-Help Resource Centre.

Chrystal has lived and worked in Australia, the UK, and Canada. She is passionate about equity, education, self-determination, social justice, and kindness.

Mike Delucia is an Associate Director of Investments at Sidewalk Labs. Before joining Sidewalk, Mike was a Vice President at Macquarie Bank, where he financed power, clean technology, and other energy companies. Previously he was an associate at Nereus Capital, a fund investing in sustainable infrastructure in South Asia. Mike began his career at JP Morgan covering biotech and healthcare services companies.

He graduated from Brown University, where he studied economics and philosophy. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, music, and board games.

Carrie is the Programming Lead at Sidewalk Labs, where she manages all programs and operations for 307, Sidewalk Toronto’s new experimental work space and living laboratory for urban innovation. Prior to her current role, Carrie was Sidewalk’s Chief of Staff, where she oversaw much of the company’s growth from the mid-teens to 100 plus. Before Sidewalk Labs, Carrie was the San Francisco Curator and Director of Strategy and Partnerships for the art-tech collective, Shared_Studios, which uses technology to connect strangers across the globe.

Carrie is fascinated by how technology shapes (and is shaped) by our surroundings and how that intersection can create surprise and wonder in our every day lives. For the better part of a decade, Carrie has led teams and shaped projects that dig into these areas, including three years with IBM’s Smarter Cities team and a year-long fellowship with the Environmental Defense Fund. She’s conducted research for a wide range of think tanks and organizations, including the Brookings Institution, Bloomberg Associates, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, and Bombay First. She also spent time during her MBA at China Vanke, China’s largest residential real estate developer.

Carrie has a BA, MA, and MBA from Stanford University, and her research has appeared in Biological Conservation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Nature Conservancy’s Science Chronicles.

Shaina Doar is Head of City Operations at Sidewalk Labs. Most recently, Shaina served as the Chief of Staff to the Mayor’s Economic Council under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. In this role, she set the city’s economic development agenda and managed fiscal policy. Prior to her role in the Mayor’s Office, Shaina was the Director of the Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs, Mayor Emanuel’s economic development plan for the City of Chicago.

Before working with the City of Chicago, Shaina was an Engagement Manager in McKinsey & Company’s Chicago office. As a Public Sector Fellow, she led work in the public and social sector offices on a variety of strategic and reform topics including economic development, higher education, and infrastructure.

She holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame. Shaina lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys traveling, running, and skiing, and is proud of her Minnesota heritage.

Cara is an Associate on the Development team at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Cara was based in Copenhagen with ReD Associates, a consulting firm that applies social science methods like ethnography to the business world. At ReD, Cara managed and worked on long-term strategy projects for a diverse spread of clients, ranging from a major toy company to a global consumer electronics manufacturer. She is also a Young Explorer for National Geographic, and took a sabbatical from work to study the post-war redevelopment of Sarajevo.

Cara graduated from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she concentrated on urban studies. She is a native New Yorker with newfound biking skills and a strong affinity for Danish design.

Robie is an Associate on the Development team at Sidewalk Labs. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she began her career as a city planner, reviewing development proposals and interfacing with governing bodies for several Bay Area cities.

Robie has a degree in Environmental Studies with a focus in Public Policy and Management from the University of Southern California. When not at work, Robie can be found experimenting with essential oils or practicing vinyasa yoga and meditation. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and two Chiweenies.

Jan is Head of Talent at Sidewalk Labs.

Before joining Sidewalk, Jan built the recruiting function at Oscar Insurance, with hundreds of hires during his tenure. He has recruited for growth companies in Germany and the U.K. before coming to NYC in 2014.

Originally from Germany, Jan studied International Affairs in Switzerland. He enjoys photography and travel, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife.

Laura Fox is Associate Director of Development at Sidewalk Labs. Laura has spent her career bridging the corporate, public, and social sectors to create value (and just as important, delight) for residents and visitors.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Laura was a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she led strategy and digital venture projects for urban innovation, technology, and cultural organizations. In parallel, she edited a book on entrepreneur-led urban development and delivered a TED talk on the role of curiosity and ignorance in the creative process.

Earlier in her career, Laura led cross-functional teams of strategists, designers, and engineers to create digital experiences as well as in-person interactives for arts organizations, governments, corporates, and social businesses in the Americas, Middle East, and Asia. This included work with the Qatar Museums Authority, Mexico City Department of Housing, World Wildlife Fund, and BRAC.

Laura holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from New York University (NYU), Stern School of Business. Originally from Chicago, Laura is most comfortable when she is uncomfortable, and learning something new. On the weekends you can find her with her husband, whether in a museum, urban flaneuring, or experimenting with a multitude of fun side projects.

Taylor K Gesner (TK) is the Summer Series Program Director, based in Toronto. TK is an award-winning programmer/curator, community engagement specialist, public art project manager, independent music producer/DJ, and arts advocate. Equipped with an extensive knowledge of music and the arts, and a decade-plus career as a well-respected DJ/producer, TK has been applying his broad range of cultural sensibilities to roles all around Toronto for the past decade.

From large-scale fine arts festivals (Nuit Blanche; Pride Toronto; WorldPride 2014 Toronto), national and institutional public art campaigns (LandMarks 2017; Metrolinx) to community-based grassroots events (Nuit Rose; “Music in the Park”), TK’s been taking deep cleansing breaths and learning from his own, and others’, mistakes for over a decade, and now shares those experiences in workshops across the country.

When he’s not working in culture around the city, you might find TK crate digging for rare EPs for a loft jam, cycling on the Toronto Islands, or curled up with his cat.

Kael is a Software Engineer for Sidewalk Labs’ Model Lab. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Kael co-founded Many Trees, where he helped develop a unified platform for data processing, machine learning, and visualization using GPUs.

Kael holds master’s degrees from MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. At MIT, Kael worked as a researcher in the Senseable City Lab to develop algorithms for understanding human mobility patterns with data. Kael also holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California San Diego, and bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Art from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Johanna Greenbaum is the Director of Planning and Development at Sidewalk Labs.

Before joining Sidewalk, Johanna led the development of Greenpoint Landing, a large-scale project along the Brooklyn waterfront. Prior to that Johanna served in ​Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration ​on both the Operations and Economic Development teams — focusing on land use, affordable housing, and transportation. ​Before City Hall, Johanna practiced land use and development law, guiding​ private real estate projects through public review.  

Johanna earned a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University.​

Michelle Ha Tucker is Director of Design at Sidewalk Labs. Originally trained as an architect, she aims to develop the practice at the intersection of public sector innovation, urban design, and technology. She most recently led the design team at Flux.io, a software startup incubated inside of Google[x] that helps architects design and build more efficiently.

Prior to Flux, Michelle was a director at IDEO, guiding user-centered design teams and establishing a public sector portfolio of work in the Chicago office. Her clients have included the Chicago Public Libraries, American Express, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the TSA.

She is actively involved in arts and design education–she’s served on the board of the Hyde Park Art Center and spent a year reimagining design curriculum at RISD. She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard and degrees in Architecture and Management from MIT. Originally from the Bay Area, she’s excited to explore all that NYC and Toronto has to offer with her husband and young daughter.

Shaun Harris is the Director of Resident Experience for Sidewalk Labs. He is a practitioner of human centered design and comes with extensive experience leading vision, strategy, and concepts for major brands including: Nike, PepsiCo, Sanofi, IHG, Uber, Marriott International and Disney. While serving lead roles on the client, agency, and consulting side of the equation, he has created a diverse set of solutions across the experience spectrum including: space/environment, service + package design, digital retail, and enterprise platforms.

Before Sidewalk, Shaun was the VP, Global Head of Experience + Service Design at MetLife and part of the executive team that is transforming MetLife into a brand of human-centred service offerings. Prior to that he was ECD, Head of Experience Strategy at R/GA and responsible for developing the broader design practice across the agency. For over three years, Shaun was a lead on the Nike account with deep focus on digital brand, retail, and service experiences. Key projects focused on the future experience of urban runners, retail flagships, and digital product customization.

In 2005, he earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology with a focus on social exchange theory and norms of reciprocity. He continues to apply his love for human behavior by anchoring all solutions with the needs and experiences that matter most to customers.

Shaun is a native of Los Angeles and carries a US and Canadian passport on account of his family’s Montreal roots. He loves any color pallet resembling the early 80s, with particular affection for Volvo’s “Chinese Hot Mustard Yellow”. He played competitive tennis as a kid and has [just] recently grown-out of wearing tennis vests off the court. He lives at the bottom of the LES and is often found in The Sill explaining why it’s not his fault that his plants keep dying. And despite the odds against him, he remains determined to master the use and proper occasion for the semi-colon.

Eric Jaffe is Editorial Director of Sidewalk Labs.

He previously served as New York Bureau Chief for CityLab, The Atlantic’s site devoted to urban life, where his own writing focused on transportation policy and the science of cities. In 2014 he edited a year-long series called the Future of Transportation, which explored what tomorrow will hold for metro area mobility.

Eric has contributed to many publications as a freelancer, including Fast Company, where he wrote a regular Co.Design column called Evidence. He’s also the author of two books, including The King’s Best Highway (Scribner, 2010), a social history of U.S. transportation.

Eric holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. Originally from Washington, D.C., he’s lived in New York since 2008, and no longer knows if he’s a Washingtonian or a New Yorker.

Alison Maddox oversees operations for the investments and partnerships team at Sidewalk Labs. Prior to Sidewalk, she was manager and coach at several CrossFit gyms in the New York City area. She graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Italian studies and blames her degree for her coffee obsession and pasta snobbery. She loves her current neighborhood, the West Village.

Jiten Manglani is an Investment Consultant at Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Jiten was the Director of Social Investment for the Pershing Square Foundation, where he sourced, oversaw, and conducted due diligence on the Foundation’s venture capital investments in social enterprises.

Previously, Jiten was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP), a global private equity fund focused on investing in and managing assets in the transportation and utilities sectors. During his time at MSIP, Jiten was involved in multiple transactions and public-private partnerships in a variety of infrastructure sub-sectors, such as parking meters, container terminals, and toll bridges. He also served on the Board of Directors of MATEP, a tri-generation power plant that provides electricity, steam, and chilled water to six hospitals in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.

Earlier in his career, Jiten worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Wachovia Securities, providing advisory and capital-raising services to clients in the Consumer & Retail sector.

Jiten holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. from Boston University. Jiten lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. In his spare time, Jiten enjoys running, reading longform articles, and kicking soccer balls around with his toddler.

Jorge Manrique Charro is an Associate in the Investments & Partnerships team at Sidewalk Labs, based in the Toronto office.

Jorge previously worked on real estate investments, financings, and disposals at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, based in the United Arab Emirates. Before that, Jorge lived in London for 6 years, where he worked in the acquisitions and real estate development team at Tishman Speyer.

Jorge is excited to explore his new home, Toronto, with his wife and two young children. In his spare time, he loves trail running and cycling.

Andrew Miller is Associate Director, Mobility at Sidewalk Labs. His background is in transit policy, transit planning, and public finance.

As a Strategic Leader with the City of Mississauga, he led the delivery of Dundas Connects, a master plan for rapid transit, intensified urban development, and an improved public realm for Dundas Street. For this work, he won the City’s 2017 Excellence in Project Management Award – Project Lead. Previously, Andrew worked for the Ontario Public Service in various positions at the Ministries of Infrastructure, Finance, and Transportation; he was most recently head of the Municipal Transit Policy Office.

Andrew holds a B.A. from McGill University, an M.A. from Yale University, and a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University. CBC Radio referred to him as a leading thinker on the subject of municipal finance reform. He’s also fun at parties.

Justin is an Executive Assistant at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk Labs, Justin received his Master’s in International Affairs from The New School in New York City, and served two years in the Peace Corps in Tanzania teaching English to secondary school students.

Originally from Buffalo, New York, Justin received his B.A. from SUNY Binghamton in Philosophy. In his free time, Justin enjoys running with his dog, reading about history, and cooking.

Michael is Senior Advisor at Sidewalk Labs. Michael is also the founder of Partners Path Capital, a multifamily investment office that focuses on real estate and specialty private equity transactions. Prior to Partners Path, Michael was Senior Vice President of Development and Business Affairs for the Tampa Bay Rays, where he was part of a core management team that turned around what had been one of the most moribund franchises in professional sports.

Michael previously worked in Mayor Bloomberg’s office as a senior advisor to the New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development. In that capacity, he managed relations between the Mayor’s Office and the city’s Economic Development Corporation, coordinated area-wide planning and economic development initiatives through the five boroughs, and served as the city’s point person for the development of the new Yankee Stadium, CitiField, and the Barclays Center.

Before joining the Bloomberg Administration, Michael was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company where he focused on addressing both strategic and operating issues for media and telecommunications firms.

Michael received his BA in Political Science and Urban Studies from Brown University and his JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

David Katz is a Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

Before joining Sidewalk, David worked on Google Search in New York where he helped to improve both the quality and freshness of the content ranking within knowledge panels.

David completed his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering at The Cooper Union. His research focused on augmenting an approximate nearest neighbors index in order to efficiently support user interaction within recommendation systems.

In his free time, David is a both a table tennis and strategy game enthusiast. He also enjoys tinkering with electronics. Recently, David was invited to China to showcase String2String, his low cost alternative to a smartboard, in the US-China Young Maker Competition.

Tim Kau is Associate Director of Design and Communications at Sidewalk Labs.

Tim spent 12 years in the advertising industry as a visual designer, working with clients including Nike, Chase, Citi, and Coca-Cola.

Tim graduated with honors from UC Berkeley, where he bought his first pair of Birkenstocks. Today, he prefers to wear Converse or Vans.  He currently lives in NYC with his wife Grace, two sons Jonah and Isaiah, and puppy Chuy.

Ariel Kennan is the Director of Civic Innovation at Sidewalk Labs, where draws upon her experience in multidisciplinary design and technology to collaborate with community, government, and industry partners to design service experiences, craft strategy, and create and source digital tools.

Before Sidewalk, Ariel served the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity as Director of Design and Product. In that role, she led the design and development of a portfolio of digital products and founded the nation’s first municipal service design studio dedicated to making public services for low-income residents as effective and accessible as possible. Her time in government was inspired through fellowships with Code for America and the Center for Urban Pedagogy, where she discovered the potential for design in the public sector. Ariel previously designed and produced experiences for the built environment, ranging from intimate immersive media to expansive buildings. She holds a BFA in Integrated Design from Parsons School of Design.

Originally from Arizona, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband. She loves riding bikes and cooking delicious meals.

Tom is Senior Hardware Engineer at Sidewalk Labs.  Prior to Sidewalk Labs, Tom was founder and CEO of ReFactory, a design consultancy and electronics manufacturing firm. Located in Brooklyn, New York, ReFactory helped small companies and startups design, prototype, and manufacture electronic products.  ReFactory was born out of Tom’s experience with EnergyHub, the first company he co-founded, where as CTO and Director of Hardware Engineering, he led the development and manufacturing of an energy management ecosystem of connected devices.  Tom sat on EnergyHub’s Board of Directors up until its acquisition by Alarm.com.

Before Tom’s entrepreneurial endeavors, he was an Electrical Engineer at Honeybee Robotics, where he worked as the lead Electrical Engineer for the Sample Manipulation System, a critical subsystem of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, which continues to operate aboard the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.  Tom earned his Bachelor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.

When Tom isn’t designing hardware, he loves spending time with his family and cooking overly complicated meals.  As a side project, he is creating an iPad-like toy for his toddler son that incorporates more external buttons, knobs, and lights than he’ll know what to do with.

Karim is Director of Buildings Innovation for Sidewalk Labs. He has spent his career in the design and construction world, most recently leading the global hotel innovation and design team at Marriott, where he launched the company’s first innovation lab/collaborative design space (The Underground). While at Marriott, he also led the LEED Volume Build program for hotels and launched Marriott’s global modular construction initiative.

Prior to joining Marriott, he managed Parsons Corporation’s South American engineering practice in Lima, Peru and earlier worked in Bechtel’s power and water resource group in the U.S. and overseas.

Karim served in the U.S. Peace Corps as the Western Regional engineer for The Honduran Ministry of Health working in sanitation and vaccine distribution. While he is not tinkering in his workshop, Karim can be found scoping out his next remote adventure.

Emily Kildow is the Associate Director of Sustainability at Sidewalk Labs. Before Sidewalk, she led sustainability for Google’s New York City campus.

Emily has spent 12 years in New York City as a pervasive advocate for sustainability, working on everything from the Brooklyn Botanical Visitor Center to sky-rise financial institutions. She has been active on USGBC local and national boards; worked on New York City’s Zero Waste Design Guidelines; served on the High Line Pneumatic Waste Advisory Board; co-chaired the Energy Metering and Operations working group for the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability; and won an Energy New York Award (ENYA) from the New York Energy Consumer Council.

Emily is originally from Colorado. She loves to travel, explore culture through cooking classes, and take advantage of New York City summertimes.

Joanna Lack is the Interim Head of City Operations at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Joanna was the Chief Performance Officer of the Camden City School District in Camden, NJ, where she oversaw data and accountability, assessment, and student supports. Prior to that, she was an Executive Director at the NYC Department of Education, where she created and led the academic policies and data systems team.

Joanna began her career as a seventh-grade English teacher and Teach for America corps member in Compton, CA. She holds a B.A. from Brown University, and masters’ degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University and Loyola Marymount University.

Joanna is a proud native New Yorker who loves local and international exploring with her husband and two-year-old daughter.

Micah Lasher is Head of Policy & Communications for Sidewalk Labs, where he oversees public policy and communications, drawing on his experiences at the intersection of government and technology.

Before joining Sidewalk, Micah served as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, where he helped run a staff of 1,800 people responsible for the state’s legal affairs and for legal advocacy on behalf of residents. In this role, he worked extensively on formulating new regulatory approaches to emerging technology and on issues related to data privacy and security.

Previously, Micah was Director of State Legislative Affairs for the City of New York under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, where he was responsible for advancing New York City’s comprehensive legislative agenda. Prior to his work at City Hall, Micah served as a top official in the New York City school system, an aide to Congressman Jerry Nadler, and a founding partner of KnickerbockerSKD, a strategic communications consultancy.

Micah serves on the boards of 
the Community Service Society, New York’s leading anti-poverty organization, and the Riverside
 Park Conservancy, as well as on the Leadership Council of Tech:NYC. He earned a BA in sociology from New York University. A lifelong New Yorker who finally broke down and learned how to drive in December 2016, Micah lives in Manhattan with his wife and three children.

Nicole LeBlanc is Director of Investments and Partnerships for Sidewalk Labs. Before joining Sidewalk, Nicole was a Director at BDC Capital, where she managed the seed stage investments and associated portfolio. She has over 10 years of experience as an investment professional, with a focus on early-stage financing opportunities and ecosystem development. Before joining BDC Nicole was the Director of Finance at NBIF, an East Coast seed fund, and held initial finance & operational roles in several early stage startups.

Nicole began her career as a staff accountant and later controller at Ganong Bros. Ltd., a family-run confectionery manufacturer. She holds a Chartered Professional Accountant designation and is a dynamic member of the Toronto start-up community.

When she is not supporting the tech ecosystem, Nicole can be found hiking off the beaten path and cheering on the Toronto Blue Jays, preferably when the dome is open.

Lana is an Executive Assistant at Sidewalk Labs. She has held leadership, administrative, and operations roles across technology and higher education spaces. She has a passion for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through her professional practice.

Prior to Sidewalk Labs, she ran operations at the College of Arts and Science Dean’s Office at New York University and worked on various committees and projects devoted to social justice and student success. She also served as an Associate in Apple Inc’s. Store Leader Program, where she developed and supported cross-functional teams and worked to improve the employee/client experience.

Lana graduated with honors from New York University with Bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Art History, a minor in Music Production, and a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs. By night, she moonlights as a DJ and coordinates the instructor training programs at ((305)) Fitness. Lana has a fondness for travel, books, and Ron Swanson’s approach to life.

Sara J. Lewis is Director, Legal of Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Sara was a corporate attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where her practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and securities law matters. There she advised both public and private companies as well as private equity firms on a wide variety of corporate transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, carve-outs, restructurings, joint ventures, investments, financings, leveraged buyouts, and other complex capital market transactions.

Sara received an Honors B.A. in Philosophy and Women’s Studies, summa cum laude, from St. Louis University and her J.D., summa cum laude with Order of the Coif distinction, from Stanford Law School, where she served as articles editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Sara loves living in New York City and can often be seen walking her dog, Buster, in the West Village.

Taylor Lint is a software engineer for the Model Lab. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Taylor worked at LinkedIn on a number of projects with a focus on data visualization. Most recently she led the frontend development of LinkedIn’s new Talent Insights product, a self-service tool that provides data-driven insights for talent strategy.

Taylor grew up in Columbus, Ohio and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Information Science and a minor in German Studies. Taylor lives in Nob Hill in San Francisco, where she enjoys walking around the city, cooking for friends, and dog sitting in her free time.

Jacqueline Lu is Associate Director, Public Realm, at Sidewalk Labs. Before Sidewalk, Jackie served as Director of Data Analytics at NYC Parks, where she founded their first data science unit, helping to re-wire the agency’s ability to solve problems and improve service delivery through the lens of data.

A firm believer in the potential of open data to create new pathways for civic engagement and government innovation, Jackie built collaborations between agency staff and civic technologists that enabled the public and community members to develop insights from Parks’ open data sets. In her almost two decades of service at NYC Parks, Jackie also spearheaded the largest participatory street tree mapping project in U.S. history, culminating in a new digital platform for the collaborative management of NYC’s urban forest; established the New York City Urban Field Station, a research partnership with the U.S. Forest Service advancing the study of cities as socio-ecological systems to improve quality of life; and led multiple geospatial data projects that supported urban climate resiliency and sustainability initiatives.

Jackie is formally trained in ecology and conservation biology, with degrees from Princeton and Columbia Universities. After spending substantial amounts of time in near pristine wilderness during her undergraduate years, she decided the greatest potential for ensuring environmental sustainability lay in solving urban problems, and joined NYC Parks to help combat the invasive Asian longhorned beetle, a major threat to Northeastern forests in the U.S. and Canada.

Jackie grew up just outside Toronto and is excited to be back in the GTA. She enjoys spending her spare time outside exploring with her almost 2-year-old son.

Chris is Finance Director at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to Sidewalk, Chris has been working with Alphabet/Google since 2013. He was part of Deloitte’s CFO Program, which aimed to develop next generation finance leaders, and focused on finance org and op models following CFO transitions. He started his career working with local, state, and federal governments to execute large-scale infrastructure programs, ranging from disaster recovery programs in Louisiana, Colorado, and Texas, to the World Cup in Qatar.

Chris was born in Canada, and has two younger sisters. He has lived in New York City since 2005, and people thought he was crazy for studying Architecture and Economics as an undergrad. He currently resides in the Financial District with his partner Matthew and their two cats. He is passionate about the intersection of infrastructure, technology, and finance, and the impact it will have on communities and the people who live in them.

Drew Majkut is an Associate, Talent, building Sidewalk Labs’ engineering, product, and design teams. Before Sidewalk, he helped to grow Oscar’s software engineering and risk departments. He is passionate about employer brand, candidate experience, and building scalable operations.

Drew is originally from Massachusetts. He graduated from Connecticut College summa cum laude with a degree in International Relations and studied abroad at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi. A washed-up long distance runner, Drew loves carbs and gin and tonics. He lives on the Upper East Side with his fish.

Ayesha Menon is the Director of Real Estate Investments. In this role, Ayesha is focused on our real estate investment strategy including land acquisition, capital formation, and development partnerships, as well as transactions related to the building innovation pillar.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Ayesha was a Principal with Wheelock Street Capital, where she spent close to ten years. At Wheelock, Ayesha was an investment generalist, sourcing, executing, asset managing, and divesting real estate investments that fit the firm’s opportunistic and value-added investment profile. Her primary areas of focus included the firm’s direct investment efforts into the residential land and homebuilding sector, as well as joint ventures for condo development, affordable housing and retail real estate. Prior to Wheelock, Ayesha worked as an investment associate at New Mountain Capital and as an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in their real estate investment banking division.

Ayesha received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BSE in Civil Engineering, with a concentration in architecture, from Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude. Ayesha grew up in London, where she attended The American School in London. She loves to ski, explore New York on bike, and grow vegetables on her roof; she is also a proud mother of two amazing little girls.

James is Associate, City Operations, at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, James was a consultant in Bain & Company’s New York office. While there he worked across a range of industries including insurance, healthcare, consumer goods, and retail. He also did a seven-month rotation in Bain’s private equity consulting group, working with funds to assess prospective investments.

James was raised just outside Manhattan in Englewood, New Jersey. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, going to concerts, traveling, and catching the latest movies. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in History.

Amanda Meurer is a Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs. Prior to Sidewalk, Amanda worked at Earnest, a financial technology company in San Francisco, where she helped build the platform for the bank of the future. Before joining Earnest, Amanda was a hardware engineer at Intel, where she worked on the design and verification of integrated memory controllers for Intel’s x86 server product line. Amanda is from Corpus Christi, Texas. She studied Electrical Engineering at Rice University. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys writing short stories, reading, and playing tennis.

Trista Miller is an Associate Director of Investments at Sidewalk Labs. Most recently, Trista worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking in Sydney and New York. Prior to that, she worked at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Trista has an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Yale. In her spare time, she loves running, hiking, SCUBA diving, and snowboarding.

Craig is Head of Engineering at Sidewalk Labs, leading the engineering team – which focuses on developing new urban technologies – and working with portfolio companies to develop their engineering teams and technology. Before joining Sidewalk Labs, he founded Google’s first remote engineering center, located in New York City. In his role as Engineering Director at Google, he oversaw the development of products including Google Local (now Maps) and Froogle (now Google Shopping), as well as features of web search such as Question Answering and Web Definitions.

As engineering director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, he co-founded Google.org’s Flu Trends and Crisis Response projects, providing maps, imagery and a missing persons service after crises in Japan and elsewhere.

Prior to joining Google in 2000, he was an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University, and a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University. He is the author of 44 peer-reviewed academic publications, and was awarded a Career Grant by the National Science Foundation for work combining information retrieval and computational biology.

A native of New Zealand, he earned a BSc in Computer Science from Canterbury University and a PhD in Computer Science from Waikato University. Passionate about great coffee, he co-founded Happy Bones café in Little Italy with his wife Kirsten and partners from New Zealand.

Nina Nappa is an Executive Assistant at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, she worked as a corporate immigration Paralegal at Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP in New York City. Nina graduated with honors in International Relations from Boston University, where she focused on International Systems and World Order.

Originally from Rhode Island, Nina enjoys traveling, hiking, and binge watching TV series on Netflix with her 16-year-old cat, Zeno. She spends her free time discovering up-and-coming restaurants and trying as many international candies as possible—though gummy candy is her ultimate weakness. In her past life, Nina was an active oil painter and volunteered teaching English classes and job skills to refugees. She is always excited to chat about current events/diversifying her Spotify playlist.

Neda Navab is the Associate Director, Urban Systems, at Sidewalk Labs.

Willa Ng is Director of Mobility – Streets, Urban Systems at Sidewalk Labs. Her background is in transportation engineering and community engagement, with a focus on parking and transportation demand management.

At the City of Berkeley, Willa implemented a demand-responsive parking program, as well as transit and biking programs, under the city’s goBerkeley pilot. Willa previously worked at the New York City Department of Transportation managing the PARK Smart value-pricing program, the parking technology pilot program, two community-based transportation pilots, and the congestion pricing proposal environmental review.

Willa began as a transportation engineer at AECOM. She graduated from UC-Berkeley with an MS in transportation engineering and from MIT with BS degrees in civil engineering and management. She is a proud native New Yorker and recreational eater.

Moyosore Odubanjo is an Associate Director of Finance at Sidewalk Labs. Previously, Moyosore assisted in scaling accounting operations at Andela and at Yext, up through its pre-IPO stage.

Prior to Yext, she managed the Accounting Departments for the international operations of The Motley Fool.

Moyosore is originally from Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in several cities across the U.S., including Atlanta and Washington, D.C., before settling in Brooklyn. She graduated with a BA in Finance and Accounting from Georgia State University and holds an MA in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University.

When not at work, Moyosore enjoys spending time with her two children.

Douwe Osinga is a Principal Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

Before joining Google as a software engineer in 2004, Douwe started various companies in his native Netherlands. After stints in California, Zurich, India, and Sydney working on Search, Mobile and finally Google Wave, he ran Triposo, your favorite mobile travel guide from Berlin, for the last 5 years.

Michelle is Associate, Human Resources for Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Michelle worked for Accel Partners in Palo Alto. Originally from California, Michelle completed her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Education at the University of California, Davis. Michelle spends her free time going to concerts, overpaying for almond milk lattes, and traveling.

Ananta is a Software Engineer on the urban prototyping team at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Ananta spent three and a half years at Birchbox, primarily working on the client-side engineering team to rearchitect the birchbox.com front end in React.

Ananta has a BA in Computer Science from Barnard College and enjoys cooking and hiking. She lives in LIC with her husband and their very outgoing Norwich terrier.

Veronica is Director of Product Management for Sidewalk Labs. Before joining Sidewalk, Veronica was a Group Product Manager at Mixpanel, where she led the Machine Learning team as well as the cross-functional Pricing and Customer Retention initiatives.

Prior to Mixpanel, she worked at Google as a Product Manager on the Health Search team and at McKinsey as a consultant in the Business Technology Office. Veronica holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker’s scholar and served as Co-President of the TechMedia Club.

Veronica earned her BEng in Software Engineering from McGill University. Originally from Toronto, Veronica enjoys getting to know her new cities (most recently New York), running, reading fantasy, horseback riding, hosting, and jumping on the bandwagon of whichever Toronto sports team is the least terrible in any given year.

Alexei is a Director of Research leading the urban modeling effort for Model Lab. As a faculty at UC Berkeley, he worked on machine learning methods applied to urban data and designed courses for the undergraduate and graduate tracks of Data Science for Smart Cities. He pioneered travel demand forecasting and urban simulation using passively sensed mobile location data.

Before coming to California, Alexei spent several years at various academic and faculty roles in Ireland and Switzerland. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from EPFL, Switzerland for his work in machine learning and computer vision.

He lives in Berkeley, within a short 5-hour drive from the magnificent mountains of Sierra Nevada.

Vanessa is Editorial Manager of Sidewalk Labs. She was previously the web editor for Metropolis, where she covered everything from VR’s burgeoning relevance to architecture to the integration of refugees into American legacy cities. Before that, Vanessa was a managing editor at ArchDaily, the world’s most visited architecture site, headquartered in Santiago, Chile. She has also contributed to numerous online publications, including Quartz, Wired, and Atlas Obscura.

Vanessa holds an MA in Arts & Culture Journalism from Columbia University and a BA in English Literature and Music from the George Washington University. When she’s not writing, editing, or thinking about cities, she’s probably traveling, cycling around the city, singing harmonies, or listening to podcasts.

When not building cities of the future, Prem spends hours building Lego cities with his two sons and watching way too much TV with his wife.

Lauren Reid is Director of Privacy and Data Governance at Sidewalk Labs. She has been a passionate leader in the privacy space for over 12 years, having worked in various industries across Canada, the US, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Lauren’s approach is heavily influenced by her international experience. Lauren joined Sidewalk Labs because she saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the way that cities collect and use data. She is passionate about ethics and privacy and believes organizations should be accountable for doing the right thing, always. She believes that the only way to be successful is to put people first.

Before joining Sidewalk, Lauren founded The Privacy Pro, a small consultancy focused on helping companies prepare for compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. An established leader in her field, Lauren speaks at conferences across the globe, and publishes thought leadership on the future of privacy accountability and compliance. She is a member of the teaching faculty for the world’s largest privacy industry association, the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She holds the Fellow of Information Privacy designation, as well as Certified Information Privacy Manager, and Certified Information Privacy Professional with European and US designations.

Prior to starting her own firm, Lauren was the Director of Accountability Solutions for Nymity, a Canadian privacy software company. She was responsible for launching and growing the firm’s European operations, helping large multinational organizations demonstrate compliance with global privacy requirements. She is the co-creator of the Attestor (TM) software solutions and co-authored the leading accountability-based framework for privacy program management, used by over 500 organizations around the world.

Prior to Nymity, Lauren was the Privacy and Ethics Officer for BMO Financial Group and before that was a manager at KPMG, working on privacy around the world. She was part of the first ever privacy team in the United States. She also spent time working in the Netherlands as part of the EMEA Privacy Centre of Excellence and at International Headquarters as the manager of privacy and information security.

Lauren’s career has taken her all over the world, but Toronto is her home. A devoted East-ender, she spends much of her free time walking around the Don Valley with her beagle, Doug, practicing hot yoga, cycling around the city, and listening to indie bands at The Phoenix and The Danforth Music Hall. Lauren loves to travel for pleasure as well, especially solo. She has backpacked around Europe and South America (so far) and doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.

Dan Riegel is a Principal Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs. He has a lifelong belief that technology can improve the way we live on Earth.

Before joining Sidewalk, Dan was a Product Manager at Google, shaping the mobile data technology deployed to over 2 billion Android phones worldwide. Prior to Google, Dan was Chief Technology Officer and co-founder at Scoot, a transportation startup providing the fastest, easiest, cheapest, and funnest (yes) way to get around cities. As CTO, he wrote or designed the whole system and built an exceptional engineering team to drive the company’s remarkable growth. He also managed development of the hardware platform, built relationships in the transportation ecosystem, and spent a great deal of time on Sand Hill Road. Prior to Scoot, he was co-founder and Software Director at EnergyHub, an energy management startup, preceded by 5 years in software development for the financial services industry.

Dan holds a B.S. in physics from Yale University and lives in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. His hobbies include backpacking, making, carpentry, running, cycling, and skiing. In his free time, he enjoys travel, cooking, and teaching his beautiful daughter (and anyone else who is interested) quantum mechanics, psychology, and sustainability.

Jesse is Director of Public Realm at Sidewalk Labs, where he leads the company’s human-centered design processes and helps teams explore ways to improve city life through new digital products. Before joining Sidewalk, Jesse was Director of Product at BuzzFeed, where he worked closely with journalists, entertainers, and tech teams to push the boundaries of content and technology.

For over a decade, Jesse Shapins has been a leading designer and entrepreneur at the intersection of media, technology, and place. In 2004, before smartphones, Jesse invented Yellow Arrow, one of the first platforms to globally connect physical locations, digital media and communities. Jesse is co-founder of Mapping Main Street, a documentary arts project that tells the stories of the over 10,466 streets named Main Street across the United States; co-founder of UnionDocs, one of the nation’s leading centers for documentary arts, based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; co-founder and CEO of GoPop, a platform for visual conversation that was acquired by BuzzFeed in 2014; and co-founder and CEO of Zeega, a pioneering web platform empowering anyone to tell interactive stories by mixing their own media with maps, video clips, memes, and anything else they could find online.

Jesse holds a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University and a PhD in Urbanism and Critical Media Practice from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He co-founded metaLAB (at) Harvard, a research venture based at the GSD and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society that bridges humanities, urbanism, and technology. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Metropolis, PRAXIS and Wired, cited in books such as The Sentient City and Networked Locality, and been exhibited at MoMA, SFMoMA, Deutsches Architektur Zentrum and the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, among other venues.

Michael Shapiro is an Investment Associate at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to Sidewalk, he worked for MassAve Group, a family office in Washington, D.C. focused on long-term investments in business and health services companies. Before that, Michael was Economic Policy Advisor for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, where he co-led economic policy on job creation, competition policy, fiscal and tax matters, healthcare, and manufacturing and trade. He previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House National Economic Council in the Obama Administration and held roles at the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Treasury Department.

Michael Sindelar is a senior software engineer for Sidewalk Labs’ Model Lab.

He was previously in a backend engineering role at Uber, where he worked on the serving infrastructure that exposes microservice APIs to mobile apps. Prior to that he worked at Google for seven years on a range of a teams focused on social and user modeling problems.

He lives in the mission district of San Francisco and enjoys hiking, scuba, and photography.

Josh Sirefman is Head of Development at Sidewalk Labs. Josh has spent his career at the forefront of the planning, negotiation and implementation of complex growth and development strategies across the public and private sectors. As founder and President of Sirefman Ventures, he led transformative development projects for a range of corporate, nonprofit and government entities, including Cornell University’s successful effort to build a new applied sciences campus in New York City, the University of Chicago’s transformation of Hyde Park through the redevelopment of a vibrant new mixed-use district, and the repositioning of the New York Public Library’s renovation of its flagship building.

Prior to founding Sirefman Ventures, Josh was the Senior Vice President for U.S. Development at Brookfield Properties and managed a development portfolio of more than 15 million square feet across the country. Before joining Brookfield Properties, Josh held a series of high-level roles within the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, including Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, and Interim President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Josh holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University. He has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, University of Michigan and New York University, and sits on the boards of the Fist and Heel Dance Company, New York Restoration Project, the Lowline, and Spaceworks.

Chris is the Fabrication Lead with Sidewalk Labs, helping to bring ideas into the physical realm with prototypes and experiments.

Previously, Chris spent 11 years working for the America’s Cup team Oracle Racing, helping create the boats that won the 33rd and 34th cups. For the past year he’s worked on special projects with Google and Google X.

Growing up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest that was obsessed with wooden boats left Chris with a deep appreciation of materials and building processes. From there, the University of Washington and stints living in New Zealand and Spain helped create a worldview for varied urban and rural environments.

Lauren Skelly is the Director of External Affairs for Sidewalk Labs where she gets to work on her favourite things every day, technology and cities.

Before joining Sidewalk Labs, Lauren worked for 5 years as the Government Relations Manager at Google Canada, where she helped to shape cutting-edge technology issues with policy makers inside and outside governments. Lauren also managed Google’s philanthropic efforts in Canada, working closely with non-profits across the country on projects related to diversity, STEM education, and the future of work. Prior to Google, Lauren worked on the policy team at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where she worked on public policy issues advancing the interests of cities and communities to the federal government.

Kabir joins Sidewalk as a Senior Software Engineer, working on new ideas for Sidewalk to incubate. Previously, he worked for In-Q-Tel, the technology investor for the United States Intelligence Community, and started a mobile AI company.

A native New Yorker, Kabir grew up in Queens — enjoying the food of every country in the world — and went to Stuyvesant High School, where he discovered a love of Science & Technology. Afterwards, he followed his fascination with Quidditch, the TARDIS, and all things ancient to New College, Oxford, from where he holds a Masters degree in Computer Science.

In his spare time, Kabir can often be found playing with crazy and ambitious technology, like Synthetic Biology, blockchains, and AI. (Be careful when asking about this, because he can go on and on and on.) When not pretending to be a mad scientist, he’s nursing a serious fiction addiction, holding court with his cat and two dogs, and swimming.

Sebastián is a software engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Sebastian spent some years working at startups. First he explored the open source, big data landscape, helping libraries to make big data applications easier to write and run. Afterwards he went to work in healthcare technology, writing software that gives oncologists a better understanding of their patients’ treatments and results.

Originating under the sunny skies of Southern California, he eventually traveled north to study Computer Science at Stanford, where he programmed robotic arms to play mini golf and coordinated Raspberry Pis into distributed systems. Outside of the office Sebastian enjoys developing film, kneading bread, and jogging (briskly).

Andrew Staniforth is an Associate, Development at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Andrew was a Vice President of Development at Forest City Ratner Companies, where he managed the renovation that transformed the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Beginning his career at Forest City, Andrew has worked on residential, retail, and commercial projects with a focus on public-private partnerships. In addition to his work in development, Andrew was involved in the operation of Forest City’s sports and entertainment portfolio, including the management and strategic disposition of Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets.

Andrew studied real estate, finance, and computer science in The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with dual degrees from The Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

David Stein is a software engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

He most recently worked as a director of engineering at Braze, a marketing automation software company. Before that, he worked at Dropbox in San Francisco, where he took on a number of projects, including building the in-house data analytics suite, security incident response, product prototyping, and automation of sales and support.

David was born and raised in Vermont. His research at MIT focused on distributed robotics.

Jeff Tarr is a Principal Engineer at Sidewalk Labs, focusing on environmental sensing in the public realm.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Jeff was the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Junction, a company that brought “Internet of Things” sensors to buildings to improve energy efficiency and sustainability. As CTO, he was responsible for software development, hardware design, and manufacturing with teams in America, China, India, and the Ukraine. Jeff has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years in technology research, “smart home” design, and hardware development at Apple and other firms.

Jeff grew up on the Upper West Side and has a B.A. from Harvard in Computer Science. He still lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Amy, and three children, Gigi, Penelope, and Theodore. In his free time he races cars, flies airplanes, runs marathons, and builds gadgets to make parenting easier.

Steven is a Associate Director, Development, on the real estate team at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Steven was a consultant at Deloitte, where his work focused at the intersection of the public and private sectors, specifically regional economic competitiveness and economic growth driven by innovation. He began his career as part of the Teach for America Hawaii corps, where he taught 7th grade on Wheeler Army Airfield in Wahiawa, Oahu.

Steven graduated with a degree in American Studies from Cornell University. He currently lives in Union Square, equidistant from the running paths on the East and West side, but lamentably far from a surf break.

Samara Trilling is a software engineer for Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, she built city data infrastructure and visualization tools for Google Fiber’s community impact team and iOS and web apps for Google News.

Samara graduated from Columbia University with a degree in computer science, specializing in artificial intelligence, and a concentration in history. She worked with Professor Eric Foner on original research into Columbia University and New York City’s ties to the slave trade. In high school, Samara interned for Senator Barbara Boxer, Representative Anna Eshoo and State Senator Joe Simitian.

Samara is from the Bay Area and loves hiking trails with great views, books on the history of computing, beautiful stationery, and playing ’60s folk music on guitar.

Dan is Principal Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs.

Prior to joining Sidewalk, Dan worked at Mt. Sinai’s HammerLab building open source tools for visualizing genomes and detecting genetic variants in cancers. Before Mt. Sinai, Dan spent eight years at Google, primarily working on projects involving web search and search logs analysis. He was involved in creating quick answers and visualizations for queries such as “when does the sun set” or “how many people live in NYC” Dan was also part of the team that built Google Flu Trends and Google Correlate, a tool for discovering patterns in search activity.

Dan has a long history of developing a variety of digital side projects. The most recent of which was OldNYC, a collaboration with the New York Public Library which placed tens of thousands of historic photos on a map.

Dan is a native of South Bend, Indiana. He studied Math and Computer Science at Rice University. Since 2010, he has been based in Brooklyn, where he can frequently be found cycling, climbing, running and throwing frisbees.

Ryan Vilim is a Software Engineer at Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, he worked as a Data Scientist at a Swiss startup called Axon Vibe, where he used machine learning to interpret and predict user behavior. Ryan has a Masters and PhD in physics from the University of Toronto. His doctoral work focused on using supercomputer simulations to study the mechanism behind the magnetic fields of planets, trying to answer the question: “Why does a compass point north?” In his spare time, Ryan enjoys rock climbing, cooking, and doing pretty much anything outdoors.

Megan is Director of Design and Communications for Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, Megan managed product design and development projects at ustwo and Huge, Inc., creative agencies based in New York. Most recently, Megan has led the strategy and execution of digital platforms for Harvard Business Review, NYU Langone Medical Center, the American Museum of Natural History, and Google.

Megan began her career with the Spanish Ministry of Education, teaching in an underserved primary school and orphanage in Madrid. She later went on to coordinate the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) at Harvard School of Public Health.

Megan graduated with honors from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

Leigh Whiting is Sidewalk Labs’ Senior Visual Designer. Prior to joining Sidewalk Labs, Leigh spent 5 years as a brand designer in the architecture visualization and real estate industries, working with clients such as Studio Gang, Silverstein Properties, Invesco, and Newmark Knight Frank.

Leigh graduated from the University of Arizona’s College of Fine Arts, where she studied Visual Communications with an emphasis in Graphic Design. She hails from Sonoma County, California and currently lives in Chelsea. When she’s not designing, she is whipping up a pizza for friends, running on the Westside Highway or scouting out farmers markets.

Andrew is the Chief Operating Officer for Development.

Alexis is Director of Health and Human Services for Sidewalk Labs and is based in our Toronto office. Most recently, Alexis worked at MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub, where she lead the Centre for Impact Investing’s health practice and supported the Health Systems Innovation team.

Born and raised in Toronto, Alexis is an experienced management consultant, having started her career at Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte), working for a boutique firm in the UK and also consulting independently. Alexis has first-hand experience as an entrepreneur in her role as co-founder of a Canadian employee support and education company. Alexis has also worked as a civil servant in the role of Pricing Strategy Lead for Monitor, the regulators for the National Health Service in England, where she was responsible for setting pricing policies to support improved integration of care across the health sector.

Alexis is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and completed her MBA at London Business School, both with distinction. She is also a proud mother to three awesome kids. In her free time, Alexis enjoys downhill skiing, yoga, and exploring new places and cities.