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.

Dr. Jennifer Garrison is an Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Co-Founder and Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality, and a member of the Buck Center for Reproductive Longevity & Equality. She holds secondary appointments in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.

She is a passionate advocate for women’s health and is pioneering a movement to advance science focused on female reproductive aging. Her lab studies how changes in the complex interactions between the ovary and brain during middle-age lead to the onset of female reproductive decline.

Jennifer has been recognized in many ways: an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Neuroscience Research Fellow, an Allen Institute for Brain Science Next Generation Leader, a Glenn Medical Foundation Award, a Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award from the National Academy of Medicine, and more.

Jamie is the Executive Vice President of the Health Domain at XPRIZE Foundation, and Adjunct Professor in Internal Medicine Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, and Sticht Center on Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM).

She is dedicated to Geroscience research that advances the hypothesis that by targeting the basic biology of aging the incidence of multiple age-related diseases can be delayed or prevented. Her training background at University of Colorado Boulder and WFUSM allowed her to lead translational research and clinical trials networks to test the Geroscience hypothesis in humans. At WFUSM, Jamie was director of the Biogerontology Lab, and co-leader of the Integrative Biology Core (IBC) of the WF Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) and was a Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Aging-supported Geroscience Education and Training Network, an engaged member of the Translational Geroscience Network, Gerontological Society of America’s ESPO scientific section officer and executive committee member from 2018-2021. She is the recipient of the Jarrahi Research Scholars Fund in Geroscience Innovation, the 2022 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research, and the 2022 NIA Nathan W Shock Awardee. In her new role as EVP of Health Domain she will lead international networks to drive innovative solutions to improve human health and aging that is affordable and accessible to all.

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.

Rana’s life work is about humanizing technology before it dehumanizes us. She is an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and an AI thought leader on a mission to bring emotional intelligence to our digital world. She is the Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off and category defining AI company. Rana realized a successful exit for Affectiva in June 2021 when the company was acquired by Smart Eye, where she is currently focused on scaling the company to a global AI powerhouse. She is also an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School where she teaches about AI and startups. Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology (Penguin Random House, April 2020), follows her personal journey, growing up in the Middle East and moving to the United States to become an entrepreneur, juxtaposed against her work building Emotion AI.

Rana has raised $50M+ in venture capital from top-tier investors to bring Affectiva’s Emotion AI, built on deep learning, computer vision, speech science and massive amounts of real-world data, to 90+ countries and to several industries including the automotive industry and media analytics. She has a track record of translating technology innovations into products that address the needs of massive international markets and spearheading the application of Emotion AI to market research, automotive, mental health, autism, conversational interfaces, robotics and education.

She is extremely passionate about the ethical development and deployment of AI, including advocating for standards to ensure data privacy and to mitigate data and algorithmic bias. To help establish best practices and guidelines for AI ethics, Rana is part of industry organizations like the Partnership on AI and the World Economic Forum’s Council of Young Global Leaders.

As one of few women leading an AI company, she cares deeply about her role as an advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech and leadership. To help catalyze change and improve equity industry-wide, she is a member of the Boston Steering Committee for All Raise supporting female founders and funders, and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where she is serves on YPO’s New England board. Rana is also a venture partner of the MIT Media Lab E14 Fund, a Board Member of SIMPEDs at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a Board of Trustees member at the Mass Technology Leadership Council and at the American University in Cairo, the leading liberal arts university in the Middle East. A TED speaker, and co-host of a PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list and as one of Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.

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.

Dr. Sian Proctor is a Geoscience Professor at the Maricopa Community College, an Afrofuturism Artist, and an Astronaut. She is the Chief Inspiration Astronaut of Space2inspire and founder of The Proctor Foundation for Art and Science. 

Dr. Proctor was the mission pilot for SpaceX Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital mission. She is the first female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot and the only African American woman to ever be a mission pilot. She is also the first African-American commercial astronaut, and the first African-American to paint in space. 

She is currently serving as a member of the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group representing the Maricopa Community Colleges. Her motto is Space2inspire where she encourages people to use their unique strengths and passion to inspire themselves and those within their reach. She believes that we need to actively strive for a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive (J.E.D.I.) space both on Earth and beyond. 

The main mission of The Proctor Foundation for Art and Science is to send college students who identify as black, indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) to Space Camp.

Deblina Sarkar is an AT&T Career Development Chair Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and founder of Cahira Technologies. She carries out trans-disciplinary research fusing engineering, applied physics, and biology to develop disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic devices and create new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis.

Her inventions include, among others, the first non-surgical brain implant that autonomously recognizes the target, a radical non-invasive therapy for brain cancer, a 6-atom thick channel quantum-mechanical transistor overcoming fundamental limitations in power, and ultra-miniaturized antenna that can work wirelessly even from inside a living cell.

Deblina's PhD dissertation was honored as one of the top 3 dissertations throughout the USA and Canada in the field of Mathematics, Physical sciences and all departments of Engineering. She is the recipient of numerous other awards and recognitions, including the Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 from India, NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, the IEEE Early Career Award in Nanotechnology (only awardee worldwide in 2022), Innovative Young Engineer Recognition from National Academy of Engineers, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award with the highest and rarely achieved impact score, the MIND Prize , the Science News 10 Scientists to Watch, the Distinguished Scientist Award (one of three awardees nationwide, only awardee from MIT in the last decade), the Nanomaterials Young Investigator Award (one of the 3 awardees worldwide), NSF CAREER Award, The Defeat DIPG Young Investigator Award (one of four awardees nationwide) and many others.

Taryn Southern is an award-winning storyteller, strategist and artist whose work explores the intersection of AI and human potential. 

As a pioneer in creative AI, Southern holds several firsts: she composed the world’s first AI pop album, directed an award-winning Tribeca Film Festival documentary on brain-computer interfaces., and produced one of the earliest digital clones (of herself). 

In the early aughts, Southern was a content creator who amassed more than 1 billion views on her content. Her creative work has spanned film, TV, digital video, VR, AI, and neurotech — and has been featured in Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Psychology Today, Harvard Business Review, Vanity Fair, Billboard, and more.

Jess Mah built her first 6-figure business while still in middle school and has since created three companies that are each valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Among the companies she’s founded are inDinero, a fintech company that helps businesses manage their accounting and taxes; Astonishing Labs, a biotech firm focused on revolutionizing human health with groundbreaking innovations; and a litigation tech company that has empowered over a thousand individuals to pursue justice, offering resources they may otherwise have been unable to access.

Jess studied computer science graduate at U.C. Berkeley and has been featured on the cover of Inc. Magazine, as well as on the Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc. 30 Under 30, and Fast MagazineMost Creative Business Leaders lists. She’s also a Y Combinator alumna and a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO).

Dr. Helen Messier has dedicated most of her career to harnessing data to bridge the translational gap in medicine. She has cultivated a unique expertise in seamlessly integrating multi-omic data and digital health technologies into real-world clinical care, to enable patients to realize the beneficial potential of biomedical technologies. Dr. Messier holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Genetics and a Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from the University of Alberta. Following her doctoral studies, she completed post-doctoral studies at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego, CA, and received her MD from the University of Calgary. She is certified in family medicine. Beyond clinical practice, Dr. Messier has left an indelible mark as a notable innovator and healthcare entrepreneur. Alongside her roles on various medical and scientific advisory boards, she founded a national network of concierge medical practices in Canada, served as the Medical Director of Genomics at Human Longevity Inc, and played a pivotal role as the inaugural Chief Medical Officer of Viome. In her current role as the Chief Medical and Science Officer at Fountain Life, Dr. Messier brings her extensive experience and profound knowledge to further advance her mission in expanding proactive and preventative medicine. In addition to leading the company’s clinical and scientific programs, Dr Messier is establishing Fountain Life University, to train Fountain Life certified practitioners and lead the effort to gain insights and publish findings from Fountain Life’s vast amount of data.

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.

Rana’s life work is about humanizing technology before it dehumanizes us. She is an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and an AI thought leader on a mission to bring emotional intelligence to our digital world. She is the Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off and category defining AI company. Rana realized a successful exit for Affectiva in June 2021 when the company was acquired by Smart Eye, where she is currently focused on scaling the company to a global AI powerhouse. She is also an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School where she teaches about AI and startups. Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology (Penguin Random House, April 2020), follows her personal journey, growing up in the Middle East and moving to the United States to become an entrepreneur, juxtaposed against her work building Emotion AI.

Rana has raised $50M+ in venture capital from top-tier investors to bring Affectiva’s Emotion AI, built on deep learning, computer vision, speech science and massive amounts of real-world data, to 90+ countries and to several industries including the automotive industry and media analytics. She has a track record of translating technology innovations into products that address the needs of massive international markets and spearheading the application of Emotion AI to market research, automotive, mental health, autism, conversational interfaces, robotics and education.

She is extremely passionate about the ethical development and deployment of AI, including advocating for standards to ensure data privacy and to mitigate data and algorithmic bias. To help establish best practices and guidelines for AI ethics, Rana is part of industry organizations like the Partnership on AI and the World Economic Forum’s Council of Young Global Leaders.

As one of few women leading an AI company, she cares deeply about her role as an advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech and leadership. To help catalyze change and improve equity industry-wide, she is a member of the Boston Steering Committee for All Raise supporting female founders and funders, and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where she is serves on YPO’s New England board. Rana is also a venture partner of the MIT Media Lab E14 Fund, a Board Member of SIMPEDs at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a Board of Trustees member at the Mass Technology Leadership Council and at the American University in Cairo, the leading liberal arts university in the Middle East. A TED speaker, and co-host of a PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list and as one of Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.

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.

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.