One of the cohort members will win the 2025 Mira Emerging Leader Award

 

TechPoint, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership’s industry-led growth initiative for the state’s digital innovation economy, today spotlighted the year’s Tech 25 class. One of the cohort members will be elevated beyond the elite grouping and will be named the year’s Emerging Leader at the Mira Awards on February 27.

“Growing a great tech company requires much of an organization, including a deep commitment to attracting, retaining and growing tech talent across all levels,” said Dennis Trinkle, PhD, TechPoint’s Senior Vice President of Talent, Strategy and Partnerships. “Our Tech 25 class recognizes emerging leaders who show great promise and are expected to be big contributors to the Indiana tech ecosystem’s current and future success. Each of them excels in their chosen professional roles, but they also serve as inspiration for others through their approach to challenges, their work beyond the 9-to-5 and their positive effect on the Indiana tech ecosystem.”

The Tech 25 Awards represent a wide range of roles within businesses, such as software developers, financial analysts, marketing directors and product managers within the Indiana tech ecosystem. The awards celebrate exceptional performers who contribute greatly to their own businesses while also giving back to the community and thus are helping fulfill TechPoint’s mission to inclusively accelerate the growth of Indiana’s digital innovation economy.

See the full 2025 cohort list below, along with excerpts from the nominations that led to their selection to the 2025 TechPoint Tech 25.

Chinwendu Ayogu of Purdue University (Lafayette)
Ayogu has demonstrated strong leadership, innovation and dedication to the field of Electrical Engineering. Pursuing a specialization in Power Systems and Renewable Energy for his master’s degree, he holds leadership positions in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Society, National Society of Black Engineers and Purdue Indianapolis Student Government. He is also a teaching assistant and a Trio SS Math Tutor.

Rod Baradaran of rScan (South Bend)
Badaran has shown remarkable expertise and passion in building and scaling his company, rScan, a sustainability-focused technology venture that addresses the returns problem in the retail industry. His commitment to innovation, combined with his strategic approach to building partnerships and expanding his business, has set him apart as an emerging leader.

Nolan Bernard of High Alpha Innovation (Indianapolis)
Bernard began his career in software at Salesforce and now serves as portfolio and network director. He has helped shape sales and go-to-market strategy for several early to mid-stage SaaS companies, including ReturnPath, MetaCX (now MetaImpact), and AuthenticX. In his role at High Alpha Innovation, Nolan partners with CEOs and co-founders to help them land their first customers and start their go-to-market flywheel.

Ashley Blevins of High Alpha (Indianapolis)
A Human Relations expert, diversity and inclusion advocate, and strategic business partner for High Alpha and the more than 30 studio companies in its portfolio, Blevins is instrumental in shaping their success. She spearheads efforts to recruit technical co-founders, CEOs, leaders and individual contributors, one of the most challenging yet impactful aspects of building next-generation products that can fundamentally impact careers and communities. She represented High Alpha as a speaker at the Grace Hopper Conference, the largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists, and helps shape internal culture and champions initiatives that foster team bonding and inclusion.

Alec Brewer of Ourbio (Indianapolis)
Brewer (founder and CEO) was part of Conexus Indiana’s Rising 30 class of 2024 and has worked with startups and small businesses for eight years. He is involved in a number of entrepreneurial, synthetic biology and sustainability organizations and also helped found a nonprofit startup tackling furniture waste and furniture poverty in Charlottesville, Va. He also helped found ValleyDAO, a Web3 startup that is democratizing research and development, and project finance in the biomanufacturing industry.

Samantha Brown of Pierce Aerospace (Fishers) 
Brown joined Pierce Aerospace in early 2024, shortly after the Indiana Defense Network closed. She has since become indispensable to the startup’s operations and has revolutionized its internal business operations. She “worked miracles” with an internal management tool to make it works for the company’s government contracting and government business development process. She also created a customer success process for the company and is considered to be one of the most vital members of the team.

Amanda Carroll of High Alpha (Indianapolis)
Carroll has exemplified leadership, professionalism and resilience in her roles as director of real estate and executive assistant to High Alpha Co-Founder and Partner Kristian Andersen. She leads the Hospitality team and coordinates hundreds of events, ensures the headquarters runs seamlessly for the team, its portfolio companies and the Indiana tech ecosystem. She spearheaded the company’s 2020 move to the Indianapolis Bottleworks District, overseeing design, construction and move-in during the pandemic. She has facilitated the onboarding of employees and is a longstanding member of the philanthropy committee, championing Indianapolis and the nonprofits that make the city thrive.

Kevin Celisca of Integrate School (Bloomington)
Celisca, a first-generation Haitian American, overcame great personal and professional adversity to create meaningful change. His belief that all students deserve access to high-quality education regardless of their circumstances, led him to co-found Integrate School, a company that is transforming lesson planning for educators across the U.S. He has built a culture at Integrate School that values diversity, collaboration, and constant improvement. His ability to combine empathy with business acumen has enabled him to secure investments, drive growth, and build a sustainable, socially impactful company.

Daven Combs of Zylo (Indianapolis)
Combs has built a robust security program at Zylo, ensuring its customers trust the company as a steward of their data. His focus includes overseeing and executing Zylo’s physical security, cybersecurity, risk management and compliance operations.  His contributions are foundational to enabling the company to operate securely in an increasingly complex threat landscape. It is not uncommon to see him stocking the refrigerator with drinks or snacks so the team has them at the ready. He is an active member of Zylo’s DEI program and participates in the annual Pride parade in Indianapolis. He actively supports one of his transgender children and believes in creating a culture that acknowledges, embraces, supports, and accepts those of all racial, sexual, gender, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Sam Eschker of Data317 (Indianapolis)
Data scientist Eschker has been key to developing artificial intelligence solutions that have pushed digital innovation forward, particularly in healthcare. His work, such as building AI models to analyze echocardiograms, has addressed critical challenges in areas like diagnostics, medical devices, and healthcare claims. He is deeply involved in the local tech community, where he mentors others beginning their careers in data science even as he pursues his PhD at Purdue University.

Carol Ganz of Six Feet Up (Fishers)
Ganz, vice president of client success, has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and success while actively contributing to the tech community. She has served on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations, including The Plone Foundation, Django Events Foundation North America, Women & Hi Tech, and the Great Lakes Women’s Business Council. She has been a tireless advocate for promoting diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. Her efforts have been pivotal in creating more opportunities for underrepresented groups, ensuring a more equitable and inclusive tech community.

Stephanie Gilbert of Givelify (Indianapolis)
As senior manager of talent acquisition, Gilbert works to attract top-tier talent, including senior leaders, and plays a pivotal role in building high-performing teams that fuel innovation. Through strategic, data-driven recruiting and impactful leadership, she has leveraged analytics to optimize and streamline the company’s recruitment process, saving time and money while earning a retention rate exceeding 95 percent.  Gilbert has volunteered countless hours for causes, including Habitat for Humanity, 4Ocean, Women in High Tech and The Startup Ladies.

Liam Hood of Pierce Aerospace (Fishers)
Hood was recruited to join Pierce Aerospace from Indiana State University where he was president of the Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International student chapter. Due to his exemplary skills and knowledge, which are beyond what is normally expected of someone his age, Hood is trusted to handle the most sensitive of the company’s government missions on his own. His leadership is being recognized internationally, where he has taken on leadership roles in the FAA’s Drone Safety Team, and he is currently enrolled in AUVSI’s Emerging Leader program. He has also participated in humanitarian drone piloting missions in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

Katie Hughes of Farm Bureau Insurance (Indianapolis)
A data governance manager, Hughes is a driving force in advancing women in STEM through her volunteer work with STEM Connector and the “All in Tent” and the Women in Insurance Initiative, through which she contributed to the creation of essential resources instrumental in fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging within the insurance industry and STEM more broadly. Among many other community organizations, she serves on the Indy Hackers Board and is involved with the Indianapolis Women & Hi Tech and Dataversity’s Women in Data Management and Governance Special Interest Group.

Chad Hinen of Zylo (Indianapolis)
As senior director of services, Hinen led the creation and rollout of Zylo Professional Services, quickly scaling the new team delivering value-added services and accounting for 25 percent of company revenue. He has been instrumental in building and scaling Zylo’s services organization, driving significant customer value and revenue growth. He has helped hundreds of companies of all sizes define and implement people, process, and technology solutions to drive SaaS optimization at scale. His ability to marry technology and process to drive large-scale strategic change within the company’s customer base is exceptional. In 2024, his team has helped Zylo customers save almost $13 million in SaaS spend. He is also an active member of the Zylo “Zylife” team, leading volunteer events in the Indianapolis area.

Sarah Mangan of Zylo (Indianapolis)
Mangan is a standout among Zylo’s Customer Success team and often takes on additional projects that help the company better understand customers’ needs, fill gaps within product features and gather analysis to fuel Go-To-Market strategies. She contributed to renewal rates great than 95 percent in 2024. She is quick to offer insight and share personal experiences, listens with a sincere intent to understand and offers empathy when appropriate. Her inquisitive nature often drives conversations and the sharing of best practices, which directly impacts customers’ experiences and the value they derive from Zylo.

Amanda Manley of Vital Incite (Indianapolis)
Manley recently celebrated 10 years at Vital Incite, joining as a healthcare data analyst but learned new skills and mastered the ability to work with complex data sets to focus on data modeling, reporting and quality. She now serves as vice president of product.

Jason Pohlman of OTAVA (Indianapolis)
Pohlman serves as OTAVA’s Field CTO, an important role that has significant influence on the solutions that are delivered to customers. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience, including systems administration, global IT data center management, and solution architecture, Jason single-handedly built the company’s public cloud practice, launching the Managed Azure program to create a new revenue stream for the company.

Cody Rivers of Reveal Risk (Carmel)
Rivers joined Reveal Risk as a cybersecurity consulting director in May 2022 and immediately leveraged his prior experiences and learning agility to gain credibility with the team and clients. He has showcased strong outcomes in project management, staff coaching and development, business development, and internal technology transformation and successfully coached and developed junior and senior staff members. He recently created Reveal Risk’s People & Culture program, driving team growth through training, education, diversity, mentorship, and exceptional staff development programs throughout the year. Rivers serves in leadership roles for Kid’s Voice of Indiana and the ISACA-Central Indiana and has served on panels for TechPoint’s Leadership Academy, mentors numerous individuals in the Indiana tech community and nurtures a strong passion for developing future leaders through Mentors of Color. He was a recognized honoree for the IBJ CTO of the Year in 2021 and was recently appointed to serve on the State of Indiana Artificial Intelligence task force by former Governor Eric Holcomb.

Ryan Schade of SEP (Carmel)
Schade has served at SEP for 25 years in software development, client-facing and leadership roles, leaving a positive mark on sales, leadership, engineering, UX, and recruiting in industries that include aerospace, clinical labs, financial services, pharma and automotive. Schade’s impact goes beyond technical expertise and includes being a driving force in making SEP more diverse and inclusive. He works with Gleaners Food Bank, Camptown, FORUM Credit Union’s Advisory Council and Colby & Cate’s Charities, where he supports their mission to provide funding for cancer research.

Shondria Seaton of Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis)
Seaton leads Lilly’s Global ELITE+ program and has demonstrated a commitment to learning and development, innovation and community building while also streamlining the experience to enable participants’ readiness for additional learning opportunities (i.e., apprenticeship, etc.). A host and motivational speaker, she created the National BDPA Tech Talks. She curates teambuilding experiences for leaders looking to maximize teams’ value by understanding individual and team strengths. She has been a finalist for two consecutive years for the coveted Lilly CIO Awards and recently won a Techy award for her role in helping with the re-invention of tech recruiting at Lilly. She was recognized as a 2020 Golden Laurel shining star by InnoPower and the Indianapolis Recorder. She serves on Oaks Academy and University High School boards and is a past chapter president and board member of BDPA Indianapolis.

Taylor Varichak of AeroCore Technologies (Lebanon)
Varichak leads the development of radar equipment at AeroCore Technologies, a position secured after he successfully transitioned from military service. He is at the forefront of designing and manufacturing cutting-edge radar systems. Under his guidance, the team has made remarkable advancements, incorporating innovative technologies that push the boundaries of the industry. He champions initiatives to reduce waste and enhance resource utilization, implementing lean manufacturing principles that minimize the environmental footprint while maximizing productivity. He also serves as a mentor within the organization, actively sharing his knowledge and experience with younger professionals, inspiring them to pursue careers in manufacturing and technology.

Brock Vaughters of Kainos Worksmart (Indianapolis)
As head of operations, Vaughters is a driving force behind the company’s talent development and innovative service and product offerings. Beyond his role at Kainos, Vaughters is dedicated to serving his community and recently launched an “earn as you learn” program, which he continues to expand. He also serves on several boards and is actively involved in his church. He consistently uses his volunteer days to support non-profit organizations with his business insights and expertise.

Now in its 26th year, TechPoint’s Mira Awards are designed to elevate the most innovative companies and tech leaders in Indiana’s tech ecosystem. Learn more about the Mira Awards here.