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Priya Kesavan

Principal, Azure AI Systems Strategy
Microsoft

Priya Kesavan is an AI Strategy Principal at Microsoft. In her current role, she leads the development of long-term strategies and roadmaps for Microsoft's in-house AI hardware systems. In the past, Priya held several leadership positions in product management for SoC and systems development at Intel and Cisco. Driven by a passion for harnessing AI to address complex real-world challenges and improve user experiences, she is a strong advocate for "AI for good." Priya is also committed to empowering women in technology and AI, spearheading initiatives to foster their growth and advancement.

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Priya Kesavan

Principal, Azure AI Systems Strategy
Microsoft

Priya Kesavan

Principal, Azure AI Systems Strategy
Microsoft

Priya Kesavan is an AI Strategy Principal at Microsoft. In her current role, she leads the development of long-term strategies and roadmaps for Microsoft's in-house AI hardware systems. In the past, Priya held several leadership positions in product management for SoC and systems development at Intel and Cisco. Driven by a passion for harnessing AI to address complex real-world challenges and improve user experiences, she is a strong advocate for "AI for good." Priya is also committed to empowering women in technology and AI, spearheading initiatives to foster their growth and advancement. She holds a degree in Computer Engineering from Madras University.

 

 

Ashwin Gumaste

Principal Architect Azure Network Hardware
Microsoft

Ashwin Gumaste is an AI Architect at Microsoft. He specializes in building AI systems, scaling networks, and model estimation. Before joining Microsoft, Ashwin held key roles at Infinera, Cisco, and Fujitsu, as well as academic positions at IIT Bombay and MIT. Earlier in his career at IIT Bombay, he designed, developed, and successfully commercialized carrier Ethernet switch routers, earning India's highest science and technology honor, the Bhatnagar Prize.

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Ashwin Gumaste

Principal Architect Azure Network Hardware
Microsoft

Ashwin Gumaste

Principal Architect Azure Network Hardware
Microsoft

Ashwin Gumaste is an AI Architect at Microsoft. He specializes in building AI systems, scaling networks, and model estimation. Before joining Microsoft, Ashwin held key roles at Infinera, Cisco, and Fujitsu, as well as academic positions at IIT Bombay and MIT. Earlier in his career at IIT Bombay, he designed, developed, and successfully commercialized carrier Ethernet switch routers, earning India's highest science and technology honor, the Bhatnagar Prize. A distinguished fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in India, Ashwin has made significant contributions to AI and network engineering. He has authored three books, published 215 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 28 granted patents.

 

 

Apala Guha

Principal AI Architect
Microsoft

Apala is Principal AI Architect at Microsoft Azure. She works on hardware-software codesign for supporting AI applications in Microsoft datacenters. She holistically analyzes hardware technologies, software optimizations and large language model architectures to design efficient future clouds. She has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Virgina and a long history of working on AI accelerators, including at the startups, Lightmatter and Tenstorrent.

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Apala Guha

Principal AI Architect
Microsoft

Apala Guha

Principal AI Architect
Microsoft

Apala is Principal AI Architect at Microsoft Azure. She works on hardware-software codesign for supporting AI applications in Microsoft datacenters. She holistically analyzes hardware technologies, software optimizations and large language model architectures to design efficient future clouds. She has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Virgina and a long history of working on AI accelerators, including at the startups, Lightmatter and Tenstorrent.

 

Stacy Rivkin

SVP, Commercial Strategy
H1

Stacy Rivkin

SVP, Commercial Strategy
H1

Stacy Rivkin

SVP, Commercial Strategy
H1
 

Lauren Brittany Beach

Assistant Professor
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Lauren Brittany Beach

Assistant Professor
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Lauren Brittany Beach

Assistant Professor
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
 

Benjamin Young

Board Member
SGM Alliance

Benjamin Young

Board Member
SGM Alliance

Benjamin Young

Board Member
SGM Alliance
 

David Glick

SVP, Enterprise Business Services
Walmart

David Glick serves as the senior vice president of Walmart’s Enterprise Business Services. He leads enterprise systems, including People Technology Modernization, Finance Tech, Associate Digital Experience (ADE) and Shared Services, that enable Walmart to spend smartly, act digitally and build trust with associates and shareholders. 

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David Glick

SVP, Enterprise Business Services
Walmart

David Glick

SVP, Enterprise Business Services
Walmart

David Glick serves as the senior vice president of Walmart’s Enterprise Business Services. He leads enterprise systems, including People Technology Modernization, Finance Tech, Associate Digital Experience (ADE) and Shared Services, that enable Walmart to spend smartly, act digitally and build trust with associates and shareholders. 

Before joining Walmart, David served as the chief technology officer for Flexe, a logistics and supply chain technology provider. There, he was responsible for building the foundational technology that allows for an open logistics network to optimize the delivery of goods. Prior to that, he was vice president of fulfillment and logistics tech for Amazon, where he was responsible for all the technology inside the walls of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, as well as the founding tech vice president of Amazon Logistics. 

David has over 20 years of experience in enterprise tech, product development, system architecture and logistics and fulfillment tech. 

 

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of South Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

 

Ram Velaga

SVP & GM, Core Switching Group
Broadcom

Ram Velaga is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Core Switching Group at  Broadcom, responsible for the company’s extensive Ethernet switch portfolio serving broad markets including the service provider, data center and enterprise segments. Prior to joining Broadcom in 2012, he served in a variety of product management roles at Cisco Systems, including Vice President of Product Management for the Data Center Technology Group. Mr. Velaga earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. Mr.

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Ram Velaga

SVP & GM, Core Switching Group
Broadcom

Ram Velaga

SVP & GM, Core Switching Group
Broadcom

Ram Velaga is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Core Switching Group at  Broadcom, responsible for the company’s extensive Ethernet switch portfolio serving broad markets including the service provider, data center and enterprise segments. Prior to joining Broadcom in 2012, he served in a variety of product management roles at Cisco Systems, including Vice President of Product Management for the Data Center Technology Group. Mr. Velaga earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. Mr. Velaga holds patents in communications and virtual infrastructure.

 

Sid Sheth

CEO & Co-Founder
D Matrix

Sid Sheth is the co-founder and CEO of d-Matrix, the company changing the trajectory of commercially viable generative AI by introducing an entirely new computing paradigm designed from the ground-up for AI inference in modern datacenters.

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Sid Sheth

CEO & Co-Founder
D Matrix

Sid Sheth

CEO & Co-Founder
D Matrix

Sid Sheth is the co-founder and CEO of d-Matrix, the company changing the trajectory of commercially viable generative AI by introducing an entirely new computing paradigm designed from the ground-up for AI inference in modern datacenters.

Sid spent over two decades as a business and technical leader transforming startups into industry leaders and creating new categories of technology, taking them from innovations to commercialization. Before founding d-Matrix, Sid served as senior vice president & general manager for the Networking Business Unit at Inphi Corporation where he incubated and grew the group into a $1B+ business by focusing the business on the cloud and enterprise data center segment. Prior to Inphi, Sid was at NetLogic Microsystems (now Broadcom) and Intel where he ran marketing and worked in R&D for networking chips and processors.

Sid earned his MSEE from Purdue University, where he serves on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board. He is a regularly featured speaker at industry tradeshows and conferences, is a published author at ISSCC and holds multiple patents.

 

Author:

Michael Bahr

Head of Infrastructure, Data Center & Networking
DRW Holdings

Mike Bahr joined DRW Holdings in 2013 and has built co-locations and stand-alone data centers for trading firms all over the world. Mike is also in charge of all MEP designs for all company offices globally. Mike also is co-founder of a start-up, Co-Low.com, a true subscription based colocation/data center finder for all IT needs. Mike lives in Crown Point, IN with his wife Colleen and his four children.

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Michael Bahr

Head of Infrastructure, Data Center & Networking
DRW Holdings

Mike Bahr joined DRW Holdings in 2013 and has built co-locations and stand-alone data centers for trading firms all over the world. Mike is also in charge of all MEP designs for all company offices globally. Mike also is co-founder of a start-up, Co-Low.com, a true subscription based colocation/data center finder for all IT needs. Mike lives in Crown Point, IN with his wife Colleen and his four children.

Author:

Dagi Berhane

Senior Director, Global Data Center Architecture & Engineering
Salesforce

Dagi provides architecture/design, engineering and construction leadership / expertise to internal and external resources for the delivery of IT capacity for greenfield, brownfield, retrofit and lease delivery projects globally.

His deliverables include data center site selection, managing efforts of land technical due diligence, engineering/designing/constructing the building shell/core, power, cooling, telecom, and controls infrastructure, environmental and building permitting all to align with Salesforce’s IT capacity roadmap for critical infrastructure builds, M&A, migration, optimization, decommissioning and leases.

 

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Dagi Berhane

Senior Director, Global Data Center Architecture & Engineering
Salesforce

Dagi provides architecture/design, engineering and construction leadership / expertise to internal and external resources for the delivery of IT capacity for greenfield, brownfield, retrofit and lease delivery projects globally.

His deliverables include data center site selection, managing efforts of land technical due diligence, engineering/designing/constructing the building shell/core, power, cooling, telecom, and controls infrastructure, environmental and building permitting all to align with Salesforce’s IT capacity roadmap for critical infrastructure builds, M&A, migration, optimization, decommissioning and leases.

 

Author:

Kishore Atreya

Senior Director Cloud Platforms Marketing
Marvell
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Kishore Atreya

Senior Director Cloud Platforms Marketing
Marvell

Author:

James Tomko

SVP, Digital Infrastructure
Zayo

James Tomko is SVP, Digital Infrastrcuture at Zayo.

James has held various roles over his 36 years in telecommunications.  His extensive background across Product Development, Business Development, and Wholesale & Enterprise Sales has equipped him with deep technical expertise.  Currently, he leads Zayo's Digital Infrastructure sales division focused on AI, SaaS, Gaming, data centers, and media companies. 


James holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Bethany College and an MBA from Marymount University. He resides in Atlanta, GA.

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James Tomko

SVP, Digital Infrastructure
Zayo

James Tomko is SVP, Digital Infrastrcuture at Zayo.

James has held various roles over his 36 years in telecommunications.  His extensive background across Product Development, Business Development, and Wholesale & Enterprise Sales has equipped him with deep technical expertise.  Currently, he leads Zayo's Digital Infrastructure sales division focused on AI, SaaS, Gaming, data centers, and media companies. 


James holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Bethany College and an MBA from Marymount University. He resides in Atlanta, GA.

Moderator/Panelist

Author:

Harsha Bojja

Principal AI Platform Architect
Microsoft

Harsha Bojja serves as a Principal AI Platform Architect at Microsoft, where he leads the design and development of AI systems and infrastructure. His expertise spans system performance optimization, availability modeling, and thermal management—critical for supporting large-scale training and inference clusters. Harsha’s career includes pivotal roles in AI/ML infrastructure and product development. His experience at Meta Platforms, Bell Labs, and cloud infrastructure startups has equipped him with deep technical insight and strategic vision. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, serves on the Industrial Advisory Board, and contributes to the OCP Rack and Power Steering Committee. Harsha has authored papers presented at IEEE, ASME, and ACEEE conferences, and actively contributes to the Open Compute Project community, reflecting his commitment to advancing scalable and secure AI infrastructure.

... read more

Harsha Bojja

Principal AI Platform Architect
Microsoft

Harsha Bojja serves as a Principal AI Platform Architect at Microsoft, where he leads the design and development of AI systems and infrastructure. His expertise spans system performance optimization, availability modeling, and thermal management—critical for supporting large-scale training and inference clusters. Harsha’s career includes pivotal roles in AI/ML infrastructure and product development. His experience at Meta Platforms, Bell Labs, and cloud infrastructure startups has equipped him with deep technical insight and strategic vision. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, serves on the Industrial Advisory Board, and contributes to the OCP Rack and Power Steering Committee. Harsha has authored papers presented at IEEE, ASME, and ACEEE conferences, and actively contributes to the Open Compute Project community, reflecting his commitment to advancing scalable and secure AI infrastructure.