JOIN 100 OF THE WORLD’S TOP DISRUPTORS IN NEW YORK CITY TO EXPLORE 
HOW TO DESIGN FOR AND CREATE INTELLIGENT INNOVATIONS

Bob Lord: Leading authority on the use of data and emerging technologies to transform how brands engage with their customers. Served as IBM’s first chief digital officer. Oversees IBM Watson’s cognitive solutions. Focused on breaking down silos and agile ways of working. Launched Call for Code, a global initiative to enable developers to solve pressing societal issues, like natural disasters.

Dr. Joyce F. Brown: President of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), the school’s first woman and first African-American president. At FIT, she has led an unprecedented multi-year, multi-million dollar initiative coordinating strategic and investment planning with new facilities and ground-breaking diversity initiatives. She is also a director of the Ralph Lauren Corporation and a former New York City deputy mayor.

David Gelernter: Inventor and builder (with N Carriero) of first Cloud (Linda, 1986), first Twitter-type stream and first social network (Lifestreams, 1996, with E Freeman, patents 1999 ff). Prof Computer Science, Yale; author Tides of Mind (Norton, 2016): “A new paradigm for the study of human consciousness,” Nick Romeo, Chicago Tribune; “Arch-genius,” Time.

Kush Saxena: Chief Technology Officer, Markets & Transformation for Mastercard Operations and Technology. He oversees all of the global market-facing technology and is in charge of the enterprise-wide strategy and technology transformation.

Dan Doctoroff: Serves on the Boards of the University of Chicago, World Resources Institute, United States Olympic Committee, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Human Rights First. He is the founder of Target ALS and Culture Shed. Dan was President and Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg L.P, where by pursuing an aggressive strategy of investment, led the company through the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. This plan included the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Site and the formation of new Central Business Districts and Industrial Business Zones. Dan also oversaw the creation of PlaNYC, New York’s path breaking sustainability plan. Before Bloomberg, Dan was Managing Partner Oak Hill Capital Partners, during which time he founded NYC2012, the organization that spearheaded efforts to bring the Olympic Games to the city.

Frithjof Netzer: Leading the digital transformation across divisions, regions and functions at BASF, Dr. Frithjof Netzer’s impact on the core technologies of the world’s largest chemical company are evident. He is responsible for ensuring that technologies such as the internet of things, big data analytics, mobility devices and AR are systematically merged with BASF’s value chain.

Julia Hu: Founder and CEO of Lark Health. Creator of Lark’s AI health coach platform that provides 24/7 compassionate, personalized care to nearly 2 million patients with chronic diseases. Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30. Board member of Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Diabetes Prevention Council. Amateur but enthusiastic painter and hip hop dancer.

Dr. Brian M. Pierce: Visionary defense technologist and chemist/physicist dedicated to creating breakthrough capabilities for national security. Currently Director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office leading $500M of AI, cyber, and analytics R&D. Previously held positions at Rockwell Scientific, Hughes Aircraft, and Raytheon. Awarded more than 20 U.S. patents.

Guive Balooch: A PhD in Biomaterials, Guive Balooch, is a scientist and Global VP of L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator. Guive led the development of Makeup Genius, the world’s first virtual makeup tester, and, with his team, has since launched UV Sense, Le Teint Particulier and innovations that are cited as leading the future of beauty.

Tanya Lewis: Science journalist and Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. Has a background in biomedical engineering and neuroscience, and has written about these topics and others for outlets including Wired, Business Insider, and Live Science.

Tenzin Priyadarshi: Educator, philosopher and a polymath monk. Director of Ethics Initiative at MIT Media Lab. Founder and CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. Principal, Ethics and Governance of AI; Council for Extended Intelligence (IEEE). Using innovation to build ethics, empathy and trust in an increasingly divisive world.

Brian Savoy: From accountant to tech leader. Senior Vice President of Business Transformation and Technology at Duke Energy – one of the nation’s largest electric and gas utilities. Engaging leader willing to embrace change. Tackling the implementation of digital at a century-old company. One of Charlotte, N.C.’s top business leaders.

Natasha Iskander: Global expert in labor migration, economic development, and knowledge mobility, with attention to innovation processes in policy design. Associate Professor in Urban Planning and Public Policy at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.

Pree Kolari: Head of new product design at eBay. Build and nurture amazing teams that deliver compelling end-to-end experiences. Incubated and built several transformative innovations like Xbox-Kinect, Moto G and eBay assistant. Pioneer in the space of bringing the user into the design process.

Ann Rosenberg: Ann leads SAP Next-Gen, a purpose driven innovation university and community aligned with SAP’s commitment to the 17 UN Global Goals for sustainable development, and supporting SAP’s 404,000+ customers across 32 industries in 180+ countries. The community leverages 3,600+ educational institutions in 116 countries, 110+ SAP Next-Gen labs/hubs at universities and at partner and SAP locations, 90+ SAP Next-Gen Chapters, as well as startups, accelerators, tech community partners, venture firms, futurists, and purpose driven institutions. The community also leverages SAP’s 100+ innovation and development centers and SAP’s network of 17,000+ partner companies.

Davar Ardalan: Pioneering journalist in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Culture. Founder of IVOW, where they sift through data on world cultures, traditions and history for modern consumer storytelling applications. A veteran of NPR News and recipient of a 2014 Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Sparsh Shah: a.k.a. Purhythm is a singer, song writer, rapper, inspirational speaker and a philanthropist with an incurable medical condition, Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Brittle Bones) that has caused over 135 fractures in 15 years of his life so far. He is a worldwide internet sensation with over 120 million views on all social media, won several singing competitions including Young Voice of NYC, performed in over 100 live events, appeared on several TV/radio shows, TEDx speaker and aspires to inspire a billion people all over the world.

Social scientist specializing in diversity, complexity, and group adaptability. Working to help companies approach diversity in a thoughtful, meaningful, fair, and sustainable way using scientific methods and concepts. Data science professor at NYU. Globally touring standup comedian and circus performer.

Frank Zambrelli: Co-Founder and Creative Director of 1 Atelier. Globally-renowned design leader in luxury accessories. Chairman of the Accessories Council. Founder of the award-wining studio Design Quadrant. Senior Advisor to the Fair Fashion Center for Sustainability. Dedicated to recreating the fashion industry as a force for good.

Steve Lee: Architect, Designer and Entrepreneur specialized in future technologies, urban infrastructure and social transformation related to transportation, energy and environmental sustainability. Author of Autonomous Travel Suite and Urban Skyfarm which have been introduced by international media and publications extensively.

Jacqueline M. Jenkins: FIT’s Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Innovation. Through her career, she built relationships with local entrepreneurs and public officials to generate contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses. She is Philadelphia Business Journal’s Forty Under Forty honoree, The Networking Journal’s one of the most influential African-American businesswomen, and co-author of Fashion Supply Chain Management.

Sheng Xu: A leader of his generation in biointegrated electronics. Committed to applying engineering solutions for solving biomedical problems. ~60 research articles, 13 of which were in Science and Nature sister journals. Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator. MIT Technology Review Top Innovators Under 35.

Pascal Nizri: Founder and CEO of Chekk, a digital identity start-up. Pascal has over 16 years experience in the Financial Industry, having worked across geographies (France, UK, Hong-Kong, Australia, Indonesia), disciplines (strategy, business, technology, digital), and positions (Global Chief of Staff for a large international Retail Bank; Chief Operating Officer for Retail Banking & Wealth Management in countries; Global Head of Transformation for a leading international Private Bank).

Karen Hildebrand, PhD: Karen has worked across key industry verticals in solving complex ML/AI/DL challenges for over 10 years.  Her publications range from healthcare solutions to HR solutions, along with proprietary solutions developed in financial services, retail and manufacturing contexts.  Dr. Hildebrand co-founded Farm Femmes in late 2017 to address the opportunities of bringing AI and advanced technology to the one occupation that affects us all – farming.  With readership in over 62 countries, with near gender parity, Farm Femmes engages a global audience, challenging us all to understand how modern technology will help to ensure we all have the opportunity to eat.

Dr Seyed Mohseni: Founder & CEO of Samad Power. Seyed is a serial entrepreneur with a successful track record spanning 20 years in technical roles at Siemens and ExxonMobil. His academic background is aerospace engineering design (Kingston University) and MSc in aerospace propulsion followed by his MBA and doctorate in gas turbine technology (all from Cranfield University).

Y-Vonne Hutchinson: CEO of ReadySet, co founder of Project Include. Former international human rights lawyer who had worked with foreign national governments, the US Department of State, and the UN. Member of Harvard Law’s Institute for Global Law and Policy network and the Women of Color Council for AnitaB.org.

Stevan Spremo: Expert in Spacecraft System Engineering. Spearheaded advanced technology development for space biology applications at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Enabled autonomous systems engineering designs for biological scientific research aboard the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Cubesat’s while applying expertise in low-cost rapid prototyping. Led NASA’s LADEE spacecraft development, achieving successful lunar science and a major breakthrough in Moon-Earth laser communications. Currently advancing new biological payload designs destined for the lunar surface. Granted multiple NASA patents and awarded NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal.

Mark Ring: Co-founder and CEO of Cogitai, Inc., introduced the idea of Continual Learning in Artificial Intelligence in his 1994 doctoral dissertation and has focused his subsequent research and entrepreneurial work around its development. He leads a world-class team building and applying this technology across sectors to revolutionize the way machines learn and interact with the world.

Y-Vonne Hutchinson: CEO of ReadySet, co founder of Project Include. Former international human rights lawyer who had worked with foreign national governments, the US Department of State, and the UN. Member of Harvard Law’s Institute for Global Law and Policy network and the Women of Color Council for AnitaB.org.

Sinan Ozdemir: Founder of Kylie.ai, providing enterprise conversation automation. Former data science lecturer at Johns Hopkins. Machine learning & AI textbook author. Forbes.com contributor. Startup advisor. Educator for Fortune 1000 companies on how and when to adopt AI.

Michelle Moore: Social entrepreneur, former Federal Chief Sustainability Officer for President Obama and relentless agent for change with a passion for connecting clean energy with economic growth. CEO of Groundswell, a nonprofit whose mission is building community solar projects and programs. Moore is helping to pave the way toward an inclusive and diverse clean energy economy.

Boyd Cohen: Dr. Cohen has cofounded three smart cities startups and created the Smart Cities Wheel which has been translated and used by dozens of governments around the globe to benchmark and plan their smart cities strategies. He has published three books, two-dozen peer reviewed articles including the highest cited paper on shared mobility and has been a frequent contributor to Fast Company.  He is currently CEO of iomob, building a blockchain-powered mobility aggregation platform for smart cities.

Nigel Jacob: Co-founder of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics. Nigel’s work is about making urban life better via novative, people-oriented applications of technology and design. Previously, Nigel worked in a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area. He was also the Urban Technologist in Residence at Living Cities and is an Executive-in-Residence at Boston University. Nigel is also a 2017 Barr Fellow and an Innovation Fellow at the Sanford School of Public Policy. His ground breaking work has earned him a number of awards including being named a Public Official of the year by Governing Magazine, a Whitehouse Champion of Change, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation award and most recently the MassTLC Distinguished Leadership award.

Elif M. Gokcigdem: Founder of Empathy-Building Through Museums Initiative. Author of Designing for Empathy (forthcoming 2019), and Fostering Empathy Through Museums (2016). Art historian, museums thought leader and cross-industries innovator committed to fostering empathy through informal learning platforms to inspire positive behavior change, caring mindsets, and compassionate worldviews that value all of humanity and the planet. Leading the first Summit on “Fostering Universal Ethics and Compassion Through Museums” with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (October 2019).

Chris Butler: Over 18 years of product and business development experience at companies like Microsoft, KAYAK, and Waze. At Philosophie, he created techniques like Good Strategy Canvas, Empathy Mapping for the Machine, and Confusion Mapping to create cross-team alignment while building AI products.

Bryson Bort: Founder and CEO of SCYTHE, a next generation attack simulation platform for enterprise portfolio and risk management. Founder of GRIMM, a cybersecurity consultancy, and Co-Founder of the ICS Village. He is a Fellow at the National Security Institute and a former Army Officer.

Jo Bhakdi: Founder of Quantgene, a machine learning and biotechnology company that combines precision genomics, AI, and fast-paced innovation to detect disease, including a multitude of cancers, at the earliest stage possible. Under Bhakdi’s leadership, Quantgene created one of the world’s most effective networks of scientists, engineers, and clinical experts to tackle computational and medicinal challenges in data and genomics to accelerate the pace of modern medicine.

Reza Bosagh Zadeh: Founder and CEO at Matroid and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. His work focuses on Machine Learning, Distributed Computing, and Discrete Applied Mathematics. His awards include a KDD Best Paper Award and the Gene Golub Outstanding Thesis Award. He has served on the Technical Advisory Boards of Microsoft and Databricks.

Peter Detwiler:  Highly respected energy professional, thought leader, and industry commentator/speaker with 30 years in the electricity space, most recently spearheading the interaction of consumer technology and electric power grids.

Jennifer Taylor: Energetic, results-oriented innovation champion. VP of U.S. Jobs at Consumer Technology Association. Leads CTA’s 21st Century Workforce Council and Apprenticeship Coalition with 70+ Tech Leaders to close nation’s skills gap. 30 years of non-profit experience at AARP, CTA and American Red Cross. Launched two pioneering tech products to improve lives for people as they age.

Chad Houser: Dallas Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” United States Junior Chamber’s (Jaycee) 2015 Ten Outstanding Young Americans. Named to the “Top 50 Under 40” by the Social Enterprise Alliance, an “Urban Innovator to Watch” by the New Cities Foundation, one of Good Magazine’s “Good 100,” individuals at the cutting edge of creative impact across the globe.

Dan Chen: Vice President of 3M’s Transportation Safety Business, where every day his organization works to help bring families home safety. Dan is a business leader and inventor, holding more than a dozen patents in different fields. His inventions in worker safety have been used by hundreds of millions of people to help protect their respiratory health, while his inventions in solar energy are helping to produce gigawatt level efficiency improvements in clean energy production.

Alexis Gilroy: A national leader in the digital health industry, advises on complex transactional and health regulatory issues with an emphasis on virtual health methods, such as telemedicine, telehealth, and mobile health. Focused on transactions in the digital health and HIT sectors for more than a decade, Alexis pairs practical experience with a keen understanding of often novel federal and state regulatory requirements. Alexis speaks and writes extensively on matters involving digital health, including testimony before legislative and regulatory bodies. She serves as Vice President and on the board of directors of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and as co-chair of the ClearHealth Quality Institute Telemedicine Accreditation Standards Committee.

Michael Slocombe: Co-founder and head of design at Cohealo, the first solution of its type to bring the sharing economy to healthcare, enabling hospitals to collaboratively own expensive, life-saving medical equipment. MedTech Boston 40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovator. Custom motorcycle enthusiast.

Eve Picker: Lover of cities. Architect. Urban Designer. Real estate developer. Urban change agent. FinTech pioneer. Recognized globally for urbanist expertise. Founder of SmallChange.com, opening the door to investment for socially responsible real estate, funded by everyday people.

Mihael Mikek: CEO and Founder of Celtra, the leading creative marketing platform that powers major brands such as Unilever, Uber, and Lululemon. Mikek’s quick response to the market evolution has been instrumental to Celtra’s success. Under his leadership, Celtra has won American Business Awards, Stevie Awards, and a MassTLC award.

Constantine George, M.D.: Named the “Top Concierge Doctor” by Vegas Magazine, Internist/Pediatrician, Chief Medical Officer of EPITOMEDICAL and Founder of the innovative mobile concierge medical Vedius App, Dr. George aims to bridge the gap between hospitality and health care.

Frances Holuba: Social architect & Diplomat.  Director of Social Enterprise @POLITICO.  Served the Obama Administration for 5 years as the strategic millennial voice for the office of Global Engagement Office at the White House responsible for the President’s Young Leader Initiatives, elevating entrepreneurship as a pillar of U.S. public diplomacy and elevating international education programs.

Matt Ater: As Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Vispero, Matt works to assist customers in ensuring all products are accessible by people with disabilities. Matt is on the CTA Foundation which looks at the latest technology trends and how they impact people with disabilities and people who are aging.

Mentored by Gregory Hines, Andrew Nemr is an international performer, choreographer, educator and speaker. He has played with Grammy Award winning musicians across multiple genres, founded and directed the tap dance company Cats Paying Dues, co-founded the Tap Legacy™ Foundation, Inc. (along with Hines), and is the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Tap Dance Society. “A masterly tapper” (New York Times), Nemr’s work has been recognized with a TED Fellowship, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the CUNY Dance Initiative, a FloBert Award for Tap Dance Excellence, and residencies with Quarterly Arts Soiree at Webster Hall, BRICLab, More Art’s Engaging Artists program, Surel’s Place, and TED.

Rudina Seseri: Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures. Raised largest AI-focused East Coast debut fund. Investor in exceptional founders leveraging AI to build disruptive companies and transform markets. Harvard Business School Rock Venture Capital Partner.

Kevin Parker: Transformational CEO/Entrepreneur. Serial board chairman for disruptive tech companies. Over 25 years of executive experience in enterprise technology, transforming customers’ businesses while taking a vendor public.

Shailendra Singh: An innovator and entrepreneur, Shelly is consistently disrupting competitors and improving the business model and GTM strategy at MarketsandMarkets that centers around white glove client engagement serving up revenue impacting research insights through a cutting-edge user-friendly platform called Knowledge Store. Previously, as a head of Global Sales at Mu Sigma, Shelly led the company in becoming one of the premier analytics firms. He was EVP at IBM-Daksh and then Director of CRM Sales North America, leading a portfolio of business and technology services that generated close to $1 billion in annual contract value. In that capacity, he was a 3-time winner and 2-time runner up of the ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Joanne Arbuckle: Deputy to FIT President for Industry Partnerships & Collaborative Programs, works with FIT/Infor Design and Tech Lab, and co-authored Historical Dictionary of Fashion. A world expert on fashion & fashion education, Arbuckle routinely serves as industry expert witness for law firms and participates in media interviews and reports relating to fashion.

Sujeeth Kanuganti:  Disruptive technology leader and CTO at Aira Tech Corporation, dubbed by TIME Magazine as among Best Inventions of 2018. Architect of Aira’s unprecedented AI platform that provides immediate access to information and assistance for the blind/low-vision. 20 years as industry innovator; a problem-solver, passionate about creating life-changing technologies.

Pablos Holman:  Hacker who helped start the Intellectual Ventures Lab for Nathan Myhrvold to invent new technology & Blue Origin for Jeff Bezos to build spaceships.  Pablos is currently rearchitecting existing industries with Artificial Intelligence and Automation.

Oren Jacob: Before Co-Founding PullString as CEO, Oren was an Entrepreneur in Residence at August Capital. A filmmaker and technologist, he spent more than 20 years at Pixar, most recently as CTO and Director of the Studio Tools group. He has been a speaker at Mobile World Congress, Google I/O, SXSW, Sundance, and ToyFair.

Richard Hanbury: Serial inventor – including Sana a neuromodulation platform for pain relief and deep relaxation, which he developed to eradicate his own life-threatening pain problem following a spinal-chord injury from a jeep crash near Sana in Yemen in 1992, its now his life’s mission to develop Sana to help others.

Sid Misra: CEO and co-founder of Perceptive Automata, a company that uses behavioral science, neuroscience and computer vision to solve the biggest problem for automated vehicles: understanding humans. At Perceptive Automata, Sid leads efforts to create a world in which autonomous vehicles (AVs) and robotic systems can safely navigate interactions with humans.

Wendy Woon: Innovative strategist in developing experimental, generative practices for connecting people with the art and ideas of our time. Scales reach to new audiences through partnerships including Coursera platform (600K+learners), podcast with WNYC (1.4M downloads), and over 100 NYC long-term community partnerships, both analog and digital.

Oliver Morgan: Global public health leader at the World Health Organization. Applying data science to improve detection of new outbreaks around the world 24/7. Developing new data systems for better decisions during emergency response.”

Ivy Woolf Turk: A disrupter, freedom fighter, storyteller, workshop facilitator and Certified Resiliency Life Coach in private practice. As Founder of Project Liberation, she supports women across all stages of criminal justice involvement, or who are imprisoned in their lives in one way or another to find sustainable freedom.