Leadership
Board
Andre Andrews
Executive Director
An enabler at heart with a passion for innovation. Andre strives to find what software developers want and need and find fun and interesting methods to acquire those things while helping Alaska businesses. He got his start in Software development at Saltwater Inc and at UAA mentoring students on C/C++ and assembly.
Alumni
Jeff Levin
Jeff is a software engineer born and raised in Anchorage. He started programming in high school and attended UAA as a UA scholar, eventually graduating with a BBS in MIS. He ran networks for non-profits and national Alaska Native Corporations before starting technology consulting firm, Levinology Labs. After looking to participate in a community after college, he only found a small group of developers in Fairbanks. They put their heads together and formed the Alaska Developers Alliance.
Dave Bechberger
Dave literally wrote the book on graph databases. With over 20 years of experience in distributed software architecture and development. He is a recognized thought leader in applying graph databases to build complex distributed data architectures. Dave has consulted or led projects in a wide range of industries including finance, bioinformatics, oil & gas, and supply chain management. He is known for his pragmatic approach to developing complex data architectures for companies ranging from single person development teams, to silicon valley startups, to the worlds leading cloud provider. He is currently a Sr. Graph Architect on the Amazon Neptune team where he assists customers in building some of the largest distributed graph backed applications in the world. Dave is the author of Graph Databases in Action by Manning publications and has spoken at national and international conferences about practical approaches to applying graph databases to solve complex business problems.
Bradley Pizzimenti
Bradley got his start with computer hardware working for Sequent Systems during the time that it was acquired by IBM in 1999. He spent two years developing and teaching computer science in French in Burkina Faso during his Peace Corps service.
During his second year of graduate school in Paris, he won an entrepreneurship competition with friends at Sciences Po and was given the chance to help grow a young startup from idea-stage in Berlin in the summer of 2013.
He returned to his hometown of Portland, Oregon to start Gennaker Systems, a software consultancy, before relocating to Anchorage, Alaska in 2018. He is a commercial drone pilot and has conducted FAA part 107 commercial drone pilot training around Alaska.
Melanie Bladow
Melanie Bladow is a management consultant specializing in technology and business transformation strategy. She is passionate about driving change, believes that strategy and people skills will differentiate the technology leaders of the future, and she’s ready to show you how!
Her 20 year global career has spanned both IT and Business Leadership, leading teams in the UK, Algeria, Moscow, Mumbai, Tripoli and the US. Melanie has led initiatives for Software Development, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Oilfield Digitization, as well as setting technology and cyber security strategy as CIO for BP’s Global Exploration Division. A highlight of her career was leading the crisis management team keeping communications with Libya online during the Arab Spring.
Adam Link
Adam is a cybersecurity and infrastructure engineer with a history of building technology companies. He has experience in the finance, blockchain, and mobile industries. He holds 7 AWS certifications, including both Professional certifications and the Security Specialty. He has spoken at conferences around the world on engineering best practices for accelerating company goals. He has his BSB in Finance, his Masters in Cybersecurity, and is working on his Doctorate in Computer Science.
Arsh Chauhan
Arsh is a Masters Computer Science student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He is passionate about computer security and has participated in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition finals for 4 years (leading the UAF team for 2). He has worked on telepresence and autonomous robots with experience in various technologies from C++ to Frontend and back-end web development. His current Job as a Systems Engineering Intern with UAF’s Office of Information Technology’s Systems Engineering team has working with full-stack web development, cloud deployments, configuration management and Infrastructure as Code. His free time is spent playing FPS’s, RPG’s and other random games along with working on fun projects. You may contact him via https://www.linkedin.com/in/arshchauhan/ or check out his info at https://github.com/arsh25
Vincent Castro
Vincent is a software engineer based in Fairbanks, Alaska working full time as an entrepreneur and at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Starting in the web and software development field in 2005 focusing on building custom content management systems and download management software, now focusing on blockchain, machine learning and mobile development. He has been with the AK Dev Alliance from the beginning. He hopes the organization fosters more tech interest by Alaskans to jump into theses new fields. His dream is for Alaska to be the the silicon valley of the north. In his spare time he enjoys gaming and playing music.
Lincoln Larsen
Link Larsen is a lifelong Alaskan and Navy Veteran. He spent 4 years as a submarine electronics technician specializing in communications. As a life-longer learner, he enrolled in UAA’s computer science program and an active organizing member of the computer science club. In his free time, he enjoys building things with a 3d printer and CNC machine and teaching his kids new skills.
Conroy Whitney
Eric Talvi