Local Keynote Speakers in San Francisco, California

Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader and entrepreneur working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through his teaching and research at Stanford University. Stamos is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s Freeman-Spogli Institute, a William J. Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution. As a Chief Security Officer at Facebook and Yahoo and a co-founder of iSEC Partners, Alex has investigated and responded to some of the most seminal events in the short history of cybersecurity and has been called the “Forrest Gump of Info Sec” by friends. He is working on election security via the Defending Digital Democracy Project and advising NATO’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. He has spoken on six continents, testified in Congress, served as an expert witness for the wrongly accused, earned a BSEE from UC Berkeley and holds five patents.

With a medical, scientific, and philanthropic career that spans more than 30 years, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann has devoted her life to improving the human condition through innovation. Most recently, she was the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading the organization’s vision for a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. She was formerly the first female chancellor of University of California at San Francisco and spent 14 years at biotech firm Genentech, leading the development of a number of breakthrough medicines. An innovator and leader in life sciences, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann’s diverse training as an oncologist, scientist, and business executive leads to her endless curiosity about the world and her desire to change it for the better. In speeches, she shares her unique insights not only on revolutionizing global health, but also on effective and innovative leadership. Using lessons-learned as a trailblazing female leader of one of the world’s largest philanthropies, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann inspires audiences with her unparalleled perspective on how to foster an environment of collaboration and relentless innovation to drive disruptive solutions that make an impact.

Michael Coates was previously the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Twitter where is organization worked to protect users, systems, and data for nearly 300 million users. Prior to Twitter, Michael was the Director of Product Security at Shape Security. In this role, Michael worked with a specialized team to drastically change the way organizations defend their applications against modern application attacks. Prior to that, Michael was head of security for Mozilla where he built and lead the security assurance program to protect nearly half a billion Firefox users, Mozilla web applications, and infrastructure. Before building and leading security programs, Michael assessed, compromised, and secured applications and networks for some of the largest banks, governments, and enterprises around the world.

Poppy Crum works to bridge the gap between technology and insightful, effective human interaction. As a multi-dimensional advocate of empathetic technology, she builds technologies that best leverage human physiology to enhance our experiences and how we interact with the world. Poppy serves as the Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories and as an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics and Program in Symbolic Systems. Poppy is dedicated to the development of immersive technologies that leverage human physiology and perceptual realities to enhance our experiences and interactions in the world. She is a frequent speaker on topics related to the intersection of human experience, artificial intelligence, sensory data-science, and immersive technologies.

Neil Jacobstein is the chair of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Track at Singularity University, an organization whose founders hail from Google and the X PRIZE Foundation and has a goal “to educate, inspire and empower a new generation of leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges.” Jacobstein shares one of the most thoughtful and up-to-date looks at the future of technology and how it will impact a variety of industries. He explores innovation, disruption, and artificial intelligence as he offers audience a glimpse into the future and its real-world applications.

Michael (Mike) Steep is the executive director of Stanford Engineering School's Center for Disruptive Technology and Digital Cities and the former senior vice president of global business operations at innovation mega-hub, PARC Xerox. He draws on first-hand experience and anecdotes from time spent with the biggest names in Silicon Valley to instruct audiences on how to get ahead of disruptive innovation. Viewing new technology as opportunity, Mike highlights the importance of allowing innovation to trump company culture and legacies—and not the other way around.

Farhad Manjoo is a leading and influential Silicon Valley voice and an opinion columnist for The New York Times. He formerly wrote the Times’ “State of the Art” column. In that role, Manjoo reviewed the latest devices and innovations in addition to a wide variety of tech-related topics including the emergence of new media, Silicon Valley and start-up culture, and the ways in which politics, society, and business are being shaped by the rapid emergence of new technologies.

Curt spent more than 13 years as a Navy SEAL and was deployed 13 times, spending more than four years overseas. While at SEAL Team ONE, he deployed to the PACIFIC and CENTCOM areas of operation and was personally selected to command the personal security detail for the President of Iraq. Curt is the co-founder of global consulting firm Ridgeline Partners, a top five graduate of the United States Naval Academy and has received the Bronze Star with Valor, Bronze Star medal, and three Distinguished Meritorious Service Medals while serving in the U.S. Navy.

David Pottruck, the former CEO of Charles Schwab, is the author of the best-sellers Clicks and Mortar and Stacking the Deck. Through anecdotes and lessons learned from his storied career, he shows audiences how to approach and overcome the challenges of change, offering a nine-step plan for leaders. Named by Smart Money as one of the three most influential executives in the world of investing, his expertise spans finance, retail, transportation, and technology, and he is consistently ranked as the top faculty member at the Wharton School of Business.

Komal Ahmad is the founder and President of Copia, a technology company using algorithms to power matches between those with excess food and those in need. Komal's life mission is to solve hunger — what she calls the “World’s Dumbest Problem” — and reduce food waste globally. Copia has been named as one of the top 3 women-led startups in America and one of the top 8 startups graduating from Y-Combinator. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named one of Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business" and to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019. Komal shares her inspiring story and proves to audiences that "impossible is just a dare."

Jane Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Embrace, a social enterprise that aims to help the 15 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer. The Embrace infant warmer costs about 1% of a traditional incubator and is estimated to have helped over 250,000 babies to date. Most recently, Embrace Innovations launched a new line of baby products for the US market called Little Lotus Baby, which uses NASA inspired technology to keep babies at the perfect temperature so they can sleep better. They are using buy-one, give-one model: for every product sold, a baby is helped in a developing country by the Embrace infant warmer.

Gurpreet Dhaliwal, MD, is a clinician-educator and associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He studies how doctors think – how they diagnose, how they make treatment decisions, and how they develop expertise. Considered one of the most skillful diagnosticians and clinician-educators in the U.S. today, he regularly mesmerizes audiences of hundreds of medical professionals as he correctly diagnoses cases meant to stump participants.