Jeff Wallace is a long-time Silicon Valley, Bay Area resident who for many years has dedicated himself to serving the needs of companies, both locally and abroad, in their understanding of how to best deploy mobile technology and create an environment for innovation and disruption. Additionally, he consults with global startup ecosystems, including governments, corporations and startup accelerators/entrepreneurs, to help catalyze startup environments and to create a bridge for global startup entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley.

Jeff is President of Global Kinetics, a Bay Area based corporate advisor & market development partner to early-tomid stage clients seeking to establish or expand operations within the U.S. He is co-founder of Silicon Valley in Your Pocket, an online platform allowing global entrepreneurs to access Silicon Valley content, coaching & connections as they build viable businesses. He is also a Co-Founder of HubSV, a Silicon Valley training and mentorship company providing such offerings to startup communities across the world. In addition, he is a Founding Investor, former President / Managing Partner of Batchery, a global incubator for seed stage startups. Jeff is a SkyAdvisor at UC Berkeley’s startup incubator, SkyDeck, and an investor in SkyDeck Fund. He is a mentor to several startup accelerators where he advises early stage companies. He is an active angel investor. Previously, he worked for Cognizant as founder & Global Head for Mobility, IoT & UX practice areas. He is a frequent keynote speaker at global technology and startup conferences. Jeff earned a BA in Economics from Rutgers College & an MBA in Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Technology from UC Berkeley.

Kali Ilunga is an international keynote speaker and Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur. He has delivered keynotes about innovation and disruption at over 30 conferences in several countries around the world – with highlights including presentations at Harvard University, TBWA, The World Bank, Coca-Cola, Telecoms companies and more. He has built tech-enabled companies that have now educated over 1 million people around the world. In so doing he has partnered with brands such as Microsoft, Walt Disney and Gold Fields.

He is currently cofounder at Silicon Valley in Your Pocket – an online platform connecting global entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley investors, coaches and experts. Global founders have used the platform to learn the most innovative and cutting-edge ways to turn their startups into viable and investor-ready businesses. Kali is passionate about delivering keynotes that simplify the demystify “innovation” in a practical and inspiring way  that enables audiences to take steps towards creating meaningful products and services.

He is also the founder of SeeSayDo, a company that has used mobile to train people to become more employable, including 55,000 people in sub-saharan Africa (in a partnership with Microsoft). He has also mentored several startups around the world.

   Kal Deutsch is an international lecturer and advisor at Global Kinetics and Silicon Valley in Your Pocket, helping startup entrepreneurs and corporate intrapreneurs to achieve market traction. He has worked on innovation programs at global incubators, accelerators and corporations across the Americas, Europe and Asia. His programs hone in on the key drivers for startup success, including go-to-market strategies, value proposition, growth hacking, business model optimization and financial metrics. Kal is a founding Investor-Advisor and Partner at Batchery, a Berkeley-based startup accelerator. Batchery was founded by angel investors from Sand Hill Angels, and features partners from over a half dozen different angel investment groups. Kal served as Batchery CEO and Managing Partner for the launch and scaling phase, during which time the company developed its core curriculum and mentorship program, signed up and graduated its first several company cohorts and achieved positive cash flow. Since launch three years ago, Batchery has graduated almost 100 companies in fields ranging from SaaS software, hardware, robotics, artificial intelligence, fintech, virtual reality, multimedia, food-tech and many others.

Kal serves on the startup screening, due diligence and pitch event committees for the Berkeley Angel Network, an angel investment group comprised of alumni, faculty and former faculty of UC Berkeley. The Berkeley Angel Network fosters an investor community among the alumni and faculty of UC Berkeley, and improves the collective skills and knowledge of this community through angel investing programs and activities. With a background in finance, strategy and product management, Kal has held a number of executive positions at companies ranging from Fortune 100 companies to early stage startup companies. At Visa, he managed the consumer credit product portfolio and launched a company-wide product development process. At Wells Fargo Bank, he served as a division CFO and managed the strategic expansion of the banking network in retail stores, developed business cases for emerging fintech initiatives related to ATM, telephone and Internet banking, and contributed to the US launch of e-cash platform Mondex (acquired by Mastercard). Startups include real estate tech companies Homegain (acquired by Classified Ventures), EscapeHomes (acquired by HomeAway), and TotalMove (acquired by MostHome).

Kal leveraged his passion for independent film-making by producing a mockumentary film about a widely-maligned and failed Internet startup company called IceVan.com. This five-minute short was accepted into film festivals across multiple continents, including Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival. This fictitious company even became a case study in Kal’s curriculum. Kal holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with an emphasis in finance. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Management Science from UC San Diego. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Mariam Braimah is an international speaker and San Francisco based UI/UX designer. She’s currently in her third year at Netflix as a lead product designer on the user experience team. In her time at the company she’s lead global mobile & desktop sign up efforts that helped shape and drive customer growth & acquisition in key international markets. Currently, Mariam is a design lead on the company’s emerging experience team focused on crafting a product experience for the future of Netflix’s content catalogue. Prior to these roles, she headed a cross functional research and design team at public data tech startup, Inflection, and studied History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University. Mariam’s keynotes help audiences apply the principles of design to innovation, entrepreneurial thinking and new initiatives. She shares stories and actionable insights gathered from years as a successful, self-taught designer so that audiences can use design concepts in their organisation, teams and product development. 

Mariam has spoken at the Sundance Film Festival, Afrotech, Uber HQ, AirBnB HQ, The Carribbean Startup Summit and, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to name a few.  As an undergraduate at Harvard, she represented the University on their national spoken word team and was a commencement speaker at multiple graduation ceremonies for the African American student community.  Mariam has also founded The Kimoyo Fellowship, an immersive design program aimed at facilitating the cross-pollination of design methodologies, knowledge, ideas and shared experiences between leading design industry professionals across the African diaspora. 

Nathan Ogden has taught thousands how to conquer their fears and move from paralysis to progress through eliminating excuses in their lives. He is a wheelchair athlete, co-creator of the non-profit Chair The Hope, and author of the book Unfrozen and Resilience, a #1 Bestseller. In 2001, Nathan broke his neck snow skiing leaving him paralyzed and in tremendous pain. Regaining half of his body function over the next year brought new hope to his young family that he would walk again. That quickly changed as he lived through a second devastating neck break robbing him the use of his hands, triceps, and everything below the chest. Facing fears and staring his excuses in the eye, he found new
legs to live life standing taller. Nathan is a highly sought after international keynote speaker, trainer, and bestselling author. He uses his unique life-changing experiences in overcoming challenges to train a vast variety of groups, from high schools to business executives throughout the world.

Nathan instantly connects with his audience and delivers invaluable tools to be more successful in business and life. His courage and determination give hope and power to all who know him and hear his messages. Nathan loves to live life and has experienced snow skiing, snorkeling, skydiving, completing a half triathlon, rappelling off a 150-foot cliff, and most recently riding a hand-powered bicycle 1,200 miles with his family raising money for, and personally delivering wheelchairs needed in underdeveloped countries. Nathan lives in Boise, Idaho and is married to a beautiful wife with four children.