Board Members

* Co-Chair, Committee ** Chair, Board of Directors

Bill Pollock, Chair**

Founded The No Starch Press Foundation in 2017 as a public non profit US 501(c)(3). Pollock saw a need, globally, to provide grants to support the ambition and talent development of the world's most talented engineers, admirably known as a “hacker,” wherever they are globally, and wherever they are in their growth cycle -- whether in kindergarten or in the workplace. Pollock has nearly 35 years in technical book publishing. In 1994 he founded No Starch Press, leader among the world's top technical book publishers, with a track record rivaling most publishers. No Starch Press titles have been included in the prestigious Communication Arts Design Annual and STEP inside 100 Competition. Pollock seeded The No Starch Press Foundation with personal funds of USD $1,200,000.

Chuck McManus

Chuck McManis Chuck has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for 40 years at such notable companies as Intel, Sun Microsystems, Network Appliance, and Google. He has over 12 patents and has contributed both as an individual contributor and as a technical leader. Currently living in Sunnyvale, he splits his time between writing, researching, camping, and volunteering for nonprofits. He was recently appointed to Sunnyvale's Historical Preservation Commission as part of the city's effort to recognize and preserve historically significant people, events, and places in Sunnyvale.

Officers

Secretary

Vicki Friedberg (Interim)

Treasurer

Chuck McManis

Chuck has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for 40 years at such notable companies as Intel, Sun Microsystems, Network Appliance, and Google. He has over 12 patents and has contributed both as an individual contributor and as a technical leader. Currently living in Sunnyvale, he splits his time between writing, researching, camping, and volunteering for nonprofits. He was recently appointed to Sunnyvale's Historical Preservation Commission as part of the city's effort to recognize and preserve historically significant people, events, and places in Sunnyvale.

Special Advisor

Catherine Shiang, Esq.

Fundraising Committee

The mission of the Fundraising Committee is to raise funding and awareness for the Foundation.

Chair: Bill Pollock**

Bill Pollock

Bill Pollock

Mentorship Committee

The mission of the Mentorship Committee is to improve the grant recipients’ achievements in the use of the Foundation’s grants by providing a direct relationship with a Foundation mentor who works to assist these recipients to further their own potential in their grant project.

Goals

The Mentorship goals are to:

  1. Recruit Mentorship Committee members.
  2. Set up process of mentorship, what each step of mentorship means to execute the approved Mission of this Committee.
  3. Work with Programming Committee to identify grant recipients so that Mentors can be appropriately matched.
  4. Recruit Mentors from the community to work directly with each grant recipient.
  5. Match Mentors to grant recipients no later than at the grant award when made by the Programming Committee, and which is approved by the Board.

Programming Committee

Board of Directors statement, delivered by Bill Pollock, Chair
 

Mission

To develop grant programs that support the Mission of The No Starch Press Foundation with grant goals that further the collective knowledge and contributions of the global hacker community.

Goals

Programming Committee Goals:

  1. Recruit programming committee members for Grant Year 2025
  2. Develop 2025 grant objectives: Identify types of technology and types of members of the global hacker community that further the Mission of the Foundation to fund
  3. Develop a standard for grant approvals with focus to identifying best in class applicants that shows cases the Mission of the Foundation
  4. Build a process for dividing the workflow of examining the grant requests within the Programming Committee
  5. Work with the Board and Programming Committee members to solicit best in class grant applications through social media and other media and platforms.
  6. Work with Mentorship Committee to develop a process to match grant recipients with Mentors
  7. Seek Board approval for recommended grant recipients to fund to no later than June (1st group runner up)/August (2nd group runner up)/October (3rd group and final recipients)
  8. Work with the Board and Mentorship Committee to announce the Grant awards and matching Mentors
  9. Submit committee minutes and other records to the Chair
Tom Parker

Tom Parker

is a US Navy veteran who focused his service on cutting-edge research and development, particularly in the field of industrial control system cybersecurity. His expertise in computer and electrical engineering is complemented by a Ph.D. in the same field. He is currently Principal Investigator at Kudu Dynamics. Beyond his professional endeavors, he actively engages with non-profit and educational organizations to both serve and educate the next generation of hackers. In his leisure time, Tom indulges his creative side through woodworking, continuously honing his skills to craft unique pieces.

Laran Rastelli

Laran Rastelli is a cyber security operations specialist with a background in banking and cyber security consultancy, currently working as a Senior Technical Engagement Manager at HackerOne. He recently graduated from The Open University with a BA (Honours) degree in Business Management (Innovation and Enterprise) which he completed part-time over 6 years. Outside of cyber security, Laran is interested in geopolitics, economics, and cutting-edge technological innovations, specifically in the biotech, nuclear, and wider security industries.

Alek Relyea

Alek Relyea Alek Relyea is a customer success leader with an affinity for hackers; he currently leads a team of Customer Success Managers at HackerOne. With a BA in Literature and a decade of hospitality experience, his varied experience still led him to a career in cyber security. His strongest skill-set is knowledge of best practices for Attack Resistance Management, including how to run successful programs for bug bounty, vulnerability disclosure, asset discovery and management, pentesting, and crowd-sourced code review. Beyond his professional work, Alek enjoys playing guitar, writing short stories and poetry, and spending time with his wife and three kids.