People

EvoNexus CEO & Co-Founder / Founder, Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. & Silicon Wave, Inc.

Rory Moore was the seed round investor, co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: PSMI), now a Murata Company, one of the world’s leading providers of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for the wireless communications and aerospace markets. Rory was also the seed round investor and founding CEO of Silicon Wave, Inc., now owned by Qualcomm. Silicon Wave produced the world’s first Bluetooth chips. In 2009 Rory founded a technology incubator called EvoNexus with Vice Admiral Walter Davis, a board member of EvoNexus. A University of Michigan graduate, Rory continues to make angel investments in technology firms throughout the region. His other passions include Unlimited Aerobatic Competition flying, scuba diving and surfing.

EvoNexus Co-Founder & VP Organizational Dev. / Fmr. Navy N6, Dir. Space Systems, Information Warfare Systems, Command and Control Systems

Vice Admiral Walter J. Davis, USN (Ret) was Navy N6, Director Space systems, Information Warfare systems, Command and Control Systems, and Modeling and Simulation where he directed Navy’s $3.5B IT budget. He is former VP for Business Development at GDE Systems (BAE). He was a Navy fighter pilot, Aircraft Carrier CO, and Battle Group Commander. He served in numerous Navy engineering positions including Navy Engineer for the F-14 and Naval Warfare IT Architect (SPAWAR), He was a co-founder of E-fire. He is an Ohio State University Electrical Engineering graduate. 

EvoNexus Executive Advisor

Dr. Gene Dantsker is the former President and Chief Operating Officer and current Executive Advisor of EvoNexus. He has been involved with EvoNexus since its founding as selection committee member, mentor to numerous portfolio companies, Executive-in-Residence and most recently Chief MedTech Officer. Gene is a seasoned entrepreneur, board member, advisor, operational executive and angel investor.

Prior to the EvoNexus role, Gene worked across the spectrum of technology solutions in semiconductor, IT, medical and biotech businesses. His career path brought together engineering, science, business and entrepreneurship.

Following graduate school, Gene was Senior Technical Staff Member at TRW, Inc., Space and Electronics Division (now part of Northrop Grumman) where he was responsible for design, fabrication, and integration of microelectronics for space/satellite applications. Subsequently he co-founded Nanostream, Inc., a biotechnology company and provider of high-throughput bio-analytical instruments to companies involved in drug discovery and development. As VP of Technology, Dr. Dantsker was co-inventor and developer of Nanostream’s core technologies based on polymer MEMS microfluidics and converted them into commercial products purchased by leading pharmaceutical companies. Gene then served as CEO and CTO of aDNAvance Technologies, Inc., a provider of ultra-sensitive medical molecular diagnostic products, operating out of the US and Canada. Gene also served on the Board of Directors of D-Wave Systems, a pioneer in Quantum Computing, with leading Silicon Valley VCs, as well as heavily consulted the company in business development, IP strategy, growth strategy and operational infrastructure. Gene subsequently headed business development for the US branch of Nitto Denko, a leading supplier of diversified polymer-film products for medical, electronic and optronic applications, based in Osaka, Japan.

Gene then joined Qualcomm Life as Sr. Director of Business Development & Licensing, where his responsibilities included enabling intelligent integrated care models through the Internet of Things (IoT) in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics and payer industries. In 2020, he helped sell the original Qualcomm Life business, to Philips before moving on. Following the sale, Gene joined Amazon Web Services as Global Lead for Medical Devices.

Gene holds B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Maryland, M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MBA from San Diego State University, where he was class valedictorian. He is an inventor on over 60 issued patents.

EvoNexus Executive Advisor & 5G Portfolio Director / Fmr. Sr. Dir. Qualcomm

Rich Stewart is a System on a Chip (SoC) engineering subject matter expert with extensive experience in technical management, innovation, and product commercialization. Rich possesses a strong track record developing efficient, practical and cost-effective processes, in addition to a strong track record of on time product delivery. He successfully builds and integrates high-performance R&D teams, and effectively collaborates with multi-disciplinary, global, project teams to efficiently advance development programs.

Rich is a co-founder of Prometheus Technology Solutions, LLC, a firm dedicated to providing scalable product delivery processes for HW/SW/SOC and IoT products. Rich held multiple engineering leadership positions at Qualcomm, beginning in 1994, covering a broad cross section of technologies including embedded mobile device software, wireless protocols, image compression systems, MEMs driver technology, systems engineering and memory solutions. While at Qualcomm Rich also managed the Qualcomm Innovation Network, and was an engineering patent mentor. Prior to joining Qualcomm Rich developed driver level engineering solutions in imaging, 3d rendering and image scanning technologies at multiple start-ups.

Rich has over 25 issued and pending US patent applications, along with a multitude of international filings.

Rich has a B.S. in Mathematics-Computer Science, from the University of California, San Diego

EvoNexus Silicon Valley Chief Engineer & Operations / Fmr. VP Hardware Engineering, Sun Microsystems & Oracle

Ron Melanson serves as Chief Engineer & Operations for EvoNexus Silicon Valley. He previously served as Vice President of Engineering and managed the Hardware Quality Office at Oracle Corp.

As VP of Engineering, he was responsible for Hardware Central Engineering, hardware quality, and customer advocacy. To this capacity, his organization provided customer solutions and best practice guides, competitive benchmarking, application tuning, and advanced compiles. His team also supported compliance, safety and RoHS testing, and certification.

Prior to Oracle, Ron served a dual role at Sun MicroSystems as Distinguished Engineer and Vice President of Engineering. To that capacity, he managed the development of several SRARC CPU programs and lead the development of advanced semiconductor technologies with strategic FAB partners.

Ron’s engineering career before Sun Microsystems was rooted at Digital Equipment Corporation, where Ron served as a consulting engineer developing process technologies, custom chips and EDA tools for the development of VAX and high end systems.

Ron took his B.S. and M.S degrees in E.E. at Northeastern University.

Founder & Managing Partner, Spark Growth Ventures / EvoNexus Fintech Executive in Residence

Hem is an accomplished investment, board and executive management leader with two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, board professional, investment banker, general management executive as well as a researcher.

Hem currently serves as the Founder & Managing Partner of Spark Growth Ventures, an early-stage technology venture capital firm with a Pan American focus. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of ClearVision Equity, a 2x Interim CEO of emerging healthcare companies, an executive of a KKR Private Equity portfolio company, an investment banker on Wall Street as well as a functional leader in multiple Fortune 500 companies in the US.

Hem has also served on over 20 startup and social enterprise boards across US and is heavily involved with several prominent incubators and accelerators in SoCal supporting budding entrepreneurs. He has executed 40+ venture, private equity and M&A transactions with over $2B in total capital spanning over 12 years at Spark Growth Ventures, ClearVision Equity Partners, Deutsche Bank, and a KKR private equity portfolio company.

Hem has an M.B.A. from Harvard, an M.S. from University of Illinois and a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He is passionate about the environment, equality and education for under-privileged children, and loves reading, traveling and active pursuits.

EvoNexus Executive in Residence / CEO, Adura LED Solutions

Sumit Tomar currently serves as the CEO of Adura LED Solutions, wherein he is responsible for Adura LED design and manufacture LED modules, with best-in-class thermal management in the industry, enabled by it's patented SinkPAD™ technology. Adura's high performance LED Modules help designers with best in class heat dissipation, longer life and better overall Luminaire performance across different vertical markets including - industrial lighting, street lighting, automotive, high end consumer, horticulture & indoor farming.

Sumit Tomar previously served as the CEO of pSemi Corporation, a Murata subsidiary focused on RF, analog and mixed-signal ICs. Formerly Peregrine Semiconductor, pSemi has over 600 employees and eight offices worldwide.

Prior to joining pSemi in 2017, he held product line management positions at several prominent technology companies, including Qorvo, Texas Instruments and Skyworks Solutions Inc. He has a proven track record of managing design win strategies and driving rapid revenue growth at Tier-1 OEMs in smartphones, telecom infrastructure, industrial and automotive markets.

He received a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee and completed the Executive Management Program at Stanford University.

Portfolio & Events Manager and Board Liaison

 Ashlyn Haines is a recent California State University, San Marcos graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She continues to be passionate about the field of psychology and social sciences, and how these sciences are applicable to the real world. During her time at California State University, San Marcos she learned about the importance of psychology and understanding the human mind in the field of marketing and events planning. She has also been active in her community as a San Diego local and has worked closely with her local church as the lead coordinator of a leadership team. This as well as her education in psychology has ignited the passion for marketing and events planning as a career path. She is happy to be working as the Portfolio & Events Manager and Board Liaison for EvoNexus.

Events Program Volunteer

 Kacey Willers is the Events Program Volunteer at EvoNexus. She works closely with the entire EvoNexus team to develop, strategize, coordinate, create, and deliver all EvoNexus events and marketing materials. Kacey was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Management from Victoria University of Wellington. Since completing her marketing internship while studying, Kacey has worked in Marketing and Coordinator roles in Wellington, New York, Vancouver, and now San Diego.Outside of EvoNexus, Kacey enjoys learning Spanish, being creative, hiking, and traveling. She has her own woman’s accessories business which keeps her busy in her spare time.

EvoNexus CEO & Co-Founder / Founder, Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. & Silicon Wave, Inc.

Rory Moore was the seed round investor, co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: PSMI), now a Murata Company, one of the world’s leading providers of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for the wireless communications and aerospace markets. Rory was also the seed round investor and founding CEO of Silicon Wave, Inc., now owned by Qualcomm. Silicon Wave produced the world’s first Bluetooth chips. In 2009 Rory founded a technology incubator called EvoNexus with Vice Admiral Walter Davis, a board member of EvoNexus. A University of Michigan graduate, Rory continues to make angel investments in technology firms throughout the region. His other passions include Unlimited Aerobatic Competition flying, scuba diving and surfing.

EvoNexus Co-Founder & VP Organizational Dev. / Fmr. Navy N6, Dir. Space Systems, Information Warfare Systems, Command and Control Systems

Vice Admiral Walter J. Davis, USN (Ret) was Navy N6, Director Space systems, Information Warfare systems, Command and Control Systems, and Modeling and Simulation where he directed Navy’s $3.5B IT budget. He is former VP for Business Development at GDE Systems (BAE). He was a Navy fighter pilot, Aircraft Carrier CO, and Battle Group Commander. He served in numerous Navy engineering positions including Navy Engineer for the F-14 and Naval Warfare IT Architect (SPAWAR), He was a co-founder of E-fire. He is an Ohio State University Electrical Engineering graduate. 

EvoNexus Chairman / Director, ViaSat

Richard Baldridge has been a director of Viasat since 2016. Mr. Baldridge joined Viasat in 1999, serving as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer from 2000, as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 2002, and as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2003. Mr. Baldridge served as President and Chief Executive Officer from November 2020 through July 2022, and served as Vice Chairman from July 2022 until his retirement in June 2023. In addition, Mr. Baldridge serves as a director of Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE: DCO), a provider of engineering and manufacturing services to the aerospace and defense industries, and EvoNexus, a San Diego based non-profit technology incubator.

Mr. Baldridge came to ViaSat from Raytheon Corporation where he was vice president and general manager of its Raytheon Training Systems division. With over 4,000 employees in the division, his responsibilities included day-to-day management including marketing, legal, finance, and overall management. Other experience includes roles as chief operating officer, CFO, and VP of finance and administration for Hughes Information Systems and Hughes Training Inc., before the divisions were acquired by Raytheon in 1997. Mr. Baldridge also held various senior management roles within General Dynamics Corporation.

Mr. Baldridge graduated with a B.S. degree in business administration, and an emphasis in information systems from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, where he is a member of the NMSU School of Business Hall of Fame. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of EvoNexus.

EvoNexus Officer / EVP, Chief Risk & Transformation Officer, Franklin Templeton Investments (BEN)

Joe Boerio is the Executive Vice President, Chief Risk & Transformation Officer for Franklin Templeton Investments. As CTO, he has the responsibility for setting and executing the firm’s strategic technology direction for Investment Management, Data Science and Cyber Security. These areas include, investment management DevOps & applications development, data science & analytics, market & alternative data services, FT’s internal FinTech venture, cyber security, enterprise vendor management, rapid development and incubation. Mr. Boerio is a strong visionary global leader passionate about business value and innovative transformations with 30+ years of proven execution results in enterprise information technology, operational excellence and global business enablement. Mr. Boerio is also the Chair of the Investment Company Institute Technology Committee based out of Washington DC and serves on the Board of the FinTech Sandbox in Boston.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton Investments, Mr. Boerio worked for Mariners Systems, a software development firm that specialized in developing software applications and communication systems focused on infrastructure delivery for worldwide transportation customers.

Mr. Boerio earned his bachelor’s degree in information systems management from the University of San Francisco.

EvoNexus Vice-Chairman / President & COO, ResMed Inc.

Rob Douglas, President and Chief Operating Officer of ResMed Inc., in San Diego, California has over 25 years experience in operations and marketing for high-tech medical device and E-commerce solution sector leaders. ResMed Inc. is a global medical device company in the treatment of Sleep Disorder Breathing listed on the NYSE and the Australian Stock Exchange, with a market cap of ≈ U.S. $10B. Earlier, he was Chief Operating Officer for Asia Pacific & Global Supply Chain leading Asia Pacific sales and sales operations in Japan, Australia, China, India, Middle East, North Africa and ASEAN countries. Mr. Douglas joined ResMed Inc. as Vice President of Corporate Marketing becoming Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer Sydney.

Previously, he was General Manager of Strategy and New Business and a member of the Executive Management Team at Keycorp Ltd., an electronic commerce company developing and marketing a range of products for secure electronic financial transactions, based in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Douglas began his career with Telectronics Pty. Ltd. an Australian medical electronics company that designed, manufactured, and globally marketed implantable cardiac pacemakers and implantable defibrillators based in Sydney.

Formerly, Mr. Douglas was a member of the Board of Directors of Continence Control Systems International and its predecessor company Colocare Ltd. Currently, he serves as Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors of EvoNexus. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and is a member of its Executive Committee. He is a past Director of the Australian Science Media Center and former member of the Business Council of Australia.

Mr. Douglas earned an MBA from Macquarie University, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with first-class honors and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

EvoNexus Treasurer / Partner, Ernst & Young

Tim Holl is currently a Partner in the San Diego office of Ernst & Young after transferring from the San Francisco office. Tim is focused on serving companies in the semiconductor, software and tele- communication industries. Tim is a leader in Ernst & Young’s education and audit methodology efforts as well. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed to practice in California and a member of the AICPA. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a B.S. in business economics.

EvoNexus Chairman Emeritus / Fmr. Chairman, Broadcom

John Major is the Founder and President of MTSG, a strategic consulting business specializing in emerging opportunities. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of Apacheta, a wireless applications company, and he was Chairman and CEO of Novatel Wireless, a provider of wireless data access solutions for PDA’s and laptops, where he led the company’s successful IPO in the fall of 2000. Before Novatel Wireless, Mr. Major was Chairman and CEO of Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture of QUALCOMM Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation, and held various positions at Motorola, Inc. including Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. At Motorola, his team launched iDEN, the first technology to offer dispatch on cellular and the protocol used by Nextel Communications. Mr. Major currently serves as a director of three public companies: Orbcomm, Lennox International, Inc. and Littelfuse. He Chairs the La Jolla Institute and the University of Illinois Chicago Engineering School Advisory Board. He is Chairman of Pulse Electronics. He was formerly Chairman and Lead Director at Broadcom. Major received a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Loyola University. He has twelve US patents.

EvoNexus Secretary / Managing Partner, Morrison Foerster

Mr. Rowles has over 20 years experience as corporate counsel to public and private companies and the venture funds that invest in those companies. Mr. Rowles has extensive industry experience in both the technology and life sciences arenas. Mr. Rowles’ practice includes venture capital financings, venture fund formation, public securities offerings and corporate governance counseling, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing and corporate partnering transactions. He has served as lead counsel on myriad mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions, including public offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion dollars in proceeds and over 100 acquisition transactions.

Co-Founder, President & COO, XCOM / Fmr. President, Qualcomm

Derek K. Aberle is co-founder, president and chief operating officer of XCOM, oversees XCOM’s strategy, business development, investment activity and operations.. XCOM is inventing and investing in wireless technologies to propel the next mobile revolution.

Aberle was formerly the president of Qualcomm Incorporated and was responsible for the oversight for all business divisions across the organization, as well as the company’s global market development and marketing groups. Aberle was also responsible for formulating and driving key strategies for diversifying and growing the company in both Qualcomm’s core businesses, as well as new business opportunities such as data center and mobile healthcare solutions. He served as a member of Qualcomm’s executive committee since 2008, helping to drive Qualcomm’s overall global strategy. In recent years Aberle also has been instrumental to evolving and expanding Qualcomm’s business in China, including leading negotiations with the Chinese Government and establishing important new business ventures in China.

Prior to his role as President, Aberle served as executive vice president of Qualcomm Incorporated, and group president, as well as president of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL). He was responsible for overseeing Qualcomm’s technology and IP licensing business as well as Qualcomm’s earlier stage businesses such as its mobile health, platform, display and wireless charging businesses.

Starting in 2008, Aberle led the QTL division and held several roles within this division, including executive vice president and president, and senior vice president and general manager. He has been instrumental to the success and growth of this division, and, under his leadership, QTL has significantly grown both revenues and profits and established its 4G licensing program. For well over a decade, he has played a leading role in structuring and negotiating key license agreements with Qualcomm’s licensees. He has also contributed heavily to the creation and implementation of the legal and business strategies that led to the resolution of several of the company’s licensing-related disputes.

Aberle joined Qualcomm in 2000 after representing the company as outside counsel for several years at the law firms of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro and Heller Ehrman. Aberle holds a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also holds a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Senior Vice President, Product Management - Snapdragon Technologies & Roadmap, Qualcomm

Ziad Asghar is senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (QTI). He leads Snapdragon roadmap planning and application processor technologies, covering all smartphone platform products. Ziad drives the definition of products, ensuring that our products lead in technology and enable best-in-class user experiences while making tradeoffs between features, power, performance and cost. He leads application processor technologies including artificial intelligence, camera, graphics, CPU, audio, video and security. He has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless semiconductor industry where he has held a broad set of leadership positions from R&D to product management. Ziad holds an MBA from UCSD and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University and Southern Methodist University

VP & GM Geospatial Intelligence & ISR, BAE Systems

Jordan Becker is Vice President and General Manager for the Geospatial Intelligence and ISR business area within the Intelligence and Security Sector at BAE Systems, Inc. This business supports solutions for US Government customers within the intelligence and defense communities. GeoINT-ISR is a leader in the development of geospatial intelligence storage and management, and systems for geo-positioning that employ photogrammetry, data analytics and meta-data management for full motion video geo-registration, human geography, airborne vehicle routing, and targeting.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, Inc., Jordan Becker was Senior Vice President at Science Applications International (SAIC) and the Chief Technical Officer for SAIC’s Information Technology and Network Services business. Mr. Becker was responsible for strategic planning, and research & development. Mr. Becker’s Group supported SAIC’s commercial, federal and civil government markets. Mr. Becker was also a senior advisor to BP Corp. Mr. Becker joined SAIC in January 2000 reporting to the CEO and Chairman.Prior to joining SAIC in March 2000, Mr. Becker was Vice President with UUNET Technologies, a global Internet company. Mr. Becker joined UUNET as part of the acquisition of ANS Communications Inc. in 1998. At UUNET, Mr. Becker had responsibility for a 500 person business unit that generated ~$1.2B representing 30% of UUNET revenues at the time. In addition to running the AOL business for UUNET, Mr. Becker managed supplier relationships, Internet technology development, engineering, operations, and planning for services for AOL.

Prior to UUNET, Mr. Becker was one of the founding executives at ANS Communications Inc. in 1990 where he helped grow the company prior to the sale of the company to America Online in February 1995. At ANS Mr. Becker was responsible for service development, engineering, operations, market support, and strategic planning. Mr. Becker assisted AOL with the sale of ANS (a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL) to UUNET Technologies in February 1998. Following the sale of ANS to UUNET, Mr. Becker was the acting ANS CEO overseeing the integration of the company within UUNET.

Prior to the formation of ANS in 1990, Mr. Becker was an Internet pioneer and technologist at IBM Research from 1982-1990 where he received several technology awards and held numerous management positions. Mr. Becker’s responsibilities at IBM Research included engineering and project management for the National Science Foundation Internet backbone (NSFNET), supercomputing systems development, and other information technology projects.

Mr. Becker holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, and is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Director of CommNexus San Diego, and a pioneer member of the Internet Society. Mr. Becker is married with 3 children, and lives in San Diego California.

Senior Vice President, AMD

Ivo Bolsens is now the Senior Vice President of AMD, which acquired Xilinx in 2022. Prior to the acquisition, he held the title of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), with responsibility for advanced technology development, Xilinx research laboratories (XRL) and Xilinx university program (XUP).

Bolsens came to Xilinx in June 2001 from the Belgium-based research center IMEC, where he was vice president of information and communication systems. His research included the development of knowledge-based verification for VLSI circuits, design of digital signal processing applications, and wireless communication terminals. He also headed the research on design technology for high-level synthesis of DSP hardware, HW/SW co-design and system-on-chip design.

Bolsens holds a PhD in applied science and an MSEE from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

Chief Disrupter and Global Head of Tech Ventures and Incubation, HP, Inc. 

 Andrew Bolwell is Chief Disrupter and Global Head of Tech Ventures and Incubation at HP where he drives new business creation for HP's Strategy and Incubation Office, and is Managing Partner of HP Tech Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Silicon Valley’s original startup.  In this role Andrew and his team drive new business creation activities for HP to identify and launch new market segments, products and business models that will help shape HP’s future growth.

As Managing Partner for HP Tech Ventures, Andrew is responsible for HP’s partnership and investment activities with start-ups.  With teams in Palo Alto and Israel, HP Tech Ventures makes early-stage investments in the world’s leading start-ups in industry shifting technology areas including Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Manufacturing, Security, Digital Health, VR/AR, Gaming & eSports, and 3D Printing.

As one of HP’s lead futurists, Andrew is also responsible for HP thought leadership and industry evangelism. In this role Andrew is a sought-after keynote speaker, recognized futurist, blogger and HP spokesperson for global megatrends, new business creation, innovation, emerging technology trends and new, disruptive technologies.  He has been widely quoted in the New York Times, USA Today, The Financial Times, The Economist, Reuters, CNET, Information Week and Le Monde, among others. He has also appeared as a spokesperson and industry expert on ABC News with Charles Gibson and ABC News Now, and featured on BBC’s Tech Tent.

Prior to this role, Andrew was General Manager of a number of successful HP businesses, including co-founder and CEO of MagCloud, an online self-publishing service that Andrew helped incubate and grow from concept to a high-growth, multimillion-dollar business.

Andrew is a graduate of the Venture Capital Executive Program at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and the Accelerated Leadership Executive Program at Harvard Business School. He graduated magna cum laude from Monash University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with first class honors. A native Australian, Andrew has lived and worked in the US, Australia, and Japan. He currently resides in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and two daughters.

Worldwide Vice President, Strategy, and Business Development of Medication Management Solutions (MMS), BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)

 Henry is Worldwide Vice President, Strategy and Business Development of Medication Management Solutions (MMS), a global leader in medication management with market-leading product lines such as BD Pyxis^TM, BD Rowa^TM, BD Alaris^TM Infusion Solutions, and the BD HealthSight^TM platform for enterprise medication management.

He is responsible for driving thought leadership around strategic innovation, strategy development, business development and strategic execution. He is a global business executive who leads with inspiration and energizes teams through critical periods of growth. Most recently, his team successful led the acquisitions and integrations of MedBank, GSL, MedKeeper, and Parata Systems, deploying roughly $1.8B of investment capital.

Prior to BD, Henry was Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at 3M Company where he was responsible for the creation and leadership of 3M Connect, 3M’s venture capital and innovation hub that closed 15 venture deals and enhanced 3M’s digital footprint. Additionally, Henry directed 3M’s Integration Management Office, leading 3M’s largest and 3rd largest acquisitions. He also VP Strategy and Business Development for 3M Healthcare. Prior to joining 3M, he worked in private equity, investment banking and consulting as well as held operational roles in the consumer products and technology industries.

Henry holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He served as Vice Chairman and board member of Children’s Minnesota Hospitals & Foundation.

EVP Marketing & Product Strategy, City National Bank

Linda Duncombe is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy, and leads a team that is responsible for advancing the company’s brand, articulating its value proposition and supporting business development. She oversees marketing, client experience, advertising and communications as well as digital channels, product development, credit cards and multicultural outreach.

Ms. Duncombe is a member of the company’s Executive Committee and reports to Chief Executive Officer Kelly Coffey.

Prior to joining City National, she was the global head of design for Citibank’s Global Consumer Bank and the chief marketing officer and head of growth for Citi FinTech. In this capacity, she managed the Global Consumer Bank’s digital and mobile transformation, and the marketing and communication strategy for Citi FinTech.

Ms. Duncombe was born in Australia. She began her career with National Australia Bank and held a variety of roles in business banking, private banking and consumer banking. She went on to serve as the head of customer franchise with Citi in Australia, where she led digital banking, customer experience and marketing.

Ms. Duncombe earned her bachelor’s degree from Western Sydney University. She also graduated from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and completed Citi’s Women’s Leadership Development Program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Active in community and civic affairs, Ms. Duncombe serves on the board of the Global Retail Management Association, a forum for executives from the world’s leading brands.

About City National Bank

Partner, Business/Technology Team at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP

William Eigner has been called “the go-to guy for M&A and emerging companies” and has often been recognized as a Top Attorney in San Diego.  A partner at Procopio, San Diego’s largest law firm, with offices in Menlo Park, Austin and clients around the world, Eigner’s practice emphasizes venture capital, angel financing, seed capital and the financing, governing, operating, buying, selling and merging of growing and established technology and other businesses. Eigner serves as a director of San Diego Venture Group and of FHOOSH, Inc., an award winning cybersecurity company that protects and powers data for business, government and consumers. He also serves on the board of advisers of Encore Semi, NewBlue Inc. and other companies.  A former U.S. Supreme Court Judicial Intern, Eigner graduated from Stanford and the University of Virginia School of Law.

About Procopio

More about William Eigner

Senior Director, Dexcom Ventures

Jason is the co-founder of Dexcom Ventures where he leads technology scouting and strategic pipeline development.  He is a seasoned innovator in the medical device field and a key contributor in Dexcom product development over the past decade.

Committed to Dexcom’s mission of ”Empowering people to take control of diabetes" he has advanced the simplicity, reliability, and comfort of Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring systems.  Jason has been a prolific inventor and is named on well over 100 worldwide patents and patent applications.

With Dexcom Ventures, Jason is chartered with building a portfolio as value-added strategic investors by leveraging access to Dexcom’s unique industry expertise and technology leadership.

Prior to Dexcom, Jason held a variety of engineering and leadership roles as a consultant and with Black and Decker.  He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from San Diego State University.

CEO & Board Member, Corporate EVP, LG Technology Ventures

Dong-Su Kim is the CEO and board member of LG Technology Ventures. He has over twenty-five years of investment, strategy, planning, and technology experience. As the founding CEO, Dong-Su established the fund structure, hired key people, and initiated investment operations. Under his guidance, LG Technology Ventures manages over $400 million of fund assets and invests in early-stage information technology, automotive, manufacturing, life-sciences, energy, and advanced materials companies. Portfolio companies include AmazeVR, Lygos, May Mobility, and Ridecell. Dong-Su Kim was also recently promoted to corporate Executive Vice President.

Previously, Dong-Su was Vice President and GM of Samsung Ventures America where he managed offices in Menlo Park, Boston, London, and Tel Aviv. He has led the investment of over thirty companies in diverse sectors including semiconductors (Soft Machines, Verisilicon, Wave Computing), equipment (DCG Systems, IMS, Reno Subsystems), materials (Nanosys, NexPlanar, Voltaix), and storage systems (Pure Storage).

Prior to joining Samsung Ventures, he was a Director at Asia Evolution, an investment bank in Korea covering mid-market financing, private placement, and M&As.

Before that, he was a Director at the Technology Strategy Office of Samsung Electronics. As the CTO’s staff, he was responsible for strategic venture investments and technology alliances. He also worked in technology planning for Samsung’s Telecom R&D center, responsible for discovering new research topics. Dong-Su started his professional career as a Technical Leader at Samsung Fiber Optics Business Unit in development of fiber optic components.

His past Board Director appointments include Datera, Digital Specialty Chemicals, Femtometrix, Inpria, Reno Subsystems, SBA Materials, SVXR, D2S, DCG Systems (acquired by FEI), NexPlanar (acquired by Cabot), Voltaix (acquired by Air Liquide), Panasas, and Pixtronix (acquired by Qualcomm). Dong-Su also served on the Investment Advisory Committee for Sierra Ventures.

Dong-Su has earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and a B.S. with Honors in Applied Physics from California Institute of Technology.

VP Engineering & Chief Architect, Consumer Group, Intuit

Bridget is VP Engineering, Fellow, and Chief Architect at Intuit’s Consumer Group, focusing on products for personal tax and finance management. Previous to Intuit, she was at Comcast and served as President of a joint venture developing next generation conditional access and security products for the cable industry. She has also held senior engineering roles at Motorola, Copper Mountain Networks, General Instrument and Hughes Space and Communications Group.

She has received numerous industry awards and recognition, including 2016 CableFax Most Powerful Women in Cable (Technology Award) in 2016, and has a strong commitment to mentoring the next generation of women in technology. She also has served on the United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council, was a past mentor for Athena, and volunteered as a troop leader and mentor for the Girl Scouts of America.

Bridget has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California (USC) and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from California State Polytechnic University. She has also completed the Executive Program for Scientists and Engineers (EPSE) at the University of California, San Diego, and an executive leadership program through the Center for Creative Leadership. She holds 5 US patents.

Senior Director, Corporate Business Development, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Richard Kurtz, Ph.D. is a Senior Director of Corporate Business Development for Bio-Rad Laboratories, a life science research and clinical diagnostics company that has been serving customers worldwide since 1952. In his current role, Richard reports to the company’s Chief Strategy officer and executes corporate strategies to deliver long-term company growth, focusing on acquisitions, partnerships and technology licensing in both Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. Richard also coordinates Bio-Rad Corporate Venture Fund investments in start-up companies with innovative products and technologies focusing on research, diagnostics and health care.

Richard has 15 years of industry experience. Previously, Richard was the Marketing Director for the Life Science Gene Expression Division, a role in which he managed long-term product-line strategies, product development and global commercialization activities for one of Bio-Rad’s largest Life Science product portfolios. He has extensive experience in strategic business planning, technology assessment, product development and commercialization. Richard received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Northwestern University prior to transitioning into industry.

BIO : (NYSE) Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of products for the life science research and clinical diagnostics markets.

SVP & Global Head, Qualcomm Ventures

Quinn oversees Qualcomm’s $1B global venture investment portfolio of 150+ companies across seven global regions. Quinn and his team invest in key areas such as 5G, AI, Automotive, IoT and Networking to help expand Qualcomm’s ecosystem of customers and partners. He currently serves as a board member or observer in Airspan, ClearMotion, Cohesity, Innovium, Pensando and RetailNext. Quinn has led over a dozen investments with successful exits in A123 Systems, Eero, InvenSense, Powercloud Systems and Zoom.

Quinn started his career as an engineer working on 3G wireless technology and standards development at Lucent Technologies. Prior to joining Qualcomm Ventures, he worked in product management and business development in IBM Systems and Technology Group. Earlier, he worked on wireless technology development at Broadcom.

Quinn received his MBA from Cornell University, and his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

Co-Founder & EVP, Hughes Marino

David Marino is a principal and executive vice president of Hughes Marino, the largest tenant representation company in San Diego. David specializes in high-value, time-critical and complex transactions for technology, life science and business service companies. He is an expert in the strategic planning, market assessment, financial analysis, business terms structuring and negotiations aspects of commercial real estate. David is a licensed California Real Estate Broker and has been exclusively representing tenants since 1991, completing over 11,000,000 square feet, comprised of over 1,000 transactions. Between 1989 and 1991, David worked at Trammell Crow Company, then the largest commercial real estate owner in the U.S. where he learned the business from the landlord side of the table. David has a broad business background as an early stage angel investor in over twenty companies and is a LP in venture capital funds including Mission Ventures, Windward Ventures, Hamilton Bioventures and Avalon Ventures.

Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Zach Myers is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he specializes in corporate and securities law, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and general corporate representation. He represents private and public companies in the technology and life sciences sectors—especially biotechnology and medical device companies—in complex, high-value transactions.  He has represented a number of leading companies in venture capital financings, helping them raise millions of dollars needed to fund, grow, and expand their businesses. He has also assisted numerous clients that have gone public, listing on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ markets.

VP Corporate Planning & Development, pSemi

Rodd Novak is the VP of Corporate Planning and Development for pSemi Corporation with more than 20 years of executive-level experience.  A well-rounded corporate strategist, he has successfully built and led international business divisions from inception to profitability.  Rodd originally joined pSemi in 2002 and held multiple positions including Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Marketing, Sales and Business Development.  Under his leadership, pSemi increased revenue at a 30% CAGR for 10yrs, created three business units and expanded its global sales network. Before that, Rodd held positions with CTS Corporation, Northrop Grumman/Xetron and interned at Comsat Laboratories. Rodd received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and his MBA from Xavier University.

VP of Innovation & Solution Acceleration, Royal Bank of Canada

 Eddy, the Vice President of Solution Acceleration & Innovation at RBC, is responsible for driving disruptive digital innovation. With labs in Toronto, San Francisco, London, Luxembourg, New York & Orlando, RBC is partnering with a diverse set of players, including startups & academia, to access & drive emerging trends.

For almost 20 years, Eddy has been key in leading RBC’s digital strategy, including the launch of the first mobile banking application, the invention & patent of Secure Cloud technology, and maintains uniquely strong relationships with Silicon Valley.

CEO & President

As a global business leader, Kathy Ouellette's area of expertise is delivering differentiation and value through strategy, process, and product innovation.

Her career consists of commercial and operational roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Illumina, and several startups. She previously served as General Manager for a global Thermo Fisher business unit.

Wide-ranging leadership of “blank slate” and turnaround initiatives has been a constant theme of her career. Kathy's experience includes marketing, sales, R&D, manufacturing, and distribution functions, including leading global cross-functional teams. From strategy to execution, she has operations experience in North and South America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific countries.

Engaging teams to perform their best work is another strength. Kathy thrives in corporate cultures where innovation and integrity are valued, and she represents those values in her customer and company relationships.

EVP, Chief Technology Officer, Interdigital

 Rajesh Pankaj is InterDigital’s EVP, Chief Technology Officer. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company’s technology vision and strategy and advancing the company’s technology roadmaps. Dr. Pankaj works closely with other executives to partner with internal R&I efforts, external investments and corporate development in executing the company’s technology vision.

Dr. Rajesh Pankaj is an inventor and a technology executive with deep expertise in wireless research in 3G, 4G and 5G and in emerging areas like deep learning. He joined InterDigital in July 2022 from Qualcomm where he oversaw research in 5G, 4G LTE, augmented reality and other technologies, contributing to an industry-leading wireless and mobile computing patent portfolio. During his 25-year tenure, Dr. Pankaj most recently served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Head of Corporate R&D, managing a global team of engineers focused on Artificial Intelligence, Edge Computing and new technologies.

A prolific innovator, Dr. Pankaj is an inventor or co-inventor on 230 patents worldwide.

Dr. Pankaj holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree of technology in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

VP, Channel Sales & Business Development, TriNet

Eric serves as the VP, Channel Sales overseeing the national channel strategy for TriNet. In this capacity, Eric works to develop key partnerships and alliances that enable top line growth through the partner ecosystem.

Prior to this role, Eric served as the VP, Sales Enablement where he designed and stood up a high-performing, nationwide Sales Development organization to drive top of funnel lead generation. Eric also oversaw curriculum, content curation and delivery of all L&D programs for sellers and sales leaders.

Further, Eric drives his teams to empower and enable entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses to do their ‘why’.

As a collaborative and innovative senior leader, Eric has extensive experience driving business growth, transformation, and sustainability for high-profile Technology organizations.

Before TriNet, Eric spent almost 20 years at Verizon and held multiple senior leadership roles within the organization.

Prior to leaving Verizon, Eric was the Consumer Vice President where he led consumer distribution and operations for the West Region.

Eric received a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Biola University.

Partner, Cooley LLP

Mr. Rollins has a general corporate transactional practice, representing emerging and late stage private companies and public companies in a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including private financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, tender offers, strategic collaborations, commercial agreements, corporate governance matters, and employment and compensation arrangements. He also advises venture capital firms in connection with financings and other transactions.

Mr. Rollins is counsel to companies in diverse industries, including information technology, biotechnology, medical device, retail, semiconductor, software and cleantech. His clients range from start-ups to public companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues.

Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend

Chris Schaffer focuses his practice on IP counseling, patent prosecution, infringement and validity analyses, technology licensing and due diligence with an emphasis in the areas of telecommunications, power electronics, semiconductors, electronics packaging, advanced materials, thermal management, mechanics, and software. Mr. Schaffer also does significant pro bono work. Mr. Schaffer is a Panel Attorney for the California Lawyers for the Arts program which assists financially under-resourced independent inventors and small businesses. Mr. Schaffer also works with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program to secure guardianship for minors and children who do not have an able parent.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Schaffer was a practicing scientist who obtained 10 patents, authored numerous technical articles and served on the technical committee for several conferences.

From 2005 to 2012, Mr. Schaffer was the Director of Engineering at Pulse Electronics in San Diego where he led a worldwide engineering team in the research and development of LAN (Local Area Network) and Telecommunications components for the electronics industry. Products consisted of Ethernet transformers, RF filters, high-speed connectors and central office splitters.

From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Schaffer was a Design Center Manager at International Rectifier in Los Angeles where he led a multi-disciplinary engineering team in the development of advanced multi-chip power conversion modules for consumer, telecom and industrial applications. The modules included customized state-of-the-art MOSFETs, ASICs and integrated passives.

From 1993 to 2000, Mr. Schaffer was a Research Engineer at Boeing where he led the research and development of advanced materials such as chemically vapor deposited diamond and carbon-carbon composites for use in spacecraft electronics. He also designed and tested RF electronics subassemblies for military spacecraft programs.

Mr. Schaffer was recognized as a San Diego “Rising Star” in 2022 and 2023 for Intellectual Property by Super Lawyers magazine.

Futurist, Paramount Pictures

Ted spends his time in a unique role in the motion picture entertainment industry. As the Futurist at Paramount pictures, Ted works with studio leadership and the technology teams at Paramount / Viacom, exploring forms of new and emerging technologies, with an emphasis on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Prior to joining Paramount, Ted was the Futurist at 20th Century Fox, where he worked on the evolving art, science, and technology of advanced interactive visual storytelling. He was part of the creation team for the Martian VR and Wild VR experiences, which premiered at CES and Sundance as groundbreaking projects that pushed the envelope of Virtual Reality storytelling. Ted was an integral part of the product development team at RED Digital Cinema as a founding member and the company’s first employee. The Red One and Epic cameras have made a significant impact on the Motion Picture Industry, with many of the world’s biggest movies now being shot with these ultra-high-resolution digital movie cameras. Ted is one of the founders and creators of the G-Tech product line of advanced hard drive storage products.

PARAMOUNT PICTURESParamount Pictures Corporation (also known simply as Paramount) is an American film studio that is a subsidiary of ViacomCBS. It is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world, the second oldest in the United States, and the sole member of the “Big Five” film studios still located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood.

Vice President of Corporate Technology & Innovation, MuRata Americas

Mehul is focused on leveraging the innovation continuum to drive Murata’s growth in North America. From ideation to implementation, this includes new business creation, incubation, investment opportunities, and strategic partnerships. His market areas of expertise intersect numerous industries: healthcare, energy, mobility, connectivity, and wireless.

Mehul has 25 years of Semiconductor, Wireless, Sales, Technical Marketing and Business Development experience. He has a proven track record for cultivating business in new segments, launching new product strategies, creating successful business partnerships, and growing revenue.

He received his BS in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland and MS from Johns Hopkins University.

EvoNexus CEO & Co-Founder / Founder, Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. & Silicon Wave, Inc.

Rory Moore was the seed round investor, co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: PSMI), now a Murata Company, one of the world’s leading providers of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for the wireless communications and aerospace markets. Rory was also the seed round investor and founding CEO of Silicon Wave, Inc., now owned by Qualcomm. Silicon Wave produced the world’s first Bluetooth chips. In 2009 Rory founded a technology incubator called EvoNexus with Vice Admiral Walter Davis, a board member of EvoNexus. A University of Michigan graduate, Rory continues to make angel investments in technology firms throughout the region. His other passions include Unlimited Aerobatic Competition flying, scuba diving and surfing.

EvoNexus Co-Founder & VP Organizational Dev. / Fmr. Navy N6, Dir. Space Systems, Information Warfare Systems, Command and Control Systems

Vice Admiral Walter J. Davis, USN (Ret) was Navy N6, Director Space systems, Information Warfare systems, Command and Control Systems, and Modeling and Simulation where he directed Navy’s $3.5B IT budget. He is former VP for Business Development at GDE Systems (BAE). He was a Navy fighter pilot, Aircraft Carrier CO, and Battle Group Commander. He served in numerous Navy engineering positions including Navy Engineer for the F-14 and Naval Warfare IT Architect (SPAWAR), He was a co-founder of E-fire. He is an Ohio State University Electrical Engineering graduate. 

EvoNexus Executive Advisor

Dr. Gene Dantsker is the former President and Chief Operating Officer and current Executive Advisor of EvoNexus. He has been involved with EvoNexus since its founding as selection committee member, mentor to numerous portfolio companies, Executive-in-Residence and most recently Chief MedTech Officer. Gene is a seasoned entrepreneur, board member, advisor, operational executive and angel investor.

Prior to the EvoNexus role, Gene worked across the spectrum of technology solutions in semiconductor, IT, medical and biotech businesses. His career path brought together engineering, science, business and entrepreneurship.

Following graduate school, Gene was Senior Technical Staff Member at TRW, Inc., Space and Electronics Division (now part of Northrop Grumman) where he was responsible for design, fabrication, and integration of microelectronics for space/satellite applications. Subsequently he co-founded Nanostream, Inc., a biotechnology company and provider of high-throughput bio-analytical instruments to companies involved in drug discovery and development. As VP of Technology, Dr. Dantsker was co-inventor and developer of Nanostream’s core technologies based on polymer MEMS microfluidics and converted them into commercial products purchased by leading pharmaceutical companies. Gene then served as CEO and CTO of aDNAvance Technologies, Inc., a provider of ultra-sensitive medical molecular diagnostic products, operating out of the US and Canada. Gene also served on the Board of Directors of D-Wave Systems, a pioneer in Quantum Computing, with leading Silicon Valley VCs, as well as heavily consulted the company in business development, IP strategy, growth strategy and operational infrastructure. Gene subsequently headed business development for the US branch of Nitto Denko, a leading supplier of diversified polymer-film products for medical, electronic and optronic applications, based in Osaka, Japan.

Gene then joined Qualcomm Life as Sr. Director of Business Development & Licensing, where his responsibilities included enabling intelligent integrated care models through the Internet of Things (IoT) in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics and payer industries. In 2020, he helped sell the original Qualcomm Life business, to Philips before moving on. Following the sale, Gene joined Amazon Web Services as Global Lead for Medical Devices.

Gene holds B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Maryland, M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MBA from San Diego State University, where he was class valedictorian. He is an inventor on over 60 issued patents.

EvoNexus Executive Advisor & 5G Portfolio Director / Fmr. Sr. Dir. Qualcomm

Rich Stewart is a System on a Chip (SoC) engineering subject matter expert with extensive experience in technical management, innovation, and product commercialization. Rich possesses a strong track record developing efficient, practical and cost-effective processes, in addition to a strong track record of on time product delivery. He successfully builds and integrates high-performance R&D teams, and effectively collaborates with multi-disciplinary, global, project teams to efficiently advance development programs.

Rich is a co-founder of Prometheus Technology Solutions, LLC, a firm dedicated to providing scalable product delivery processes for HW/SW/SOC and IoT products. Rich held multiple engineering leadership positions at Qualcomm, beginning in 1994, covering a broad cross section of technologies including embedded mobile device software, wireless protocols, image compression systems, MEMs driver technology, systems engineering and memory solutions. While at Qualcomm Rich also managed the Qualcomm Innovation Network, and was an engineering patent mentor. Prior to joining Qualcomm Rich developed driver level engineering solutions in imaging, 3d rendering and image scanning technologies at multiple start-ups.

Rich has over 25 issued and pending US patent applications, along with a multitude of international filings.

Rich has a B.S. in Mathematics-Computer Science, from the University of California, San Diego

EvoNexus Silicon Valley Chief Engineer & Operations / Fmr. VP Hardware Engineering, Sun Microsystems & Oracle

Ron Melanson serves as Chief Engineer & Operations for EvoNexus Silicon Valley. He previously served as Vice President of Engineering and managed the Hardware Quality Office at Oracle Corp.

As VP of Engineering, he was responsible for Hardware Central Engineering, hardware quality, and customer advocacy. To this capacity, his organization provided customer solutions and best practice guides, competitive benchmarking, application tuning, and advanced compiles. His team also supported compliance, safety and RoHS testing, and certification.

Prior to Oracle, Ron served a dual role at Sun MicroSystems as Distinguished Engineer and Vice President of Engineering. To that capacity, he managed the development of several SRARC CPU programs and lead the development of advanced semiconductor technologies with strategic FAB partners.

Ron’s engineering career before Sun Microsystems was rooted at Digital Equipment Corporation, where Ron served as a consulting engineer developing process technologies, custom chips and EDA tools for the development of VAX and high end systems.

Ron took his B.S. and M.S degrees in E.E. at Northeastern University.

Partner, Express Ventures / Fmr. CEO & Founder, Doctor Design (acquired by WindRiver/Intel)

Thompson co-founded & ran CommNexus San Diego, (formerly San Diego Telecom Council) a non-profit network of communications, government, and defense industry companies. A familiar face in the boardrooms of a number of innovative San Diego concerns, Thompson will call on over thirty years of engineering services management experience and a vast network of technology contacts and affiliations to direct the technology focus for the Sorrento Valley engineering services company.

Thompson has designed and managed his way to entrepreneurial success. In 1984 he founded Doctor Design, an embedded engineering services firm that contracted for such companies as AMD, Intel, Samsung, Mitsubishi, DIRECTV, Philips, Thomson, Sony, and IBM. Thompson would later sell the $50 million firm to Integrated Systems, which merged with Wind River (WIND) in 2000, and then merged with Intel (INTC) in 2009. Thompson stayed with the firm for 25 years before departing in November of 2009. Although trained only as an engineer, and not a marketer or manager, Thompson credits the exceptional strength of UCSD and the entrepreneurial network of San Diego for the success of his former firm. “We reached 250 people because UCSD taught great basic engineering and thinking skills and because the San Diego community is great at networking and providing mentoring to promising entrepreneurs."

Prior to joining Solekai, Thompson co-founded & ran CommNexus San Diego, (formerly San Diego Telecom Council) a non-profit network of communications, government, and defense industry companies. Thompson is also currently a Managing Partner at Express Ventures, an early stage Venture Capital Firm, which has funded eight San Diego companies. In addition, Marco is the founder & Vice Chairman of San Diego Sport Innovators, and is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Connect, San Diego’s startup assistance organization. Thompson earned his BSEE, in Applied Physics & Information Systems in 1979 from the University of California at San Diego. In 2003, Thompson was named the Alumni of the Year by the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering and further honored by being inducted into the Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology. His interests include heli-skiing, wakesurfing, hockey, and snowboarding.

EvoNexus Director of Dual-Use Technology & Applications / Fmr. SVP, Cubic Corp. & President, Cubic Mission Solutions

Mike Twyman is former President of Cubic Mission Solutions where he led the acquisition, integration, and growth of multiple companies into a Dual-use technology portfolio to target Defense IoT, communications, space, 5G, digital intelligence, autonomous systems, and adjacent commercial markets. Mr. Twyman’s customer experience includes the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), DoD services & research laboratories, intelligence community, aerospace prime contractors, and commercial 5G/New Space companies. Prior to this role, Mr. Twyman led Northrop Grumman’s Defense Systems Division (> $2B annual sales) providing Tier 1 C4ISR solutions for Joint & Service unique Command & Control systems, airborne networking, and manned/unmanned platforms.

Mike was selected to the 2020 Wash100 list of most influential leaders in the GovCon public and private sector (https://www.wash100.com/). He is currently Chairman of the Executive Leadership group for Executive Mosaic, a professional GovCon networking organization. Mike was honored by the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering and the Rady School of Management as a Fellow of the Architecture-based System Engineering program for contributing to program success as an industry advisor. He was recognized in the highly-praised “The Five Coaching Conversations” as a Best Coach. Previously he served on the board of EvoNexus Southern California’s leading technology incubator program, and on the board for the Washington D.C. United Services Organization (USO). He holds a B.A. degree in Applied Mathematics from California State University at Long Beach, and an MBA from George Mason University, where he was selected as the outstanding class graduate in 2005.

Strategic Advisor, TDK InvenSense

Chairman & CEO, ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: ACEV)

Abdi, a member of InvenSense’s board of directors since June 2011, was appointed President and CEO in October 2012, and now serves as General Manager of MEMS Sensors Business Group. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of NetLogic Microsystems, Inc., a leader in intelligent semiconductor solutions for the Internet. Before this, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of RMI Corporation (also known as Raza Microelectronics Inc.), a fabless semiconductor company, from November 2007 to October 2009. He served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of CDMA Technologies (QCT) at Qualcomm, Inc., a provider of wireless technology and services, from March 2004 to November 2007. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he held leadership and engineering positions at Motorola, Inc. where he served as Vice President and General Manager for Motorola’s radio products division, in charge of RF and mixed-signal ICs for the wireless mobile market. He currently is a director at Tabula, Inc. and Exar Corporation.

Abdi holds a BSEE from Montana State University and an MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Vice President of T Rowe Price Associates

Ms. Annamalai is based in San Francisco, CA where she serves as the Vice President of T Rowe Price Associates. She was previously the Defined Contribution Leader of West Market, Mercer, and before then the Director of Retirement Investments, at HP. At HP she oversaw the investments of HP’s assets in the Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit plans of ~$21B in diverse asset classes including public equity, fixed income, private equity, real estate and hedge funds.Prior to joining HP, Meenu was responsible for the strategy, governance, execution, and communication of the company-sponsored Defined Contribution plans in the Americas for Franklin Templeton Investments.Meenu began her career in financial services and has spent over 15 years constructing comprehensive financial and investment plans for individuals, corporate and institutional clients. She serves on the Retirement Research Centre Steering Committee for Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) and is a Frequent Speaker and Advisory Member at DCIIA, Pension and Investments (P&I), Institutional Investor Forum (IIF) conferences.Ms. Annamalai achieved her undergraduate degree in Information Technology and Economics from York University in Toronto, Canada and a Master of Business Administration degree from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. She also holds the Retirement Plans Associate (RPA) designation.

Chief Financial Officer, Carlsmed

Alex is a MedTech finance executive and former equity analyst. He led equity research for Lazard Capital Markets and Wedbush Morgan, and held operating roles at private and public companies, including Biolase, Circuit Therapeutics, and Arstasis. Alex currently serves as a Board Member at Zelegent, Paragonix Technologies, and 8i Acquisition Corp and previously served on the boards of Medcura, Neumedicines, and Biolase. Alex has an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a B.A. in Biophysics from Cornell University, and is a CFA charter holder.

Senior Vice President, Product Management - Snapdragon Technologies & Roadmap, Qualcomm

Ziad Asghar is senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (QTI). He leads Snapdragon roadmap planning and application processor technologies, covering all smartphone platform products. Ziad drives the definition of products, ensuring that our products lead in technology and enable best-in-class user experiences while making tradeoffs between features, power, performance and cost. He leads application processor technologies including artificial intelligence, camera, graphics, CPU, audio, video and security. He has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless semiconductor industry where he has held a broad set of leadership positions from R&D to product management. Ziad holds an MBA from UCSD and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University and Southern Methodist University

Co-Founder, GoFundMe

Andy Ballester was a co-founder of GoFundMe. We are changing the way the world gives. Every day, members of our giving community come together to support one another and the causes they care about most. Our campaign organizers have raised over $3 billion for medical expenses, education, community projects, sports, emergencies, pets, and more, making us the world’s largest online fundraising platform. Co-founded by Andy Ballester and Brad Damphousse in 2008 in San Diego, GoFundMe raised an undisclosed amount of money from a group of investors led by Accel and Technology Crossover Ventures (also including Iconiq Capital, Greylock, Stripes, and Meritech). As part of that transaction, the investors took a majority stake in the business, buying out the two founders in the process; installing an Accel venture partner, Rob Solomon, as CEO. Andy has a passion for creating products that drive change on a massive scale.

VP Engineering, Qualcomm

Charles leads the software department for Qualcomm Research. He also oversees Qualcomm Research’s robotics program. While at Qualcomm, he has been involved in the research and development of most of the modern cellular radio standards, including CDMA, UMTS, UMB and LTE.

Previously, he led the software development team at Ensemble Communications, a start-up company which pioneered the development of LMDS point-to-multipoint wireless backhaul systems.

Charles has a B.S. in Computer Engineering, and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from the University of California, San Diego.

Senior Vice President, AMD

Ivo Bolsens is now the Senior Vice President of AMD, which acquired Xilinx in 2022. Prior to the acquisition, he held the title of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), with responsibility for advanced technology development, Xilinx research laboratories (XRL) and Xilinx university program (XUP).

Bolsens came to Xilinx in June 2001 from the Belgium-based research center IMEC, where he was vice president of information and communication systems. His research included the development of knowledge-based verification for VLSI circuits, design of digital signal processing applications, and wireless communication terminals. He also headed the research on design technology for high-level synthesis of DSP hardware, HW/SW co-design and system-on-chip design.

Bolsens holds a PhD in applied science and an MSEE from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

Global Strategy Lead, Becton Dickinson (BD) Biosciences

Matt Borer is a global senior strategic marketing leader at BD Biosciences and has more than 20 years of medical technology experience. In his role, Matt is responsible for leading opportunity assessments and commercial due diligence for new technology initiatives. Prior to joining BD Biosciences, Matt was the Senior Director of Marketing at ResMed, a leading provider of respiratory technologies and the global leader in remote monitoring.

Prior to this role, Matt held many positions of increasing responsibility within the medical device industry focusing on identifying and incubating market leading solutions for hospitals, physician offices and home care providers.

Matt holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of California, Irvine and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Chairman Of The Board, OmniGuide Holdings

Mr. Buhler holds extensive healthcare industry and business leadership expertise stemming from a 33-year career with RF Surgical Systems, Inc., Natus Medical Inc., SenoRx Inc., Ultrasonix, GE Healthcare and Diasonics-VingMed Ultrasound. Mr. Buhler has a proven track record of building and leading successful world–class business teams that consistently achieve strong financial performance, operational efficiency and customer loyalty.

Mr. Buhler earned his B.S. degrees in Business Administration and Human Resources at Dominican College, Blauvelt, New York as well a degree in Electrical Technology from the State University of New York at Orange County. Mr. Buhler has also completed the Executive Management Development Program (EMBA equivalent) at General Electric’s Educational Center in Crotonville, New York.

Mr. Buhler’s extensive experience in the healthcare field spans 30+ years. He has been the CEO/COO of three public and two private companies, completed numerous rounds of financing, done ~$1bb in M&A, and recently merged RF Surgical Systems, Inc. with Medtronic. He has successfully completed four turnarounds, each entity becoming a high growth/profitable business in its discipline.

Mr. Buhler has an impressive history generating new revenue streams, building business, and increasing market share for multi-million and multi-billion dollar international high-technology corporations. His businesses have demonstrated the ability to penetrate new markets and strengthen competitive positioning, design and direct high-impact strategic plans, define visions and transform concepts into lucrative workable realities.

Mr. Buhler is now Chairman Of The Board of OmniGuide Holdings: advanced surgical technology engineered to deliver an optimized surgical experience and superior patient outcomes.

President, CRISPR QC / Co-Founder & Chief Entrepreneur, Cardea Bio Inc.

Ross Bundy, Co-founder of Cardea Bio, brings his vision for directing strategy, operations, and planning to the company’s market-leading technology solutions at CRISPR QC.

Ross is responsible for new expansions and key projects at Cardea including scaling up the chip production for Cardea and help setting up partnerships. With an MBA from San Diego State University, Ross has held positions in supply chain, operations, and finance from companies such as General Dynamics and UBC Financial Services. Ross brings precision execution and implementation to the company.

CTO, Carlsmed

Niall leads IP and technology strategy and is cofounder of Carlsmed. He is a spine industry veteran, with previous technology leadership roles at Alphatec Spine, Ellipse Technologies, NuVasive, and J&J DePuy Synthes Spine. Niall earned a J.D. from Suffolk University and an M.S. and B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Niall is also a medical device executive and intellectual property attorney with over twenty years of proven experience within varied corporate environments. He is an innovative and motivated individual with the capacity to manage complex programs to drive successful commercial launches. He is also an accountable professional with extensive development, IP, market, customer, and regulatory knowledge.

Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend

Rich Christiansen is a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, a multi-practice international law firm. Rich’s clients range from multinationals to early-stage startups. Rich focuses his practice on patent prosecution and transactional intellectual property for a broad range of technologies in the software, mechanical, and electrical spaces. With Rich’s help, clients have received patents for medical devices, artificial intelligence, electro-mechanical systems, online security and content delivery, heavy equipment, fintech, and clean technology. Rich’s transactional practice focuses on helping his clients buy/sell companies and assets, complete investment rounds, and negotiate license agreements. In addition to this, Rich helps his clients bring products to the market by identifying and mitigating risks arising from competitor patents.

Before launching his legal career, Rich was a design engineer at Raytheon Missile System where he participated in the development and testing of a new weapon system and was involved in the development of diesel injection systems at Siemens VDO. Rich has been involved with many startups and new companies, including as a founder, and as a mentor.

Rich is fluent in German. He obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.

About Kilpatrick Townsend

CEO & Co-Founder, Carlsmed

Mike is a seasoned MedTech operator, entrepreneur, and cofounder of Carlsmed. He was named as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year and to the SD500 as one of the most influential people in San Diego. Mike has operating experience at private and public companies, including NuVasive Specialized Orthopedics, Zimmer Biomet, Orchid Orthopedics, X-Spine Systems, and YSI. He is active in the entrepreneur community and servers as an advisor to San Diego based non-profits EvoNexus and SD Connect. Mike has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton.

FRMR CTO, Anterix

Frank Creede is an investor and former CTO of Anterix (NASDAQ: ATEX, formerly pdvWireless, Inc.). At Anterix, Frank served as a company officer and member of the senior management team that raised over $240M to purchase 6MHz of Part 90 (two-way radio) 900MHz spectrum from Sprint, repurpose it for broadband (LTE Band 8) and took the company public in February, 2015.

Frank is a member emeritus and former board member of the San Diego Tech Coast Angels and an angel investor in over 12 Southern California emerging high tech companies. Frank was formerly the Chairman, President, & CEO of Logic Innovations, Inc., which provided data broadcasting products and development services, was founded by Frank in 1986 and acquired by the former division of IBM in 1999. Frank also founded Staffing Innovations, LLC, a technical contract outsourcing business in 1997 and which was acquired in 2012. As a mentor at the Chairmen’s Roundtable, Frank mentors growing San Diego area companies. Frank was previously vice chair and board member of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of San Diego County and he volunteers at EvoNexus on due diligence and mentoring. Frank holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from UC Davis and he has completed coursework for the MBA program at San Diego State University.

CEO, Guru

As CEO, Suzie oversees the day-to-day operations at Guru.  She honed her skills while working as Senior Account & Operations Manager for Antenna International, where her portfolio included the Smithsonian, Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.  She was at the helm of all on-site staffed operations in the United States, providing Suzie with the knowledge and the skills to deliver exceptional service and the ultimate visitor experience. She is a Jill-of-all-trades and a woodworking expert. She is not a CEO to sit behind a desk - she will absolutely get her hands dirty onsite with clients when duty calls!

Senior Director, R&D, Becton Dickinson and Company (BD)

John DeNuzzio, is a Senior Director at Becton Dickinson, a global medical technology company.   He has held technical leadership positions in diabetes, infectious disease diagnostics, genomics, and infusion systems.   As a hands-on leader with over twenty-five years in the pharmaceutics and medical devices, John has built and led global R&D teams to take a customer-centric, systems-level approach to product development.  In addition, he has engaged third-party developers and worked closely with startups throughout his career.

His experience has centered on integrating diagnostics and therapeutics into wear devices, consumables, and lab-based systems.   He has successfully ushered products from concept through development, registration and launch with applications ranging from transdermal drug delivery, glucose monitoring, molecular diagnostics, and genomics.

John received BSE and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Bioengineering and Materials Science respectively.  Away from work, John enjoys traveling with family and attempting to play tennis and golf.

SVP & CTO, Shutterfly, Inc.

With more than twenty years of experience, Dr. Elbayadi has worked with a number of high-growth companies and across a variety of industries, including mobile and SaaS consumer services, security and financial services. Having held C-Level positions for leading solution providers, Dr. Elbayadi has a uniquely 360-degree view of consumer and enterprise SaaS businesses. He has a consistent track record of defining technology and product strategies that accelerate growth.

As CTO of Shutterfly, Dr. Elbayadi oversees all technology functions including product development, cybersecurity, DevOps and machine learning/AI R&D functions. In this capacity he’s leading the technology platform transformation. Prior to Shutterfly, Dr. Elbayadi held the position of SVP, Product & Technology for Brain Corp, a San Diego-based AI company creating transformative core technology for the robotics industry.

As advisor, Dr. Elbayadi has been engaged by CEOs and senior executives of companies ranging from $10M to $2B in revenues. Representative engagements include public cloud strategy, platform integration and M&A strategy. Also advised numerous VC firms on technology and prospective investments.

Dr. Elbayadi earned a doctorate in leadership and change from Antioch University, a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Chapman University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Redlands.

CISO, ResMed

Todd Friedman is the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) for ResMed, a global company that manufactures and distributes medical equipment and solutions for diagnosing, treating and, managing sleep-disordered breathing and other respiratory conditions. ResMed employs more than 4,000 employees worldwide, operates in 100 countries and has manufacturing facilities in Australia, France, Singapore and the US.

Todd is a versatile leader with more than twenty years’ experience in information risk and security management. His career has spanned the healthcare, toy, entertainment and insurance industries, during which Todd led numerous functions, including infrastructure planning and management, systems integration, PMO, project management, governance, compliance, strategic planning, and for the past decade, information risk and security management. Prior to joining ResMed in early 2015, Todd was the CISO of Mattel, and prior to that the SVP and CISO of Universal Music Group, the world largest music company. In addition to working with large, complex global organizations Todd has spent over 10 years working pro bono with a small web company providing leadership, functional and strategic support.

A native of Los Angeles, he holds an MBA from UCLA and a B.A. from UCSD.

Head of Product Management, Hospital Respiratory Care, Philips Healthcare

Rakhi Garg has 10+ years of experience in healthcare/medical technologies industry. She is driven by a vision to provide world-class healthcare services to patients at affordable costs. In her current role at Philips Healthcare, she is leading Trilogy ventilation platform for Hospital Respiratory Care. Prior to joining Philips, Rakhi held various product management roles at Becton Dickinson and GE Healthcare. She has also worked for a digital health startup, Sense4Baby, which was acquired by Airstrip; and a venture fund investing in medical devices and healthcare technologies. Rakhi is a physician from India and earned an MBA from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego.

President & CEO, TriNet

Since 2008, Burton M. Goldfield has served as president and CEO of TriNet, a strategic partner to small businesses for payroll, HR, benefits, employment law compliance and risk reduction. Burton has more than 25 years of experience in sales, operational, and technology leadership positions and is known for driving product innovation and business growth. Since joining TriNet, Burton has transformed the company into the largest independent cloud-based HR provider and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). With offices throughout America, TriNet serves more than 8,000 customers and over 210,000 employees. Its services allow small businesses to regain focus on executing their visions and growing their businesses while TriNet manages their payroll taxes, day-to-day HR, employment law compliance, and conformity with the Affordable Care Act. TriNet’s revenue exceeded $250M in 2012 and has more than tripled during Burton’s tenure. To expand TriNet’s market reach and strengthen the company’s ability to serve more clients than ever before, he led the company to acquire LMC, Gevity, AccordHR, SOI and ExpenseCloud. In addition, Burton invested heavily in the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology platform, leveraging his background from Hyperion, IBM, and Rational Software. Prior to TriNet, Burton was CEO at Ketera Technologies, a Santa Clara-based SaaS provider to FORTUNE 2000 companies. Before that, Burton served as senior vice president, worldwide field operations at Hyperion Solutions Corporation and vice president of worldwide sales for IBM Corporation’s Rational Software division. Burton received a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA from Villanova University. In 2010, the San Francisco Business Times named him a Most Admired CEO.

CEO, Lynq Technologies

Adam Gould is currently CEO of Lynq Technologies, whose instant-on, scalable, and secure networks are used by first responders, government agencies, and enterprises for whom reliable communications is a strong requirement. Before coming to Lynq Technologies, Adam was Senior Vice President and General Manager of carrier solutions at Inseego, one of the leading product companies in 5G, and has more than 30 years of wireless industry experience.

Prior to Inseego, Adam held the following titles: CEO at QuantalRF, Vice President of IoT strategy at ARM, CEO of Sensinode, GM of Consumer Products BU at NextWave, and CTO of Nokia CDMA, where he worked for 13 years. Early in his career, Adam developed the DSP software for the first GSM phone, at Motorola. Adam has degrees in EE from Drexel and MIT.

CTO, XCOM

Matt Grob, chief technology officer of XCOM, is responsible for XCOM Labs, which develops innovative wireless technologies. Matt previously spent over 26 years at Qualcomm in technology and engineering leadership roles. He served as Qualcomm’s EVP and CTO from 2011 to 2017, overseeing R&D and managing a global team of 2,200 employees across various divisions worldwide, and later as EVP/Technology.

Mr. Grob holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Bradley University and a M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is a trustee of the Fleet Science Center in San Diego, and a volunteer for over a decade at FIRST, the robotics and education organization inspiring future leaders in science and technology.

Senior Director, Dexcom Ventures

Jason is the co-founder of Dexcom Ventures where he leads technology scouting and strategic pipeline development.  He is a seasoned innovator in the medical device field and a key contributor in Dexcom product development over the past decade.

Committed to Dexcom’s mission of ”Empowering people to take control of diabetes" he has advanced the simplicity, reliability, and comfort of Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring systems.  Jason has been a prolific inventor and is named on well over 100 worldwide patents and patent applications.

With Dexcom Ventures, Jason is chartered with building a portfolio as value-added strategic investors by leveraging access to Dexcom’s unique industry expertise and technology leadership.

Prior to Dexcom, Jason held a variety of engineering and leadership roles as a consultant and with Black and Decker.  He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from San Diego State University.

President & Co-Founder, CureMetrix

Kevin is a strong technology leader who has the ability to define broad strategic objectives and to manage their implementation. At Insurance Company of the West he was responsible for moving an antiquated technology landscape into the 21st century. He successfully brought in a seasoned leadership team, initiated a strong corporate governance board, and instilled a culture of accountability. Kevin provided a clear vision for the company to follow and worked to improve team satisfaction while driving forward a large suite of initiatives tailored to improve the technology group, and company at large.

Kevin is an extremely dedicated colleague who is very good at planning and implementing a complicated, highly political project from a strategic and creative level. He is excellent at leading and guiding teams to success.

CISO, SoftBank Investment Advisors

Gary is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for SoftBank Investment Advisors. He is the former Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Webroot, the largest privately held internet security company, which delivers security products to consumers and business via a suite of software security products including endpoint, SaaS, and threat intelligence.

Previously, Gary served as Deputy Director & Chief Information Security Officer for the City of San Diego. In this role, Gary advised the City of San Diego’s executive leadership consisting of Mayoral, City Council, and 40+ city departments and agencies on protecting city government information resources.

Gary oversaw citywide cyber security strategy and the enterprise cyber security program, cyber operations, compliance and risk assessment services. His mission included creating a “risk aware” culture that places high value on securing city information resources and protecting personal information entrusted to the City of San Diego.

Gary is involved in the cybersecurity and technology start-up community in San Diego where he is the Co-Chairman for Cybertech, the parent organization that houses the Cyber incubator Cyberhive and the Internet of Things incubator iHive. He is an Advisory Board Member for the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence. He also serves on the board of Brier & Thorn International, a cloud based Managed Security Services Company and is Co-Chairman of Securing Our eCity’s Critical Infrastructure Work-group.

Gary is an active member of the professional organizations ISSA, ISACA, OWASP, and is on the Board of Directors for INFRAGARD. Gary holds numerous professional certifications including: CISSP, CISA, and CRISC, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management & Masters in Business Administration. Gary has over 28 years of experience in Information Security, Enterprise Risk Management, and Data Privacy.

Co-Founder & FRMR CEO, Xyleme

An excellent business problem solver and outstanding mentor who brings Passion, Expertise and Experience to Startups and Early Stage Companies.

Mark Hellinger brings intense entrepreneurial spirit and real world experience to startups and early stage ventures, with the ability to make connections and see unique go-to-market opportunities. Highly skilled at the intersection of marketing, products and customer success, he has built many successful relationships with employees, customers and partners at multiple technology companies. Mark has recently helped several accelerator and incubator startup companies bring new products to market, generate early sales and set up scalable operations.

He began his career as a software engineer after graduating from the MIT, and has been involved in Enterprise/B2B software sales, operations and product development at both public and venture-backed companies. His experience with SaaS marketing and customer success enables him to deliver highly effective consulting and advisory services in the following areas:

Mark was Chief Executive Officer at Xyleme, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company in the Human Capital Management market. Originally a provider of custom application solutions, he transitioned the business into a software company for the corporate and higher education markets, and led Xyleme to through a transition to a modern SaaS platform reaching $10M in revenue over four years. He built a multi-cultural distributed team, with sales, customer success and development resources located throughout North America and Europe. Mark was the leader in all aspects of the business from product design to sales and customer success during the startup phase, and managed a team of talented professionals as the company matured.

He started his career developing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for manufacturing, distribution and service organizations. Mark became Vice President, Operations and eventually President for Interactive Group as it grew from $3M to $56M in revenue, more than 200 employees, and executed multiple acquisitions and a successful IPO. The company is now part of Epicor, a leader in the mid-market ERP space.

Mark has recently worked with several start-ups as a mentor and advisor, as well as interim roles as COO, CRO and CMO. Recently, he has helped Human Capital Management startup re-evaluate their market opportunity, pivot to a new revenue model, and achieve product market fit. He has worked with another focused on Corporate Social Responsibility, refining the inbound and outbound marketing processes, gathering customer requirements, and coaching the CEO. For another, he identified a new partnership opportunity and made the initial contacts, resulting in a major distribution agreement. Mark brings his extensive

Global Head, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Science Innovations, LLC; Adjunct Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, School of Engineering and Weatherhead School of Management

Dr. Michael Hill is a global-minded, skilled entrepreneur and authentic leader creating meaningful, patient-inspired, medical device technology innovations from idea/discovery to commercial scale. He has deep domain knowledge of science and technology and experience with research, product development and clinical research/regulatory. He is adept in successfully leading large global, diverse organizations and high performing teams. He has a thorough understanding of the fundamentals related to global healthcare systems to deliver impactful transformative innovations. He is curious, passionate andperseveres toward creating the future.

He joined Medtronic in July 1992 as a Scientist in the Cardiac Rhythm Management division of Medtronic in Minneapolis, MN, working on arrhythmia prevention research. In 1998, Dr. Hill became a Senior Scientist and Technical Fellow in the Heart Failure division of Medtronic and led the research efforts on the novel therapy of cardiac resynchronization therapy. In 2001 he became a Bakken Fellow and Principle Clinical Program manager leading the effort on ambulatory hemodynamic monitoring and became Director of Clinical, Heart Failure New Therapies in 2003. In 2004, Dr. Hill became the Director of Clinical Research at the Bakken Research Center in the Netherlands responsible for Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management research, clinical outcome trials and health economic outcomes in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He returned to Minneapolis in 2007 as Medtronic’s Senior Director of Programs in New Therapies and Diagnostics, CRDM where he had program management responsibilities for novel therapy and diagnostic opportunities in chronic cardiac diseases. In 2012 he became Vice President of Research and Development of the Heart Failure Business Unit. In May 2016, Michael became the Vice President of Corporate Science, Technology, and Clinical Affairs, inspiring and enabling the enterprise-wide technical community to create patient-inspired, meaningful innovations. In September of 2018, Michael became the Vice President of Corporate Science & Technology and Innovation to focus on building a sustainable innovation ecosystem for Medtronic’s continued and future success. Michael retired from Medtronic in 2019 after 27 successful years of continuously bringing significant innovations to scale. He supports educational programs for science, technology, engineering and diversity & inclusion; and remains active in knowledge sharing, creating intersections, improving decision-making, and accelerating the cycle of innovation.

In 2010, Dr. Hill achieved a significant milestone obtaining his fiftieth patent in his 18 years with Medtronic; he now holds more than sixty. Dr. Hill has authored several book chapters, manuscripts, and abstracts. He is a reviewer for several medical journals and is often an invited lecturer at international healthcare and innovation conferences. He was awarded ais a global-minded, skilled entrepreneur and authentic leader creating meaningful, patient-inspired, medical device technology innovations from idea/discovery to commercial scale. He has deep domain knowledge of science and technology and experience with research, product development and clinical research/regulatory. He is adept in successfully leading large global, diverse organizations and high performing teams. He has a thorough understanding of the fundamentals related to global healthcare systems to deliver impactful transformative innovations. He is curious, passionate and perseveres toward creating the future. CRDM Star of Excellence award in 2011. In 2012, he was inducted as Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2013, he was awarded the Distinguished Engineering Alumni award from Duke University. He was awarded the Medtronic Patent of Distinction Award in 2014. In 2020, he was awarded the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation, recognizing an outstanding individual who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to and made important contributions to patient healthcare, from the Biomedical Engineering Society and Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. Dr. Hill has been a member of the American Heart Association since 1992; served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Minneapolis AHA chapter (1998 – 2005); and served as President of the Board (2003-4). He was a member of the Northland Affiliate AHA Research Committee (2001-2004) reviewing cardiovascular research grant and fellowship applications. He was awarded the AHA Research Achievement Award (Northland Affiliate) in 2002. He is member of IEEE, BMES, HRS, HFSA, and ACRP.

Dr. Hill served on the Coulter Foundation committee at Duke University (2014-2019); Steering Committee of LIRYC Institute, Bordeaux University (2014-2019) and the Technical and Leadership Advisory Committees to the American Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (2017-2019). Since 2015, he serves on the Corporate Executive Committee at Case Western Reserve University.

A native of Jackson, Tennessee, Dr. Hill received his BSE [Biomedical and Electrical Engineering] and BS [Mathematics] Degrees from Duke University, MS and PhD [Biomedical Engineering] Degrees from Case Western Reserve University, and MBA [Management] Degree from the University of St. Thomas.

Dr. Hill enjoys traveling, food and cultures, skiing and scuba diving, storytelling, and enjoying his homes in San Diego, CA; Dania Beach, FL and Barcelona, ES.

VP Customer Experience, ViaSat

Kristi started her career at Linkabit, the fountainhead of San Diego’s telecom industry, where she worked with the three founders of ViaSat. She then joined ViaSat as the 6th employee just about a year after the company was founded. During her time at ViaSat she has worked to grow the company in many areas including hardware, software, and system design; project and business management; and strategy and marketing. She co-founded ViaSat’s innovation center and holds numerous patents in digital communications.

Kristi has B.S. and M.Eng degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Co-Founder & CEO

Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history in leading cross functional organizations to achieve healthy growth and margins. Strong entrepreneurship professional, skilled in Sports Technology, Streaming, AI based Fan engagement, Product Lifecycle Management, Video Technologies and Services, Go-to-market Strategy, Sales and Marketing, M&A, Private and Public Corporate Management.

Founder & CEO, Innovations Realized, LLC

Ben Jenkins is a software innovator with in-depth, expert knowledge in the fintech & payment industries. Over 20 years, he has developed new business lines for large corporations and new technology start-ups, and he is a start-up founding partner. In the past, his work focused on developing the payment infrastructure (PayFac) now responsible for processing billions of dollars annually in non-profit donations. Ben also drives new technologies in several start-up advisory board roles.

Given his expertise in the payment industry, Ben continues to serve as a software and payment consultant with large enterprise ISVs. He is also setting out on a new venture to change the landscape of how product ideas efficiently and cost effectively reach the market while reducing many of the challenges currently faced by early/mid-stage company leaders.

Fmr. Life Sciences Business Development, Brex

Steve is an accomplished business development executive with an in-depth understanding of processes, relationships, and vocabularies in the Life Sciences industry that are essential for the business success of industry service providers. He has lengthy track record of identifying market and product opportunities, establishing go-to-market strategies and tactics, and leading initiatives, all resulting in significant company growth.

Steve formerly lead the Life Sciences Business Development focus for Brex where he drives growth in the company’s customer base both directly and through partnerships with numerous life science trade associations, investors, incubators/accelerators, and other industry channels.

Previously Steve served as Vice President of Business Development for 2 other Life Science industry service providers – ShareVault, an industry leader in secure document sharing systems (data rooms/deal rooms), and American Laboratory Trading, the largest supplier of refurbished laboratory equipment in the industry.

Prior to his focus on the Life Sciences industry, Steve was an entrepreneur (twice) and senior executive at a variety of high technology companies, and involved in 2 successful exits. At Rent One Online (vacation rental property management systems – acquired by AIG), he was Vice President of Products. Steve was also a co-founder and CEO of Enable Solutions (online travel search services for small & midsize businesses), was co-founder and CEO of InCharge, (interactive, online support services for individuals and families dealing with life-challenging illness).

Earlier in his career, Steve was the Vice President of Research, Design, and Development at The Learning Company (educational software company – acquired by SoftKey), and Vice President of Product Development for Sierra On-Line (entertainment and educational games).

Steve began his career at Hewlett-Packard where he held various engineering and management positions. Steve holds a B.S. and M.S.E.E. from Cornell University.

Advisor to the CTO & Chief Technology Office Fellow, InterDigital, Inc.

John has over 30 years of wireless technology development, engineering management and team building experience. Led the development of integrated circuits and software for multiple generations of wireless products. Skilled system architect and problem solver with expertise in communications, computer networking, IC design, virtualization and software development. Played key role in multiple business development activities worldwide.

John graduated from Drexel University with a BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering and completed the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Executive Development Program.

FRMR Founder, Qualcomm Ventures

Prashant Kantak is an early-stage venture advisor and investor. He plays an active role in helping determine business and product strategy, organization and go-to-market strategy and takes operational roles as needed in early stage companies. He started and led Qualcomm Ventures, a $500M strategic venture capital fund of Qualcomm, and built operations in North America, Europe and Asia including Korea ($60M), Japan ($30M) and China ($100M) for 6 years from 1999 through 2005. He led investments in and actively managed over 24 portfolio companies in the US and several more worldwide, many of which were either acquired or taken public, including Paypal (acquired by EBAY), Air Prime (acquired by SWIR), GTRAN Wireless (acquired by FLEX), PacketVideo, Iridigm (acquired by QCOM), Airvana (IPO), Discera and JAMDAT (IPO). He led the creation of strategic alliances, co-development and business partnerships between startup companies and Qualcomm operating units. This activity resulted in expanding markets for and augmenting Qualcomm’s existing products and services as well as driving innovations through enabling new technologies and business models internally and in the industry. He was on the steering committee to formulate and drive Qualcomm’s internal innovation efforts. He was also responsible for various corporate development efforts including technology and business strategy, strategic alliances, partnerships and mergers and acquisitions.

Prashant has over 20 years of business and technical experience in the field of telecommunications. He was with Qualcomm since early 1990 and held various technical and business management positions within Qualcomm. He participated in the early definition and development of CDMA standards and systems and thereafter developed key ASICs for their implementations both on the infrastructure and mobile side. He also designed and implemented innovative DSP architectures for mobile communications that form the core platform for Qualcomm’s commercial ASICs. Prashant has an MBA from Cornell University. He also has a MS and BS in Electrical Engineering.

He is also actively involved in various initiatives to help foster the entrepreneurial community in the telecom sector. He served on the Board of San Diego Software Industry Council and currently serves on the advisory board of EvoNexus and is on the selection committee of the local incubator, EvoNexus, since its founding.

Founder & Managing Partner, 2468 Ventures / FRMR Senior Executive, Qualcomm & Intel

Pankaj Kedia is a Tech Intrapreneur (formerly at QCOM and Intel) turned Early-Stage AI / Deep Tech Investor, Venture Partner, CXO Advisor and Board Member.

Pankaj currently serves as the Founder and Managing Partner of 2468 Ventures, a Venture Partner at VU Ventures, a Deal Partner at Ganas Ventures, and is a Board Member and CEO Advisor to numerous early-stage start-ups and non-profit organizations.

As a Tech Intrapreneur, Pankaj played pivotal roles in incubating a range of businesses at Fortune 100 companies such as Qualcomm and Intel over the last 25+ years. At Qualcomm, Pankaj founded and led the wearables business to a 9-figure franchise, establishing Snapdragon Wear as the premier brand in the industry. Credited for leading industry convergence between wearable tech and fashion, luxury, sports, children, seniors, and enterprise segments, Pankaj established a thriving ecosystem in the wearables segment. Previously at Intel, Pankaj held senior executive roles in the PC, mobile, wireless, and handheld segments. He defined and launched the industry's first modern laptops and expanded Intel beyond the PC with the launch of the industry's first modern tablets, handhelds, and smartphones.

Pankaj is currently leveraging the skills he acquired as an intrapreneur -- being able to see around corners, go from ideas to products, scale businesses from $1M to $100s of millions (and billions in the case of laptops), and grow teams and organizations -- to advise Early-Stage Founders and CEOs in their start-up growth journey. As an angel investor in 100+ Early-Stage and Series A companies, Pankaj is combining his passion for AI and Deep Tech with his ambition to make a long-lasting impact. Previously, Pankaj led business development for the wireless portfolio at Intel Capital, which was comprised of 30 start-ups with $75M invested capital.

Pankaj is widely recognized as a thought leader in the mobile, IOT, wearables and AI spaces, has spoken at multiple prominent industry events, and appeared in a myriad of mainstream publications. He holds the early defining patent on low power for mobile devices (#7725748, Low Power Subsystem for Portable Computers).

Pankaj is currently enrolled in the Stanford LEAD innovation program, has an MBA from The Wharton School, an MS from the University of Michigan, a BS from the Indian Institute of Technology and has taken multiple management, leadership, and investing courses at Stanford, Columbia, and Darden in his quest for life-long learning. He is a TED speaker, amateur photographer, global traveler, and a gadget addict.

CEO & Board Member, Corporate EVP, LG Technology Ventures

Dong-Su Kim is the CEO and board member of LG Technology Ventures. He has over twenty-five years of investment, strategy, planning, and technology experience. As the founding CEO, Dong-Su established the fund structure, hired key people, and initiated investment operations. Under his guidance, LG Technology Ventures manages over $400 million of fund assets and invests in early-stage information technology, automotive, manufacturing, life-sciences, energy, and advanced materials companies. Portfolio companies include AmazeVR, Lygos, May Mobility, and Ridecell. Dong-Su Kim was also recently promoted to corporate Executive Vice President.

Previously, Dong-Su was Vice President and GM of Samsung Ventures America where he managed offices in Menlo Park, Boston, London, and Tel Aviv. He has led the investment of over thirty companies in diverse sectors including semiconductors (Soft Machines, Verisilicon, Wave Computing), equipment (DCG Systems, IMS, Reno Subsystems), materials (Nanosys, NexPlanar, Voltaix), and storage systems (Pure Storage).

Prior to joining Samsung Ventures, he was a Director at Asia Evolution, an investment bank in Korea covering mid-market financing, private placement, and M&As.

Before that, he was a Director at the Technology Strategy Office of Samsung Electronics. As the CTO’s staff, he was responsible for strategic venture investments and technology alliances. He also worked in technology planning for Samsung’s Telecom R&D center, responsible for discovering new research topics. Dong-Su started his professional career as a Technical Leader at Samsung Fiber Optics Business Unit in development of fiber optic components.

His past Board Director appointments include Datera, Digital Specialty Chemicals, Femtometrix, Inpria, Reno Subsystems, SBA Materials, SVXR, D2S, DCG Systems (acquired by FEI), NexPlanar (acquired by Cabot), Voltaix (acquired by Air Liquide), Panasas, and Pixtronix (acquired by Qualcomm). Dong-Su also served on the Investment Advisory Committee for Sierra Ventures.

Dong-Su has earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and a B.S. with Honors in Applied Physics from California Institute of Technology.

VP Engineering & Chief Architect, Consumer Group, Intuit

Bridget is VP Engineering, Fellow, and Chief Architect at Intuit’s Consumer Group, focusing on products for personal tax and finance management. Previous to Intuit, she was at Comcast and served as President of a joint venture developing next generation conditional access and security products for the cable industry. She has also held senior engineering roles at Motorola, Copper Mountain Networks, General Instrument and Hughes Space and Communications Group.

She has received numerous industry awards and recognition, including 2016 CableFax Most Powerful Women in Cable (Technology Award) in 2016, and has a strong commitment to mentoring the next generation of women in technology. She also has served on the United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council, was a past mentor for Athena, and volunteered as a troop leader and mentor for the Girl Scouts of America.

Bridget has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California (USC) and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from California State Polytechnic University. She has also completed the Executive Program for Scientists and Engineers (EPSE) at the University of California, San Diego, and an executive leadership program through the Center for Creative Leadership. She holds 5 US patents.

Co-Founder & CEO, Hyperlight Energy

Mr. King has won and managed over $7.5 million in contracts and investment from Fortune 500 utility companies, government agencies and private investors. He is lead inventor of Hyperlight Energy’s novel plastic solar concentrator technology. Prior to Hyperlight, Mr. King was an architect of the $3.2 BB California Solar Initiative’s (CSI’s) online rebate system. He authored a seminal paper, now referenced in Wikipedia’s solar power entry, predicting the tectonic shift in business models in solar photovoltaic from a traditional ownership structure to a power purchase agreement structure. Mr. King is honored to serve on the Selection Committee for EvoNexus, San Diego’s premier start-up incubator. He holds 16 issued U.S. and international patents and two pending U.S. patents. He holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, an M.S. from UC Irvine and a B.S. from Caltech.

Partner at Launch Factory, Co-Director at StartR & Adjunct Professor, SDSU & UC San Diego

Kimberly Davis King has over 17 years in the venture capital industry. Kim has been focusing on investing and mentoring startups and high growth companies. Kim is also currently the co-Director of StartR and mystartupxx at the UCSD Rady Business School, a lecturer at the Rady UCSD Business School, an Adjunct Professor at SDSU and on the oversight committee for Evonexus a San Diego incubator.

Kim is an advisor to several early-stage and growth companies including Clics, Aria, Trials.ai, PhiloMetron and Verve Wireless. In 2007, Kim relocated to San Diego and opened the office for Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Before joining Hercules, Kim was a General Partner with IDG Ventures from 1997 to 2006. She played an active role in managing and investing over 9 years a $120 million captive fund. She led multiple investments in software and technology infrastructure. Successful IPO investments included F5 Networks (FFIV) and VA Linux (LINUX). Prior to joining IDG Ventures, she was an Associate at BankAmerica Ventures. She has also served as a product manager in the Multimedia Publishing Group at Microsoft and spent four years as a consultant at Andersen Consulting. Kim holds a B.S in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She sits on various non-profit boards and holds leadership positions including the National Charity League.

Founder; Former Viasat, MySpace

Jason Knapp has launched multiple successful startups with exits totaling more than $170 M. He co-invented Real-Time-Bidding (US Patent # 9886718), a foundational digital ad trading approach underlying the $100 billion programmatic advertising industry.

Jason previously co-founded Strategic Data Corp, which created one of the first sophisticated machine learning-based online advertising targeting platforms and was acquired by Myspace/News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA) for $160 M. There, Jason and the team built one of the world's largest advertising systems. The company and technology are now a part of Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI).

Jason has implemented major strategic technology initiatives at HP, Intel, Citibank, Bank of America, and Comcast. He has held product innovation, technology, and design leadership roles at Viasat, where he introduced new digital monetization offerings across commercial air, emerging markets, and residential services; at Myspace, where he led a site redesign that tripled the number of active users; and at Viant, where he oversaw the creation of the Viant Ad Cloud and assisted with the company's acquisition by Time Inc.

Jason is passionate about supporting San Diego startup companies; he is involved in several innovative startups as an investor and mentor and leads an Angellist syndicate. He is also active in the community, serving on multiple charity boards, including Casas de Luz, which builds homes for the working poor in Tijuana, and the Academic Foundation for Cultural Exchange.

He is currently the founder and CEO at CraftedPour.com, a multisided creator platform connecting craft cocktail creators, enthusiasts, and brands.

FRMR GTO & Global Head of HP Labs, HP Inc.

Tolga Kurtoglu was formerly HP’s Chief Technology Officer and Global Head of HP Labs. In this role, Tolga led HP Labs, one of the world’s most preeminent and seasoned industrial research laboratories, where he drove a renewed commitment to cutting-edge research and innovation. He also led the company’s technology strategy and engagement with the technical and scientific communities.Tolga is a technology executive with a long track record of success spanning research and development, business strategy and technology commercialization. He is the former CEO of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a renowned scientific research and open innovation company that brings leading scientists, engineers and designers together to explore emerging areas of science and technology. During his tenure at PARC, Kurtoglu led the transformation of PARC from a research organization to a world-class open innovation business.More recently, he was the Head of Global Research at Xerox, where he oversaw the company’s research centers and distributed advanced technology and engineering teams.Prior to this, Tolga was a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, and a mechanical design engineer and group lead at Dell. Kurtoglu has numerous patents and publications in the fields of automation and machine intelligence, fault tolerant system design, and 3D/digital manufacturing. Originally from Turkey, he earned his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has a master’s degree in the same field from Carnegie Mellon.Tolga is based in Palo Alto, California.

Senior Director, Corporate Business Development, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Richard Kurtz, Ph.D. is a Senior Director of Corporate Business Development for Bio-Rad Laboratories, a life science research and clinical diagnostics company that has been serving customers worldwide since 1952. In his current role, Richard reports to the company’s Chief Strategy officer and executes corporate strategies to deliver long-term company growth, focusing on acquisitions, partnerships and technology licensing in both Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. Richard also coordinates Bio-Rad Corporate Venture Fund investments in start-up companies with innovative products and technologies focusing on research, diagnostics and health care.

Richard has 15 years of industry experience. Previously, Richard was the Marketing Director for the Life Science Gene Expression Division, a role in which he managed long-term product-line strategies, product development and global commercialization activities for one of Bio-Rad’s largest Life Science product portfolios. He has extensive experience in strategic business planning, technology assessment, product development and commercialization. Richard received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Northwestern University prior to transitioning into industry.

BIO : (NYSE) Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of products for the life science research and clinical diagnostics markets.

Divisional Vice President, R&D, Abbott

System Chief of Vascular Surgery, Northwell Health / Sugeon-in-Chief, Long Island Jewish Medical Center / Associate Professor of Surgery, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine 

Gregg Landis is a Vascular Surgeon and a General Surgeon in North New Hyde Park, New York. Landis has been practicing medicine for over 28 years and is highly rated in 8 conditions. His top areas of expertise are Carotid Artery Disease, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA), Carotid Artery Surgery, and Stent Placement. He is licensed to treat patients in New York.

Dr. Landis has extensive experience in Carotid Artery Disease or Carotid Endarterectomy, Aortic Aneurysm or Dissection, and Peripheral Vascular Disease. He graduated from UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY OF NEW JERSEY / NEWARK in 1995. He is affiliated with medical facilities Long Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital.

His clinical research consists of co-authoring 28 peer reviewed articles in the past 15 years.

Chief Medical Officer, Sharp Memorial Hospital

Dr. Thomas Lawrie is a Sharp-affiliated Pulmonary disease specialist in San Diego and is the Chief Medical Officer of Sharp Memorial Hospital. He received his medical degree from University of Colorado School of Medicine and has been in practice for 20 years. As part of his partnership with Chest Medicine and Critical Care Medical Group, he provides critical care services at Sharp Memorial, Chula Vista, and Coronado Hospitals. Dr. Lawrie has received Guardian Angel recognitions from grateful patients and families throughout the course of his career.

VP of Operations & Strategy, Strike

Charlie Liu is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and works on operations and strategy at Strike. Strike, which is built on the Bitcoin network, allows users to send and receive money anyway, instantly, with no fees. He previously worked on business analytics, intelligence and strategy at Adyen, a global payment technology company headquartered in Amsterdam. As a Fintech influencer, Charlie has advised several Fintech startups in the US and China and published multiple opinion pieces in both Chinese and English media. Before Adyen, Charlie worked at Franklin Templeton Investments as a global macro investor specializing in the Latin American and African markets. Born and raised in China, Charlie graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota with a degree in Maths and Economics. Charlie is also a sommelier with WSET Level 3 certificate and a cofounder of 996 Makers.

General Manager, North America & Head of Strategic Initiatives, Mambu

Rich Longo is General Manager, North America and leads Strategic Initiatives Globally at Mambu, a Global FinTech Platform. He is also an investor and board member in several companies within the Cyber Security and API connectivity space.

Prior to joining Mambu, Rich led and advised high growth companies such as Robinhood through their early to later stages. Rich has had significant success in transforming and growing large traditional on premise global FinTech companies such as EdgeVerve (Infosys) and Temenos into dominant cloud platform leaders.

He is known as a thought leader in the industry through both published articles and television interviews with FinTech Finance, Bloomberg and other relevant media outlets.

Senior Vice President & General Manager, Connected Smart Systems, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Jeff Lorbeck is a Senior Vice President & General Manager, Connected Smart Systems (CSS) of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Prior to becoming GM of the IoT BU, Lorbeck served as chief operating officer of QCT, a role in which he also managed the worldwide go-to-market teams.

From October 2016 until July 2018, Lorbeck led the integration planning for Qualcomm’s intended acquisition of NXP. Prior to this role, Lorbeck served as chief operating officer of Qualcomm China with responsibility for leading the QCT business in the China region. This was preceded by a role as senior vice president of product management in QCT to provide Qualcomm Reference Designs (QRDs) for use by smartphone OEMs and ODMs.

Lorbeck joined Qualcomm in 1994 as a senior engineer on the Globalstar systems engineering team and advanced to vice president of engineering, where he led the development of Globalstar user terminals — portable phones, fixed phones, car kits, satellite data modems, and provisioning software. In 2000, Lorbeck became vice president of business development for Globalstar, heading its consumer, data, aviation, and infrastructure product lines. After returning from a Qualcomm assignment in Beijing, China from 2002 to 2003, Lorbeck moved into the position of vice president and general manager for Qualcomm Technology and Ventures (QT&V), managing both the technology R&D and venture capital functions of QT&V.

While GM of QT&V, Lorbeck led the formation of the MediaFLO business unit and served as general manager. This business unit was later separated to become MediaFLO Technologies (MFT) and MediaFLO U.S.A. Inc., a mobile content provider. Lorbeck served as senior vice president of engineering in MFT, where he led development of the end-to-end MediaFLO system, including the high-speed, forward link-only (FLO) air interface and MediaFLO client-server solutions.

Following his role on MediaFLO, Lorbeck transitioned to senior vice president of engineering at QCT with responsibility for wireless connectivity groups including Bluetooth, wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi), FM, and mobile broadcast. Later, he became senior vice president of program management in QCT, with responsibility for division-wide program management.

Prior to joining Qualcomm, Lorbeck held the position of post-doctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Lorbeck holds a Doctorate, Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  

FRMR EVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Giovanni is a veteran Senior Executive, C-Suite Officer, and Board Member with over 40 years of success in biotech, life sciences, pharma, medical diagnostics, and hospitals. Leveraging extensive experience in strategic leadership, commercialization, and international business, he is a valuable asset for similar-sector companies looking for acumen in R&D challenges, product development, commercialization, market research, growth, and expansion. His broad areas of expertise include product concept, design, development, launch, and management; business strategy and development; sales management; market analysis and development; competitive analysis; global marketing; international sales; and cross-functional team leadership and development.

In his executive career, Giovanni has held leadership positions at Bio-Rad Laboratories (EVP and Chief Strategy Officer. VP International Sales and Marketing); Bio-Rad Laboratories Sr (Southern Europe GM); Baxter Diagnostics; Chemetron Chimica S.p.a.; and Clinica del Lavoro. He has been responsible for the development and execution of a company's long-range global strategic plans and objectives, overseeing the analysis of trends and developments, and formulating strategy for growth and profitability of product lines and geographies. Reporting to the CEO, he has led executive collaboration to identify and prioritize strategic mergers and acquisitions, analyzing and reporting financial and operational metrics due diligence. He has led critical executive decision- making to develop the business case for initiatives and products, determining risk profiles, funding, and resource requirements for successful implementation and return on investment (ROI). He has directed European product strategy, development, and launch, including integrated marketing and sales campaigns across Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. Through his global commercialization leadership, and oversight of both internal growth and acquisitions, he spearheaded company growth from $400M to $2.2B in of all selling and marketing operations outside North America for the company's life sciences and diagnostics groups, including 6 selling regions (Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific, China, Latin America, and Emerging Markets); international operations (finance, IT, service, logistics, RA/QA, PMO, and special projects); and international HR and global talent. As EVP of an international sales organization, he was responsible for ~2500 employees and $1.4B annual sales (70% of total company sales). He is directing an international company's global venture fund, emphasizing innovation, acquisitions, and new markets.

Giovanni earned a Degree in Pharmacy from Università degli Studi di Pavia; and a Master Degree in Pharmacy from State University of Pavia. He has professional working fluency in English, Italian, and Spanish.

CEO & Co-Founder, Biocanic

Jeremy Malecha is CEO and co-founder of Biocanic with over 20 years of healthcare and software related experience. Prior to Biocanic, he was the Vice President of Strategy in ResMed’s SaaS Business. Across his 10+ year career at ResMed he also held senior leadership roles overseeing global product management across the product portfolio and was the lead person behind the conceptualization and launch of the ResMed digital health ecosystem. Today, Jeremy is a catalyst for building a new integrative medicine marketplace rooted in the power of health intelligence and consumer advocacy so society can take back control of their health and wellness in a post pandemic world. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in addition to multiple patents in signal processing for medical applications.

FRMR SVP Engineering, QTI Qualcomm Inc.

Ziad Mansour has previously served as Chief Engineer of EvoNexus in Southern California. He is also a former Senior Vice President of Engineering leading the Digital Hardware group in Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) division. In this role, Mansour provided technical and management leadership for a cross functional engineering team, spread across the U.S. and India, executing on the Cellular and Computing product (CPG, CCP) roadmap.

Under Mansour’s leadership, the team has strengthened its expertise and scaled to the size and output levels required to support QCT’s business, which has shipped more than 15 billion cumulative chips (ASICs) and 861M MSMs in CY14.

Prior to his most recent position, Mansour held various leadership roles at Qualcomm. He joined the company in 1995 as a staff engineer leading the GUM ASIC on the Globalstar project. Quickly advancing within the organization, Mansour moved to QCT’s VLSI group in 1997. He was promoted to vice president in 2002, assuming responsibility for the MSM chip development team.

Prior to Qualcomm, Mansour held chip, board and system design/project lead positions at General Dynamics, TRW and Titan Linkabit all in support of communication systems. Mansour holds patents in modem and low power implementation. Mansour holds a MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University.

Distinguished Technical Director of Applied AI, Google

Massimo is part of the Office of the CTO for Google Cloud and, in this role, he helps Google Cloud customers reimagine their businesses by leveraging the power of AI and the products from Google that enable it.

Prior to Google he worked at Intuit where he founded and led the data science group as chief data scientist and director of data engineering for the consumer group. Massimo also worked at Intellisis, a San Diego startup that builds advanced speech processing software for various US government and defense entities, as lead of the R&D group and at Microsoft, both in the Core Ranking for Bing and in the Technical Computing Team.

Massimo started in theoretical physics and has a PhD in Neuroscience. In his research work he studied the dynamics of large recurrent neural networks, their connections with attention and the ability of networks to mesh signals from different modalities.

Vice President, Commercialization, Fabric8 Labs

Michael Matthews is the Vice President of Commercialization at Fabric8 Labs. In addition to this he is also an Advisory Board Member for Stealth Mode. He is also the former Head of Commercial Development at EMD Performance Materials. Michael Matthews was previously Director of Partnerships at EMD Performance Materials, focused on identifying and accelerating