Kip Harkness is a co-founder of Civic Marketplace and has spent most of his career where government and technology meet. Until 2025 he was Deputy City Manager of San José, overseeing 1,700+ employees, a $480 million operating budget and $2.5 billion in capital projects. As Director of the City's COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center, he led 750+ staff through $350 million in response and relief, using agile methods to pilot fast and scale what worked.

Earlier, he partnered with a young Nextdoor to make San José the first large city to adopt it, growing from 400 users to 40,000 in six months. He led PayPal's global Technology Leadership Program and was City Innovator at Harvard's Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. He was part of Team San José, named to GovTech's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers. He began as a Peace Corps volunteer on the edge of the Sahara Desert and holds a master's in urban planning from Florida State University.