Tech Vets: Kevala CEO Todd Owens leads startup much like he navigated his role on Navy submarine

[Editor’s note: “Tech Vets: Profiles in Leadership and Innovation,” is a GeekWire series showcasing U.S. military veterans leading companies within the Pacific Northwest tech industry. The series explores how military experience fosters leadership, resilience, and innovation in tech.] Before Todd Owens ever surfaced as a proven business leader and tech CEO, his skills leading people and teams were honed below water, as an officer aboard a nuclear-powered Navy submarine. That stint, as a lieutenant aboard the USS Pogy in the mid- to late-1990s, was pretty much predestined. The only son of a career naval officer and submariner, Owens grew up on navy… Read More

Apr 24, 2025 - 23:47

Tech Vets: Kevala CEO Todd Owens leads startup much like he navigated his role on Navy submarine

Todd Owens, left, with Naval Academy buddies on “Commissioning Day” in 1994, when they graduated and became commissioned officers. (Photo courtesy of Todd Owens)

[Editor’s note: “Tech Vets: Profiles in Leadership and Innovation,” is a GeekWire series showcasing U.S. military veterans leading companies within the Pacific Northwest tech industry. The series explores how military experience fosters leadership, resilience, and innovation in tech.]

Before Todd Owens ever surfaced as a proven business leader and tech CEO, his skills leading people and teams were honed below water, as an officer aboard a nuclear-powered Navy submarine.

That stint, as a lieutenant aboard the USS Pogy in the mid- to late-1990s, was pretty much predestined. The only son of a career naval officer and submariner, Owens grew up on navy and submarine bases. He eventually graduated from the United States Naval Academy — 32 years after his dad, Adm. William Owens, did the same thing.

“I think a life filled with service is actually very rewarding,” Owens said. “I saw the benefit of that as I watched my dad in his career, working in the government and working with his sailors. I didn’t know anything about the private sector or business or profit. All I knew is that my dad did things in direct service of the country, and he was rewarded and recognized for that. We lived a good life, and I thought, ‘that sounds like a pretty good place for me to start as well.'”

Owens is now co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Kevala, a startup that helps healthcare facilities find and manage workers.

His time in the Navy, and especially aboard the submarine he served on, shaped his outlook on how teams and startups should function, and what role leaders can expect to play at those companies.

Todd Owens, CEO of Seattle-based health tech startup Kevala. (Gavin Haag Photo)

Aboard the Pogy, a Sturgeon-class submarine that his father also served on, Owens was a 22-year-old officer in charge of the reactor controls division — a team of about 10.

“What’s interesting on a submarine is that it’s not very hierarchical,” Owens said. “It’s a small team trying to accomplish a mission. And there is a partnership that develops that is kind of selfless. Everybody has a role. And that’s what I like about it, and that’s probably why I’ve skewed towards smaller startup companies.”

After leaving the Navy, Owens went to Harvard Business School to get his MBA, and to “take the edges off” his military persona, as he put it.

“When you come out, you have to transition. You have to drop the lingo, drop the formality, be a little bit more human,” Owens said. “By the time I came out of business school, I wasn’t talking like a military guy anymore. I was talking like I was pretending to be a business person.”

Owens’ father also entered the corporate world after the military, serving as CEO of Teledesic, a late-1990s company backed by Bill Gates and Craig McCaw that planned to build a commercial broadband satellite internet constellation.

Todd Owens, left, as a plebe at the U.S. Naval Academy, with his father Adm. William Owens, who was about to take command of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and would later serve as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Clinton. (Photo courtesy of Todd Owens)

When he graduated from Harvard, Todd Owens went on a recruiting trip to the Seattle area in 2001, visiting companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Drugstore.com. He landed his first job as a product manager at Siebel Systems, in a satellite office in Bellevue, Wash. A navy submariner who worked there helped Owens navigate the process.

“Military guys, we have to stick together, because the private sector doesn’t totally understand it, and we oftentimes come out of the military saying the wrong things, acting the wrong way, not quite knowing how to fit in,” he said. “It’s nice when there are certain companies that graciously welcome military vets into their program.”

Kevala is Owens’ fourth turn as a CEO. He previously led staffing company TalentWise, which was acquired by Sterling Talent Solutions; was CEO at Appuri (acquired by DocuSign); and was CEO at Azuqua (acquired by Okta).

Owens viewed Kevala, spun out of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, as the chance to build from scratch and take on a problem that he was passionate about — how to manage people in a mission critical industry that relies on a complicated system.

“It’s perfect. I’m a Navy nuke,” Owens said. “That’s a perfect technical problem for a Navy nuke to dig.”

Kevala supports staffing, compliance and more for healthcare customers. Its software enables healthcare facilities to schedule workers, organize the labor pool and track caregiver credentials.

Owens now leads 28 employees and Kevala has raised $21 million.

And 26 years after his Navy and submarine career ended, Owens still falls back on the lessons he learned hundreds of feet below the ocean surface. Even as an officer in charge, he had a duty and a role on his team.

“As the CEO, I view that as a role. I have [objectives and key results] that I own and that I have to be accountable to my team on,” Owens said. “I have to play my role, and I have to do it very well. Otherwise I’m letting them down. That’s what I like.”