Iran Karimian

Startup Ecosystem Lead, Canada Google

Iran Karimian started her career in marketing and program management nine years ago, working on the agency side for some of Canada's largest brands like Google, YouTube, Kraft Heinz and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Today, Iran leads startup developer ecosystem efforts at Google Canada, where she brings the best of Google's people, programs, products and technology to startup teams across the country. She currently resides in Toronto, and in her free time enjoys reading, practicing yoga and discovering new restaurants and coffee shops in the city. 

Cathy Pearl

Conversation Design 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.  

Jenn Pretti

Senior Interaction Designer
Verily

Jennifer Pretti is an experienced UX designer and leader, with a career spanning over 20 years. She has worked with a range of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and across wearable, web, mobile, and desktop product design for both consumer and enterprise solutions.

She joined Google in 2018 to lead the publishing and performance marketing experiences for Stadia, and then brought her experience designing hardware products to the Nest UX Design team, where she oversaw TV and Entertainment solutions across Nest devices. In December 2021, Jennifer transferred over to Verily, as UX Lead for Terra.

Maayan Ziv 

Founder & CEO
AccessNow

Maayan Ziv is an activist, a photographer and an entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada. From a young age, Maayan challenged norms and worked within her community to increase awareness of disability issues and improve accessibility.

Living with Muscular Dystrophy, Maayan is a passionate and relentless advocate for creating a more accessible world. In 2015, Maayan founded AccessNow, a crowdsourced app to map the accessibility status of locations worldwide. She has since been a regular media commentator in the media on topics such as disability and inclusion. In 2016, Maayan received the City of Toronto Access Award and the David C. Onley Leadership in Accessibility Award in recognition of her innovative solutions and commitment to improving the lives of people of all abilities.

Bryce Howitson 

User Interface Designer
Olive

Bryce is obsessed with creating products that people want to use. He helps organizations of all sizes, understand, prototype, and test their ideas. Bryce is a professional product designer striving to improve healthcare connectivity, a certified Design Sprint Master, a pixel wrangler, a hobby carpenter, and general technology geek. He writes and speaks about hacking empathy to create better digital experiences from his homeland in the great frozen north of Minnesota. Bryce is a Google Developer Expert and can occasionally describe what that means. Ask him about using product thinking to save the Costarican rainforest or why bad voice interfaces are all Stanley Kubrick's fault.