Moderators

Scott Rosenberg | Managing Editor, Technology, Axios

Scott Rosenberg is Axios’ managing editor for technology, working from the San Francisco office. Before joining Axios he was an editor for Wired’s Backchannel and executive editor at Grist. In 1995 he cofounded Salon.com with a group of like-minded refugees from the San Francisco Examiner, and went on to serve as Salon’s managing editor and senior vice president for nearly a decade. He is the author of Dreaming in Code and Say Everything.

Megan Morrone | Tech Editor, Axios

Megan Morrone has nearly three decades of experience as a tech journalist, reporter, editor, YouTuber, podcaster, and cable television host. She has written for Medium’s OneZero, Protocol, BBC, Fast Company, Morning Brew and other publications. Currently she is a tech editor at Axios, where she contributes to AI+ and Codebook.

Sponsor Attendees

Rob Thomas | Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer

Rob Thomas is Senior Vice President Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. He leads IBM’s software business, including product management and design, product development, and business development. In addition, Rob has global responsibility for IBM revenue and profit, including worldwide sales, strategic partnerships and ecosystem. In his over 20 years in IBM, Rob has held roles in IBM Consulting, IBM Microelectronics, and IBM Software, including two years living in Tokyo, Japan. In 2007, Rob joined IBM’s software business, focused on data and analytics. He held a variety of roles including product engineering and business development, leading IBM’s transition from databases to delivering broader analytical capabilities, investing in open source, and eventually artificial intelligence. Rob has overseen numerous acquisitions by the firm, representing over $12 billion in transaction value. In 2015, John Wiley & Sons published Rob’s first book, titled “Big Data Revolution: What farmers, doctors, and insurance agents can teach us about patterns in big data”. The Financial Times called the book, “interesting as a case study of the philosophical assumptions that underpin the growing obsession with data.” In December 2016, Rob published his second book, “The End of Tech Companies,” educating business leaders on how to navigate digital disruption. In April 2020, O’Reilly published Rob’s latest book, “The AI Ladder: Accelerate Your Journey to AI.” The book serves as a practical guide for business leaders to learn the steps necessary to successfully scale AI throughout their organization. Today, he writes extensively on his blog robdthomas.com and publishes ‘The Mentor’ on Substack.

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Nick Holda | Vice President, Technology Business Development, IBM

Nick Holda leads strategic business development globally for IBM Software, with a focus on generative AI for Business. He is also responsible for driving an IBM-wide generative AI transformation/growth program for IBM’s Chief Commercial Officer / SVP Software, with a focus on successful launch and scale-up of watsonx. Prior to this, Nick led strategic growth projects as an executive in IBM’s Internal Strategy team.

Adam Lawrence | General Manager, Global Technology Sales, IBM Americas

Adam Lawrence is General Manager, IBM Americas, responsible for IBM’s technology
revenue, profit, business development and client and partner success in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Adam builds high performance teams that are passionate about delivering value to clients and partners and helping organizations use innovative technology to transform their business.

Attendees

Klinton Bicknell | Head of AI, Duolingo

Klinton Bicknell is the Head of AI at Duolingo. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. His research has been published in venues including ACL, PNAS, NAACL, Psychological Science, EDM, CogSci, and Cognition, and covered in the Financial Times, BBC, and Forbes. Prior to Duolingo, he was an assistant professor at Northwestern University.

Tara Chklovski | CEO, Technovation

Tara Chklovski is the Founder and CEO of Technovation - the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship program for girls. Technovation has empowered 400,000 participants across 120+ countries to tackle local problems using cutting-edge technologies (mobile and AI). Tara has been featured in the award-winning documentary Codegirl, and named “the pioneer empowering the incredible tech girls of the future” by Forbes. Technovation recently released a strategic plan to empower 25 million girls with AI & technology entrepreneurship skills over the coming years - to meet the UN 2030 Sustainable Development goals.

Daniel Dobrygowski | Head of Governance and Trust, World Economic Forum

Daniel Dobrygowski is Head of Governance and Trust at the World Economic Forum. As a senior leader at the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, he oversees work on technology governance & risk, trust & safety, and digital trust. Daniel also serves as an Expert Advisor to the Global Forum on Technology at the OECD and as part of the NACD’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Board Oversight of Technology. He was a founder of the Forum’s Centre for Cybersecurity and has been recognized by the NACD as one of the most influential experts in corporate governance.

Prior to joining the Forum as a Global Leadership Fellow, Daniel practiced law in San Francisco and Washington, DC. His expertise in trustworthy technology, elections, and corporate governance has been featured in Harvard Business Review and Wired. Daniel also teaches as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Peter Hopkins | President, Nanotronics

Peter Hopkins is the President of Nanotronics, an NYC-based provider of AI-powered hardware and software solutions for advanced manufacturers to enhance quality and process controls. Prior to that, Peter was Co-founder and President of Big Think, a digital media and e-learning company.

Heather Horniak | Head of Federal Communications, Scale AI

Heather Fritz Horniak is the Head of Federal Communications for Scale AI, a technology company that builds the infrastructure for the most ambitious artificial intelligence projects in the world. In this role, she oversees and executes the company’s federal communications strategy. Prior to Scale, Heather worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for more than 15 years. She served globally as a Middle East analyst, intelligence briefer at the National Security Council, and as the CIA Media Spokesperson. Heather received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in Political Science and a Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Strategic Studies and International Economics. An Indiana native, she currently lives in Washington, DC with her husband and three sons.

Shaina Horowitz | VP, Applied Innovation, Newlab

Shaina is a mission-driven leader with a track record of working in fast-paced startup environments to design and manage programs, public-private partnerships, and strategy. In her role as Vice President at Newlab, a venture platform focused on deep tech and climate with headquarters in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, she guides the Applied Innovation offering. In this role she brings together startups, civic and government leaders, investors, domain experts, and large enterprises to identify challenges, design and pilot solutions, and invest in outcomes that catalyze growth and help to decarbonize companies, industries and cities.

Prior to joining Newlab, Shaina was a founding member of Bloomberg Associates, a first of its kind civic consultancy established by Michael R. Bloomberg to advise mayors in cities including London, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Athens, Los Angeles and Oakland. Previously Shaina worked at the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment under Mayor Bloomberg where she was part of the team who appointed New York City’s first Chief Digital Officer, published New York City’s Digital Roadmap and created the ‘Made in NY’ campaign. Shaina holds an honors BA in Media Studies from Vassar College and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Steven Huels | VP & GM, AI Business Unit, Red Hat

Steven is the Vice President and General Manager for Red Hat's Artificial Intelligence (AI) business unit responsible for OpenShift AI and focusing on Red Hat's artificial intelligence strategy, portfolio, ecosystem partners, and customer implementations.

Steven has more than 20 years of experience with data management and AI platforms as a consultant, developer, product owner, engineering manager, and business unit leader. Steven is an innovative business and technical leader with a focus on achieving results across multi-discipline organizations. As one of the founders of Open Data Hub (an open-source machine learning platform) he was responsible for bringing it to market as Red Hat OpenShift AI.

Neil Katz | Co-Founder & COO, EyeLevel.AI

Neil Katz is a 4X Emmy-winning tech and media executive with senior roles at CBS News, Weather Channel and IBM. Today, he runs EyeLevel.ai, which sells tools to build truthful AI.

Nik Kleverov | Chief Creative Officer, Native Foreign

Nik Kleverov is an Emmy-grade storyteller known for his clean and captivating commercial style paired with a distinctive design sensibility. As an immigrant and son of a nonconformist artist that was persecuted by the Soviet government, Kleverov has a layered and unique story to tell. His life story and varied experience informs his diverse approach to creative work, from explorative use of AI within storytelling, to design-led title sequence work, and live action commercials. As a creative director, he’s won numerous advertising and creative industry awards. As an entrepreneur and executive, he has started and operated successful innovative business enterprises.

Jerry Levine | Chief Evangelist & General Counsel, ContractPodAi

Jerry Levine is Chief Evangelist and Co-General Counsel at ContractPodAi® . Jerry serves as an advisor to customers and the internal client voice, helping to guide global client success and shape overall product vision. As a former global general counsel and Corporate Secretary at Amelia (IPsoft) - and a ContractPodAi customer, himself - he successfully implemented ContractPodAi within IPsoft’s legal department. Jerry also held leadership and consulting positions at both publicly and privately held companies, including Axiom and LexisNexis. He also founded a start-up focused law firm. As a leader in legal design thinking, he has been committed to helping legal professionals become “awesome lawyers” and strategic organizational leads - to drive results and increase market share for businesses. Jerry holds a B.S. in Marketing and Japanese from the University of Maryland, and a J.D. with Honors from Rutgers Law School. He is currently based in New York City.

George Mathew | Managing Director, Insight Partners

George Mathew is a Managing Director at Insight Partners, where he focuses on venture stage investments in AI, ML, Analytics, and Data companies as they are establishing product/market fit.

George brings 20+ years of experience developing high-growth technology startups, including most recently as CEO of Kespry. Prior to Kespry, George was President & COO of Alteryx where he scaled the company through its IPO (AYX). Previously he held senior leadership positions at SAP and salesforce.com. He has driven company strategy, led product management and development, and built sales and marketing teams.  

George holds a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar.

Thomas Robinson | COO, Domino Data Lab

Thomas Robinson is the Chief Operating Officer at Domino Data Lab, where he is responsible for go-to-market, overseeing Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, Customer Support, and Partnerships. Domino Data Lab, founded in 2013, provides a leading Enterprise MLOps platform that accelerates the development and deployment of AI & data science projects, enhancing collaboration and governance for some of the world's largest companies, including over 20% of the Fortune 100.

Jeremiah Sadow | Chief Compliance Officer, AI, BNY Mellon

Jeremiah is BNY Mellon’s Chief Compliance Officer for Artificial Intelligence.  In this role he advises the bank’s technology and business leadership on safely adopting and scaling AI across the enterprise.  Before joining BNY Mellon, Jeremiah was the Financial Services Director for C3.AI and Chief Compliance Officer for Standard Chartered Bank’s digital transformation.

Arpan Shah | Partner, Pear VC

Arpan is a Partner at Pear focussed on leading investments across Enterprise Infrastructure, AI and Fintech. He has spent a career as a founding member of Robinhood, starting his own company in payments infrastructure and by way of an exit to Plaid, leading large engineering organizations across Infrastructure, Data, Payments, Fraud, Risk and Machine Learning.