Apolitical brings on Tom Dignan to lead technology strategy and Pooja Warier Hamilton to lead customer partnerships as the company prepares to launch its subscription service and raise a Series A
Apolitical, a learning network for government, has hired Tom Dignan as Chief Technology Officer to support the rapid scaling of its network and lead the development of complex data products. Pooja Warier Hamilton will serve as Chief Customer Officer to support large-scale customer delivery.
The famous political scientist Francis Fukuyama just made an urgent call to restore honor in public service highlighting how recent events have shown why having a capable, professional civil service is of critical importance. In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, public servants have been looking for more resources and Apolitical has grown rapidly in 2020, now reaching more than 80,000 public servants and policymakers in over 170 countries. Apolitical offers public servants the world’s largest database of policy insights written by public servants, unique government-focused online learning programs, connections and resources to do their jobs better in this global crisis. Dignan, a Silicon Valley veteran, brings important leadership and technical expertise as the company launches a new paid online learning offering and prepares for a Series A investment round.
Most recently, Dignan led Syft’s engineering organization from Series A to acquisition. Prior to that, after gaining a PhD in Physics from Harvard University, Dignan also served as CTO at Silicon Valley company ReputationDefender and led global engineering teams at Hands-on Mobile, Yahoo!, Earthlink and Excite@Home. Dignan has proven expertise in building mobile applications, architecting large-scale consumer Internet systems - and guiding tech startups to success.
“Many governments are 19th century institutions using 20th century technology to address 21st century challenges. Apolitical is a groundbreaking platform helping public servants share their knowledge, collaborate with each other and build the skills to tackle the world’s thorniest problems - from pandemic to climate change to inequality,” says Dignan. “I’m proud to join the team and add my technical and leadership expertise to make government smarter - especially now.”
Warier previously served as the Founding and Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform for a community of investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Warier also founded and led UnLtd India to incubate early-stage social entrepreneurs in India, and Journeys for Change to enable global leaders to learn from successful social entrepreneurs. Warier is a TED India Fellow since 2009, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum since 2013 and an Aspen India fellow since 2016.
Apolitical raised a $1.5 million investment in the early days of Covid-19, adding prominent investors such as Stuart Roden (UK based VC and former Chairman of Hedge Fund Lansdowne Partners), Jeff Walker (US based Chairman of New Profit and former Managing Partner JP Morgan Partners and Vice Chairman JPMorgan Chase) and Diego Piacentini (US based former Senior VP at Amazon and Italian Government Commissioner on Digital Transformation). Piacentini also joined Apolitical’s board, along with early Apolitical investor Adam Parr, a deep tech and climate investor who was formerly CEO of racing company Williams Formula One.
In addition to launching its first premium subscription product in fall 2020, Apolitical is increasing its use of semantic reasoning and machine learning in order to support the knowledge and skill needs of millions of public servants. Using its unique network and datasets, the “GovGraph,” Apolitical will build a range of sophisticated tools and products that help governments better evaluate, design and implement global best practice in policy and government procedures.
“Government has been left behind by the networked intelligence that has transformed almost every other sector. McKinsey calculates that if city and national governments just did what was already working in other cities and countries it would unlock $3.5 trillion annually,” says Apolitical co-founder and CEO Robyn Scott. “Tackling this global problem at scale is a multi-billion dollar business opportunity that requires harnessing cutting edge machine learning and semantic reasoning technology. We are excited to add Tom Dignan’s world class technical leadership and Pooja Warier Hamilton’s deep understanding and passion for social entrepreneurship to our team. They, like all Apolitical employees, are deeply committed to our mission to help make governments work for all people and for the planet.”
Apolitical
Apolitical is a learning network for government, equipping governments with the 21st century skills and knowledge they need to tackle 21st century challenges. It is used by 80,000+ public servants and policymakers in 170 countries, from mayors to ministers to millennial digital innovators. It was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2018. Apolitical board members and investors include Diego Piacentini, former Amazon top exec and Adam Parr, former Formula 1 CEO.
Policymakers and public servants can sign-up for free here: https://apolitical.co/signup
