Founding Partner, Zakon Group, LLC

Robert Zakon is a consultant and entrepreneur who enjoys innovating and applying emerging technologies across the intelligence, defense, healthcare, and scientific sectors. Born in Brazil and educated in the U.S. since high school, he is a graduate of The Peddie School and Case Western Reserve University where he earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Science with concentrations in Philosophy and Psychology. Robert is a founding partner of Zakon Group LLC, a technology consulting and development practice, and OpenConf, a startup helping organize, manage, and open access to technical and scientific knowledge. He formerly served as: White House Presidential Innovation Fellow bridging two administrations; Co-Founder and CTO of SoftZoo, an early cloud computing company; and Principal Engineer and Internet Evangelist at MITRE Corporation. With dozens of technical papers and presentations, Zakon has been recognized for his work through numerous commendations, and election as an IEEE Senior Member and ACSA Cybersecurity Senior Fellow. Among his other activities, Zakon has volunteered as a business mentor with SCORE, coached an award-winning robotics competition team of public school students, served as an adviser to an angel investment group providing start-up and growth capital to high-tech businesses, and authored Hobbes' Internet Timeline - the definitive history of the Net. Robert resides in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire with his lovely wife and two wondrous sons.