Meet our speakers
Scott Huffman
VP Engineering, Google
Scott Huffman is a Vice President at Google, where he leads engineering for the Google Assistant. Prior to that, Scott led Google’s efforts around mobile and voice search. He has been at Google for over fifteen years, and has been working on Search for about twenty years. Prior to joining Google, he was VP of Engineering at Knova, an enterprise search company in Silicon Valley. Scott has a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan and did his undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon University. He has authored dozens of academic papers in information retrieval, machine learning and information extraction, and is the inventor or co-inventor on several patents.
Johan Schalkwky
VP, Engineering Fellow, Google
Johan Schalkwyk, an Engineering Fellow at Google, has been working in the speech industry for the last 25 years. Johan manages the speech recognition and synthesis effort at Google, which focuses on building a conversational interface for Google. His passion is to make speech a usable interface that everyone in the world uses. Johan and team have led significant advances in both product and research in the field of Speech Recognition. In 2008 Johan built the first search by voice experience in the world, with the launch of Google Voice Search, which eventually built the foundation for the Google Assistant.
Adam Cheyer
Co-Founder Siri & Viv Labs
Adam helped start four successful companies: co-founder and VP Eng of Siri (sold to Apple to build the Siri assistant), co-founder and VP Eng of Viv Labs (sold to Samsung to build the new Bixby), co-founder of Sentient (a machine learning company), and founding member of Change.org (the world's largest petition platform with 425M+ members). At Apple, Adam led AI and server-side engineering for Siri. At Samsung, he was VP R&D and Head of Bixby Developer Relations for the US Market. Adam has been an author for 60+ publications and 38 patents.
Bret Kinsella
Founder and CEO of Voicebot.ai
Bret Kinsella is CEO and founder of Voicebot.ai, the most cited source of research, data, analysis, and news related to the voice and AI industries. Bret was named Commentator of the Year by the Alexa Conference in 2019 and both Voice AI journalist of the Year and Commentator of the Year by Project Voice 2020. A past executive at Sapient and Accenture as well as technology startups, Kinsella earned degrees from UCLA and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Peter Norvig
Director of Research, Google
Peter Norvig is a Director of Research at Google; previously, he directed Google's core search algorithms group. He is co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the leading textbook in the field, and co-teacher of an Artificial Intelligence class that signed up 160,000 students, helping to kick off the current round of massive open online classes. He is a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, the California Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Saurabh Sharma
Head of Assistant Investments
Group PM, Assistant Identity and Monetization
Saurabh is the Head of the Google Assistant Investments program. In addition, Saurabh also leads Product Management for Google Assistant's Identity and Monetization teams. Previously, Saurabh has led a number of product teams at Google including Family Link, Google+ Profiles, and Google Abuse prevention. Prior to Google, Saurabh co-founded 220bpm, a cardiac diagnostic company, and also led several engineering projects at IBM.
Trausti Thormundsson
Principal Architect, Audio Technologies, Google
Trausti has 20+ years experience in R&D in voice/audio processing, Audio SoC architecture and digital communication. Before joining Synaptics through an acquisition, he was the CTO at Conexant.
LJ Erwin
Chief of Staff at YouTube TV
LJ Erwin is the Chief of Staff at YouTube TV and Sports. Prior to joining YouTube, LJ led founder and VC engagement in Silicon Valley for Google Cloud for Startups. Before Google, he helped lead early stage sourcing and founder engagement at Andreessen Horowitz. LJ is a native Texan and graduate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Cathy Pearl
Conversation Design Functional Lead, Google
Cathy Pearl works at Google as a design manager on Google Assistant, and is the author of the O'Reilly book, "Designing Voice User Interfaces". She's been creating Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) for over 20 years and is passionate about helping everyone make the best conversational experiences possible. Previously, Cathy was VP of User Experience at Sensely, whose virtual nurse avatar helps people stay healthy. She has worked on everything from programming NASA helicopter pilot simulators to designing a conversational iPad app in which Esquire magazine's style columnist tells users what they should wear on a first date. She has an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and a BS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego.
Phillippe de Lurand Pierre-Paul
Product Manager, Google
Philippe joined Google in 2014 and currently serves as a product manager on the Google Assistant team. In this role, he focuses on helping millions of people get things done with the Assistant while keeping their personal information private, safe, and secure. Previously, he was a product manager on the Google Ads team where he led AI transparency and privacy products such as Why this ad and Ad Settings. Phillipe is also a dedicated mentor who has taught courses on Technology Entrepreneurship and Lean Startups as part of Google's Tech Exchange program. Furthermore he has served as a guest lecturer for the product school, helping professionals develop their product management skills. In 2020 he was recognized as one of the top 20 influential Black Product Leaders.
Bryce Howitson
Technology & Product Design Consultant, Curious Inc
Bryce is obsessed with creating products that people want to use. He helps organizations of all sizes prototype, and test their ideas. Sometimes called a designer, a developer, a strategist, a writer, or artist, Bryce has led teams and worked in the trenches. Bryce is a Google Developers Expert in Web Technologies and a certified Design Sprint Master. He shares his knowledge by mentoring and teaching from his homeland in the great frozen north of Minnesota. Ask him about saving the rain forest with Project M or his most epic Boundary Waters Wilderness adventure.
Jeremy Wilken
Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies, Angular, and Google Assistant Staff Engineer at VMware
Jeremy Wilken is the host of the Design for Voice podcast and recognized by SoundHound as a top influencer in Voice. He works as a software engineer and voice developer and designer. He is also a Google Developer Expert for the Google Assistant, Web Technologies, and Angular. His key interests are in how users and technology intersect, and how to ensure the best experiences for all users by leveraging modern technology
David Weekly
Founder & CEO of Medcorder; Veteran Startup Investor, Product Executive, and Board Member
Seasoned technology & non-profit founder, investor, board member, and product leader with experience building and guiding high-impact user-focused teams at every scale: from garage startup through multi-billion dollar public company.
Wally Brill
Head of Conversation Design Outreach & Education, Google
Wally helps train Google’s partners to develop and maintain best practices of conversation design for the Google Assistant. Previously as Google’s Senior Persona Designer he helped bring the character of The Google Assistant to life. Prior to coming to Google, he designed persona driven, speech recognition systems for enterprises and governments from Allstate Insurance and British Airways to eBay and The U.S. Navy. Wally studied electronic music composition at The New School for Social Research.
Alan Ranciato
Customer Engineer, Google Cloud
Alan is a 30 year resident of Tampa Bay. Has over 20 years of experience in Enterprise application development, startup technologies, organizational transformation and architecture with a specialty in DevOps strategy and Cloud architecture. Holds Google Cloud certifications as a Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, Cloud Developer, and DevOps Engineer.
Chandni Sharma
Customer Engineer, Google Cloud
Chandni is a Cloud Engineer who holds a Master of Science (M.S.) degree and focuses on AI/ML customer use cases across different industries. Previous to Google, she has been in as Big Data Science and leadership roles for both cutting-edge technology and legacy systems influencing outcomes. Outside profession, she is also a speaker at technical summits/conferences/talks and very passionate towards helping humanitarian good causes.
KC Ayyagari
Senior Customer Engineer, Google
KC is a Specialist Customer Engineer specialized in Infrastructure Modernization at Google. Based out of New York, in this role, he focuses on Google cloud and works for enterprise sales teams. Prior to Google, KC worked for Microsoft, IBM, Thomas Reuters, Infosys and he has over 12 years of industry experience. A postgraduate, startup mentor and a trained architect, he has been active in the space of cloud computing for over 9 years and had experience in architecting and designing solutions for large enterprises, startups and State Governments.
Kyle Paul
Developer Ecosystems, Google
Kyle works for Google in Mountain View, California. His job on the Developer Relations team is to support awesome developer communities, like the Google Developer Experts and Developer Student Clubs. In his spare time he enjoys building and hacking on the web, playing with his two cats, and photographing the outdoors. Before Google, Kyle was a startup founder, organizer for GDG Kansas City, and a Google Developer Expert (GDE).
Jessica Earley-Cha
Developer Relations Engineer, Google
Jessica Dene Earley-Cha (she/her) is a Developer Relations Engineer for Google Assistant. She loves to connect with developers and future developers. Jessica is @WomenInVoice Advocate, former @WomenTechmakers & @gdg lead, former @girldevelopit & @Hackbright teacher. You’ll find her either spending time with her dog, collecting strawberry knick knack or biking around town.
Mike Bifulco
Developer Advocate, Google Assistant
Mike Bifulco is a designer, software developer, and entrepreneur, working as Team Lead for Developer Advocacy for Google Assistant. Previously, he was cofounder and CEO of smpl (acquired 2020), Technical Director for gymnasium.com, and a UX Lead at Microsoft. Mike is also cohost of the APIs You Won't Hate podcast, a contributor to https rebuildblackbusiness.com, and coauthor of an upcoming book Surviving Other People's APIs.
Sam Witteveen
Google Developer Expert
Sam is a Google Developer Expert for Machine Learning (2017-present), and has extensive experience in startups and mobile applications, having built and grown 2 B2C startups to more than a million users. He is heavily focused on helping developers and companies create smarter applications with Machine Learning and is especially passionate about Deep Learning and AI in the fields of natural language and conversational agents.
Priya Verma
Senior Account Manager, Google
Priya has been at Google for 6+ years, currently working on the Retail team in Canada, supporting clients like Shopify with their digital marketing strategies. She is passionate about supporting incredible startups in Canada!
Jonny Silberman
Analytical Lead, Google
Jonny Silberman is an Analytical Lead at Google where he works supporting the Walmart business across measurement, analytics, and insights. Prior to Google Jonny was a digital marketer within the CPG world starting his career at Dannon Yogurt and then moving to lead Data Strategy and execution at Anheuser-Busch InBev. Jonny lives in the great city of Atlanta!
Kirsten Thibault
International Growth Consultant
Kirsten Thibault joined Google in 2014 and has worked in analytical, insights and sales roles across the automotive, retail, travel and tech industries. In her current role as an International Growth Lead, she helps Canadian businesses expand beyond the great white north. She holds a BS in Finance and Marketing from Georgetown University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson.
Riley Nelko
Senior Account Executive, Google
Riley has been with Google for 8-years, and has worked in a variety of business development, strategy, analytics and sales roles. He currently leads Google's digital acceleration program for large enterprise partners in Canada. In 2016, Riley worked on Google's product & engineering team for Android & Google Play in Europe, South Korea and Japan. Prior to joining Google, Riley was a consultant in Accenture's global strategy group. He focused on Corporate Strategy & M&A advisory across a number of industries. Riley graduated from Western's Richard Ivey School of Business.
Bill Byrne
Staff Research Scientist, Google
Bill has been a designer, developer, and researcher on consumer facing and enterprise-based dialog solutions for over 20 years. He joined Google in 2005 as a founding member of the Speech Team where he led conversation design and frontend development. Bill currently focuses on purely data-driven, machine learned approaches to task-based dialog systems and his team's annotated datasets are used by researchers and developers inside and outside Google. Bill envisions a very near future where dialogs "design themselves". That is, models trained on carefully curated, and sufficiently large and diverse dialog datasets are the foundation for next-generation interactive agents that far exceed the state of the art in terms of scalability, accuracy, and context sensitive conversational abilities.
Shannon McLoughlin
Vice President, Nectar Communications
As a Vice President at Nectar, Shannon draws upon over a decade of experience working with enterprise technology companies and startups. In her role, Shannon works closely with senior executives and spokespeople to help develop their thought leadership platforms, and guides her team in building strong media relationships on behalf of Nectar clients. Shannon has been a lead on the Google Cloud PR team at Nectar for over three years and has had the pleasure of working with the Google for Startups team for the past year. During this time, she has led campaigns that cross PR, AR, social and thought leadership programs. Shannon holds a BA in Public Relations and Marketing from Syracuse University.
Naomi Bagdonas
Lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Innovation Strategist, Author, Media Coach
Naomi is a strategic conversation designer for executive off-sites, and a media and strategy consultant versed in human perceptions and the science of humor. She facilitates executive workshops and off-sites for the boards and leadership teams of startups to Fortune 100 companies.
Jennifer Aaker
General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford University Graduate School of Business
A social psychologist and marketer, Jennifer Aaker is the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Her research spans time, money and happiness. She focuses on questions such as: What actually makes people happy, as opposed to what they think makes them happy? How can small acts create infectious action, and how can such effects be fueled by social media? She is widely published in the leading scholarly journals in psychology and marketing, and her work has been featured in a variety of media including The Economist, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Forbes, CBS Money Watch, NPR, Science, Inc, and Cosmopolitan.
The Accelerate Performance Sales Consulting Team
The Accelerate Performance Sales Consulting Team has supported Googlers and Google Partners/Founders since 2007. This group provides skills, practice, and best practices to equip you and your team to show up to win, as the best version of yourselves, in your biggest sales and partnership opportunities. Get ready for a fun, interactive, and valuable experience.
Enjoy the Work Team
Enjoy The Work (formerly ETW Advisors) is a San Francisco-based startup advisory firm founded in 2014 by Jonathan Lowenhar. Our unique, hands-on approach to startup mentorship empowers founders to pick the right path. We provide informed counsel every step along the way, helping founders navigate the unknown in times of inevitable turbulence and uncertainty. We come from a variety of backgrounds — consumer Internet, enterprise SAAS, finance, sales, and more. But one fact remains consistent for all of our advisors: we have deep and successful startup experience both as founders and as early stage operators.