ShaKeia Kegler
Founder & CEO
Govlia

Shakeia Kegler is a Navy Veteran turned entrepreneur. She served active duty military for five years as an Aviation Ordinance Men Petty Officer 2nd Class. While enlisted, she gained experience in purchasing, compliance, and quality assurance, also earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certifications. She was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for her exemplary performance managing and purchasing tools, parts, and materials.

Following her military career, Shakeia worked as a specialist in the government contracting department of a pharmaceutical company. Her experience led her to found GovLia (short for Government Liaison) in 2017, a cloud-based platform that simplifies state and local government procurement processes to foster inclusive procurement and economic opportunity for women, veteran and minority-owned companies and communities.

Since launching GovLia, Shakeia has won 1st place in multiple business competitions such as Anita Borg’s 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration PitcHER. She was also selected to represent the United States at the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the Netherlands.

Shakeia is also the founding member of a non-profit organization called Code to Eat, whose mission is to educate and empower underserved communities to leverage technology to create their own economic opportunities. Code to Eat hosts training events teaching youth how to create e-commerce websites and some non-code requiring tools to sell products and services online.

In addition to running her own businesses, Shakeia serves on the board of Operation 120, an organization designed to lift at-risk women veterans out of homelessness, and Women Veterans In Pursuit, an organization dedicated to advocating for and supporting women veterans in more leadership roles.

Shakeia is passionate about creating opportunities for individuals and business owners to grow, overcome economic hardships, and surpass barriers to success in every aspect of life.