washington
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Zap Energy wants a star. First, it needs the plumbing.
The Washington company made its name squeezing plasma without giant magnetic coils. Now it is adding fission to the plan, betting that the machinery around the reaction can bring nuclear power closer to customers.
Emily Brittain
Emily Brittain is a Senior Communications Manager at Microsoft, working within the Office of the Americas Markets & Industries President. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, she crafts the stories that shape how Microsoft's largest regional business - spanning Canada, the United States, and Latin America - communicates its vision internally and externally. A Northwestern University-trained journalist with over 11 years at Microsoft, she brought a multimedia storyteller's instincts to one of the world's most consequential technology companies, producing town halls, executive narratives, and brand messaging at scale.
Kari Perez
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.
Puck
Puck is a New York-based digital media company founded in 2021 that covers the four centers of American power - Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Washington, and Wall Street. It treats journalists like founders, giving its writers equity and a cut of the subscription revenue their newsletters generate, and reaches readers through email newsletters, podcasts, and live events.
Bill Kristol
Bill Kristol spent four decades as a top operative and editor of the American right - chief of staff to Dan Quayle, founding editor of The Weekly Standard, co-architect of the Project for the New American Century - before becoming one of conservatism's most prominent defectors. Today he runs Defending Democracy Together and is editor-at-large of The Bulwark, where the man once called 'Dan Quayle's brain' now spends his days arguing against the movement his family helped invent. In May 2026 he registered as a Democrat.
Jon Alexander
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.
Lynne Kjolso
Lynne Kjolso is VP of Global Partner and Retail Media at Microsoft Advertising, where she leads the company's retail media strategy and global partner ecosystem. A philosophy PhD turned digital advertising executive, she has spent over 15 years at Microsoft shaping search, retail, and commerce media. Named to Ad Age's Tech Power List 2024 and The List 2025, she is a leading voice on retail media standardization, gaming as an advertising frontier, and the intersection of AI and commerce.
Michael Schechter
Michael Schechter is Corporate Vice President of Search Growth and Experiences at Microsoft, where he has spent over two decades shaping how people discover information on the web. A computer science graduate of the University of Maryland, he has been at the center of Bing's evolution - from leading the captions feature in its early days to orchestrating the AI-powered transformation of Bing with Copilot Search. Known for his candid voice on search industry trends and his willingness to engage publicly on topics like citation transparency and AI reliability, Schechter represents the rare executive who can speak both engineer and user fluently.
Peter Cray
Peter Cray is VP Strategy & Operations for AWS Sales, Marketing and Global Services at Amazon Web Services, where he oversees go-to-market strategy, business and sales operations, competitive strategy, and field marketing across 122 subsidiaries worldwide. With nearly three decades in enterprise technology, he spent 15 years at Microsoft in increasingly senior roles - including COO & Chief Business Officer for Microsoft China & Greater China Region - before joining AWS in 2022. He reports to Greg Pearson as part of AWS's integrated global sales organization alongside peers Dave Levy and Robert Chu.
Ross Ortega
Ross Ortega is VP of Product Management at Microsoft, currently leading Discovery and Communications initiatives. He previously built a $1 billion portfolio of Azure networking services - including ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN, Application Gateway, and Web Application Firewall - and then led Azure for Operators, Microsoft's 5G and edge computing platform for telecommunications providers. Before Microsoft, he co-founded Consystant Design Technologies and served as President and CTO of GraniteEdge Networks. A career technologist with roots in embedded systems and networking, Ortega has spent over two decades at Microsoft shaping how enterprises and telecoms connect to the cloud.
Toby Bowers
Toby Bowers is Vice President of Commercial Cloud & AI Marketing at Microsoft, based in the Seattle area. With over 20 years at the company, he leads market strategy across Microsoft's Cloud and AI product portfolios, including business and technical audience marketing, global events, and partner ecosystem engagement. He is the architect of Microsoft's 'Frontier Firms' initiative - a framework identifying and showcasing organizations reimagining their operations through AI - and was a driving force behind the ISV Connect program that grew to 700+ independent software vendors. A prolific blogger on the Microsoft Cloud Blog, Dynamics 365 Blog, and Power Platform Blog, Bowers is one of Microsoft's most visible voices on AI-driven enterprise transformation.