The Future of AI in Washington State

Join WTIA and KOSME for a panel on “The Future of AI in Washington State” on Friday, September 24th from 3:30-5:30 pm at the Motif Seattle (and viewable online). The event will begin with a few short presentations by leading organizations and then move to a panel discussion among experts in the field of AI.

In-person attendance is limited and on an invite-only basis, contact Koki Sato at ksato@watech.org to request in-person attendance. Virtual tickets are available to the public.

Agenda

• 3:30 PM Event Begins, Networking (in-person)
• 3:35 PM Welcoming Remarks (in-person & virtual)
• 3:45 PM Flash Talks (in-person & virtual)
• 4:15 PM Panel Discussion (in-person & virtual)
• 5:20 PM Event Ends (in-person & virtual)

Flash Talk Speakers

• Hak-Do Kim, CEO of Korea SMEs and Startup Agency (KOSME). The Korea SMEs and Startups Agency has been growing together with SMEs and start-ups for the past 41 years. When the Korean economy was suffering from the Korean financial crisis in 1997 and the global financial crisis in 2008, we preemptively contributed to overcoming the crisis of SMEs and start-ups so that we laid the foundation for the national economy. Recently, SMEs and start-ups, which are the growth engines of our economy, are again at stake of survival because of the new uncertain external environments such as the U.S.―China trade dispute, Japanese export regulations, and the COVID-19. As a strong growth partner of SMEs and start-ups, we will enthusiastically seek policies that meet the future industry in the post COVID-19 era, focus on supporting new industries to create more jobs, and play a role as a driving engine in helping SMEs and start-ups overcome the crisis proactively achieving innovative growth. KOSME will be at the front line of Korean economy and put its utmost efforts as a reliable partner of SMEs and start-ups that is always trusted and loved by customers and the public.

• Michael Schutzler, CEO, WTIA
• Sam Cho, Commissioner of Port of Seattle. Sam Cho was elected to the Port Commission in 2019. Cho is the son of immigrants from South Korea, who came to the United States through the Port of Seattle. He is currently the only person of color serving on the Commission. Commissioner Cho was the Founder and CEO of Seven Seas Export, an international trading company that was headquartered in Seattle and exported to Asia. He identified an opportunity to sell eggs to Asian countries that were experiencing an egg shortage at the height of Asia’s avian influenza (bird flu) epidemic in the winter of 2016. He exported more than 2.5 million pounds of eggs to countries like South Korea. Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavor, Commissioner Cho was a political appointee under President Barack Obama serving at the US General Services Administration. He helped manage a federal agency of more than 10,000 federal employees and worked on executing the administration’s agency-wide policies in real asset management, federal procurements, acquisitions, and technology. Commissioner Cho also served as a Legislative Assistant to a Washington State Senator and a member of the United States Congress for whom he managed a portfolio of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Small Business, and Financial Services. He also served as an analyst at the US Department of State. His priorities as a commissioner include promoting trade, working towards environmental sustainability, ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workforce and contracting, and stopping human trafficking.

• Zoe Hillenmeyer, Sr. Manager of Applied AI, Amazon. I've been part of the launch team for more than 15 AI/ML products in the last 7 years - and am passionate about building dynamic, diverse teams that can help customers of all types learn and adopt AI and Machine Learning. Today, I lead a team that drives the GTM for AI services at AWS that focus on our customer's most common use cases, from personalization to predictive maintenance. I love to learn, create, solve problems, drink coffee, read and look at the sky.
• Professional highlight reel:

- Launch team for 10 AI Services at AWS - including Amazon Transcribe, Translate, Comprehend, Personalize, Forecast, Fraud Detector, Monitron, Panorama, Lookout for Equipment and Lookout for Vision.

- Recognized as a top speaker, both for executive briefings, as well as training and enablement for AWS field resources.

- Developed custom GTM plans for dozens of AI services, including market entry, expansion and scaling.

- Supported global team development and expansion for AI and ML specialization, training teams all around the world and partnering with top customers and partners for early-adoption.

- Drove A.I. content strategy and methodology for IBM's conversational artificial intelligence software

- Established over 200 of industry specific use cases for artificial intelligence, which combined design-thinking, industry research and a.i. constraints to ensure value-based, technically feasible, next-gen software solutions

- Led the prototyping and market validation of several a.i. specific solutions, including those solutions with C-suite, consumer and enterprise end-users

- Led testing of next-gen energy grid technology for a multi-state utility, including Web testing, customer care, remote connect/disconnect, and home-advisor technologies

- Led initiatives across California in conjunction with the White House & NIST to establish new energy

- Wrote several industry POVs on: disruptive technologies and market movement for Media & Energy industries, as well as emerging technology (AI, IoT, AR/VR) on the greater economy and consumer expectations

I am proud to support organizations that facilitate conversations and actions to promote a more inclusive environment for women, LGBTQ, URMs and individuals of varying abilities.

• Ahn HyunSang, Deputy Consul General. a career diplomat from the Republic of Korea. From 2014 to 2016 He worked in the Korean Permanent Mission to International Organization in Vienna where he dealt with issues related to non-proliferation, criminal justice, anti-corruption, space law, etc. He also served in the Korean Embassy to Iraq from 2016 to 2017 where he dealt with matters pertaining to development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Lately from 2020 to Aug. 2021 he joined an international organization called Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) as Senior Specialist for External Relations in Seoul, Korea where he dealt with green growth and development cooperation issues. Recently he came back to the Korean Foreign Ministry to join as Deputy Consul General in the Korean Consulate General in Seattle.

Panelists

• Alex Choe President, CMES Robotics Inc. Alex has been a successful entrepreneur in technology for the past 20 years. During that time, he started and was involved in many different startups. The first, VirtualTek Corporation, a mobile messaging software company, went public in the Korean Stock market (KOSDAQ) in 2000. After a successful exit, Alex founded Guppy Games, a mobile game development and publishing company. He later sold the game division of Guppy Games in 2009. In 2020, Alex has joined CMES Robotics Inc, an AI Robotics company, as the president of North America. Powered by AI, CMES Robotics enables 3D vision for factory robots. It enables robots to recognize unstructured, flexible, or deformed objects, pick them up, loading, and unloading. The company has recently raised $30 million dollars to expand business to North American market. Prior to the startups, Alex worked for Microsoft and Rockwell Automation. Alex studied at Seoul National University and University of Washington and earned a MSEE.

• Ryan Lee, Co-Founder & CEO, Kurvv. Ryan Lee is the co-founder & CEO of Kurvv AI, a startup that allows industrial companies to know when and why their mission critical equipment will breakdown so they can be prevented. Kurvv is a system that automatically trains and deploys a machine learning algorithm without the need to involve data scientists in the development process. The company has previously raised $1 million dollars in seed capital and is affiliated with WTIA as alumnus from their fourth Founder Cohort & Microsoft for Startups. Kurvv was selected as one of the top 50 startups to watch in 2020. Now Ryan Lee is completely focused on making machine learning and AI accessible starting with industrial companies. Ryan Lee is a Microsoft with 7 years of experience on new startup and technology evaluation and was a project manager for a data science team. He also was in the smartphone business incubation team in Samsung Electronics with 7 years of experience and was a product manager for the first waterproof phone in the world and the first HDD embedded smartphone in the world. Ryan Lee also has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and has an MBA from the Kellogg School of management in the Northwestern University.
• Troy Defrank, Founder, Crosscadia. Troy is an international business consultant with over a decade of international trade, investment, and collaborative innovation experience. His clients include the governments of Washington State, British Columbia, Quebec, South Korea, and the Canadian Federal Government. Troy's expertise centers around export promotion, foreign investment attraction strategies, and Crossborder B2B matchmaking. He is currently the VP of International Programs at Moonbeam and also serves as British Columbia’s Trade & Investment Representative to the Pacific Northwest US. Prior to his consulting work, Troy worked as a Trade Commissioner for the Government of Canada and an International Business Development Manager for the Washington State Department of Commerce. His work includes successful international business delegations, both inbound and outbound, to Asia, Europe and North America. His sector experiences spans software, aerospace, life sciences, manufacturing, construction, and professional services. Troy holds a Master's Degree in International Studies from the University of Washington and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Japanese from the University of Notre Dame.

• Ray Castro, Managing Principal, Point B. Ray Castro is Managing Principal at Point B, where he’s spent the past 16 years of his career. Ray is an experienced leader with success in directing all facets of business operations and driving digital transformations. This year, Point B announced it’s investing $15M+ into tech acquisitions, join ventures, and product development, partially focused around AI. Ray has experience in leading digital and cultural transformations for Fortune 50 companies. Adept at distilling complex problems into tangible and achievable objectives. Instrumental in streamlining and improving processes, enhancing productivity, and developing future leaders. Skilled at developing relationships with clients and cross-functional teams, providing actionable information, and designing solutions that address business and market needs.Ray has an MS in Systematic Design and a BS in Business Administration, both from Florida State University.
• Ezhilarasan Natarajan, Chief Executive Officer, CoreStack. Ezhilarasan Natarajan, shortly called as Ez (pronounced easy) is the Founder and CEO of CoreStack. Ez is an entrepreneur and accomplished Technology Executive with 24 years’ experience in architecting and delivering sophisticated and revenue-generating business solutions that satisfy diverse technology requirements across multiple industry segments. Specific to cloud computing, he is a pioneer in the field helping to develop some of the world's largest cloud service platforms, including building Azure from its early days. He has led the efforts to build Blue Cloud Services of Microsoft for China and have been integral part of building Optus Yes cloud for Australia working with Cisco. He is a seasoned leader with a history of building highly successful global teams, developing new products and features, and ensuring delivery of projects that focus on generating business value. During his career, he has worked in key management positions for a variety of technology companies including Texas Instruments, JDA (formerly i2 Technologies), Mindtree, Capgemini Group and AlcatelLucent. Ez has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering and master’s in business administration.

WTIA COVID-19 Policy

While we are looking forward to seeing you in person, we continue to be mindful of the current circumstances. WTIA & KOSME care about the safety of our attendees, their communities, our generous sponsors, and the dedicated venue staff, therefore we are taking the necessary precautions to make this event both safe and enjoyable for everyone.

In accordance with CDC and Washington state guidelines, we will be taking the following measures:

• We are requiring that all guests be fully vaccinated and show physical proof of vaccination upon check-in for the event.
• We are requesting that all guests wear masks throughout the event, except when eating or drinking.
• We will be providing hand sanitizer and additional masks to guests who need them.
• We are asking all registrants to complete a health questionnaire upon arrival at the event.

Thank You to Our Sponsor