Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Center working to create new and more inclusive tech innovation ecosystems regionally & nationally. Her work is centered at the intersection of technology, economic justice, and action-driven partnerships to tackle pressing social and economic inequities of underrepresented communities head-on. Her areas of focus include emerging themes such as Future of Work(ers) and Equitable Cities, particularly as they relate to seeking out new economic development models with cross-sector partners. Lili believes that it is critical that we help prepare and upskill communities of color for the future, today. She leads with urgency to provide paths for East Bay talent to not only enter but also create tech in order to unlock upward economic mobility. She was a New America CA fellow focus on Tech for Good, was recognized as SF Business Times Most Influential Women in Business and SF Business Times 40 Under 40, and is an MBA lecturer at Mills College. Lili was recently a featured Salesforce Dreamforce and TEDxOakland speaker.
Before coming to the Kapor Center, Lili was an Associate Principal at Accenture Technology Lab’s Open Innovation team, based out of Silicon Valley, building bridges between startups and commercial clients. She was also a founding member of the Innovation Services team at Booz Allen specializing in crowdsourcing, prize challenges, and open data solutions at the federal level. Before that, Lili could be found in the lab working on software and hardware solutions for the aerospace industry as a Senior Multi-Disciplined Software Engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
Lili’s community involvement is at her heart and purpose. All of her work is focused on engaging communities at different intersections to show that tech can be done right if it’s inclusive of all people – whether it’s locally in Oakland or across the US. She’s a proud immigrant from Bolivia and believes in meeting the community where they are at. She’s been an active Startup Weekend organizer – helping launch Women’s Edition, Impact Edition, and Latinx in Tech Editions. She also helped organize the first TEDxOakland. She is an advisor to tech-focused nonprofits such as AI-4-All.org and 1Degree.org.
Lili holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
