February 12, 2012, John Malonson assumed leadership of the Blacks in Tech LA group. Originally, the group was a public facing black tech interest group out of Google’s LA office.
The vision was to create a vibrant community of like-minded African American technology professionals, innovators and enthusiasts interested in all aspects of technology. We’re talking the whole techie gamut from bloggers, digital media specialists, community managers, social media strategists, online marketing experts, recruiters, software developers, product managers, and project managers.
To name the group, John independently selected the name, “Blacks in Technology.” “I thought the name was cool,” said John.
At the time, they were unaware of Greg Greenlee who had a media company in Cincinnati, with the same name.
Eventually, the two men met on-line and they decided to use the logo Greg had created.
Blacks in Technology, the chapter concept, was then born.