Team

Laura Schewel (Board, CEO)

Laura, founder and Chief Executive Officer, is a leading advocate and researcher in advanced transportation, with particular expertise in transportation systems, sustainability and safety, and vehicle/system modeling and analysis.

After completing degrees in engineering and comparative literature at Yale University, she worked at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), managing their vehicle electrification projects, including the Smart Garage Charrette and Project Get Ready. Next, Laura joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop planning for regulatory strategy for electric vehicles and energy storage. Laura’s work at StreetLight is an extention of her graduate studies at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Energy Engineering, and the author of several publications about vehicle electrification and sustainable transportation.

Paul Friedman (Board, CTO)

Paul, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in engineering and product management of business intelligence, analytics, database architectures and Big Data technologies. He has started three successful software companies and has built four successful engineering teams that delivered scalable enterprise software products.

Initially, Paul served as a software engineer at Microcom, MIT Media Lab, DEC, and Oracle. He later co-founded and served as Vice President, Chief Technology Officer or Chief Architect at Stanford Technology Group (acquired by Informix), Supplybase (acquired by I2 Technologies), and Purisma (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet). Paul has a MS and BS in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Kara John Selke (VP of Strategic Partners and Privacy)

Kara has unparalleled experience in developing businesses that rely on strategic licencing and partnerships for geospatial data. Most recently, Kara served as SVP of Intellectual Property and Privacy for DMTI Spatial, the leading provider of geospatial business intelligence in Canada. Prior to DMTI, Kara was in marketing, data relationships and management roles at Navitrak and NAVTEQ. She is a certified licensing professional, and holds a JD from Concord Law School. 

In addition to her experience in data licensing and partnerships, Kara is a global leader in the field of data privacy. She holds several certifications in privacy protection procedures by the IAPP. She co-founded the Center for Geospatial Law and Policy. Kara holds additional degrees from Boston University and Clark University.

Neil Vaz (VP of Engineering)

Neil has over 15 years of experience in software development, covering enterprise applications, data analytics, and database systems. Before joining Streetlight Data, he spent 8 years at Purisma (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet, and later SAP), where he led the Engineering team, delivering multiple product releases.  As an early member of the team there, he also developed some of the core algorithms in the product.  In addition, Neil has worked at i2 Technologies, Tandem Computer and Informix Software.  He has a B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

Hugh Morgan (VP of Sales)

Hugh has a wealth of marketing, sales and business development experience and advises early stage SaaS companies on their marketing and sales efforts.  Clients include: Buildingi, Desk.com, FunMobility, MonetaSuite, PeoplePower and Voodoo Viral.  Prior to this, at ASTEROP, which provided business intelligence tools to retailers and CPG companies, he built out its North American sales effort.  At Corrigo, a field service software company, Hugh negotiated strategic partnerships, built and managed an enterprise sales team and managed its relationship with wireless carriers.

Prior to working with Corrigo, Hugh spent 10 year working in the finance and real estate industries and started his business career in investment banking.  Hugh trained as an architect in his native Canada and has an MBA in finance from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. 

Catherine Manzo (Director of Sales and Marketing)

Catherine's experience spans across a wide range of clean technology companies. Before joining StreetLight, Catherine did business development at SK Telecom Americas, where she helped introduce a comprehensive smart grid communications network management solution to the US utility market. She has spent time in a variety of strategy and business development roles, including Walmart's sustainbility team. She began her career in the green materials realm, working with Bill McDonough's Cradle to Cradle® design firm MBDC and the US Enviromental Protection Agency.  Catherine holds a BS in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University, a Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.