SugarLand

Confirmed Speakers

• Dr. Jacob Cohen
  Dr. Jacob Cohen is currently the Chief Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. In this capacity, Dr. Cohen provides advice and guidance to the Center Director on matters pertaining to the scope and conduct of research at the Center, and on how best to integrate new and emerging research and technology areas with the Center’s capabilities.
• Dr. Lorna Ortiz-Soto
  Dr. Lorna Ortiz has completed a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a PhD. in Chemical Engineering specializing in Environmental Catalysis from the University of South Carolina. She joined Shell in 2005 to work in catalysis R&D and worked in the area of biofuels process development.
• Javier Fernandez-Han
  A tinkerer and inventor since age 7, Javier is a rising senior in high school. In 2008, Javier founded the non-profit organization Inventors without Borders to encourage and enable teens to use their talents to solve real-world problems.
• Andrew Schneider
  Andrew Schneider is the business news reporter for KUHF Houston Public Radio. His work appears every weekday with the local news coverage on Morning Edition. On Friday mornings, he hosts the Bauer Business Focus, an interview program featuring business leaders and academics discussing issues affecting the Houston business community.
• Lee Benner
  Lee Benner’s dream has always been to be creative in his own way. Since the 1960’s he has been living his dream, and his creative journey is still unfolding.His passion for sculpture and the history of Houston, Tx and the surrounding region as well as his drive to further positive human potential and creative expression, has led him to produce and participate in many projects and creative endeavors.
• Dr. Bob Richards
  Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards is a space entrepreneur and futurist. He is a Co-Founder of the International Space University, Singularity University, SEDS, the Space Generation Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE competitors Odyssey Moon Ltd. and Moon Express, Inc., where he currently serves as CEO.
• Dr. Irfan Lalani
  Dr. Lalani is a physician in both neurology and pain medicine. After graduating from the Aga Khan University Medical College in 1999, he served a 2 year post doctoral fellowship in Neurogenetics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine. This was followed by a residency in Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine and clinical fellowship training in Pain Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer center.
• Faridoun Hemani
  Faridoun Hemani is a broadcast journalist, and founder of independent production company Linx Productions. He has been in the television news business for 35 years, and has covered major international stories around the world – from the assassination of President Sadat in 1981 for CNN, to the civil war in Lebanon and events in India and Pakistan for ABC News, and as the Bureau Chief for Central Eastern Europe for WTN (Worldwide Television News), covered the revolutions of Central Europe, the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, and the war in Iraq and Somalia. Today, Faridoun works with organizations such as the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), the UN and other international organizations covering stories of a social nature in the developing world.
• Mike Hinkle
  Mike Hinkle is a STEM education entrepreneur based in Sugar Land, Texas. His current venture is Techno Chaos, an education business with the mission of inspiring and refocusing K-12 students on the paths to science, engineering and technology secondary education and careers. Techno Chaos operates a storefront in Sugar Land and also organizes, manages and participates in a wide-variety of events and exhibitions throughout the greater Houston area in support of this mission.
• Austin Welch
  As a seasoned advertising and visual media specialist, Austin Welch brings almost a decade’s worth of experience to the web video industry. His clients and employers range from emerging start‐ups and mid‐sized firms to Fortune 500 corporations.
• Dr. Ethan Crowell
  Ethan Crowell is an education practitioner and researcher. His current research interests are advanced academics, educational change leadership, and academic dishonesty. Ethan holds a Doctorate from the University of Houston in Educational Leadership and a Masters from the University of Texas at Arlington in Humanities.
• Sarah Worthy
  Sarah has over 13 years in marketing, sales, and online community building with a strong focus on teaching people how to use technology to do great things in business and nonprofit industries. Sarah currently works for Schipul – The Web Marketing Company as the Tendenci Community Manager and her primary role is to build and support a community of “Raving Fans” for the open source CMS, Tendenci, developed by Schipul.
• Peter Han
  Peter Han is the President of Play.Fully.Creative®, an education design firm dedicated to cultivating creativity, imagination, collaboration and other 21st Century Skills in youth. He, his wife and their two sons have pioneered the development of 21st Century Skills through "playfully creative" projects in which youths solve real-world problems in their local communities as they pursue their areas of passion.
• Nicole Stott
  Nicole Marie Passonno Stott is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She served as a Flight Engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a Mission Specialist on STS-128.[2] In 2011, She flew a second time as a Mission Specialist on STS-133. In 1988, Nicole joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida as an Operations Engineer in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF).
• Walter Ulrich
  Walter Ulrich is president and CEO of the Houston Technology Center. The Houston Technology Center (HTC) is the largest non-profit technology business incubator/accelerator in Texas and the center for technology entrepreneurship on the Texas Gulf Coast. Named by Forbes as one of ten technology incubators changing the world, the HTC is the nexus of entrepreneurship in the Houston region and provides in-depth management guidance, business planning assistance, introductions to capital providers, entrepreneurial education and a wide array of services to emerging technology client companies.
• Arif Momin
  Born into a community with deep rural roots, Arif and his family have made the transformation from “base of the pyramid’ farmers in India to middle class, high-tech entrepreneurs in US over the course of one generation. This journey has sparked Arif to Co-found EmagineNET Labs – company that developed an innovative and highly powerful credit scoring system for people who are not part of the financial mainstream.
• Grace Rodriguez
  Grace Rodriguez wants to change the world, one great idea, one great cause at a time. Grace is a Culture Pilot. As "Creative Juicer," she crafts brand strategies that utilize design, technology and social media for interactive experiences that engage, delight and inspire audiences. Her mantra is “Live By Design”: Live creatively and strategically, approaching the world with attention to detail and intention towards the bigger picture.
• Ravi Kathuria
  Ravi Kathuria has a conceptually simple, but powerful business management method to cut the noise and help companies become cohesive. Kathuria introduced his Cohegic Method (TM) in his business parable, "How Cohesive is your company?" Cohegic is derived from the words strategic cohesion. The book and the method has received rave reviews from prominent executives.
• Ada Liu
  Ada Liu grew up in a small city in Inner Mongolia, China. After college, she came to the United States to pursue her Master’s Degree in Food Science from the University of Massachusetts. She has traveled to many places throughout the world and has tasted all kinds of delicious foods. Her favorite place is Tibet. She is passionate about sustainable development and fascinated with alternative energy.
• Jan Poscovsky
  Jan Poscovsky has been a member of Toastmasters since 1993. She has served in a variety of leadership roles within its Greater Houston District including a term as District 56 Governor in 2010/2011. Jan has been a full time Real Estate broker for 35 years, specializing in residential real estate sales and marketing in Fort Bend County. She and her husband Stan are known as the “Spouses Selling Houses”. Jan enjoys long distance running and has completed multiple marathons and other endurance races.
• Dr. Geoff Steeves
  A passionate science educator, Dr. Geoff Steeves is a physics professor at the University of Victoria and co-founder of the StarAcer Academy, a grades 4-6 science education program with the mission of“Engaging students with tales of adventure, to educate and inspire future astronauts.” This program was inspired by his experiences as a top 16 finalist in the 2008/09 Canadian Space Agency’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign.
• Pradeep Anand
  Pradeep Anand is President of Seeta Resources, a consulting firm that helps businesses to accelerate their revenue and margin growth. He has more than 35 years of marketing, pricing, and business strategy/execution experience in the oil & gas, technology, and engineering industries. Pradeep speaks often at business conferences and at firms, and has been published extensively in leading industry magazines and journals, and newspapers.
• Russ Conser
  Russ is leader of Shell’s global GameChanger team and is based in Houston, Texas. GameChanger is a Shell-created innovation program that invests in people in or outside of Shell to help mature their breakthrough energy ideas to proof-of-concept. Originally educated as a Mechanical Engineer (Iowa State), Russ is a long-time “Shell guy” who spent his early years exploring for and producing oil and gas around the world, then later on such things as business planning, strategy, scenarios, and technology venturing.
• Steven Gonzalez
  After battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer, Steven is living his life to the fullest. Beating the odds of less than 2% chance for survival, Steven will share how his experience has given him a passion to help kids heal through video games. Steven González is a junior at The Woodlands College Park High School. He is currently an Eagle Scout in Troop 204. He has held multiple leadership positions and attended many leadership training classes.
• Dr. Kalpalatha Guntupalli
  Kalpalatha K. Guntupalli, MD, is Professor and Chief of Pulmonary/Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the prestigious Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She was the first woman President of the American Association of physicians of Indian Origin or AAPI in 1998 that represents the professional interests of 45,000 physicians of Indian origin who practice in USA.
• J-Coby Wayne
  J-Coby Wayne is Co-Founder and Chief Experience Guide of Energy Arts Alliance, which helps evolve world relations, expand world citizenship and catalyze the growth and contributions of pioneering people and enterprises who want to live noble, adventurous lives through the ultimate expedition of evolution through energy. A lifelong explorer and world traveler, J-Coby came into this world asking big questions and driven to create big solutions to global needs.
• Dr. Guy Boy
  Guy Boy is an engineer and cognitive scientist, studying life-critical artifacts in our modern societies. He actively contributed to the design and evaluation of cockpits, control rooms and other interfaces to complex dynamic systems. He tries to close the gap between technology, organizations and people. He worked on the shift from three- to two-crew-men cockpits, the control of orbital refueling system of the Space Shuttle, space robotics, air traffic management, nuclear power plant control and management, car driving, telecommunication network monitoring and model-based respiratory assistance.
• Abhay Divakaruni
  Abhay Divakaruni is an explorer of expression. Graduating as the 2012 Valedictorian from Clements High School, he is also a self-taught dancer. Inspired to disseminate the joy he receives from dance, Abhay helped create and grow Clements Rhythm, a hip hop dance club, and has served as President of Rhythm for two years, teaching choreography and performing at multiple school events.
• Ashok Rao
  Ashok Rao is a serial Entrepreneur with five successful high technology start ups. Took one of them public (IPO) with a market cap in excess of $400mm. Currently on his 5th start up he is the Chairman & CEO of Whodini Inc. – developing cutting edge software for enterprises, utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Computer Linguistics. He is also the Chairman of TIE’s Global Board of Trustees.
• Dr. Phillip Kloeckner
  Phillip Kloeckner critically acclaimed performances as organist, harpsichordist, and conductor have been heard in numerous live performances and radio broadcasts throughout North and South America, and in Europe, for the past two and a half decades. Phillip Kloeckner grew up in Vermont and began his career as an organist at the age of thirteen. After winning numerous competitions, prizes, and awards throughout high school, he earned undergraduate degrees from Swarthmore College and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and masters and doctoral degrees in organ performance from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas.