Think Bigger Innovation and Technology Summit

Iyengar is the recipient of the Thinkers50 2023 Innovation Award and the author of two award-winning books, The Art of Choosing (2010 Financial Times Business Book of the Year and #3 Bestselling Business Book on Amazon) and Think Bigger: How to Innovate (2023 Gold Medal recipient for the Axiom Business Book Awards and Thinkers50 Top 10 Management Book of the Year). Her recorded TED Talks have received a collective 7 million views and she regularly appears in top tier media such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, CNN, The BBC, and NPR.

Iyengar is famously recognized for her “Jam Study,” which transformed the way we think about products offered in the marketplace and how we curate them for customers. Her “Jam Study” found that too many choices reduces customer purchasing and corporate growth. Since the Jam Study, there have been 1,000+ studies on the phenomena of choice overload which led to the pervasive 80/20 rule, observing that 80% of a company’s outcomes (outputs and revenue) come from 20% of causes (inputs and choices). She has applied her expertise in choice to advise hundreds of companies spanning business, technology, consumer retail, media, consulting, investing, and STEM to transform their decision-making criteria and elevate the stakeholder experience. 

Iyengar created the Think Bigger method for innovative thinking and problem-solving based on recent advances in neuro- and cognitive sciences. Where prevailing methods for innovation, such as Design Thinking, teaches methods of customer research and feedback, Think Bigger concentrates on how creative ideas form in your mind and teaches a six-step method for innovation.  

She was ranked by the Thinkers50 as a Top 10 Management Thinker in 2023. In 2022, Iyengar was ranked by the Asian American Business Development Center as one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business. She received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the CBS Executive MBA Class of 2021. In 2012, Iyengar was recognized by Poets and Quants as one of the Best Business School Professors for her work merging academia with practice. In 2002, she was the only social scientist to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the Office of the President. 

Iyengar holds a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania, with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences. She received her PhD from Stanford Universit

In her personal life, as a blind woman, Iyengar intuitively used Think Bigger to find her calling and strives to inspire others to do the same. 

He co-ran Columbia Business School’s Advanced Management Program for 15 years and then served as Faculty Director for two years. He teaches workshops in resilience, emotional intelligence, leadership communication and flexible thinking. His popular graduate school management elective Leadership Through Fiction has been offered at Columbia Business School for twelve years. 

Concurrent with his work in executive education, Bruce works as a writer. His non-fiction book Win or Die: Leadership Secrets from Game of Thrones, was republished by Codhill Press in 2023. The book was first published by St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan) in March 2019, and was translated into Turkish, Serbian and Russian. Craven co-wrote the Columbia Business School case -- Handling Change at Ferguson: The Credit Function. His novel about NYC in the Nineties – Sweet Ride – was published by Codhill Press in 2019. His collection of poetry, Buena Suerte in Red Glitter, was published in 2019 by Red Dirt Press in Oklahoma. He published the Generation X novel Fast Sofa in 1993. The novel was translated into Japanese and German. Bruce co-wrote the script for the film Fast Sofa (Lionsgate Entertainment, 2001). The script starred Jennifer Tilly, Crispin Glover and Jake Busey. Early in his writing career, Bruce ran a famous reading series in New York City known as The Wheel of Poets. He continues to write and is currently working on a dystopian verse-novel titled True America. 

In addition to his work with Columbia Business School, and his writing work, he also served on two boards of non-profit organizations focused on helping low-income families and the homeless in Coachella Valley.

Bruce received his MFA in Poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and has two BA degrees in Politics (with Honors) and English from the University of California at Santa Cruz. 

 He lives with his wife and two sons in the Coachella Valley in California. [email protected]

Stahl was among a handful of female television journalists whose work led the way for the anchors and reporters on the air today. She was CBS’ first female White House correspondent and moderator of FACE THE NATION. Her remarkable body of work has been recognized with every major award, including The Radio Television Digital News Association’s Paul White Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from Quinnipiac College, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton, the Overseas Press Club award and 13 Emmys, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Stahl has been a 60 MINUTES correspondent since March 1991; she began her 26th season on the broadcast in September. She is the author of the best-selling book “Becoming Grandma.” Stahl landed the first post-election television interview with Donald Trump in November 2016. She earned an Emmy for her 2015 report on the recruitment of vulnerable young people for dangerous jobs as confidential police informants, and an Emmy for her interview with the widow of a slain hostage, with a look inside the technically illegal process of terrorist negotiation.

In 2013, Stahl’s two-part series on U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison facilities, received the Edward R. Murrow award. In 2014, she won two Emmys for the Guantanamo series and a story about China’s huge real estate bubble. In 2014, she received the International Center for Journalists, Founders Award for Journalistic Excellence. In 2012, her uplifting feature, “Gospel for Teens,” received two Emmy Awards, and her whistleblower interview with F-22 Raptor pilots provided the public personal accounts of the fighter’s oxygen system troubles, spurring the Secretary of Defense to action. Stahl’s interview of a former CIA Clandestine Services chief regarding “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Al Qaeda operatives sparked national debate. Her first book “Reporting Live” (Simon & Schuster, 1999), highlighted stories Stahl covered including Watergate, the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, and the 1991 Gulf War. Stahl graduated cum laude in 1963 from Wheaton College, and is a former board member. She currently serves on the board of the New York City Ballet.

Donnel spent three years as a community organizer in Brooklyn and one year as a voter contact director for Obama For America and seven years overall as a community and political organizer. He managed a national Change to Win/LIUNA campaign to leverage Dept. of Energy energy efficiency financing to create green construction jobs for out of work populations. 

He partnered with the Washington Interfaith Network to generate a $100m government investment in underserved communities in the District of Columbia. Donnel also is an Echoing Green/Open Society Foundation BMA Fellow and the first Entrepreneur in Residence at Jalia Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in for-profits with a social and environmental mission. He has a B.A. from Duke University and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School. BlocPower is backed by Kapor Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

He is the founder and chief scientist for a company that uses seawater, sunlight and wind to grow food in coastal deserts, replicating algal blooms. He is married with five children and lives in London. He authored 'Light to Life,' offering a fresh perspective on the profound influence of photosynthesis on Earth's evolution, in 2022. The book takes us on a journey of how from the beginning of Earth the conversion of solar energy has driven global change and outlines how despite unprecedented challenges facing humans and the environment, there is hope. The discovery and exploration of photosynthesis spans the last 400 years of tumultuous human development, and yet, with the help of photosynthesis we have grown societies and human accomplishments throughout. 

Professor Rajgopal’s research interests span sustainability, financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation and corporate culture. His research is frequently cited in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Business Week, and the Economist. He teaches fundamental analysis of financial statements for investors, managers and entrepreneurs and a PhD seminar on accounting regulation.

Key awards include 2006, 2016 and 2021 American Accounting Association (AAA) Notable Contribution to the Literature award, 2006 and 2016 Graham and Dodd Scroll Prize given by the Financial Analysts Journal, and the 2008, 2012 and 2015 Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics.

He was the Departmental Editor of the Accounting track of Management Science. He also served an Associate Editor at the Journal of Accounting and Economics and an ex-editor at Contemporary Accounting Research. He was on the editorial board of The Accounting Review from 2003-2011.

Ryan is a member of the Board of Directors of Nortech Systems where he is the founding chair of the science & technology committee; President of the NACD New York Chapter board of directors and sponsorship committee chair; chairman of the board of EMPOWER, chair of the advisory board of the Columbia University Technology and Growth Hub, and serves on several AI startup advisory boards. 

Ryan is the author of numerous articles on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, emerging technologies, sustainability, governance, strategy and leadership and has worked with over 15,000 leaders in partnership with Columbia University Business School, Duke CE, the NACD, G100 and other institutions.  Ryan earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has worked on the ground in over 50 countries and is fluent in English and French.

Ryan was recognized as one of the top 100 most influential corporate directors by the National Association of Corporate Directors in 2023.

Mr. Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy systems and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. One of Mr. Khosla’s greatest passions is being a mentor to entrepreneurs, assisting entrepreneurs and helping them build technology-based businesses. Mr. Khosla is driven by the desire to make a positive impact through technology to reinvent societal infrastructure and multiply resources.  He is also passionate about Social Entrepreneurship. Vinod holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from IIT, New Delhi, a Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Wind’s sold-out off-Broadway show, Inner Circle, received rave reviews and extended its run six times, totaling 448 shows. It was featured in high-profile journals and newspapers worldwide. The show was highlighted as a New York Times Critic’s Pick. 

Wind's appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us has over 15 million views on YouTube, making it one of the most-watched performances in the history of the show’s ten successful seasons.

Wind is currently working on a streaming special and his next theatrical venture, which remains a secret for now. 

Nick lives in Florida with his partner, Jamie and their three boys. When not at work, you might catch him running or playing the occasional video game. He built his first website in the 90s and hasn’t been the same since.

After its products were deployed by dozens of enterprises, the company became Amazon’s first AI-related acquisition. The firm’s inventions then served as the nucleus for follow-on products such as Alexa, Echo, and Fire TV. As a Program Director at IBM, Igor led the team that designed the precursor to Watson and developed the world’s first multimodal Web browser.

Igor was awarded Eisenhower and Truman National Security fellowships to explore and expand the role of entrepreneurship and venture capital in addressing geopolitical concerns. As an innovator in human language technologies, he believes in fostering career and educational opportunities for others entering STEM fields. As such, he serves as a mentor in the TechStars’ Alexa Accelerator, was a Blackstone NC Entrepreneur-In- Residence (EIR), and founded a chapter of the Global Shapers, a program of the World Economic Forum.

Igor holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, where he was named an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus, and an MBA from The University of North Carolina.

 His work, based on applying classical control theory to differential equation based model that he developed for Internet traffic, has found its way into becoming part of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard for cable modems and is being deployed worldwide. He has also played a very active role in the public policy debates related to Network Neutrality and the strong recent regulations passed by the Indian and Canadian regulatory authorities are in line with a definition of Network Neutrality he has proposed. Vishal is Founder at Ask Here First, which a powerful AI based natural language query solution for structured data stores that can be used to dramatically simplify search in a wide range of industries such as finance, media, marketing and sports. 

He received a BTech from IIT Bombay in 1992, and an MS and PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1996 and 2000 respectively. Fellow of IEEE and ACM. He has been awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay (2019) and a Distinguished Young Alumnus Award by UMass-Amherst College of Engineering (2014).

He has twice received the A.B. Freeman School's Excellence in Intellectual Contributions Award and is the author of a forthcoming book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, from Columbia University Press. He moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Prior, he served in the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships and was on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff.

Lalka currently serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Venture For America in New Orleans. He graduated from Yale University, cum laude with distinction in both history and English, holds his master's degree in public policy from Duke University, and earned executive education certificates from Harvard Business School.

Lu’s research has been recognized with many awards, including the Early Faculty Career Awards in Translational Research (Phase I and Phase II) from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials.  She was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at the White House in 2010, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2011. 

Lu received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently the Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Laboratory at Columbia University.  She also received tenure at the Columbia College of Dental Medicine, and serves as a Provost Leadership Fellow at Columbia.

He received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College (with honors in both Biology and English), and his MD from Harvard Medical School. Following an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), he was a post-doctoral fellow in molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School, and then a clinical cardiology fellow at the MGH. He is board certified in internal medicine and in cardiology. Dr. Marks is Chair and Professor of the Physiology and Cellular Biophysics Department at Columbia University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), National Academy of Medicine (2004), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005). From 2002-2007 Dr. Marks was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Marks has published over 200 articles in which he has contributed new understandings of fundamental mechanisms that control muscle contraction, heart function, lymphocyte activation, and cognitive function. He has discovered novel causes of human diseases including heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. He has developed novel treatments for human diseases including: 1) the first drug eluting coronary artery stent developed based on Dr. Marks’ research; and 2) a new class of drugs called Rycal®, one of which is being tested at the NIH in patients with a form of muscular dystrophy. 

His research involves the discovery of small molecules that can be used to understand and treat cancer and neurodegeneration, with a focus on biochemical mechanisms governing cell death. In a series of papers from 2003-2012, Dr. Stockwell discovered compounds that activate a previously unrecognized form of cell death that he termed ferroptosis. His lab defined key mechanisms governing ferroptosis, its therapeutic implications, and key reagents for studying this new form of cell death. Dr. Stockwell has received numerous awards, including being elected to the US National Academy of Medicine, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award, the BioAccelerate NYC Prize, the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, the Great Teacher of Columbia College Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, the Dean Peter Awn Commitment to the LGBTQ community Faculty Award, and an NCI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award. He has been in the top one percent of highly cited researchers the last four years and was named as one of the 50 most influential life science individuals in New York. He has published >190 scientific articles, been awarded 23 US patents, and received >50 research grants for >$40 million. 

She teaches the MBA core Operations Management course and the MBA electives, The US Healthcare System: Structures and Strategies; Healthcare Management, Design, and Strategy; and The Analytics Advantage. Her research is in the area of healthcare operations management. Her primary focus is in data-driven modeling of healthcare systems. Her research combines empirical and mathematical modeling to develop evidence-based approaches to improve patient flow. She has worked with clinicians and administrators in numerous hospital systems including Northern California Kaiser Permanente, New York Presbyterian, and Montefiore Medical Center. She is the recipient of a 2014 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award, the 2016 Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Wickham Skinner Early Career Award, and the 2019 MSOM Young Scholar Prize. She received her BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Donofrio’s most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM’s enterprise on demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM’s technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor. 

Donofrio is focused sharply on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women. He served for many years on the Board of Directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and was NACME’s Board chair from 1997 through 2002. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors for INROADS, a non–profit organization focused on the training and development of talented minority youth for professional careers in business and industry and is Chairman Emeritus at the NY Hall of Science.

In 2005, Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a 20–member delegation of business and university leaders charged with developing a new national strategy for post-secondary education that will meet the needs of America’s diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country’s future.

He leads the technical community of IBM, directing innovation strategies in hybrid cloud, AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, and exploratory science. He is also responsible for the company’s intellectual property strategy and business.

Dr. Gil is a globally recognized leader of the quantum computing industry. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud.

An advocate of collaborative research models, Dr. Gil co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which advances fundamental AI research to benefit industry and society. He also co-chairs the Executive Board of the International Science Reserve, a global network of open scientific communities that provides specialized resources to prepare for and help mitigate urgent, complex global challenges.

Dr. Gil has served on the President’s Council of Science and Technology Advisors (PCAST) and is a current member of the National Science Board (NSB), which oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also serves on the President's Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the MIT School of Engineering Dean's Advisory Council, and the Aspen Global Cybersecurity Group.

Dr. Gil serves on the boards of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Hall of Science, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

Dr. Gil is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Prior to joining Fifth Wall, Anastasia was a venture investor at Standard Investments, focusing on early and growth stage industrial technology companies. Anastasia began her career at SunPower, where she led many of the company’s project finance transactions. Anastasia was born in St Petersburg, Russia and currently lives in New York City. She graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in International Business, and also completed a dual diploma program at NEOMA Reims Management School in France. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Owen has worked in all aspects of the online world, including work with early versions of AOL and MSN. He created one of the first 200 websites on-line and founded Thinking Media, an online marketing firm which pioneered online tracking of pages and advertisements. He co-founded Sonata in 1999, a wireless company that provided location-based services and marketing to cell phones. Owen also co-founded Petal Computing, a firm that developed software which allowed large numbers of commodity PCs to act like a single unit and was a precursor to cloud computing.

Owen is the author of various patents in Internet methods and technologies. He is also the author of the book Instant Java Applets, available from Ziff-Davis Press. He is an original member of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium and served on that group's original board. He was also an original member of the Board setting online advertising and media specifications and has served as Managing Director of the Wireless Advertising Association. He received his bachelor's degree from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He sits on various Boards of Directors, including the Farrell Foundation for PTSD. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Fu School of Engineering and Columbia Law School and was a past adjunct professor of engineering at New York University in New York City and Abu Dhabi.

It is published or is forthcoming in the Strategic Management Journal and Research Policy and earned the SRF Dissertation Scholar and PTC Emerging Scholar awards.  

Professor Wright’s research draws inspiration from her prior policy work as a senior consultant and staff economist at the World Bank and White House and startup work as a co-founder, adviser, and board member. She earned her PhD from Harvard Business School, MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and BA from Yale University.

He earned his PhD in Economics (2003), MSc in Financial Mathematics (2001), and MA in Economics (2001) from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Ghent, Belgium (1998).

His research lies in the intersection of real estate, asset pricing, and macroeconomics. He studies the impact of remote work on real estate valuations, affordable housing policies, mortgage market design, the impact of foreign buyers on the housing market, property price dynamics, and mortgage choice. Another recent strand of his research focuses on government debt and fiscal policy. His has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and his work is frequently covered in the media, including on 60 Minutes, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and the Financial Times.

In 2016, Van Nieuwerburgh was awarded the 15th Edition of the Bernácer Prize for his research on the transmission of shocks in the housing market on the macro-economy and the prices of financial assets. In 2020, he won the TIAA Paul Samuelson Award for research on lifelong financial security for his work on combining life and health insurance. In 2024, he was awarded the inaugural Practice Prize from Columbia Business School for his work and advocacy on post-pandemic office markets and the urban doom loop.

Professor Van Nieuwerburgh served as the President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 2022. He currently serves as a board member of the American Finance Association. He will serve as the President of the European Finance Association in 2027. He is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, at the Center for European Policy Research, and at the Asian Bureau for Finance and Economics Research. He was an Editor at the Review of Financial Studies from 2016 until 2020. 

Outside academia, he serves on the board of directors of Moody’s Investor Services, Anchor Healthcare Properties, and the Belgian American Educational Foundation. 

He did this by increasing awareness for available resources provided by the government and under his leadership, he helped create a stronger relationship within this community and the Borough President’s Office.

Previously, was appointed as Deputy Controller of the Minority Affairs office in Nassau County, New York. He was the first South Asian to hold this office. He is the also Founding President of the New York South Asian American Chamber of Commerce. Dilip Chauhan has built unmatched goodwill amongst top public officials across New York for his "Gateway to South Asian American Community of New York” presentation, and as a result, November 12, 2016 was declared as “Dilip Chauhan Day” in 6th US Congressional District New York in honor of his work. Dilip is a highly respected in the diplomatic corridors of South Asian countries. Dilip Chauhan also served as a Board member of Services Now for Adult Persons, Inc (SNAP) New York. Dilip Chauhan is a unique combination of a successful entrepreneur and a decorated public official with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering.