Executive Board

Over 20 years of technical and executive leadership experience in Oil &Gas, Power Generation, Gas Turbines, Automation and Manufacturing Industry. Strong global experience in managing large teams across multiple countries, responsible for P&L, Sales Management, Project Management, Design Engineering and Field Commissioning. Genuine leader, Strategic thinker, team player, fast and adaptive learner, with ability to work in multi-discipline and multi cultural team environment. Self-starter with solid verbal and written communication skills.

John Black is the SVP, New Product Development at Brain Corp. He leads the design and development efforts for new robotic products, applications, and markets. Following his 15-year tenure at Nilfisk focused on R&D in the cleaning equipment industry, he joined Brain Corp as Vice President of Engineering in 2015. His initial focus was development and commercialization of the first fully autonomous floor scrubber using BrainOS. He has worked with such notable companies as Nilfisk, Ecolab, Apple, 3M, Pillsbury, McDonalds, BioHorizons, Mikros, Crane, Chrysler, and BMW. He received his BSME from Carnegie Mellon University and a MSME from Oakland University, and is a certified Functional Safety Engineer (TV Rheinland).

Krijn van der Raadt is a Sr. Director of Software Engineering at AppFolio. AppFolio creates complete, easy-to-use, cloud-based software for multiple vertical markets. Their main engineering offices are in Santa Barbara and San Diego, but they also have offices in Venice, Boston, and Dallas. Their products include cloud-based property management software (AppFolio Property Manager) and investment management software (AppFolio Investment Management). Krijn leads the engineering team in San Diego, helping their engineers learn and grow, while building an indispensable product for their customers. He has a Masters in Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and came to San Diego as a research scholar at SDSC / UCSD.

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Dr. Sur serves as Vice President, Business Development at ATA Engineering, Inc. and brings more than 20 years of experience to the ATA team. ATA is an engineering consulting firm that provides innovative solutions through test- and analysis-driven design by focusing on the engineering needs of manufacturers in addressing their cost, quality, and time-to-market challenges for mechanical and aerospace systems. Prior to ATA, Dr. Sur was a senior research scientist in the Naval Hydrodynamics Division at SAIC (now Leidos), where she was the principal investigator for research and development contracts with U.S. naval customers. Prior to SAIC, Dr. Sur began her career as a member of the technical staff in the Thermal and Propulsion Engineering Section at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Sur received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Robert Balderas has more than 25 years of leadership experience in both academia and the biotechnology industry. As a corporate scientist, site manager and marketer in the field of biotechnology he has contributed to the growth in both Pharmingen and BD Biosciences. Robert has championed multiple key successful product launches and is recognized for his success in growing sales and profits. His experience in academic medicine accompanied by his strategic approaches as the VP of Research and Development is reflected in increased efficiencies within the Clinical and Research product development programs. Robert Balderas track record of business process improvements is based on his expertise obtained while working at The Scripps Research Institute in the labs of Frank Dixon and Argyrios Theofilopoulos. He is known for his ability to motivate his technical staff, diagnosing impediments in product development programs, building his efforts and focused on both product execution and career development of his staff as well as integrating functional programs across other business operations. In addition his scientific experiences, Robert also received an MBA from the University of San Diego. Additionally, Robert also serves on the editorial board of Clinical Proteomics, has been involved with several business acquisitions (and lead two industrial/academic initiatives with CANVAC and the NCI).

Alan joined Bentley in 2010 following Bentleys acquisition of Enterprise Informatics, where he served as CEO. Alan was named senior vice president, asset performance in 2016. He leads Bentleys Asset & Network Performance Advancement Team, which is responsible for the development, marketing, service, support, and business development of offerings for improving asset performance. His prior roles with Bentley include senior vice president of server products, asset performance and vice president of operations, product management. Alan holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and a masters degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton.

John Black is the SVP, New Product Development at Brain Corp. He leads the design and development efforts for new robotic products, applications, and markets. Following his 15-year tenure at Nilfisk focused on R&D in the cleaning equipment industry, he joined Brain Corp as Vice President of Engineering in 2015. His initial focus was development and commercialization of the first fully autonomous floor scrubber using BrainOS. He has worked with such notable companies as Nilfisk, Ecolab, Apple, 3M, Pillsbury, McDonalds, BioHorizons, Mikros, Crane, Chrysler, and BMW. He received his BSME from Carnegie Mellon University and a MSME from Oakland University, and is a certified Functional Safety Engineer (TV Rheinland).

Dr. Kruckenberg has over 30 years in Aerospace composite materials and manufacturing and 20 years with Aerostructures. In her role as Director of R&T, Teresa Kruckenberg is responsible for the identification and development of distinctive and breakthrough technologies that support Collins Aerospace Aerostructures product line. She leads the R&T team to develop less expensive, higher performance, lighter weight, quieter, and environmentally greener nacelle and aerostructure products. Ms. Kruckenberg has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sydney and San Diego State respectively and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University. She has several patents and journal articles in the area of composites materials and processing.

A 25-year veteran of the Silicon Valley and Seattle technology scenes, Sam Ramji led Kubernetes and DevOps product management for Google Cloud, founded the Cloud Foundry foundation, has helped build two multi-billion dollar markets (API Management at Apigee and Enterprise Service Bus at BEA Systems) and redefined Microsofts open source and Linux strategy from extinguish to embrace. He is nerdy about open source, platform economics, middleware, and cloud computing with emphasis on developer experience and enterprise software. He is an advisor to multiple companies including Dell Technologies, Accenture, Observable, Insight Engines, and the Linux Foundation. Sam received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from UCSD in 1994 and is still excited about artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology.

Dr. Scott Zoldi is Chief Analytics Officer at FICO and is responsible for the analytic development of FICOs product and technology solutions. While at FICO, Scott has been responsible for authoring 104 analytic patents, with 51 patents granted and 53 in process. Scott is actively involved in the development of new analytic products and big data analytics applications, many of which leverage new streaming analytic innovations such as adaptive analytics, collaborative profiling and self-calibrating analytics. Scott is most recently focused on the Ethical AI and Unsupervised Analytics Machine Learning. Scott serves on two boards of directors, including Tech San Diego and Cyber Center of Excellence. Scott received his Ph.D. in theoretical computational physics from Duke University.

Bill Whitmarsh is Vice President of Engineering for the Hughes Technology Center in San Diego. This group has been responsible for development of satellite and terrestrial terminals for many years. Successes include technology development and equipment supply for the Thuraya mobile satellite system, for Inmarsat BGAN systems, for Lightsquared, Globalstar, Onstar and for XM radio. Hughes San Diego is currently deploying terminal technology and chipsets for the Mexsat and Globalstar satellite systems. Prior to joining HNS in 1996, Bill was a Technical Manager for Securicor in the UK where he had let the development of narrowband SMR radio equipment based on the MPT 1327 standard. This included both mobile and base station solutions using a highly linear amplifier technology which enabled much improved spectral efficiency. Bill was a founder member of LMT, which later span off to become Software Radio Technologies. During the late 1980s, Bill researched narrowband radio technologies and amplifier linearization at Bristol University in the UK. He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in 1985 and 1986 respectively and his PhD in 1991. Bill holds four patents and has published a number of academic papers.

As CEO and co-founder of iboss Cybersecurity, Paul Martini pioneered the award-winning iboss Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and has furthered iboss position as a leading security innovator with the introduction of FireSphere Advanced APT Defense. Prior to founding iboss, Paul was with an electrical engineering firm where he developed proprietary security solutions for clients such as Phogenix, the U.S. Navy and Hewlett Packard, leading the design and implementation efforts for HPs e-tester used in their TIJ print heads. He was also a key contributor at Copper Mountain Networks and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), both of which, launched successful IPOs. Paul holds a computer science degree from the University of California, San Diego and has had his work published in prestigious scientific journals including, the Journal of Foundations in Computer Science, and Journal of Analytical Biochemistry. As a recognized security expert, he has been featured in a wide range of publications such as USA Today, Forbes, and CSO magazine. Paul has been recognized for his leadership and innovation, receiving the Ernst Young 2014 Entrepreneur Of The Year award in the technology category for San Diego, and one of Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2014. He is committed to the advancement of San Diego as a cyber-security hub, and is a member of the Cyber Security Sub Committee for CAL OES (California Office of Emergency Services) and also serves on the board of the San Diego Economic Development Committee. less

Experienced Engineering leader with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. Strong information technology professional skilled in Platform Architecture, Mobile Applications, Mobile Platforms, Management, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Current focus on Scaling (team/culture/process).

President and CEO IQ-Analog December 2004 Present San Diego, California IQ-Analog is a global provider of analog interface technology for CMOS SoC's. IQ-Analog is also actively developing a new paradigm of analog interface IC products that leverage our proprietary DSP-assisted high resolution and high-speed data converters.

Michael Phillippi is a Vice President of Software Engineering at Lytx. Michael has 25+ years of experience in various software engineering roles across various industries including finance, transportation, Internet commerce, insurance, manufacturing, and retail in North American and Western Europe. Michael currently manages all technology for Lytx including hardware, firmware, software, data science, AI, data center operations, analytics, and reporting. Michael speaks at software conferences a few times a year. Michael is on the Dean's Advisory Board for National University and participates industry/academic collaboration events with UCSD.

Roland works as a Senior Researcher in the Deep Learning team of Microsoft Research AI. In addition, he serves as a mentor and lecturer for the Microsoft AI School. His interests include neural knowledge representation, autonomous multitask learning, and AI education. Before joining the Deep Learning team, Roland worked in the VIBE group of MSR on visualization and HCI projects, most notably as architect and lead developer of the SandDance project. Previously, Roland worked in the areas of natural user interfaces, programmer tools, operating systems, and databases at Microsoft, Borland, and various other companies. He graduated from UC San Diego in 1976, with a B.A. in Applied Physics and Information Science.

Erez Nir is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Mitchell International. In his role Erez oversees corporate IT functions (engineering, operations, business systems, and support services) as well as Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Reporting, and IT Enterprise Services across Mitchell's three primary business unitsAuto Physical Damage, Auto Casualty Solutions and Workers' Compensation Solutions. Erez previously served as Mitchell's Senior Vice President of Technology. In this role he defined Mitchell's technology vision and underlying roadmap to meet the challenges of the company's customers and its business partners. Before joining Mitchell, Erez served as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing of Mobilitec Inc., and Vice President of Information Engineering for San Diego-based Wingcast, a Ford and Qualcomm joint venture. Early in his career he worked at Motorola and Nice Systems Ltd. in a variety of engineering, operations, and general management positions. Erez holds a BSc in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Justin earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara and his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA. He is also a California licensed Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering. Justin has been at NAVAIR for the last 11 years working within the Structures and Materials Departments. He is currently the NAVAIR, Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), Materials Engineering Department, Composites and Corrosion Division Lead. He is also the FRCSW site liaison to UCSD and the Office of Naval Research , Office of Research and Technology Applications, site manager.  

Ms. Carly Jackson serves the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) Enterprise in several roles. She is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO); National Competency Lead for Science and Technology; and Head of the Cyber and Science and Technology Department at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific) in San Diego, California. She leads a highly technical team of more than 800 scientists, engineers, technical specialists, and administrative staff executing an annual budget of over $350M and influencing over $1.2B supporting research, development, acquisition, test and evaluation in the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), cyber, and space domains. Her teams research efforts are principally focused in the areas of electromagnetic and antenna modeling, design and testing; cryogenics; energy and environmental sciences; information operations, electronic warfare, cyber engineering and integration and cybersecurity. Ms. Jackson joined the Federal service in March of 2009 as a systems engineer and lead for a variety of research and development projects focused on C4ISR integration of unmanned maritime systems at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific). From 2010 to 2015, Jackson served as head of Advanced Concepts branches within the Maritime Surveillance Division and then the Information Operations Division, both at SSC Pacific. In February 2015, she was selected for a rotational position at the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation in Washington, D.C. In August 2016, Ms. Jackson became the first Senior Scientific Technical Manager responsible for rapid prototyping of information warfare capabilities across the Naval Research and Development Establishment. Ms. Jackson was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in July 2019. Ms. Jackson holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine Universitys Graziadio School. She was awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2017 and numerous team awards including the Navy Agility and Accountability Award in 2019, a Navy Command Innovation Excellence Award in 2017, and SSC Pacific and NAVSEA Team Achievement Awards in 2013. She is DAWIA SPRDE-SE Level III and Program Management Level II certified.

Joe Stockunas is an executive vice president and corporate officer of Nordson Corporation, a leading global technology company. He is responsible for all aspects of Nordsons worldwide electronics systems business within the Advanced Technology Systems segment, including the Nordson ASYMTEK, DAGE, DIMA, MARCH, MATRIX, SELECT, SONOSCAN and YESTECH business units. The electronic systems businesses supply precision fluid dispensing, plasma treatment, test and inspection systems to advanced semiconductor packaging and printed circuit board assembly markets. The businesses operate manufacturing facilities in Aylesbury, England, Carlsbad and Concord, California, Elk Grove, IL, Spokane, WA, USA, Munich, Germany, and Suzhou, China. Joe previously held leadership positions in Air Products Electronics Division. He currently serves on the SEMI North American advisory board, SEMI Board of Industry Leaders and both the Nordson Corporate Foundation and Semi Foundation boards. He has previously served on the boards of Showa Denko K.K., Kawasaki, Japan, The Bethlehem Historic Partnership, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, Hanyang Technologies, Ansan, Korea, TRiMEGA Electronics LLC, Santa Clara, CA, USA, and Kinetics Japan K.K., Osaka, Japan, and as a board member and past chair of American Red Cross, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, USA. Joe received a B. S. in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, and has completed graduate studies in business administration. Joe and Suzie, his spouse, reside in Carlsbad, CA.

Larry Stullich is the San Diego Director of Systems Engineering for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring successful program execution by providing the engineering oversight, talent development, career management, process control, design vision and engineering tools required to be best-in-class now and in the future. Larry received his BSEE and MSEE from the University of California San Diego and an MBA from George Mason University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He is a Veteran of the US Navy, having served as a Reactor Operator on a Fast Attack Nuclear Powered Submarine.

Kenny C. Gross is an AI Solutions Architect and researcher with the System Dynamics Characterization and Control Laboratory at Oracle's San Diego Physical Sciences Research Center. Kenny is a habitual inventor and drives pioneering innovations in the areas of proactive fault monitoring through applications of advanced pattern recognition and continuous system telemetry for improving the Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) of complex engineering systems including enterprise computing servers and Internet-of-Things applications. Several recent spinoff patents leverage advanced pattern recognition for significant boosts in operational energy efficiency and prognostic cyber security for servers and data centers.

Dr. An Chen is a Senior Director of Engineering at Qualcomm with a broad expertise in the wireless industry including technology innovation, product development, business strategy/partnership, standards, and IP areas. She has led cross-functional teams on innovating and delivering on architecture solutions for a multitude of cutting-edge communication technologies and commercial products spanning from the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile broadcast, Push-to-Talk, and wireless advanced features and services. A prolific inventor with over 300 U.S. and international patents and 20 refereed publications including several book chapters. Dr. Chen is currently with Qualcomm Technology Licensing where she leads ML/AI & multimedia projects and drives technology transfer and strategy. Ms. Chen received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.

Over 17 years of US and international experience in systems engineering and project management of large scale integration projects on US Navy contracts with Raytheon Technologies.

Arvind Sujeeth is the Sr. Director of Software at SambaNova Systems. Arvind is responsible for shaping the company’s software vision. Before joining SambaNova Systems, Arvind was the cofounder and chief technology officer of fintech startup mines.io, where he built machine learning-based products from scratch and oversaw the recruiting, hiring and management of a small engineering team. Prior to that, he was a research assistant at Stanford University where he developed compilers for parallel and heterogeneous computing platforms. Arvind holds a PhD and MS in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a BS in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Magaly Drant is Senior Director of Engineering Operations at ServiceNow, reporting into the Global Head of Engineering. ServiceNow provides enterprise cloud computing solutions that define, manage, and automate services for enterprises worldwide. Magaly focuses on scaling the engineering organizations from angles as varied as talent acquisition and development strategy, engineering processes development and automation, implementation standards definition and adoption, and technical architecture. In previous roles, she has contributed to and ran software engineering teams (platform and applications development) across a variety of technical stacks. Born and raised in France, Magaly graduated with a Masters degree in General Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris.

Over 20 years of technical and executive leadership experience in Oil &Gas, Power Generation, Gas Turbines, Automation and Manufacturing Industry. Strong global experience in managing large teams across multiple countries, responsible for P&L, Sales Management, Project Management, Design Engineering and Field Commissioning. Genuine leader, Strategic thinker, team player, fast and adaptive learner, with ability to work in multi-discipline and multi cultural team environment. Self-starter with solid verbal and written communication skills.

Gary has been developing software for 34 years, starting with the development of a bulletin board system on a TRS-80 Model IV computer in the old days of modems and floppy drives; yes, he feels old when it's phrased that way. After earning his Bachelors in Computer Science at the University of South Florida, he worked at IBM, developing the first SCSI based RAID subsystem for the RS/6000 product line, and at Dell Computers, helping launch their Enterprise Business Division's first Storage Area Network. Later, he left the corporate world to be involved with several startups, including StorageApps, which was bought by HP for $350 million. Currently, Gary is a Vice President of Engineering at Sony, exploring new product areas such as the Internet of Things, as well as leading the development of several Xperia android and Play Memories web applications.

Education: MSEE, 84 Sony Corporation, Corporate Lab (Tokyo): 84 94 Antenna/RF designs, Telecommunications Technology R&D Sony Electronics (San Diego), Dir./VP of Eng.: 94 99 World 1st commercial CDMA cell phone development as joint venture with Qualcomm Motorola mobile (San Diego), Dir. of Eng.: 99 02 Established a new design facility in San Diego, and responsible for site management and HW design team at San Diego site. Texas Instruments (San Diego), Sr. Dir. Of Eng.: 02 07 Responsible for CDMA/WCDMA chipset design program managements San Diego local telecommunications/wireless technology companies / technical consulting (San Diego): 07 11 Sony Interactive Entertainment (San Diego), R&D, Dir.: 11 current Telecommunications / Wireless Technologies R&D, Technology Research and hunting

After completing a Master's in Materials Science from UCSD in 2001, Travis learned the finer points of product design and development, project management, and leadership at TaylorMade-adidas Golf, Reebok-CCM Hockey, Breg, Easton-Bell Sports, and L3 Communications. Now, as a Founding Partner and President of Southern California Design Company, he is leading a talented team of designers, engineers, and marketers to bring new product ideas to reality for clients in San Diego County and around the world. Travis is also a supporter of the Jacobs School and Triton Athletics scholarship programs, a survivor of many Tritok 5Ks, and is raising a Future Triton, Class of 2034.

James Williams is currently the Senior Director of Technology Research and Innovation for Teradata. He is responsible for identifying key leading-edge academic research and innovations; for driving the ideation and innovation framework; and for technology evaluation for invention disclosures, alliances, and emerging technology trends. Prior to Teradata, James served as SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) Chief Information Officer and Director of the Computing Division for 5 years , as well as principle advisor to the Laboratory Director for Computing Operations and Scientific Computing Services. In addition, James worked at the NASA Ames Research Center for 14 years with his last role being CIO and was responsible for delivering the Nebula Cloud Computing platform that eventually became foundational to the OpenStack community. James also worked on the Columbia accident while he worked at NASA.

Manoj with overall 27+ years of IT experience has been in Thermo Fisher Scientific for close to 24 years. During this time he has successfully managed almost all departments within IT ranging from R&D Software, Data Center management to Customer Relationship management taking on increasing responsibilities. Currently he is a Vice President IT COO and manages the IT Operations within Information Technologies. In this role, Manoj is responsible for architecture, roadmaps, strategy and delivering, enhancing, integrating, maintaining global business applications and infrastructure. Before Joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, Manoj worked for Sybase Corporation as a technical lead supporting key Sybase Wall Street customers. Manoj holds a masters in computer applications from University of Kerala, India (Gold medalist) and a bachelors degree in computer science from Delhi University.

Nik Devereaux is a director of software engineering for Viasat in Carlsbad, CA. He spent about 10 years as a software engineer before moving into engineering management. He is very involved with UCSD, serving on alumni or industry advisory boards for the Jacobs School of Engineering, CSE department, and HDSI. Nik enjoys opportunities to meet and talk with UCSD students throughout the school year.

Domenick Propati is the Chief Strategy Officer at ViaTouch Media - makers of VICKI an AI powered, IOT self-checkout solution for retail. He holds a Terminal Masters Degree in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School for Design and specializes in Design Thinking, Experience Design and Product Strategy. After earning his degree and transitioning from a working Jazz drummer to a "start-up guy", Domenick went on to help build many companies, products and education programs across multiple verticals. Some notable collaborations include; General Assembly, The White House, NYC Mayors Office, Google, Black Girls Code, Smithsonian, Viacom, Huffington Post, Hudson River Foundation, AFHU, YearUp, EY and NASA. Domenick is also a passionate educator whose had the privilege of developing and teaching UX intensive and Design Thinking courses for New York University, LIU and General Assembly. He has also been an invited speaker and guest lecturer at many prestigious universities and industry events including; Colgate, Wharton, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, NYTech, Collision, and many more. One of his greatest accomplishments outside of technology and design was being a featured performer at the Montreux Jazz Festival 07'

Mr. Truong has over 25 years of experience in the software industry as an engineer and a strategic leader. Prior joining Vingroup, he has been a senior leader at Microsoft since 2007. He has experience leading teams to improve enterprise productivity and customer values, bringing the best of technologies together to make bigger business impacts. He is passionate about creating new ventures, innovating product lines and services, and building motivated teams to lead them to wonderful accomplishments. His specialties include engineering and business operations leadership; strategy and large-scale corporate management; advanced technology product development.