The Team
Who We Are
Brian Sarrazin
Co-Founder & CEO
A business and technology strategist, Brian has worked with emerging technology companies for over forty years, first as an employee of UNISYS and in various startups and later as a management consultant with clients including PBS/KQED and Apple.
Brian invented Synanim based on research into cognitive science and social constructivist learning theory.
Rita Nakashima Brock,
RelM, MA, PhD
Co-Founder & COO
Rita was most recently Senior Vice President in charge of moral injury recovery programs at Volunteers of America. She was an early investor and fundraiser for Synanim and led efforts to organize several major projects from 2004-2010 related to progressive faith organizing.
An experienced higher education educator and administrator, she served on the team that planned the Radcliffe-Harvard merger in 1999 and created its tenth school as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Lee Lambert
Co-Founder & CFO
Lee has substantial experience taking early stage companies and development projects to successful outcomes. His strengths include strategy, finance and operations capabilities, applied to for profit and nonprofit enterprises. He has been quoted as a business expert in articles in forbes.com, msn.com, huffpost.com and allbusiness.com.
Lee has advised clients including early stage companies, investment funds and multinational corporations. He founded several companies and served as CEO/President and Managing Director of an early stage venture capital fund. He has served as Director for four private and one public company.
Kevin Welch
Co-Founder & CTO
Kevin is the president of EFF-Austin, a digital civil liberties organization that works to educate the public and politicians about important legal and cultural issues confronting society in emerging technological spaces. He has spoken at diverse venues on these topics including the Austin City Council, The Austin Technology Commission, The Texas Legislature, SXSW, State Department international delegations, and to members of the European Parliament.
He is a Caltech graduate with degrees in Bioengineering and English. His professional career has consisted of a number of software-related positions ranging from programming the math in slot machine games, full-stack web programming of advanced word-processing/legal software, providing software and big-data solutions for small-and-mid-sized progressive political campaigns, and as the Director of Technology at a small medtech startup working to provide patients with their complete medical histories.