Featured speakers
Leaders, inventors and change-makers
Our speakers illuminated Think Digital with their vision and expertise. Watch their sessions to learn about the new innovations, technologies and business solutions that can help business and society recover and transform.
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Arvind Krishna
Arvind Krishna
Chief Executive Officer
IBM
Arvind Krishna is chief executive officer of IBM. As a business leader and technologist, he has led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain. He has also played a significant role in the development of innovative IBM products and solutions based on these emerging technologies.
Over his 30-year career at IBM, Arvind led a series of bold transformations and delivered proven business results. He most recently led the successful $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, the largest software acquisition in history and one that has defined the hybrid cloud market.
Arvind previously was senior vice president of Cloud and Cognitive Software. He also headed IBM Research, was general manager of development and manufacturing for IBM Systems and Technology Group, and led IBM Information Management.
Ginni Rometty
Ginni Rometty
Executive Chairman
IBM
Ginni Rometty is Executive Chairman of IBM. She was previously Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
During her tenure she made bold changes to reposition IBM for the future, investing in high value segments of the IT market and optimizing the company's portfolio. Under Ginni’s leadership, IBM built out key capabilities in hybrid cloud, security, quantum computing, industry expertise, and data and AI.
Ginni also established IBM as the model of responsible stewardship in the digital age. She was the industry's leading voice on technology ethics and data stewardship, working to safely usher new technologies into society. She enabled people of diverse backgrounds and education levels to participate in the digital economy by building talent, skills and opportunity for disadvantaged populations. IBM also achieved record results in diversity and inclusion under Ginni’s leadership.
Ginni held a series of leadership positions across IBM and led the successful integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, creating a global team of more than 100,000 business consultants and services experts.
Jim Whitehurst
Jim Whitehurst
President
IBM
Jim Whitehurst is the President of IBM. He is responsible for the IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software organization, and Corporate Strategy. He is an advocate for open principles as a catalyst for business innovation. With a background in business development, finance and global operations, he has proven expertise helping companies flourish — even in the most challenging environments.
Prior to IBM, Whitehurst served as the President and CEO of Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source enterprise software solutions. At Red Hat, Whitehurst grew its influence with key milestones — including becoming the first $1 billion revenue open source software company in 2012 and, most notably, the landmark acquisition of Red Hat by IBM for $34 billion in 2019. He has grown revenue from more than $500 million for its 2008 fiscal year to $3.4 billion for its 2019 fiscal year.
At Delta Air Lines, Whitehurst drove significant global expansion and, as chief operating officer, oversaw all aspects of airline operations, from sales to strategy. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group in 1989.
Bridget van Kralingen
Bridget van Kralingen
Senior Vice President Global Industries, Clients, Platforms & Blockchain
IBM
As Senior Vice President, Bridget van Kralingen leads IBM’s business unit that conceives, develops, and scales disruptive software cloud platforms for specific industries; opens new markets for the Watson artificial intelligence platform; and has established IBM as the clear leader in the emerging market for blockchain.
In parallel, she leads IBM’s top client segment of global enterprises; is accountable for IBM’s global industries – strategy, research, solution development and industry talent; leads the company-wide mission for blockchain; and is responsible for IBM's global strategic partnerships and alliances.
Bridget holds a Masters of Commerce degree from the University of South Africa and Bachelors of Commerce degree from the University of Witwatersrand. Since 2011, Bridget has been listed as one of Fortune Magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business." She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Dr. Dario Gil
Dr. Dario Gil
Director of IBM Research
IBM
Dr. Dario Gil is the Director of IBM Research, one of the world’s largest and most influential global corporate research labs - with over 3,000 researchers at 12 laboratories on six continents - advancing the future of computing. Dr. Gil leads innovation efforts at IBM, directing research strategies in Quantum, AI, Hybrid Cloud, Security, Industry Solutions, and Semiconductors and Systems.
Dr. Gil co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a pioneering industrial-academic laboratory with a portfolio of more than 50 projects focused on advancing fundamental AI research. He has also served as COO of IBM Research and the VP of AI and Quantum Computing, leading IBM to be the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud.
Dr. Gil received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and is a Trustee of the New York Hall of Science.
will.i.am
will.i.am
Founder and CEO
I.AM+
will.i.am is a creative innovator and tech investor/entrepreneur who has been recognized by seven Grammys Awards, an Emmy Award, a CLIO Award, theWorld Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and an honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
As Founder and CEO of I.AM+, he leads a team focused on artificial intelligence (AI) for enterprise, including Omega for Enterprise, an AI voice computing platform built to be conversational, contextual and cross-domainablefor B2B and B2C settings.
He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Advisory Committee and the organization's Global AI Council. will.i.am and his brands/companies have collaborated with a diverse array of brands including: Accenture, Apple, Atom Bank, Chase, China Everbright New Economy Fund, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Epic Records, Horizon Ventures, IBM, Intel, Lexus, Marvel, Nestle and Pepsi.
Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap
Musician, Producer, Founder, Mycelia For Music
Self-produced British composer and recording artist, Imogen Heap has released five solo albums, another as one half of Frou Frou and collaborated with countless artists. Her compositions and songs pop up in films and tv, are featured in various music genres and covered by the likes of Ariana Grande. As composer and arranger for Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, she won the Drama Desk Outstanding Music in a Play award. Heap hosted 2020’s Grammys Premiere Ceremony and attracts companies for commissioned works, leading to songs such as Tiny Human, and The Happy Song. An artists’ artist, Heap has won two Grammys and an Ivor Novello award. A pioneering of work at the intersection of music and tech, Heap has honorary doctorates for the gestural music-ware 'MI.MU gloves' system and recently for ’The Creative Passport’, an integrated digital ID solution, empowering music makers to be the change toward a fair and flourishing music ecosystem.
Mark Foster
Mark Foster
Senior Vice President
IBM Services
Mark Foster is Senior Vice President, IBM Services. Mark leads IBM’s professional services business, which spans Global Business Services and Global Technology Services – a combined $48 billion business and nearly 240,000 person workforce.
For GBS, Mark leads strategy, client value and business performance for IBM’s consulting, systems integration, digital agency, business process outsourcing and application management services businesses across all industries. Mark also leads GTS, IBM’s infrastructure services business, which includes mobility, resiliency, systems and networking and technology support services. Together, IBM Services professionals partner with leading clients around the world to set enterprise strategy, reinvent business processes with AI, modernize core applications and systems on the cloud and build, run and maintain IT environments.
Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
Social Psychologist & Author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
Social psychologist Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt is fascinated by the ways ingrained stereotypes can affect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior. In her book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, Dr. Eberhardt offers a reasoned look into the effects of implicit racial bias, offers practical suggestions for reform, and takes the reader behind the scenes to police departments implementing her strategies.
Dr. Eberhardt is a professor of psychology at Stanford and a recipient of a 2014 MacArthur 'Genius' Grant. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She also is co-founder and co-director of SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions), a Stanford Center that brings together researchers and practitioners to address significant social problems.
Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas
Senior Vice President
IBM Cloud and Data Platform
Robert D. Thomas is Senior Vice President of IBM Cloud and Data Platform. He directs IBM’s product design and investment strategy, expert labs, global software product development, marketing and field operations across the company’s vast software portfolio.
Rob was previously the General Manager of IBM Data and Watson AI. Under his leadership, IBM has emerged as a leader in data and AI, spanning databases, data integration and governance, business intelligence, financial planning, data science and AI tools, and AI applications. Since joining IBM’s software unit, Rob has held roles of increasing responsibility and overseen 4 acquisitions by the firm, representing over $2.5 billion in transaction value.
Born in Florida, Rob earned his BA in Economics at Vanderbilt University and earned his MBA at the University of Florida, Rob serves on the board of Domus (Stamford, CT), which assists underprivileged children in Fairfield county.
Ralph Clark
Ralph Clark
President and CEO
ShotSpotter
Ralph A. Clark brings 30 years of corporate, financial and organizational leadership as ShotSpotter’s President and CEO. Prior to that, Clark was CEO of GuardianEdge Technologies Inc., a leader in endpoint data protection, and was instrumental in its acquisition by Symantec. Clark has held executive positions with Adaptec, Snap Appliance and IBM, and began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Clark received the 2019 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award for Northern California. He is a former board member and chair of Pacific Community Ventures, former board member and chair of the Oakland Boys and Girls Club, former trustee and Vice-Chair of the Oakland Museum of California, is a member of Harvard Business School’s California Advisory Board and is a trustee of the American Conservatory Theater. He holds a B.S. in economics from the University of the Pacific and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Saška Mojsilović
Saška Mojsilović
IBM Fellow, Head of Trustworthy AI and Co-Director of Science for Social Good
IBM Research
Aleksandra (Saška) Mojsilović is an IBM Fellow, the Head of Trustworthy AI and Co-Director of Science for Social Good for IBM Research. She is a Fellow of IEEE and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Previously she was at Bell Laboratories. Saška received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Her main research interests include multidimensional signal processing, data science, machine learning and AI and she has applied her skills to problems in computer vision, healthcare, multimedia, finance, HR, economics, social good, and AI ethics.
Saška has authored over 100 publications, holds 16 patents, and has received numerous awards, including the IEEE Young Author Best Paper Award, European Conference on Computer Vision Best Paper Award, INFORMS Wagner Prize, IEEE SOLI Best paper Award, IBM Gerstner Award, IBM Market Intelligence Award and several IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards.
Aithan Shapira
Aithan Shapira
Consortium for Advanced Adult Learning & Development at McKinsey & Company & Lecturer
MIT Sloan School of Management
Aithan Shapira (MFA PhD), internationally acclaimed artist and lecturer at MIT Sloan, draws on 20+ years of experience helping individuals and organizations innovate at the speed of change. He is the founder of Tilt, a culture design and transformation firm enabling global entities and Fortune 100 leaders to create conditions for enduring cultures of innovation.
Aithan serves McKinsey's think tank on Advancing Adult Learning and Development and has pioneered progressive curricula for the future of work at MIT Sloan, Harvard iLab, Stanford d.school, and Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship.
Aithan developed his research on the creative process at the Royal College of Art & Design, lived in an Australian Aboriginal community for three years to study art’s impact on cultures of survival, and continues to be a visiting critic at international art institutions. He exhibits his artwork in global museums and galleries.
Riana Lynn
Riana Lynn
CEO
Journey Foods
Riana Lynn is a leader in food innovation, technology, and venture strategy. A biologist turned serial entrepreneur, Riana has developed high-growth, nationally recognized technology, and food businesses. She runs the exciting new food technology company, Journey Foods, bridging the intersection of food science, AI, and supply chains.
Scaling a family juice company inspired Riana to develop supply chain transparency software. Her work impacts some of the most innovative food and agriculture startups in the world, as well as Fortune 500 companies. She has been featured on CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, Wired, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, among others and she is a co-founder and board member of Women Tech Founders. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from UNC at Chapel Hill before pursuing a Masters at Northwestern University. A native of the Chicago area, Riana is a techie, a world traveler, and a food innovation expert.
