Leadership

Michael Ellenbogen co-founded Evolv with Anil Chitkara in July 2013 and has been Evolv’s Head of Advanced Technology since January 2020. Prior to assuming his current role at Evolv, Mr. Ellenbogen served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer from August 2013 to January 2020. Prior to co-founding Evolv, Mr. Ellenbogen was the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Reveal Imaging Technologies, an X-ray imaging systems company focusing on automated explosives detection, from 2002 to 2010. Prior to joining Reveal, Mr. Ellenbogen was the Vice President of Research & Development and Business Development of PerkinElmer Detection Systems, a provider of X-ray-based security technologies, from 1994 to 2002. During his 25 plus year career in the security industry, Mr. Ellenbogen has proven his expertise in product and business development, as well as stakeholder value creation. In addition, Mr. Ellenbogen is an inventor with 19 awarded patents. Mr. Ellenbogen received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Colgate University.

Anil Chitkara co-founded Evolv with Michael Ellenbogen in July 2013 and has since served as the Company’s Head of Corporate Development. Prior to co-founding Evolv, Mr. Chitkara was the Senior Vice President of Market Development for Oco, Inc., a business analytics software provider that was subsequently acquired by Deloitte, from 2007 to 2011. Prior to joining Oco, Inc., Mr. Chitkara was a Vice President of Parametric Technology Corporation, a provider of a variety of augmented reality, industrial IoT, PLM and CAD solutions, from 2001 to 2007. Mr. Chitkara received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Courtney comes to Evolv from software company SmartBear, where she served as the Senior Vice President of Growth Marketing and Demand Generation. In this role, she led a team of more than 30 marketers and was responsible for growth marketing across 15+ products and all direct and indirect buying channels. Prior to SmartBear, she led marketing at Experian Data Quality for nearly a decade where she was responsible for a team focused on revenue growth and channel development. Ms. Cunnane earned a BA from Georgetown University and is based in the company’s corporate headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Mr. Kedzierski brings to Evolv significant experience leading high-growth security and technology businesses. Previously, he spent more than 23 years at Motorola Solutions, Inc. (“Motorola Solutions”), most recently as Senior Vice President of Global Enterprise Sales. Mr. Kedzierski was responsible for leading Motorola Solutions’ global sales efforts for all enterprise verticals. Prior to that role at Motorola Solutions, he was responsible for leading product management, research and development, sales and marketing for Motorola Solution’s Video Security and Access Control business, where he helped Motorola Solutions become a global leader in physical security. Mr. Kedzierski also served as a member of Evolv’s Board of Directors from January 2022 to November 2023, as a designee of Motorola Solutions.

Liza Knapp leads the Company’s people operations team and is responsible for setting the Company’s overall human capital strategy along with talent acquisition, employee relations and benefits management. Ms. Knapp brings more than 15 years of human capital experience in the technology and financial services industries. Since joining Evolv in 2016, she has held a variety of senior leadership roles including Chief of Staff. Prior to joining Evolv, she was a Manager at Sapient, a global services company that helps clients transform in the areas of business, marketing, and technology. Earlier in her career, she was an associate at J.P. Morgan where she helped lead the firm’s community relations and philanthropic services initiatives. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Government from Dartmouth College.

Jay Muelhoefer is a member of the Evolv Technology Executive Leadership Team, where he serves as Chief Commercial Officer. Jay joined the Company in October of 2023 and brings over 30 years of experience in scaling global go-to-market functions for category-leading technology companies. Jay came to us from Kinaxis (TSX: KXS), a leading SaaS-based supply chain management applications provider with a focus on planning and execution for digital transformation, sustainability, and resiliency using AI and advanced analytics. At Kinaxis, he served as Chief Marketing Officer and played a pivotal role in driving significant growth since 2018. Before joining Kinaxis, Jay served as Chief Marketing Officer at Intralinks (NYSE: IL), a global provider of enterprise SaaS solutions for secure content sharing, collaboration, and work lifecycle management. Prior to that, he spent two years at IBM (NYSE: IBM), where he served as Global Executive Director and led go-to-market efforts for Software-Defined Data Center initiatives, encompassing analytics, big data, high-performance computing, and cloud technologies. In his free time, Jay enjoys playing ice hockey, coaching multiple sports, biking, and fishing. Jay holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and both a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Engineering from MIT.

Eric Pyenson heads the company’s legal department, bringing more than 25 years of legal, business development, and international experience in the security and technology space to Evolv. In his various start-up roles, he’s built respected legal teams to handle the demands of rapid growth, international expansion, risk mitigation, and public and private financings. Mr. Pyenson joined Evolv after a successful exit from VMware Carbon Black (formerly Carbon Black, a leading cybersecurity company), which he helped take public in 2018 prior to its 2019 acquisition by VMware. Prior to Carbon Black, Mr. Pyenson was general counsel at A123 Systems, a pioneering alternative energy firm, which he helped take public in 2009. He previously established the in-house legal functions at several Boston-area venture-backed, software startups, including Open Market, where he helped lead a successful IPO in 1996. Earlier in his career, Pyenson was an operations officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, focusing on counterterrorism. He received his Bachelor’s Degree with honors from Williams College, a Master’s Degree in international relations from the University of Sussex, England, and his Law Degree from Northeastern University School of Law, during which time he was a law clerk for Judge William G. Young of the U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts.

David Rawden has been a Director at AlixPartners since 2008. Mr. Rawden’s assignments through AlixPartners have included being Interim Chief Financial Officer for Simtra, a privately held pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization company, from August 2023 to February 2024, Interim Chief Financial Officer at Academic Partnerships, a privately held educational online program manager company, from July 2022 to September 2022, Interim Chief Administrative Officer for Southland Royalty, a privately held oil and gas holding company, from February 2020 to June 2021, and prior thereto, Interim Chief Administrative Officer for sister renewable energy yieldcos TerraForm Global and TerraForm Power, Interim Chief Financial Officer for Career Education Corporation, a publicly traded, for-profit career education company; Chief Financial Officer for Exopack Holding, a privately held U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”)-registered manufacturer of flexible packaging; Chief Financial Officer for X-Rite, a manufacturer of electro/optical color measurement devices; and Chief Financial Officer for Allied Holdings, a publicly traded transportation company. Mr. Rawden earned a Master of Management degree in finance and economics from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Michigan State University. He is a certified public accountant.