At COO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based COO’ operating in the GovTech space. If you think a COO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Jacob Orrin
Co-Founder and COO of Merit
Jacob Orrin is the COO and Co-founder of Merit. Merit’s verified identity platform brings visibility, liquidity, and trust to people-data, giving organizations the clarity to make better-informed decisions, engage with individuals effectively, and pursue their mission efficiently. Merit works with trusted private, state, and municipal organizations to solve critical real-world problems in sectors such as workforce development, emergency services, licensing, education, and defense readiness.
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About Merit, Merit: Merit develops a verified identity platform to help organizations in managing personnel data.

Robert Sydnor
COO of Optimere (ArchiveSocial + Monsido + NextRequest)
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About Optimere (ArchiveSocial + Monsido + NextRequest): Optimere is the leading provider of digital compliance, accessibility, and records management solutions.
Liz Sisson
COO of Urban Us
Liz is the newest team member at Urban Us. Before joining the team, Liz was Managing Director of the network at the Roosevelt Institute, an economic think tank. In that role, she managed programs that deployed public policy initiatives in local communities across the country. The initiatives spanned across a variety of subjects including economic development, transportation, human rights, environmental impact and housing. Liz has also done consulting work on state government programs related to transportation and the environment. She primarily worked on reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions in New York State through an alternative transportation and carpooling initiative, 511NY. Liz graduated from Bentley University in 2012.
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About Urban Us, URBAN-X: Early-stage fund focused on rapid, scalable climate action and targeting outsized impact and outsized returns.
Varun Nagaraj
COO of Bidgely
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About Bidgely: Bidgely leverages the power of AI to optimize utility customer engagement and is the choice of leading utilities

Michael Plunkett
Co-Founder & COO/CFO of PayIt
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About PayIt: PayIt simplifies doing business with state, local, and federal government through its mobile transaction and payment platform.

Travis Noll
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Just Appraised
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About Just Appraised: Just Appraised uses AI to drive automation for local government assessors, helping them provide fair and equitable assessments to taxpayers.

Darlene Mann
Chief Operating Officer of StreetLight Data
Since 2008, she has provided executive advisory services to companies in the internet services and enterprise software segments. Darlene was CEO of Siperian from 1996 to 2002. Prior to this she led the internet and software services practice at ONSET Ventures, also serving as a director for more than a dozen portfolio companies. Before ONSET, Darlene served in a variety of operating roles including Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Avantos Performance Systems, and Founding Vice President of Marketing at BroadVision, and held a number of senior product management positions with Verity, Paramount Communications and Lotus Development Corporation.
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About Akoonu, StreetLight Data: StreetLight Data is a data analytics company transforming urban planning and transportation design with the power of geospatial data.

Peter Koht
Co-Founder & COO of OpenCounter
Peter Koht is a civics nerd. An experienced economic development professional, most recently Peter worked for the City of Santa Cruz. Peter worked on a number of issues at the City, from leading a regional broadband policy group to opening up City data to spearheading policy initiatives that lowered administrative barriers to job creation. Previous to his public sector role, he worked in technology and media. When not working, Peter runs trails and surfs.
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About OpenCounter: OpenCounter combines Silicon Valley and public-sector talent to create best-of-class products for modern governments.

Melissa Jankans
Co-Founder, COO of Launchpad
Melissa Jankans (cousin) is the COO for Launchpad and co-founder, and oversees daily operations and management of staff. Previously VP with Fidelity National Financial, she spent 17 years managing portfolios, staff, building and maintaining relationships while exceeding corporate goals and initiatives. Melissa brings her management experience with the ability to oversee multiple projects, provide strategies to achieve pivotal operational business decisions, meet project deadlines, analyze risks, develop budgets and view the overall operational and revenue goals for the company and its Stakeholders. Melissa studied at Portland State University.
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About Launchpad: Launchpad provides industry specific applications for public sector and nonprofit organizations.

Elon Kaiserman
COO & Co-Founder of SPIDR Tech
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About SPIDR Tech: SPIDR Tech is a law enforcement technology company.

Greg Loos
COO of Pondera Solutions
Greg Loos Prior to joining Pondera, Greg spent 23 years at Oracle Corporation in a number of senior management positions including roles in sales, finance, and customer support. In his most recent role as Vice President at Oracle, Greg led a team of 100 sales and marketing professionals servicing the State & Local Government market and delivered 300% growth over two years. Greg earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1990 from Stanford University and graduated from the Stanford Executive Program in 2010.
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About Pondera Solutions, Pondera Solutions, Thomson Reuters: Pondera offers a comprehensive cloud solution to help you detect, investigate, and enforce fraud, waste, and abuse.
William Repole
COO/CPO of GovQA
Mr. William Repole is co-founder of WebQA and responsible for overall operations, product leadership, development and support. He has more than 20 years of information technology, product management and project management experience with emphasis in the financial, insurance and government marketplaces. Mr. Repole has significant experience building companies. Prior to WebQA, he expanded Project Management Partners, Inc. into a multi-million dollar business process consultancy that assisted Fortune 1000 companies in workflow and business strategies; and, in the 1990′s, he spearheaded the growth of Ameritech Information System’s document imaging business. Early in his career, while working with Subject, Wills & Co, a leading provider of technology solutions to middle market companies, Mr. Repole helped pioneer the development of one of the first commercially available document imaging platforms. Mr. Repole holds a BS from Northwestern University in Industrial Engineering.
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About GovQA, GovQA: WebQA now operates exclusively as GovQA, LLC with SaaS-based tailored customer service to governments.
Paul Dunlop
COO of Fraud Doctor
Paul Dunlop, MPS, CAMS is the COO of Fraud Doctor LLC. He specializes in making fraud, cyber & financial crimes programs a business competitive advantage, synthesizing complex regulatory requirements and frameworks into integrated value-add strategies, programs, and solutions. Dunlop uses advisory expertise, thought leadership, and broad collaboration to create industry-leading achievements for his clients, their partners and customers across fraud, cyber and financial crime risk management.
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About Fraud Doctor: Early warning of financial fraud & mismanagement risk.
Lindsay Pica
Co-Founder and COO of Govlaunch
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About Govlaunch: Govlaunch is the the wiki for local government innovation®

Corey Smith
Chief Operating Officer of Metropia Inc.
If growing businesses was a sport, then Corey would be a gold medalist. Metropia’s VP of Corporate Development specializes in both taking established companies to the next level and raising new companies by building up their executive staff and strategic bases. He says that after achieving so much in his own career, he now finds it gratifying to see others achieve their dreams, thanks in small part to his involvement and encouragement in their ventures. Corey has helped several software companies achieve average annual growth rates above and beyond 50 percent by adding distribution channels, encouraging international expansion, and exploring ways of adding to the companies’ product lines. At Metropia, this experience allows us to help business partners get the most of their involvement. Alongside the long pedigree of businesses Corey has founded and fostered, he received his Business Administration from Oregon State University. When he isn’t working with entrepreneurial teams and experiencing the passion they bring to addressing the needs of new, emerging markets in innovative ways, Corey spends his free time thinking about and making plans to visit places where the pace is slower and the topic of the day is what to make for dinner with ingredients from small markets.
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About BioVidria, Grannus, Metropia Inc.: Metropia optimizes transportation systems by using behavioral economics to influence drivers to shift departure times, routes and modes.

Mike Bianchini
Chief Operating Officer of Municibid
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About Municibid: Municibid is a compliant, online auction and marketing platform.
Zach Slaughter
COO of Fund Accounting Solutions Technologies
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About Fund Accounting Solutions Technologies: FundView is a fully-integrated suite of true fund-based accounting solutions designed specifically for local governments.
Tom Joyce
COO of Aquorn, Inc.
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About Aquorn, Inc.: Debt Management Solutions for the Public Finance Sector

Kevin Herman
COO of ProudCity
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About ProudCity: ProudCity is a software company providing cities with websites and online government services.

Kevin Herman
COO of ProudCity
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About ProudCity: ProudCity is a software company providing cities with websites and online government services.

Chris Kennedy
COO of Periscope Holdings
Chris Kennedy As Chief Operating Officer, Chris Kennedy is responsible for executive leadership over all the solutions Periscope provides to our customers, including product, development, technology infrastructure, implementation services, and support. Chris has been with Periscope since 2005, serving as Vice President of Services until December of 2015. During that period, he led Periscope’s teams working directly with customers to implement and support our eProcurement implementations at states, local governments, school districts, and universities across the nation. Prior to joining Periscope, Chris was a senior manager with Deloitte Consulting’s Public Sector Strategy and Operations practice. Previously, he held various positions with the State of Texas, including with the Office of the Governor, House of Representatives, and the state’s environmental regulatory agency. Chris earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Trinity University, and his Master of Public Affairs/Master of Arts in Latin American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
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About Periscope Holdings: Periscope Holdings helps organizations build a better procurement process.