Scott McNealy is an American businessman. He is most famous for co-founding the computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim. In 2004, while still at Sun, McNealy founded Curriki, a free online education service. In 2011, he co-founded Wayin, a social intelligence and visualization company based in Denver. McNealy stepped down from his position as CEO of Wayin in 2016.
Joichi "Joi" Ito is a Japanese entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the President of Chiba Institute of Technology. He is a former director of the MIT Media Lab, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at Harvard Law School. Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on Internet and technology companies and has founded, among other companies, PSINet Japan, Digital Garage, and Infoseek Japan. Ito is a strategic advisor to Sony Corporation and general partner of Neoteny Labs. Ito wrote a monthly column in the Ideas section of Wired.
Cynthia Breazeal is an American robotics scientist and entrepreneur. She is a former chief scientist and chief experience officer of Jibo, a company she co-founded in 2012 that developed personal assistant robots. Currently, she is a professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the director of the Personal Robots group at the MIT Media Lab. Her most recent work has focused on the theme of living everyday life in the presence of AI, and gradually gaining insight into the long-term impacts of social robots.
Maksymilian Rafailovych "Max" Levchin is a Ukrainian-American software engineer and businessman. In 1998, he co-founded the company that eventually became PayPal. Levchin made contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts and was the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA challenge response human test.
Jacqueline Novogratz is an American entrepreneur and author. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit global venture capital fund whose goal is to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty.
Kathryn A. Finney is an American author, researcher, investor, entrepreneur, and businesswoman. She is the founder of Genius Guild, a $20 million dollar venture fund & studio that invests in Black entrepreneurs building scalable businesses that serve Black communities and beyond. She is also founder and Board Chair of The Doonie Fund, a social platform that provides micro-investment to Black women entrepreneurs. Finney first made her mark as a tech entrepreneur when she sold “The Budget Fashionista” after running the site-turned-media company for 11 years.
Sarah Maria Austin is an American author and tech entrepreneur. She is the CMO and co-founder of metaverse funding platform, QGlobe, and former CEO at Broad Listening, an artificial emotional intelligence agent. She is the chairperson of the board of directors at Coding FTW, a nonprofit organization that promotes diversity and equal rights in the technology sector.
Andrea Fitting is the first female director of Parkvale Bank, the sixth-largest bank headquartered in the Pittsburgh region and the 26th-largest public company in Pennsylvania. She is serving her fourth term in this capacity. Fitting is founder and CEO of Fitting Group, a branding agency headquartered in Pittsburgh.
Anand Gopal Mahindra is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based business conglomerate. The group operates in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket, automotive, components, construction equipment, defence, energy, farm equipment, finance and insurance, industrial equipment, information technology, leisure and hospitality, logistics, real estate and retail. Mahindra is the grandson of Jagdish Chandra Mahindra, co-founder of Mahindra & Mahindra.
Michele Ruiz, is an entrepreneur, award-winning broadcast journalist, author, public speaker and former Los Angeles news anchor for KNBC-TV. She is co-founder and CEO of BiasSync, a SaaS technology company that helps organizations identify and eliminate biases in the workplace. She is also President and CEO of Ruiz Strategies, a communications firm that develops and executes content marketing strategies for businesses, government entities and executives. She is also the founder and former President/CEO of SaberHacer.com, a bilingual educational broadband website for US Hispanics. She maintains a self-titled blog on the site MicheleRuiz.com.
Ben Parr is an American journalist, author, venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is the author of Captivology: The Science of Capturing People's Attention, a book on the science and psychology of attention and how to capture the attention of others. He is the President and co-founder of Octane AI, a marketing automation and conversational marketing company for E-commerce. He was previously a venture capitalist, the co-editor and editor-at-large of Mashable, and a columnist and commentator for CNET. In 2012, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30.
Samantha Ettus is an American entrepreneur, author, speaker, TV contributor and podcast host. She is the founder and CEO of the payment processor Park Place Payments.
Cynthia Fisher is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and corporate board director. She was a pioneer in the stem cell industry, founding the cord blood stem cell banking company, ViaCord, Inc., in 1993. In 2000, she co-founded ViaCell, which went public in 2005 and was subsequently acquired by PerkinElmer for its ViaCord brand.
Anna Jones is a British business woman and entrepreneur who lives in London, UK. Jones is the Co-Founder of AllBright, a Members Club and community that celebrates and connects women at work. She served as CEO of Hearst Magazines, UK between 2014 and 2017.
Naadiya Moosajee, is a South African engineer, social entrepreneur and co-founder of Women in Engineering (WomEng), a non-profit organization that aims to develop engineering talent among girls in multiple African countries.
Everette Taylor is an American business executive. He has been the CEO of Kickstarter since September 2022, and was CMO of Artsy, and founder of ET Enterprises which includes the marketing firm MiliSense, social media software company PopSocial, ArtX and GrowthHackers.
Nathalie Beatrice Chinje is an entrepreneur and international consultant. She is the founder and CEO of the company Upbeat Marketing, and has been actively working to forward private sector development, foreign direct investment, and female entrepreneurship on the African continent for over 20 years. Dr. Nath is a member of the Advocacy and Communications Committee of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Board, an Expert for the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and consults for the African Development Bank (AFDB). Her vision is to transform Africa’s socio-economic landscape at a global level through the promotion and championing of international trade, investment, and corporate social responsibility in Africa, and the empowerment of small and women-owned businesses.
Travis Montaque is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of Holler, a messaging technology and conversational media company. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Group Black, a media collective and accelerator focused on the advancement of Black-owned media properties.
Bejay Mulenga is a British entrepreneur, founder CEO, creative consultant and public speaker. At age 20, Mulenga became the youngest recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. He is founder of the training, recruitment and development company Supa Network and co-founder of the wellbeing and online food delivery company, The Great Feast of London. Mulenga featured in GQ magazine's list of "Britain's 100 Most Connected Men" and spearheaded the non-profit A Plate For London.
Clemen Chiang is a Singaporean entrepreneur and member of Boards of Directors of several companies listed in the Singapore and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
