2024 Speakers
Topher Wurts
Co-Founder
InnovationExchange.ai
Topher is a Chief Outsiders Partner and CMO who provides fractional, project, program, and coaching support to executives and companies of all sizes, along with over seventy Chief Outsider partner peers all who’ve previously held C-level titles at mostly fortune 1500 companies. Topher’s been a change agent at the intersection of technology, marketing, and sales for his entire career. Topher’s recent work has included large clients from the provider (Spectrum Health System), payor (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Priority Health), health-tech, and pharma industry as well as business services (Crowe) while his professional background is deep in media and fin-tech (Reuters, Liquidnet, Axioma). He has a unique ability to redefine brand identity, clarify value proposition, foster business awareness, and increase ROI from data driven digital and traditional marketing efforts. With an innate love of technology, he implements digital driven and delivered initiatives in order to drive business results. Topher works with B2B and B2C companies from startups through mid-sized to large corporate divisions and organizations. From new product launches to organizational res-design and change management, Topher helps to generate rapid growth and revenue gains. Topher is a strong collaborative influencer who’s able to bring together multi-faceted teams including with strategic partners and alliances who may sometimes view each other as competition.
David Chivers
Former President, Publisher, CDO
WSJ, Dow Jones, USA Today, Gannett, Des Moines Register, Meredith Corporation
David Chivers
Former President, Publisher, CDO
WSJ, Dow Jones, USA Today, Gannett, Des Moines Register, Meredith Corporation
Eileen Vidrine
Former Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer
US Department of the Air Force, Chief Data & AI Office
Eileen Vidrine
Former Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer
US Department of the Air Force, Chief Data & AI Office
Ms. Eileen Vidrine most recently served as the Department of the Air Force Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer, where she developed and implemented strategies for enterprise data management, analytics, digital transformation, and responsible and ethical artificial intelligence to optimize performance and drive innovation in and across all missions and operations. Ms. Vidrine is currently CEO at Vidrine Vantage, LLC; she serves as an Advisory Board Member at FedLearn and AI Squared; and she has been an Adjunct Faculty member at The George Washington University since 2001.
David Mathison
Founder and CEO
CAIO Summit/CDAO Summit; CDO Club
David Mathison is the CEO and founder of the world’s 1st-ever CAIO Summit (2023), the 1st-ever Chief Digital Officer Summit (2013), and the CDO Club (2012).
Mathison is the world’s leading authority on Chief AI Officers, Chief Data and Analytics Officers, and Chief Digital Officers. In 2011 he created the first-ever community for CDOs on LinkedIn; the first Talent Map, Summit, and Community for Chief Digital Officers in 2013; and the world’s first-ever Chief AI Officer Talent Map and Chief AI Officer Summit in 2023.
He has been quoted by American Banker, CIO.com, CIO Journal, CIO-UK, CMS Wire, CNBC, Computer Weekly, Computerworld, Deloitte, Diginomica, eMarketer, FedTech Magazine, FierceCIO, Financial Times, Forbes, Guardian, Huffington Post, I-CIO, McKinsey & Company, Media Post, MIT Sloan Management Review, VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, and ZDNet, among others.
Brian Peretti
Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Chief AI Officer
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Brian J. Peretti is a career member of the Senior Executive Service at the United States Department of the Treasury. He serves as the Treasury’s Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Chief AI Officer.
Mr. Peretti oversees the execution of the responsibilities assigned to the Treasury by Executive Order 14110 on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, and the requirements of AI governance directed by the United States Office of Management and Budget. In addition, Mr. Peretti leads the development of domestic and international operational resilience policy, including cyber, as part of Treasury’s Sector Risk Management Agency responsibility for the financial services sector. In this role, he spearheads Treasury’s efforts to increase multi-directional sharing of cyber threat and vulnerability information. He also serves as United States’s designated subject matter expert at the Group of 7 Cyber Expert Group (G-7 CEG).
Mr. Peretti has served at the Treasury for over 22 years with increasing levels of responsibility, including being named the Senior Career Official Executing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions during the transition from the Obama to the Trump Administration. Based on his expertise in critical infrastructure protection and the operational resilience of the financial services sector, during the United States initial response phase to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was detailed to the Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s National Risk Management Center and served as the first Senior Advisor for Security and the Economy, leveraging his extensive background in financial services operational resilience.
A sought-after speaker and presenter, Mr. Peretti has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout his career. Most recently, he received the 12th Annual Billington CyberSecurity Leadership Award at the 2023 Annual Billington CyberSecurity Summit.
Prior to joining the Treasury, Mr. Peretti was an associate in Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Corporate Banking and Finance Section in Washington, D.C., and was the General Counsel for the Wright Patman Congressional Federal Credit Union. He has authored numerous publications related to financial sector operations, including payment systems.
Mr. Peretti received his bachelor’s degree from Rider University (cum laude) in 1989, and his law degree from American University, Washington College of Law (cum laude) in 1992. He lives in Potomac, MD with his wife, Kimberly Peretti, and their two children.
Tanya Dua
Technology Editor
Tanya is an experienced reporter, editor and editorial manager with a decade of tech and business coverage under her belt.
She currently lead tech coverage for LinkedIn News, reaching LinkedIn’s 1 billion+ members with relevant and timely news, analysis, insights, and trends focusing on AI, enterprise tech and big tech. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter reaching over 900,000+ people here: lnkd.in/TechStack
Before this, she was the founding reporter on Business Insider’s advertising and media team, where she wrote regular news and feature stories, and led and built flagship editorial products like the ‘Most Innovative Chief Marketing Officers’ and the ‘CMOs to Watch’ lists.
Spence Green
CEO
Lilt
Spence Green is Lilt’s Co-Founder and CEO. Prior to founding Lilt in 2015, Spence served as a fellow at XSeed Capital, worked in software and research at Google, where he worked on Google Translate and developed a shallow syntactic language model for improving the English to Arabic translation. He was also a technical lead, project manager and software engineer at Northrop Grumman, where he worked on various large projects including a national air defense system and avionics packages for naval aircraft.
Spence graduated with highest distinction from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. He also earned both a master’s degree with a distinction in research and a PhD in computer science from Stanford University.
His research area is the intersection of natural language processing and human-computer interaction, and he has published papers on statistical machine translation, statistical language parsing, and mixed-initiative systems and given talks on translator productivity.
Yudong Cao
CTO
Zapata AI
As the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Zapata AI, Yudong Cao leads the development and deployment of industrial generative AI software that delivers scientific and computational advantages to enterprises around the world. With over a decade of experience in computer science research and development, Yudong has an extensive background in physics, mathematical modeling, and machine learning. His mission is to accelerate the adoption and impact of AI and quantum computing across sectors and society. Yudong has published multiple papers and patents on quantum algorithms, error correction, and machine learning and has received prestigious awards for his work in informatics and computer science. Yudong obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University and then joined Harvard University as a postdoc researcher.
Nick Elprin
CEO
Domino Data Lab
Nick Elprin is redefining the world of enterprise AI at the world’s most advanced companies across life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and defense. A visionary in scaling data science, he believes the opportunities are endless for companies that weave AI into the fabric of their businesses. As Co-Founder and CEO of Domino, Nick has had a front-row seat to the transformative impact that Domino’s platform has unleashed for its customers.
Nick started Domino in 2014 after spending nearly a decade building platforms for data scientists at Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund. Since then, Nick has built Domino into an industry leader whose ongoing innovation has continually reshaped the standard for data science and AI platforms. He holds a BA and MS in computer science from Harvard.
Dr. Salima Bhimani
Chief Strategist & Director for Inclusive, Responsible Technology, Business and Leaders (Former)
Dr. Salima Bhimani
Chief Strategist & Director for Inclusive, Responsible Technology, Business and Leaders (Former)
With over 25+ years of global leadership experience in technology, government, nonprofits, community-based organizations, education and academia, Dr. Salima Bhimani adeptly synergizes the varied objectives and needs of technology companies and opportunities for inclusive and responsible AI/tech/products/services.
As Alphabet’s (Google) first Chief Strategist and Director on Inclusive Technology, Business, and Leaders since 2017, Salima empowered 11 startup moonshot companies (Waymo, Wing, X, Sidewalk Labs, Intrinsic, etc.) to shape sustainable businesses for Alphabet while improving the world. A trusted partner to tech CEOs, and their emerging businesses of various scale, maturity, and market fit, in fields like AI, venture, robotics, self-driving tech, and biotech, she enabled billion-dollar people, product, and business opportunities into the success of every moonshot. She built the foundational strategies, infrastructure, and operations while influencing an ecosystem of leaders and functions building their capacity and capability to be innovative, while achieving their mission.
Having worked with 1,000+ executives and key stakeholders, she’s expanded the impact that technology, non-profit, government, education/academic, and international sectors have in under leveraged and underinvested areas, increasing the potential of multimillion-dollar outcomes.
Salima advised the United Nations on inclusive innovation and technology.
Guy Cavallo
Chief Information Officer and Acting Chief AI Officer
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Guy Cavallo
Chief Information Officer and Acting Chief AI Officer
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Guy Cavallo was appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in July 2021. Before becoming the OPM CIO, Cavallo was named Principal Deputy CIO in September 2020. As OPM CIO he leads the Agency’s enterprise information technology services for both federal employees and retirees. He also is leading its IT modernization program, launching OPM’s migration to the cloud initiative in 2021. OPM is now the third agency that he has led to the cloud.
Mr. Cavallo is a highly desired IT industry speaker and has received many technology recognition awards throughout his career. In his federal career he has been awarded the Federal 100 (three times), and the FedScoop 50 award for Federal IT Leadership (four times), he was named one of the 2022 Best Bosses in Federal IT, and In his private sector experiences, he received seven major customer service awards while at Microsoft Corporation, Before joining OPM, he previously served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Small Business Administration (SBA). He was a key leader in helping SBA leverage the cloud to quickly implement the CARES Act Payroll Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. Those programs distributed over $450B in a short period of time to America’s small businesses and citizens.
Prior to joining SBA, Mr. Cavallo returned to the federal workforce from the private sector by joining Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as their Executive Director for IT Operations. At TSA he oversaw the worldwide technology and telecommunications infrastructures, operations, and support for more than 65,000 TSA staff. He led TSA’s initial cloud implementation and other modernization efforts. Before joining TSA, Mr. Cavallo served as a Senior Government Advisor at the Microsoft Corporation for over 9 years. At Microsoft he assisted government organizations across the US in leveraging technology to modernize and improve the delivery of citizen services. His largest impact project was as the National Co-Lead on Microsoft’s solution for managing the grant reporting requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). With his knowledge of government operations and processes, he led the development of an ARRA grant tracking solution, which was provided to governments and non-profits at no or minimal licensing costs. Many state, county, and city governments implemented that solution and continue to leverage it today to manage all their grants.
Mr. Cavallo’s career has been almost evenly split between the public and private sectors, always driven by his passion to leverage the latest technologies to improve the delivery of government services to citizens. Mr. Cavallo received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan.
Sree Sreenivasan
CEO at Digimentors;
Former CDO of NYC, Met Museum, Columbia University
Sree Sreenivasan is a consultant, speaker and trainer for nonprofits, corporations, startups and executives. He is the former Chief Digital Officer for New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University and was a professor of digital media at Columbia Journalism School for 20 years. He was named Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business 2015 and Poynter Institute’s 35 most influential in social media.
Dr. Mike Horton
Chief AI Officer (Acting); Deputy Chief Data Officer
US Department of Transportation (DOT)
Dr. Mike Horton
Chief AI Officer (Acting); Deputy Chief Data Officer
US Department of Transportation (DOT)
Danny Brock
VP, Customer Success
Fiddler AI
Danny Brock is the Vice President of Customer Success at Fiddler AI, an enterprise AI Observability company, which focuses on monitoring, explainability, fairness, and responsible AI governance for predictive and generative models. AI Observability is a vital building block and provides visibility and transparency to the entire enterprise AI application stack. Danny leads the pre- and post-sales technical teams that unlock the value in AI insights for Fiddler’s prospects and customers. Throughout his career, Danny has brought his strong technical experience and passion for data, analytics and AI to lead customer facing teams at Endeca, Oracle, Incorta and even his own company, Branchbird.
Stephanie Hunter
Deputy Director, Defense Digital Talent Management, Development and Training
DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office
Stephanie Hunter
Deputy Director, Defense Digital Talent Management, Development and Training
DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office
Randal Cole
Chief Data and AI Officer (Acting)
Department of the Navy, OCIO
Dr. Cole has over seventeen years of experience as an analyst for the Department of the Navy (DON) including six years at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) and eleven years as a civilian Operations Research Analyst for both Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) and the DON Secretariat.
In 2009, Dr. Cole joined HQMC, Programs and Resources, Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E). His primary areas of focus included the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process, performance management, program analysis, data management, readiness, and advanced data analytics. Dr. Cole served as lead for development of the Performance Management Framework (PMF) and Marine Corps Strategic Health Assessment (MCSHA). The PMF and MCSHA helped to shape and redirect the Marine Corps’ resource management strategy through influence of current policies, plans, and programs. While at PA&E, Dr. Cole also served as Head of the Data Readiness Branch where he led development of the Marine Corps’ enterprise-level data and analytics services environment and coordinated data analytics efforts internally across HQMC and externally with the Department of Defense (DoD).
In late 2019, Dr. Cole joined the DON Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Chief Data Officer (CDO) to serve as Deputy CDO. As Deputy CDO, he managed Executive-level DON data governance and chaired supporting working groups. Dr. Cole developed broad data management policy, led enterprise-level data maturity assessments, defined DON data management roles and responsibilities, and represented the DON in both Federal and DoD-level data governance fora. He led publication of the annual summary of DON data efforts in the Title 44 Annual Congressional Report to Congress, and he supported transition of the CDO role to the Chief Data and AI Officer (CDAO).
In April 2024, Dr. Cole stepped into the Acting CDAO role and is beginning a campaign of full Fleet engagement to establish integrated and supportive data, analytics, and AI policies while helping solve pressing needs across business and warfighting operations.
Krista Kinnard
Digital Transformation Culture and Communication Lead
NASA
Krista Kinnard currently serves as the Culture & Communications Lead for NASA Digital Transformation. In her role, she shepherds the refinement and integration of NASA’s digital transformation strategy, plans and policies and helps coordinate the implementation of transformation activities across the NASA enterprise in a number of strategic areas including data, inclusive teaming, intelligent automation, artificial intelligence/machine learning, process transformation, and culture and workforce.
Prior to joining NASA, Krista served as the Director of Innovation and Engineering at the Department of Labor (DOL). In this role, she leads the DOL in the discovery and adoption of new technologies and solutions to meet the unique business challenges face by the many sub-agencies that make up the department. She established and directed the AI Center of Excellence, the Automation Center of Excellence and the department’s Innovation Incubator to foster the exploration, development and operations of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), and other emerging technologies. She also serves as the Responsible AI Official for DOL, representing the department in White House working groups for the implementation of Executive Order 13960: Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government. In 2022, she was honored with the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal as an emerging leader in the federal government.
Prior to joining DOL, Krista was a director at GSA’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, where she partnered with federal agencies to enable the adoption of AI and automation capabilities. She also helped lead the Artificial Intelligence Community of Practice (CoP) and continues to serve as a Steering Committee member. She led the creation of GSA’s “AI Guide for Government” to serve as a tool to help educate the federal government on AI adoption.
Before joining the federal government, she worked for IBM’s Federal Watson AI and Data Platforms team as a Data Scientist and Technical project lead, leading the design and development of machine learning based systems to government clients. She worked with the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Postal Service, several Defense and Intelligence agencies, San Diego County, The United Way Worldwide and Florida 2-1-1. During her time at IBM, she earned a patent for helping develop a Convolutional Neural Network with Augmentation Features.
Olivia Zhu
Assistant Director for AI Policy
The White House
Olivia Zhu is the Assistant Director for AI Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she works on promoting the safe and trustworthy use of AI, including through the recent AI Executive Order.
Prior to working on AI policy for the Biden-Harris Administration, she worked at technology companies, including Amazon and Microsoft Research, building AI products.
She has overseen over 10 launches of AI products across problem spaces ranging from search ranking to sales to pricing products.
Seth Dobrin
Former Chief AI Officer
IBM
Dr. Seth Dobrin, a distinguished leader in artificial intelligence (AI), is the founder and CEO of Qantm AI.
With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Dobrin’s innovations include his role as IBM’s inaugural Global Chief AI Officer, bringing a human-centered approach to AI strategies in complex business landscapes.
As Chief Data Officer at IBM’s Software Group, he championed business modernization through data-driven insights. Dr. Dobrin is a respected advocate for responsible and inclusive AI, earning accolades like AIConics Innovator of the Year and recognition among the Top 10 Most Influential Chief AI Officers in 2023.
Holding a Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology, his multidisciplinary approach guides his work at the intersection of AI, data, and business transformation.
He’s a champion of diversity in tech, speaking at conferences and industry events and featured in tier-one media outlets like BBC, Forbes, and more. Despite his life sciences background, Dr. Dobrin has gained experience across multiple industries.