Michael Prokopis is the CEO of DARVIS, a Houston-based AI and computer vision company that gives hospitals real-time visibility into their inventory. A former Navy Surface Warfare Officer and Gulf War veteran turned healthcare supply chain executive, he spent 25+ years managing more than $3.2 billion in spend and driving $360M+ in savings at institutions including MD Anderson Cancer Center and Steward Health Care before crossing to the other side of the table to run the technology company he once wanted to buy from.
Rylan Hamilton is the CEO and co-founder of Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston defense-tech company building large, software-defined, uncrewed ships for the U.S. Navy. A Navy surface warfare officer turned robotics entrepreneur, he was an early leader at Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon for $775M) and co-founded the warehouse-robot maker 6 River Systems (sold to Shopify for $450M). Now he is taking the 'mobile robot' idea back to the ocean - aiming to be the Waymo of the open sea, with a $50M GV-led Series A and a first full-scale autonomous ship slated for the water in 2026.