Background
Dedicated to championing, connecting and supporting entrepreneurs around the world, Global Tech Advocates is a coalition of over 18,000 tech leaders, experts and investors in 50 different countries. Through forums, communications, direct connections and working groups, Tech Bay Area Advocates supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing entrepreneurs and tech professionals with access to Advocates in the around the world.
Tech initiatives designed and implemented for the good of the tech community, and the community overall including underserved STEM Students, are created by Advocates collaborating and providing solutions in Working Groups. If you have the bandwidth and time to participate in a Working Group, you can work collectively with Advocates who share a similar interest in tech verticals, initiatives or geographies. Examples include Cybersecurity, FinTech, Blockchain, VR/AR, AgTech, including WineTech, and geographies like the UK, LatinAmerica, Mexico, Emerging Europe, Turkey, Asia, and others.
History of the Global Tech Advocates Organization
The Global Tech and Tech London Advocates groups were founded by Russ Shaw, CBE, an American angel Investor living in London. Russ worked at several tech companies before launching GTA and TLA. The first and largest hub, Tech London Advocates (TLA), launched in 2013 in London to increase the UK’s prominence in tech, in Europe and beyond.
Since 2013, the number of Global Tech Advocates hubs scaled quickly to several countries and territories. In 2016, Lannie Medina, an angel investor in the USA, launched Tech Bay Area Advocates after building the infrastructure for a year. Not a coincidence, Russ Shaw and Lannie Medina have known each other for 32 years, working together at American Express and Charles Schwab.
Tech Bay Area Advocates is also dedicated to giving back to the overall communities through TBAA’s Tech For Good Working Group. The group formed a support and scholarship program for underserved youth aspiring to pursue tech.