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John Chambers is an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. In his role, Chambers focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of startup nations and a startup world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as SparkCognition.

In addition to investing in and mentoring startups, Chambers is focused on promoting entrepreneurship, gender equality, and accelerating overall new business creation around the world, as he believes that startups will be the core driver of economic growth and job creation in the digital age. It is for this reason that he was appointed Global Ambassador of the French Tech by President Emmanuel Macron of France, and is the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

Prior to founding JC2 Ventures, Chambers served as CEO, Chairman, and Executive Chairman at Cisco Systems. During his 25+ years at Cisco, he helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined in 1991 to $47 billion when he stepped down as CEO in 2015.

Dr. Tom Bradicich is Vice President, Hewlett Packard Fellow, and Global Head of Edge and IoT Labs & CoE, at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). He and his team develop and commercialize advanced connectivity, compute, and controls software, with a focus on WiFi, 5G, and converged IT/Operational Technologies (OT). Tom directs the Edge & IoT Center of Excellence (CoE), leading company-wide strategies, venture/M&A business assessments, and the HPE Channel-to-Edge Institute channel partner program.
Recently, Tom was HPE VP and General Manager, leading the global business unit, Converged Servers, Edge & IoT Systems and Software, with P&L, worldwide sales, R&D, and customer experience ownership. In 2018, Tom’s business unit was the fastest growing in HPE. He directed the founding of HPE’s three global IoT Innovation Labs for partner and customer collaborations, and conceived and led HPE’s first corporate IoT strategy.
Beginning his career at IBM, Tom was an IBM Fellow, Vice President, Distinguished Engineer, and Server CTO. Prior to HPE, Tom was a Corporate Fellow and officer at National Instruments, an Operational Technologies (OT) company. Tom was named in CRN’s Top 100 Executives and Top 25 Disrupters in 2016 and 2017, inducted into the NC State University Alumni Hall of Fame, received the IBM Chairman’s Award, and elected to the IBM Academy of Technology.
Tom’s products have won many industry recognitions such as an InfoWorld Technology of the Year, Network World Product of the Year, CRN Product of the Year, CRN Coolest IoT Hardware, Frost & Sullivan Best Practice, ARM TechCon Best of Show, IoT World Congress Best IoT Solution, IT Brand Pulse Leader, Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader, Mobile World Congress Top Edge Infrastructure, 451 Research Firestarter Award, and Automation World Edge Compute Leadership Award.

Crystal Wang is the President and CEO of the Newland Science and Technology Group. She is a senior engineer and expert with special allowance under the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. She has successfully held positions as a representative of the 10th and 11th National People’s Congress, a member of the 12th national committee of CPPCC and its Committee of Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports, a member of the 13th National Committee of CPPCC, and its Committee of Education, Science, Health and Sports. She is a member of the Sino-Germany Economic Advisory Committee, Vice Chairman of the Expert Committee of Internet of Things of Chinese Electronic Society, and the Vice President of the Digital China Industrial Development Alliance.

General Tony Thomas recently retired after three years as the Commanding General for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). As the commander of SOCOM, he oversaw 85,000 troops and civilians deployed in over 100 countries.

During Gen. Thomas’s 39-year career, he had more combat deployments than any other senior officer. He is the only officer to have commanded a squadron at Delta Force and a battalion of the 75th Ranger regiment. Since 2001, he deployed every year to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Gen. Thomas previously commanded the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the elite counterterrorism unit that conducts the nation’s most dangerous missions. He has a long tenure in JSOC—in May 2011, he was the deputy commander and key planner of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

In his last two roles leading globally deployed forces, Gen. Thomas increased the focus on cyber and information operations. He was one of the military’s earliest and staunchest advocates for applied AI on the battlefield and was the first senior officer to appoint a Chief Data Officer to bring private sector solutions to the command.

Azita Arvani is a strategic leader who pushes for innovation-led growth that delivers customer value. Arvani is recognized for her deployment of the latest digital technologies, such as cloud, AI, 5G, IoT, and AR/VR, to create new markets and revenue streams, develop new products and capabilities, forge partnerships, and build global teams. She has deep experience in both Fortune 500 companies and startups. She is an evangelist of true digital transformation.

Arvani is on the Board of Directors of the Tennant Company (NYSE: TNC) with a focus on innovation agenda and serves on the Compensation and Governance Committees. Previously, she was Head of Innovation Partner & Venture Management at Nokia, where she led the company’s leading-edge global team to leverage external innovation for driving growth and optimizing internal R&D serving Nokia business groups and internal functions.

Azita is also the founder of Arvani Group Strategy Consulting, where she worked in close collaboration with global companies, startups, and investors, helping create profitable businesses.

Amir Husain is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and author based in Austin, Texas. He was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Award, has been named Austin’s Top Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, and received the Austin Under 40 Technology and Science Award. Husain is the founder and CEO of SparkCognition, an award-winning artificial intelligence company.

Since its founding in 2013, SparkCognition has received widespread recognition, including the 2017 CNBC Disruptor 50, being named the fastest-growing company in Central Texas by Austin Business Journal in 2017, and ranking on the CB Insights AI 100 list in both 2017 and 2018.

Husain is a prolific inventor with 27 U.S. patents awarded and over 40 pending applications. His work has been featured in outlets such as Foreign Policy, Fox Business News, and Proceedings from the U.S. Naval Institute. His book “The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence” was published in 2017.

Husain served as a founding member of the Board of Advisors for IBM Watson and serves on the Board of Advisors for The University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for a New American Security Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and National Security.

Sandeep Mehta is an Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo responsible for Enterprise Platforms. Sandeep joined Wells Fargo in 2014 from UBS where he was a Managing Director based in Zurich, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. He has extensive financial services experience over two decades leading technology teams at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Lehman Brothers in New York, India, the Middle East, and Asia.

His background in computing includes research and software development in artificial intelligence, robotics, imaging, and speech recognition while at Philips Research Labs, NYNEX Science & Technology (now Verizon) and the University of Rochester. He serves as an advisor to Arts for Art in New York, an artist-led organization, known for the famous Vision Festival supporting jazz and performing artists. Sandeep is currently based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Admiral Inman served in the U.S. Navy from November 1951 to July 1982, when he retired with the permanent rank of Admiral. While on active duty he served as Director of Naval Intelligence, Vice Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Director of the National Security Agency, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. After retirement from the Navy, he was Chairman and CEO of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas for four years. He was also Chairman, President, and CEO of Westmark Systems, Inc., a privately-owned electronics industry holding company, for three years. Admiral Inman also served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990.

Admiral Inman’s primary business activity since 1990 has been investing in startup technology companies. He is a Managing Director of Limestone Capital Advisors and serves as a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Admiral Inman has also held a number of high-level positions in academia, and holds honorary Doctoral degrees from the Claremont Graduate University, the National Intelligence University, and Southwestern University.

Dr. Clay Johnston is the inaugural Dean of Dell Medical School and Vice President for Medical Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. His vision is to create a new model for academic medicine that accelerates innovation to improve health and reduce inefficiencies in health care. That includes building a vital, inclusive health ecosystem to support new and innovative models of education, care, research, and community impact—all with a focus on improving health locally as a model for accelerating change nationally. He is also a neurologist, specializing in stroke care and research.

Previously, Dr. Johnston was Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also directed the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and founded the UCSF Center for Healthcare Value to engage faculty and trainees in improving the quality of care while also lowering costs.

Dr. Johnston has authored more than 300 publications in scientific journals and has won several national awards for his research and teaching. In particular, he has published extensively on the prevention and treatment of stroke and transient ischemic attack.

Adm. John Richardson graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He holds master’s degrees in electrical engineering from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as a master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College.
At sea, Richardson served in the submarines USS Parche (SSN 683), USS George C. Marshall (SSBN 654) and USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716). He commanded USS Honolulu (SSN 718) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Submarine Development Squadron 12, Submarine Group 8, NATO Submarine Allied Naval Forces South, Naval Submarine Forces, and was the director of Naval Reactors.
His staff assignments include naval aide to the President, teacher for prospective submarine commanding officers, the Joint Staff, and director of Strategy and Policy at U.S. Joint Forces Command. Heserved on teams that have been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and other awards for outstanding team performance. He was awarded the Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Award for his time in command of USS Honolulu.
Richardson served as the 31st Chief of Naval Operations from September 2015 until August 2019. He retired from the Navy after 37 years of service in September of 2019.

Ramon Moreno Vergara, Chief Executive Officer for Mitsui Power Americas
Almost 20 years working at Mexico´s power sector, with significant field experience on power plants. Joined Mitsui Power Americas, second largest IPP in Mexico as Chief Technical Officer in 2010, promoted to Chief Executive Officer in 2018. Responsible for the operation and commercial relation of Mitsui & Co Group´s power assets as well as the development of new projects.

Vice-president at AME, Mexican Energy Association. Holds a Master’s degree in engineering at Malaga University, Spain, as well as Postgraduate in-company trainings at ESADE and Harvard Business School.

Peter Warren Singer is Strategist at New America and an editor at Popular Science magazine. He has been named by the Smithsonian as one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators, by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues, by Foreign Policy to their Top 100 Global Thinkers List, as an official “Mad Scientist” for the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, and by Onalytica social media data analysis as one of the most influential voices in the world on cybersecurity and robotics.

Singer’s award-winning books include Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Children at War, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know, and Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. His latest book is LikeWar, which explores how social media interacts with war and politics.

His past work includes serving at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Harvard University, and as the founding director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings.

Bill Burnham is the CTO for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s US Public Sector Business Unit. In this role, he provides expert technical guidance and direction to key customers in the U.S. Federal Sector, State and Local Governments, and Education. He works extensively with HPE Labs to design Hybrid IT and Intelligent Edge solutions, injecting technology innovation that fosters business and process transformation.

Before joining HPE in 2018, he served as the CTO for the United States Special Operations Command, responsible for the innovation/modernization of the global information and services networks supporting 70,000 special operations users. In this position, he provided authoritative technical leadership on precedent-setting matters ranging from innovative data center designs to hybrid cloud implementation strategies.

Mr. Burnham was a career active duty Army officer with the majority of his assignments in tactical/operational special operations units and joint tactical communications units supporting deployed special operations forces.

Mr. Burnham attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence, and the University of Southern California, where he received a Master of Science in Systems Management.

Charles Toups leads Boeing’s Disruptive Computing & Networks organization, is developing computing and communications solutions for advanced commercial and government aerospace applications. To accomplish this, Toups leverages core technologies in quantum communications, computing and sensing, neuromorphic brain-inspired processing, high-performance computing, and advanced networking.

Toups’s organization works closely with Boeing Research & Technology, Information Technology & Data Analytics, Boeing HorizonX, the company’s business units, Hughes Research Laboratory, university research partners, government research institutions, and other companies on research development projects involving secure communications, artificial intelligence, and complex system optimization.

Previously, Toups led Boeing Research & Technology, the company’s advanced central research and development unit, as well as Boeing’s Development Program Excellence enterprise initiative to drive productivity and growth. Toups has held a variety of engineering and business management roles of increasing responsibility during his career, including leading the Network and Tactical Systems division in Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security business unit.

As the CEO and Publisher of GigaOm, Reese leads the company in their mission to help business leaders understand the implications of emerging technologies and their impacts on business, media, and society. Both a futurist and optimist, Byron Reese believes we are approaching a Fourth Age for humanity that promises to be infinitely better than anything we have seen before.

Reese’s newest book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity,” is described as “entertaining and engaging” by the New York Times, was named this year on JP Morgan’s Summer Reading List and is a Gary’s Book Club pick for CES 2019. Reese also produces and hosts GigaOm’s podcasts Voices in AI and The AI Minute and is also the author of “Infinite Progress: How Technology and the Internet Will End Ignorance, Disease, Hunger, Poverty, and War.” As a lifelong entrepreneur with multiple IPOs and successful exits under his belt, Byron also frequently speaks to business audiences on how to excel in the world of tomorrow, and how to deploy technology successfully.

Paal Eirik Syvertsen leads the Smart Maintenance crew in Eureka, Aker BP’s dedicated digitalization program. Aker BP aims to be at the forefront of digitalizing the oil & gas industry, and Syvertsen has been instrumental in shaping the way Aker BP is working towards that mission. Eureka is an agile lab where cross-functional crews solve business challenges by delivering minimum viable products. The ultimate goal is to improve business outcomes, increase safety, boost productivity and reduce costs. The Smart Maintenance crew leverages the powerful Cognite Data Fusion, making it possible to utilize live data from several source systems both offshore and onshore.

As a crew lead, heplays a big role in supporting Aker BP Operations in moving towards a digital operating model that utilizes the valuable opportunities within subjects as production optimization and predictive maintenance. By getting inspiration outside of traditional oil and gas companies, Smart Maintenance has been able to deliver use cases using different technologies like machine learning and analytics.

Previously, Syvertsen worked as an Equipment Class Owner in AkerBP and BP. In this role, he had responsibility for the maintenance and reliability of electrical and HVAC equipment. Here he developed maintenance concepts to improve barrier control and reliability of production critical equipment.

Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is a media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence. His body of work locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. In taking the data that flows around us as his primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as his collaborator, Anadol paints with a thinking brush, offering us radical visualizations of our digitized memories and expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative, and the body in motion. Anadol’s site-specific parametric data sculptures, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take many forms, while offering a dramatic rethinking of the physical world, our relationship to time and space, and the creative potential of machines.

Dr. Heather Berlin is a cognitive neuroscientist and Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She explores the neural basis of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric and neurological disorders with the aim of developing novel treatments. She is also interested in the brain basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity.

Dr. Berlin is passionate about science communication and education. She hosts “Startalk All-Stars” with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and hosted the PBS series “Science Goes to the Movies,” and the Discovery Channel series “Superhuman Showdown.” She is also a committee member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange, and The New York Times series “TimesTalks.” She has made numerous media appearances including on the BBC, History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, and TEDx, and was featured in the documentary film “Bill Nye: Science Guy.”

Jamie Montgomery is a Founder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners. Previously, he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co., a well-known Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed hundreds of leading technology companies over a 25-year period. He is the founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual conference that attracts over 1,000 global entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives to Santa Monica. Montgomery currently serves on the Board of Directors of Descartes Labs and Foghorn and is a Board Observer at Crowdstrike, Forter, and Earnin. Montgomery also had two successful exits at March Capital: the IPO of RUBI and the sale of Telesign to BICS.

Montgomery focuses on identifying disruptive technology companies and providing capital at a critical inflection point. In addition to serving on the Advisory Board of the Rady School of Business at the University of California San Diego, he actively supports programs for innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of California San Diego, Claremont McKenna College, the University of Southern California, and Chapman University.

Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist and (re)searcher based in New York. Chung’s work explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. Her speculative critical practice spans performance, installation, and drawings which have been featured in numerous exhibitions at museums and galleries around the world.

Chung is a former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration. In 2019, she was selected as the Woman of the Year in Monaco for achievement in the Arts & Sciences. In 2018 she was an inaugural E.A.T. Artist in Resident in partnership with New Museum and Bell Labs, and was awarded a commission for her project Omnia per Omnia. In 2016, Chung received Japan Media Art’s Excellence Award for her project, Drawing Operations.

Bilal is a partner at Lux Capital, a $1.5B VC fund investing in breakthrough technology companies. Bilal is attracted to startups that solve real-world problems with technically ambitious solutions, which are often the first of their kind. Prior to joining Lux, Bilal was an investor at General Catalyst Partners.
Bilal’s investments include SailDrone, AirMap, Desktop Metal, Nozomi Networks, Evolv Technologies, DeepSentinel, Orbital Insight, NoonHome, HappiestBaby, Veo Robotics, NewKnowledge, OpenSpace.ai, Lightform, Applied Intuition, and other technology companies.
Before he became an investor, Bilal was an entrepreneur. He co-founded GEO2 Technologies, an advanced materials company that also spun out Bio2 Technologies. Earlier in his career, Bilal was a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group and a visiting scientist at PNNL/DOE Labs.
He earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under Prof. Mario Molina, Nobel laureate, 1995), and his technical work has been published in a multitude of peer-reviewed journals. He holds 30+ patents and patent applications.

Both an artist (painter, filmmaker, and photographer) and scientist (PhD in complex systems at Indiana University, data scientist, and artificial intelligence expert), ALAgrApHY is among the pioneers in AI-generated art. He uses algorithms to teach machines to generate mosaics composed of thousands of unique faces of all ages and races, inspired by his humanitarian project 1001faces.org. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pierre et Marie Curie, and has exhibited his algorithmic art in multiple venues since 2013. His AI-generated art has been exhibited at Salon Comparaison at the Grand Palais. His AI-generated artwork “D’ame(s) Souriante(s)” won the digital art award at the Salon d’Automne and was exhibited at the Grand Palais in February of 2019. His “Collective Brain X” will be in exhibition at the Gulbenkian Foundation until the 10th of June. He is a founding member of the www.ai-art.net, a collective of AI artists, musicians, and poets that anyone can join.

Bry Dillon has been in the enterprise software industry for 20 years, spanning roles in sales and business development from venture-funded startups to Fortune 500 organizations. He spent the beginning of his career in software companies focused on supply chain and unstructured data. For the past 8 years, Bry has worked for OSIsoft, the majority of which has been in the field sales organization, where he led OSIsoft’s Western Region. In his current role, Bry is responsible for overseeing the Cloud, Channels and Community team. Currently, he is focused on driving go-to-market strategies for emerging products and sales channels that extend the PI Infrastructure to leverage Cloud technologies. He is also responsible for identifying and driving strategic complementary solutions that increases value from operational data. Bry is a Bay Area native who lives in San Leandro with his wife and daughter.

Bry holds a B.A. in Economics from California State University, Hayward.

Mike Tyka studied Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Bristol. He obtained his PhD in Biophysics in 2007 and went on to work as a research fellow at the University of Washington, and later at Google.

Tyka became involved in creating sculpture and art in 2009 when he helped design and construct Groovik’s Cube, a 35-ft tall, functional, multi-player Rubik’s cube installed in Reno, Seattle, and New York. Since then his artistic work has focused both on traditional sculpture and modern technology, such as 3D printing and artificial neural networks. Since 2015 Mike has also begun working with artificial neural networks as an artistic medium and tool. He created some of the first largescale artworks using Iterative DeepDream and collaborated with Refik Anadol to create a pioneering immersive projection installation using Generative Adversarial Networks called “Archive Dreaming.” His latest generative series “Portraits of Imaginary People” has been shown at ARS Electronica in Linz, Christie’s in New York, and at the New Museum in Karuizawa (Japan).

Secretary Robert O. Work is the Distinguished Senior Fellow for Defense and National Security at the Center for a New American Security and the owner of TeamWork, LLC, which specializes in national security affairs and the future of warfare.

Secretary Work previously served as the Deputy Secretary of Defense, where he was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day business of the Pentagon and developing the Department’s $600 billion defense program. He is widely credited for his work with leaders in the Department and the intelligence community on the “Third Offset Strategy,” which aimed to restore U.S. conventional overmatch over its strategic rivals and adversaries. He was twice awarded the DoD’s Distinguished Public Service Award, and has also received the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

Prior to serving as Deputy Secretary, Secretary Work spent one year as CEO of the CNAS, after serving as Undersecretary of the Navy from 2009–2013 in the first Obama administration. He was twice awarded the Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

James Slider is the Director of Special Projects at The Drone Racing League, the premier international drone racing circuit for elite pilots. He currently oversees DRL’s new autonomous drone racing series, the Artificial Intelligence Robotic Racing (AIRR) Circuit, which combines cutting-edge AI and drone technology with heritage racing formats to blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds. Prior to DRL, James served as the Senior Product Designer at Tough Mudder, where he led a team of challenge designers, sponsorship integration initiatives, and quality assurance protocols. Before Tough Mudder, James worked as an Advance Associate for the White House, managing production teams, crafting political site designs, and producing large-scale rally events for President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Dr. Jill Biden.

Mike Crandall is an analytics transformation leader with 8+ years of experience developing and implementing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence systems, primarily for logistics, supply chain, and operations applications within the DoD. He is a passionate developer of cross-functional analytics teams that deliver impactful and practical data-driven solutions that grow client organizations’ analytics maturity. His analytics experience includes business intelligence, simulation, predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He is a proud alum of the University of Maryland!

Andrew J. Coleman serves as the commercial leader for GE Aviation’s digital business. In this role, he leads a global team of professionals focused on unlocking the power of data and insights to the commercial aviation, military, OEM, and aviation lessor industry segments. GE Aviation’s digital business supports the aviation community with a broad range of digital applications ranging from flight safety, fuel efficiency, network operations, predictive maintenance, mission readiness, and asset performance management. As a commercial leader, Andrew has a global responsibility for sales, consulting, alliances, marketing, customer success, solution architecture, business development, and customer support.

Prior to this role, Andrew has held commercial, finance, and product management leadership roles across NCR & Teradata. During his career, he has built a record of growth, new market penetration, and employee achievement through a service before self, wingman culture.

Andrew has a Master in Business Administration with a concentration in finance from Xavier University and a bachelor of arts from Asbury University where he also serves on the university’s board of directors.