TEAM

Candice Matthews Brackeen is the Founder and CEO of Lighthouse, the

Cincinnati based firm that includes the Hillman and NewMe accelerators in its

portfolio. Lighthouse also owns the venture capital fund Lightship Capital—

where she serves as Managing Partner. Candice has been influential in the

revision of Ohio state policy around economic inclusion, in addition to

establishing meaningful partnerships with companies like Proctor & Gamble,

Kroger, and Chase. Lighthouse companies work together in support of

underrepresented, early stage, transformational businesses.

Brian Brackeen is the Managing Partner of Lighthouse and it’s venture fund,

Lightship Capital. As managing partner, Brian is responsible for accelerator

operations and leadership of the AI team. Brian has extensive experience in

Artificial Intelligence development and integration for business, having

founded and led the skilled team at Kairos in creating a SaaS face recognition

platform which is frequently listed next to Amazon and Face++ as a global

leader in the biometric identification industry.Brian is also a respected thought

leader in the area of algorithmic bias, as featured in publications like

TechCrunch, Bloomberg, and Businessweek.