Women in AI Series II: Why Startups Need to be AI-Native

Laura brings operational perspective as a CEO, Chairman, and executive in technology startups, in addition to investing experience. As Managing Partner at Ripplecreek Partners’ technology practice and General Partner at FA Technology Ventures, she worked many tech sectors across many economic cycles. She also served as CEO at Handango, creating the first marketplace of mobile apps. At Microsoft, she co-founded two businesses as an intra-preneur in an elite swat team spun out of Bill Gates’s office. Laura holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and AB in Government from Dartmouth.

Sophia brings a wealth of experience in capital advisory, corporate development, and operational optimization, establishing impactful collaborations with CXOs and Founders. With a diverse industry exposure encompassing cloud computing, mining and minerals, consumer goods, and Web3, Sophia has been at the forefront of transformative technologies. Since 2018, she has been immersed in the crypto universe, working at Galaxy Digital, Huobi US, and Crypto.com. In these roles, Sophia engaged with startups and institutional clients on capital raising and trading across the Americas, EU, and Asia regions.

Actively fostering innovation and mentorship, Sophia serves as a mentor and judge at prestigious institutions such as Yale’s Tsai City for Innovation, Berkeley’s Blockchain Xcelerator, Techstars, and Layer 1 protocols, including Ethereum, Algorand, and Solana. She maintains close ties with the blockchain communities at Stanford and Yale.

Driven by a passion for shaping the future through frontier technologies, Sophia is currently supporting AI data and applications deals within her team. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and an MAM from the Yale School of Management.

Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn has more than 30 years of experience as a technology executive and a transformational leader. She is currently the President of Claridad-LLC, a product and services technology company. She is also on the boards of Xylem Inc a digital water company, Edison International/SCE a green energy company and Columbus McKinnon an intelligent movement company. Additionally, Jeanne is a director of Descartes Labs an AI, a start-up and leader in geospatial platform intelligence. Prior to this she spent 22 years at Cisco building the company and scaling it globally. Her leadership roles were VP/GM in SaaS, Services/Products, head of Product Marketing, GM of Consulting and head of Global Sales/Partners. Before Cisco, she built and ran Micronics Computers with a successful exit. She started her career in designing secure infrastructure/systems, addressing the world’s top government agencies. Jeanne is a broad business and technology executive with deep experience in IoT and scaling and building global tech infrastructure. She built businesses in cyber, compute, cloud, SaaS, AI, networking, collaboration, IoT and services. She has extensive sales/ marketing and M&A experience as well as leadership development expertise. Jeanne is an NACD fellow and recognized as – 50 Most Influential Women in Business, 5X Stevie winner, published author. Trailblazer recognition by M2M, Women’s Inc. Most Influential Directors. She holds a B.S. from UMass and a graduate of both MITs Executive Leadership program and Harvard’s Accelerated MBA program for executives.
www.claridad-llc.com

Gabrielle, Principal Program Manager at Mila, the Quebec AI Institute, endeavors to unite innovation with societal progress. Leading the Mila Entrepreneurship Lab, she empowers AI scientists to translate research into responsible ventures. Her journey includes supporting disadvantaged communities and exploring the impact of global warming while working on a carbon-measurement startup. At Microsoft, she deployed sustainability frameworks for large accounts, and promoted inclusivity as co-chair of Mila’s EDI Committee. With a dual Master’s degree in Management from HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris, she seizes every chance to support human-centric innovation.

Samantha Huang is a Principal at BMW i Ventures, where she focuses on early-stage investments across AI and big data, automotive, Industry 4.0, sustainability, and the next generation of human experiences. Samantha previously worked as Lead Researcher at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University on research projects centered on innovation, immigration, and entrepreneurship. She also serves as Board Director for the Asian Law Caucus and as Board Director and Head of Content for the Emerging Venture Capitalists Association, a nonprofit organization for empowering the next generation of venture capitalists. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley Law School and an MA in history from Stanford University. Samantha is also a licensed California attorney.