The Emerging Tech Exchange

Dr. Abou Shousha is an ophthalmologist, vision scientist, entrepreneur and inventor - holder of more than 50 patents on autonomous vision diagnostics and augmentation using AI technology and wearable devices. He leads the AI & Computer Augmented Vision lab of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the world’s leading hospital for ophthalmology (U.S. News and World Report). He is an awardee of a multimillion-dollar award from the National Institute of Health and the Achievement awards of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology.  

Abou Shousha has founded Heru, a Bascom Palmer spin-off company, that has developed patented autonomous AI-powered diagnostics and vision augmentation. Abou Shousha and his team have built downloadable software application for use on commercially available AR/VR glasses that autonomously diagnose and correct for visual field defects, double vision and visual distortions, among other vision defects.

Gregory C. Allen is the director of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. His research and analysis focuses the geopolitics of AI and semiconductor technology, on AI regulation, and on AI and the future of warfare. His analysis is read by corporate CEOs and senior government leaders around the world and is routinely featured in articles by leading news organizations. 

Prior to joining CSIS, Allen was the director of strategy and policy at the Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, where he oversaw the development and implementation of the DOD’s AI Strategy, drove policy reforms to accelerate the DOD’s adoption of AI, and developed DOD’s approach to AI governance and ethics. He advised senior leaders in the Department of Defense on all aspects of AI policy and represented the DOD in diplomatic exchanges with U.S. allies and partners, as well as with China. Before joining the DOD, Allen served in a variety of corporate strategy roles in the private sector technology industry. 

Allen holds a joint MPP/MBA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.

As Chief Commercial Officer at OpenBCI, Joseph is responsible for shaping OpenBCI's commercialization and communication strategies, while guiding its growth and market positioning.

Under his leadership, the company has secured high-profile industry partnerships, prominent investors, and millions of dollars of government contracts. Prior to assuming the role of CCO, Joseph made significant contributions to OpenBCI as a part-time and full-time employee. Joseph has managed teams and key client partnerships at renowned companies such as Salesforce, AppNexus, and WPP.

Following his return from working in London, Joseph also coordinated a series of successful art and music events in NYC. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, where he first met OpenBCI founder, Conor Russomanno.

Mike is a recently retired PwC Principal with over 30 years of deep technology consulting, audit and emerging technology experience providing Fortune 500 companies with emerging technology, implementing enterprise systems, data analytics, financial audit support, internal controls over financial reporting, internal audit and business transformation program management.

Mike Led the strategy for Web 3 and formed a team under PwC Labs to build solutions for consulting, tax and audit business use cases. Part of the Leadership team for the US Digital Assets Team. Solutions and use cases include use of blockchain technologies, non-fungible tokens, tokenomics strategy, smart contracts and digital wallet technologies. 

 
Mike's specialties include: innovation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, digital assets, blockchain, robotic process automation, risk management, program management, systems implementation, internal controls, and information technology.

Rob has been with Marriott for over 39 years, starting his career in hospitality as an Engineer at the Denver West Marriott in 1983 while attending college during the day. Since then, he has held various positions within Engineering, including Director of Engineering at the Seattle Sea-Tac Marriott, JW Camelback Inn, Area Director of Engineering in the Arizona Market, and Regional Vice President of Engineering for Marriott's former Western Region.

As the Vice President of Engineering & Facilities, Global/US+CAN, Rob has been instrumental in implementing several innovative and strategic programs to improve building and operating efficiencies, including the Marriott Retro-Commissioning Program (MRCx), the Guest Service Technician Program (GST), and the Advanced Engineering Training Program, Transcendent, GITB, among others. He has also been involved in design review, planning, and opening of many Marriott hotels.

Rob acknowledges that the talented teams he has had the pleasure of supporting have been responsible for delivering "Best in Class" Engineering and technical services for the Americas Engineering & Facilities discipline. His leadership approach is to "Recognize Brilliance and Reinforce!" by bringing the best ideas and people to the forefront.

Rob is a member of several professional organizations, including the World Future Society, AEE, ASHRAE, BOMI, and NFPA. Although he studied Electrical Engineering at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado, and Business and Finance in California, he considers his Marriott experience and the great mentors he has encountered to be his best teachers.

I studied quantum computing, and high-performance computing, at the University of Southern California, where I graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, B.S. in Physics, and a M.S. in Physics. During my studies, I came to believe that the reason quantum phenomena seem confusing is that we don't interact with it, at least on any tangible level that we can consciously understand.  This led me to create a game called Quantum Chess, a variant of chess built on top of a quantum simulation, that gives players the ability to experience quantum phenomena. 

After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, I continued work on the game, in collaboration with Spiros Michalakis from Caltech's IQIM, eventually giving it the ability to run on actual quantum computing hardware. This was demonstrated in 2020, when Quantum Chess was run on Google's Rainbow chip, housed in Santa Barbara.  

In an effort to further lessons learned with Quantum Chess, and to challenge the world to think quantum in games I founded the game development studio Quantum Realm Games. Its focus is creating games that incorporate quantum phenomena as a core gameplay mechanic.

Dr. Newton Howard is the founder of ni2o, Inc.--a start-up developing novel, AI-driven, brain-computer interfaces to treat a wide range of debilitating neurological disorders. ni2o’s eventual aim is to improve cognitive and athletic performance for all people affected by neurological diseases. Newton’s career spans academia, the U.S. military, and the private sector.  As a prolific scientific author and inventor, he is highly skilled in moving research out of the lab and in u to military and commercial applications, including technology you use every day like wireless hotspots, Google Earth, and Google Translate.

Dr. Howard holds advanced degrees in Mathematics (Oxford), Cognitive Informatics (Sorbonne), Neurosurgery (Oxford), and a Doctorate of Medical Sciences (Sorbonne). He makes significant contributions to the fields of neuroscience, linguistics and national defense, including the Physics of Cognition (a mathematical framework for modeling complex medical, economic and security equilibriums), Intention Awareness (a theory for predictive modeling of naturalistic systems), Mood State Indicators (an algorithm to model mental processes involved in human speech to predict emotional states), ADAMA (a method of autonomously identifying and contextually understanding metaphors in language), the Functional Code Unit (a method for translating neurological signaling to logical data structures) and most recently, the Brain Code (a multivariate analytical model designed to extract emergent properties of the brain’s neuronal system).

Dr. Howard currently works as a professor at Oxford and Georgetown while also directing the Computational Neurosciences Lab at Oxford and the Synthetic Intelligence Lab at MIT. He founded and sits on the Board of two nonprofits:  the Howard Brain Sciences Foundation (which funds innovative research initiatives to improve our understanding of the human brain and advance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions); and C4ADS (which is dedicated to providing data-driven analysis and evidence-based reporting on global conflict and transnational security issues).

Professor Howard’s life mission is to investigate and combat brain disorders. Together, we will restore the human dignity lost by diseases and negative evolutionary processes.

Raffi Kryszek stands at the forefront of technological innovation as the Chief Product Architect and Head of AI Innovation at Proto Hologram, where he merges cutting-edge artificial intelligence with pioneering spatial computing solutions. His storied career spans over two decades, with roots as an Emmy Award winning producer of film and television, shaping his unique perspective on content and technology. In his current role, Raffi leads the charge in developing groundbreaking products and AI-driven solutions that are setting new standards in humanizing spatial computing through natural interactions.

Ellen is Managing Director of Silicon Valley Connect, working with organizations and entrepreneurs on opportunities for technology-driven innovation, while also managing a portfolio of 60+ startups as an angel investor/advisor. She is a member of the Board of Directors at commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop (WD), social network for military and veterans company Rallypoint, private capital markets data & analytics platform Aumni, and fintech platform for alternative assets company CAIS. She is a Senior Advisor to the President at Arizona State University, named the “most innovative” university by US News & World report eight years and counting. 

Ellen spent nearly a decade working with LinkedIn, including heading up Corporate Development & Strategy and member of the Executive Team following her original role as Advisory Board member at the company’s founding. Over her career, Ellen has held formal roles in venture capital (Softbank; NeoCarta; DFJ), startups (WhoWhere, bought by Lycos; Softbook Press, bought by Gemstar TVGuide; LinkedIn, IPO and then bought by Microsoft), technology think tanks (Interval Research), large corporations (Apple; PriceWaterhouse Coopers), and universities (Harvard; Stanford; ASU). 

Described as the “Most Connected Woman in Silicon Valley", and named one of the “Top 25 Female Early Stage Investors”, Ellen now spends much of her time focused on dynamic, rapidly-growing startups, on issues related to the “Future of Work” (automation, AI, skills training, and education) and businesses helping society respond to the post-pandemic world. 

She has a BS from the University of Michigan, and MA/PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University

Mr. McKnight is Managing Member of NiteCap Advisors, LLC, a financial and strategic advisory firm serving tech-enabled start-ups and growth-oriented, underserved businesses operating primarily in the lower middle market. He is also a founding member of the Marathon Fund, LP (“Marathon”), an early-stage equity fund focused on tech-enabled companies primarily led by founders from disproportionally underrepresented founder communities.

Prior to Marathon, Mr. McKnight was a Managing Director at The Gladstone Companies, a publicly held BDC, and operating manager of Gladstone Financial. He was previously one the Managing Members of Syncom Venture Management Company, LLC, (“SVMC”), an early-stage investment advisory firm that managed a group of media and MediaTech related venture capital funds. SVMC managed a total of five investment funds with assets exceeding $450 million from 1990 - 2018. Mr. McKnight served in a variety of portfolio board positions and leadership roles over his tenure with the firm and its affiliates.

Mr. McKnight joined Syncom as a senior analyst following a three-year stint managing a corporate SSBIC investment fund owned by Sunoco. He became a principal at SVMC and partner at Syncom in 1990.

He received undergraduate BBA degree in Accounting from Temple University and MBA from LaSalle University.

Dr. Michalakis is a mathematical physicist and manager of outreach at Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter. His current research focuses on the mathematical foundations of quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity, with an emphasis on the mechanisms underlying the emergence of space, time and the laws of physics. He is known for solving the first of 13 “millennium” problems in mathematical physics, the mystery behind the Quantum Hall Effect, a deep and technical problem connected to a number of Nobel Prizes in Physics. 

Dr. Michalakis has served as science consultant on “Now You See Me 2” (Fox), “Ant-Man” (Marvel/Disney), “Spider-Man Homecoming” (Marvel/Disney), “AntMan & The Wasp” (Marvel/Disney), and "Bill and Ted: Face The Music” (Orion Pictures). He is responsible for introducing the "Quantum Realm" into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, igniting a global fascination with such esoteric concepts as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. He has appeared in a number of documentaries, including Netflix’s “Behind the Curve”, “Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain”, and “Free Color”.

Among other projects, Dr. Michalakis has production and writing credits on “Anyone Can Quantum," a short film pitting Paul Rudd against Stephen Hawking in a game of Quantum Chess. The YouTube short, directed by Alex Winter and narrated by Keanu Reeves, has nearly 9 million views and led to a sequel starring Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, and John Cho. Dr. Michalakis is currently working with Google Quantum AI to fully run Quantum Chess on Google's state-of-the-art quantum computer. 

Outside of academia, Dr. Michalakis heads the creative consulting firm, Not Simple, whose clients include early stage startups working on deep tech such as quantum computing and fault-tolerant machine learning, to more established companies working on autonomous driving and intelligent personal assistants. Dr. Michalakis is Professor-in-Residence at Relay Ventures, and a member of the Advisory Board at Nano-Lit Technologies and Ostendo. He lives in Los Angeles.

Chunka Mui, a futurist and innovation advisor, believes we stand at the forefront of the greatest personal and professional opportunity of our time. His optimistic work, captured in his latest book, “A Brief History of a Perfect Future: Inventing the World We Can Proudly Leave Our Kids by 2050,” dives into the immense possibilities of science, technology, and human creativity. This book is a roadmap to a future filled with health, sustainability, and prosperity.

With a career spanning several prestigious advisory firms, where he has advised hundreds of companies and studied thousands more, Chunka’s insights are rooted in real-world experience. At Diamond Management and Technology Consultants (now part of PwC), he served as a managing partner and chief innovation officer. At CSC Index (now part of DXC Technology), Chunka co-founded the Vanguard emerging technologies research program (now TTI Vanguard). His journey began at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he played a pivotal role in that firm's Artificial Intelligence group and co-founded its Center for Strategic Technology Research (a precursor to Accenture Labs).

Chunka’s voice has resonated through the pages of numerous leading publications, including Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Technology Review. His has co-authored four other award-winning books, including “Unleashing the Killer App” and “Billion-Dollar Lessons.” He also publishes the Future Perfect Newsletter, available via LinkedIn.

An MIT alumnus, Chunka’s academic background in computer science and engineering laid the foundation for his groundbreaking work. His life journey, from his birth in Hong Kong to his upbringing in Chicago, and his current residence in the serene Champlain Valley of Western Vermont, informs the diverse perspectives he brings to his work. To explore Chunka Mui’s work and connect with him, visit chunkamui.com.

As the newly appointed director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Dr. Dava Newman – rocket scientist-engineer, inventor, author and global explorer – is a rare expert who offers leaders an up-close view of the future of emerging technologies that will change how we live, work and play. An interdisciplinary leader, longtime MIT educator and former NASA Deputy Administrator (the first woman engineer to serve in that role), Newman helps organizations in every sector prepare for the exciting changes ahead in such areas as artificial intelligence, engineering, design, biomedical research and wearable technologies. Her framework for innovation, developed and deployed at NASA, helps organizations create technologies that enhance society in a variety of areas, from healthcare and entertainment to sustainability and social justice.

In addition to holding numerous design and compression technology patents, Newman is the author of Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design, an introductory engineering design textbook. She has published more than 300 papers in journals, supervised 90 graduate student theses and supervised and mentored over 200 undergraduate researchers.

Newman has received honors from entities including, but not limited to, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Explorer’s Club. She is an AIAA Fellow and, separately, was named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty fellow in the year 2000, which is a distinguished 10-year MIT chair “granted for excellence in undergraduate teaching and innovation in education.”

Jason Ning is a successful television writer and producer who is known for his work on “Lucifer,” “Perception,” “90210,” and “The Expanse.” Most recently, he worked on the science fiction comedy drama “Mrs. Davis” for the Peacock Network about a nun using her faith to combat an omnipotent AI program.

Jason grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Texas where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He started his career in Hollywood working as an entertainment attorney for DreamWorks, SKG and then later Sony Pictures Entertainment, until he transitioned to a prolific career in screenwriting. Jason lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife, two kids, and shelter dog Cash who are all wholly-unimpressed by anything he does or says.

Jason is a captivating storyteller whose journey has taken him from the legal intricacies of the entertainment industry to the heart of creative expression through writing for television. With a flair for weaving compelling narratives, and a keen eye for emerging trends, he has a unique perspective on the intersection of artificial intelligence, entertainment, and the commerce of creativity.

Dr. Cody Paige is the Director of the Space Exploration Initiative at the Media Lab, a team of 50+ students, faculty and staff building and flying advanced technology for space exploration.  The Initiative focuses on helping students take their research into space. The pipeline developed to achieve this works with students from across the Media Lab and the MIT community to prototype space-related research in the lab, fly and test them in microgravity on parabolic and suborbital flights, and finally to take them to the International Space Station or on to the Moon. Cody fosters relationships between the Initiative, MIT, and space industry partners to forge a path for students to achieve spaceflight for their research.  The interdisciplinary projects combine science, engineering, art and design, all focusing on developing the artifacts for life in space.

Cody came to MIT as a Fulbright Scholar and completed her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. Her research focused on enabling a permanent human presence on the Moon through the development of wearable radiation shielding material and a virtual reality platform for geological surface exploration of the Moon and Mars. During her Ph.D., she prepared a commercial off the shelf RGB and depth camera as a Lunar payload for the SEI To the Moon to Stay Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission in collaboration with NASA Ames and Lunar Outpost, slated to launch in 2024.  She tested the camera in Lunar gravity on the SEI 2022 Parabolic Flight as well as doing field work on the SEI Svalbard Field Expedition to assess the Lunar mission concept of operations. Cody also has a background in geology, specifically quaternary geochronology, and completed her Master of Applied Science at the University of Toronto in Aerospace Engineering and her Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University in Engineering Physics. She is passionate about student outreach, in particular encouraging girls, and young women in STEAMD (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math and Design).  She started the MIT Zero-G Outreach Initiative, a program mentoring middle school students in the Cambridge area to develop experiments for microgravity. Cody is also a pilot, a scuba diver, an avid hiker and rock climber.

Anand Rao has focused on research, innovation, applications, business and societal adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence over his 35-year consulting, industry, and academic career. Anand was the Global Artificial Intelligence Leader for PwC, a Partner in their Data, Analytics, and AI practice, and the Innovation lead for AI in PwC’s Products and Technology segment.  Anand led a team of practitioners who advised C-level executives, develop, and implement advanced analytics and AI-based solutions across several industry sectors including financial services, insurance, healthcare, technology-media-telecommunications, retail, aerospace, and defense sectors.

 With his PhD and research career in Artificial Intelligence and his subsequent experience in management consulting he brings business domain knowledge, software engineering expertise, statistical expertise, and modeling expertise to generate unique insights into the practice of ‘data science’ and artificial intelligence.

Prior to joining management consulting, Anand was the Chief Research Scientist at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute building agent-based models and simulation systems and conducting research in the theory and practice of multi-agent systems.

Anand’s current research interests include operationalizing AI, responsible AI, systems thinking, ROI of AI, theory and practice of building agent-based models and digital twins, behavioral economics, and human decision-making.

He received his PhD from University of Sydney (with a University Postgraduate Research Award-UPRA) in 1988 and an MBA (with Award of Distinction) from Melbourne Business School in 1997. Anand has also co-edited four books on Intelligent Agents and has published over fifty papers in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in major journals, conferences, and workshops.  In addition, he has authored over hundred articles in the business and trade press.

He has received widespread recognition for his extraordinary contributions in the field of consulting and Artificial Intelligence Research.  He has received the Most Influential Paper Award for the Decade in 2007 from the Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems organization for his contribution on the Belief-Desire-Intention Architecture; MBA Award of Distinction from Melbourne Business School, 1997 and University Postgraduate Research Award (UPRA) from University of Sydney, 1985; Distinguished Alumnus Award from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India; He was recognized as one of Top 50 Data & Analytics professionals in USA and Canada by Corinium; one of Top 50 professionals in InsureTech; one of Top 25 Technology Leaders in Consulting; and has won a number of awards for his academic and business papers.

Anand is an Adjunct Professor in BITS Pilani’s APPCAIR AI Center. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI, World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council, OECD’s Network of Experts on AI (ONE), OECD’s AI Compute initiative, Advisory Board of Northwestern’s MBAi program,  Responsible AI Institute, Nordic AI Institute, and International Congress for the Governance of AI.

Kevin Roose is an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times and the bestselling author of three books, Futureproof, Young Money, and The Unlikely Disciple. His column, “The Shift”, examines the intersection of tech, business, and culture. He is a recurring guest on The Daily and appears regularly on leading TV and radio shows. He writes and speaks frequently on topics including automation and artificial intelligence, social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness.

Worried that he was not ready for a world dominated by AI, automation, and mind-morphing algorithms, Kevin decided to do what reporters do: he interviewed experts, read a ton of books and papers, and went in search of answers. The result was his book, Futureproof, a guide to surviving the technological future. Originally published in 2021, Futureproof is scheduled for an updated rerelease in late 2023 to address the more recent trends in AI and technology and how to work with them rather than against them. 

Kevin is the host of two New York Times podcasts: Hard Fork, a weekly chat show with Casey Newton about the wild frontier of technology, and Rabbit Hole, an eight-part series released in 2020 about how the internet is influencing our beliefs and behavior. 

Kevin’s first job in journalism was unique: as a sophomore in college, he took a semester off and went undercover at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s evangelical Christian school. His goal was to figure out what life was like among people who he considered his polar opposite. From his experience came his first book, The Unlikely Disciple, a memoir of a strange and enlightening semester “abroad.” 

After college, Kevin joined The New York Times, followed by New York magazine, and wrote a second book: Young Money, which chronicled the lives of 8 junior Wall Street investment bankers right after the 2008 financial crisis. Before rejoining The Times in 2017, Kevin produced and co-hosted a TV documentary series about technology, called Real Future. 

At The Times, Kevin writes about technology and its effects on society. Recently, that has meant a lot of coverage of companies like Facebook and YouTube, as well as profiles of internet personalities like PewDiePie, and social phenomena like online radicalization and workplace automation.

Keith E. Sonderling was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, with a bipartisan vote, to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2020. Until January of 2021, he served as the Commission’s Vice-Chair. His term expires July of 2024.

The EEOC is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. The laws apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, training, wages, benefits, and prevent harassment and retaliation.

Prior to his confirmation to the EEOC, Commissioner Sonderling served as the Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor. Before joining the Department of Labor in 2017, Commissioner Sonderling practiced Labor and Employment law in Florida. Commissioner Sonderling also serves as a Professional Lecturer in the Law at George Washington University Law School, teaching employment discrimination. 

Since joining the EEOC, one of Commissioner Sonderling’s highest priorities is ensuring that artificial intelligence and workplace technologies are designed and deployed consistent with long-standing civil rights laws. Commissioner Sonderling has published numerous articles on the benefits and potential harms of using artificial intelligence-based technology in the workplace and speaks globally on these emerging issues.

Immediately before his confirmation to the EEOC, Commissioner Sonderling served as the Acting and Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The Wage and Hour Division administers and enforces federal labor laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the labor provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. During his tenure, the Division accomplished back-to-back record-breaking enforcement collections and educational outreach events.  

Commissioner Sonderling also oversaw the development and publication of large-scale deregulatory rules and authored numerous Opinion Letters, Field Assistance Bulletins, and All Agency Memorandums. Additionally, he was instrumental in developing the Division’s first comprehensive self-audit program, which collected more than $7 million for nearly eleven thousand workers.

Before his government service, Commissioner Sonderling was a partner at one of Florida’s oldest and largest law firms, Gunster. At Gunster, he counseled employers and litigated labor and employment disputes. In 2012, then-Governor Rick Scott appointed Commissioner Sonderling to serve as the Chair of the Judicial Nominating Committee for appellate courts in South Florida. Commissioner Sonderling was also active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors for Morse Life Health System, the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, and Leadership Florida.

Commissioner Sonderling received his B.S., magna cum laude, from the University of Florida and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Nova Southeastern University.

Ken Sutton is a military vet turned serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of strategy, product marketing, and business management experience in the technology and finance industries.  

Ken currently serves as President and CEO for Yobe Inc., which he founded based on a patent he co-authored and his belief in the future of Voice technologies and their relevance to human-machine interfaces. In addition to his role as the lead technology strategist, Ken manages the company’s product vision, corporate development, team development, brand management, and investor relationships.

Ken’s formal entrepreneurial experience began directly after University with the creation of TMG, a multi-state marketing firm focused on product development, market research, and brand strategy, which he grew and eventually sold in early 2005.

Before his start-up experience, Ken was a financial services professional who worked on critical projects for hedge funds, venture capital and private equity firms focused on Pre-IPO investments in the technology and real estate arenas.

Ken attended the University of Connecticut and has served as a proud member of the US Armed Forces (US Army Ranger).

Rob Vickery is an innovative, entrepreneurial executive whose career of over 30 years has focused on developing and driving strategic business, marketing, and sales initiatives for technology-based products, services, and companies. A deeply experienced executive in market analysis, strategy development, and new market launch/penetration campaigns, he is currently the Head of Global Business Development for Shift Robotics, the pioneer in the emerging personal mobility category of “Robotic Shoes.” Previously, Vickery was a VP of Business Development for KPIT, a strategic business unit of SAP, as well as a Director of Enterprise Sales for SAP Software/Digital Transformation at Hitachi Consulting. 

Additionally, Vickery also operated his own consulting business for 12 years, which culminated in the 2016 publication of the book, High Growth Levers. Throughout his career, he has advised executives and companies across many industries, including High Tech, Construction, Financial Services, Healthcare (Consumer Services and Medical Devices), Retail, and Human Capital Management. Vickery lives in San Diego and is the proud father of 3 boys, each of whom are Eagle Scouts. He holds a bachelor's degree in business Administration (emphasis in Computer Science and Marketing) from Wright State University, and he’s an avid golfer and overall sports enthusiast.

Matt is the CTO for AI at AWS; he works across all AWS services to accelerate how customers can innovate in the cloud and to develop major new areas of innovation from business intelligence, to spatial computing, to generative AI. Matt has been at Amazon for 13 years, and has worked across every area of the cloud, involved in launching thousands of new features and major services including Lambda, SageMaker, and Redshift. His passion is working with AWS customers (such as the NFL, Intuit, Pinterest, GE, FINRA, Celgene, and NASA) to bring their ideas to life. Before joining Amazon, Matt completed a PhD in the UK, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University.

A serious incident between himself, an electric scooter, and a passing automobile led Xunjie Zhang on a multiyear journey that gave birth to Shift Robotics in 2018 and the launch of the world’s first Robotic Shoes — Moonwalkers — in 2023. Named by TIME as one of the Best Inventions of 2023, Moonwalkers are AI-powered, personal mobility devices that continuously monitor a user’s gait and the ground they’re walking on to allow individuals to safely walk up to 7mph, up to 3X faster.

Prior to starting Shift Robotics, Zhang spent nearly 3.5 years with Rolls-Royce where, among other endeavors, he led certification and control systems programs for both the Airbus 350 and Boeing Dreamliner engines, respectively. Zhang received a master’s degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, a master's degree in engineering/mechanical engineering from Bristol University, and a Control System Engineering degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Caroline leads Firmwide Marketing for PwC -- a team of 75 super-talented professionals who run our marketing programs around Purpose & Inclusion, Nonprofit relationships, the Trust Leadership Institute, Employer Brand, Alumni, and our national events and hospitality, including the firm’s Exchange program.  

Caroline is a reformed consultant, having spent 10 years consulting on business strategy prior to joining PwC, primarily for clients in the transportation sector. Most of her consulting work involved strategic planning and growth, particularly the development and launch of new services. 

She has also led various research initiatives, including PwC’s Consumer Intelligence Survey series, "Digital IQ" survey and on a study of consumers’ attitudes toward health, wealth, and retirement, highlights of which was published in the Harvard Business Review. 

She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cornell University, an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and a maitrise en administration et en gestion with honors from Belgium's Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve. 

Caroline runs, cycles, kayaks and hikes all she can in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and her super-sized standard poodle, Zeno. 

Coming soon.

Scott leads PwC’s Emerging Tech practice in the United States. With more than 25 years of emerging technology experience, he has helped clients transform their customer experience and enhance their digital operations. 

Scott has worked across industries with some of the biggest multinational companies to transform their business by applying a local lens to global digital and emerging tech trends. He has expertise using emerging technology and advanced analytics in many areas including e-commerce, digital architecture, mobile technologies and social customer engagement. Scott is a regular speaker at global conferences on emerging technologies, including:

• Blockchain
  
• Artificial Intelligence
  
• IoT
  
• Robotics
  
• Automation
  

Patrick Parodi is a seasoned technology executive with over 30 years of experience launching cutting-edge technology for Fortune 500 companies and early-stage startups. He has a proven track record of success, having served as an executive and board member of private companies, generating over $1 billion in exits, including Shazam, Amobee, Smaato, PacketVideo, and Diveo. Mr. Parodi has held management positions at Nokia, LightSquared, and American Express in the United States, Argentina, France, and the United Kingdom. In 2013, he co-founded SignalFrame, an IoT data and analytics platform acquired by PwC. Currently, he is the Managing Director of PwC's Connected Solutions, where his team leverages emerging technologies to deliver operational efficiency, growth, and value. A thought leader in emerging technologies, Mr. Parodi has presented at leading industry events and is fluent in four languages. He holds a patents on spatial analytics and proximal search and currently resides in Washington DC with his family.

Rohan is a Partner within PwC’s Cyber, Risk, and Regulatory platform specializing in Data Risk and Privacy. He is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Rohan is a technology-focused leader who specializes in bringing business experience, technical acumen, and a broad toolkit to solve unique, complex, and “first-of-its-kind” problems that involve large and complex data sets, automation, analytics, data visualization, and machine learning, and Generative AI. 

Over the past 15 years, Rohan has helped clients prepare for and respond to adverse events that create risk. He had led engagements that supported clients as they responded to allegations in the context of a mass tort, complied with consent orders and analogous regulatory requirements, administered large claims programs, prepared for significant new regulation in the privacy and content moderation space, and hardened their IT disaster resiliency. The common thread across these efforts was digital and data-driven solutions like automation, analytics, and machine learning. Rohan is currently leading efforts on the adoption and responsible use of Generative AI by the Cyber, Risk, and Regulatory platform. 

Rohan has experience working with clients across multiple industry sectors including consumer markets and retail, technology, pharmaceuticals, health services, and financial services as well as across several functional areas such as operations, IT, finance, legal, regulatory, and compliance. 

Prior to joining PwC, Rohan earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. His thesis, titled “Supporting Collaboration in Mobile Environments”, focused on system design, architecture, and algorithms for the automated execution of business processes across mobile networks.

As the Technology and Innovation Leader at PwC Labs, I am thrilled to bring my 25 years of experience in the technology space to drive transformative change. At PwC Labs, we unite technologists and business strategists to empower our Trust and Consulting professionals in delivering exceptional client service through technology.

Currently, Matt Labovich and I are leading the charge in Generative AI initiatives at PwC. Together, we are at the forefront of AI discussions, engaging with a diverse range of clients across the US, from startups to large enterprises. Our mission is to equip both our organization's professionals and our clients with the necessary skills and insights to harness the full potential of AI.

Having personally interacted with over 400 clients in the past 7 months, we firmly believe that we are standing at a pivotal moment for society and businesses alike. The opportunities that lie ahead are immense, and I am excited to be at the forefront of this transformative journey.

In addition to all the excitement of my day-to-day at PwC, I am a proud father of two sons and reside in Detroit, Michigan. In my spare time, you can find me cheering on my kids at their sporting events or taking my dog, Eli, on a walk.