Leanne Pittsford is an entrepreneur who is changing the face of technology by increasing economic opportunity for all Americans. 

Leanne is the CEO and Founder of Lesbians Who Tech, the largest LGBTQ community of technologists in the world. Now over 25,000 queer women and allies strong, Lesbians Who Tech is increasing visibility and improving representation among women and gender non conforming individuals in the tech sector on a global scale. 

She recently launched include.io and the Tech Jobs Tour to improve job mobility and fight bias in technology. include.io is a mentoring and recruiting platform for underrepresented technologists and recruiters. The product allows hiring managers to be intentional about diversity - leading to stronger work cultures with more racial & gender equity at companies - while they access a new pool of talent that are recommended by current employees. Recruiting and retention improve as technical employees validate and mentor new talent on the platform. Simultaneously, fresh talent access a professional development boost with mentors and jobs. 

The Tech Jobs Tour is speeding up how the next generation of technical talent - who happen to be women, people of color, LGBTQ, veterans and people with disabilities - are connected to careers by hitting the road to 50 cities across the United States in 2017. The divide between tech companies who will have 1 million open jobs by 2020 and the American workforce is bridged as The Tour hosts an event like you've never experienced. A Tech Jobs Tour event blends inspiring content (talks, panels, workshops) led by influencers, city leaders, and tech executives with a career fair, speed mentoring, tech demos, and a coding bootcamp showcase. The combination connects diverse people who cut across race, gender, identity, background, experience, skill and technical level. Past speakers and advisors include: Van Jones, Megan Smith, Kara Swisher, and Steve Case while Automattic, Uber and Nike are just a few of the companies hiring diverse tech talent from the Tech Jobs Tour.

Before her work with Lesbians Who Tech, include.io, and Tech Jobs Tour, Leanne founded and led Start Somewhere, a design and technology agency. She founded leanimpact.org, while was acquired by  Lean Startup in 2016. From 2006 to 2010 Leanne served as the Senior Director at Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ organization behind the No on Prop 8 Campaign to legalize marriage equality for same-sex couples - which was deemed constitutional in California in 2013.