Biography
Technical and Strategic Product Manager with experience working in startups and large enterprise environments. Infosec, Cloud, Healthcare IT. Comp Sci and MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
Erren Lester is a technical and strategic product manager with over 15 years of experience working within startups, medium-sized companies, and large software enterprises. He most recently served as a Director of Product Management at The Advisory Board Company, where he developed innovative solutions to help hospital administrators save millions of dollars on medical device costs and efficiently manage their revenue and reimbursements. Previously, Erren was Director of Product for Synteractive, a DC startup that partnered with other firms to launch Recovery.gov. He also spent seven years at Microsoft, leading the development of multiple massively scalable web services. Aside from creative technical pursuits, Erren has a deep passion for developing and mentoring innovators. In 2008, he co-founded the annual James R. Swartz Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Carnegie Mellon University. He later created Foundation Boot Camp, a company that educates and inspires entrepreneurs through intense training exercises. Erren earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business, also at Carnegie Mellon. In 2012, he was elected to the Carnegie Mellon University Board of Trustees and served a three-year term. For fun, Erren likes to sing and write music, cook, volunteer and travel with his wife, Kisha.