Hassan Al Shouli is a senior communications and strategic business executive at Microsoft's CEMA (Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) President Office, based in the UAE. With nearly two decades of career experience, he has shaped Microsoft's presence across the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and broader MEA region through executive communications, multi-channel campaigns, and leadership engagement. Before Microsoft, he spent years in the fast-moving MENA digital market at dubizzle and analytics consultancies. He holds an MBA from Cass Business School (now Bayes) and a BSc in Electronics, Engineering, and Communications from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.
Kari Perez is Vice President of Gaming Communications at Microsoft, where she leads global PR and communications strategy for Xbox. She joined the Xbox team in March 2021 after a distinguished career spanning gaming, streaming, and entertainment — including VP-level roles at Netflix Latin America and corporate affairs at HBO Latin America. Multilingual and internationally experienced, Perez has become one of the most prominent communications voices in the gaming industry, issuing statements on major Xbox announcements ranging from Game Pass price changes to leadership speculation.
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.
Rachel Chen is a corporate communications specialist at eBay in San Jose, where she works on CEO communications and the global content team. A Princeton graduate from Philadelphia, she blends press-release craft with editorial storytelling and a data-driven instinct for what readers actually want.
Clipbook is an AI-native platform for communications and corporate affairs teams. It monitors over one million media and policy sources - press, broadcast, podcasts, social, regulatory filings - and uses agentic AI to surface what actually matters, in real time. Founded in 2023 by ex-BCG consultant Adam Joseph, Clipbook bootstrapped to seven figures in ARR before raising a $3.3M seed round co-led by Mark Cuban, Commonweal Ventures, and Carpenter Capital in late 2025.
Margit Wennmachers is the Operating Partner who built Andreessen Horowitz's brand from the ground up, transforming a16z from a new fund into the most recognized name in venture capital. A German immigrant who co-founded OutCast Communications in 1997 and grew it into a powerhouse PR firm serving Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix, she joined a16z in 2010 and pioneered a direct-to-audience content strategy that gave the firm an outsized voice in tech. She was the force behind Marc Andreessen's seminal 'Software is Eating the World' op-ed and spent 15 years shaping how founders, investors, and the world think about a16z.
Melanie Galang is a Marketing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the most influential venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, where she leads communications and brand strategy for the firm's fintech vertical. A UC Berkeley Media Studies alumna who spent her formative years in New York City, Galang brings deep experience from her prior roles as Head of Communications at Day One Ventures and Vice President at Moxie Communications Group, where she helped launch dozens of consumer technology brands. Now based in Los Angeles, she operates at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and capital - helping shape how the world understands fintech's future.
Natalie Miyake is Partner, Marketing at Sequoia Capital, one of the world's most storied venture capital firms. A seasoned communications strategist who grew up in Japan and studied in Madrid before working in New York and San Francisco, she shapes how Sequoia tells its story to the world. With a career spanning crisis PR at Brunswick Group, corporate communications at Twitter during its most turbulent acquisition years, and nearly a decade steering Sequoia's voice across its portfolio of unicorns and breakout companies, Miyake brings a rare mix of global perspective and Silicon Valley fluency to the intersection of finance and narrative.
Shannon Bendall is the Marketing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where she builds marketing programs for the firm's Venture Fund and serves as a communications and brand advisor to portfolio companies at every stage. Before a16z, she was the second communications hire at Snap, shepherding the company through its advertising platform launch, the Discover content hub, and augmented reality Lenses - all while the headcount ballooned from 100 to thousands and the company went public. She is based in Los Angeles, having relocated from the East Coast over a decade ago.
Kim Milosevich is the Chief Marketing Officer for Crypto at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto), widely regarded as one of the architects of Web3's public narrative. Over 25+ years she has shaped communications for Yahoo, Skype, and Coinbase, but her deepest imprint is on a16z itself - where she launched the a16z podcast, built its content infrastructure from scratch, and helped bring the crypto fund's story to the world. After guiding Coinbase through its landmark 2021 Nasdaq direct listing, she returned to a16z in 2022 as CMO to continue shaping how the next era of the internet talks about itself.
Lulu Cheng Meservey is the founder and CEO of Rostra, a strategic communications firm that bets on founder-led narratives over legacy PR playbooks. A former VP of Communications at Substack and EVP/CCO at Activision Blizzard, she now sits on Shopify's board of directors and manages a $40 million VC fund. Known for her newsletter 'Flack' (also called 'Res Ipsa') on Substack, she is one of the most incisive voices arguing that the future of tech PR is direct-to-audience, not media-mediated. Her clients have included Anduril, Cognition AI, Coinbase, and Ramp.
Brussels-based startup PR powerhouse and Ukraine's tech ambassador. Inna is a solo adventurer and community builder who founded the UTEW Tech Tribe (3,300+ members). She specializes in bridging ecosystems, government relations, and helping startups navigate European markets with a focus on Web3 and ROI-driven strategy.