Randolph
Wiggins
Randolph Wiggins
Executive Director, Global Tech NYC
Randolph F. Wiggins (Randy) is the founder of Build for America (BFA), a consultancy focused on building tech ecosystems across America (highlights include contributing to the policy development of the Biden Administration’s $10 billion Tech Hubs initiative) and a scout with BLCK VC, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Prior to founding BFA and taking on the scout role, Randy served as the Founding Managing Director of Build in Tulsa, the national multi-sector effort to rebuild Black Wall Street around technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, business and venture capital – and build the infrastructure for diverse wealth creation in America. In the role, Randy led the development of the Build in Tulsa brand, mission, vision and operations and engineered and built out Build in Tulsa’s structure and mechanics (ex: the nation’s only 3-stage accelerator pipeline and ecosystem focused on African-American entrepreneurs including operational partners like Techstars). You can learn more about Randy’s work engineering and building a diverse technology ecosystem in outlets like Forbes as well as the City of the Future Podcast (21:54) from Sidewalk Labs, the urban planning and infrastructure subsidiary of Google.
Prior to leading Build in Tulsa, Randy served as Executive Co-Lead of Princeton Alumni Angels (Bay Area), Princeton’s Silicon Valley angel investing community, and Investment Manager on the Tech and Society team at Omidyar Network, the founder of eBay’s impact investing and venture capital fund. There, he co-led the team’s efforts to prevent, mitigate, correct the societal downsides of technology – and maximize impact through investments in and strategic partnerships with ventures positively impacting Silicon Valley and its associated companies, teams and products. Randy’s significant contributions at Omidyar Network include the Ethical Operating System (ethicalos.org) covered in Wired Magazine.
Before joining Omidyar Network, Randy spent time in Shanghai and Beijing with leadership from KKR China and consulted on the promise and impact of artificial intelligence on labor, economies, education, and society in China. Prior to his move to Silicon Valley and the technology and venture capital sectors, Randy built a career in policy – a highlight of which was his work under Lawrence S. Summers in the United States National Economic Council in the Obama White House to help rebuild the American economy following The Great Recession.
Randy holds a B.A. from Princeton University, where he majored in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. Randy is a proud inaugural member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Millennium Scholarship Program – a $1.6 billion effort funded by Bill and Melinda Gates to promote academic excellence; increase diverse representation in areas like computer science and engineering; and develop a deep bench of future leaders to help build a stronger society and protect the future of the US economy.