Travel & Tourism

Experts in the promotion and management of travel experiences, focusing on leisure, business, and cultural exploration

J. Michelle Maraj

J. Michelle Maraj

Michelle is a data and technology enablement leader with 10+ years of experience helping organizations get more out of their data. Her career has spanned financial crime analytics in consulting, financial reporting at Lyft, and building the business intelligence function at Qwick. Across every role, her goal has been to ensure the right people have the right information, in the right format, at the right time.
Michelle is also a Tableau Speaker Bureau member and co-leads the Data + Women US West Coast Tableau User Group, where she works to grow the number of women building careers in data and analytics. She mentors emerging technologists through TechWomen and sits on the advisory board of WAKE International, and she's spoken at conferences on topics ranging from dashboard design to career transitions into data. Most recently, she's turned her focus toward building her own data products: apps that make data more visual, personal, and approachable for non-technical audiences.
She's passionate about lowering the barrier to entry in data careers, both through the tools she builds and the communities she shows up for.

Michelle is a data and technology enablement leader with 10+ years of experience helping organizations get more out of their data. Her career has spanned financial crime analytics in consulting, financial reporting at Lyft, and building the business ... Show more

Kruthika Gopinathan

Kruthika Gopinathan

Power Platform Developer at Carnival Cruise

Power Platform Developer at Carnival Cruise Show more

Tom Sherman

Tom Sherman

In 2017, Tom Sherman discovered the 5th season of the year after nearly a decade of studying timekeeping and measurement systems. He then spent the next 3 years deconstructing the Gregorian Calendar and re-engineering a New Calendar system using modern math, science and logic that divides time evenly, precisely, and accurately, for the first time in the history of time. With humor, philosophy, and curiosity, Tom is able to expand your perception of reality and uncover new systems and patterns that are currently hiding in plain sight.

In 2017, Tom Sherman discovered the 5th season of the year after nearly a decade of studying timekeeping and measurement systems. He then spent the next 3 years deconstructing the Gregorian Calendar and re-engineering a New Calendar system using mode... Show more

Paula Grzegorzewska

Paula Grzegorzewska

Paula Grzegorzewska is the Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships at Linux Foundation Europe, where she leads initiatives to strengthen the presence of global open technologies across the EU. Based in Brussels, she works at the intersection of digital policy, open source software, and the digital transformation of public services and has over six years of experience in the digital policy landscape. Prior to joining the Linux Foundation, she served as the Strategic Partnerships Director at OpenForum Europe, a prominent think tank where she managed engagements with global partners across government, academia, and industry. She participated in many research projects, including as a co-author of the European Commission’s landmark 2021 study on the economic impact of open source software and hardware. She holds a Master’s degree in New Media and Communications from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is a frequent speaker and moderator at international forums, focusing on how open source can drive innovation, interoperability, and trusted infrastructure.

Paula Grzegorzewska is the Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships at Linux Foundation Europe, where she leads initiatives to strengthen the presence of global open technologies across the EU. Based in Brussels, she works at the intersection of digita... Show more

Simon Mudd

Simon Mudd

Simon is an Englishman who has been living in Madrid for over 35 years.

He has also lived in the UK and the Netherlands, working in IT and the financial markets.

He is an expert who has been working with both MySQL and MariaDB, managing this infrastructure at scale.
Prior to this he worked with replicated Sybase clusters used for real-time trading systems.

He has two children, enjoys tech, travel and photography.

Simon is an Englishman who has been living in Madrid for over 35 years. He has also lived in the UK and the Netherlands, working in IT and the financial markets. He is an expert who has been working with both MySQL and MariaDB, managing this in... Show more

Cajetan Rodrigues

Cajetan Rodrigues

Cajetan is a full-spectrum engineering leader seasoned in solving complex business challenges, with nearly 15 years of experience in a mix of domains like Banking & Finance, Travel & Hospitality, Transportation & Logistics, Automotive, etc. He loves building great products, teams, and awesome engineering cultures. Currently an Open Source Champion at Volvo Cars, in his free time he enjoys visiting libraries, experimenting with new cuisines, long walks and hikes, and playing board games.

Cajetan is a full-spectrum engineering leader seasoned in solving complex business challenges, with nearly 15 years of experience in a mix of domains like Banking & Finance, Travel & Hospitality, Transportation & Logistics, Automotive, etc. He loves ... Show more

Pep Pla

Pep Pla

Pep has a broad experience in several database platforms, but in recent years he has focused on MySQL and PostgreSQL. His work abides by the motto of Mission Control at NASA: “Tough and competent”. Tough means you are accountable for what you do or fail to do, it means compromise and responsibility. Competent means that you take nothing for granted and you must never be found short in knowledge and skills. This is how Pep feels and lives database management. He is also interested in applying Lean culture to his job and enjoys living in Barcelona with his kids and his partner.

Pep has a broad experience in several database platforms, but in recent years he has focused on MySQL and PostgreSQL. His work abides by the motto of Mission Control at NASA: “Tough and competent”. Tough means you are accountable for what you do or f... Show more

Dr. Volker Glaeser

Dr. Volker Glaeser

Dr. Volker Glaeser ist KI-Pionier und CEO der DISH Digital Solutions GmbH (METRO AG). Mit SaaS, Big Data und KI digitalisiert er die Hospitality-Branche in 16 Märkten. Der Tech-Executive mit über 30 Jahren Erfahrung war zuvor Mitgründer von Sprint Reply, COO der Mondia Media Group und in Führungsrollen bei Vodafone und Yahoo.

Dr. Volker Glaeser ist KI-Pionier und CEO der DISH Digital Solutions GmbH (METRO AG). Mit SaaS, Big Data und KI digitalisiert er die Hospitality-Branche in 16 Märkten. Der Tech-Executive mit über 30 Jahren Erfahrung war zuvor Mitgründer von Sprint Re... Show more

Rob Jackson

Rob Jackson

I'm Robert Azeem Jackson III, an Afrofuturist cultural strategist and data scientist, and founder of Cypher, a data sovereignty studio. I help founders and community entrepreneurs, and the municipal leaders who back them, build portable memory systems: systems that travel from one city to the next and stay owned by the people who built them. My clients learn to own the data their communities already hold, govern it on their own terms, and turn it into funding, infrastructure, and wealth that no platform can hold hostage. They walk in sitting on a story they can't prove and an asset that keeps getting overlooked in the rooms where money moves. They walk out owning it. In Moorestown, one elder's story became more than $350,000 in municipal and state funding for a neighborhood park. Since 2021, Cypher has helped partners raise over $1.5M and save more than $400K on compliance. The pain I help them avoid is the quiet one, watching their memory get extracted, digitized, and sold by someone else while they inherit nothing. The goal is sovereignty: a community that owns its story, carries it wherever it goes, and gets paid to keep it.

I'm Robert Azeem Jackson III, an Afrofuturist cultural strategist and data scientist, and founder of Cypher, a data sovereignty studio. I help founders and community entrepreneurs, and the municipal leaders who back them, build portable memory system... Show more

Thamsanqa Gumpo

Thamsanqa Gumpo

Thamsanqa Gumpo is the Founder and CEO of ForgeStack Africa, an AI-powered Operational Intelligence platform helping multi-site businesses make faster, better operational decisions.

After nearly 20 years leading operations across hospitality and multi-site businesses, he experienced firsthand how critical information becomes trapped across disconnected systems. That experience inspired him to build ForgeStack, a platform that brings compliance, maintenance, labour, sales and operational data together into a single AI-powered decision engine.

Today, ForgeStack is working with enterprise customers across South Africa, helping operators identify risks, improve accountability and prevent costly operational failures before they happen.

Thamsanqa is passionate about building practical AI products, modern SaaS architecture, and sharing lessons from taking an idea from real-world operations to enterprise software.

Thamsanqa Gumpo is the Founder and CEO of ForgeStack Africa, an AI-powered Operational Intelligence platform helping multi-site businesses make faster, better operational decisions. After nearly 20 years leading operations across hospitality and m... Show more

Rohit Bangalore Chandrashekar

Rohit Bangalore Chandrashekar

Hello all,

I am Rohit and I have been with Dynatrace as a Sr Platform Support Engineer for almost 4 years now. Most of my work involves translating technical challenges into solutions that actually make sense for enterprises. As a Tech Evangelist, I'm spending more time thinking about where technology is heading and how we can use it better to meet our ever expanding complex challenges. Honestly, I just enjoy learning about new technologies and figuring out how to use them in practice. If you're building something interesting in deep tech or working on real problems with innovative solutions, I'd be happy to chat and see if there's a way I can help.

Let's talk about anything tech related, I believe in learning from everyone.

Hello all, I am Rohit and I have been with Dynatrace as a Sr Platform Support Engineer for almost 4 years now. Most of my work involves translating technical challenges into solutions that actually make sense for enterprises. As a Tech Evangelist... Show more

Jaime Blasco

Jaime Blasco

Jaime is a Google Developer Expert focused on Flutter. He has created and currently maintains some useful and popular packages related to this toolkit. He is a very active member of the community and co-leads the Spaniard Flutter Community.

Jaime is a Google Developer Expert focused on Flutter. He has created and currently maintains some useful and popular packages related to this toolkit. He is a very active member of the community and co-leads the Spaniard Flutter Community. Show more

Meron Gebremedhin

Meron Gebremedhin

“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” George Herman Ruth

Meron Gebremedhin was born and raised in Ethiopia, East Africa and migrated to the United States in 2017.
Professionally, she is a trained software engineer but has been wearing different hats for more than 14 years including international business owner. After migrating to America, she studied hard to earn her stripes back in the IT industry, acquiring more than 16 Microsoft certifications along the way.
As a beneficiary of mentorship in Microsoft community, Meron is passionate about paying it forward to help others achieve their goals in the tech, and founded Pathfinders, a Power Platform organization dedicated to supporting immigrants in the United States.

“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” George Herman Ruth Meron Gebremedhin was born and raised in Ethiopia, East Africa and migrated to the United States in 2017. Professionally, she is a trained software engineer but has been wearing ... Show more

Enzo Carlettini

Enzo Carlettini

IT Manager & Cloud Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing and managing IT infrastructures and cloud solutions. Specialized in Google Cloud Platform migrations, scalable and secure architectures, containerization and IaC. Active member of GDG Pescara.

IT Manager & Cloud Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing and managing IT infrastructures and cloud solutions. Specialized in Google Cloud Platform migrations, scalable and secure architectures, containerization and IaC. Active membe... Show more

Mrugesh D. Kharwar

Mrugesh D. Kharwar

Mrugesh Kharwar is a Business Analyst and Operations Manager at Jala Bapa Hospitality LLC, where he leads day-to-day operations and data strategy for Aqua Inn Hotel and other properties under the same ownership in Los Angeles. He combines hands-on hotel management with analytics—building Power BI dashboards, modeling occupancy and revenue trends, and translating PMS, OTA, and financial data into decisions independent operators can actually act on. His work focuses on the practical side of hospitality intelligence: clean data pipelines, reliable KPIs (ADR, RevPAR, GOP), competitive rate positioning, and guest sentiment analysis across Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor.
Before moving into hospitality, Mrugesh spent over a decade in enterprise data and risk analytics — most recently as a Risk Assessment Analyst at Delta Dental of California, supporting their Enterprise Risk Management and GRC programs. He holds an MBA in Business Statistics & Data Analytics from Westcliff University and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Intelligence & Data Analytics at the same institution. He speaks and writes on dashboard reliability, data trust, and bringing enterprise-grade analytics discipline to independent hotels and motels.

Mrugesh Kharwar is a Business Analyst and Operations Manager at Jala Bapa Hospitality LLC, where he leads day-to-day operations and data strategy for Aqua Inn Hotel and other properties under the same ownership in Los Angeles. He combines hands-on ho... Show more

Mirco Patroncini

Mirco Patroncini

I am Chief Technology Officer at lastminute.com, where I define the technology strategy and drive innovation and digital transformation across the group. With a degree in Computer Science and more than 20 years of experience in the digital sector, I previously held leadership roles at YOOX-Net-a-Porter. My work focuses on building modern platforms, adopting responsible approaches to artificial intelligence, and supporting the growth of people and organizations. I believe that innovation, strategy and empathy are essential to creating sustainable impact.

I am Chief Technology Officer at lastminute.com, where I define the technology strategy and drive innovation and digital transformation across the group. With a degree in Computer Science and more than 20 years of experience in the digital sector, I ... Show more

Pawel Skiba

Pawel Skiba

Many times people told me that I should focus on one system or one programming language and become an expert in it. I never liked to listen to such advice.

During over 10 years of career as a SAP consultant, I worked on almost every SAP module ever released. My ABAP code written in Walldorf is probably still used by many companies. I hired, trained and managed tens of great technical consultants. Then I spent 6 years in the IoT and Edge AI business, building technical team while taking care of business development and delivering custom hardware solutions to clients on 4 continents, using (again) many technologies and programming languages.

Today I am still not an expert in a narrow domain, but thanks to that I am proud to join my mother company as someone with commercial experience and expertise in SAP, IoT, AI and Software Development, to take care of the entire technology stack and serve over 130 professionals as a Chief Technology Officer.

Many times people told me that I should focus on one system or one programming language and become an expert in it. I never liked to listen to such advice. During over 10 years of career as a SAP consultant, I worked on almost every SAP module eve... Show more

Matthew Brandt

Matthew Brandt

With over a decade of experience, Matthew, aka the "Decision Engineer", excels in many aspects of the data analytics spectrum. He focuses on smart decision-making, outcome measurement, and operationalising data with strong stakeholder management, and is also a prolific content creator.

With over a decade of experience, Matthew, aka the "Decision Engineer", excels in many aspects of the data analytics spectrum. He focuses on smart decision-making, outcome measurement, and operationalising data with strong stakeholder management, and... Show more

Silvano Cerza

Silvano Cerza

Generalist software engineer that worked in tons of different languages. Expert in Python and C++. Worked for companies in different fields like Arduino and Pitch. Currently playing with AI.

Generalist software engineer that worked in tons of different languages. Expert in Python and C++. Worked for companies in different fields like Arduino and Pitch. Currently playing with AI. Show more

Shalon Busingye

Shalon Busingye

I am a seasoned Information Technology professional with a passion for harnessing tech to drive positive impact. I leverage my expertise to create innovative solutions that benefit my community, workplace, and daily life. Currently serving as a Systems and Finance Officer at Modern Home Interiors, I am dedicated to driving digital transformation, implementing technology solutions to enhance operational efficiency, productivity, and decision-making. With a strong enthusiasm for technology and a commitment to excellence, I utilize tech to foster community growth and stay at the forefront of innovation, continuously updating my skills and knowledge to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

I am a seasoned Information Technology professional with a passion for harnessing tech to drive positive impact. I leverage my expertise to create innovative solutions that benefit my community, workplace, and daily life. Currently serving as a Syst... Show more

Piyush Gupta

Piyush Gupta

Piyush is a Technology and People leader with ~13 years of experience in building products from 0 to 1 and scaling from 1 to X.
And when not working, Piyush enjoys working out, strumming a tune on his guitar, getting some extra sleep or catching up on latest web standards.

Piyush is a Technology and People leader with ~13 years of experience in building products from 0 to 1 and scaling from 1 to X. And when not working, Piyush enjoys working out, strumming a tune on his guitar, getting some extra sleep or catching up ... Show more

Makmot Johnson

Makmot Johnson

Makmot Johnson is a Software Engineer, Web3 Builder, and AI Innovator shaping the future of decentralized and intelligent systems. With expertise spanning web development, mobile engineering, blockchain architecture, smart contract development, and AI-powered applications, he builds solutions that merge modern software engineering with next-generation onchain technologies.

Makmot has developed and deployed smart contracts on the Base Network,ICP, SUI, Starknet, Polkadot/Ink with moonbean using Foundry and Remix, and is currently advancing his skills in Solidity, Rust, and Ink for polkadot through various bootcamps like OneDev and CyfrinUpdraft, where he builds scalable, production-grade decentralized applications. His work explores the intersection of AI agents, DEPIN networks, RWAs, and blockchain automation, creating systems that are trustless, intelligent, and designed for real-world impact.

He is an active contributor to developer communities as a member of Google Developers Group Kampala, an ex-GDG Lead at UICT, and Current Web3 head Makerere University and a frequent speaker at developer events and workshops. Makmot has delivered sessions on Web3 fundamentals, smart contract deployment, modern front-end engineering, cloud-native tools, and the rapidly evolving role of AI in engineering workflows.

Professionally, he is a Software Developer at with various skills , contributing to projects like Votly, a delegation based platfrom on Unlock Protocol and Renegade, a social media automation tool built on ICP. His broader engineering background spans front-end frameworks (GSAP, TypeScript, Vite, ), backend technologies Flutter mobile development, distributed systems, and networked computing, enabling him to communicate complex concepts with clarity and real-world context.

Makmot’s talks are known for their clarity, depth, and practical insights, empowering developers to harness the power of AI, Web3, and modern engineering stacks to build the next generation of digital products.

Makmot Johnson is a Software Engineer, Web3 Builder, and AI Innovator shaping the future of decentralized and intelligent systems. With expertise spanning web development, mobile engineering, blockchain architecture, smart contract development, and A... Show more

Sudharshan Muralidharan

Sudharshan Muralidharan

Sudharshan Muralidharan is a Full Stack Developer specializing in Go, MERN, and Kubernetes. Contributing to open-source projects like Confidential Containers and Kubernetes, focusing on s390x pipelines and multi-architecture optimizations. Passionate about cloud-native technologies, AI-driven workload optimization, and building efficient, cross-architecture solutions for complex production environments.

Sudharshan Muralidharan is a Full Stack Developer specializing in Go, MERN, and Kubernetes. Contributing to open-source projects like Confidential Containers and Kubernetes, focusing on s390x pipelines and multi-architecture optimizations. Passionate... Show more

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan is a Software Engineer from Rabwah, Pakistan, currently living in The Netherlands, likes .NET Core and Node.js for regular everyday development. Afzaal Ahmad works at Adyen as a Developer Advocate.

He is an expert in Cloud, Mobile, and API development. Afzaal has experience with the Azure platform and likes to build cross-platform libraries/software with .NET Core. Afzaal is an Alibaba Cloud MVP, twice he has been awarded Microsoft MVP status for his community leadership in software development, four times CodeProject MVP status for technical writing and mentoring, and 4 times C# Corner MVP status in the same field.

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan is a Software Engineer from Rabwah, Pakistan, currently living in The Netherlands, likes .NET Core and Node.js for regular everyday development. Afzaal Ahmad works at Adyen as a Developer Advocate. He is an expert in Cloud, Mo... Show more

Lee Faus

Lee Faus

Lee Faus Founder & CEO, Atomic Software, Co.
https://atomic.dev
Lee is the Founder and CEO of Atomic, a code intelligence platform rebuilding version control from the ground up for the software factory era. He bootstrapped Atomic through pre-seed, assembled the founding team, and led the company to v1, drawing on two decades of experience inside the infrastructure of how software gets built.
That experience includes engineering and go-to-market roles at Borland, Compuware, Red Hat, GitHub, and GitLab, as well as direct advisory work with engineering leaders at Fortune 100 and Global 2000 companies including State Farm, Pfizer, Wells Fargo, Travelport, and Nokia. Those tools and those organizations were the right answer for their era. But after years of watching enterprises strain under the weight of agent-driven development, the architectural gap became impossible to ignore. Git was designed in 2005 for humans editing text files one commit at a time. It was never built for what is coming next.
Atomic was built to replace it. Where legacy platforms bolt AI onto infrastructure designed for human-rate commits, Atomic starts from a different foundation: immutable changes, Merkle-bound policy, cryptographic attestation, and a decision ledger that tracks every input and output from intent to integrated code. The inner loop, where agents actually work, has no serious tooling today. That is the white space Atomic was built to own.
Lee speaks at international conferences on AI-native engineering, software supply chain integrity, and the architectural consequences of machine-rate development. His focus is practical: what engineering organizations actually need to govern, audit, and scale a software factory where agents generate the majority of code.
Socials
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leefaus/
X: https://x.com/leefaus
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atomicceo
Reels: https://www.instagram.com/atomic.ceo/
Substack: https://substack.com/@leefaus
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Free-Artist3923/
Company:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@atomicdotdev
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/atomicdotdev/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atomic-software-ai/

Lee Faus Founder & CEO, Atomic Software, Co. https://atomic.dev Lee is the Founder and CEO of Atomic, a code intelligence platform rebuilding version control from the ground up for the software factory era. He bootstrapped Atomic through pre-seed, ... Show more

Tobias Kässer

Tobias Kässer

With 15 years of experience, I specialize in building cloud infrastructure with an API-first approach.
As a Software Engineer and DevOps lead in fintech and advertising, I've led multiple successful
cloud transformations. Currently, I help organizations build effective, developer-centric platforms
that drive innovation and efficiency.

With 15 years of experience, I specialize in building cloud infrastructure with an API-first approach. As a Software Engineer and DevOps lead in fintech and advertising, I've led multiple successful cloud transformations. Currently, I help organi... Show more

Naresh Reddy Regalla

Naresh Reddy Regalla

Naresh Reddy Regalla is an accomplished IT leader and engineer with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise technology solutions across banking, retail, and healthcare sectors. With deep expertise in business process automation and cloud-native solutions, he has established a strong reputation for driving innovation, operational efficiency, and compliance while enabling organizations to scale securely.
Naresh specializes in IBM Business Automation Workflow (BAW), IBM BPM, and Alfresco Activiti, with a proven track record in workflow design, process optimization, and legacy modernization. His cloud architecture expertise spans OpenShift, Kubernetes, AWS, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry, where he has delivered highly resilient, containerized enterprise applications. He is equally skilled as a full-stack engineer, proficient in Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and modern frontend frameworks such as React and Angular.
Currently serving as an Expert Application Engineer at Discover Financial Services, Naresh plays a pivotal role in payments fraud detection and risk prevention initiatives, safeguarding the global payments ecosystem. His leadership has contributed to critical solutions, including a secure One-Time Password API, transaction monitoring platforms, and advanced fraud prevention algorithms.
Naresh is a certified AWS Solutions Architect and IBM BPM expert, with a B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. Known for his collaborative leadership style, he has mentored high-performing teams and partnered with business stakeholders to deliver scalable and secure systems.
Passionate about digital transformation, Naresh continues to focus on bridging business and technology, ensuring enterprises remain future-ready in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Naresh Reddy Regalla is an accomplished IT leader and engineer with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise technology solutions across banking, retail, and healthcare sectors. With deep expertise in business process automation and cloud-na... Show more

Jill Tague

Jill Tague

Jill Tague doesn't teach design — she takes you somewhere.

A Principal UX Designer with 10 years in FinTech, Jill has spent her career making complex systems human. But her talks go further than the screen. She brings design principles to life through travel stories — real moments from real places — that make you feel why something matters before you ever memorize what it's called.

Because the best design lessons aren't definitions. They're experiences you carry with you.

Jill Tague doesn't teach design — she takes you somewhere. A Principal UX Designer with 10 years in FinTech, Jill has spent her career making complex systems human. But her talks go further than the screen. She brings design principles to life thr... Show more

Brian Platt

Brian Platt

Brian Platt is Partner and Director of Public Policy for UMusic Hotels Development (UMHD), a real estate development company created in partnership with Universal Music Group. The organization develops music and entertainment hubs in cities across North America, bringing together culture, economic development, and collaboration between the public and private sectors. These hubs include performance venues, recording studios, a music school, and Universal Music Group-branded luxury hotels and residences. The projects are designed to serve as spaces for creativity, idea exchange, and music tourism, while helping emerging artists and the next generation of talent gain greater visibility in the music industry.

Before joining UMHD, Brian spent 12 years working in city government, most notably as City Manager for Kansas City, Missouri, and Jersey City, New Jersey. In Kansas City, he served as City Manager and helped launch and manage more than $5 billion in redevelopment projects in less than 5 years. This period marked significant growth and development across the city. He also introduced sustainability initiatives, including planting 10,000 trees within three years and advancing plans for one of the largest solar arrays in the United States to strengthen long-term environmental resilience.

In Jersey City, Brian first worked as Chief Innovation Officer and later served as Business Administrator and City Manager. In this role, he helped the city reach record levels of housing construction, comparable to those in Manhattan, New York City. In both cities, he focused on improving core municipal services, including increasing street resurfacing and strengthening snow removal operations. He also worked to improve the quality of life for low-income families and individuals experiencing homelessness by expanding access to supportive resources.

Earlier in his career, he worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company and served as a kindergarten teacher through Teach For America. He also volunteered as an Emergency Medical Responder with United Rescue in Jersey City and spent 10 years as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Mountain Lakes, NJ.

Brian Platt earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Emory University in Georgia and later completed a Master’s in Public Administration at Columbia University in New York. Throughout his career, he has received recognition for leadership, academic achievement, and public service.

Brian Platt is Partner and Director of Public Policy for UMusic Hotels Development (UMHD), a real estate development company created in partnership with Universal Music Group. The organization develops music and entertainment hubs in cities across No... Show more

Mahdi Farahi

Mahdi Farahi

"Mahdi Farahi is the lead architect and founder of Nexus Research AI Lab, specializing in the intersection of neural synchronization and secure agentic frameworks. He is the creator of the AWARE protocol, an edge-first system for autonomous AI agents. His commitment to 'Security by Design' is demonstrated by the Nexus ecosystem’s OpenSSF Silver Badge validation from the Linux Foundation. Mahdi’s research focuses on scaling ethical and aware AI infrastructures using decentralized technologies."

"Mahdi Farahi is the lead architect and founder of Nexus Research AI Lab, specializing in the intersection of neural synchronization and secure agentic frameworks. He is the creator of the AWARE protocol, an edge-first system for autonomous AI agents... Show more

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