About our Speaker

Dr. Marlo Rencher, Director, Technology-Based Programs, TechTown Detroit

Marlo Rencher for the majority of her career has been a jack of all trades. She has more than 25 years of professional experience in coaching, researching and running startup companies. Rencher spent four years as the vice president of innovation, entrepreneurship and diversity for Cleary University.

Rencher has founded or co-founded three tech startups and spoken at TedXDetroit, Princeton University and SXSW. She has authored and co-authored several research studies, including “Radical Inclusion in Tech,” a study published by TechTown in 2019, and the book “Hard Reset: Framing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as the New Normal,” with Marlin Williams, published earlier this year.

Rencher has supported 50 Black women tech founders through the National Science Foundation-funded STEEP program. Rencher currently serves as director of technology-based programs for TechTown Detroit. It’s her second stint with TechTown following a nearly five-year run as the company’s managing director from November 2004 to May 2009.

Rencher, who has a bachelor’s in marketing from Michigan State University, an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in business anthropology from Wayne State University, has also developed entrepreneurial programs focused on inclusion, innovation and tech-based entrepreneurship.