It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Higher Ground Labs @highergroundlab Follow Higher Ground Labs Retweeted TechCrunch
"The Obamas have formed a company called Higher Ground Productions" - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!!
Shomik has built a diverse career in politics, renewable energy, and finance. He is a veteran of several Democratic campaigns and served as the Mid-Atlantic Finance Director for the '08 Obama Campaign. Shomik worked in the Obama White House as special assistant to the White House Counsel and then served as an Advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Shomik later worked on President Obama's re-election campaign as a fundraiser.
Betsy has deep experience with political technology. Her political career began in 2007 as an organizer on the first Obama Campaign. In 2012, she served as the National Digital Organizing Director, sitting at the intersection of field, digital, and technology. In 2013, Betsy co-founded 270 Strategies - a public engagement firm that works with political campaigns, causes, and companies all over the world. She started HGL because she is still recommending the same tools to clients now that she used as an organizer 10 years ago.
Andrew McLaughlin is a professional nerd who loves politics, policy, tech, and media. Recent jobs have included being Deputy CTO of the United States under President Obama, a partner at betaworks, CEO of Digg and Instapaper, a senior business exec at Medium and Tumblr, head of global public policy at Google, and Chief Policy Officer of ICANN. He's taught classes at Stanford and Harvard Law Schools and has been a fellow at Princeton and Columbia. He's on the boards of Access Now and Public Knowledge, and has served on the boards of the Sunlight Foundation and Code for America.
Joselyn comes from the world of impact-oriented entrepreneurship. She's consulted, fundraised, and marketed for sustainable food and agriculture start-ups in Silicon Valley, and designed and launched new businesses in Bogotá, Colombia, to improve urban safety and health in Latin America. In 2016, inspired to help protect democracy in the US, Jos left her job at a start-up builder in South America to work as an organizer for Hillary Clinton in Miami-Dade, and contributed to historic Latino turnout in Miami-Dade.
Ron Klain is EVP and General Counsel of Revolution LLC, an investment firm with over $2B in AUM. He previously served as National Practice Group Chair at O'Melveny & Myers and served in the White House as Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden, senior aide to President Obama for implementing the Recovery Act, and Ebola Response Coordinator. He also served as Chief of Staff for VP Gore, Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno, Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee, Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Associate Counsel to President Clinton for judicial selection.
Yohannes is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously served as interim COO and Senior Advisor at the Obama Foundation, Senior Advisor to the National Economic Council, and Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. Based in his home state of Virginia.
Meg is a seasoned campaign organizer and strategist. She is a Founding Partner at 270 Strategies, and formerly the Battleground States Director for HFA and National Regional Director at OFA. Passionate about education reform, with many years in senior roles at Stand for Children. Based in DC.
Jeremy has a long history as a political organizer - for unions, advocacy groups, and local candidates. He was the National Field Director for the 2012 Obama campaign. Lives in Chicago
Catherine is co-founder of TechEquity Collaborative, working to build a more equitable tech economy. Leadership roles at Code for America, Obama 2012 technology teams, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Based in Oakland.
Jon is a true organizer. He was the field director on Obama's '08 campaign, Director of the Office of Public Engagement at the White House, and Executive Director for Organizing for Action. Lives in Chicago
Ann has over 20 years experience in Silicon Valley leading teams at companies like Google, Apple, and Intuit. Served in Obama State Dept and USAID. Senior Engineering Director at Google, led worldwide engineering for mobile applications and services.
Addisu was the Ohio GOTV Director for Obama '08, campaign manager for Cory Booker in '14, and the Border State Director in '16. He has worked for companies, advocacy organizations for over a decade. He now lives in Oakland.
If your product relies on great content, you need Toby Fallsgraff. Toby was the email director in 2012 for Obama, raising over $400 million online. He lives in Chicago.
Jon Favreau was Barack Obama's chief speechwriter from 2005-2013. He previously worked a speechwriter to John Kerry. He is now the founder of a burgeoning media empire and lives in LA.
Jesse is a Democratic strategist and consultant working on a number of progressive issue advocacy campaigns and Democratic electoral efforts for 2018. Previously, he was Deputy National Press Secretary and Senior Spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Danielle Gray was a longtime legal and policy aide to President Obama. She served in the White House from Day 1 as Associate Counsel and ended as Cabinet Secretary.
Tyler is a voter protection guru. He understands election law through his work with campaigns. Tyler worked for the Obama Campaign in 2012 and was a lead Perkins lawyer for HFA in 2016. He lives in Chicago.
Stephanie is the Chief Product Officer at Strava, and recently completed a stint as Executive in Residence at Greylock Partners. Previously, she was CTO for Hillary '16, and Director of Product Management, Civic Innovation, and Social Impact at Google. She also held PM and leadership roles at Facebook and Eventbrite. Lives in the SF Bay Area.
Marlon has a long history in campaign strategy. Most recently he was Director of States & Political Engagement on the Hillary Campaign. He lives in DC.
Greg Nelson served as a longtime tech and economic policy aide to President Obama. Aspen Fellow for Future of Work Initiative. Previously built and sold a tech company. He now lives in SF.
Michael currently works on the Partnerships and Policy team for Airbnb. Previously, Michael served in the Office of the Chief of Staff and Presidential Personnel Office in the Obama White House. Michael was the Midwest Finance Director and was the Ohio Primary Political Director the Obama '08 campaign. Michael is proud to be from the Buckeye State, and currently lives in Chicago.
Jeff has deep engineering experience and helps companies build great Internet technology, He recently worked as VP of Engineering at Food 52, and before that built up and managed the backend engineering team at Hillary for America. Lives in NYC.
Dan is the former head of engineering at Medium. Previously, he was a Software Engineer at Google where he worked on Google+, Gmail, and GChat. His new company is exploring how software can cultivate healthy, inclusive, and creative organizations. Lives in the Bay Area.
Harper is a hacker/engineer building paradigm-shifting tech. Currently Entrepreneur in Residence in Next Generation Commerce at PayPal, previously Founder at Modest, CTO at Obama for America, and CTO at Threadless.com. Lives in Chicago.
Alex leads software development for electric personal flying machines. Previously, he was the SVP of Engineering at Twitter, where he was responsible for all engineering and operations. Lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Michael has spent his career at the intersection of politics and technology. He was the Chief Technology Officer for Obama '08 and the Chief Innovation Officer for Obama '12. He lives in Chicago.
Lynda is a leading expert on messaging and communication for organizations focused on engagement. Formerly, she was the National Press Secretary for OFA and worked at the Department of Transportation. She lives in DC.
Tommy has been a longtime communications aide to President Obama. Served as the spokesperson for the National Security Council, Assistant White House Press Secretary, and Iowa Press Secretary for the Obama '08 race. Lives in LA.
Tom served as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission under President Obama from 2013 - 2017. Tom is a prominent investor, entrepreneur, author, and advocate in the telecom, media, and wireless start-up ecosystem. Lives in DC.
Bryan builds Progressive and Democratic data infrastructure and data-driven strategies. CTO for the Democratic Party during Obama’s 2012 campaign; founded the data and technology department at SEIU. Lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Buffy has been organizer across the country for the past 15 years. She served in the Obama White House and was the Director, Operation Vote for Obama '12. She is an industry leader on constituent outreach and engagement. Lives in Oakland.
Mike is an investment advisor at the forefront of progressive political investing and giving. He served as General Counsel at Pinterest and Deputy General Counsel at Google, and prior to his tech career, he worked in the California State Senate and U.S House of Representatives. Lives in Oakland, CA.
Higher Ground Labs backs 13 startups to help Democrats win in 2018 and beyond
With 2018 midterms around the corner, the Democrats are looking for their answer to Cambridge Analytica, the Robert Mercer-backed political data firm that either won the 2016 election or tricked everyone into believing that it did, depending on who’s talking.
Democracy Alliance (DA)
The group was not created to “dole out money itself,” [3] rather it was meant to operate more as an “exclusive collective”[4] of “partners,” billionaires and millionaires (and later, organizations) committed to providing at least $200,000 per year to left-of-center organizations. Billionaire financier George Soros and late Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis are the most notable Democracy Alliance donors, but the list of Democracy Alliance partners includes many “of the biggest names in liberal politics.”
In late 2017, the Democracy Alliance distributed a chart it called the “Resistance Map” to its members, highlighting advocacy and agitation organizations it recommends for donations from Democracy Alliance members. The chart shows dozens of organizations divided into fifteen areas:[31] [32]
Innovation & Accelerators
Higher Ground Labs New Left Accelerator
New Media Ventures
IOP Announces Winter 2018 Visiting Fellows
Shomik Dutta & Betsy Hoover, the co-founders of Higher Ground Labs
The IOP’s Pritzker Fellows program is generously supported by a lead gift from the Pritzker Foundation and a major gift from the MacArthur Foundation.
originally posted by: pavil
a reply to: carewemust
Possible Chelsea Clinton Friend lead?
link
Look who shows up in this 2017 article......coincidence?
Adam Lovinger, a whistleblower and 12-year Office of Net Assessment (ONA) veteran, has repeatedly warned ONA’s leadership they faced risks by relying on outside contractors as well as the problem of cronyism and a growing “revolving door” policy, where ONA employees would leave the defense think tank and join private contractors to do the same work.
EXCLUSIVE: CHELSEA’S ‘BEST FRIEND’ WINS $11 MIL IN DEFENSE CONTRACTS WITH NO CLEARANCE
A company whose president is “best friends” with Chelsea Clinton received more than $11 million in contracts over the last decade from a highly secretive Department of Defense think tank, but to date, the group lacks official federal approval to handle classified materials, according to sensitive documents TheDCNF was allowed to review.
Jacqueline Newmyer, the president of a company called the Long Term Strategy Group, has over the last 10 years received numerous Defense Department contracts from a secretive think tank called Office of Net Assessment.
The Office of Net Assessment is so sensitive, the specialized think tank is housed in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and reports directly to the secretary.
originally posted by: Spruce
originally posted by: dashen
a reply to: CanadianMason
The question remains how did he travel to two different countries with no passport?
Inquiring minds want to know
Isn't that diplomatic immunity?
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani failed to convince parliament on Tuesday that his plans will pull the country out of an economic nosedive worsened by America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, further isolating his relatively moderate administration amid nationwide anger.
For only the second time in its history, parliament ordered a sitting president to appear before it to answer questions, the last time coming amid widespread discontent in 2011 over Western sanctions in the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.