Meet the Team
-
Jay Boisseau is the executive director and founder of the Austin Forum on Technology & Society. He created the Austin Forum to enable people to come together to learn, share information, and keep up with the rapid pace of technology innovation, and to identify opportunities to learn more, to adopt new technologies into their lives, careers, and organizations, and to potentially collaborate and create new technologies. In short, he created the Austin Forum for people and community as much as for technology adoption and innovation. He plans the Austin Forum programming by working with a great Austin Forum team, Advisory Board and Annual Partners, and inputs from the broader Austin Forum community. He hosts many of the events, and presents a few times a year on topics including HPC, AI, and quantum computing.
In addition to the Austin Forum, Jay is an advanced computing strategist and product manager at Google Cloud for HPC and AI solutions, and works with strategic science customers and communities to understand and increase the use of AI in accelerating scientific discovery. Jay also has his own technology consulting company, Vizias (since 2014, though currently on pause), and the founder (2023) and served as the first executive director of the Austin AI Alliance. His previous experience includes providing strategic planning and executing special projects at Dell Technologies, where he evaluated new technologies for HPC and AI, worked with strategic customers to select and design new HPC solutions, and led the Dell HPC Community. Prior to Dell, Jay founded and led the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin (2001-14) to global prominence with several Top500 system deployments (including two Top10 systems) and numerous awards and contracts for R&D in advanced computational technology programs. Jay also led programs at the San Diego Supercomputing Center and the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center prior to TACC. In all of these positions, Jay has been an active educator, from presentations, workshops, and tutorials to academic class and curriculum development and teaching. He earned his doctorate from UT Austin in astronomy, which led him into supercomputing and other advanced computing technologies, after majoring in astronomy and physics at the University of Virginia.Outside of the tech world, Jay is the lead owner for the best damn neighborhood bar in downtown Austin, Remedy. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Austin and enjoys community service. He loves great food and whiskey, movies and film festivals, and planning technology communities and social events for friends and colleagues. Jay also loves working out but has a long way to go to become Thor. Most importantly, Jay has one perfect daughter who recently graduated with a double major in theater and psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and one perfect wife who is his best friend, unwavering supporter, and business partner who makes much of the above actually happen.
John Lockman,
Podcast Engineer
-
Allison Boisseau serves as the Administrative Director of the Austin Forum on Technology & Society and the Chief Operations Officer (COO) & Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and is a co-founder of Vizias. Allison is an entrepreneur and business owner with over 30 years of experience in many different ventures in & around technology.
Allison graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Learning and Development. She was an elementary school teacher for 3 years and was awarded Beginning Teacher of the Year in 1992. Over the next 20+ years, Allison owned several businesses and developed expertise in operations, accounting, management, marketing, and communications. She joined the Texas Advanced Computing Center in 2010 and served as project manager for the University of Texas Research Cyberinfrastructure (UTRC) Project designed to enhance the UT System’s 15 institutions’ research programs by leveraging TACC’s advanced computing systems and expertise. In October 2013, she became the manager of Communications, Media, and Design for TACC.
​In March 2014, Allison co-founded Vizias, a high performance computing and software development consulting firm. Allison’s professional interests include business development and project management.Allison became a Texas Certified Residential Appraiser in May 2020 and continues to be an active appraiser in the greater Austin area in addition to managing Vizias & Austin Forum projects. She married the love of her life in August 2024 and has a wonderful son and bonus daughter and grand dog Tucker.
-
A longtime fan and supporter of the Austin Forum, Hugh Forrest is thrilled to now be formally involved with brainstorming and programming for this organization. More specifically, his engagement with the Austin Forum mainly focuses on book discussions and podcast content.
Forrest is best known for his work with South by Southwest (SXSW), which he helped build into one of the world's most influential gatherings of technology, innovation and culture. Over the 35+ years that he served leading this event, Forrest was honored as "Austinite of the Year" by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce (in 2012) and was also awarded as "Austin Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst & Young (in 2014). Austin Mayor Steve Adler honored him with a key to the city in January 2023.
After leaving SXSW in May 2025, he started a consulting company called Gather & Grow Experiences, which helps clients in Texas and around the world who want to create compelling F2F / IRL get-togethers.
When not creating compelling experiences, Forrest enjoys reading, exercising, meditating, traveling, hearty salads and an occasional frito pie.
-
LeAnne Reed is the Managing Director of the Austin Forum on Technology & Society. She manages strategic operations, communications, and event execution to ensure seamless delivery of high-value programming for the Austin tech ecosystem. As a lifelong learner and community advocate, she is passionate about bringing people together to learn about and discuss ever-evolving technologies and how they impact the world around them.
LeAnne has over a decade of experience working in high-tech, corporate environments; most recently as a Product Manager for GPU Accelerated Servers and HPC/AI Solutions at Dell Technologies.
Outside of work, LeAnne – a fifth-generation Austinite – is very active in her community. She is a member of Austin Women in Technology and the Austin AI Alliance. She also serves on the Tech Committee for the Women’s Storybook Project of Texas and is currently working to become a mentor at the Settlement Home for Children.
LeAnne lives in Georgetown, TX with her husband and four rescue pups. On the weekends, they can be found hiking in the Hill Country, attending concerts, and spending time with family and friends.
-
As the user experience and web designer for the Austin Forum on Technology & Society, Mary is passionate about creating virtual spaces that bring people together. She believes that design has the power—and the responsibility—to improve the world around us. Mary is thrilled to align her love for creative, impactful design with the Austin Forum’s mission, helping the community connect, discuss, and leverage technology for the greater good.
