For Immediate Release
May 9, 2015

Rand Paul For President Announces Chief Technology Officer & Tech Advisory Council

WASHINGTON, DC -  Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) today joined the Silicon Valley tech community by launching a tech operations hub at StartupHouse. Senator Paul's technology team will be comprised of  forward-thinking tech entrepreneurs and will be led by Chief Technology Officer, Ron Schnell.  

Ron Schnell has an incredible computer science story starting when he entered the business as a child prodigy in 1975 at 9 years old. He went on to be a programmer of the "kernel" of the UNIX Operating System at Bell Labs, The A/IX Operating System at IBM, and the Solaris Operating System at Sun Microsystems.

Later in his career he founded three software startups: Secure Online Systems, Inc., Driver Aces, Inc., and MailCall.Com. Most recently he ran the day-to-day operations of The Technical Committee and grew that company from a small team in Bellevue, Washington and Palo Alto, California to a large group of elite software developers and investigators around the country. 
 
"I'm excited to work with Rand Paul for President," said Schnell. "While discussing the campaign, I heard words like 'crowd-sourcing,' 'developer sandboxes,' and 'rich mobile apps.' I was not expecting that from a Republican candidate for President and I am excited to join such an innovative team."
 
Schnell will join Chief Digital Strategist Vincent Harris, Eric Stein and Rob Ratterman of Cando, and the Technology Advisory Council to advise the campaign on matters concerning tech infrastructure, digital marketing, and tech policy. Senator Paul's digital effort will continue to be the most unique operation of the 2016 cycle. Early members of the Technology Advisory Council include:
 
Scott Banister- An entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as a co-founder of IronPort and an early advisor and board member at PayPal.
 
Patrick Byrne- An  entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer, CEO and chairman of Overstock.com.
 
Michele Weslander Quaid- Founder and CEO of Sunesis Nexus LLC and most recently, Google's Chief Innovation Evangelist supporting the global user base, and Chief Technology Officer for the Public Sector since joining Google.
 
"The U.S. tech community's global dominance is enabled by this country's founding principles -- the individual citizen's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, unencumbered by the government. In stark contrast to the power hungry Washington D.C. establishment, Rand Paul is a leader committed to challenging the status quo, defending the U.S. Constitution, and protecting the rights of individuals to innovate, prosper, and realize the American Dream," said Weslander Quaid.
 
Jeremy Tunnell- Co-founder of Thumbtack, a venture-backed marketplace for services, and the former product manager of Stack Exchange, a top 50 website. Previously, he worked on the issue of Social Security reform as the Technology Director for Students for Saving Social Security (S4). 
 
"I'm supporting Senator Paul because he has the courage to tackle the big problems facing America such as the skyrocketing debt, the expansion of government, and the erosion of civil liberties. His vision for the Republican Party is one where we tackle these problems together as part of a broad and diverse coalition," Tunnell said. 
 
Steve Danziger- Site Executive and Senior Manager of Quality and Performance Assurance for BAE Systems responsible for the site's operation and improving the overall quality and efficiency for the corporation's Space line of business products and technology. He has been an engineer and a manager in electronics development and production for various defense and commercial organizations working with state-of-the-art technologies. Following his early career with IBM, Steve was the Director of Manufacturing Operations for Micron Technologies managing more than 1,000 engineering and manufacturing employees.
 
"I support Senator Paul, because he believes in more local control, not more government control. Under President Paul, industries would have the freedom to innovate without having to dodge the heavy hand of our federal government," Danziger said.
 
Brandon Hudgeons- A hands-on technologist who constructs and leads teams to get complex webapps, mobile apps and distributed systems from concept to users. Brandon is currently COO and VP Technology at Schoox and founder of software consultancy ATsoft. He has over 16 years of software industry experience, including CTO/VP Engineering roles at a variety of startup software companies, including Enspire Learning. 
 
"I join many Conservatives in celebrating Senator Paul as our chance to steer the GOP back to the true ideals of conservatism," Hudgeons said. "I'm surrounded by friends and colleagues who vote for Democrats, but when pushed on their beliefs, these people are almost always more libertarian than liberal. I see Rand Paul as our chance to steer the White House back on track: more liberty and a limited federal government."
 
Adil Kahn- Vice President of Business Development for a big data startup in Des Moines, helping businesses make sense of what data and technology can do to empower their business. 

"Tech startups are in a global race to turn new ideas into reality, pushing our great country to break the boundaries of what we can achieve. Rand Paul understands the best way we can continue that innovation is getting government out of the way and I fully support his efforts," Kahn said. 

Doug Stafford, Chief Strategist, said, "Rand Paul for President is proud to welcome these tech community leaders. Like Sen. Paul, they share a prosperous and innovative vision for America. Together, we will work to make this vision a reality."

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