
Kevin Conley is the CEO of Applied Brain Research (ABR), the Waterloo-based startup commercializing brain-inspired, ultra-low-power chips for edge AI. A 30-plus-year semiconductor veteran, he spent more than two decades at SanDisk - rising to Senior Vice President and CTO - then led Everspin Technologies as President and CEO. He is named on 90+ patents covering non-volatile memory architecture and management.
ControlRooms.ai is an Austin-based industrial AI company that builds an AI-assisted troubleshooting platform for heavy industry - chemical, energy, and materials producers. Instead of relying on static, pre-programmed rules, its software learns a plant's normal behavior on its own and flags anomalies in real time across thousands of sensor parameters, helping operators catch small problems before they become unplanned trips, flaring events, or costly downtime. Founded in 2021 by serial AI entrepreneur Monte Zweben and Omar Talib, the company raised an oversubscribed $10M Series A in 2023 led by Origin Ventures and is live at industrial leaders including OCI Global and Ardagh Group.