Spencer Kimball is the co-founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, the company behind CockroachDB, a distributed SQL database built to survive almost anything you throw at it. Long before databases, he co-wrote GIMP as a Berkeley class project in 1995, spent roughly a decade as an engineer at Google working on its file-system guts, and built a photo startup that Square acquired. He named his database after the one creature famous for being nearly impossible to kill - which turned out to be the perfect pitch.
Tikue Anazodo is the co-founder and CEO of Kudos, the AI-powered smart wallet that automatically picks the best credit card for every purchase and layers on extra rewards. Born in Lagos and trained at Columbia, he built consumer payment products at Google and Affirm before launching Kudos in 2021 with Ahmad Ismail. What started as a browser extension is now a 'self-driving wallet' with over 200,000 users, $200M+ in annualized checkout volume, and $17.2M raised from QED, Patron, SV Angel, Max Levchin, and The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly.
Ashraf Karim is Senior Vice President of Connected Customer Experiences & Technology at ServiceNow, where he leads the charge on transforming how enterprises engage customers through AI-powered digital workflows. With over two decades spanning engineering, product management, and executive leadership at Google, PayPal, Affirm, and Cisco, Karim bridges the gap between deep technical fluency and strategic business thinking. He is known for championing simplicity-first design, advocating that reducing cognitive load at every customer touchpoint is the defining discipline of great product leadership.
Allison Romano is Vice President of Xbox Digital Marketing and Media at Microsoft, based in New York. With over 15 years leading high-impact marketing and product teams across Microsoft, Google, American Express, and CLEAR, she has shaped how some of the world's biggest brands reach digital audiences. At Xbox, she oversees digital marketing and media strategy for one of the most recognized gaming brands on the planet, blending B2B and B2C expertise to drive growth at scale.
Adrienne Hayes is VP Marketing, Global Subscriptions & Customer Growth at Google, where she shapes how hundreds of millions of people discover and stay connected to Google's services. A veteran of Motorola, Edelman, and now more than a decade at Google, she is one of the few senior marketing executives in tech who has directly championed camera equity — helping drive the Real Tone initiative for Pixel 6 — while also serving on GLAAD's board and sponsoring Google's LGBTQ+ employee group globally.
Adrienne Lofton is the Global Vice President of Product & Integrated Consumer Marketing for Google's Platforms & Devices Division, where she leads end-to-end marketing for the Pixel ecosystem and drives activation across Android, Chromebook, Chrome Browser, Google Play, and Google Health & Home. A Howard University graduate and Kellogg MBA, she built her career on brand authenticity — from multicultural marketing at Target, to CMO of Dockers at Levi's, to Senior VP of Global Brand Marketing at Under Armour, to VP Head of North America Marketing at Nike. An Ad Age Brand Genius award winner, Adweek Most Powerful Women in Sports honoree, and board director at Alaska Air Group, Lofton is one of the most recognized voices at the intersection of sports, culture, and consumer marketing.
Imma Calvo is VP of Sales, US Commerce at Google Customer Solutions, leading commerce innovation for brands across the Americas. Originally from Barcelona, she spent a decade in California before relocating to New York and has worked at Google since 2007 across EMEA and US markets in roles spanning retail, apps, and agency. A passionate mentor to startups and women in tech, she speaks at major industry conferences and brings fluency in Spanish, Catalan, and the language of disruption.
Janell Fischer is VP of Global Retail Marketing and Customer Experience at Google, where she has spent over a decade architecting how the world's most valuable tech company shows up in physical spaces. She pioneered Google Shops — the immersive store-within-a-store concept launched inside Best Buy Canada in 2016 — and has since expanded Google's retail footprint through partnerships with b8ta and other retailers. Before Google, she held Director-level retail marketing roles at Apple and Sony Electronics, making her one of the few executives who has shaped the physical retail presence of all three consumer electronics giants.
Jeffrey Whipps is Vice President of Marketing at Google, where he leads the company's global brand studio and holds global responsibility for strategic brand and reputation topics spanning sustainability, digital wellbeing, crisis response, and diversity and inclusion. Before Google, he spent seven years at Apple as Director of Worldwide Advertising, contributing to iconic campaigns including the iPod Silhouettes and Mac vs. PC series. His career spans over two decades at the intersection of technology and storytelling, with earlier roles at Netscape, Shutterfly, Sun Microsystems, and McCann Worldgroup.
Jon Alexander is a technology professional at Google, one of the world's most influential technology companies. Based in Woodinville, Washington, he works within Google's vast ecosystem spanning cloud infrastructure, AI, software development, and internet services. His LinkedIn handle 'jonpalexander' and presence on Twitter reflect an individual embedded in the cutting edge of modern technology, operating from one of the Pacific Northwest's growing tech communities near Seattle.
Jonathan Johnsongriffin is VP of Global Brand & Creative at Google, where he leads the Global Brand Studio's creative strategy. A veteran of Nike's most iconic campaigns - including 'You Can't Stop Us' and 'Just Do It Crazy Dreams' - he spent nearly five years shaping Nike's global brand narrative before joining Google in January 2023. Co-founder of the Serena Williams Design Crew program, jury member at Cannes Lions 2023 and 2024, and board trustee at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Johnsongriffin blends industrial design roots with cultural storytelling at the intersection of sport, technology, and purpose.
Marvin Chow is Vice President of Consumer and AI Marketing at Google, where he leads marketing for flagship products including Search, Maps, Shopping, Google Assistant, Photos, and Google AI. A 16-year Google veteran, he has become the company's de facto 'AI General,' orchestrating the Gemini marketing rollout including a high-profile Super Bowl LX campaign. Before Google, he led Nike's marketing across Greater China, Japan, and Korea, collaborated with Steve Jobs on Nike+, and helped launch Dora the Explorer at Nickelodeon. He grew up working in his family's 7-Eleven store in New Jersey, the child of Taiwanese immigrants.
Menaka Shroff is Vice President, Marketing for the Global Android Ecosystem at Google, where she shapes marketing strategy for Android, Android Auto, AR/VR, and Google TV across billions of devices worldwide. A 20+ year marketing veteran who grew up in Mumbai and built her career spanning Tata Consulting, Yahoo!, Box (where she helped grow the user base from 6 million to 20+ million), and BetterWorks before joining Google. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and an MS in Engineering from USC, bridging the technical and marketing worlds with rare fluency.
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.
Ross Wilkie is VP of Global Communications & Public Affairs at Google, based in San Francisco. A biologist-turned-communications-strategist, he spent over 15 years rising through GlaxoSmithKline before serving as Chief Communications Officer at Danaher Corporation. In February 2024, he joined Google to oversee global communications and public affairs for one of the world's most scrutinized technology companies.
Sarah Madden Armstrong is Vice President of Global Marketing Operations at Google, where she leads global marketing infrastructure across one of the world's most complex and far-reaching advertising ecosystems. With over 25 years in global marketing - including two decades at The Coca-Cola Company overseeing agency operations across 200 countries and a stint as a McKinsey partner - she brings rare operational depth to a role that touches every corner of Google's marketing machine. Named one of Advertising Age's 'Women to Watch' in 2009, Armstrong is also a published author of two books: 'The Mom's Guide to a Good Divorce' and 'The Art of the Juggling Act: Bite-Sized Guide for Working Parents' (2024). A former Georgetown University volleyball player turned global executive, she mentors across industries and volunteers with multiple nonprofits while raising her daughter Grace.
Sarah Kennedy Ellis is Vice President of Global Marketing at Google Cloud and Google Workspace, where she leads demand generation, account-based marketing, and digital strategy for two of Google's fastest-growing enterprise businesses. A two-decade veteran of B2B tech marketing, she previously served as CMO at Marketo - orchestrating its $4.75 billion acquisition by Adobe in 2018 - and then led a 400-person global marketing organization at Adobe Experience Cloud. At Google, she has been central to repositioning Google Cloud as 'the first choice in AI,' helping grow the business from a $12 billion to over $39 billion run rate.
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.
Sean (Hyun Wook) Park is Vice President and Head of Marketing for YouTube Asia Pacific and Global Shopping at Google, based in Singapore. With over 18 years at Google across Seoul, Tokyo, San Bruno, and Singapore, he has been a foundational architect of the creator economy - co-creating VidCon, launching the YouTube Creator Awards (the iconic gold and silver play buttons), and building the YouTube FanFest franchise across 60+ events in 15+ countries. He oversees YouTube's marketing strategy across Asia Pacific and leads global shopping initiatives for one of the world's largest video platforms.
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.
Andrew Toy is the CEO and Board Member of Clover Health (NASDAQ: CLOV), a Medicare Advantage insurer using AI to help physicians identify and treat chronic conditions earlier. A Stanford-trained computer scientist who immigrated from Hong Kong at 16, Toy built Divide (acquired by Google for $120M in 2014), led Android Enterprise at Google, then joined Clover Health in 2018 as CTO before ascending to CEO in 2023. Under his leadership, Clover achieved 51% year-over-year membership growth and its first GAAP net income in Q1 2026, powered by the Clover Assistant AI platform that diagnoses diabetes three years earlier than conventional methods.
Dennis Woodside is the CEO and President of Freshworks, a Nasdaq-listed SaaS company serving 75,000 customers worldwide with AI-powered business software. A Cornell rower turned Stanford lawyer turned McKinsey consultant turned tech executive, he has spent two decades building and scaling iconic companies - leading Google's EMEA sales engine, running Motorola Mobility after its $12.5B acquisition by Google, scaling Dropbox from $250M to a $1B+ IPO, and betting on plant-based food at Impossible Foods before landing at Freshworks in 2022. Off the screen, he is a 15-time Ironman Triathlon finisher who qualified for the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
A data-driven editorial report mapping how the AI-native internet will reshape search, content, attention and brand visibility between 2026 and 2029. The piece argues the web is shifting from 'search and click' to 'ask and act' — answer engines synthesize replies, agents transact on users' behalf, and the open link economy is being renegotiated in real time. Drawing on 30+ primary sources including Pew Research, McKinsey, Cloudflare, Stanford HAI, and Similarweb, it covers the adoption explosion (900M weekly ChatGPT users), the great decoupling of searches from clicks (69% zero-click), the stumbling first steps of agentic commerce, the rise of synthetic content (52% of new articles AI-generated), and a practical playbook for publishers, brands, and e-commerce operators navigating the shift.
Tim Craycroft is a veteran technology executive who spent over two decades building the plumbing behind digital advertising. After 14 years at Amazon - where he helped architect their multi-billion dollar ads business and opened the Boulder ad tech office - he joined Google in 2020 as VP & GM of Google Advertising, overseeing YouTube, apps, and display ads. In September 2025, he took center stage at the Google ad tech antitrust remedies trial, testifying about internal analyses (Project Sunday and Project Monday) that explored divesting AdX and DFP. He's now joined Flywheel as Senior VP of Engineering. An early cloud storage pioneer who co-founded i-drive.com in the late 1990s, Craycroft brings Dartmouth computer science roots and a Boulder, Colorado sensibility - equal parts algorithm and altitude.
Vidhya Srinivasan is VP and General Manager of Advertising & Commerce at Google, overseeing a portfolio responsible for over $66 billion in quarterly revenue. A computer science graduate of IIT Madras and Georgia Tech, she spent a decade at IBM and several years at AWS - where she scaled Amazon Redshift into the cloud's fastest-growing data warehouse - before joining Google in 2019. At Google she has spearheaded AI-first advertising products including Performance Max, agentic shopping via Google's Universal Cart, and the integration of Gemini across search and shopping surfaces. She is one of the most consequential voices shaping how AI rewires digital advertising.
Clay Bavor is Co-Founder of Sierra, the AI customer experience company he launched in early 2023 alongside Bret Taylor. Before Sierra, Bavor spent 18 years at Google, where he rose from product manager to VP leading Google Labs — overseeing Google's AR/VR efforts (including Cardboard, Daydream, ARCore, Google Lens, and Project Starline), and before that running product and design for Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Workspace. Sierra has raised $1.585 billion in total funding, most recently a $950M Series E at a $15.8 billion valuation in May 2026, serving over 40% of the Fortune 50 with AI agents that resolve 50–90% of customer inquiries.
Coco Mao is the CEO and co-founder of OpenArt AI, the creative platform that grew from a viral Hacker News post about AI image prompts to $70M+ ARR with just 20 people. A Carnegie Mellon computer scientist who spent seven years at Google building search products and the Tangi short-form video app, she left in 2022 to co-found OpenArt with CTO John Qiao. Under her leadership, OpenArt scaled 7x in 2025, reached 8 million monthly active users, raised a $30M Series A from Canaan Partners, and launched One-Click Story — a feature that lets anyone turn a single sentence into a complete video with persistent characters.
Derek Chung is a software engineer at Abridge, the AI-powered clinical documentation company backed by Andreessen Horowitz with over $907M in total funding. A Stanford-trained computer scientist and accomplished concert pianist, he co-founded 88Keys to Cure, a nonprofit merging classical music with charitable causes, and has performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall, and Ravinia. His career sits at a rare intersection: elite competitive piano, rigorous CS training, and building technology that reduces clinician burnout at scale.
Ikkjin Ahn is the co-founder and CEO of Moloco, the machine learning-powered advertising platform he built from scratch after spotting a gap at Google: 90% of apps in the Play Store weren't making money. Armed with insights from building YouTube's monetization engine, he launched Moloco in 2013 to democratize access to the kind of AI that only tech giants could afford. Thirteen years later, the company is a $1.5B+ unicorn with 700+ employees across 12 offices, over $200M in annual revenue, and profitable for five consecutive years - a rare combination in Silicon Valley. As of early 2026, Moloco is weighing an IPO.