Shilpi Gupta is the CEO and Founder of Step In Health, with deep expertise in building new businesses, products, and teams from the ground up. She has a proven track record of transforming early-stage ideas into scalable, high-impact ventures. Shilpi helped lead Roomba’s growth from a $100M product line to a $1B global business in under six years, driving 10x market penetration and industry-leading repeat purchase rates. She later joined Amazon to orchestrate the development and launch of its Air Hub robotics platform, enabling Prime 1-day delivery and unlocking major operational efficiencies. Her experience across robotics, wearables, and consumer technology inspired her to apply advanced sensing and data science to a pressing and personal health challenge: hormonal health. Today, she is building a data-driven platform to close the gap in understanding how hormones influence both immediate and long-term health, empowering people with clearer insight into their biology.

Once told by a high school guidance counselor that her low grades meant she wouldn’t make it, Felecia Hatcher defied the odds to become a transformative powerhouse in entrepreneurship, innovation, and personal empowerment. As the CEO of Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Opportunity Inc., she has invested in over 131 entrepreneurs who collectively raised more than $100 million, reshaping the way diverse innovators access capital, mentorship, and resources. Felecia is no stranger to pulling off the impossible and helping others live bold, uninterrupted lives. With a corporate marketing career that included roles at the Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx, Nintendo, Sony, and McKee Foods, she honed the skills that would lead her to launch groundbreaking ventures in the food, tech, and philanthropic spaces—two of which were successfully acquired. 

Her work shapes how individuals and companies show up, are valued, and thrive in the innovation economy. Global brands like Google, Disney, Spotify, Target, EY, Samsung, and Etsy call on Felecia to help empower their teams and craft inclusive innovation strategies that unlock their full potential. 

A celebrated author and personal transformation speaker, Felecia has written five books, including Genius Jam and Start a Business on a Ramen Noodle Budget. Her expertise has been featured on the Today Show, MSNBC, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and in two Harvard Business School case studies. She has been honored as a White House Champion of Change for STEM Access and Diversity, an Echoing Green Fellow, a Harvard Young American Leader, and a Nationswell Tech Impact Allstar. 

Felecia’s trailblazing work doesn’t stop at corporate boardrooms. As co-founder of the viral, and venture backed food brand Feverish Pops, with clients like, Airbnb, Forever 21, Google and Coca Cola to the co-founder of Black Tech Week and The Center for Black Innovation, she has been pivotal in building ecosystems that foster inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation. Supported by organizations like Knight Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and Adidas, her mission is clear: to ensure that Black and Brown entrepreneurs not only access but also thrive in the innovation economy. 

From overcoming early doubts to creating a legacy of empowerment and transformation, Felecia Hatcher continues to disrupt norms, inspire boldness, and help the world tap into its collective genius.

Dr. Paule V. Joseph is a nurse-scientist and exponential health innovator. She is the CEO and Founder of Anchor Health, a primary care and women’s health practice focused on prevention, longevity, and midlife care. Her scientific work explores how smell and taste can reveal early shifts in brain and metabolic health. She studies how chemosensory changes influence nutrition, behavior, aging, and hormonal transitions — and how these sensory signals can help detect early, meaningful changes in health. Her most recent work applies sensory science to closing long-standing gaps in women’s health and midlife care.

In 2020, she co-founded the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, which connects investigators and communities interested in chemosensory health and science across 73 countries. Her TED and TEDx Talks have brought the power of smell and taste science, and its impact on health, to global audiences, reframing how individuals think about human health and prevention.
Her moonshot is to build the global infrastructure — across science, technology, and workforce — that makes sensory health a standard part of preventive care, advancing healthspan, resilience, and human longevity worldwide. Her North Star is: to reawaken humanity through the science of the senses.

Paule has been recognized nationally and internationally for her contributions to biomedical research, leadership, and mentorship. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), and was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. She is a 2024 TED Fellow and the first nurse-scientist selected as a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. She is a member and Fellow of several scientific societies, including the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), Sigma Xi, and the Royal Society of Medicine.

She holds advanced degrees in nursing, business, and research, and combines these perspectives to bridge bedside, bench, and boardroom — informing practice, policy, and innovation. Dr. Joseph is participating in the 2026 Ascend Program in her personal capacity.

Mariana Matus is a seasoned leader with over 10 years of experience driving the adoption of innovative biotechnology and data products in historically low-tech sectors. As CEO and Cofounder of Biobot Analytics, she has transformed public health surveillance by integrating traditional clinical approaches with near real-time wastewater epidemiology. Mariana serves on the Board of Asbury Communities, a leading provider and innovator of senior living services. She holds a PhD in Computational Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Mariana was selected to Y Combinator in early 2018, and she has raised approximately $40 million in venture capital for Biobot.

Dev Mehrotra is an entrepreneur and operator who’s built across D2C, B2B, and e-commerce after almost a decade in venture capital and private equity and consulting. A Columbia Business School graduate, Dev thrives at the intersection of creativity, AI, and scale. Today she leads Marmalaide, where her focus is making Gen AI content practical for marketers - high quality production-level content at a fraction of the cost and time, and weekly ship-learn-relaunch rituals that compound results. Dev’s bias is towards outcomes over demos: turning one asset into many on-brand, localized, A/B-ready videos in hours so teams test faster and spend smarter. She’s energized by founder-led storytelling, performance marketing, and building systems that scale craft without bloat. At Abundance360, Dev is looking to swap playbooks on responsible AI adoption and ops at enterprise scale.

KVJ is the co-founder and CEO of Tough Day, on a mission to help all employees self-manage and thrive. A pioneer in the future of work and a tech industry insider, she previously led innovation and incubation as Chief Strategy Officer at Salesforce. KVJ is a fearless advocate for a human-positive approach to building employee experience, trust, and success with emerging technology. Her views have been featured in media including CNBC, Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, and Wired Magazine. A global citizen and avid explorer, KVJ calls NYC her basecamp.

Sinead Bovell is a futurist, strategic foresight advisor and the founder of WAYE, a tech education company dedicated to equipping youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in a future shaped by advanced technologies.

Emerging as one of the most sought-after voices shaping the future, tens of thousands tune into Sinead's platforms every day to hear her insights on technology and the future. Sinead is an 11-time United Nations speaker. She has delivered formal addresses to presidents, royalty, and Fortune 500 leaders on topics ranging from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence and is known for her engaging future forecasts tackling the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies with a relatable approach.

Nichol Bradford stands at the forefront of human potential and AI, accelerating human transformation through technology investments, research, and global thought leadership.

Currently, Nichol serves as Executive-in-Residence for AI + HI at The Society for Human Resource Management, shaping global thinking on human-AI collaboration. She is also Co-Founder and Partner of Niremia Collective, an early stage venture fund focused on human potential technologies, and she co-founded TransformativeTech.org, the largest global ecosystem of founders, investors and innovators building tech for human flourishing.

Previously, as a senior interactive entertainment executive, Nichol held strategy, operations, marketing and production roles at major brands including Epic Games, Activision-Blizzard, Vivendi Games and Disney. She led operations for World of Warcraft China and Blizzard properties in China, played a key role on the Vivendi team responsible for the landmark $18B Activision-Blizzard merger deal, and helped produce record-breaking events in the metaverse at Epic Games.

Nichol has an MBA from The Wharton School, is Faculty at Singularity University, a Trustee at CIIS, and has been a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. 

Moving forward, Nichol is focused on advancing human potential through ethical and empowering AI -- catalyzing a global ecosystem of innovators to create technology for human thriving.

Jos Dirkx is a powerhouse in the realms of AI advisory and implementation, education, and multimedia storytelling. As the founder of Beenova AI, a best-selling author, and a globally renowned speaker, Jos has traveled to over 100 countries, sharing groundbreaking actionable insights to inspire transformative change at global Fortune500 companies.

Recognized as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer and elected SingularityU Faculty member, Jos is a leading voice in technology and education. She started an NGO for girls in South Africa, had her first book translated to Arabic, and actively works to create connected, global communities that thrive in love and with AI.

Caitlin Krause is a globally-recognized experience designer, learning expert, author, and keynote speaker. She teaches at Stanford University about technology and wellbeing. In her books Digital Wellbeing (2024), Designing Wonder (2020), and Mindful by Design (2019) and through her organizational consulting, Caitlin helps individual leaders and teams leverage wellbeing, imagination, and design to form better human-centered relationships with mindful technology.

As founder of the MindWise consultancy, co-founder of the Center of Wise Leadership, and a virtual reality, XR and AI specialist, Caitlin contributes to building products and experiences that promote humanity, innovation and emotional intelligence. She speaks worldwide, delivering keynotes and leading professional development and learning workshops.

Caitlin actively guides leaders about effective uses of virtual reality and immersive storytelling to allow imagination and creativity to flourish. Caitlin has more than a decade of experience as an educator, promoting mindful leadership and learning models throughout organizations. She holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from Lesley University, and believes in embracing creative constraints, living a life filled with moments of wonder, and connecting with passion, purpose and presence.

Natalie Monbiot is an emerging media and technology strategist, and pioneer in the field of AI, virtual humans, and generative video technologies. As Founder of VHE, she advises VC funds, corporations, and startups on leveraging the intersection of AI and human identity to create meaningful, real-world impact.

As a founding team member and former Head of Strategy at Hour One, Natalie has been instrumental in building one of the first AI avatar startups, and building the AI video category from the ground up. She’s an advocate for responsible virtual human development, and the "virtual human economy"— where individuals can profit from their AI-powered digital selves – the topic of her recent TEDx talk.

Rana’s life work is about humanizing technology before it dehumanizes us. An Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, author, and AI thought leader, she is on a mission to bring emotional intelligence to technology. She is Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off that pioneered Emotion AI. Rana led Affectiva to a successful acquisition by Smart Eye in 2021 and now focuses on scaling it into a global AI powerhouse. She is also an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, where she teaches AI and entrepreneurship.

Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded (2020), chronicles her journey from the Middle East to the U.S. as a scientist and entrepreneur. She has raised $50M+ in venture capital to develop Emotion AI, applying it to industries like automotive, media analytics, and mental health.

A passionate advocate for ethical AI, Rana works with organizations like the Partnership on AI and the World Economic Forum. She champions diversity in tech through All Raise and YPO and serves on multiple boards, including the MIT Media Lab E14 Fund. A TED speaker and PBS NOVA co-host, she has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech.

A polymath and techno-optimist with decades of experience in intellectual property, Burgundy’s unique gift lies in her multidisciplinary solution-based thinking, combining exponential technologies, education, and immersive entertainment with personal development, systems thinkings, community building, abundance mindset, and playful creativity.

Burgundy’s legal practice focuses on Exponential Technologies and New Media (AR/VR/XR & AI/ML/LLM and ), Intellectual Property (Copyright & Trademark, Rights & Clearances, Licensing), Entertainment & Event Production; Emerging Growth Businesses, and related legal and business affairs.

Burgundy is a respected advisor to thought leaders, entrepreneurs, new media innovators, and inspirational content creator including authors, speakers, podcasters, filmmakers, composers, production companies, publishers, talent, and live event / festival producers.  Burgundy’s creative IP track record includes notable projects in film, television, music, and live events, such as The Greatest Showman, Dune, Spiderman franchise, and various Netflix, Prime, HBO series, Peace Song Music Awards, Brain Media Labs, and others. Intellectual property clients include MAPS, DanceSafe, and various Burning Man affiliated projects.

Rachelle Olden is a seasoned professional with a rich background in tech, international development, and social advocacy. At Google, she leads a global initiative dedicated to expanding access to technology careers and preparing the next generation of technologists to build, lead, and innovate on a global scale.

Her journey began as a first-generation college student, growing up as the oldest of four siblings in a single-parent home in both Brooklyn, New York, and Columbia, South Carolina. Rachelle has traveled to over 54 countries, gaining invaluable perspectives along the way. Her career started with the U.S. Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and continued with impactful roles at the U.N. World Food Programme in Liberia and World Vision International in Latin America. She has also worked with the Clinton Foundation, the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she focused on addressing social issues and promoting equity.

With an MBA from Duke University, Rachelle transitioned to Microsoft, where she managed global industry partnerships. In 2023, she was honored to be named one of Puget Sound's 40 under 40 and featured in ESSENCE magazine's inaugural Power 40 list. Outside of her professional life, Rachelle is a certified yoga instructor and enjoys teaching at shelters for homeless women. 

Nabiha Saklayen is CEO and co-founder of Cellino, where her team is spearheading the biomanufacturing of regenerative medicines to make “Your Cells, Your Cure” a reality for patients in an aging and increasingly diverse world. As a purpose-driven physicist, she focused her Ph.D. research on inventing bio/nanophotonics technologies to unlock precision cellular engineering for human health applications. Nabiha’s expertise and passion for patient impact inspired Cellino’s proprietary approach: an autonomous, optical bioprocess that unlocks the ultra-scalable manufacturing of regenerative medicines. Nabiha is a TED speaker and the inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in Genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute, led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Fellow. Nabiha also co-created I Am A Scientist, an educational program in 50 states that inspires children to explore science. She is a global citizen who grew up in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany, and Sri Lanka.

AJ Thomas is the Founder and General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures, an innovative venture capital firm blending iconic creativity, groundbreaking technology, and impactful social change. Under AJ's leadership, Good Trouble Ventures invests in early-stage startups shaping the Future of Entertainment and Creativity, with a focus on the digital transformation of these industries. With a mission to deliver exceptional returns and create lasting cultural and economic impact, AJ’s vision bridges technology and creativity to redefine what’s possible.

In addition to leading Good Trouble Ventures, AJ is the Founder and CEO of The Troublemaker Lab, a coaching and experience design firm dedicated to empowering extraordinary founders and leaders. The Troublemaker Lab offers bespoke coaching, strategic advisory, and transformative experiences to help innovators unlock their potential, accelerate their leadership skills, and build impactful ventures with lasting significance.

AJ’s career spans startups, venture growth, private equity, and Fortune 100 companies. As a former leader at X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X), AJ was instrumental in shaping global talent strategies and human-centered design. An award-winning author, private pilot, and musician signed to a record label at 15, AJ is passionate about empowering diverse founders and fostering innovation. As a mom of three, she inspires others to create "good trouble" and leave an enduring legacy.

Once told by a high school guidance counselor that her low grades meant she wouldn’t make it, Felecia Hatcher defied the odds to become a transformative powerhouse in entrepreneurship, innovation, and personal empowerment. As the CEO of Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Opportunity Inc., she has invested in over 131 entrepreneurs who collectively raised more than $100 million, reshaping the way diverse innovators access capital, mentorship, and resources. Felecia is no stranger to pulling off the impossible and helping others live bold, uninterrupted lives. With a corporate marketing career that included roles at the Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx, Nintendo, Sony, and McKee Foods, she honed the skills that would lead her to launch groundbreaking ventures in the food, tech, and philanthropic spaces—two of which were successfully acquired. 

Her work shapes how individuals and companies show up, are valued, and thrive in the innovation economy. Global brands like Google, Disney, Spotify, Target, EY, Samsung, and Etsy call on Felecia to help empower their teams and craft inclusive innovation strategies that unlock their full potential. 

A celebrated author and personal transformation speaker, Felecia has written five books, including Genius Jam and Start a Business on a Ramen Noodle Budget. Her expertise has been featured on the Today Show, MSNBC, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and in two Harvard Business School case studies. She has been honored as a White House Champion of Change for STEM Access and Diversity, an Echoing Green Fellow, a Harvard Young American Leader, and a Nationswell Tech Impact Allstar. 

Felecia’s trailblazing work doesn’t stop at corporate boardrooms. As co-founder of the viral, and venture backed food brand Feverish Pops, with clients like, Airbnb, Forever 21, Google and Coca Cola to the co-founder of Black Tech Week and The Center for Black Innovation, she has been pivotal in building ecosystems that foster inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation. Supported by organizations like Knight Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and Adidas, her mission is clear: to ensure that Black and Brown entrepreneurs not only access but also thrive in the innovation economy. 

From overcoming early doubts to creating a legacy of empowerment and transformation, Felecia Hatcher continues to disrupt norms, inspire boldness, and help the world tap into its collective genius.