Abhi Nemani

[email protected] | 618.322.2220 | abhinemani.com | medium.com/@abhinemani

EXPERIENCE

Founder, CEO

Jan 2016 - Present

EthosLabs.us

Serve as a bridge between the public, private, and non-profit sectors in various localities to drive collaborative innovation, such as policy reform, technology deployment, or community engagement.
Work with senior government officials — Mayors, City Managers, and department leaders — to develop new technology programs, helping them create strategic plans for better leveraging technology for policy objectives. Former city partners have taken Ethos' recommendations to hire C-level leadership, launch open data programs, and procure new, innovative solutions.
Consult with multiple startups to improve their product, positioning and marketing; supported updates to their business models; and connected them with potential hires and partners, including investors and clients. Ethos-supported startups have closed venture capital financing rounds (Series A and B), have seen significant growth (>500%) in ARR, or finalized successful exits.

Civic Technology Lecturer

March 2019 - Present

University of Chicago Computational Analysis and Public Policy Program

Develop new course and curriculum on Civic Technology — including best practices, the existing ecosystem, and challenge specific to the industry — for masters students in the Computer Science and Public Policy schools.
Teach quarterly course to 25+ students, preparing them for careers in civic technology, both inside government and out.

Chief Innovation Officer

Jan 2016 - Feb 2017

City of Sacramento Mayor's Office

Developed and launched the city's landmark $10M Innovation and Growth Fund (IGF) to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, which was approved the by city council unanimously.
Created and administered the RAILS $1M grant program—Rapid Acceleration, Innovation, and Leadership in Sacramento—to support local startups enablers, which received over 140 applications, totaling over $17M in grant requests.
Built the Mayor's Office for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, recruited permanent staff (including permananent CIO), and codified policies and budget through City Council, ensuring institutional sustainability.
Recruited and managed the Mayor's Tech Council of key technology leaders to provide outside expertise on city policy.

Chief Data Officer

Sept 2014 - Oct 2015

City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office

Led Los Angeles to #1 ranking for US open data cities in under one year, by publishing over 400 datasets; earned the Platinum Open Data Certification from international data consortium, WCCD.
Built Mayoral Dashboard, which is used regularly by the Mayor and Senior Staff to increase performance and accountability; the dashboard has saved the city over $180K, and has been freely reused by other cities.
Crafted the city's Open Data Policy in collaboration with national policy experts, which has been recognized as the most comprehensive in the country.
Developed nationally-recognized analytics partnership with local universities to use data science to address policy issues including crime, building safety, and personnel.
Set up first-of-its-kind city data GeoHub (GIS) to share over 1,000 datasets more easily internally and externally.
Mobilized the local volunteer community to include 10K+ members that host monthly events and app competitions focused on sustainable innovation; ran largest civic hackathon in the country.
Supported multiple departments—e.g. Personnel and Fire—in digital transformations through trainings and consultations to enhance citizen experience and reduce costs; earned LA the ranking of #1 Digital City.

Co-Executive Director (Interim)

May 2010 - March 2014

Code for America

Previously: Chief of Staff, Director of Strategy & Communications

Helped build, launch, and run international non-profit designed to transform local governments through technology, leading growth, product strategy, and assessment.
Implemented fundraising strategy for a $10M+ budget, including foundation engagement, corporate sponsorship, and individual philanthropy. Managed and grew multi-million dollar grant relationships with Omidyar Network, Google.org, and other major national foundations.
Create groundbreaking technology fellowship program for local governments in 2011, recruiting over 360 applicants for inaugural class, selecting top 20 for three teams that created over 20 civic applications in partnership with 3 cities.
Spearheaded development of growth programs: the first-of-its-kind civic startup accelerator, leading to dramatic growth in activity in the space; the Peer Network, a collaborative platform for over 100 government change-agents; and the CfA Brigade, a now 10,000+ member community of volunteer civic technologists.
Launched internationalization strategy of "Code for All" with various partners including the World Bank.
Chaired Code for America Summit, the premier gathering of ~1,000 civic innovators from around the world, leading strategy, editorial, and design, growing attendance 275 percent and revenue 150 percent.
Published Beyond Transparency, an anthology compiling dozens of case studies from civic leaders on open data.
Built policy focus areas (e.g. public health) building product teams designed to develop reusable apps.
Designed branding campaigns featured in the New York Times, Mashable, Gizmodo & Boing Boing.

Manager

September 2006 - April 2010

Rose Institute of State and Local Government

Oversaw 30 student researchers, supervised project work, handled personnel, and coordinated budget of over $50,000 with senior staff, focused on government innovation and transparency research agenda.
Led National Ballot Initiative open data project, researching and cataloging over 900 measures for public access, which led to publication of scholarly book, “Direct Democracy and the Courts,” published by Cambridge University.
Led the Digital Archiving project of 20 student employees to publish hundreds of political documents online, becoming the first digital political library for the state of California.

Product Marketing

June 2009 - August 2009

Google

Led creation of digital strategy for "Gone Google" marketing campaign, conducting marketing research, designing digital assets, and developing resuable online tools, which was featured by AdWeek, Mashable, and VentureBeat; campaign reached over 1M in under 10 days
Developed B2B marketing strategy for a typically consumer product, driving adoption of social media techniques within Google's enterprise marketing team

COMMUNITY & INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT

SPIDR Tech (GovTech Startup)

August 2016 - Present

Advisor

CityGro.ws (GovTech Startup)

May 2015 - Present

Advisor & Investor

Midwest GovTech Meetup

August 2018 - Present

Founder / Lead Organizer

StateMatters

May 2018 - Present

Advisor

Data4America (GovTech NGO)

May 2015 - May 2017

Board Member

OpenGov Foundation (GovTech NGO)

May 2014 - May 2017

Board Member / Vice-Chair

HONORS & RECOGNITIONS

Blair Award for State and Local Government
Partner, Truman National Security Project
Top 10 CDOs to Watch, Technical.ly
Edward J. Sexton Fellow; Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Harrison Fellow, Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World

Recognition & Honors for Code for America

Government Technology Magazine: Change-makers
2012 MDC Partners & Wired Humanitarian Award
MIT Lynch Award for Urban Affairs
2012 Oxford Internet and Society Award
White House Champions of Change
Multiple Knight News Challenge Selections

Recognition & Honors for City of Los Angeles

#1 Open Data City, US Open Data Census
#1 Digital City, Government Technology Magazine

PUBLICATIONS

Dashboards: The Underbelly of the Smart City | University of Missouri Kansas City Law Review (Spring 2017)
Small (City) Pieces, Loosely Joined | Medium (July 2014)
7 Tactics for 21st Century Government | Government Magazine (Oct 2013)
Restoring Cities as Engines for Opportunity | CityMinded (Sept 2013)
Turning Civic Interest into Action | Government Executive (Aug 2014)
Government as a Platform | TechCrunch (June 2012)
Accelerating San Francisco | Huffington Post (Jan 2013)

PRESENTATIONS

TEDxSacramento, “Cities: The Hack of the Century""
Federal Communications Summit (Washington DC), “Government is What We Make of It”
#RiseConf2015, CDO as a Poor Man's Hacker
National Association of Government Webmasters (NAGW): Beyond Open Data Portals (Keynote)
Fabric of the City (Paris), “Building an Open Data Community”
SXSW (Austin, TX), “Hacking for Sustainable Cities”
Big Kansas City, “Disruption as a Public Service”
MAD (Hong Kong), “Civic Startups”
Claremont McKenna College, “Technology & the Liberal Arts”

EDUCATION

Claremont McKenna College

August 2006 - May 2010

B.A. Philosophy, Politics & Economics Honors; Magna Cum Laude

Oxford University

Sept 2008 - December 2008

Politics and History (Study Abroad)