ABOUT ME
I'm Srikant Mikkilineni
BACKGROUND
I am an Iowa native and spent my formative years in Burlington, Iowa. I graduated from Burlington High School and then graduated from the University of Iowa with an undergraduate degree in business. I then went on to Drake University Law School to obtain my J.D. Drake Law School is also where I met my wife, whom I married in June of 2014. She is also an Iowa native and grew up in Centerville, Iowa. I began my legal career as a patent prosecutor while also practicing in technology, Internet, privacy, data security, and other areas of intellectual property law. My practice in technology transactions, privacy, and data security law took me to Seattle for about a year and a half, but I missed my home in Iowa and moved my family back to my home state, and specifically back to Clive. Clive has been home for my wife and me since 2010 and our children were born right here in Iowa – our oldest was born in downtown Des Moines and our youngest was born just on the other side of Clive in West Des Moines. I love this community and the friendly neighborhoods. I have some experience living in other countries, cities, and states which have given me multiple, unique perspectives, which have reinforced my belief in how truly distinct and special Clive is. All of these experiences have caused my wife and me to decide that Clive is where we want to raise our daughters.
SERVICE
I have been involved in numerous non-profits and mentoring organizations. I was a board member of Mentor Iowa as well as a member of the Iowa Chapter of the Lupus Foundation. I have been involved with the Greater Des Moines Partnership and served as a member of the Professional Development Committee. My parents taught me to realize the importance of giving back to the community and encouraging young members of our community to be engaged and to remain and grow in Iowa. It is extremely important to retain our young professionals so Iowa continues to grow and develop leaders, while also making Iowa, and Clive, in particular, a wonderful place to educate our children, invest, age in place, thrive and retire.
As a member of the Iowa legal community, I have served as a volunteer attorney at the Drake University Law School Transactional Student Clinic and currently serve as the Co-Chair for Drake University Law School’s Alumni Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board. I also serve on the Intellectual Property Law Section and Legal Innovations Section for the Iowa State Bar Association and previously served on the eCommerce Section. In these positions, I worked to refine proposed legislation to clarify Iowans’ rights to digital assets as part of their estates, and to refine current legislative proposals to update Iowa’s laws to recognize newer technologies, such as distributed ledgers which make smart contracts possible. I am a member and alumnus of the Legal Council on Legal Diversity and serve as a member of the Privacy Bar Advisory Board for the International Association of Privacy Professionals. I am passionate about ensuring the rights of all Iowans are protected across their lifespan.
WHY I'M RUNNING
Iowa politics are currently highly divisive and partisan; too much of a shouting match when instead we should be driven to listen to one another with respect. Listening doesn’t mean we will arrive at an agreement but does give one a better understanding of the other person’s perspective. We must strive to have productive conversations that lead to stronger solutions that serve all of us well. No matter what the issue is, the more viewpoints we can include, the stronger the solutions will be.
My parents immigrated from India primarily because America is known as a great mixing pot where all are welcome. They hoped for the opportunities that come from that strength. My experiences growing up in Iowa, along with traveling and living in other places, have given me access to many different perspectives and caused me to develop multi-faceted and multi-cultural perspectives that changed the way I approached issues. I’d like to bring that diverse, multi-faceted perspective and what I believe to be a unique skill set, to the Clive City Council, to help all the residents of Clive to thrive and succeed.
Clive has an opportunity to rethink some of the technologies and resources offered to our community, especially given some relatively new issues we’re facing, such as being landlocked; budget decisions – dealing with reduced state funding while still maintaining our status as one of the best in the region for tax rates – will take strategic thought and building efficiencies so we don’t see a decrease in the quality of services (this is something I do daily in my current position where I am responsible for building and continuously improving a global privacy program that spans more than 150 locations, with 8,800 team members in over 50 countries on 6 continents with minimal resources). Part of that is being open to strategic regionalization efforts which I can help vet and negotiate.
One of my highest priorities is increasing citizen engagement and transparency. Transparency is one of the pillars of any program serving the public and is something I regularly counsel clients on and employ in my career. Improving transparency and citizen engagement will ensure future solutions make the amenities of Clive more accessible to all residents including those with disabilities and those who wish to age in place and make participation easier. We need to be open to rethinking any process first, and then layering in technology solutions to improve efficiencies and increase access. This strategic implementation of technology and strategic decision-making will link our revitalization efforts to expanding the reach of the Greenbelt system and other amenities across Clive.