Nationality American Occupation Entrepreneur | Name Mark DeSantis Role Entrepreneur | |
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Residence Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States | ||
Mark cofounded and was Executive Chairman of kWantix, an energy hedge fund (acquired by Moody Aldrich Hedge Fund). He also cofounded and was CEO of kWantera, a venture-backed energy predictive analytics company. Previously, Mark was CEO of Think Through Learning, a venture-backed online tutoring company (acquired by Imagine Learning) and US Managing Director of ANGLE Technology, PLC, a UK-based venture capital firm and consultancy. Mark co-founded and serves as a director to several other venture-backed tech firms.
In a prior career, Mark was the Director of Government Relations for Texas Instruments and earlier served in policy positions in Washington, DC including as a Senior Policy Analyst in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Commerce, both in the Administration of George H. W. Bush. He previously served on the staffs of the late U.S. Senator John Heinz. Previously, he was also a management consultant with Booz Allen.
Mark is currently an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and has lectured at Princeton University and Dartmouth College. He was previously an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland. Mark holds a BA and MBA from the University of Dayton, an MS in Technology Management from The American University and a PhD in Public Policy from George Mason University. Mark is active in Pennsylvania including serving on the boards of several non-profits.
DeSantis headed a GOP-led group called "Citizens for Democratic Reform" that supported the elimination of Allegheny County row offices. In May 2005, this effort succeeded in reducing the number of row offices from 10 to four.
In 2007, DeSantis ran for Mayor of Pittsburgh against Luke Ravenstahl. In 2009 DeSantis was selected as Pittsburgh's “Entrepreneur of the Year”.