Server Agirman is a seasoned venture and strategy executive and the Founder and CEO of AILeap, a company specializing in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. With over 20 years of experience, Server excels in building, scaling, and investing in startups across Mobility, Energy, and Automation sectors. Server’s career is marked by a series of successful ventures. He developed a digital energy distribution system (ECC) that supports customers in transitioning to clean energy and launched eIQ Mobility, a SaaS platform for electric mobility, which was acquired by NextEra. He also led Mitsubishi Electric’s Automotive Venturing Division in Silicon Valley, driving forward key innovations in the automotive sector. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering and has pursued advanced studies in artificial intelligence and machine learning. This educational background, coupled with extensive industry experience, equips him with a comprehensive understanding of both the technical and strategic aspects of technology.
Sahar is a seasoned tech entrepreneur passionate about using AI to solve real-world problems. With over 18 years of experience, she has successfully led the development and launch of innovative, award-winning consumer and enterprise products. Currently, as Director of New Ventures in AI at LG NOVA, Sahar focuses on discovering and developing cutting-edge AI solutions for high-growth businesses. She also actively mentors tech startups. Before joining LG NOVA, Sahar co-founded and served as COO of CloudMedx, a healthcare AI startup. Under her leadership, CloudMedx created an AI-powered data platform that transformed healthcare delivery by automating back-office workflows and providing AI-based operational, financial and clinical insights. The platform was widely adopted by major healthcare systems and payers across the United States. Sahar's contributions to the tech industry have been recognized with numerous awards, including U.S. Data Leader of the Year and U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year. She's also been featured on lists of top women leaders in healthcare startups and consumer health tech.
William Barkis, PhD, is Head of Grand Challenges and Ecosystem Development at LG NOVA, where he is focused on working directly with startups to drive the creation of transformative new businesses for LG. Formerly, he led corporate strategy and innovation programs at Orange, directed two open innovation programs at Mozilla and served at the National Science Foundation where he collaborated with the White House on advanced computer science topics. Will holds a PhD in Neurosciences from UCSD and a BS with Honors in interdisciplinary computer science (Symbolic Systems) from Stanford.
Wade is the founder of Energy & Sustainability practice at Plug and Play. Plug and Play is the largest corporate innovation center and one of the most active early stage investors globally. Wade works closely with entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leaders, and investors with a focus on the energy industry value chain.
Previously, Wade worked in solar, published scientific articles, and led business development efforts in a startup.Wade holds a master degree in Chemical Engineering and a master degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas engineering. His passion is at the intersection of technology and business.
Asya Bradley is a multi-exited Serial Founder, Super Angel Investor, LP, advisor and board director in tech startups and emerging fund managers. With over 20 years of experience in tech (founding team @Synapse, founder @Kinly: Acquired by Killer Mike's Greenwood, Cisco alum) and a track record of supporting underestimated founders, Bradley is an experienced investor, operator, and fintech entrepreneur. She is a world traveler, having lived and worked throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and now North America. Asya is also certified at the highest attainable level by the Yoga Alliance in Ashtanga Yoga and speaks multiple languages fluently including, amongst others, Dutch, Punjabi and Arabic.
On February 1, 2021, Governor Jim Justice selected Senator Mitch Carmichael to be the first Secretary of Economic Development in West Virginia.Senator Carmichael previously served our state as President of the West Virginia Senate & Lieutenant Governor. Mitch is an accomplished businessman in the field of information technology and broadband deployment. He was raised in Jackson County and attended public schools in Ripley, WV. Mitch is an Honors graduate from Marshall University with degrees in Finance and Economics. He is active in many community and charitable organizations including Epworth United Methodist Church.Mitch Carmichael was first elected to the Senate in the year 2012 and served until 2021. His talent and leadership skills were quickly realized by his colleagues and he was selected to be Senate Majority Leader. Subsequently, the Senate unanimously elected Mitch Carmichael to the position of Senate President-Lieutenant Governor and re-elected him in 2019. Mitch is the first Republican to serve consecutive terms as Senate President & Lieutenant Governor in the past 90 years of West Virginia history.Mitch previously served our state in the West Virginia House of Delegates, where he was elected to five consecutive terms. His voting record has garnered awards from various organizations including the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, West Virginia Manufacturers, Hospitals, State Medical Association, and many others. Mr. Carmichael is recognized statewide for his pro-growth economic policies and broadband expertise. Secretary Carmichael is ideally suited to convey the many benefits of West Virginia to current and potential employers throughout America and the world.
Divya Chhabra is a health tech founder, investor, advisor, and mentor. She specializes in leading lean engineering teams from zero to one to build rapidly iterable products that delight enterprise customers. As the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Dosis, an AI-powered precision medicine SaaS company addressing drug dosing for chronic diseases, Divya has tackled all manner of product issues from co-development with legacy customers to managing numerous cross-functional groups in enterprise-scale rollouts in heavily-regulated, high barrier to entry businesses with legacy and first-adopter customers. Divya and her brother founded Dosis in 2017 from their apartment living room, and within three years scaled it into a profitable, multimillion dollar business that has since delivered over 100 million custom-tailored dosing recommendations to hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide. In her free time, Divya also acts as an advisor and fractional Chief Product Officer/Head of Product for other rapidly scaling startups.Divya started her career as a Product Manager at Athenahealth where she worked on the Epocrates team building athenatext, a secure messaging service for healthcare providers, as well as on the internal ops product team. She has invested in Seed through Series E companies and regularly advises founders on all manner of startup issues. Divya earned a bachelor of science in bioengineering from MIT.
Winston Choe is an entrepreneur, mentor and global tech executive with expertise in business, corporate and venture-development in Mobility, IoT, BigData, and Security. He recently joined LG as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) and Innovation Business Development Director at LG NOVA. Winston has over 20 years of experience and a track-record working with startups to grow from seed to exit, working on corporate-development to engage startups through commercialization, investment, acquisition, and doing venture-development with startups at Accelerators based in Silicon Valley. He was a Founding EIR at PlugandPlayTechCenter, a Venture Accelerator with 30000+ startups, 300+ VCs, 500+ corporate-partners, accelerator-programs in 20 industries, investment-portfolio including 14 unicorns, and global-operations across 30+ sites. Winston co-founded TechGrowthVentures, an accelerator for US-Asia businesses, where he built a portfolio of 20 companies, based on cross-border synergies for supply-chain, joint-development, market-entry, investment. He also worked with governments in South-Asia to establish Accelerator-programs leveraging their local ecosystems with a bridge to Silicon Valley. Winston was also the VP Programs and Partnerships at ReadWrite Labs, the world’s first IoT Accelerator, where he established programs for 100+ startups and developed corporate-partnerships for US-China businesses. Among the wide portfolio of startups that he has worked on, 3 of them in healthcare telepresence, mobile security and mobile advertising, were acquired for $1B+. Previously, Winston was Senior Director of Business Development at Intel, where he established a team for strategic-deals in the Client Computing Group, their largest division with revenues of $40B. He worked with startups in Wireless Charging and Immersive Vision through commercial-licensing, and investments through Intel Capital. He was also Senior Director of Business Development in Hewlett-Packard, where he managed a team for strategic-partnerships and new market-development for the Mobile division, and led commercial-deals with Google, Microsoft and acquisition of a Mobile Device Management startup. Winston holds a Bachelor of Math degree from the University of Waterloo, Canada, majoring in Computer Science and Operations Research. He started his career in R&D at Bell-Northern Research in Canada and Institute of Systems Science in Singapore, and subsequently completed a High-Tech Executive Management program at Stanford. He is an avid outdoorsman who has completed overlanding trips across North America, with a passion for cooking and playing tennis.
Dr. Izzet Sidki Darendeli is the Director of The Smith Center for Entrepreneurship and an Associate Professor of Management at California State University, East Bay. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia. In addition to his academic successes and research on innovation and entrepreneurship, he has founded, invested, and advised multiple startups and served as a member of the Board of Directors for several Multinational Corporations in the U.S and Europe.
Shalen runs a Medicaid and Medicare Advantage consulting practice, Slayer Consulting, providing growth and innovation consulting services in partnership with his network of C-level health plan collaborators. Shalen serves an array of Medicaid and MA clients ranging from publicly traded companies to Seed and Series A startups operating across a variety of SDOH, VBC and health equity oriented businesses from home care, remote monitoring, transportation, Long Term Supports & Services, food security, musculoskeletal transitions of care, and various AI-powered projects impacting the most vulnerable populations in US healthcare. Shalen spent over a decade of his early career in structured and leveraged finance. In 2011, he co-founded a global health nonprofit that provides cleft and cataract surgeries. That experience led to a transition to healthcare full-time in 2017, via the completion of an MPH at Harvard. From 2019 to 2023, Shalen was co-founder and CEO of Vincere Health, a Medicaid-focused startup. He raised $6 million in VC funding, secured contracts with MCOs, and partnered with UHC/Optum before selling the company to Optum. Following Vincere, Shalen was recruited to join as an SVP with NationsBenefits, but quickly realized that his heart was in entrepreneurship aligned firmly with driving innovation in the Medicaid space. Shalen holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics, and is a proud member of the Techstars and Harvard iLab alumni communities!
Kristie Deiuliis is a Managing Director at Black & Veatch, leading Decarbonization Strategy & Planning initiatives. She is focused on business model transformation, investment strategies, federal and state regulatory impacts, and technology implementation for Fortune 500 companies, regulated utilities, municipalities, and other asset owners across multiple sectors and industries.
With 30 years in the energy industry, Kristie leads strategic initiatives, driving the development of economic, policy, technology, and feasibility assessments for a broad range of global top tier clients. Her experience spans energy industry domains including wholesale and retail (regulated and competitive) markets, distributed energy resource business models, market entry and expansion strategies, and business case, scenario-based investment models for companies seeking to pivot or accelerate specific goals.
Joshua Di Frances is the head of incubation at LG and cofounder of U.S Digital Corps. He previously served as Senior Advisor for Technology Innovation and New Ventures to the Director / Commissioner of the Technology Transformation Services at GSA. He is also passionate about breaking down barriers to entrepreneurship in healthcare and translating technology into commercial healthcare products. He currently resides with my wife, Vanessa, in Washington D.C. In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors (running, hiking, biking, skiing, etc.), reading, cooking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
“Tonton” Ali Diallo is a Silicon Valley-based investor, a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, and an award-winning venture builder (10 startups and 2 exits) with deep expertise in contrarian innovation and in sustainable capitalism which combines profit, purpose, and planet. He is the founder of Aurion Capital, a private investment holding group that builds a sustainable future for society though a diversified portfolio of VC funds, ventures and initiatives that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and that drive economic prosperity. He is the founding Managing Partner of NovaWave Capital, a multi-stage VC firm that scales high growth companies through a venture studio framework in partnership with institutional investors. He also serves as the founding Managing Director of NOVA Prime Fund, a VC fund that supports startups in the AI, cleantech, and healthcare sectors; and a Managing Director at Clearbrook, a $10 Billion diversified asset management and advisory company. He co-founded United Capital, a Dubai-based industry consortium that accelerates the Sustainable Development Goals through large-scale international investments, and public-private partnerships, and industry projects in the GCC region, Europe, and emerging markets. He is an Angel investor with a portfolio of 50 personal investments in startups in Silicon Valley, LA, NY, Boston, Europe, and Africa. As an advocate of financial and digital inclusion, he founded a TMT venture studio, a fintech company and a telecom group that advances connectivity and digital infrastructure in rural markets. He is a member of the MIT community as the former head of Global Programs of the MIT Legatum Center, the manager of MIT’s fintech prize for emerging markets, and a partner of the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge. He also served as a Lecturer and Mentor of MIT’s Executive MBA Program at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Jami Diaz, Senior Manager, Ecosystem Community has over 15 years of experience building online communities for tech giants including Intuit, PayPal, eBay and Yahoo. She’s been responsible for enhancing the customer experience to foster an ongoing, value-driven relationship between the company and its customers, building communities of connection, inspiration, loyalty, and evangelism. Passionate about forging strong reciprocal relationships and representing the voice of the community internally, Jami is skilled at amplifying customer success stories and thought leadership as well as translating customer needs into tailored products and features. A true community pioneer, Jami has been focused on community initiatives long before it was popularized and when it was still a nascent space. Prior to her current role, Jami was Senior Practice Director, Community at Influtive where she developed and defined methodologies and best practices to help Influitive customers design, build, and launch thriving, deeply engaged advocacy and community programs. Before that she was Senior Community Manager at Intuit where she was instrumental in building Mint.com’s support community which was awarded a Forrester Groundswell Award. Jami is a published author and cultural anthropologist. This foundation serves as the basis in building content rich customer-centric communities that drive innovation, success and evangelism.
Lyndsay Donhoff is the co-founder and CEO of ThoughtfulGPT, a startup developing AI-powered tools to improve recruiting, leadership development, and business workflows. As an executive, Lyndsay built several teams from the ground up in various functions spanning across talent, people operations, data science, partnerships, and behavioral research, all of which give her insight into both the human and technical sides of business. It's this multifaceted perspective that drives her vision for ThoughtfulGPT: to create practical AI solutions that thoughtfully enhance the employee and candidate experience, while also making organizations more effective. Lyndsay's empathetic and human-centric approach to building AI tooling aims to empower, rather than replace, people. With her positive energy and strategic insights, she is pioneering a new path for how artificial intelligence can elevate the modern workforce when developed with genuine care for improving people's work lives
Liz serves General Counsel at Expa, a venture capital firm with a venture studio, founded by Garrett Camp over 10 years ago. At Expa, she is focused on building, supporting and funding to scale seed stage tech companies. Prior to Expa, Liz represented startups and investment funds as an attorney at Fenwick & West in Mountain View, San Francisco and Santa Monica. Prior to Fenwick, Liz served as Assistant General Counsel for Outspoken, a mobile messaging tech company. Prior to law school, Liz co-founded Royal Road Entertainment, producing independent films including the Netflix release The Other Side of the Wind, the last film written and directed by Orson Welles. Liz received her B.A. from Princeton University and now lives in Los Angeles. Liz received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and B.A. from Princeton University.
Annette is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of operating, management, and venture capital investing experience. Her career has been dedicated to driving growth and building value through successfully identifying, financing, and developing innovation into products and businesses in untapped markets. Her global corporate board experience spans multiple industries, including compound semiconductors, energy storage, lighting, advanced materials, 3-D printing, and the Internet-of-Things. Annette serves as President and CEO of EnPower, Inc. In 2005, Annette founded Applied Ventures, the venture arm of Applied Materials. She was responsible for developing the venture group’s investment strategy and execution plan. She sourced, led, syndicated, and managed Applied Material’s investments while also managing a group of investment professionals. From 1996 to 2000, she was based in Russia, where she led Applied’s expansion into Eastern Europe, chartering Applied’s first office in Moscow. Other notable positions include CEO of MindShadow.com (acquired); Investment Manager at DaimlerChrysler Venture Capital; and CEO of Ketra (formerly Firefly Green Technology) (acquired).
Nick Flaquer is a Worldwide Partnerships Leader focused on Embeddable AI at IBM, where he develops partnerships to co-create AI products using IBM's WatsonX platform. Prior to IBM, he spent 9 years at GCP and AWS working on/off with the startup community.
Grace Gong is the founder and host of Smart Venture Podcast, where she interviews top tech companies’ founders, C-level/VP-level leaders, and investors about career development. She worked in VC and PE firms focusing on consumer tech and real estate investment. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and eager to learn from the world’s top talents. Grace shared how American entrepreneurs created their companies in her first book, The Last Key To Success, with 21 founders featured on Forbes 30 under 30 in 2016. In 2017, she interviewed 22 investors featured on the Forbes Midas List for her second book, How To Be A VC (Amazon No.1 New Release in Venture Capital Category), on how they invested in companies like Facebook, Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. She is passionate about learning and sharing the knowledge she learned from top founders and investors in Silicon Valley. Grace is also a LinkedIn Top Voice in the Finance Category.
Megan Gray is the CEO of Moment AI. She is an engineer specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Gray was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 23. Her experiences inspired her to launch Moment AI, an autonomous vehicle (AV) company, which uses physiological and traffic data to prevent accidents and better the driving experience. Epilepsy impacts over three million people in the US – and self-driving cars are the only way many of them might be able to drive.
Affectionately known as the "Tech Cat" (Technology Catalyst), Lori H. Schwartz is an award- winning innovator and visionary leader in the convergence of technology, marketing, and digital storytelling. As the Founder and CEO of StoryTech, she has been instrumental in shaping the future of content creation, distribution, and engagement.Her career trajectory, spanning film production, advertising, and digital media, has equipped Lori with a unique perspective on the evolving media landscape. She has consistently championed the fusion of storytelling with cutting-edge technology to forge meaningful brand experiences and drive audience engagement.
Lori's leadership at StoryTech has fostered strategic collaborations between storytellers and technology companies, resulting in profitable ventures and groundbreaking content. Her deep understanding of the content ecosystem, from production and distribution to audience engagement, has positioned her as a sought-after expert and advisor in the industry. A prominent figure at major industry events such as CES and the NAB Show, Lori has curated trend briefings, hosted panels, and led tours that showcase the latest advancements in storytelling technology.In addition to running her own firm, she is an experienced event host, moderator, and event facilitator as well as a CNN contributor, providing a unique and very playful insider's take on the biggest stories in tech and entertainment. She also served on the Board of Governors for the Television Academy, representing the Emerging Media Programming Group. Through these roles, she translates complex solutions and communicates the opportunities for clients and external audiences alike and most importantly, has fun along the way!
Previously, Lori was Chief Technology Catalyst for McCann Worldgroup, North America where she was responsible for driving technology innovation at one of the world's largest marketing communications companies. She was the key principle to launch the highly regarded IPGLAB. Lori oversaw the group's strategy, helping to keep clients ahead of the digital curve. She facilitated emerging media up-fronts for Microsoft, Intel, General Motors, Nestlé, and Sony.A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Lori is a dedicated mentor and role model for women in technology. She actively participates in initiatives that empower and uplift women in the industry, inspiring future generations of female leaders. She has been profiled as one of the ""30 Executives Shaping the Evolution of Media and Technology"" by Variety and ""100 People to Have Lunch with"" by MediaPost Publications. An active spokesperson, Lori launched Digital Hollywood's 'Women's Entertainment and Technology Mentor Program’; is an active mentor in the RISE Mentoring Programme and is a recipient of the Lucy Hood Digerati Award for her contributions to the Television Academy."
Alicia is the Principal for Institutional Partnerships at LG NOVA. Alicia is fortunate enough to have worked with both startup, private and public companies such as LG, Walt Disney, the Department of Defense, the NFL, and most proudly the US Army. After her six year service in the US Army Alicia returned to civilian life to lead the way for veterans to become startup founders, launching the LA chapter of Bunker Labs, and helping scale the organization from 10-35 locations in 15 months. Alicia has designed curriculum for use at Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed Accelerator, worked with various family offices, and VC firms, and helped hundreds of startup founders develop and launch new businesses. Her perseverance through her military training, as well as overcoming a major loss in her life has helped her to be a successful adviser today for fast-paced startups & international celebrities such as NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, and NBA Allstar and investor Baron Davis where she directed fund management, and investments. Alicia is the Founder & Managing Partner at Dear Mama Ventures. An investment platform, with a $1B initiative to deploy financial, social, and intellectual capital to Black, brown, female, and Veteran-led founders who are solving some of the world’s most challenging problems. Alicia believes that it is possible to change the world a little, to a lot each day. She demonstrates this through her commitment to empowering underestimated entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams, inspiring people to be their best, and building thriving, sustainable ecosystems for the communities she serves.
A visionary technologist, Khaled has recruited and built technical teams across multiple early-stage startups and managed them through rapid growth to deliver successful and innovative products. Khaled has proven experience in building and deploying scalable software that has been used and continues to be used by tens of millions of enterpriseand online users across multiple verticals. He has also set up and managed teams across India, China and the Middle East. Prior to MedHelp, he was a founding member of IMlogic, an instant messaging security software company acquired by Symantec, where he built the tech team and managed the delivery of three successful product offerings. Khaled was also the a founding member of One World Software Solutions, a technical consulting company that grew to span three continents, and was part of the NetDocs team at Microsoft. Khaled holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan.
Stephanie Hockenberry is an accomplished professional currently serving as the Growth & Retention Manager for the Ohio County Development Authority in Wheeling, WV. With a diverse background in sales, marketing, and leadership, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience to her role.Stephanie's career journey showcases versatility and commitment to growth. In her current role, she is focused on driving economic development through connectivity. As an Adjunct Professor she has shared her expertise with the next generation of professionals while also learning from them.As a Sales Manager for five-plus years for the largest cabinet manufacturer in North America, she managed a territory with a 3 million dollar budget across 41 Lowe's stores in two major markets. She achieved outstanding performance and earned several accolades, including Sales Tough Winner, Most Valuable Teammate, and Rep of the Year Nominee. Stephanie holds an M.B.A., which has undoubtedly contributed to her success in various leadership roles. Known for her ability to connect individuals and drive success, Stephanie is described as incredibly knowledgeable, creative, and articulate. Her well-organized approach and inspirational leadership style make her a valuable asset in sales, marketing, and management.Stephanie's professional experience extends beyond the corporate world. Her past roles include: General Manager in Wholesale Distribution, Marketing Director for a Non-Profit, Finance Director for a Church, and a Corporate Relations Manager for a National Non-Profit. These positions highlight her commitment to community. Stephanie is dedicated to ongoing personal and professional growth and the empowerment of others.Stephanie brings a unique blend of corporate and public sector experience, academic knowledge, and community engagement. Her expertise in small business entrepreneurship, coupled with her innovative approach to sales and marketing, makes her a valuable contributor to discussions on economic development and business innovation.
Jeff Huber is the cofounder and CEO of Chroma, the leading open-source vector database.
Raghib Hussain serves as the President of Products and Technologies, overseeing product development but also shaping the company’s future through technology and innovation. His responsibilities span defining overall strategy, aligning various roadmaps, and ensuring that product development meets the company's goals. With his oversight of the Office of the CTO, he’s pivotal in driving the long-term technology vision and transformation efforts. In this role he is key in steering Marvell towards growth and technological advancement. Previously he served as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of the company’s Networking and Processors Group. Prior to joining Marvell in 2018, Raghib served as the Chief Operating Officer of Cavium, a company he co-founded. Prior to Cavium, Raghib held engineering roles at both Cisco and Cadence and helped found VPNet, an enterprise security company. Raghib earned a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University in Karachi, Pakistan, and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University. He holds more than 40 patents in the fields of networking and security.
Maryam Jahed is a seasoned product management leader and entrepreneur, now contributing to innovation at LG NOVA. With a solid foundation in the health tech sector, she has previously served as Head of Product at Lisa Health, where she played a vital role in developing digital health solutions focused on women's well-being. Before that, she led product teams at Carbon Health, helping to scale the company through innovative healthcare solutions, and at Woebot Health, where she contributed to AI-driven mental health tools. In addition to her corporate experience, Maryam co-founded Airo Health, a mental health-focused startup, showcasing her entrepreneurial spirit and ability to drive technology innovations. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, which has been integral to her approach in building impactful, user-focused products. At LG NOVA, she continues to draw on her diverse background, driving forward transformative initiatives in health and technology.
Andrea Kates is a San Francisco Bay Area-based authority at moving innovation to revenue. She focuses on uncovering untapped opportunities and galvanizing strategic vision. For 20 years she’s led bold initiatives in virtually every sector and every geography that help companies figure out where to place their bets on emerging products, services and technologies and to scale dynamic business models. In essence: How do you disrupt before being disrupted, avoid the blind side and get ahead of the future? Leaders who work with Andrea develop a new mindset about future growth, informed by both data and new insights. Andrea was CEO of the San Francisco SaaS software company that pioneered the application of Lean Startup with scaleup and large companies. In that capacity, she had visibility into more than 13,000 commercialization, technology, and innovation initiatives covering a broad spectrum of companies within the innovation ecosystem from government research labs to large companies (3M, Intel), and a wide range of startups. Based on her experience, she developed the original Get to Next methodology which is specifically designed to equip corporate teams to ACTIVATE Innovation. The core components are: ENVISION emerging opportunities with fresh eyes, EXPAND rapidly through new lenses and future-focused technologies, BUILD initiatives from early stage through to scale, and ENGAGE leaders and teams with the new direction. She has “futureproofed” teams in virtually every sector including mobile (Ford US + China, GM, Audi), manufacturing/energy (ABB, Audi, GM, Shell-Asia Pacific + Europe), technology/mobile (Fujitsu, HP, Cisco); healthcare (Atrium Health, Mayo Clinic, Roche), B2C consumer goods/hospitality (United Airlines, Sodexo, ALFA-Middle East) and financial services (Allstate, AIG, Citi). Her original research in cross-industry growth was published in her book, Find Your Next. Andrea has been the featured keynote speaker and global thought leader on the TED main stage, Aspen Ideas Festival, CXO Forum in Tokyo, Rueda de Innovación (Colombia), and in corporate settings (3M, Cisco, Phocuswright: The Future of Travel, OpenFinance Mexico: The Future of Finance, Dubai 2020). Her board affiliations include: Embrace Global, Copenhagen Fintech, OpenFinance Mexico, and Stanford University’s global institute on Responsible Digital Leadership. Today, Andrea works with leaders to discover their best future with a tangible, practical set of steps called: GET TO NEXT.
Ho-Geun “Howard” Kim is currently leading the Business Service Group (BSG) at LG Chem America, guiding new project development and open innovation initiatives across the company for Petrochemical, Advanced Materials, and Life Sciences businesses. He was previously the VP of LG Chem’s Global Purchasing Division, and has been with LG Chem for 33 years. Ho-Geun received his MBA from Boston University School of Management, and his BS in Economics from Kyunghee University.
Ramkumar Krishnan (Ram) is currently the head of cleantech incubation for LG-Nova and LG-Electronics. Ram leads the efforts to launch new and disruptive business ventures in Cleantech areas including energy, environment and sustainability. Ram is an entrepreneur and a driven climate and sustainability leader, with over 20 years of industry leading expertise in developing new technologies and products, program management, and a track record of delivering new business lines globally through leading cross functional teams. Ram's education, leadership and expertise span wide areas of cleantech including renewable energy generation, storage, and conversion technologies, smart systems and energy management solutions.
Prior to joining LG-Nova, Ram led the business development and go-to-market strategy for BattGenie (as acting CMO), a BMS software tech spinout from University of Washington, developing AI and physics based models to improve charging time and performance of Lithium-ion batteries. Ram has also served as CTO of BrightNight, a renewable IPP and led the development of PowerAlpha, a single, integrated platform for designing, optimizing, and operating hybrid renewable power plants that leverages the power of AI. At BrightNight, Ram helped build a green hydrogen business line with a sales pipeline of over a GW of renewable power projects. Prior to BrightNight, Ram was part of the founding team of Fluidic Energy (also, NantEnergy) and as president/CTO, helped launch the world’s first rechargeable and long-duration metal-air energy storage technology as well as hybrid energy storage products combining Li-ion with long duration energy storage solutions.
Ram has served as advisory board member of multiple cleantech startups and was also a board member of the California Energy Storage Association. Ram has been recognized as one of the “Top 50 Leaders in Energy Storage and Microgrids” by India Energy Storage Association.
Dr. Luqman Lawal: Championing Healthcare Innovation and Global Health EquityDr. Luqman Lawal is a renowned thought leader at the intersection of clinical medicine, global health, business development, and technological innovation. With a rich background in medicine and public health, Dr. Lawal’s journey began at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria and progressed through advanced studies at the University of Minnesota, Harvard School of Public Health, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.Currently leading the global expansion for the Mayo Clinic Platform, Dr. Lawal drives the adoption of cutting-edge digital health and AI/ML solutions in diverse regions including Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, India, and many other LMICs. His strategic leadership is crucial in enhancing healthcare delivery and optimizing health resources across these markets.
A distinguished member of the World Economic Forum's Digital Healthcare Working Group, Dr. Lawal’s work is highly influential on the global stage. His recent publication, "How Fintech in LMICs Can Inspire the Digital Healthcare Revolution," showcases his vision for integrating technological advancements to revolutionize healthcare systems in underserved regions.As a Sloan Leadership Fellow and MIT Sloan MBA graduate, Dr. Lawal combines executive acumen with a passion for health equity. He has held pivotal roles, including Director of Global Health at Starkey Hearing Foundation and VP of Health Equity at Bright Health Group, where he utilized AI and ML to bridge health disparities.Beyond his executive roles, Dr. Lawal is a Managing Partner at Erez Capital, advocating for investments in health innovations and supporting entrepreneurs from underserved communities. His board memberships with organizations like RoundtableRx USA and Healthful Data further reflect his commitment to driving impactful change in health equity and digital health innovation.Join Dr. Lawal’s session to engage with a visionary leader whose expertise and dedication to sustainable healthcare solutions continue to shape the future of global health.
Honglak Lee is currently the Chief Scientist of Artificial Intelligence and Executive Vice President at LG AI Research, as well as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to his role at LG AI Research, he worked as a Research Scientist on the Google Brain Team. He received his Ph.D. from the Computer Science Department at Stanford University in 2010, advised by Prof. Andrew Ng. His research focuses on deep learning and representation learning, covering areas such as learning from minimal supervision, transfer learning and generalization, and reinforcement learning and sequential decision making. His work has been recognized with awards at prestigious conferences, including ICML, RSS, and NAACL, among others. He has served as an associate editor for IEEE TPAMI and JMLR, and as an area chair for major conferences like ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, AAAI, IJCAI, and ICLR. He received the Google Faculty Research Award (2011), NSF CAREER Award (2015), and was selected as one of AI's 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems (2013). He is also a research fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2016) and a foreign member of the National Academy of Engineering, Korea (2022).
Kirk Marple is the founder and CEO of Graphlit, an end-to-end API that leverages RAG to that ingests unstructured data and leverages retrieval augmented generation to improve accuracy, domain specificity, adaptability, and context understanding in vertical AI app dev. His 30 year career in data and software leadership includes serving at Microsoft and General Motors.
David McDonald serves as Vice Chancellor for Administration. He is the university’s lead administrative and financial officer and has oversight for auxiliary services, business and financial services, budget, capital planning, facilities, government relations, human resources, information technology, and university planning and design. He works closely with other members of the university’s Executive Team and campus community to support the fulfillment of the UH West Oʻahu Strategic Action Plan. Prior to joining UH West Oʻahu he served in multiple roles at Western Oregon University including Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Public Affairs, Associate Provost, and Dean of Enrollment Admissions and Retention. McDonald has also served as the Director of Enrollment Services for the Oregon University System. At the University of California, San Diego he was the Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies. While covering a broad area of university functions including academic affairs, student affairs, external relations, and government relations, McDonald has maintained a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have enhanced student access and completion efforts. He was the 2011 recipient of the Michael C. Holen Pacesetter Award from NACADA for his commitment to academic advising excellence. He has served on numerous state, regional and national committees focused on various areas of higher education policy and operations. McDonald earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Oregon and his Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington.
P.K. Mishra is a technical product manager (PM) and entrepreneur with experience in launching new products in AI, machine learning, hardware, and SaaS. Between 2014 and 2023, PK was the PM for launching four products, each generating at least $10 million in revenue within the first year. He is currently the AI Product Lead for LG Nova's new business incubation division. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Master's degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also an inventor, holding 8 patents, and has contributed to 12 peer-reviewed publications. PK has held pivotal product management roles at leading companies such as 10x Genomics, Matterport, Infineon Technologies, and General Motors R&D. At 10x Genomics, he was instrumental in launching the Xenium In Situ platform, a groundbreaking tool for spatial transcriptomics. During his time at Matterport, he launched the Deep Learning-based Matterport Axis Mobile Scanner, which creates 3D models from images, used by platforms like Redfin. As the Director of Applied AI and ML at Infineon Technologies, PK led the development of a scalable hybrid cloud-edge AI-ML Industrial sensing SaaS platform as well as led the development of an analog deep learning processor-embedded MEMS microphone. Prior to that, as the founder and CEO of this VC-backed startup Fingertips Lab, Inc., he led the development of a product that shipped over 30,000 devices earning awards, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovation Award, Red Dot Design Award, and the University of Michigan Entrepreneur-of-the-Year Award. His passion lies in driving technological innovation, delivering impactful results, and leveraging cross-disciplinary collaborations to advance cutting-edge products.
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Gbemi Ogunyomi is a Serial Tech Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist with 20 years of experience managing over 350 Million Dollars of total assets under management in the healthcare, life sciences, energy, and software technology industry sectors. Her expertise spans clinical operations, engineering, finance, business development, fundraising, startup investments, portfolio management, and M&A deal execution. Gbemi is passionate about fostering innovation and driving growth within the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem. Gbemi holds both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and certifications from renowned institutions including MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Medical School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton, LSU, and Missouri S&T. Gbemi is a Venture Partner and Strategic Advisor to Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups at The Texas Medical Center For Innovation. She is a Guest Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and is a member of the MIT Sloan School of Management Alumni Board.
Iliana Oris Valiente is an accomplished corporate executive, innovation and emerging tech pioneer, board member, investor, author, and global citizen. She serves as the Managing Director and Head of NA Innovation Hubs at Accenture, leading initiatives in emergent areas such as AI, and leading multi-disciplinary teams across design and data, and working closely to scale their Venture investment companies. Iliana is also a venture capital fund investor and advisor, with a focus on emerging fund managers. She is also on the board of directors at Sunnybrook Hospital and CPA Ontario, is a published author, and speaks regularly at global conferences. Her work reflects a deep commitment to societal change and global citizenship.
Shilpa Prasad is an experienced leader in the startup ecosystem, with a strong passion for entrepreneurship and corporate startup engagement/innovation. She brings over 15 years of global experience in corporate startup strategy and venture-building to her role as entrepreneur in residence at LG Nova, where she is helping the company identify market trends and build partnerships. Prasad has been instrumental in driving innovation for various open innovation projects across corporations, governments, and accelerators and in establishing new partnerships across the global startup ecosystem. An experienced founder, she has also contributed her time to mentoring and advising startups.
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Sokwoo Rhee is Corporate Executive Vice President for Innovation at LG Electronics and Head of LG NOVA, a new Silicon Valley-based innovation center. He leads LG Electronics’ global innovation projects, new business creation, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem development. Prior to joining LG, Sokwoo served as Associate Director for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Innovation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, covering innovation programs for Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. He managed the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC), a U.S. federal government program to develop a global ecosystem of major business and technology stakeholders to create replicable and scalable IoT/smart city projects. Sokwoo previously served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow on CPS, a program by the White House. During his tenure, he co-led the SmartAmerica Challenge, which brought together IoT technologies and organizations across the nation to demonstrate how they can collaborate to create technology-based projects with a focus on socio-economic benefits. Prior to joining the U.S, government, Sokwoo was a co-founder and CTO of Millennial Net, Inc., one of the first organizations to successfully commercialize low-power wireless mesh/sensor networks and IoT technologies from academia. He also worked on wireless medical sensors as a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work and achievements have been widely recognized and he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the MIT Technology Review’s “Top Innovators under 35.” Dr. Rhee received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Matt is Head of Startup Ecosystem, US at Google. In this role, Matt runs accelerators for early stage companies using AI/ML, Cloud and other technologies. Prior to this role, Matt worked in Google Hardware UX on Wearable devices (Pixel Watch) and AR. Prior to Google, Matt led accelerators and innovation programs at IDEO, supporting early stage organizations across the world focused on education, health, climate change, food systems and more, with clients like the UN and The Rockefeller Foundation. Matt is a former architect and designer and holds his MBA from California College of the Arts and his Bachelors from Cal Poly SLO. Matt is a proud husband and father of 3 young (energetic!) kids.
Dr. Zafer Sahinoglu is currently the General Manager of Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Center (MELIC Ventures), which was launched in April 2021 as the innovation and investment arm of Mitsubishi Electric in North America. He is also serving as VP Innovation at Mitsubishi Electric US (MEUS). In MEUS, he developed and launched SaaS businesses and new products in logistics, air mobility, energy management, smart infrastructure, human machine interaction, and connected vehicles. He has led and managed product design and agile product development, built new business models, developed technology strategies, and bundled these steps into customized processes with continuous innovation.
Zafer was a senior principal research scientist in MERL between 2001 and 2016. In his MERL years, he was an inventor on more than 80 patents, co-authored more than 100 international journal and conference papers, made more than 50 key contributions to international standards including ZigBee, IEEE 802.15.4a UWB PHY and MAC, IEEE 802.15.4e MAC, and MPEG 21. His technical expertise includes deep learning, stochastic signal processing, space-time adaptive processing, ultra-wideband and OFDMA wireless communications, indoor localization and tracking, biomedical signal processing, and Li-ion battery modeling. He has written two books on wireless communication and localization systems published by Cambridge University Press. Zafer received his M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering, Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, in years 2002 and 1998, respectively; and M.B.A. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013.
Daisy Sarne is a Global AI Partnerships Leader at IBM, where she develops partnerships to co-create AI products and features powered by IBM AI. Prior to joining IBM, Daisy spent 5 years at Amazon Web Services (AWS) building partnerships with AI Startups and expanding the AWS Startup Ecosystem. Prior to AWS, Daisy spent time at a late-stage startup building their sales organization. Daisy has deep expertise in enabling Startups of all sizes to build partnerships with large enterprises.
Known for a keen ability to locate disruptive and innovative technology, Elizabeth’s day job is the Director of Incubation Enablement at HP, helping internal founders at HP build and unleash innovative businesses. Elizabeth recently cofounded Find Ventures, a non-profit organization providing transformational non-dilutive grants and support to under-resourced entrepreneurs in Washington State. She also is a professor at the University of Washington teaching entrepreneurship to undergraduates and graduate students in the Foster Business School. Before Find Ventures and HP, Elizabeth led the Go To Market & Operations for the Amazon Alexa Fund and Startups team, as well as lead innovation business development for Amazon’s innovation team, Grand Challenge. Before Amazon, she led the launch of WeWork's startup and incubation arm, WeWork Labs in US West and LATAM, and previous to WeWork Elizabeth led the team at CoMotion Labs at the University of Washington coaching and growing the robust bench of NW tech and biotech startups.
Serving as the Director of Industry and Business Engagement for UNLV’s Office of Economic Development (OED) and Associate Director of the UNLV Research Foundation, which recently announced its early-stage venture fund to provide capital to developing startups in the UNLV ecosystem, Ms. Schwartz is focused on management strategy, industry partnerships, technology development, ecosystem support, and development of UNLV’s research and technology park. Ms. Schwartz earned her MBA from UNLV’s Lee School of Business and carries designations as a Certified Valuation Analyst and Certified Exit Planning Advisor. She also serves as Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Jeffery Cummings of UNLV’s Department of Brain Health on a unique innovation acceleration program, funding by the National Institute of Aging, designed to advance solutions around Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Ms. Schwartz's background as a Business Valuator and Exit Strategist with over a decade in Bio-Medical Research brings together a unique experience profile in Executive Management, Value Assessments, Commercialization, Real Estate Development, and Strategic Planning.
Farzin is an Investment and Innovation leader. He has more than 17 years of varied experience in Investment, Operations Management, Consulting, and Business Development, globally. Farzin is a Partner at Silicon Foundry, the largest Innovation center in San Francisco. prior to that, Mr. Shadpour was a Partner at Plug & Play, LLC., the most active Venture Capital firm, Accelerator, and Corporate Innovation Center in Silicon Valley and the world. Plug & Play has invested in over 30 unicorns including 2 that were led by Mr. Shadpour. Farzin has led investments in more than 50 startups globally, including the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, all in the area of Supply Chain and Logistics. The current value of his investments is 3X. Through this, he has had a front-row seat to changes, disruptions, and transformations happening in Supply Chain and Logistics. Mr. Shadpour has advised executives of over 50 of the Fortune 500, including Walmart, DHL, Geodis, JB Hunt, ArcBest, Lufthansa Cargo, Maersk, CMA-CGM, BNSF, Union Pacific, FedEx, USPS, Ryder, Mitsubishi Electric, Japan Post, and Yamato on investment and transformation. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Mr. Shadpour was with the Boeing co. where he had positions of increasing responsibility domestically and globally. There, Farzin assisted in preparation of materials for the company's quarterly earnings releases and communication to the Market. Mr. Shadpour has worked in the U.S., U.K., France, and Israel, and has managed teams in Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Japan and China. Mr. Shadpour currently resides with his wife and two children in San Francisco, CA. Farzin Shadpour is an engineer and a graduate of University of California, Berkeley.
Sharmila Mulligan is an investor and strategic advisor to tech companies ranging from early stage to high growth, late-stage companies. She has created and shaped several game-changing multi-billion dollar market categories and created winning companies in each category. Sharmila also serves on the Board of Fortune 500 companies, including Director at ConocoPhillips, serves on Northwestern University’s Entrepreneurship Board and the Board Northwestern’s College of Arts and Sciences. Most recently Sharmila served as Chief Strategy Officer at Alteryx and prior to that was CEO and founder of data analytics company acquired by Alteryx. She’s been early member and executive of 6 tech companies from inception to IPO and acquisitions, including General Magic, Netscape, Aster Data, and Opsware with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. She’s also one of the earliest investors in Databricks, Cloudera, Starburst, and Anyscale, creator of the Ray AI platform, that OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Cohere and leading Generative AI companies use to scale AI. She is deeply involved in innovative companies across the enterprise B2B and consumer market space today.
Atul is passionate about inspiring and leading diverse teams to deliver meaningful digital health solutions at scale that are clinically appropriate, improve patient health, and drive revenue growth. As general manager of digital health at LG, Atul fuels innovation for LG and its partners by establishing a community to nurture, grow, and create businesses. Outside work, he enjoys travel, reading non-fiction books, learning Latin dances, and playing golf.
Ranjan Sinha is the founder and CEO of Digbi Health. He is a successful entrepreneur, author, and innovator who loves technology and health. His interest in the gut microbiome and genomics helped him address his serious health condition. Inspired by this experience and supported by doctors and scientists, Ranjan decided to turn his passion into a business. He has an engineering degree and an MBA from The Wharton School. Ranjan previously worked at Apple and built companies in big data, HR, and food. He is an author and published scientist. He is an invited member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the American College of Gastroenterology. He holds multiple patents in personalized health and is a regular speaker at health technology and food conferences. Plus, he's an avid bicyclist!
Abhinai is the founder and CEO at Mashgin Inc. which makes AI self checkout that is deployed at more than 5000 locations across the United States. Prior to Mashgin, Abhinai worked at Yahoo!, Microsoft and Facebook.
Angeline heads BLOCK71 Silicon Valley, a dynamic hub of the National University in Singapore in the U.S. where she develops cross border partnerships and collaborations in tech and innovation between Singapore, Asia and the U.S.She identifies and attracts disruptive startups with high-growth potential, guides startups through the complexities of cross border markets, connects founders with key industry players and investors to provide strategic guidance on product development, go-to-market strategies, and fundraising.Through BLOCK71 Silicon Valley, Angeline hosts several events monthly focusing on impact sectors to rally founders, investors and corporate executives in meaningful discussion, market discovery, product development and networking.
Tashfeen Suleman is the co-founder and CEO of Federation AI. He is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building and scaling products at Microsoft as well as operating and growing startups in niche industries. He has been instrumental in developing large scale AI infrastructure and applications for data wrangling, workflow automation, and LLM model finetuning across enterprise ecosystems. At Federation, his team is building a suite of drag-and-drop AI agents designed to automate enterprise processes. Their initial set of use cases are around technical support, sales and operations for manufacturing, healthcare, and technology services. By providing pre-trained digital workers, Federation AI aims to simplify the implementation and deployment of AI solutions, enabling businesses to quickly realize value. They are generating revenue and are adding design partners and customers rapidly. Before Federation AI, Tashfeen worked at Microsoft on Windows Mobile and Sharepoint teams where he won the prestigious GoldStar award for outstanding achievements and shipped products that were used by millions. His last company, CloudMedx raised $10 million in funding and deployed their solutions across Medicare, Anthem, Kaiser, and many other healthcare enterprise organizations to automate healthcare workflows using AI. As a thought leader, Tashfeen has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, and Nasdaq. Under his leadership, his companies have also also been awarded numerous AI awards including the Tie50, Cisco Grand Disruptors, AiMed Innovator, and Computer Society Innovation Design Competition. He has published white papers on AI fine tuning, distributed systems design, and computing. Tashfeen also advises startups in the high-tech space including semiconductors, healthcare, and robotics. Outside of professional life, Tashfeen loves to scuba dive, climb mountains, travel, and spend time with his family.
Dr. Pierre R. Theodore serves as the Executive Director of Health Equity and Patient Impact at the Global Pharmaceutical firm, Roche Genentech. Pierre has had a distinguished career in healthcare service delivery, innovation, and global health in both academic and private sector roles. A member of the teaching faculty of Stanford University, Pierre is a board-certified Cardio-thoracic Surgeon having trained in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has held a range of leadership roles in industry and global public health focused on health equity addressing the barriers of availability and accessibility of novel technologies. Pierre has over two decades of experience in clinical education, healthcare venture capital investing and research and development most recently at Johnson and Johnson. He has been instrumental in programmatic medical device and drug development including minimally invasive therapies to treat and diagnose lung cancer, early infant diagnosis of HIV, population health efforts in tuberculosis treatment, and peripheral arterial disease. He has served on national and international committees focused on private sector address of health disparities at the World Economic Forum and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). After obtaining an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Princeton University, Pierre received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Virginia. Pierre completed general and cardiothoracic surgical training at Johns Hopkins and Hopital Universitaire Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris. Pierre’s post-doctoral training was performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital Transplant Biology Research Center, Harvard Medical School. Pierre is an avid cyclist living in San Francisco and is the father of two children: Christophe who is a pilot on a 737 platform for the United States Navy and Renee who is a junior at Yale University.
Brian has been an innovator and investor in impact-driven businesses for 25 years, with a focus on energy, AI, data, and new market development. He has deep expertise in scaling startups, corporate development, and product management across industries such as AI, EVs, edge computing, marketplaces, and last-mile grid electrification, working with both startups and Fortune 100 companies.As the Founder and CEO of Stem, Inc. (NYSE: STEM), Brian pioneered the first AI-powered energy storage systems, automating energy cost savings. Stem now operates the world’s largest commercial energy storage network, enhancing grid efficiency, sustainability, and resilience while creating value for commercial property owners, electric vehicles, solar projects, and utility-scale energy deployments.He was the CEO and Co-Founder of CRE Simple, Inc., a fintech company that partnered with the largest commercial real estate brokerage firms in the U.S. to revolutionize access to capital for investment properties, managing over $16B in commercial real estate transactions.Currently, Brian is an Innovation Partner at Alpha Studios, a pioneering studio lab in partnership with Offline Ventures. He is also an active Independent Director at Bridge to Renewables (BTR), focused on transforming transportation by maximizing the value of EV ownership, carbon markets, and renewable integration. He is focused on early-stage companies in AI, energy, fintech, and emerging technologies, while frequently lecturing on entrepreneurship at Duke, Wharton, and UC Law School San Francisco.
Nicole Valentine is the FinTech Director of the Milken Institute’s Finance pillar with over a decade of financial services, international Mergers & Acquisitions, technology, and innovation experience. As the FinTech Director, Nicole explores market innovation and developments, analyzes alternative regulatory approaches, and offers policy recommendations to facilitate FinTech’s responsible development. Her work engages and educates policymakers and stakeholders to improve access to capital, financial inclusion, transparency, and compliance. In 2023, Nicole was appointed to become a member of the CFTC GMAC (Global Markets Advisory Committee) Digital Assets Market Subcommittee. Nicole is also a member of the Goldman Sachs Sustainable Investing Group Inclusive Growth Corporate Network.Nicole’s thought leadership on digital assets, Web3, FinTech, AI, the metaverse, and the future of finance is also frequently featured in news publications, including CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, Worth, FinTech Times, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance, CQ Roll Call, E-Crypto News, Miami Herald, and Protocol Braintrust (Politico). She weighs in on topics that include Digital Assets legislation and regulation, innovative technologies, financial inclusion and fluency, and crypto’s cultural relevance in society.An attorney by background, Nicole practiced Mergers and Acquisitions and Securities at Wall Street law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton and then served as Assistant General Counsel and Vice President at global financial services firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. Nicole founded Synergy Business Development where she served as business strategist, advisor, and consultant to CEOs and Innovation Leads at Fortune 500 companies, innovative startups, non-profits, and government agencies. Nicole Valentine earned her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and her BA from American University in Political Science. She is a member of the NY Bar.
Chris Villarreal is President at Plugged In Strategies which provides consulting services across the electricity industry to state utility commissions, governmental agencies, consumer advocates, and other non-governmental advocates and organizations. He focuses on grid modernization, advanced metering infrastructure, distribution system planning, distributed energy resources, data access and privacy, and rate design. He spent 11 years working for state regulatory commissions in California and Minnesota prior to starting Plugged In Strategies. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow with the R Street Institute, a non-partisan free market think tank where he works on research and regulatory matters on electricity markets at the wholesale and retail levels.
Technology leader with entrepreneurial spirit driven to discover and launch new lines of business. I thrive when creating, collaborating on and explaining exciting opportunities for technology.
Scott Walbrun is a principal venture capital investor at BMW i Ventures, the independent venture capital fund managed on behalf of BMW Group based in Silicon Valley, where focuses on Series A & B investments in clean energy, AI/ML, software, mobility, and intelligent supply chain. In this capacity, Scott has invested in or serves on the board of nine companies. He also serves as a mentor and workshop leader for hundreds of startups through various accelerator programs across the country.Prior to joining BMW i Ventures, Scott provided M&A and capital markets advisory as a member of Jefferies’ Technology Investment Banking team, where he supported the closing of more than $3 billion of transactions on behalf of clients including Thoma Bravo, Palantir, Monday.com, Procore, Malwarebytes, and PlushCare. Scott joined Jefferies after completing his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. While completing his MBA, he worked at Kinzie Capital Partners evaluating private equity investments, as well as at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation supporting the commercialization of science-based and deep tech companies.Prior to business school, Scott managed Strategic Finance and FP&A at Truck Hero (a TA Associates portfolio company) and began his career in Fiat Chrysler’s Finance Leadership Development Program.
Don Williams is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the LG Nova innovation center in Santa Clara, California. He is a 30-year veteran in Silicon Valley with a career that spans data storage, networking, video conferencing, consumer electronics, streaming video, android devices and apps, virtual reality, and smart home. He is also the LG Board Member for the Connectivity Standards Alliance that develops smart home standards including Zigbee and Matter. Prior to joining LG, Don worked at Olympus, Ricoh, Hitachi, Brocade, Veritas/Symantec, Skype, and Samsung in roles that included Systems Engineering, Product Marketing, Partner Management, and Business Development. His current role focuses on working with strategic companies, LG headquarters, and startups to develop partnerships related to mutually interesting electronics and services.
Norman Winarsky, in a few words, is a founder of many ventures. In a few more words, Norman is a tech innovator who did more than dream about the future—he’s building it. As the co-founder of Siri, the voice assistant that’s now a household name, He has truly revolutionized how we interact with our devices. And that’s just a small portion of his impact. As the former president and founder of SRI Ventures, he played a key role in launching more than 70 companies, each with the potential to change the world. With a total market value over $100B, and a focus from AI to healthcare, his fingerprints are all over the tech landscape. If you’re looking for someone who knows how to strategically take an innovative idea and turn it into a successful startup, Norman has the history to share. His keynote, "If You Really Want to Change the World: A Blueprint for Building Successful Breakthrough Ventures," will be a guide for those with a big idea, inspiration, and the drive to make it happen. Norman will share tips for creating ventures that don’t just survive but thrive—changing industries and lives along the way. With a career that includes investing in and mentoring startups, teaching at Stanford,receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago, winning an Emmy award, and investing in the next generation of tech leaders, Norman has so much to share to founders and innovators. He writes a weekly blog focused on breakthrough ventures (normanwinarsky.substack.com). Norman’s current interests include Generative AI, Computer Vision, Robotics, and Mobility.
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