Macathon 2023 Judges

Fall 2023 Judges

Beth Desnick ’82

Co-founder at Evology

Beth lived in Paris for a year after graduating from Macalester. She then worked as the curatorial and exhibition director at the Minneapolis Institute of Art before starting her own creative agency, Evology. Her area of expertise is brand and content strategy, largely for clients engaged in climate change and public health. She also works with local startup brands, like Minnesota’s first woman-owned distillery, Twin Spirits.

Connor Valenti ’17

Director of Engineering at DOCSI

Since graduating from Macalester in 2017, Connor has worked as a software engineer for a variety of different startups ranging from digital messaging to student loans and fintech. He currently serves as a co-founder and the Director of Engineering at DOCSI, a Twin Cities-based early stage healthcare startup. A two-time Macathon champion himself, he is thrilled to return to Macathon and see the brilliant ideas that students will bring to life.

David Sielaff ’90

Founder at Critical Hit Technologies

David has been working in the tech industry for over 30 years now, with companies ranging in size from very small startups to Cray Research and Microsoft. After his startup was acquired by Microsoft, he led teams in Microsoft Research and Windows to modernize software engineering practices. As a software engineer, his inventions have been awarded multiple patents. He currently splits his time between consulting with Fortune 100 companies on tech acquisitions, as well as building his own startup. He lives in Seattle with my wife, kids, dog, and way too many computers.

Gary Mainor ’72

Independent Consultant

Gary has spent 45 years in business. He has run businesses of various sizes in the technology and the education space. He continues to do consulting work in education and currently works with Pearson, CoSN, Former Chief State School Officers and the Software and Information Industry Association.

Heather Mickman ’96

Chief Information Officer at Gap, Inc.

Heather has been working in tech for 2+ decades across industries and geographies. She is currently the CIO at Gap, Inc. She has a passion for technology, building high performing teams, driving a culture of innovation, and having fun along the way. Heather lives in Minneapolis with her 2 amazing sons, 2 cute dachshunds, and 1 awesome boyfriend!

Anna Graziano ’13

Enterprise Success Manager at DeepScribe

Seth Levine ’94

Co-founder and Partner at Foundry, Macalester College Trustee

A long-time venture capitalist Seth Levine works with venture funds and companies around the globe. His day job is as a partner at Foundry Group, a Boulder, CO based venture capital firm he co-founded in 2006 which has over $4.5 billion in assets under management. Easily distracted and a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship, Seth also spends time as an advisor to venture funds and companies around the world. He is the co-author of The New Builders: Face to Face with the True Future of Business.

John Mohoang ’17

Senior Software Engineer at Nextek Development 

Post Mac, John pursued a master’s degree in Computer Science with a focus in Data Science at the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. He is now a Software Engineer at Nextek Development. John was born and raised in Lesotho. He has lived on three continents and he intends on adding to that list. Outside of work and occasional travel, he enjoys cycling and hosting his friends for dinner.

Kiante Miles ’20

Data Engineer at Hagerty

Working full time as a Data Engineer, Kiante has a passion for developing robust data pipelines to assist downstream analysts. Aside from software development, he has a background in entrepreneurship. He has developed a poetry program for high school students and has also published a book. This year, he combined his passion with his skillset to form his first LLC, Miles of Art. The company’s mission is to expand black and minority presence in the digital realm. During his time at Mac, he was a part of the fighting Scots football team, S.A.C.C., B.L.A.C, and participated in Funkathon, MacStartups, and the Live It Fund.

Lee Wallace ’95

Owner/CEO at Peace Coffee

Lee handles the day-to-day operations of Peace Coffee with her cattle dog, Ruby, by her side. She loves to travel and visit her farmer-partner cooperatives around the globe, and also enjoys spending time at home learning about new ways to make her garden flourish. She leads Peace Coffee with incredible wisdom, foresight, and gives employees the confidence to excel in their roles; all driven by a tenacity to advocate for her farmer partners, their land, and the wellbeing of everyone along the supply chain.

Mark Abbott ’96

Chief Legal Officer/Compliance & Information Security Architect at Atomic Data, LLC

Mark is currently Chief Legal Officer at Atomic Data, a Minneapolis-based enterprise IT services provider with operations around the world, where he also serves on the technology strategy committee and leads the External Security & Compliance Consulting team. Mark started his first technology company with two friends and a fistful of credit cards in 1995. Since then, Mark has been a leader in and adviser to multiple technology services and consulting companies.  Mark enjoys working with small and early ventures, mentoring, discovering local music and food, and spending time with his awesome partner, her boys, and their two maniacal dachshunds.

Marty Carlson ’94

Owner at Law Offices of Martin A. Carlson, Ltd.

Marty is a solo attorney in private practice, focusing primarily on civil litigation, appeals, criminal defense, and state administrative enforcement actions. He has worked with small business owners regularly on a variety of legal issues. Previously, he worked at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, working in the public safety and consumer enforcement divisions.

Masami Kawazato ’00

Program Director at Metropolitan Regional Arts Council

Masami is a 1.5-generation immigrant and third-culture kid originally from Japan. She is a Program Director at Metro Regional Arts Council (MRAC) responsible for $4M in arts access grant funding. Previously, she founded and led a boutique consulting firm offering strategic planning services to artists, creatives, and nonprofit organizations.

Paul Cantrell ’98

Computer Science Instructor at Macalester College

After studying computer science, math, music, and religion at Macalester, Paul went into industry, creating software for dozens of companies ranging from tech startups to Fortune 500s to arts nonprofits. Unable to resist Macalester’s siren song, he returned to teach computer science and run the Dev Garden (devgarden.macalester.edu). He leads a secret double life as a composer, pianist, and music entrepreneur, and is artistic director of The New Ruckus (newruckus.org).

Peter Pascale ’94

President, ExceedHQ consulting

Peter describes himself as the world’s greatest generalist who loves building great software products and the teams that make them great. He can speak the languages of both big company and start-up environments. Currently, he is bringing lean product development focus to an EdTech start-up, and consults with a large media organization.

Matt Entenza ’83

Founder – Entenza Law Firm PLLC

Matt graduated from Macalester with an Environmental Studies Major. His firm represents works with founders and start up boards from idea creation to IPO. He serves as General Counsel and Director on numerous start ups. Recently he served as a legal counsel and board member for a Norwegian/U.S. fintech startup (MobileAxept.com) and helped guide it to successful sale to a publicly traded company. Matt serves on the Macalester Board of Trustees and loves Macathon because of the amazing creativity of the Macalester students!