Vint Cerf is Chief Internet Evangelist and Vice President for Google. He is widely regarded as a co-founder or “Father of the Internet”. For his pioneering work, he was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Technology in 1997 by President Bill Clinton, and in 2005 was awarded America’s highest civilian honor by President George W. Bush, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has also been honored with the Association for Computing Machinery’s Alan M. Turing Award. Vint is past Chairman of the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and is a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He held both past vice president positions in Technology Strategy, and Architecture and Technology for MCI. He is also past Chairman of the Board of the Internet Society, an organization he helped start.

Carly Fiorina currently serves as Chairman of Good360, the world’s largest product philanthropy and is a frequent advisor on issues of innovation, education, entrepreneurship, and job creation. Previously she served as Chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She has also served on the Defense Business Board, as the Chairman of the CIA’s External Advisory Board and on the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State. She has been a member of the Boards of Kellogg Company, Cisco Systems, Merck and Taiwan Semiconductor. In 2010 she ran for the Senate, and has served as Victory Chair for John McCain and a co-chair for Mitt Romney. She is also engaged in national policy formulation, serving as a Senior Advisor for the Center of Strategic and International Studies where she is also a Co-Chair for US Leadership in Development. She is also the founder of the One Woman Initiative and now serves as a Global Ambassador for Opportunity International.

Dean Kamen founded Deka Research and Development Corporation in New Hampshire, and is the holder of over 440 U.S. and foreign patents. Some notable inventions developed by Deka include, the HydroflexTM surgical irrigation pump, the iBOT™ mobility device, and the Segway® Human Transporter. An advanced prosthetic arm in development should advance the quality of life for returning injured soldiers. He is also the founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use, and enjoy science and technology. Founded in 1989, FIRST currently serves more than 300,000 young people, ages 6-18, in more than 60 countries around the world. Dean was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000 by President Bill Clinton, and received the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2002.

Carl J. Schramm is recognized internationally as a leading authority on entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth. Dr. Schramm is currently University Professor at Syracuse University. He serves as a visiting scientist at MIT and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a fellow of the Bush Institute, U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School’s Institute of Business Innovation, and the Royal Society of Arts. Dr. Schramm previously served for 10 years as president of the Kauffman Foundation, turning it into the world’s premier organization dedicated to the development of high-growth firms and understanding the role they play in economic growth. Dr. Schramm has authored or coauthored several books including Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism: the Economics of Growth and Prosperity; Inside Real Innovation; The Entrepreneurial Imperative; and, most recently, Better Capitalism (coauthored with Robert Litan) published by Yale University Press in September 2012.

Philip Auerswald

Philip Auerswald is the founding board chair and president of the National Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is also the chief academic officer of the Hult Prize Foundation, the founder of Innovations journal (MIT Press), and a professor of public policy at George Mason University. Auerswald has published over fifty books, peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and professional reports on entrepreneurship, innovation, and public policy. He is among the leading authorities globally on policies to enable entrepreneurial ecosystems. He is most recently the author of The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Global Economy (Oxford University Press, 2012). He has blogged and written op-eds for The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The International Herald Tribune, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among other outlets. Prior to joining the faculty at George Mason University, Professor Auerswald was a lecturer and assistant director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Professor Auerswald holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington and a B.A. (political science) from Yale University.

Donna Harris is co-founder of 1776, a start-up accelerator and incubator space in Washington, DC. Prior to starting 1776, she was Managing Director of the Startup America Partnership, where she designed and led the Startup Regions Initiative. She is also a Founding Member of the K Street Capital angel network and is an active angel investor. Her previous positions include Vice Chair of Interpoint Group and founder and CEO of Kinderstreet, which sold SaaS solutions in the education, sports, and recreation markets. She was also Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Product Management for Centromine. She has held a variety of roles at Oracle Corporation and Electronic Data Systems.

James Turner is Senior Counsel for the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU). James joined APLU in January 2009 after a 30 year career on Capitol Hill where he had served as Chief Counsel to the Committee on Science and Technology and the Committee’s Technology Staff Director.