Kristina Serafim is a Director at Verizon Ventures. Kristina joined Verizon Ventures from Verizon’s Big Data and Artificial Intelligence product team. Prior to Verizon, Kristina was a Director at Intellectual Ventures, where she led investments in machine learning, media, advertising, and gaming technologies. Kristina’s entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding and leading two software companies, from their inception to acquisition. Kristina also spent several years on the strategy and corporate development teams at IBM and at NAGRA Innovations. She received an electrical and mechanical engineering degree from Kettering University and an MBA from Harvard University.

Jason Waskey is a Principal Creative Director at Microsoft, where he has worked for over 20 years. He has worked in Mixed Reality development for the last 11 years—first with Microsoft Research, and then as a member of the original HoloLens program. Jason has been a part of Microsoft’s volumetric video effort since its beginning in 2010. He currently works as part of the company’s Mixed Reality Capture Studios team.

Joanna Popper is a Hollywood and Silicon Valley executive with experience in TV, Digital, Film and VR/AR. She just joined HP as Global Lead of Virtual Reality, Location Based Entertainment. Most recently she’s been the EVP of Media and Marketing at Singularity University and VP Marketing at NBCUniversal. Joanna developed a TV show partnership with NBC and Singularity University for “The Awesome Show,” a new broadcast TV series on tech and innovation produced by Mark Burnett with host Chris Hardwick and is an Executive Producer on the show. She is advising a number of immersive computing companies focused on holograms, haptic touch, AR Cloud and video engagement as well as developing VR/AR content. She is on the Coalition of the WXR Fund and was named “50 Women Can Change the World in Media and Entertainment.”

Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting, Nokia: Leslie entered the mobile communications world as a billing database analyst in the early 1990s. She joined Nokia Australia in 2000 and became the manager of the FutureLab, an early developer incubator in the days of WAP, GPRS and 3G. Building on her first-hand technical and business experience of the reality of bringing applications to market, she developed an analysis service for Nokia that examined success and failure factors for operators bringing mobile data to market for 4G that proved so successful that Nokia created a new department around her work. While in this role, she was based in Finland and worked with over 100 operators in more than 70 countries. Leslie relocated to Silicon Valley in 2015 and now focuses on identifying disruptions and opportunities for Nokia and its operator partners coming from outside the traditional telco world, particularly in the worlds of 5G, AR, VR, MR and the Spatial Internet. She is passionate not only about bringing strategic insight to Nokia and its customers, but also about introducing successful new paradigms from Silicon Valley to the telecommunications mindset, and continues to be a highly-regarded analyst and speaker. Born in Manhattan, Leslie has a BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in the History of Art from Yale University. She was an undefeated five-time champion in the American television game show “Jeopardy!” in 1992 and was invited to return to the show to compete in a tournament for one million dollars as one of the show’s “most memorable contestants” in 2002 and again in 2014. (She didn’t win, but still had a lot of fun.) She also got four questions away from willing a million dollars on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” in August 2017. Leslie lives in Santa Clara, California, with her husband and their two mobile-data enthusiast children.

Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., is responsible for building partnerships with strategic multimedia partners in the sports and entertainment verticals. In support of Qualcomm’s XR business, Patrick leads engagements with film studios, sports leagues, OEM’s, and ISV’s to drive content partnerships and traction for Qualcomm’s broader technology portfolio. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Patrick led business development for Kyocera Wireless in emerging markets like India, Indonesia, Thailand, and other markets in MEA and SEA. Following completion of his International Relations degree from the University of San Diego in 1995, Patrick obtained his MBA from San Diego State University.

Aaron Luber leads content partnerships for Google’s AR and VR efforts — Daydream and Tango. Aaron’s journey began with launching YouTube360 first as a 20% project and then to a live product in March 2015. During that time, Aaron transitioned from YouTube to the Cardboard team and has been working to bring VR, and now AR, to the masses. Probably the most impressive surprise has been the incredible brand engagement and eagerness for companies (such as the NFL, EA, Mattel, IMAX, Disney and The New York Times) to work with Cardboard, Daydream and Tango. Aaron has been core in leading each of these partnerships for Google and many more. These partnerships have been able to deliver on great content, while building towards the mission of delivering innovative AR/VR experiences to the masses.

Mark Kapczynski has a successful track record as a serial entrepreneur, chief executive, and cross-industry expert. He serves as an Executive Director of the UCLA Venture Capital Fund, helping to foster innovation connected to the university. Programs include early stage investing, mentoring, and access to Intellectual Property from university patents. Mr. Kapczynski advises startup businesses as part of the LA Chamber of Commerce’s Bixel Exchange. In this role, Mr. Kapczynski assists technology startups in Southern California to design their businesses, build out their teams and raise capital to fuel their growth. He also serves as a Venture Partner for Arrowroot Capital in Santa Monica, CA. At Arrowroot, Mr. Kapczynski focuses on investments in the SaaS market in need of growth capital to further develop their businesses. The areas that Mr. Kapczynski addresses are Big Data & Analytics, Financial Services, and Consumer Internet. Mr. Kapczynski last served as VP of Corporate Development and Strategy for Experian's consumer businesses which include leading consumer brands: Experian, FreeCreditReport.com, and ProtectMyID. Through executing on over 8 M&A transactions, Mr. Kapczynski helped to facilitate Experian’s under-lying growth and profitability. Mr. Kapczynski graduated from UCLA film school and continues to be active in multiple industry associations that span media, mobile telecom, technology, and consumer internet. He has 12 patents to his name and an additional 40 patents pending.