Meet the team at NU Borders

At NU Borders, we’re a diverse group of innovators united by a mission to create a safer, more connected world. We celebrate unique perspectives, foster collaboration, and thrive on solving complex challenges. Our inclusive culture empowers everyone to make an impact through creativity and drive. Meet the people behind the solutions that matter.

Tim Gildea

Chief Strategy Officer
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Kenneth MacDonald

VP, LE / Border Security
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Wesley Thomas

Director Business Development
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Michael Ronayne

Subject Matter Expert - CP/WMD
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Thariq Kara

Thariq founded NU Borders LLC, the parent company for the Business Intelligence for Trade Enforcement (BITE) platform, in November 2015. Thariq has built the company into a successful software engineering, data science and consulting company focused on the trade compliance and national security space. Customers include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Justice and large companies supporting the defense/homeland/justice space. Prior to founding NU Borders, Thariq was the Chief Data Architect at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He ran the Data Architecture arm at ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer, with oversight over all IT systems in a $400 million portfolio, and helped set up ICE’s first Data Management Office. 'Thariq has been the Chief Architect and Head of Product for the BITE platform, using his experience in the software engineering and data science world to design and help build a flagship tool for the trade community. He helps guide the data management, data security and privacy-related regulatory requirements for the platform. Thariq received a Master’s in Engineering Management from Duke University in 2008 and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2007. He has won the ICE Director’s Award as well the DHS S&T Under Secretary’s Award.

Anne Riitho

After living abroad for over a decade, Anne is a problem-solver who strives to improve efficiency in unstructured and/or low-resource settings. Anne spent eight years scaling a community-driven, non-profit organization headquartered in rural Kenya, leading to a 900% growth in the annual budget. In addition to a diverse career spanning commercial real estate, an environmental start-up, hospitality management, and community-driven nonprofits, Anne holds an MSc in Health and Development from the London School of Economics and a MA in Learning Engineering from Boston College.

Ethan Bloom

Ethan graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2019 with a BS in Computer Science. Before joining NU Borders, Ethan worked as a Software Engineer at Leidos for 4 years, developing front-end applications using JavaScript, TypeScript, and React. He also worked on NIH contracts, conducted testing using Cucumber and JUnit to ensure high-quality code. Ethan has vast experience with team development, communication and project clarity.

Romaine Coston

Romaine Coston is one of the Senior Software Engineer at NU Borders, and has over twenty years of experience in different technical disciplines. He first started out as a software engineer with Lockheed Martin for a little over three years after graduating from Xavier University in Louisiana. Romaine also had a love and passion (still does) for 3D computer graphics and animation which inspired him to move to San Francisco and earn his second degree in Media Arts and Animation. Right after graduation, Romaine landed a job at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), one of the leading visual effects studios in the world. There he worked in the render support division as well as the layout department as ILM was gearing up to create its first animated feature, Rango. After ILM, Romaine had the wonderful opportunity to move to Vancouver and work for Method Studios. While there,  he worked on a number of movies as a layout artist, making sure to match 3D cameras to cameras that were used on set so the visual effects were added correctly. Currently, Romaine serves as one of our longest standing employees and he continues to work on mission-focused software projects for the company. 

Nick Egan

Nick has been working as a full stack engineer at NU Borders since earning his BS in Computer Science from James Madison University in 2022. He has worked on the frontend and backend of multiple applications, mostly using React, Java, and SQL and focusing on improving user experience and efficiency. Nick creates and writes unit tests to support all development in Test-Driven development environments and works closely with the customer to refine requirements and to provide regular feedback on development efforts.

Arielle Griffin

Arielle has over 8 years of experience as a Developer. After graduating with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Arielle realized she had an interest in learning web development. She spent the next few years teaching herself everything she could regarding modern frontend and backend technologies and using those technologies to make enhancements to internal systems in the various industries she worked in. At NU Borders, Arielle is a Lead Full Stack developer working on the ICF-AMS suite of applications on the A&P COI MEME Contract, focused on code development for the UI and API layer of the stack. She develops and tests features on the front-end using React.js and Back-end / API using Node.js, as well as integration with database layer using MongoDB and PostGres.

Peter Oliveto

Peter Oliveto has over 9 years as a developer. He graduated from Towson University with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems in 2014. He spent a good portion of his career working in the ticketing industry, developing an inventory management application and tools for automating the pricing of tickets. While with NU Borders, Peter develops and tests features on the front-end using React.js and Back-end / API (Node JS), as well as integration with database layer using Postgresql/MongoDB. He creates and writes unit tests to support all development in Test-Driven development environments, and works closely with UI/UX designers to ensure the technical design meets end user functional needs.

Angela Reaves

Angela Reaves has over 15 years experience designing and developing software solutions for enterprise clients. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Florida State University and completed a Cyber Defense Professional program from the University of Central Florida. Angela is focused on improving development, security, and operations as a DevOps Engineer

Seth Winters

I started off with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Kutztown University. I later wen t to Penn State University for a Master’s degree in Software Engineering. Prior to finishing the software engineering degree I was working in the quality assurance department at East Penn Manufacturing. My first full time position with software development was with Execupharm as an entry level developer. I quickly gained experience with Java, Struts, Spring security, front end development with HTML, json, AJAX calls, as well as jQuery and javascript. After a few years the team expanded and the company was purchased, then I was promoted to the lead software engineer. After 8 years in the field, I was hired at Nu Borders as a Senior Engineer. I am currently working on the Orion team with Boeing BIA. I enjoy the full stack development, and was able to learn React and Node frameworks. I am also enjoying working with a Java service API again. Full stack software engineering has been a great career choice, and I look forward to continue developing.

Ryan Tumel

Ryan is currently a full stack developer working on the BITE 2.0 team and has worked on building up a backend for the application from the ground up including refactoring the frontend to create a seamless UI/UX experience using React. Ryan has onboarded new team members with the project and likes to assist in resolving code blockers we might experience through pair programming.
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