Ryan
Our “Alumni Spotlight” segment takes us to Brooklyn, New York, where Ryan Young now calls home. Ryan grew up in South Minneapolis in a working class family. When it came time for college, Ryan chose Minneapolis College as a starting point his family could afford.
After earning his associate's degree, he transferred to the Carlson School of Management at the U of M where he briefly studied business writing before leaving to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. In the early 90's, he launched a cable public access channel where he hosted and produced "Metro Area Sports Wrap," covering regional high school and college athletics.
After selling his TV production company in the late 90's, Ryan got involved in tech as the VP of Sales for a St. Paul start-up. A few years later, Ryan made the leap to the Big Apple where he found himself in tech yet again, this time working for a computer networking and routing company.
In 2005, his entrepreneurial spirit prompted him to start a networking architecture firm of his own. He quickly amassed an impressive client base in the public and private sector including the Department of Defense and American Express. The company was eventually sold after growing to nearly $100 million. After being acquired twice, it is now known as Optiv Security.
Since then, Ryan has founded and serves as the CEO of two other multi-million dollar tech companies, Tagmata AI and KORE-tek. Tagmata AI is a corporate cyber and business risk management company; KORE-Tek is Cisco Systems' largest network optical services engineering firm.
Ryan is proud to call Minneapolis College the backbone of his formal education.
"I was exposed to finance, marketing, sales and business writing. It's where I built my business know-how. It taught me how to combine my curiosity with resourcefulness to act on my entrepreneurial goals."
Ryan returns to Minneapolis often and still proudly holds season tickets for Minnesota national sports teams.
"I don't think I ever left Minneapolis. I just grew."