Shawna Slack

Shawna Slack is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Advisers. As the founding business partner, Shawna developed the marketing and business strategies as well as the operational infrastructure for Genesis Advisers. Today she is responsible for managing growth, business development, and strategic initiatives.

Before Genesis, Shawna was a principal at YankeeTek Ventures, a Cambridge-Massachusetts-based high-tech venture capital fund. At YankeeTek she identified new investment opportunities, negotiated investments and worked to support companies on board-level activities. Shawna focused on investments in software and new materials technologies.

Earlier, Shawna was a business consultant to the Accordion Fringe Interferometry (AFI) start-up team based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. As the start-up business catalyst, she assessed the market feasibility of the AFI technology and developed the go-to-market strategy, leading to the launch of VC-funded start-up Dimensional Photonics.

Prior to that, Shawna worked in the Strategic Planning group at State Street Global Advisors, where she conducted foundational market research and product development for the then new concepts of educational savings funds and Internet-based high-net-worth client support.

Earlier in her career Shawna as an account executive in public relations and as a software sales executive.

Shawna holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and a BA in Journalism from New York University.