Rui Jing Jiang is the Founder and CEO of Avisi Technologies, a Redwood City-based clinical-stage medical device company developing VisiPlate, the world's thinnest freestanding ophthalmic implant for treating glaucoma. Built on University of Pennsylvania nanotechnology, VisiPlate is a multichannel aqueous shunt composed of alumina and Parylene-C that is 20 times thinner than a human hair. Rui Jing co-founded the company in 2017 as a junior at Penn's Wharton School, won the $100,000 President's Innovation Prize in 2018, secured FDA Investigational Device Exemption approval in October 2025 for the US SAPPHIRE trial, and closed a $10.7M Series A in February 2026 to advance pivotal clinical development.
Dewey Pest & Termite Control is a California family-owned pest and termite management company founded in 1929 by Ray M. Dewey. Operating as Dewey Services, Inc. and headquartered in Pasadena, it runs more than 30 branches across the state with roughly 750 employees. Dewey provides residential and commercial pest control, termite treatment and whole-house fumigation, and an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program that balances effective control with public health and environmental safety. Its long-running tagline: Environmental Security Since 1929.
Hathaway Dinwiddie is a 100% employee-owned general contractor headquartered in San Francisco that has spent more than a century building the landmarks California works, lives, and heals in - from the Salesforce Tower to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and more than 10 million square feet of life-science space on the Peninsula. Built on planning, adaptation, and proactive partnership, the firm pairs century-old craft with advanced BIM workflows, LEED-driven sustainability, and an industry-leading safety record.
Radiate Hospitality is a Palo Alto-based hotel and real-estate management company that develops, renovates, and operates a portfolio of boutique and branded hotels across the West Coast. Formerly known as BPR Properties, the firm runs 11 hotels with roughly 988 rooms - from the Autograph Collection Hi-Lo Hotel in Portland to the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto - guided by a mission of 'passionately creating a sense of belonging.'
Rudolph and Sletten is a California-based general contractor that has built much of Silicon Valley's physical fabric - from Apple Park and Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch to hospitals, research labs and university campuses. Founded in 1959 in a Los Altos garage, the firm pioneered guaranteed-maximum-price, fast-track delivery and grew into one of the West Coast's largest builders of technically complex healthcare, life-sciences and education projects. Now a subsidiary of Tutor Perini, it employs roughly 740 people and reports about $307 million in annual revenue.
The John Stewart Company (JSCo) is a San Francisco-based, full-service affordable and mixed-income housing organization. Founded in 1978 by John Stewart, it has grown into one of California's largest affordable housing managers, handling roughly 31,000 units across the state through integrated property management, development, construction, and financial services - with a parallel mission of delivering resident services and supportive housing for vulnerable populations.
Webcor is a San Francisco-based commercial general contractor and one of California's largest builders, known for self-performed concrete, finish carpentry and millwork, deep preconstruction and BIM expertise, and a portfolio of landmark projects from the California Academy of Sciences to the Salesforce Transit Center. Founded in 1971 and owned by Japan's Obayashi Corporation since 2007, Webcor pairs craft-trade self-performance with virtual-building technology to deliver complex, sustainable buildings across the state.
Avital Cohen is Vice President of Marketing at Microsoft, based in Beverly Hills, California. With a legal education from Cardozo School of Law and prior experience as a Marketing Manager at Facebook, she has built a career at the intersection of technology and strategic brand communication. At Microsoft - a company generating over $281 billion in annual revenue and employing 228,000 people globally - she drives marketing strategy across one of the world's most influential technology portfolios, spanning cloud computing, AI, productivity software, and enterprise solutions.
Allison Blais is Vice President of Business & Strategic Operations and Chief of Staff to Adobe President David Wadhwani, running day-to-day operations of Digital Media - Adobe's largest business unit. A lawyer-turned-operator, she transitioned from 15+ years in financial services and corporate law into driving strategy for Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, and Adobe Firefly, the company's generative AI platform. Her path from FINRA regulatory analyst to VP at one of the world's most influential software companies is a masterclass in reinvention.
Darrin Chen is the VP of Global Partners (NPN) GTM & Operations at NVIDIA, where he leads go-to-market strategy and operations for the NVIDIA Partner Network - the company's global partner ecosystem spanning solution providers, systems integrators, and channel partners. With 30+ years in technology from storage to networking to AI infrastructure, Chen joined NVIDIA through the 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, where he had spent over a decade building worldwide channel programs. In mid-2023, NVIDIA expanded his mandate as it split its global channel chief role in two, tapping Chen to oversee its entire NPN program as the company transformed into a full-stack AI computing company.
David Tokheim is a senior executive at Adobe where he has served since 2013, most recently elevated to SVP, CXO Americas Industry and Canadian Sales (April 2026). Previously VP of Experience Cloud leading the Media & Entertainment, Communications, and Travel/Hospitality verticals, he has spent his career at the intersection of digital media, advertising technology, and enterprise software. Before Adobe, he was EVP & GM at Six Apart Media (growing its blog audience to 220 million monthly uniques), SVP at Fox Interactive Media overseeing monetization across MySpace and IGN, and VP of Marketing at IGN Entertainment where he built strategic programs for brands like Pepsi, EA, and Walmart. A UCLA English grad turned ad-tech veteran, he champions AI-driven personalization and content velocity as the defining imperatives of modern customer experience.
Lisa Lahde is Vice President of Marketing at NVIDIA, where she leads campaign marketing for priority industries and the Omniverse platform. A veteran tech marketer with roots in social media and community management, she joined NVIDIA around 2016 and has helped shape the company's storytelling around AI, autonomous systems, and the industrial metaverse. She produced NVIDIA's 'I Am AI' docuseries, contributed to Forbes BrandVoice as an AI innovator profiler, and moderated the OpenUSD session at GTC 2024 in San Jose. Outside the GPU giant's orbit, she runs the persona of @JewelryHunter - a longtime indie fashion enthusiast who blogged about emerging jewelry designers.
Marissa Dacay is the Global Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at Adobe, where she leads demand generation, account-based marketing, and AI-driven marketing innovation across Adobe's enterprise portfolio. With 17+ years of experience spanning digital marketing, events, content, operations, and analytics - plus a distinctive three-year detour into HR leadership - she brings an unusually broad perspective to building high-performing marketing organizations. Based in San Francisco, she is known for bold decision-making, trust-first leadership, and a data-meets-creativity approach that has delivered double-digit annual growth.
Patrick Brown is SVP of Global Marketing at Adobe, leading growth, analytics, media, and marketing engineering across the company's global B2B and B2C operations. He oversees Adobe's Digital Economy Index — a research engine that tracks a trillion e-commerce transactions across 100 million SKUs — and has emerged as one of the most data-forward voices in enterprise marketing. Based in San Jose, California, Brown combines an MBA from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business with deep experience in technology, finance, and consumer goods sectors.
Prachi Gupta is VP of Engineering at Google, leading the Workspace Communication & Time Management portfolio - Gmail, Chat, Calendar, and Tasks - for hundreds of millions of users worldwide. A graduate of IIT Roorkee and Ohio State University, she spent over eight years as VP of Engineering at YouTube before moving to Workspace, where she now sits at the intersection of Google's AI transformation and its most-used productivity tools. Her current mandate: turning Gmail into a Gemini-powered personal proactive assistant.
Rob Shilkin is Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google, overseeing one of the world's most complex corporate communications functions. A former antitrust lawyer from Australia who trained at Clayton Utz and Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Shilkin brings rare legal-policy fluency to Google's communications challenges - including antitrust litigation, AI debates, content moderation, and online advertising policy. His team handles approximately 2,000 issues per year. He took overall leadership of Google's communications in 2023, reporting to Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill, and has been recognized in Provoke Media's Influence 100 2025 rankings.
Sarah Teltus is VP of Marketing - Content at Google, one of the world's most influential technology companies. Based in San Francisco, California, she operates at the intersection of content strategy and large-scale digital marketing within Google's vast ecosystem. In her role, she oversees content marketing initiatives across Google's portfolio, spanning cloud services, advertising platforms, AI products, and consumer applications. Her position places her at the center of how Google communicates its rapidly evolving suite of AI and cloud products to businesses, developers, and consumers worldwide.
Selin Song is the President of Google Customer Solutions, leading the global organization that helps millions of small and medium-sized businesses grow using Google's AI-first advertising products. A 20-year Google veteran who started as a temp approving ads, she has lived and worked across four countries - the US, India, Singapore, and Ireland - building a career that spans revenue strategy, operations, and regional leadership across APAC and EMEA before taking the top seat at GCS.
Stephanie Johnson is Vice President of Global Consumer Marketing at NVIDIA, leading go-to-market strategy for GeForce NOW, NVIDIA Studio, and SHIELD. With over two decades in entertainment and gaming marketing - from Take2 Interactive to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment - she joined NVIDIA around 2018 and has been instrumental in scaling GeForce NOW from beta to more than 30 million users. Recognized by the Silicon Valley YWCA in 2024 for outstanding professional achievements, Johnson operates at the intersection of gaming, creative tools, and generative AI, shaping how millions of consumers experience NVIDIA's products.
Adrian Ridner is the CEO and Co-Founder of Study.com, one of the world's most visited online education platforms serving 34+ million monthly users. An Argentine-Jewish immigrant who navigated multiple countries before settling in California, Ridner built Study.com from a bootstrapped startup in 2002 into a 4,100-person company offering 20,000+ micro-video lessons and 200+ transferable college courses. His Working Scholars program has saved graduates $20 million in tuition and is particularly focused on first-generation college students and students of color. Ridner is a recipient of the ASU+GSV 2022 Innovator of Color Award and Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 Under 40.
Alex Bergonia is Chief of Staff to the CEO at Babylist, the leading baby registry and family commerce platform headquartered in Emeryville, California. With a background bridging impact investing and high-growth consumer tech, she has spent her career at the intersection of strategy, operations, and mission-driven work. Before joining Babylist, she held progressive strategy and operations leadership roles at Farmer's Business Network (FBN Financial), and earlier built expertise in impact investing through fellowships and roles at Komaza, The Nature Conservancy, DBL Partners, and RSF Social Finance. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and a BA in International Relations from Claremont McKenna College.
Dr. Alicia Garcia-Cisneros is a Doctor of Nursing Practice, Nurse Executive, and Certified Caritas Coach serving as Chief Nurse Executive at Valley State Prison within California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS). Born to Hispanic migrant agricultural workers, she climbed from Certified Nursing Assistant to the highest levels of nursing leadership over two decades, championing caring science, peer support programs, and staff wellness inside California's correctional health system.
Alicia Hardy (Alicia Ferguson Hardy) is the CEO of CommuniCare+OLE, a federally qualified health center serving 70,000+ patients across Napa, Solano, and Yolo counties in California. A licensed clinical social worker turned executive, she rose through the ranks of OLE Health over more than a decade before becoming CEO in 2018, then engineered the landmark 2023 merger with CommuniCare Health Centers - a project she developed as her capstone during an Executive MBA at Yale School of Management. Named one of Yale SOM's 2023 Best & Brightest EMBA graduates, Hardy is a passionate advocate for health equity, multilingual care, and expanding access for underserved populations.
Alvin Nicolas is a technology professional at Webex, Cisco's enterprise collaboration platform headquartered in San Jose, California. With a career spanning telecommunications giants including MCI WorldCom, Microsoft, and Yipes Enterprise Services, Nicolas brings deep networking expertise to one of the world's leading collaboration and video conferencing platforms. He is associated with the AI Titans initiative at Webex, reflecting the company's aggressive push into AI-powered communications and collaboration tools.
Andrew Hosler is the President and CEO of Performance Mechanical, Inc. (PMI), a leading industrial mechanical contractor headquartered in Pittsburg, California and a subsidiary of publicly-traded EMCOR Group. With over 23 years in construction and industrial contracting, Hosler rose from hands-on marine terminal maintenance crews to managing $1 billion in annual bid revenue as Chief Estimator, before taking the helm of PMI. Under his leadership, the company serves major clients in power generation, chemical, refinery, and water treatment sectors across California and Hawaii, employing approximately 750 skilled union tradespeople.
Andy Ballard is the CEO and co-founder of Wiser Solutions, Inc., the San Mateo-based omnichannel retail intelligence platform he built through the 2017 merger of Quad Analytix and Mobee. A Harvard undergrad and Stanford MBA, Ballard spent nearly a decade at Hellman & Friedman where he sat on the boards of DoubleClick, Getty Images, Internet Brands, and Catalina Marketing before launching Quad Analytix in 2012. Today he leads a 510-person company that tracks billions of online and in-store data points for over 750 global brands and retailers, while also serving on the boards of Domino's Pizza and Etsy, and running Figtree Partners, his software-focused investment firm.
Barry Friedman is the President and CEO of Friedman's Home Improvement, a third-generation family-owned hardware and home improvement retailer based in Petaluma, California. Named CEO in 2013 by his father Bill Friedman, Barry has led the company through digital transformation, e-commerce expansion, and a new 72,000-square-foot distribution center, all while steering the business toward its 80th anniversary in 2026. Under his leadership, Friedman's operates four locations across Sonoma County with approximately 600 employees, and remains deeply embedded in the North Bay community through philanthropy and civic engagement.
Bob Kearn is the President and CEO of COIT Cleaning and Restoration Services, a family-owned franchise business founded in 1950 by Lou Kearn near San Francisco's COIT Tower. Bob has led the company since 1982, growing it into one of the nation's largest specialty cleaning and restoration companies with operations across the United States, Canada, and Thailand. Under his leadership, COIT operates a multi-service franchise model covering carpet cleaning, drapery, upholstery, tile and grout, wood floors, air duct cleaning, water damage restoration, and mold remediation. He holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Colorado Boulder and has championed environmentally friendly cleaning practices including GreenEarth dry cleaning technology.
Bob McCollum is the long-serving CEO and driving force behind R.S. Hughes Co., Inc., an employee-owned industrial distributor headquartered in Sunnyvale, California that has grown into a $527 million enterprise spanning North America. A University of Michigan alumnus and former college quarterback, McCollum spent decades building RS Hughes into one of North America's top 50 industrial distributors, known for its culture of integrity and genuine care for employees. He has been recognized for significant philanthropic contributions to the University of Michigan athletics program, endowing the quarterbacks coaching position with a $2 million gift in 2022.
Brook Mayer is a senior technology executive at OpenTable, the global restaurant reservation and discovery platform owned by Booking Holdings. With over 25 years of experience spanning engineering, product, and executive leadership roles - including stints as CTO, CPO, Chief Architect, and VP of Engineering - Mayer brings a deep technical foundation to the hospitality technology space. Based in San Jose, California, Mayer has been associated with OpenTable's leadership during a period when the company manages millions of diners and tens of thousands of restaurant partners worldwide. The Facebook and Twitter accounts linked to Mayer's profile point to Foodspotting, the restaurant dish-discovery app acquired by OpenTable in 2013 for approximately $10 million, suggesting an involvement with that product's leadership and integration.