Meet the voices behind VentureBeat. Our reporters, editors, and contributors deliver deep dives into the breakthroughs and the minds defining the future of enterprise AI, data infrastructure, and cybersecurity.
Executive Editor
Carl Franzen is executive editor of VentureBeat with more than 16 years of experience in tech journalism. He's led newsrooms and launched award-winning digital publications at The Atlantic, The Verge, Popular Science, Xerox, Lyft and multiple startups. He is based in NYC. Photo by Michael O'Donnell Photography.
Managing Editor
Karyne Levy is the managing editor of VentureBeat. Before joining VB, Karyne was deputy managing editor at TechCrunch and before that at Protocol, where she helped manage a newsroom of 40 reporters. She's also worked at Scribd, Business Insider, and CNET, where she also hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives outside San Francisco.
Lead Analyst
Rob Strechay is Lead Analyst for VentureBeat Intelligence and founder of Smuget Consulting. He advises technology providers and enterprise leaders on AI, cloud-native technologies, data and AI infrastructure, observability, cyber resilience, and sustainable IT. His work focuses on helping organizations understand emerging technologies, shape product strategy, and make informed infrastructure decisions. Over a career spanning startups and Fortune 500 companies, Rob has held leadership and advisory roles at organizations including Amazon Web Services, HP/HPE, NetApp, Snowplow Analytics, SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research, TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, Zerto, and Manulife Financial. His experience encompasses cloud computing, data management, storage, analytics, infrastructure strategy, product development, and go-to-market execution. Rob’s analysis and commentary have appeared in VentureBeat, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CRN, CIO, TechTarget, eWeek, and SiliconANGLE. He is a frequent commentator on how advances in AI and infrastructure are reshaping enterprise technology and business strategy.
Contributing Writer and Editor
Taryn Plumb is a freelance writer specializing in AI and cybersecurity.
Contributing Writer
Sean Michael Kerner is a freelance journalist that has spent the last two decades covering enterprise and open source technologies. He is a life long Star Trek fan, speaks passable Klingon and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars.
Contributing Writer
Ben Dickson is a software engineer and the founder of TechTalks, a blog that explores the ways technology is solving and creating problems. He writes about technology, business and politics. Follow him on Twitter: @BenDee983.
Contributing Writer
Louis Columbus covers how AI, machine learning, and analytics are providing enterprises with the insights they need to stay competitive and grow. Louis is also covering the latest developments of how AI is improving cybersecurity, endpoint security, and ransomware detection across the enterprise landscape.
Contributing Writer
Contributing Writer and Podcast Host
Sam Witteveen is co-founder of Red Dragon AI, a machine learning and training firm in Singapore. He has worked with Deep Learning for 11 years and Transformers and LLM for 5+ years. He is a Google Developer Expert for Machine Learning in 2017 and works on LLMs and Autonomous Agents.