Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he contributes to global policy development and continued standardization and spread of the Internet. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.
Cerf is the former senior vice president of Technology Strategy for MCI. In this role, Cerf was responsible for helping to guide corporate strategy development from the technical perspective. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology, leading a team of architects and engineers to design advanced networking frameworks including Internet-based solutions for delivering a combination of data, information, voice and video services for business and consumer use.
Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 for their work on the Internet protocols. The Turing award is sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science.” In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work. The medal is the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. In April 2008, Cerf and Kahn received the prestigious Japan Prize and in 2013 Cerf, Kahn and three others received the Queen Elizabeth Prize in Engineering. Cerf was made an officer of the French Legion d’Honneur in December 2014.
Prior to rejoining MCI in 1994, Cerf was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) where he worked on information infrastructure and digital libraries. As vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982-1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.
During his tenure from 1976-1982 with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related packet data transport and security technologies.
Cerf was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Science Board beginning in February 2013. He served as president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from 2012-2014. He served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007. Cerf also served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board. In addition, Cerf is honorary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, dedicated to raising awareness and speeding introduction of the new Internet protocol. Cerf served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and has served on several national, state and industry committees focused on cyber-security. Cerf sits on the Board of Directors for the Americas Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) as Chairman, StopBadWare (Chairman), the Marconi Society (Vice Chairman) and the Science Advisory Board for CosmosID. Cerf also sits on the Board of Associates of Gallaudet University. He serves on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Advisory Committee and is a distinguished visiting scientist there. He served as Chair of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology during 2006-2013. He also serves as Treasurer of the National Science & Technology Medals Foundation. Cerf is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, the Annenberg Center for Communications at USC, the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society, the Hasso Platner Institute and is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. In 2011, he was made Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society.
Cerf is a recipient of numerous additional awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet. These include the Marconi Fellowship, Charles Stark Draper award of the National Academy of Engineering, the Prince of Asturias award for science and technology, the National Medal of Science from Tunisia, the St. Cyril and St. Methodius Order (Grand Cross) of Bulgaria, the Terra Mariana Medal of Estonia, the Alexander Graham Bell Award presented by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, the NEC Computer and Communications Prize, the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunications Union, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, the ACM Software and Systems Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Computer and Communications Industries Association Industry Legend Award, the Yuri Rubinsky Web Award, the Kilby Award , the Rotary Club International Paul P. Harris Medal, the Joseph Priestley Award from Dickinson College, the Yankee Group/Interop/Network World Lifetime Achievement Award, the George R. Stibitz Award, the Werner Wolter Award, the Andrew Saks Engineering Award, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the Computerworld/Smithsonian Leadership Award, the J.D. Edwards Leadership Award for Collaboration, World Institute on Disability Annual award and the Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend medal. Cerf was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006. He was made an Eminent Member of the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) honor society in 2009. In 2010 he received a Lifetime Webby Award. In February 2011 he was named a Stanford Engineering School “Hero” for his work on the Internet and received a lifetime achievement award from the Oxford Internet Institute.
In December, 1994, People magazine identified Cerf as one of that year’s “25 Most Intriguing People.”
In addition to his work on behalf of Google and the Internet, Cerf has served as a technical advisor to production for “Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: The Final Conflict” and made a special guest appearance on the program in May 1998. Cerf has appeared on television programs such as NextWave with Leonard Nimoy and often co-hosted World Business Review with Alexander Haig and Caspar Weinberger. In July 2014, he appeared on the Colbert Report television show. Cerf also holds an appointment as distinguished visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he is working on the design and implementation of an interplanetary Internet.
Cerf holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stanford University and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UCLA. He also holds honorary Doctorate degrees from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich; Lulea University of Technology, Sweden; University of the Balearic Islands, Palma; Capitol College, Maryland; Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania; George Mason University, Virginia; Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; Brooklyn Polytechnic; Marymount University; the University of Pisa; the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; Tschingua University, Beijing, China; the University of Zaragoza, Spain; the Technical University of Cartagena, Spain; the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain; Bethany College, Kansas; the Moscow State University of International Relations; the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology; Keio University, Tokyo, Japan; Yale University; Gallaudet University, Washington DC; St. Andrews University, Scotland; and University of Reading, UK.
His personal interests include fine wine, gourmet cooking and science fiction. Cerf and his wife, Sigrid, were married in 1966 and have two sons, David and Bennett.
Jonathan Chew, Program Manager, Walt Disney Imagineering
Jonathan Chew is an Engineer, Project Manager, and Exuberant Individual. He has worked in several leading companies like Amgen, Ratheon, and is now a Program Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering. At Disney, he has worked on several exciting projects like Cars Land, Shanghai Disneyland, (and other top secret projects he’s not allowed to reveal). Jonathan Chew is a proud business owner and mentor and is very excited to join fellow IEEE members today. He was president of IEEE back when he did his undergrad at UCLA. From the time he gave the graduating speech for UCLA Engineering school, Jonathan has also loved speaking across the nation. He is extremely proud to speak to you today. He hopes to inspire you, bring hope, and help you realize your potential to create a big beautiful tomorrow.
Tracy Chou, Software Engineer
Tracy Chou is a software engineer currently contemplating her next adventure. She was most recently at Pinterest on the home feed and recommendations team, previously a tech lead on the ads and web teams, and worked on infrastructure, API, email, and growth as well. Before Pinterest, she worked at Quora, also as an early engineer there.
In addition to her engineering career, Tracy is most well-known for her work pushing for diversity in tech. In 2013, she helped to kick off the wave of tech company diversity data disclosures with a Github repository collecting numbers on women in engineering. Tracy is now a founding member of Project Include and focused on driving solutions in the space. She was named Forbes Tech 30 under 30 in 2014 and has been profiled in Vogue and WIRED for her advocacy.
Tracy is also an advisor to Homebrew VC and on reserve with the U.S. Digital Service.
Tracy graduated from Stanford with an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, where she was a Terman Scholar and Mayfield Fellow and elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.
John Collins, Hardware Program Manager, HoloLens Team – Microsoft
John Collins is a hardware program manager for Microsoft on the HoloLens team in Silicon Valley, leading the research and development of battery technologies for augmented reality products.
Prior to joining HoloLens, John worked as an electrical engineering lead for the motherboard and hard drive for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One and at Apple managing the development of the battery for the iPhone, iPad and iPod line of products.
He has trained hundreds on the processes, tools and best practices necessary to create high volume consumer electronics. He has been an IEEE and Consumer Electronics Society member since 2008 and was president of the IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu electrical engineering honor society student chapters at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
He also cofounded Daily Lovelies with his wife, a startup that provides custom tailored cosmetics for special occasions.
He is passionate about consumer electronics and the future of virtual and augmented reality.
Cory Doctorow, Science Fiction Author, Activist, Journalist and Blogger
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Wired, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He holds an honorary doctorate in computer science from the Open University (UK), where he is a Visiting Professor; in 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.
His novels have been translated into dozens of languages and are published by Tor Books, Titan Books (UK) and HarperCollins (UK) and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards.
His two latest books are IN REAL LIFE, a young adult graphic novel created with Jen Wang (2014); and INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE, a business book about creativity in the Internet age (2014).
His latest young adult novel is HOMELAND, the bestselling sequel to 2008’s LITTLE BROTHER. His latest novel for adults is RAPTURE OF THE NERDS, written with Charles Stross and published in 2012. His New York Times Bestseller LITTLE BROTHER was published in 2008. His latest short story collection is WITH A LITTLE HELP, available in paperback, ebook, audiobook and limited edition hardcover. In 2011, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY (with an introduction by Tim O’Reilly) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called CORY DOCTOROW’S FUTURISTIC TALES OF THE HERE AND NOW. THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW, a PM Press Outspoken Authors chapbook, was also published in 2011.
LITTLE BROTHER was nominated for the 2008 Hugo, Nebula, Sunburst and Locus Awards. It won the Ontario Library White Pine Award, the Prometheus Award as well as the Indienet Award for bestselling young adult novel in America’s top 1000 independent bookstores in 2008; it was the San Francisco Public Library’s One City/One Book choice for 2013. It has also been adapted for stage by Josh Costello.
He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, and serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Clarion Foundation, the Metabrainz Foundation and The Glenn Gould Foundation.
On February 3, 2008, he became a father. The little girl is called Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, and is a marvel that puts all the works of technology and artifice to shame.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Worth
Peter A. Eckstein, 2016 IEEE-USA President
Peter Eckstein is an engineering management professional with extensive experience in the design and development of sophisticated electronic and electromechanical systems. He is retired from Northrop Grumman Corp., where he held various engineering managerial positions of increasing responsibility involving U.S. Navy electronic warfare system avionics.
In addition, Eckstein is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Suffolk County Community College, where he is responsible for lecture and lab development of calculus and algebra based physics courses, at Queensborough Community College, where he teaches physics and astronomy, and at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, where he teaches physics and engineering.
Peter A. Eckstein received the B.S. degree in Electrical Technology from the New York Institute of Technology in 1967. He received an M.S. in Applied Physics from Adelphi University in 1971 and an M.S. in Management Engineering in 1974.
An IEEE Senior Member, Peter Eckstein has been active in various volunteer roles at the section, region, society and IEEE Board-levels, including previous service on the IEEE-USA Board of Directors as Vice President, Government Relations (2008-2009) and as Region 1 Director (2012-2013).
Jeffrey Eker, CEO and founder, CultureCloud
Jeff absolutely loves travel. He has traveled around the world in eight days, visited thirteen countries outside of the US, and looks forward to visiting many more! In addition to studying abroad at Universität Kassel in Germany, he has completed five internships at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, L-3 Communications / SPD Electrical Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and Rockwell Automation. In 2016, Jeff graduated from Rowan University with a major in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a minor in German Studies.
Jeff is heavily involved with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as
the Region 2 Regional Student Representative, where he has the great opportunity to represent students in the mid-Atlantic region of the US on the local and international level. In 2015, Jeff created an international partnership between the IEEE Student Branches at Rowan University and James Cook University in Australia. After a year of projects, seminars, and competitions, he led a team of 10 to Australia to live with local students, participate in industry tours, and shadow students academically to strengthen their international prospective.
Meeting people from around the world is always Jeff’s favorite part of travel, and who he is today
has been shaped in a huge way by the opportunities he’s had to embrace local cultures.
In April 2015, Jeff was presented the amazing opportunity to speak at TEDxTelkomU at Telkom University in Bandung, Indonesia.
Jeff is the CEO and founder of CultureCloud – an app that allows users to connect in real time based on their similar interests. Inspired by friends who showed him the amazing hidden places everywhere he went, Jeff and his team have created CultureCloud as a way for people to break free from the loop between the hotels and the tourist traps. The best travel adventures are not about where you are, but who you’re with.
Deborah Finkelstein – Founder, Fireworks Communication Consultants
Deborah’s expertise is in guiding people to be vibrant communicators and storytellers.
She’s the founder of Fireworks Communication Consultants, where she and other consultants have improved communication skills for scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, academics, nonprofits, government agencies, and small businesses. Storytelling, improvisation, public speaking, entrepreneur pitches, networking skills, blog posts, social media marketing, and creative writing are several of the media items on which she trains and coaches individuals and groups. She is frequently invited to give presentations on storytelling, improvisation, leadership, team-building, education, and public speaking at conferences, colleges, and companies, such as Young Government Leadership, New England Theater Conference, Northeast Regional Computer Program, New England Faculty Development Consortium, Massachusetts Community College Teaching and Learning Student Development Conference, and Suffolk University Technology Symposium.
Deborah is passionate about helping others share their unique ideas with the world and has served as a Speaker Catalyst for TEDxBeaconStreet, TEDxMontreal, TEDxUofM, and TEDxNUS. She has also advised professionals at NextGen, a summit that sparks government innovation through training and leadership programs, and students in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an organization that inspires high school youth from low-income communities to stay in school, recognize business opportunities and plan for successful futures.
Deborah’s journalism, essays, short stories, poetry, and plays have been published in anthologies, journals, newspapers, and magazines in Australia, Canada, England, India, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, the UK, and the US. She has performed standup comedy, and her plays have been produced in festivals and theaters in Mexico and around the U.S. in cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, and Washington, DC. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and a BA from Rutgers University, where she majored in English and theater. She has taught public speaking, creative writing, literature, and drama at universities and writing programs in New York City, Boston, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. She received grants for Technology Across the Curriculum, Service Learning Program, and the Green Curriculum Project, and was selected to serve as a member of the Educational Technology Innovation Group, Statewide Assessment Pilot, Professional Development Committee, and the Faculty Technology Summer Institute.
Deborah is a Back to the Future enthusiast. She volunteers with environmental causes and was selected to serve as a representative to the World Wide Views on Biodiversity Forum. She loves DC’s restaurants, museums, parks, theater, and outdoor films.
Mary Hamilton, Managing Director of the Accenture Technology Labs in Silicon Valley
Mary is the Accenture Technology Labs lead for Silicon Valley and is responsible for the Global Digital Experiences group, leading our research on emerging digital technology to address key business challenges of Accenture’s clients. Her multidisciplinary team develops differentiated technology concepts and solutions in new areas such as Digital Customer, Digital Workforce, and Digital Operations. These capabilities are based on innovative advances in experience-driven technologies including virtual, immersive, and augmented reality, wearables, 3D printing, connected car, customer analytics and lifestyle services, social collaboration, gamification, augmented workforce, and crowdsourcing. Mary is a frequent speaker, sharing her perspective on emerging Digital technologies for the enterprise and consumers for conferences, clients, and industry events.
Since joining Accenture in 1997, Mary has brought innovative technology solutions to both Accenture and clients across a variety of industries, running technology innovation projects from incubation to large-scale implementation. Outside of Accenture, she is on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization, Women Who Code.
Past projects include 3D Virtual Reality Tours for US National Park Service Centennial Celebration, a technology strategy and innovation radar for Globo, the largest media company in Brazil, wearable Augmented Realty solutions for Global Oil & Gas, networked 3D visualization for Consumer Packaged Goods, and image recognition and mobile applications for Global Parks and Entertainment. Technology partners include universities, corporate R&D, and start-ups.
Education: BS in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Patty Hatter, VP/GM – Intel Security Professional Services, Intel
Patty Hatter is vice president and general manager of the Intel Security Group Professional Services organization. She recently transitioned from the role of Intel Security CIO, and prior to that was the vice president of Operations and CIO at McAfee. She has overall responsibility for leading the Professional Services organization and expanding Intel Security’s Consulting, Managed Services, Deployment and Training services.
Patty has more than 25 years of experience leading operations and technology organizations at several Fortune 500 companies. She joined the Intel organization in 2011 with the acquisition of McAfee Inc., now a wholly owned subsidiary that operates as the Intel Security Group. As vice president of operations and CIO at McAfee, Patty orchestrated a global transformation of IT and operations, turning the team into an asset that supported the broader enterprise-wide cost savings and revenue growth initiatives across McAfee.
Before joining McAfee in 2010, Patty was vice president of business operations at Cisco Systems Inc. She was responsible for improving integration between Cisco’s processes and systems, with the company’s sales channels. Earlier in her six-year tenure at Cisco, Patty led a transformation of the company’s global processes and systems infrastructure that contributed to growth, scalability and revenue. She started her career at AT&T Inc., where she spent 15 years holding various leadership roles in strategic planning, business development and professional services within the United States and Europe.
Patty earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She currently holds multiple advisory board positions, and is also a board member for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
Bruce Hecht, Staff Engineer, Analog Devices and Executive Curator, Ideas in Action / TEDxBeaconStreet
Bruce Hecht is a designer of sensors and signal processing systems for instrumentation and healthcare with 20 years experience in launching new products and technologies. Bruce is currently leading the New Product Design Quality initiative at Analog Devices and is Advanced Study Program Fellow at MIT in the areas of Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Healthcare and Systems Design. He holds a BASc and MASc in EE from the University of Waterloo, was awarded 5 US Patents and is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt. Bruce is active with the IEEE for the Future of Knowledge and Convening, leading Masterclasses and international conferences on design, engineering, and advanced fabrication in cities from Boston to Bordeaux, Milan & Singapore. In 2015, Bruce presented a TEDx talk on the power of Curiosity and Design at the National University of Singapore and produced TEDxBeaconStreet as a Curator and Founding Member of Ideas in Action. He serves as a mentor for programs on Hacking Medicine, Internet of Things, and with the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Boston.
Derk Hendriksen, VP Business Integration & GM EKOCENTER, Office of Sustainability, The Coca-Cola Company
Derk Hendriksen is a Dutch native who has worked at The Coca-Cola Company for 16 years in various marketing and general management roles in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, the European Group and most recently at Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta, USA. He currently is the VP of Business Integration in the Office of Sustainability and General Manager for Coca-Cola’s EKOCENTER project which aims to empower disadvantaged communities through social enterprise by delivering shared value to both society and business. In addition to his current role, his experience includes global strategy and planning for the Coca-Cola brand portfolio and marketing these brands and their reputation both globally and locally. He has also helped build ‘The Coca-Cola Way of Marketing’, The Coca-Cola Company’s proprietary approach to building some of the world’s strongest brands. Before joining Coca-Cola he worked at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Kimberly-Clark.
William “Whurley” Hurley, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs – Founder and CEO OF Honest Dollar
Whurley is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, and the founder and CEO of Honest Dollar; a fintech startup bringing honesty, transparency, and simplicity to the financial services industry. Whurley’s career has spanned over 20 years working for some of the most innovative companies on the planet including Apple Computer, and IBM. He has received numerous awards and recognitions including an Apple Design Award, being named an IBM Master Inventor, and being awarded the 2012 International Genius Grant from the City of Amsterdam. In 2013 he was one of 100 innovators on British Airways inaugural UnGrounded flight. Whurley is a published author and frequent public speaker focusing his personal efforts on innovation and diversity.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whurley
- Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/1715elw
- Facebook: http://on.fb.me/I8sn9q
- Twitter: http://bit.ly/16Aqkrc
- IMDb: http://imdb.to/12Ekd3h
- Official Website: http://whurley.com/
Tenaya Hurst, Owner and Creator, Rogue Making
Tenaya Hurst is a Rogue Maker. From finding out about the Arduino microcontroller technology on March 16th 2013, she’s taken off with the electronic fever of making. Originally from Berkeley California, Tenaya attended Indiana University Bloomington obtaining a B.A. in theatre, geology, and anthropology as well as being awarded Phi Beta Kappa. Many years of successful theatre and film work lead Tenaya to work for the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose where she first discovered Arduino and Make magazine. At her first Makerfaire, Tenaya found a position as Education Accounts Manager with Arduino.org. She also created her own company, Rogue Making, to teach maker workshops in Wearable Technology and more to younger makers. You may have seen Tenaya at IEEE Rising Stars events where she loves to inspire university students.
Lastly, check out Tenaya’s music videos on Youtube:
Peggy Hutcheson, Consulting, Facilitation, Coaching, & Learning Design
Peggy Hutcheson, Ph.D has helped organizations become more flexible and innovative through creative learning designs, expert facilitation, and results-focused change processes for over 20 years. Her work in supporting innovation and career development for the technical workforce has been recognized by organizations including AT&T, NCR, BellSouth, Georgia Power, Mercedes-Benz, U.S. Navy, and many others.
Peggy is an active volunteer and volunteer leader. She has served the IEEE-USA as a long-time member and former chair of the Employment and Career Services Committee. She co-chaired IEEE-USA’s Innnovation Institute and led the Future Forum. In addition, she currently is a member of the Communications Committee and MGA’s Training Committee.
Peggy is a speaker and author, having co-authored Helping Employees Manage Careers, published more than a dozen articles, presented a half dozen invited webinars, and contributed to five books. Her contributions have been recognized with leadership awards from ASTD, IEEE-USA, and Georgia State University. As a faculty member of Kennesaw State University, she teaches Organizational Training and Development and other organizational communication courses. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband.
Guru Madhavan, Future Leaders Forum Chair and Co-Curator (Host/Introduction)
Guru Madhavan is a biomedical engineer and senior policy adviser. He is a program director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC. He is a vice-president and member of the board of directors of IEEE-USA. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, and an M.B.A. from the State University of New York. Among numerous awards and honors, he has been named as a distinguished young scientist by the World Economic Forum. He has co-edited six books, worked on numerous policy reports, and recently, the author of Applied Minds: How Engineers Think (W.W. Norton) that has been translated into many languages.
Photo by Diana Lewkowicz
Nancy R. Martin, Manager, Technical Development, GE Global Research Center
For over 30 years, Nancy has worked for GE and held management positions primarily in engineering and research. She currently works at GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY, where she leads technical education for the company, including the Edison Engineering Program. GE is a high tech company with over 55,000 technologists.
Nancy graduated from Clarkson University with a mathematics degree, and from Syracuse University with a Master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Nancy is married with two children, and enjoys speaking on topics like work/life balance, self-confidence, perfectionism, and finding career passion.
Norma Jean Mattei, 2017 ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) President
Norma Jean Mattei, PH.D., P.E., F.SEI, M.ASCE, is professor and past chair at the University of New Orleans’ (UNO) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In June, ASCE members elected Mattei 2016 president-elect, and she will advance to Society president in 2017.
She has been active in ASCE for more than 20 years in local, regional and national leadership roles.
President-Elect Mattei sits on the executive committee of ASCE’s New Orleans Branch SEI/Structures Committee. The former Region 5 director has served on ASCE’s Committee on Diversity and Women in Civil Engineering and the Committee on Licensure and Ethics. ASCE has drawn on her expertise for a number of media relations activities, including an interview with National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” on post-Hurricane Katrina conditions. Recently, she was spokeswoman for “Raised Floor Living,” a commercial that aired in the New Orleans’ region promoting elevation of residential structures above the flood plain.
In 2012, President Obama named Mattei one of three civilian members of the Mississippi River Commission, which researches and provides policy and work recommendations covering flood control, navigation and environmental projects. In that capacity, she helped oversee a drainage basin that covers 41 percent of the nation. The governor of Louisiana appointed her to the state’s licensing board for professional engineers, LAPELS. She also serves on the board of directors for both the Louisiana Transportation Research Center Foundation and the Louisiana Technology Council.
Mattei has been a member of the UNO faculty since 1995. Her technical research interests include large watershed management, material and structural testing, sustainable reuse of spent construction and fabrication materials, and residual stress measurement. She is also interested in diversity, licensure and ethics issues.
Mattei earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1982 and a doctorate in 1994, both from Tulane University.
Mario Milicevic, Chair, IEEE Young Professionals
Mario Milicevic is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where his research focuses on the integrated circuit design of error correction decoders for wireless, optical, and quantum security systems. Mario is the 2015-2016 Chair of the global strategy and operations committee for the IEEE Young Professionals program. In 2015, he helped launch the first IEEE global entrepreneurship conference – IEEE N3XT, and bring exposure to the IEEE Young Professionals program at high profile global events such as the International Consumer Electronics Show, SXSW, and Web Summit.
Monique Morrow, CTO – Evangelist for New Frontiers Development and Engineering, Cisco
Monique was the first CTO of Cisco Services from June 2013 to November 2014 where she lead the development of Cisco Services Technologies mapped to Services Customer Solution Reference Architecture that is now foundational for Cisco Customer Solutions implementation.
Monique has a track record of co-innovating with customers, that has transcended the globe from North America, Europe and Asia
Specialties: Networking technology; Grid, cloud computing, Intercloud-Federation, Internet of Things; M2M Security and E-Health; Semantic web; Business Development
Monique’s current focus in on the intersection between research – economics-technology to portfolio execution e.g. Circular and Exponential Economies as examples.
Chandrakant Patel, HP Chief Engineer and Senior Fellow
Chandrakant is currently the Chief Engineer and Senior Fellow of HP Inc.
Chandrakant has led HP Labs in delivering innovations in chips, systems, data centers, storage, networking, print engines and software platforms. He is a pioneer in thermal and energy management in data centers, and in application of the information technology to drive available energy management at city scales.
Chandrakant is an ASME and an IEEE Fellow, and has been granted 148 patents and published more than 150 papers. An advocate of return to fundamentals, he has served as an adjunct faculty in engineering at Chabot College, U.C. Berkeley Extension, San Jose State University and Santa Clara University.
In 2014, Chandrakant was elected to the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.
Atul Pawar, Vice President, Risk Management, Goldman Sachs’ Global Securities Services
Atul Pawar is a Vice President of risk management at Goldman Sachs’ Global Securities Services, where he focuses on Prime Brokerage and Execution and Clearing clients. In this role, Atul oversees risk in portfolios with various asset classes, such as equity indexes, commodities, fixed income, and foreign exchange. He also interacts with clients on a daily basis to address their questions and concerns regarding risk exposure. Prior to joining the risk team, Atul was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Strategies group where he led the effort of building portfolio analytics and stress tests to measure market and liquidity risks. As a quantitative strategist, he worked with “Financial” engineers with backgrounds in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics. His team built advanced analytics for various businesses using modern engineering quantitative tools.
Atul holds a Master of Science degree in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master degree in Computer Science with specialization in bioinformatics from Binghamton University. As part of his master’s research, Atul focused on the use of machine learning techniques and neural networks in the field of bioengineering. He did his undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering at Pune University, India.
Atul is an avid Badminton, Tennis, and Table Tennis player. He enjoys traveling and biking. He is a technology enthusiast who likes to keep up with the latest trends and has competed in several programming challenges.
Charles L. Rice, Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Entergy New Orleans, Inc.
Charles Rice has served as president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans, Inc., a $750 million electric and gas utility, since June 2010. After his first legal private practice position in Louisiana with Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P, Rice joined Entergy in 2000 as senior counsel and then served as manager of labor relations litigation support.
Rice joined New Orleans city government in 2002 as the city attorney and later served as chief administrative officer for the City of New Orleans. In 2005, the law firm of Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C. recruited him back to private practice, where he was named partner.
Returning to Entergy in 2009 as utility strategy director, Rice was later named Entergy New Orleans’ regulatory affairs director. Rice holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Howard University, a juris doctorate from Loyola University’s School of Law and an MBA from Tulane University. After graduating from Howard University, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served as a military intelligence officer with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Alton D. Romig, Jr., Executive Officer, National Academy of Engineering and Former Director, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
Dr. Alton D. Romig, Jr. is the Executive Officer of the National Academy of Engineering. Under Congressional charter, the Academy provides advice to the federal government, when requested, on matters of engineering and technology. As Executive Officer, Dr. Romig is the Chief Operating Officer responsible for the program, financial and membership operations of the Academy, reporting to the President. Prior to joining the Academy, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Advanced Development Programs, better known as the Skunk Works ®. Dr. Romig spent the majority of his career at Sandia National Laboratories, operated by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He joined Sandia as a Member of the Technical Staff in 1979 and moved through a succession of R&D management positions leading to appointment as Executive Vice President in 2005. He served as the Deputy Laboratories Director and Chief Operating Officer until 2010 when he transferred to the Skunk Works.
Dr. Romig graduated summa cum laude from Lehigh University in 1975 with a BS in Materials Science and Engineering. He received his MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University in 1977 and 1979, respectively. Dr. Romig is a Fellow of ASM International, TMS, IEEE, AIAA and AAAS. Dr. Romig was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 and the Council of Foreign Relations in 2008. He was awarded the ASM Silver Medal for Materials Research in 1988.
Charles Rubenstein, Treasurer, Future Leaders Forum
Charles Rubenstein has an earned doctorate in bioengineering (Polytechnic Institute of New York) and a master’s in library and information science (Pratt Institute) and is a tenured professor of engineering and information sciences at Pratt Institute. An internationally known IEEE distinguished lecturer for the IEEE-USA S-PAC program and Engineering Management and Computer societies, he has delivered workshops and tutorials on Android Application Design, IEEE Leadership Skills, HTML and eCommerce, as well as “Scalability of IEEE Membership” and wireless technology presentations world-wide and has written two books on Web Design.
Among his honors are IEEE’s Robert S. Walleigh Distinguished Professionalism Award, the IEEE-USA Citation of Honor, IEEE’s Centennial Outstanding Young Engineer and Third Millennium Medals, and the Regional Activities Board Innovation Award. With more than 30 years of exemplary IEEE leadership, he has served four years on the IEEE-USA Board of Directors, on the 2010-2011 IEEE Board of Directors, and has served as a member of the Educational Activities, Member & Geographical Activities, Publications, and Technical Activities Boards. He continues to have leadership roles in region and technical society executive committees and is currently Chair of the IEEE-USA Conferences Committee, and an IEEE-USA Board-nominated candidate for 2017 IEEE-USA President-Elect.
Barry Shoop. 2016 IEEE President and CEO
Professor and Department Head
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
U.S. Military Academy
West Point, New York, USA
Barry Shoop received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is Department Head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, responsible for an academic department with 79 faculty and staff serving over 2300 students annually. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, OSA and SPIE. He received the 2008 OSA Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award, the 2013 SPIE Educator Award, and the 2013 IEEE Haraden Pratt Award “for outstanding service to the IEEE.”
Earlier Dr. Shoop was a satellite communication engineer responsible for design and installation of a high-capacity, world-wide digital communication network, and also the CTO for a US$4.5B organization addressing the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) challenge worldwide. He holds a patent on photonic analog-to-digital conversion, and has authored over 150 archival publications as well as 8 books and book chapters. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia, USA.
Nicole Skarke, Future Leaders Forum Vice Chair
Nicole Skarke is a controls engineer by trade and received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas where she began her involvement with IEEE through the student branch. She is currently the chair of the IEEE-USA Student Professional Awareness Committee where she gets to express her passion for preparing college students for the post-graduation world and help guide the very program that inspired her.
Tiago Sousa, Lead Renderer Programmer, id Software
Tiago Sousa is id Software’s Lead Renderer Programmer for idTech 666 and the videogame DOOM. He spends most of his days researching and developing new multi-platform graphics technology, with the aspiration of pushing realtime rendering visuals and performance boundaries.
Prior to cross half the planet for his latest venture, Sousa worked at Crytek for more than a decade, in the R&D department, on all CryENGINE versions, various techdemos and games, including the original Far Cry, all the Crysis series.
He is mostly a self-taught, and a day to day continuous learning programmer, who in ancient times co-founded a pioneering game development team in Portugal and briefly studied Computer Science at Instituto Superior Técnico, upon leaving during his 1st academic year, to join Crytek.
Lisette Titre-Montgomery, Video Game Developer
Lisette Titre-Montgomery is a video game developer with over fourteen years of industry experience. Her artistic skills include special effects, character modeling, and texture painting. In addition, she has also managed global art teams in Japan, China, Australia, India, and the Philippines. Lisette has contributed to some of the industry’s highest profile games, including Tiger Woods Golf, The Simpsons, Dante’s Inferno, Dance Central 3, SIMS 4, and Transformers Age Of Extinction for Android and iOS. Her most recent project is with Ubisoft San Francisco on South Park’s next AAA game sequel, The Fractured but Whole.
Ms. Titre-Montgomery’s passion is being a diversity advocate for the game industry. She speaks publicly about how game based curriculums are the key to engaging today’s youth in S.T.E.A.M education and careers. Lisette has been a keynote speaker at N.A.S.A., Intel, Black Girls Code, Girls Who Code, and Soledad O’Brien’s Starfish Foundation. She has also been a featured guest on National Public Radio’s show Tell Me More with Michelle Martin and named One of the Most Powerful Women in Tech by Business Insider.
Chris Washburne, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, Columbia University
Chris Washburne is Associate Professor of Music at Columbia University and the founder and director of Columbia’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. Since 2006, he has worked as an innovation and leadership consultant, tailoring jazz and improvisational programs, for the World Economic Forum, Columbia’s Business School, and a number of private and public companies.He has performed with Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ruben Blades, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Justin Timberlake, Marc Anthony, Björk, They Might Be Giants, Roscoe Mitchell, Grady Tate, Jaki Byard, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Danilo Caymmi, Ran Blake, the Smithereens, Don Richols, Arturo Sandoval, Hilton Ruíz, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Roswell Rudd, Walter Thompson, RMM Allstar Salsa Band, Eddie Henderson, Anthony Braxton, Ray Barretto, John Cale, Baba Olatunje, Candido, Freddie Cole, Maria Schneider Big Band, Chico O’Farrill, Leslie Uggams, Dicapo Opera Company, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-stars, SEM Ensemble, American Microtonal Festival Chamber Orchestra, and the Dinosaur Annex under the direction of Gunther Schuller, among many others. He is the leader of the highly acclaimed SYOTOS Latin jazz band.
John Werner, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Meta
The constant through John Werner’s career has been a passionate commitment to combining innovative thinking and collaborative, creative solutions to deliver human and environmental impact. Werner began his career in education and worked as a teacher and principal in Boston for a number of years. He continued his involvement in STEM education, co-founding Citizen Schools, an education initiative dedicated to democratizing education and improving middle school achievement in underserved areas. Werner’s expertise in scaling organizations helped Citizen Schools grow into a national organization with a $30M+ operating budget, partnerships with top technology companies, and thousands of volunteers.
Werner was most recently at the MIT Media Lab, where he’s known as a tireless technology innovator, community organizer, mentor, entrepreneur and fundraiser. As Head of Innovation and New Ventures at the Camera Culture Group and Founding Managing Director of Emerging Worlds SIG, Werner supported developments on new imaging platforms including hardware and software technologies to augment human vision. He co-instructed a class focused on creating applications for the Google Glass product, so is well acquainted with the AR market and has been an evangelist for the technology. One of Werner’s most significant contributions while at MIT Media Labs has been fostering bottom-up innovation, bringing creative thinkers together from around the world to solve critical global challenges. Werner visited India ten times in the last three years, launching three innovation centers that host camps or “buildathons” for creating long-term solutions for pressing needs in areas such as healthcare, transportation and education.
A sought-after public speaker, Werner is active in the TED community and has spoken 10+ times at TED events and curated more than 300 speakers for TEDxBeaconStreet, garnering more than 40 million views. Werner’s TED events are global in scale, with one event viewed in simulcast by people in more than 177 countries. He introduced the Adventure concept to the TED organization, enabling participants to go behind the scenes at places of innovation and engage in transformative, collaborative experiences. Thanks to Werner, thousands of people have participated in Adventure events in 60+ countries and all 50 US states.
John Werner was selected for a Loeb Fellowship by Harvard University, an opportunity to nurture leadership potential in professions related to the built and natural environment. He has earned countless accolades for his work in technology and education including “50 on Fire” from BostonInno, “Top 10 Education Troublemakers” from the Business Innovation Factory, multiple “Social Capitalist Awards” from Fast Company, and the “Up and Coming Leader” award from Education Week, among others.
Werner has demonstrated an equal level of passion and commitment to his personal endeavors. He is an accomplished triathlete and has qualified for and competed in the Ironman World Championship four times. He is a two-time USTA All-American and earned a spot on Team USA for the 2013 Sprint Triathlon World Championships. Competing in the Nationals, Werner placed in the top 6% of competitors.
For years, Werner has been actively involved with non-profits and community initiatives as a board member and contributor. Causes he has championed include city leadership exchange, history, schools, politics, entrepreneurship and youth sports.
An active videographer, photographer and social media expert, Werner has had more than 10 million views on his photo blog and is a contributor to Getty Images. His photography has been featured by numerous organizations including The White House and Aspen Institute. He has produced several videos and launched successful viral social media campaigns.
Werner is a graduate of Hamilton College. He lives in Boston with his wife and three children. He’s an avid cyclist, world traveler, and Rubik’s Cube® and Star Trek enthusiast.
Chan Wong, Senior Engineer, Entergy and IEEE Region 5 Young Professional Coordinator 2016 (Host)
Chan Wong is a Senior Engineer at the Entergy Transmission engineering in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is one of the innovative and energetic power industry’s young leaders where he led a team of young engineers to implement the World First IEC 61850 pilot multivendor process bus in a substation. In 2017, he will be co-organizing the First North America Utility Communication Architecture (UCA) InterOPerability event at New Orleans to prove interoperability of IEC 61850 standard.
Chan received his Ph.D degree in Automotive Engineering from Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CUICAR) focusing in automation, instrumentation, precision engineering and control theory. Chan currently serve on the Entergy Technology Council and Tulane University Board of Advisor for the Physic and Engineering Physics Department.
In his spare time, Chan enjoys spending time with family- wife Cat Wong (New Orleans IEEE Section Chair and IEEE Region 5 PES Coordinator) and his two young future IEEE children: 4 years old Ethan and 2 years old Amelia.
Aside his strong passion in his career and family, he is very engaging in professional organizations:
- IEEE Region 5 Young Professional Coordinator 2016
– IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Young Professional Award 2015 recipient - Co-chair of the IEEE 1588 Power Conformity Assessment Steering Committee
- USA representative for International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC 57
– Chair of the IEC TC 57 IEC 61850 Process bus taskforce - USA representative of Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) A3.31
- Active members of IEEE Power System Relaying Committee (PSRC)
- IEEE PES Chair in New Orleans 2014 and 2015
– 2015 Outstanding Performance Chapter Award recipient
– 2015 First Runner High Performance Chapter Award recipient
Tim Worboys, Manager, Software Engineering, LinkedIn
Tim Worboys received his BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada before starting his career at LinkedIn in 2012. Tim has worked at LinkedIn through it’s hypergrowth phase between 2012 and present where the number of employees grew from 2,100 to 9,200 in only 4 years. During this time he grew from an entry level Software Engineer to his current role as Manager, Software Engineering.
Tim is passionate about leadership and management and enjoys speaking and writing about these topics as well mentoring and helping people to grow their careers. Tim has held several positions in the IEEE including Vice Chair, Leadership and Training for the Young Professionals and his current roles as Region 6 – Central Area Chair, and Social Media Chair for the Communications Committee of the IEEE-USA. In his spare time you can find Tim hiking, snorkeling, kayaking or whitewater rafting.