The Seattle AI Investor Summit and Showcase, hosted by the Technology Alliance, is a unique opportunity for corporate venture investors and venture capitalist’s from around the world to learn about the groundbreaking innovations across all sectors emerging from the Pacific Northwest.
The Agenda
June 2nd @ ?? (??)
2:00pm: Registration opens
2:30pm: Welcoming Remarks
2:45pm: A Glimpse into the Life Cycle of Innovation: From Research to Commercialization
Panelist 1
Panelist 2
Moderator
3:20pm: From Seed to Scale: Perspectives on Early-Stage Investment
Panelist 1
Panelist 2
Moderator
4:00pm: Startup Showcase: Four simultaneous tracks, each featuring six top startups from the PNW
5:45pm: Cocktail Reception - Mingle with your peers and the Seattle venture capital community
June 3rd @ ??
8:00am: Registration & Breakfast Networking Reception
9:00am: Welcome to Day 2!
9:15am: Keynote Address: Everything You Wanted to Know About AI (and AI for Good) But Were Afraid To Ask - ??, Microsoft
10:00am: Morning Networking Break
10:20am: Washington Industry Spotlight: Aerospace
10:45pm: Startup Showcase: Four simultaneous tracks, each featuring six top startups from the PNW
12:15pm: Networking Lunch
1:30pm: Washington Industry Spotlight: Fusion
1:50pm: The PNW Advantage: Venture Leaders on Startups and Investments
Panelist
panelist
Panelist
Moderator
2:30pm: Truths and Fictions Around Working with CVCs
Panelist
panelist
Panelist
Moderator
3:00pm: Washington Industry Spotlight: AI
3:20pm: Afternoon Networking Break
3:20pm: Big Ideas, Bold Visions: Top Startups in Washington
4:45: Startup Speed Dating
6:00: Close
The Panelists
Andrew Connolly is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington and is the Associate Vice Provost for Data Science. He was the founding director of the DiRAC Institute and is currently the Director of the eScience Institute. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of statistics and machine learning, working at the forefront of statistics and data intensive astrophysics.
Ani Kembhavi, Senior Director of Computer Vision at AI2 leads the Perceptual Reasoning and Interaction Research (PRIOR) group at AI2. He is also an Affiliiate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering depart at the University of WA. Ani is interested in research problems at the intersection of vision, language and embodiment. Prior to joining AI2 he worked at Microsoft's Bing, building large scale machine learning systems in the Image and Video Relevance team.
Austin Guyette joined Voyager in 2018 after working on enterprise technology investments at M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. At Voyager, Austin plays a key role in identifying new investments and supporting the growth of Voyager’s portfolio across the Pacific Northwest. Prior to Voyager, Austin was in M12’s Seattle office focused on early-stage investments across artificial intelligence, application software, and security.
Chris Bretherton directs a group at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, which uses machine learning to improve and ‘democratize’ climate models. He is an Emeritus Professor of the Atmospheric Sicence and Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Washington, where he taught for 35 years while flying research aircraft through clouds. He has received many awards and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Erin Raney serves as the Senior Director of Technology & Innovation at T-Mobile, where she leads the company's T-Mobile’s Tech Experience Program. Erin is dedicated to advancing wireless technologies and applications, fostering innovation, and forging partnerships with internal leaders, cross-functional teams, industry collaborators, community organizations, and customers.
Francisco Olmedo is a corporate/Emerging Growth & Venture Capital partner in the Seattle office of K&L Gates LLP and a member of the firm’s Latin America practice. Francisco works with emerging growth technology companies and VC funds that invest in those companies. His focus is Latin America and Europe where he represents companies and U.S. and international VCs, as well as corporations investing and pursuing business opportunities in those regions.
Geoff Entress, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Pioneer Square Labs, is also an active angel investor in the Pacific Northwest, focusing broadly on investments in information technologies. A former securities lawyer and financial analyst, he has also held positions at Perkins Coie, Jones Day, UrbanEarth.com, Salomon Brothers, The Prudential Home Mortgage Company, Mellon Bank, Priority Investment Management, and Duquesne Capital Management.
Heather Redman is Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Flying Fish Partners, a venture firm investing in AI, machine learning and robotics companies. She serves on the boards of PPL Corporation (NYSE), Coldstream Holdings Inc., the Washington State Investment Board, the Institute of Systems of Biology, the Advisors of the University of Washington College of Engineering, and as a Regent of Washington State University, among other community boards.
Jay Steigleder, Director of Risk Advisory at CrossCountry Consulting, is a seasoned advisor with over 18 years of expertise in the Risk and Compliance field, 15 of them with PwC, and most recently with CrossCountry Consulting in Seattle. With a proven track record of excellence and innovation, Jay enjoys crafting strategic visions for his teams and solving complex problems for his clients.
Juan Lavista Ferres is currently the Chief Scientist and Lab Director of the Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab. Juan joined the Microsoft Experimentation Platform in 2009 where he designed and ran randomized control experiments across different Microsft groups. Before Microsoft, Juan worked at the InterAmerican Development Bank applying data science to under the impact of poverty and inequality reduction programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Justin Moon practices at the intersection of emerging technologies and the law, at Perkins Coie. He helps the world’s largest tech and Fortune 100 companies develop business- and industry-focused solutions to their most critical legal needs, including the legal, business, and practical implications of generative AI technologies. Justin’s counsel extends to the intellectual property and ethical considerations of AI technologies and related regulatory developments.
Kate Niedermeyer, Principal, Corporate VC and Innovation, AWS Startups, partners with startups VCs, and corporate innovation groups to accelerate digital transformation on AWS. Prior to joining AWS, Kate was the Innovation Director, Entrepreneur for Valiant Labs at Nike.
Ken Horenstein, Founder & General Partner of Pack Ventures, has been investing and supporting early-stage startups since 2015 as a part of Microsoft’s Venture Fund - M12. As an angel, he has backed Humanly, Glue (acquired), Shypyard, Genemod, LockerVerse, and Noibu. During his time with Pack Ventures Fund I, he has seen the portfolio grow to 26 companies across consumer internet, A.I. protein design, digital healthcare and enterprise SaaS.
Kirby Winfield is a seasoned startup operator and investor, and is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, the most prolific pre-seed stage venture fund in the Pacific Northwest. Kirby has been operating and investing in AI and Machine Learning since the 1990s. His first startup pioneered the use of semantic AI for web search. He advised AI2 on the launch and growth of its highly regarded Ai2 Incubator program, and has backed 30+ AI startups as a VC.
Laura Rose Barr, a founding member of Orrick’s technology companies practice in the PNW, is passionate about working with women founders, other underrepresented entrepreneurs, and double bottom line companies. She represents companies and their investors in a variety of verticals, including AI & Machine Learning (Anthropic), consumer applications (AppSheet, Life360, Mylio), edtech (Go1), fintech (SoFi), information security (Stairwell) and life sciences (Cortexyme, Inmedix).
Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and Managing Director of Graham & Walker, an early-stage VC fund investing in deeply human problems. In 2017 she founded the Female Founders Alliance, the largest and most engaged community of its kind in America, and its popular founder programs, dubbed “the YC for Female Founders” by Techcrunch. After graduating from Harvard Business School she worked helping bluechip companies across tech, CPG, media and healthcare to create, test and launch disruptive innovation portfolios.
Dr. Mark Maybury is VP, Commercialization, Engineering & Technology for Lockheed Martin. Dr. Maybury’s prior roles include CTO for Stanley Black & Decker, Chief Scientist, U.S. Air Force, CTO and CSO at MITRE and Director of the National Cybersecurity FFRDC. He advises the Defense Science Board, LMEvolve, Halo.Energy, and Nano surfaces. Dr. Maybury is a Fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow and Association for the Advancement of AI.
Robert Rallo, is the Director for the Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Prior to joining PNNL, he was an Associate Professor in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and Director of the Advanced Technology Innovation Center (ATIC) at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Catalonia.
Sam Strickling is the Director of Fortive's Innovation Studio, where he specializes in the creation of new AI accelerated companies. With a strong background in engineering and business entrepreneurship leading innovation for such companies as Tektronix, Nike, and National Instruments, Sam has established himself as a serial founder, advisor, and mentor to over 20 high-tech startups.
Sheng Wang, Assistant Professor, University of Washington, obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and conducted postdoc training at Stanford School of Medicine. Sheng is currently interested in developing large-scale models for biomedical applications, with a focus on digital pathology, chromatin structure prediction, and genomics-based drug discovery.
Shwetak Patel is the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Endowed Professor at the University of Washington, where he directs the Ubicomp Lab. He also leads Health Technologies at Google as a Distinguished Scientist. His research is in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, and Sensor-Enabled Embedded Systems, and AI with a particular emphasis on the application of computing to health, sustainability, and interaction.
Steve Mantle, is founder and CEO of innov8.ag, a WA-based ag data insights company focused on ‘empowering growers with data’. innov8.ag’s focus on bringing farm geospatial data layers ‘alive’ using emerging data collection technologies is showcased in the Smart Orchard with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, BerrySmart Fields with US Highbush Blueberry Council, and commercially - with growers of both permanent & row crops across the United States.
Tejas Rao, Managing Director of Global Ecosystems and Ventures for Cloud First Networks, Accenture, has over twenty five years of experience in mobile telecommunications, media and high technology industry, management consulting, digital platforms, next generation mobile (5G) networks, IOT, mobile devices, wireless voice and data communication systems, telco cloud, and design and integration of complex business application systems.
Tim Porter, Managing Director, joined Madrona in 2006 and invests in B2B software companies in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently focuses on intelligent applications and SaaS, cloud-native software infrastructure, the modern data stack, machine learning, DevOps, and cybersecurity. He is also a board member of numerous Madrona portfolio companies.
