ADVISORY BOARD |
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The Austin Forum on Technology & Society Advisory Board provides guidance and support in the areas of impact, development, community relations, and programming of future topics and speakers. Their participation helps increase the influence and impact of the Austin Forum for the whole community.
The Advisory Board is comprised of members of partner organizations and at-large community leaders in technology, business, government, and education that meet 8-10 per year to provide guidance and support in the areas of impact, development, community relations, and programming.
The Advisory Board is comprised of members of partner organizations and at-large community leaders in technology, business, government, and education that meet 8-10 per year to provide guidance and support in the areas of impact, development, community relations, and programming.
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Michael Ignatowski
Michael Ignatowski is a Senior Fellow at AMD Research in Austin, where he leads the research work in advanced memory architecture for high performance computers. Mike was involved in AMD’s role in winning the bid for the Frontier Exascale system to be installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory next year. Before joining AMD 10 years ago, Mike work at IBM in upstate New York for 27 years in advanced development and research. Mike has a master’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Michigan State University. Outside of work, Mike serves on the board for Common Ground for Texans (CG4TX.org), a local group dedicated to promoting civil discourse among diverse communities and seeking common ground solutions toward a healthy democracy. He also servers on the board of 350-Austin, a local chapter of the international 350.org organization dedicated to reducing the threat of climate change. Mike is also the former president of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society. |
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Chuck Gilbert
Chuck is the Technical Director of the Architecture and Strategy Solutions Team at AMD. The Solutions team is responsible for pathfinding, prototyping, and evangelism of new technologies in multiple industry verticals (HPC, AI/ML, Cloud, Networking) with a focus on software interactions with hardware technologies. Chuck has over 15 years of experience working on large scale system design, development, deployment, and operations. Prior to joining AMD, Chuck was an HPC Technologist in the office of the CTO at Dell, focusing on HPC technology futures, US Federal Government HPC as well as the convergence of HPC and Cloud computing. Previously, Chuck was the Technical Direct and Chef Architect at The Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for Cyber Science and was responsible for architecting and deploying HPC and Cyberinfrastructure in support of the University’s research mission. Chuck’s past experiences also includes working for Raytheon developing large scale data-warehousing and signal processing infrastructure in support of the US DOD/IC community, as well as at Oracle designing and deploying their Gen2 bare-metal cloud computing platform. Chuck has an academic background in Computer Information Science and Computer Science and resides in Austin, TX. |
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Fares Bagh
Fares Bagh is the VP of SOC and Solutions Enablement team at Arm, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company. In his role, Fares focuses on delivering complete solutions specific to market segments where various IPs are validated together and deliver optimum performance. His team’s work spans from IOT to supercomputers. Fares joined Arm in 2016. Before that, Fares held various executive position in NXP, Freescale, Avdent Solar, a solar startup acquired by Applied Materials, and Intel . Fares has personal interest in Python, machine learning, and squash(the sport not the gourd). |
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Eric Van Hensbergen
Eric is currently a Fellow in the Research division at Arm in Austin, TX leading the systems research group. The group's activities include exploring the place of Arm within data centers, network infrastructure, high performance computing, distributed systems, edge computing and investigating next generation concepts in security, operating systems, runtimes, and systems software. He was a research staff member in the Future Systems Department at IBM's Austin Research Lab. Over nearly twelve years at IBM, he has worked on low-power dense server and network processor appliance blades, DRAM power management, full system simulation, high performance computing, hypervisors, and the Linux operating system. Before coming to IBM, he worked for four years at Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories on the Plan 9 and Inferno operating systems. |
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Harold Ingersoll
@atchleycpas Harold is a partner at Atchley & Associates, LLP. Harold has more than 30 years of leadership experience in consulting, public accounting and the U.S. Air Force. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Texas State University. Prior to becoming a partner at Atchley & Associates, LLP in 2005, Harold managed his own accounting practice and later merging with Faske Lay & Co., LLP as a partner. Harold is retired from the Air Force and the Air Force Reserves. Harold centralizes his practice in mergers and acquisitions, business valuations, litigation support, expert witness consulting and forensic accounting. He has extensive expertise in these practice areas in addition to succession planning, taxation, attestation, and general business consulting. As the managing partner of the consulting services group, he has the ability to evaluate and explain complex business transactions as well as see them through to success. |
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Karl Popham
Karl leads the Electric Vehicles & Emerging Technologies Team at Austin Energy, the 3rd largest city-owned electric utility in the country whose EV program was recognized as “Drive Electric Utility of the Year” by Plugin America and “EVisionary City” of North America by EDTA. Karl has been a Principal Investigator on over ten innovation grants on grid modernization, electrification, and leads the utility’s “5 EV Pillar Strategy” advancing outcome-based transportation electrification through infrastructure, fleet electrification, grid modernization, customer experience, and equity. Karl serves on several boards to include The Energy Thought Summit, Austin Forum on Technology & Society, CS Week EVCx Forum, and a co-chair of the Austin Climate & Equity Working Group. An active speaker and research contributor, Karl is co-author of "Smart Cities; Applications & Standards” a book published by Springer. Previous roles include the utility’s interim Chief Information Officer, a Managing Director at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, and a Captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers. |
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Amy Atchley
Amy Atchley is a leader in social impact; possessing a diverse skill set that draws from over 20 years of experience serving vulnerable communities through her work with the non-profit sector with agencies like Meals on Wheels Central Texas and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Her role at Austin Energy is building frameworks of equity through transportation electrification and emerging technology access by collaborating with community stakeholders and historically underserved communities. Amy’s community leadership roles include Board of Directors at EcoRise and the Austin Forum on Technology and Society and she is also a working Austin-based singer/songwriter. |
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Brad Englert
@EnglertBrad Brad is the CEO and founder of Brad Englert Advisory, a technology planning and consulting services firm, and is an author, advisor, and technologist. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer for ITS and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for The University of Texas at Austin, and was a partner with Accenture. Services offered through Brad Englert Advisory include strategy creation, IT governance, organization effectiveness, cloud solution evaluation and selection, career coaching, and career development training. |
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Matt Sanchez
Matt is the Founder and CTO of CognitiveScale, leading the development of CognitiveScale’s core products and infrastructure. He serves as the principal architect and product visionary for the company’s cloud-based cognitive applications across various industries. Recently, Matt was the leader of IBM Watson Labs and was the first to apply IBM Watson to the financial services and healthcare industries. Before joining IBM, Matt was Chief Architect and employee number three at Webify, which was acquired by IBM in 2007. Matt earned his BS degree in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin in 2000, has been granted six US patents, and is the author of more than a dozen more. |
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Carolyn Coke Reed Devany
Carolyn Coke Reed Devany is Executive Chair of Interactic Holdings, LLC dba Data Vortex Technologies, an intellectual property company holding the rights on the globally protected Data Vortex switch portfolio. As an active participant in the high performance computing community for nearly 25 years, Carolyn has witnessed first hand the dramatic shift from legacy supercomputing to efficient new solutions that meet today's massive data-driven infrastructure requirements. Her focus is on driving fair and transparent relationships with investors, industry partners, and thought leaders in both the public and private sectors. Representing the company’s majority interest, she is the primary visionary and decision maker, setting the course for the responsible dispensation of the Data Vortex intellectual property. Carolyn serves as Steering Committee Chair for the international organization Women in High Performance Computing and is Co-founder of Texas Women in High Performance Computing. She is excited by the imaginations of young innovators and is interested in better understanding how art and technology can drive social responsibility. As a passionate equestrian, Carolyn spends the majority of her free time trail riding through Central Texas with her favorite pal, Howdy. |
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Kim Bates
Kim Bates enjoyed a 34 year career at ExxonMobil holding several executive level positions retiring as the VP Exploration for Asia Pacific and Middle East. Shortly after retiring, Kim joined Data Vortex as the Chief Strategy Officer bringing her strong interest in technology, her business acumen, execution focus and skills as a strategic thinker and negotiator. Kim and her husband Len are major investors in Data Vortex. They enjoy spending time at their Virginia retreat in the idyllic Catawba Valley. They have 3 adult children. |
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Michael Shepherd
Michael is a Distinguished Engineer and recognized technical evangelist who speaks globally on the impact of emerging technologies. With 25 yrs Technology experience backed by 14 years growing up in Asia, he currently leads AI Research and Emerging Tech for Dell Technologies Services. Michaels responsibilities include engaging with external researchers and collaborating internally across the Chief Technology Offices to envision and drive transformation as we prepare for the Age of AI. As Augmented Intelligence improves the efficiency by which humans and machines work together, Michael focuses on “the possibilities” with Machine Intelligence and provides vision for how Data Scientists in Dell Technologies Services can help drive human progress and better outcomes for businesses and humanity. Michaels experience as a sole proprietor and subsequent 20+ yrs at Dell in multiple organizations gives him a unique perspective of Dell’s entire product lifecycle. He serves on the MSBA advisory council for the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and has been granted thirteen hardware and software patents in eight countries. When he isn’t consumed by Machine Intelligence, he can be found (or not) hiking with family and friends somewhere off the grid…getting recharged by nature where technology has yet to reach. |
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Erik Summa
Erik Summa works at Dell Technologies and is an award-winning Experience Designer, specializing in creating new and innovative experiences that leverage touch, voice, gaze, gestures, biometrics, and more. He has 16+ years of experience in the creative industry and spent over five years of teaching and mentoring future experience designers. |
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Craig Aumann
Craig Aumann started his career on the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and has over 20 years of trading and exchange experience. As Head Trader of notable hedge funds he developed a deep understanding of market mechanics and identified the need for a better solution to trading in the private markets. |
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Julie Tomlin
Julie Tomlin's 20 years as a Finance/HR professional have spanned commercial construction, staffing/recruiting and automotive technology, but she found her niche in the startup world building corporate cultures focused on honest communication, good humor and hard work. |
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Luke Wilson
Luke is the Head of Global Research Infrastructure at Optiver, a global market making firm which works to provide liquidity and stability to financial markets around the world. Prior to Optiver, Luke served as a Distinguished Engineer at Dell Technologies, where he designed High Performance Computing (HPC) & AI solutions and served as the Chief Architect for Omnia, Dell’s HPC/AI solution automation framework. Before that Luke held various roles at the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) in HPC software development, performance optimization, and training. Luke received his PhD in Computer Science from The University of Texas at San Antonio, and both MS and BS in Computer Science from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. |
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Scott Richardson
Scott Richardson is the managing partner of Optiver’s Austin office. Optiver is a global proprietary trading firm. In Austin, we develop and run ML-based algorithmic trading strategies in world futures markets. This offices serves as a global HQ for Optiver’s quantitative research and hardware research/engineering. Before moving with Optiver to Austin, Scott ran various algorithmic trading groups at Optiver in Chicago. |
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Hugh Forrest
@Hugh_W_Forrest Hugh serves as Chief of Programming for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival. This event brings more than 25,000 digital creatives from across the United States and around the world to Austin for five days of panels, brainstorming, networking, deal-making and fun. Forrest graduated from Austin High School in 1980, and then majored in English at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Before joining the SXSW team, he founded a small alternative publication called The Austin Challenger. |
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Sherri Greenberg
Sherri Greenberg is a Professor Practice and Fellow of the Max Sherman Chair in State and Local Government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. She is a Chairperson of the Board of Managers of Central Health, a Member of the City of Austin Regional Affordability Committee, and a Member of the UT Opportunity Forum Steering Committee. Also, she serves on the Texas.Gov Steering Committee, the Austin CityUP Board of Directors, the Austin Forum on Technology & Society Advisory Board, and the City of Austin General Obligation Housing Bond Review Committee. Additionally, she has served as a Senior Advisor to Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Greenberg was a Texas State Representative from 1991 to 2001, and she chaired the House Pensions and Investments Committee and the Select Committee on Teacher Health Insurance. She also served on the House Appropriations,Economic Development, Elections, and Science and Technology Committees. Previously, Greenberg was the City of Austin Capital Finance Manager, and a Public Finance Officer at Standard & Poor’s. Greenberg holds an MSc in Public Administration and Policy from the London School of Economics. Her teaching and research interests include: technology and innovation, urban and state issues, public engagement, housing, transportation, healthcare, public finance, and campaigns and elections. Her recent publications are: Congress and Social Media: Beyond Facebook & Twitter, Using Innovation and Technology to Improve City Services, Austin Anchors & The Innovation Zone: Building Collaborative Capacity, Congressional Committees and Social Media, and Congress + Social Media. |
At-Large Members
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Mitch Jacobson
Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) Mitch has been a leader in bringing together government, industry, academia, utility and community interests to organize and shape the $2.5b economy in Clean Technology and Clean Energy in Central Texas as the Director of the Clean Energy Incubator at ATI. He is now the Director of the Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas at Austin, a resource for early stage technology companies in “deep tech” – that is solutions that pertain to energy, water, waste, transportation, agtech and the life sciences. He is also the Executive Director of the UT Blackstone LaunchPad on the UT Campus. Mitch serves on the Board of The Nature Conservancy, The Environmental Sciences Institute at UT Austin, The Texas Foundation of Innovation & Commercialization, EcoRise and The Austin Forum on Technology & Society. Prior to all of this, Mitch was in the Computer / IT industry for 25 years. He founded the Eyes of Texas Partners angel investment group, was the VP of Sales for Tech Data Corporation and Director of Sales, European Expansion and ROW Expansion for Dell for many years. |
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Jay Williams
Frontier Marketplaces Jay Williams has been a chief technology officer and consultant to many of the Fortune 500. As a consultant he has developed a highly refined process for managing a company’s technology infrastructure, including applications, security, and network assets. Jay is a highly sought-after, enterprise systems architect and problem solver. He has advised a number of high profile technology companies on their products and is known for a rare combination of deep technology expertise, expert problem solving ability and business acumen. Jay is widely respected by peers and has influenced many pivotal technology consortia and industry steering groups. He regularly consults with senior technology and business executives and is frequently consulted by venture and capital investors for analyses of new technology strategies. |
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Janice Omadeke
The Mentor Method Janice Omadeke is the CEO and Founder of The Mentor Method, an enterprise platform helping companies keep and develop their diverse talent using the proven power of mentorship. Using a double-blind algorithm, The Mentor Method is closing the opportunity equity gap in the workplace. Janice is a 2020 Austin Under 40 nominee and winner of DivInc’s Champion of Change Diversity Champion of the Year for the city of Austin. Venture-backed by funds including Backstage Capital and Capital Factory, Janice's company was a finalist at the Grace Hopper annual conference in 2018, is a MassChallenge Texas Gold winner, a 50 on Fire winner for both Austin and DC Inno, and a 2017 Startup Grind Global Exhibition selection. Black Enterprise recognizes Janice as one of DC’s top 5 black women in tech. She has also been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur magazine, and she was a subject matter expert at the 2016 White House Summit on Building the Tech Workforce of Tomorrow. Janice is certified in Entrepreneurship from MIT, and is PMP certified with over 10 years of corporate leadership experience for Fortune 500 companies. |
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Elizabeth Quintanilla
Marketing Gunslingers Elizabeth Quintanilla is a positive, creative, people-oriented, performance-driven Marketing Gunslinger: As a consultant and speaker, she focuses on understanding the customer perspective and consults on a variety of topics: online technologies and strategies, social business, marketing (traditional, online, social, content, Go-To-Market), product marketing, and demand generation. She has a broad-base of experience in multiple industries including: aerospace, franchise, IT, software, and real estate. As an expert communicator, she explains complex concepts in understandable terms and delivers high-quality creative solutions to ensure product and customer success. |
