Speaker Biographies by Name

CTO & Head of IT
Tony Batalla is Chief Technology Officer / Head of IT & Innovation for the City of San Leandro, California. He has developed a Smart City roadmap, including the launch of a 10 gigabit internet connection at City Hall; free, public Wi-Fi system utilizing the City’s fiber optics network; and citywide IoT network. He directs all aspects of technology, including infrastructure, service delivery, and data and cybersecurity. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson and a BS from the University of San Francisco.

CTO
David Bishop is the CTO at SIS, LLC. Dedicated to impacting the direction of big data technology, David has helped pioneer the evolution of machine learning and has spent his career creating advanced analytics-based solutions for large global companies including Microsoft, Barclays Investment Bank, and IBM. Previously, as Senior Vice President, R&D at Hitachi Solutions, David oversaw product development for North America and helped build and take to market some of the company’s most innovative solutions. He architected the company's revolutionary IoT Service Hub product, an extensible turnkey platform that allows clients to quickly transform equipment service operations from repair and replace to predict and prevent using the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Innovation Director
Paul has over 15 years of experience throughout the value chain of clean energy development, commercialization, and deployment. Prior to EDF, Paul held key roles on the analysis, marketing, product development, project development, business development, and corporate development teams in start-ups and large international energy companies, including QBotix, AUO/BenQ, Suntech/Gemini, and several C&I PV developer/integrators. Paul graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans with a BSE, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering focused on clean energy technologies, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and electricity demand forecasting.

CTO
Ricky Brown was a self-taught engineer who has bridged gaps between engineering and business by leading teams in architecture and development on projects for large enterprises (such as Microsoft, Sony, T-Mobile) and small-to-midsized companies. Ricky is an entrepreneur who has personally prototyped over 100 full stack applications for various startups, many of which continue to operate in production environments today.

Chair
No bio available

Associate - User Experience/Technology Design
Paul Chavez is an Associate with engineering firm Arup in Los Angeles, California where he is a user experience designer.  He focuses on the digital layer of the built environment where humans and technology interface. Prior to joining Arup, Paul was an AV systems design director and an audiovisual consultant.  He is also an experimental music composer and sound designer.  At Arup he combines these backgrounds to creatively address the needs and goals of clients through a research-based, human-centered design practice.

CTO
Christopher Dow is the CTO for August, where he is responsible for technology strategy. Christopher joined August in February 2013 as the first engineer, building and managing the software team before becoming CTO in July 2017. Prior to August, Christopher Dow was senior vice president, Architecture at Rovi where he was responsible for directing the architecture of Rovi digital entertainment products and product ecosystem, including the Rovi guide, metadata, search and recommendations solutions. He joined Rovi in 2007, when the company acquired Mediabolic, and has over 22 years in the computer graphics and multimedia industry. Chris has directed the high-level architecture for consumer electronics (CE) devices such as digital video recorders, web pads and hand-held gaming devices. He has also led the development of 3D graphics APIs, the media resource solution of a set-top box in an interactive TV environment, and has experience with imaging and X server development

Founding Partner
Matt is a well respected commentator and technology industry expert with over 20 years experience at the cutting edge of technology research and consulting. He is a thought-leader in Digital Transformation and the Internet of Things. He is widely quoted in trade publications and frequent speaker at conferences. Matt was formerly a Founder and the CEO of Machina Research, the world's leading IoT and Big Data analyst firm, which was acquired by Gartner in 2016. Prior to founding Machina Research Matt was a technology industry analyst, working at firms including Analysys Mason and Yankee Group. Matt holds an MSc in Telecoms from University College London.

Engineering Director
Joel Hensley is the engineering director for the Capture and Watch division at Hudl. For the past two years, he has led the engineering teams behind the Hudl Focus product. Prior to Hudl, he worked at Microsoft working on the Dynamics AX product within the Microsoft Business Division. He graduated with a BS in computer science from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and a MS in computer science from North Dakota State university.

Senior Director of IoT Product Management
No bio available

Manager, Data Science & Analytics Lab
Since starting his first software company at 17, Tobin Jansenberger has spent 28 years at the forefront of what’s next in technology (all the while wondering why he got a business degree). Since co-founding American Family’s Data Science and Analytics Lab in 2014, Tobin’s team has pioneered the adoption of machine learning and cloud system operations to productionalize multiple AI solutions spanning from automated image recognition of satellite property data to home IoT and UBI/autonomous vehicle research.

Head of User Experience
James is a design and strategy leader who has extensive experience and insights on both software and hardware products in various industries including consumer electronics, enterprise and automotive industry. He is currently leading an user experience group at Lucid Motors, future luxury electric car that offers what's really meaningful for drivers and passengers day to day. He is responsible for building true meaning of luxury experience and lifestyle in connected world. James will be speaking about users’ expectations and optimization of infotainment in automotive industry.

Innovation & Digital Team - IoT
Shannon entered the insurance industry through a bit of an unconventional path and has been with American Modern Insurance for over 15 years.  Shannon started as a claims adjuster and has worked through the claims department as an examiner and trainer.  Shannon was involved in the LivingWise smart home project which sparked her interest in IoT and claims mitigation. She is currently part of the Innovation & Digital team with a focus on IoT.

Principal Software Engineer
No bio available

Technical Director of Innovation
Dr. Manish Mehta currently leads the charter at Stanley Black and Decker on Open Innovation. In his current role, he is responsible for Identifying innovative approaches of high margin, high growth commercial opportunities in the areas of advanced materials, batteries, AI, machine learning, robotics, industry 4.0, additive manufacturing, IoT, and cybersecurity in various industry verticals including Security, Power Tools, Healthcare, Engineering Fasteners & Oil and Gas.  Before Stanley Black and Decker, Dr. Mehta drove the innovation agenda of a strategically important program for Accenture around Industry 4.0.  Before Accenture, Dr. Mehta innovated, incubated and industrialized multiple magical user experiences - including designing next generation of Disneyland theme park attraction - Turtle Talk with Crush and exhibits at Hans Christian Andersen museum, Denmark and Beall Center of Art and Technology, UCI Irvine.  Dr. Mehta earned his PhD in AI, Robotics and AI from Georgia Tech and his work has been presented at White House, Stanford, Microsoft, IBM and LinkedIn and has received extensive press coverage including USA Today, MSNBC, Washington Post, Bloomberg  and InformationWeek.

Innovation & New Technology Program Manager
No bio available

Chief Data Scientist
No bio available

Managing Partner
Mr. Pugh has over 25 years of experience in wired/wireless strategy of platform development and deployment of networking technologies for several private and public companies. Most recently over the past 4 years, working with cities on strategies for executing Smart City initiatives around Street lights, Smart Parking, Intelligent Traffic and Security.

CEO & Founder
Ian is the founder and inventor of one of the world’s smallest EEG wearable devices, nurio. During development, he successfully built all electronics, software, and hardware for the device. Ian has worked on numerous emerging technologies and has a deep curiosity for research in Science, Technology, Economics, and Philosophy. Ian also currently operates MindBuilder AI which conducts research in Artificial Intelligence and builds solutions for businesses around the world.

Senior Software Manager
No bio available

Chief Digital Officer
Viren Shah is Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at GE Appliances, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to becoming part of the Haier company, Viren was the CIO at Masco Cabinetry, and CIO Council Leader for their parent company, Masco Corporation. Viren has 20+ years of global experience in creating business value using technology with a strong focus on customers for Fortune 10 organizations, such as Walmart. He has contributed as a senior leader towards the success of startups, turnarounds and global mergers & acquisitions. Viren implemented “Think Global and Act Local” methodologies, utilizing operational and cultural experience in areas of IT Strategy, Omnichannel, Business Development & Governance in 20+ countries across Americas, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa. Viren holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Bombay University, a Master of Business Administration degree in International Marketing/Short-Term Finance from the New York Institute of Technology, and an Executive Education Certificate in Digital Marketing Strategies for Digital Economy from the Wharton Business School.

Chief Innovation Officer
No bio available

Product Manager, IoT
Peri is a Senior Product Manager at Bayer Crop Science with a diverse set of experience ranging from software development and solutions architecture to leveraging cloud technologies to build effective IoT platforms. He currently leads and manages the enterprise IoT platform at Bayer Crop Science a division of Bayer and formerly Monsanto company, along with IoT related products in the Supply Chain space. Prior to joining Monsanto, Peri was involved in building open source solutions for a consortium of University Libraries such as UChicago, Princeton, MIT and Harvard to replace old vended systems with a more robust and scalable library software.

Chief Operating Officer & Founder
No bio available

Founder & Head of Client Strategy
As a Co-Founder at Very and having been involved in over 250 product launches in the last 8 years, Ben leads a team of over 50 full-time engineers, designers and data scientists that work with clients to understand challenges they’re facing and build custom software-driven solutions. Ben believes that attracting and retaining top-tier talent is a key differentiator, which is why he champions reinvesting profits into employee benefits and cultural experiments. Ben has also led the investment and development of several ventures that have spun out of Very like ReadyCart, which went on to raise additional capital and was acquired by Grapevine Inc in 2017.

CIO
Jon Walton’s passion is to look beyond the basics of traditional government approaches to using technology. His vision is to leverage County technology solutions into regional platforms that serve not only County employees, but also residents, businesses, and other agencies regionally. He rejects the idea of government as a technology dinosaur and strives to utilize the newest technology to solve problems. Aside from tech, Jon is passionate about ocean time with his sons and racing cars.

Digitization CTO & General Manager of Digital Innovation Technology Center
Hiroshi Yamamoto joined Toshiba in July 2018 as Corporate Digitization Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for spurring execution of the company’s digital transformation strategy and the expansion of digital assets and technologies. Mr. Yamamoto joined Toshiba from IBM, where he was Global Electronics Industry CTO from 2013, and is a distinguished pioneer in advanced digital technologies and IoT, including big data processing, service-oriented architecture, and the promotion of the capabilities necessary to achieve Industrie 4.0. At the outset of his career, Mr. Yamamoto joined a Japanese electronics company in 1982, where his work on embedded technology included machine and communication control. In 1988, he joined IBM, where he concentrated on enterprise systems, and then on bringing advanced technologies to distributed computing, machine to machine systems and IoT Systems. In 2008, he was recognized as an IBM Distinguished Engineer. He holds seven patents for distributed computing.

IoT R&D Applications Engineer
Sai Yamanoor has over 6 years of experience as an embedded systems expert and currently works for an industrial gases manufacturer in Buffalo, NY. He has worked on software development, hardware development including IoT system design, testing and deployment. He is a co-author of two books on the use of Raspberry Pi to execute DIY projects, and has participated in Maker Faires across the country. Sai's current interests include Edge Computing, IIoT and AI. Sai is also currently working on machine learning projects aimed at improving Quality of Life (QoL) for people with chronic health conditions.