October 29, 2020
The CNBC Technology Executive Council Summit is CNBC’s flagship technology event. This year’s interactive virtual experience will convene TEC members to discuss Technology & Society after the Pandemic. Digital transformation spurred by the global pandemic has had and will continue to have big implications across all aspects of society; summit sessions to cover the pandemic’s impact on: Government & Democracy, Economy, Public Health, Work, & Social Justice. In this members-only event, VIP newsmakers, CNBC journalists, and TEC members will discuss digital transformation, technology leadership, and critical technology themes debated throughout the year, and will look ahead to what’s next. Expect impactful mainstage virtual programming, interactive breakout discussions, and private peer-to-peer networking
MORE ABOUT TEC
TEC is the premiere council of technology executives assembled exclusively by CNBC. This is an all-new, event-led CNBC editorial initiative, presenting an ongoing discussion focused on how companies employ breakthrough technologies to solve problems and power growth, designed to capture the collaborative spirit of successful organizations and surface best practices of transformative organizations.
From corporations — public and private — to nonprofits and government entities, the CNBC Technology Executive Council comprises top tech executives who are transforming organizations by leveraging innovation and disruption.
Summit audience includes TEC members across a wide range of industries and companies, technology stakeholders in the government and nonprofit sectors, academics, business leaders, and technology influencers.
The TEC Summit is an exclusive event for members; learn more about the TEC and apply for membership at www.cnbccouncils.com/tec.
Read more from our TEC special report on cnbc.com.
Frank Slootman currently serves as Chairman and CEO at Snowflake. Frank has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive in the enterprise software industry. Mr. Slootman served as CEO and President of ServiceNow from 2011 to 2017, taking the organization from around $100M in revenue, through an IPO, to $1.4B. Prior to that, Frank served as President of the Backup Recovery Systems Division at EMC following an acquisition of Data Domain Corporation/Data Domain, Inc., where he served as the Chief Executive Officer and President, leading the company through an IPO to its acquisition by EMC for $2.4B. Slootman holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the Netherlands School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Wichowski is a public servant, teacher, and writer, recently of the book "The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World" (HarperCollins). She currently works as Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Innovation for the City of New York's Mayor's Office of the CTO. She also teaches on media, government, & technology at Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs. Wichowski served at the US Department of State from 2010-2015.
Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader and entrepreneur working to improve the security and safety of the Internet through his teaching and research at Stanford University. Stamos is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s Freeman-Spogli Institute and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution.
Prior to joining Stanford, Alex served as the Chief Security Officer of Facebook. In this role, Stamos led a team of engineers, researchers, investigators and analysts charged with understanding and mitigating information security risks to the company and safety risks to the 2.5 billion people on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. During his time at Facebook, he led the company’s investigation into manipulation of the 2016 US election and helped pioneer several successful protections against these new classes of abuse. As a senior executive, Alex represented Facebook and Silicon Valley to regulators, lawmakers and civil society on six continents, and has served as a bridge between the interests of the Internet policy community and the complicated reality of platforms operating at billion-user scale. In April 2017, he co-authored “Information Operations and Facebook”, a highly cited examination of the influence campaign against the US election, which still stands as the most thorough description of the issue by a major technology company.
Before joining Facebook, Alex was the Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, rebuilding a storied security team while dealing with multiple assaults by nation-state actors. While at Yahoo, he led the company’s response to the Snowden disclosures by implementing massive cryptographic improvements in his first months. He also represented the company in an open hearing of the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
In 2004, Alex co-founded iSEC Partners, an elite security consultancy known for groundbreaking work in secure software development, embedded and mobile security. As a trusted partner to world’s largest technology firms, Alex coordinated the response to the “Aurora” attacks by the People’s Liberation Army at multiple Silicon Valley firms and led groundbreaking work securing the world’s largest desktop and mobile platforms. During this time, he also served as an expert witness in several notable civil and criminal cases, such as the Google Street View incident and pro bono work for the defendants in Sony vs George Hotz and US vs Aaron Swartz. After the 2010 acquisition of iSEC Partners by NCC Group, Alex formed an experimental R&D division at the combined company, producing five patents.
A noted speaker and writer, he has appeared at the Munich Security Conference, NATO CyCon, Web Summit, DEF CON, CanSecWest and numerous other events. His 2017 keynote at Black Hat was noted for its call for a security industry more representative of the diverse people it serves and the actual risks they face. Throughout his career, Alex has worked toward making security a more representative field and has highlighted the work of diverse technologists as an organizer of the Trustworthy Technology Conference and OURSA.
Alex has been involved with securing the US election system as a contributor to Harvard’s Defending Digital Democracy Project and involved in the academic community as an advisor to Stanford’s Cybersecurity Policy Program and UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. He is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Cyber Security Task Force, the Bay Area CSO Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Alex also serves on the advisory board to NATO’s Collective Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.
Stamos worked under Prof. David Patterson while earning a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three children.
Dr. Tom Leighton co-founded Akamai Technologies in 1998 and served as Akamai’s Chief Scientist until he became CEO in 2013. Under Dr. Leighton’s leadership, Akamai has evolved from its origins as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) into one of the most essential and trusted cloud delivery and cybersecurity platforms, upon which many of the world’s best brands and enterprises build and secure their digital experiences. During his initial six years as CEO, Akamai’s revenue nearly doubled, growing from less than $1.4 billion in 2012 to more than $2.7 billion in 2018. Over the same time, annual revenue from Akamai’s security business grew more than 25-fold, to more than $658 million in 2018.
As one of the world's preeminent authorities on algorithms for network applications and cybersecurity, Dr. Leighton discovered a solution to freeing up web congestion using applied mathematics and distributed computing. Akamai used this technology to create the world's largest distributed computing platform, which today delivers and secures tens of millions of requests per second to billions of users around the world.
Dr. Leighton holds more than 50 patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography and digital rights management. He and Akamai’s co-founder Danny Lewin were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2017 for having “invented the methods needed to intelligently replicate and deliver content over a large network of distributed servers, technology that would ultimately solve what was becoming a frustrating problem for Internet users known as the ‘World Wide Wait.’” In 2018, the Marconi Society selected him to receive the Marconi Prize for “his fundamental contributions to technology and the establishment of content delivery networks.” He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineers, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Leighton has served on numerous government, industry and academic advisory panels. He was one of 18 CEOs invited to the White House in 2017 for the launch of the American Technology Council to develop solutions to modernize and secure the U.S. government’s IT systems. From 2003 to 2005, he served on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and chaired its Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Leighton has been personally committed to increasing the pipeline of students pursuing STEM careers for over thirty years, first as a mathematics professor at MIT and now through his leadership at Akamai. He is a strong supporter of the Akamai Foundation, which promotes mathematics education, and he oversaw the creation of the Akamai Technical Academy, an innovative program developed in-house, aimed at training diverse non-technical professionals for technical careers. He also supports numerous charitable organizations dedicated to improving STEM education and opportunities for K-12 students, including The Center for Excellence in Education, the Society for Science and the Public (sponsor of the Intel Science Search), The Mathematical Association of America (sponsor of the Math Olympiad), the Math Competition for Girls, and Girls Who Code.
Dr. Leighton graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1978 with a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1981.
1:00pm ET
Opening Keynote: Red Hot Snowflake
Boasting the hottest tech IPO of the year (and the biggest software IPO ever), Snowflake, the cloud-based data-warehousing company has been on fire in 2020. CEO Frank Slootman joins us to talk about how the company’s approach to innovation enabled it to build a unique architecture and technology that stands out in a field dominated by tech giants.
Frank Slootman, Chairman and CEO, Snowflake
Interviewer: Jon Fortt, “Squawk Alley” Co-anchor, CNBC
Election 2020 and the War on Misinformation
As big tech continues brawling with Capitol Hill over regulation, everything from bots to hackers to foreign actors have taken fake news and misinformation to new heights. And with another contentious U.S. election days away, the possible consequences have never been more dire. How can a détente be reached between big tech and governments in order protect democracies around the globe?
Alex Stamos, Director, Stanford Internet Observatory and Fmr. Chief Security Officer, Facebook
Alexis Wichowski, Deputy CTO for Innovation, New York City Mayor’s Office of the CTO
Moderator: Julia Boorstin, Senior Media and Entertainment Correspondent, CNBC
1:55pm ET
After the acceleration: What’s next for digital transformation
The pandemic forced many companies to adapt to a new environment in record time, testing the limits of artificial intelligence, machine learning, edge computing and other emerging technologies. In some cases, 5-10 years’ worth of adoption happened in just one or two months. Now that the dust has somewhat settled, what did we all learn and what happens next?
Nicola Morini Bianzino, Global CTO, EY (TEC Member)
Julie Orlando, Chief Product Officer, Nanotronics (TEC Member)
Moderator: Jon Fortt, “Squawk Alley” Co-anchor, CNBC
After the vaccine: Contact tracing, testing and population health
It’s not here yet, but the handful of companies working on Covid vaccines are hopefully safe and effective. That will bring new complexity to an already complicated public health environment. How can technology capabilities honed for contact tracing and testing be pivoted to help distribute a vaccine and track immunity, and what competencies will need to be developed?
Stephen Boyer, Founder and CTO, BitSight (TEC Member)
Darren Dworkin, SVP, Enterprise Information Services and CIO, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (TEC Member)
Carissa Rollins, CIO, UnitedHealthcare (TEC Member)
Moderator: Christina Farr, Technology and Health Reporter, CNBC.com
After the lockdown: Earlier adoption and other changes to consumer behavior
Last spring’s quarantine pushed millions of new consumers to try new ways of spending their money for the first time. Adoption of mobile payments, online shopping, food and grocery delivery all surged. But what stuck? And what new protocols are customers demanding, or governments requiring, to keep them safe while the pandemic rages on? We discuss technology’s role in the new future of retail and the consumer.
Carol Juel, EVP and CIO, Synchrony Financial (TEC Member)
Moderator: Deirdre Bosa, Technology Reporter, CNBC
2:30pm ET
Securing the Digital Economy
From the accelerated growth of ecommerce, to the explosion of streaming media, to the emergence of 5G – each brings incredible economic opportunity, but also new and complex vulnerabilities. Legendary mathematician, entrepreneur and technologist Tom Leighton provides his deep insights on the future of the digital economy and how to protect it.
Dr. Tom Leighton, Co-Founder and CEO, Akamai Technologies
Interviewer: Deirdre Bosa, Technology Reporter, CNBC
3:00pm ET
The following are on-the-record discussions focused on several topics related to technology, the pandemic and the future of work. Attendees will choose one of these four roundtables to join, and all are welcome to participate in the discussions on camera.
Roundtable 1: AI, Chatbots and Distributed Call Centers: Customer Service in 2021
How a forced work-from-home experiment this past spring, combined with improving AI-driven process automation and a customer more willing to interact with robots, knowingly or unknowingly, has led to a customer service revolution.
Roundtable 2: Remote Work and the Next Stage of Globalization
If work can truly be done from anywhere, companies will be tempted to “offshore” service work from engineering and coding, to legal and accounting, to trim costs. How tech executives will deliver secure, functioning collaborative tools to their companies for this next stage of globalization.
Roundtable 3: Rethinking technology’s role in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts
From talent recruitment to product development, how tech leaders can play an important role in building a more just and equitable society.
Roundtable 4: Distributed Networks for the Distributed Workforce
As companies try to keep up with the accelerating work-from-anywhere megatrend, spending on distributed and hybrid cloud infrastructure is expected to outpace all other IT spending. How to spend efficiently to build and maintain secure, functioning distributed networks.
3:30pm ET
Tech for Social Justice
2020 will be remembered as the year when the world came together in a final stand, demanding real world solutions to social injustice. From closing the education gap to addressing socioeconomic disparities, tech firms big and small has made some loud promises, but the challenge ahead is making good on those promises to become a leading force for social justice action.
Michael Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO, Codepath.org
Interviewer: Jon Fortt, “Squawk Alley” Co-anchor, CNBC
4:00pm ET
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Founded in 1911, IBM currently has a worldwide workforce of more than 360,000 people. Today the company is a leader in hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing. IBM uses our deep industry expertise to transform our clients’ operations via moving mission-critical workloads to the cloud and infusing AI deep into the decision-making workflows of their businesses. The company has some 30,000 Watson client engagements across 20 different industries and helps secure 95 percent of the Fortune Global 500. IBM is working with more than 20 large consortium networks that are reshaping entire industries with blockchain. More than 100 global clients and 200,000 registered users have run over 160 billion experiments on the IBM Quantum Computation Center’s fleet of 15 quantum systems through the cloud.
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is a global technology company serving the capital markets and other industries. Our diverse offering of data, analytics, software and services enables clients to optimize and execute their business vision with confidence. To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, on Twitter @Nasdaq, or at www.nasdaq.com.
Salesforce is the #1 CRM, bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologies—cloud, mobile, social, blockchain, voice and artificial intelligence—to create a 360° view of their customers. For information, please visit www.salesforce.com.
T-Mobile for Business brings the Un-carrier experience to customers unwilling to settle. With a network that now covers 99% of Americans, the nation’s most advanced 4G LTE, and in hot pursuit of 5G, T-Mobile continues solving industry pain points and has businesses of all sizes ready for the future of wireless.
Michelle Garvey joined J Crew in 2016, and currently serves as Executive Vice President/Chief Information Officer. The J Crew group is an internationally recognized omni-channel retailer of women's, men's and children's apparel, shoes and accessories. The J. Crew Group makes timeless clothes that last a lifetime paired with of-the-moment styles, and as of March 20, 2019, the Company operates 202 J.Crew retail stores, 131 Madewell stores, jcrew.com, jcrewfactory.com, madewell.com, and 174 factory stores (including 42 J.Crew Mercantile stores).
Michelle graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Civil Engineering and continued at Cornell to earn her MBA at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. After starting her career with Andersen Consulting, Michelle focused on information technology roles with such iconic retailers as Brooks Brothers, Crate and Barrel, and Ann Taylor. She is a strategic and transformational digital technology executive who drives improved profitability through delivery of innovative technology solutions. Michelle prides herself on modeling collaboration across business units and functional disciplines, while motivating teams to deliver high value results the right way.
Recent Industry honors include being named by CIO Magazine to the CIO Hall of Fame, being named one of the Top 10 Women in Retail Tech by Chain Store Age Magazine, and appointment as an HMG Strategy "Top Executive to Watch" for 2019.
Michelle is an active board member of the Fairfield County Community Foundation, working to make Fairfield County (CT) an ever more vital and inclusive community where every person has the opportunity to thrive. She is a past board chair of the Unitarian Church in Westport, and a past treasurer and board member of the Wonderland Wizards Youth Hockey organization. She is active in causes encouraging STEM education and careers for girls, diversity in the workplace, and leadership development. Michelle is a frequent speaker at industry and technology events.
She has been married to Luke Garvey, a psychotherapist in private practice, since 1982. Michelle and Luke live in Connecticut, and have two adult children who live and work nearby.
Imran Khan is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Verishop, an e-commerce company built with the mission to help its brand partners thrive. Prior to that, Imran served as Snap Inc.’s Chief Strategy Officer, where he oversaw the company’s corporate strategy, revenue generation, business operations and partnerships. Under his leadership, Snap’s annual revenue run rate increased to $1.2 billion from zero in less than four years.
Previously, Imran was a Managing Director and Head of Global Internet Investment Banking at Credit Suisse where he advised on more than $45 billion-worth of Internet M&A and financing transactions. Before joining Credit Suisse, Imran held the role of Managing Director and Head of Global Internet Research at JPMorgan Chase.
Theresia Gouw is a founding Partner of Acrew Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that recently spun out from Aspect Ventures. In 2014, Theresia co-founded Aspect Ventures where she served as a Partner and led early investments in Cato Networks, Deserve, Exabeam, The Muse, Crew, ShieldX and PredictHQ. Prior to Aspect, Theresia was a Managing General Partner at Accel. Theresia been fortunate to work with many successful companies through IPOs or acquisitions including: Forescout (FSCT), Imperva (IMPV), Trulia (TRLA), Hotel Tonight (Airbnb), Astro (Slack; WORK), LearnVest (Northwestern Mutual), Jasper Design (CDNS) and Kosmix (WMT).
As an entrepreneur, Theresia was founding VP of Business Development and Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company that provided SaaS to enable digital rights management and payment technologies for the software industry. Earlier, she worked at Bain & Company and as a product manager at Silicon Graphics. Theresia graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and received her MBA from Stanford University.
Theresia is a first-generation immigrant and a passionate supporter of educational causes and increasing diversity in the tech industry. Theresia was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, has been recognized 8 times on the Forbes Midas List, including 2019, was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine, as well as being named to the Carnegie Corporation’s annual Distinguished Immigrants list.
