Our Team

Well known as the “Cyber Guardian”, founder of the XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), Kavya Pearlman is an award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is constantly exploring new technologies to solve current cybersecurity challenges. She is one of the Top 50 speakers in the cybersecurity industry and named Top 20 Cybersecurity influencers for three consecutive years 2018-2019-2020 by IFSEC Global. Kavya has won many awards for her work and contribution to the security community including:

• Cybersecurity Woman of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
• Cybersecurity Professional of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
• Most Influential Cyber Security Leader 2020 by Acquisition International
• 40 under 40 Top Business Executives 2019 by San Francisco Business Times
• Rising Star of the year 2019 by Women in IT Award Series 
• CISO Women Security Leader award from Middle East CISO Council
• Minority CISO of the Year 2018 by International Consortium of Minorities Cybersecurity Professional (ICMCP)

Kavya has previously advised Facebook on third party security risks during the 2016 US presidential elections and worked as the head of security for the oldest existing virtual world “Second Life” by Linden Lab. Kavya constantly shares knowledge via webinars, conference talks and blog posts around Application Security, Cloud-native technologies, Machine Learning and immersive technologies such as XR. 

Kavya holds a master’s degree network security from DePaul University, Chicago and many prestigious Information Security certifications including CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) from ISACA, and PCIP for Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council.

Kavya is truly passionate about her work and inspires many around the world including women and underrepresented communities in security and emerging technologies. Kavya is a board of directors for EM360, non-profit “Minorities in Cybersecurity”, an advisory board member for “CISO Council North America”, Spark Mindset LLC, and cybersecurity advisory board member for the University of New Haven.

Marco Magnano is a multimedia journalist with more than 10 years of live radio experience and tremendous working knowledge of advanced media technologies. Based in Europe, he is the founder and president of XRSI Europe and creator of the Ready Hacker One platform. He assembled his first Personal Computer (PC) at the age of four. More than 30 years later, the mindset of building new ideas and deconstructing old ones is still there in his DNA. Marco’s actual journey started more than 20 years ago when he confronted the challenges of the digital evolution as a media activist focused on security and privacy and pitched into the rise of web 2.0 with programming and development skills, walking on the wire between enthusiasm and active criticism. The mistakes and distortions of that epoch guide him to carry those lessons into the world of emerging technologies.

XRSI’s Executive Director of Communications, Marco Magnano speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, a bit of German and most recently learning Arabic. In recent years Marco has travelled across continents to uncover stories of various dimensions and domains, from the Syrian war crisis, challenges of migrations in Asia, Africa and Europe to advocate for freedom of information and the protection of most vulnerable people. During his journey he has met humans from all walks of life and has collected every drop of knowledge on the road, becoming day by day more open to discovery, and now continuing his mission into the uncharted territories of XR technologies.

April Boyd-Noronha has over 20 years of experience in academia and advanced technologies. April is a global keynote speaker, thought leader, and global advisor on emerging trends and the future of work with a particular focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion in XR and cybersecurity.

April was named 2018 Educator of the Year by the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals. Because of these distinct roles and experiences, she’s uniquely positioned to connect academia, corporations, and industry leaders with NextGen talent, especially tomorrow’s workforce that are of color and most times under positioned for success. She is a distinguished author who has been sharing her experience and expertise via publications and books such as “The Top 5 Rules of Engagement for Parents Raising a Girl in STEM”.

XRSI’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Advisor, April Boyd-Noronha serves as the Chief Engagement Strategist at The STEM Broker, LLC and advises many boards such as FinTech4Good, United Way, MindDrive, and Suburban Balance. April is based in North America with her family that includes three future STEM technologists including Cybersecurity Analyst (daughter), Behavior Analyst (daughter), and Drone Pilot (son). As a Professor, she advocates the use of immersive technologies to advance curriculums in Health Information Management (HIM), Cybersecurity, and Computer Information Systems (CIS).

April actively serves her community as an advocate and mentor for girls and youth via virtual reality hackathons, drone racing and events promoting diversity and emerging technologies bringing her real-life experiences and challenges to inspire many generations around the world.

Geoffrey MacDougall is an accomplished leader and strategist in innovation change management. With more than two decades of experience in fundraising and advocacy, MacDougall has raised more than $75M in public, private, and philanthropic funding for start-ups, nonprofits, and established companies, and engaged millions of people in advocacy campaigns.

Geoffrey served as the Vice President of Development at Consumer Reports (CR), where he developed strategy, built partnerships, and secured resources to protect consumers’ interests in the marketplace. He was a pivotal force in the creation and launch of the Digital Standard, an open and collaborative effort to create a digital privacy and security standard to help guide the future design of consumer software, digital platforms and services, and internet-connected products. He was also instrumental in the creation of CR’s new model for distributed consumer power, engagement, and participation, which underpins the design of its membership program.

Prior to joining CR, MacDougall served as Vice President, Engagement, for the Mozilla Foundation, where he lead the design and development of Mozilla’s strategic development (fundraising and investment) program, as well as its policy and advocacy program. In this role, he established partnerships with premier philanthropic institutions and was a driving force in the StopWatching.Us campaign and the 2015 Net Neutrality grassroots advocacy victory.

Dr. Ibrahim (Abe) Baggili is the Elder Family Endowed Chair of Computer Science & Cybersecurity at the Tagliatela College of Engineering, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of New Haven, CT, specializing in Cybersecurity & Forensics. He serves as the Assistant Dean and is the founder of the University of New Haven’s Cyber Forensics Research and Education Group (UNHcFREG).

Abe is also the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law (JDFSL). He received his BSc, MSc and PhD all from Purdue University where he worked as a researcher in CERIAS. Abe co-authored over 70 publications including books, peer reviewed articles, and conference papers and has received funding for his work from a variety of sources including the NSF, NSA, DHS and MITRE. Most recently, work with his students showed security issues in mobile social messaging applications that affect over 1 billion people worldwide they also found major Virtual Reality exploits that affect people globally.

His research interests include cybersecurity and forensics from technical, social, and psychological perspectives. He has worked closely with law enforcement and private sector and has published work on real challenges facing cybercriminal investigators and has presented at a number of conferences worldwide. Abe’s work has also been featured in news outlets and on TV worldwide in over 20 languages.

Louis Rosenberg, Ph.D. is an early pioneer in virtual and augmented reality fields. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University, has been awarded over 300 patents for VR, AR, and AI technologies, and founded several successful XR companies, including Immersion Corporation, Microscribe 3D, Outland Research, and Unanimous AI. 

Rosenberg began his work in XR over thirty years ago at NASA and Air Force Research Laboratory. He developed the first functional augmented reality system, the Virtual Fixtures platform, which enabled users to interact with a mixed reality of real and virtual objects for the first time. Rosenberg founded the early VR company Immersion Corporation in 1993 and brought the company public in 1999 (NASDAQ: IMMR).  Rosenberg also founded the early AR company Outland Research in 2004, a developer of geospatial media technologies acquired by Google in 2011.  

Rosenberg spent several years as a professor at California State University (Cal Poly), teaching engineering, design, ed-tech, and entrepreneurship. He is currently the Founder and CEO of Unanimous AI, an artificial intelligence company that works to keep humans in the loop, amplifying human wisdom rather than replacing it.  Rosenberg often writes about the dangers of technology for VentureBeat, Big Think, and other publications.  He is a longtime vegan and lives in a large animal sanctuary in sunny California. 

Kristina is a digital governance advisor with two decades of management consulting experience. She has a history of successfully deploying complex digital transformation projects for Fortune 500, government, and not-for-profit organizations, as well as solving organizational challenges related to IT and digital governance. Her specialty is in digital policies and standards. Kristina has a BA in international studies and an MBA in international business from the Dominican University of California and is certified as both a Change Management Practitioner (APMG International) and a Project Management Professional (Project Management Institute).

Many organizations are unaware of the risks they take. They often create unnecessary internal disarray and face stiff penalties and/or lawsuits for ignoring regulations they don’t even know exist. By providing clarity on sound digital operations, Kristina ensures that global leaders understand the digital policy and make the digital domain a place for Safety and Trust.

Dr. Alex Cahana specializes in Web 3.0 transformation, in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDE). He is a founding partner at ImpactRooms, a Blockchain and Healthcare Expert for the UN/CEFACT, a Board member at AdanianLabs Africa and ACHA (Americas Continental Health Alliance), a SSA ambassador for GBBC and venture partner at Global Blockchain Ventures, Limitless Ventures and Aquarium Ventures. Dr. Cahana believes in transforming citizens from health service consumers into health and wealth producers.

With over 25 years of clinical medical experience, including the Department of Defense and the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Cahana combines deep scientific, technological and financial knowledge. Previously Professor and Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the University of Washington, Dr. Cahana is an Affiliate Professor in Science, Technology and Health Studies, and has published over one hundred articles.

He is a decorated Officer of the Israeli Defense Forces and received multiple awards, among them – the American Pain Society Center of Excellence; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Best Practice; the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Innovation Health Care award; and the University of Washington President’s medal for remarkable leadership, social impact and public service.

Debra J. Farber is a global privacy and security advisor, investor, and privacy tech enthusiast with 16+ years of privacy and security leadership experience including at AWS, BigID, Visa, and IBM. She served as Privacy Strategist at Hedera (via Principled LLC) and is now advising companies that are building on Hedera.

Debra currently serves on Advisory Board for XRSI and for the Metaverse Reality Check.

Debra advises investors on the current and emerging privacy tech landscape and market opportunities for investment. She also guides privacy-1st tech companies on: product-market fit; go-to-market strategy; how to effectively message and sell to the CPO, DPO, CISO, & CDO; privacy-by-design, and default strategies and tactics; and product marketing messaging.

In addition, she is closely following the blockchain / distributed ledger space with great interest.

Senior Fellow, Peace, Security, and Defense for Friends of Europe in Brussels and lecturer for Institute for Security Governance in Monterey, California.

Chris is a globally recognized thought leader, futurist, and policy influencer on addressing malign influence campaigns and defending democracy and societal resilience. They lead efforts to develop policy approaches to protect and support democracy, equality, and the rule of law in a fast-changing world.

As a seasoned international community builder, Chris originated and leads the EU-NATO public-private-civil society exercises to bring together a broad spectrum of leaders to produce workable solutions to address emerging challenges to democracy and security. They also build regional communities of interest to address Russian aggression in the Black Sea region, organized crime in the Mediterranean, counter disinformation in Europe, and reduce cartel violence in Juarez, Mexico.

Chris served for 32 years in various roles for the US and NATO, including Multilateral Engagement Coordinator for U.S. European Command, Director of Training and Exercises for the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid COE), Political Advisor for NATO Training Mission – Iraq, and Policy Advisor at the US Missions to NATO and the EU.

Chris is a frequent lecturer for the Geneva Center for Security Policy, Harvard University, New York University, Naval Postgraduate School, and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid.

Hoda has 17 years of experience in industrialization and economic development projects. She has led and motivated several tech-based industrial investments in the UAE and internationally.

She worked on several turnaround projects that were aimed to achieve strategic, financial and operational synergies of industrial and business prospects. She has a specific interest in SDG-based investments as well as her current background.

Hoda A. Alkhzaimi is currently the Director of the Center of Cyber Security at New York University AD and a research assistant professor at New York University. She served in different posts for research and development in the Technology development sector for the past years, she also played a vital role in developing Cyber Security and Cryptology research and development ecosystems. She headed the Department of Research and Development for Cyber Security and Cryptology in different national initiatives in the United Arab Emirates along with her associations with different security initiatives nationally and internationally. She consults for special projects with national and international technology development initiatives.

Alkhzaimi has specific expertise in cryptology; cryptanalysis, constructing and validating security hardware and software components, and constructing trusted security architectures for different environments in different products for the respective industries. Hoda. Alkhzaimi obtained her PhD in Cryptanalysis from Denmark Technical University. Her current research interests include Space, Aerospace, and UAV and autonomous systems security, constructing and analyzing cryptographic primitives, validating, and investigating links between different cryptanalytic approaches and utilizing cryptographic primitives in different cybersecurity architectures as in the Internet of Things and big data analysis among others. Her research includes an analysis of the effect of AI and machine learning techniques on improving security analytics. She is as well leading several AI-based initiatives globally.

Professor Shafi Ahmed is a multi-award-winning surgeon, teacher, futurist, innovator, and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Medical Realities, an XR education company, and performed the world’s first operation streamed live in 360 in 2016.

He is currently a member of the NHS Assembly, advising on the long-term plan. He was previously an advisor to the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Health to help deliver innovation and digital Health and is currently the Vodafone UK Connected Health Ambassador.

In 2018 he was awarded the Future NHS award for NHS70 by Members of Parliament. In 2017 he was the top British Asian star in Tech. He was also British Bangladeshi of the Year 2017. He has delivered over 250 international keynotes on the future of healthcare and digital transformation, and his work has been featured in over 400 newspapers, tech journals, and mainstream TV news channels, including Sky, BBC, CNN, ABC, Al Jazeera, CNBC, Time, Forbes, Bloomberg. He is one of the top 20 global influencers in Digital Health and Virtual Reality.

He chairs the Webit Health summit in Spain, bringing together 15000+ innovators across all tech verticals, and also co-founded the GIANT health summit in London. He is one of the top 20 global influencers in digital health and innovation and was a HIMSS Future50 clinical leader in 2020.

Jonathan is known as the “Guru of Silicon Valley” (a title awarded by BusinessWeek) and has exclusively focused on high-tech PR for three decades. He has extensive corporate and agency PR experience and a history of orchestrating a wide range of successful global public relations campaigns at Sony, Apple, SGI, Pioneer, and as counsel to a host of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups.

Jonathan has gained the respect of leading media, analysts, and technology clients for his in-depth technical knowledge and unique blend of passionate evangelism, reflective counsel, and intuitive understanding of PR and market dynamics. He has architected some of the most successful launches and public relations programs in Silicon Valley history.

Jonathan was the PR manager and company spokesperson for Sony Corporation in its heyday, representing the company’s ‘non-consumer’ business units. At the age of 25, he was acclaimed as one of the youngest managers in Sony’s corporate history.

His role included counseling top management, day-to-day product PR responsibility, and control of a million dollar+ budget, all within a few years of graduating college.

Through his expertise, Horizon was awarded Agency of Record status and created a range of public relations strategies for Apple, SGI, and other Fortune 500 companies, as well as a host of top-tier startups.

He has profiled personally in BusinessWeek (twice) and contributed to several major tech news outlets. Jonathan has been invited to speak at several prestigious venues, including the Reuters Foundation’s Digital Vision Program at Stanford University.

A past member of SMPTE and a current member of IEEE, Jonathan is an acclaimed haiku poet – see his ebook at http://goo.gl/NOyZte & also blogs as “The Food Dictator” at http://www.thefooddictator.com. An acclaimed privacy advocate profiled in Fast Company, the BBC, FT, and The NY Times, there are no pictures of Jonathan anywhere online.

J.D., CISSP President, Women in Cybersecurity Mid-Atlantic Affiliate

Diane is the President, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate (MAA), Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS). She also serves as senior executive and leader whose career spans legal, policy and executive management positions in the US Government at the National Security Agency, the Pentagon and the White House. Her expertise in cyber education, privacy & technology, information security, cyber/fiscal law, data governance & information security, export control/foreign military sales, resource management & inclusion/diversity has informed all her work. Awarded 2020 CybHER Warrior Award, 2019 Cyber Warrior Women of the Year by CAMI, as well as the 2019 Women in Cybersecurity Affiliate Leadership Award by WiCyS. Diane is passionate about giving back and protecting the Nation’s economic security and national security with strong cybersecurity defenses.

Connect with Diane on LinkedIn

Elizabeth is an attorney of 10+ years, author, and emerging technology consultant with extensive knowledge of blockchain, artificial intelligence, healthcare, and metaverse technologies.  

She is a subject matter expert and investor in the blockchain/cryptocurrency/web3 space since 2017, including blockchain tech, decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, P2E (and P&E) gaming, IoT/DAG, scaling solutions, governance structures, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).  

Elizabeth hopes that we can develop reasonable XR standards at industry and governmental levels to protect individual rights while fostering innovation. Her interest in XR safety comes out of professional interests as well as helping her two young sons navigate their digital future. 

Eugene is a social media futurist, educator, and long-time XR evangelist. 

After becoming an evangelist for the XR space, he sold “Glitched”, the first VR show to be ordered like a traditional TV show running 3 full seasons starting in 2017. With the success of the show, Eugene started his company Studio Capon, an XR creative services company focused on integrating emerging tech into animated and visual experiences.

He’s committed to helping the industry find the best path from web2 to the Metaverse using his platform as a social influencer, giving talks, writing articles, and advocating tech literacy at all age levels. In fact, Eugene wrote the children’s book “All The Things You Can Do In The Metaverse” to help kids understand the next generation of the internet through narrative storytelling. He has spoken at a wide range of events including at Adobe, Design Reality, NYC NFT, and Twitch Stage Live.

Debbie Reynolds is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Data Privacy Officer of Debbie Reynolds Consulting LLC. Debbie Reynolds, “The Data Diva,” is a world-renowned technologist, thought-leader, and advisor working at the intersection of Data Privacy, Technology, and Law. Ms. Reynolds is an internationally published author, highly sought speaker, and top media presence about global Data Privacy, Data Protection, and Emerging Technology issues. Ms. Reynolds hosts the number one award-winning “The Data Diva” Talks Privacy Podcast. She has been named one of the Global Top Ten Privacy Experts by Martechvibe and, she has been named one of the Global Top 30 CyberRisk Communicators by The European Risk Policy Institute in 2021.

Ms. Reynolds is the author of works in books, The GDPR Challenge: Privacy, Technology, and Compliance In An Age of Accelerating Change and eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel related to data privacy and digital evidence; She is the author of works in publications like The International Journal for the Data Protection Officer, Privacy Officer, and Privacy Counsel, Bloomberg Law, Thomson Reuters West, Westlaw Journal, Today’s General Counsel Magazine (TGC), Law360 and the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA); She has been interviewed and quoted in media outlets, New Statesman, Morning Brew, Tycoon, Authority Magazine, Medium, Lifewire, CMSWire, Bloomberg Big Law Business, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Digiday, Privacy Laws and Business, Identity Review, Biometric Update, LegalTech News, Law.com, Law360, The Recorder, High Performance Counsel (HPC), Legal Business World, Toyo Keizai Japan, and American Lawyer.

Co-Founder of Riiot Digital Ltd. David is a multi-award-winning Augmented and Virtual Reality production manager with over twenty-two years of digital media experience.

A qualified lecturer and teacher, David has delivered and created content at primary, secondary, further, and higher education levels and for vocational training at MA and Professional levels.

A published author on the practical and industrial applications of VR, AR, and IoT, David lectures worldwide on behalf of Google, the CIM, and the Modern Apprenticeship Scheme on emerging social and technological trends and their benefits to education, industry, medicine, and heritage.

Samantha G. Wolfe is the Founder of PitchFWD, a strategic consultancy focused on the acceleration of consumer and enterprise adoption of emerging technologies through brand and marketing strategy as well as product and developer marketing. PitchFWD works to increase awareness, understanding of, and traction for the most innovative and cutting-edge products and services.

Sam is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Steinhardt School teaching ‘The Business of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality’ and ‘The Marketing of Innovation’, both courses she created and developed. Sam also has co-authored the book, “Marketing New Realities: An Introduction to Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Marketing, Branding, & Communications” and is a contributing author to Charlie Fink’s book “Convergence: How The World Will Be Painted With Data” with a chapter focused on “Augmented Reality & Brands.”

Sam has presented across the country about the emerging technology marketing and brand strategy, including appearances at SXSW, the VRARA, CES, and at the Augmented World Expo, where she hosted and co-curated AWE’s inaugural Marketing & Sales Track.

Sam is a Board Member of SXSW Pitch and XR Ignite, and she has been on the judging panel for the Games for Change Festival, AWE Auggie Awards, MIT Reality Hack, and CES Innovation Awards.

Theo is a leading tech futurist and globally recognized author and public speaker on the convergence of many emerging trends towards the Metaverse and Web3.

He is the CEO and co-founder of Metanomic, a complete Web3 economic and AI analytics platform for game developers, metaverse builders, and the creator economy.

Priestley has worked with some of the biggest names in tech and business, including SAP, Siemens, Bosch, Software AG, AON, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, consulting and implementing innovation strategies, strategic foresight, and emerging technologies, and providing content marketing services.

He has mentored several startup accelerators, including HTC Vive X VR incubator, BRINC’s Web3 and Metaverse accelerator, and Alchemist, one of Silicon Valley’s Top 10.

Priestley has published more than 250 articles on topics including Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech and Blockchain, Smart Cities, Web3, Metaverse, Marketing, Digital Transformation, and Virtual Reality, for Forbes, the European, WIRED, Huffington Post, and Business2Community. He has also contributed to VentureBeat, GigaOM, and The Times Raconteur and has been interviewed for BBC Radio and UK national television news on technology trends.

He recently authored the book, The Future Starts Now, published internationally through Bloomsbury.

Professor in Human Rights and Social Media at the LL.M. in Human Rights Law at UNESC. Ph.D. in Law. Law and Technology consultant. Expert Advisory of World Economic Forum – Global Coalition of Digital Safety & The Metaverse Initiative. Policy Advisor of Supreme Federal Court (STF) in the Program to Combat disinformation.

Policy Advisor of Superior Electoral Court (TSE) Permanent Program to combat disinformation in the Framework of the Electoral Justice. Advisory Committee Member of the “PopRua National Committee for the Promotion of Public Policies for Homeless People” at the National Council of Justice (CNJ).

Visiting Researcher in the Oxford Global Media Policy Summer Institute at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of OXFORD (OXFORD Faculty of Law).

Kai Frazier is an educator turned EdTech entrepreneur passionate about using tech to provide opportunities for underestimated communities.

She is the founder & CEO of Kai XR, which creates safe pathways to the Metaverse for students so they can be better prepared for a highly technical future. 

Before creating Kai XR, she worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation.

Her company is backed by Techstars & T-Mobile and has been featured in Forbes, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show & more.

Divya Chander is an anesthesiologist (MD UCSD, residency UCSF) and neuroscientist (Ph.D. UCSD) who also works at
the intersection of health, data, technology, and data security. She is a practicing physician, Chair of Neuroscience
and Faculty of Medicine at Singularity University, former faculty in the Stanford Department of Anesthesiology, and
Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center. An advocate for data and biometric rights, she
serves as medical advisor to the Extended Reality Safety Initiative (XRSI.org) and is helping develop standards for
identity and sensitive healthcare data security. Dr. Chander also leads 2 companies she co-founded during the
pandemic – Lucidify, a continuous, intelligent brain monitoring platform for the detection of delirium, and Plexxus,
a company building the data security fabric for secure communications and transactions, supporting the integration
of IoT devices to help build the world’s connected global immune system. She was named one of 2020’s top digital
health innovators by Intelligent Health AI. Dr. Chander also served on a NASA task force for COVID19 and directed
the post-pandemic global health initiative for OneShared.World. Her research involves mapping consciousness and
writing algorithms for the automated tracking of altered states, elaborating theories of consciousness (which she
presented on the TED-NYC and UN stages), predicting the effect of human augmentation on consciousness, and
how mapping consciousness in humans may enable us to recognize it in non-human, intelligent beings (both on
and off-planet, through initiatives like SETI, where she joins the newly formed Complexity Group). Dr. Chander also
contributes to space life sciences and medicine. A finalist for astronaut selection and an alumnus of the
International Space University, Dr. Chander has performed remote simulations of trauma rescues, anesthesia, and
surgery in Mars analog settings.

Her desire to alter her own Consciousness is to someday see the Earth rising from
the surface of the moon.

Richard Foster-Fletcher is the Founder and Executive Chair of MKAI.org (Morality and Knowledge in Artificial Intelligence) and leads the MKAI Centre for Digital Trust.

In 2021 Richard launched the MKAI diverse collective for AI risk identification and mitigation, currently the world’s largest inclusive community dedicated to reducing AI harm. He is a graduate of the MIT AI Business Strategy Course, and his first book will be published in 2023 by Bloomsbury about the economics of digital trust.

Richard leads a large-scale blockchain initiative for climate change resilience and has collaborated with the United Nations to support their AI and Digital Transformation via his media work.

Rachel Noonan has 15 years of experience in consumer brand marketing, strategy, and innovation in the fashion, entertainment, and non-profit arts industries. She has led product innovation, marketing, and audience development for The Toronto International Film Festival, Rdio, Meta, Samsung, and Microsoft. 

She is a published writer, sharing her perspectives on communication design, virtual reality, designing the future through play, and the world of film and music. She has sat on numerous juries and has been a member of the Canada Media Fund Innovation jury that provides $30M+ in funding to leading-edge interactive digital media content and software applications. 

Rachel holds a Masters of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from Ontario College of Art and Design. She has consulted for the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission, providing intelligence about the future of digital media. Rachel is a Director of Strategy at Jam3, where she is one of the leads of their futures practice. In her personal time, she supports Extraordinary Families, a Los Angeles non-profit that helps people from foster care flourish. 

Damien Weldon is the founder & president of The Molybdenum, a data science innovation hub for financial services, where his focus areas include AI/machine learning, quantum computing, and XR for risk management and asset valuation.

A seasoned practitioner, he has over 20 years of experience in quantitative solution development and is currently an executive, strategic advisor, and consultant at several fintech. Before founding The Molybdenum, he was managing director, business development at Vichara Technologies. Prior to Vichara, he held a number of senior business development, product management, and data science roles at CoreLogic. Damien has a bachelor’s in applied sciences in physics and mathematics from the University of Dublin and a master’s of science in mathematical modeling and numerical analysis from the University of Oxford.

Vivian Chazen created The Hive VR in 2017, a production for live talk shows and events inside virtual platforms. The Hive spawned spin-off talk shows and events in the metaverse and continues to be known as a community connector. The Hive and VRespawn, a media group focused on competitive gaming, joined forces and together create remote live events to showcase games and engage communities. Vivian also created The Killettos, an all-female lineup of the best competitive gamers and streamers. When not competing in esports, Vivian contributes content and shoutcasts live games. 

Her professional work also includes teaching immersive technology to older adults and contributing to research for using VR beyond gaming.

Kohei Kurihara is Co-Founder of Privacy by Design Lab, a leading data privacy culture and society community. The organization was originally established as a privacy-oriented corporate structure program as a not-for-profit. Privacy by Design Lab collaborates with multi-stakeholders, public affairs, government, companies, civic organizations, and international watchdogs to enhance fundamental privacy culture.

Kohei has spoken at international conferences such as UNESCO and participated in open-source projects as a data privacy and blockchain expert. 

He also has extensive experience with education and non-profit organizations, working with the secretaries of local politicians worldwide to create and develop public policy.

Priscilla Koukoui drives innovation in organisations by designing new ways of working, XR & emerging technologies as Business solutions mainly for AEC.

As a technical director, she leads innovative VR/AR immersive projects for most large infrastructure (Transport, Energy, Construction) projects in Australia. 

She also crafts multisensory XR stories, focusing on olfaction design in immersive environments.

International speaker: Siggraph, Unite by Unity, VR Days Europe, VRTO Toronto, Learn X Melbourne, XR Creativity Symposium

Bhanujeet Chaudhary (Bhanu) is a strategist with more than 7 years of experience and tremendous working knowledge of technology and operations. Bhanu is the Chief of Staff of XRSI and is passionate about creating a sustainable future using emerging technologies. Around the age of 20, while helping his father with environmental analytics and reporting, Bhanu realized the potential of technological solutions for the future of the planet Earth.

Ten years later, Bhanu finds himself utilizing innovative technologies to help build safety and inclusion in various domains intersecting with the immersive ecosystem. The mindset of creating a sustainable future is what drives Bhanu and helps him navigate the uncharted territories of emerging domains. Bhanu’s actual journey started a few years ago when he confronted the challenges of the climate crisis first-hand in India. Bhanu decided to move to Canada and position himself to create a global impact by utilizing emerging technologies to solve complex global challenges. The mistakes of human civilization and empathy towards fellow humans now guide him to make pragmatic decisions to help create sustainable XR and emerging ecosystems.

XRSI’s Chief of Staff, Bhanujeet Chaudhary, has a deep understanding of statistics, economics, psychology, machine learning, and organizational development. Fairly recently, Bhanu started using decentralized ledger technologies to create democratic decision-making apparatus for learning and development. Seeing the disparities between east and west first-hand, Bhanu aspires to learn and create inclusion and protection for all humankind. With all the resources and knowledge at his disposal, he continues his mission into the uncharted territories of XR technologies.

Oz Sultan has spent 21 years working in financial and security technology including CTO roles –
and a decade in technology marketing including Director roles. He is CSO of Sultan Interactive
Group, an insights and analytics ecosystem that bridges traditional financial markets and crypto
assets.

Oz has designed multi-million dollar and startup tech systems; built and operationalized projects
from financial services (JPMorgan, Moody’s) platforms to datacenters (FYE); developed social
media products for the Economist Intelligence Unit; and architected and overseen multi-million-
dollar blockchain, big data and cryptocurrency projects. 

He regularly consults on the blockchain, Big Data and select political projects – and advises a
a number of funds on blockchain and technology projects.

Additionally, Oz is a board member of the Homeland Security Foundation of America; adjunct
faculty at CUNY focused on Marketing Technology and Blockchain; Principal Investigator for
the Council Exchange Board of Trade working with Opportunity Zones + advising on the
OpZone blockchain strategy; Advisor to Joanne King Herring’s Project to solve the migrant
the problem at our Borders; Co-Founder of the OurHouse interfaith project in NYC; Researcher on
counterterrorism and preventing online radicalization, with several Army Cyber Defense Review
Journal publications. His latest work focuses on blockchain risk scenarios and using the
blockchain to secure business and government interests; as well as work on NFTs and Crypto
based UBI.

Oz is a regular Blockchain, Middle East Policy, Blockchain, Finance and Security commentator
on Newsmax, Ticker, Fox and a number of international outlets.

Nandita is privacy and DEI advocate with 10+ years of experience helping Fortune 500 companies build Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Information Governance programs. Currently, she leads the Privacy Governance team at DoorDash responsible for embedding privacy in products and enterprise-scale cross-functional initiatives.

Previously, she was part of the founding team of NVISIONx, a data profiling startup that classifies enterprise data to optimize security controls and solve privacy compliance challenges. As an advisory manager at EY, she focused on leveraging data governance to enhance privacy programs, scaling risk management functions, and driving data protection initiatives.

Nandita currently serves on the Advisory Board for XRSI, Techno Security & Digital Forensics Conference, and IAPP – Privacy Engineering.

Nandita holds an MS in Information Security from Carnegie Mellon University, the Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP) designation from IAPP, and certifications in the security and privacy domain such as CIPP/US, CIPT, CIPM, CDPSE, CISM, CRISC, and CISA.

Ben Bowman is a seasoned broadcaster, fundraising director, and a brilliant strategist reshaping digital fundraising through his career in content creation.

A world record holder and decade-long veteran of the live streaming space, Ben Bowman—AKA Professor Broman—started his career with small beginnings, playing his favorite game.

Ben has driven the gaming community at large to activate as fundraisers in the content creation, gaming, and eSports industries. From Ben’s want to do good, multiple charitable fundraising events arose throughout each year, activating over 400+ creators and earning over $25,000,00 for charities across the gaming space!

Mr. Peter Cassidy is Secretary-General of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) which he co-founded in 2004. Since then, Mr. Cassidy has developed the institution’s programs of intervention against cybercrime. Mr. Cassidy founded the annual Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (authoring the initial CFP in 2006), the only peer-review research conference dedicated exclusively to cybercrime studies which has published more than 110 papers from leading research laboratories from across the globe. Mr. Cassidy also founded the annual Symposium on Global Cybersecurity Awareness, which has been hosted by the European Commission and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime over the years. Mr. Cassidy is also co-founder and principal architect of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. cybersecurity awareness campaign, which has been launched by national cabinet-level ministries and national NGOs as a national cybersecurity awareness campaign in 22 countries since 2010.

David Clarke FBCS C|CISO is highly experienced Head Of/CTO/Cyber Security, Data Protection Consultant operating across FTSE 100, SME and start-ups within Financial Services, Government, FinTech, Telecoms, Technology and Utilities sectors.

Author of GDPR, Breach and Marketing Accredited global online courses by CEPAS.APMG/GCHQ.

Contributing Author to a number of GDPR and Cybersecurity books

Founder of The Linkedin GDPR Technology Forum – Founder LinkedIn Forum   17700 + Members

• Top 10 influencers by Thompson Reuter top 30 most influential thought-leaders and thinkers on social media, in risk management, compliance and regtech in the UK.
• Top 50 Global Expert by Kingston Technology,
• No 2 by  Thinkers360 in  Cybersecurity
• Listed in the (Data protection World Forum) DPO Top 200.
• Listed in the Telensa Top 50 Smart City Influencers

Elena Mercep is a product/software development professional with expertise in regulated industries. In her previous role, as Sr. Product Engineer within the MedTech industry, Elena owned and facilitated product roadmap for the novel medical ultrasound device, including the relevant aspects of product requirements specification, risk management and validation.

As Product Owner, together with the Goodly Innovations team, she is shaping the vision, defining and implementing requirements for the augmented reality (AR) guidance software OptiworX.

Brian D. Wassom is a partner in the law firm of Warner Norcross + Judd LLP, where he litigates disputes and counsels clients in a wide range of commercial and intellectual property matters. Mr. Wassom is also a globally recognized thought leader in the brand-new legal issues raised by augmented reality and other cutting-edge emerging media, including through his blog at AugmentedLegality.com and his book Augmented Reality Law, Privacy, and Ethics (Elsevier 2015). He has achieved victories for his clients in federal and state trial and appeal courts across the country, including in Candy Lab AR v. Milwaukee (E.D. Wis. 2017), the first case to apply First Amendment freedoms of speech to location-based augmented reality games.

Tamas is an instinctive, meticulous, and forward-thinking security professional with years of senior leadership experience. Tamas has created and implemented many effective cyber-security programs, best practices, strategies and technologies via a combination of exceptional skill and innovative directions.

Throughout his career, Tamas has made significant progress in both prevention and advocacy for Child Safety Initiatives in technology, his work in the field started while at Roblox and continued via his work at XRSI. Tamas is currently the Director of Security Engineering at Marqeta, an advisor at XR Safety Initiative focusing on Trust and Safety and a vCISO for OR Security. Previously was interim CISO for Novi and focused on child safety initiatives at Roblox.

Dr. Matthew Price is an accomplished research scientist, technologist and award winning creative with 20+ years of experience spanning XR, emerging technology research, creative media and consulting.

Dr. Price is a staunch advocate for responsible innovation, privacy and inclusive policy efforts globally. He holds a Masters and PhD in Media Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, and a dual BA in Media Arts and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society. He is a travelled speaker and a recognized leader in the field of XR and spatial computing.

Prior to joining XRSI, Dr. Price was the VP of XR & Emerging Technology for Double A Labs, a VP of Engineering R&D at Nielsen and Senior Innovation Scientist at BlueCross BlueShield.

As the founder of RealityScience, LLC he works with Fortune 100s like GE, AT&T, Dell, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, T-Mobile, and mentor’s startup companies in the Emerging Technology sector.

Outside of work Matt is an avid gamer, movie buff, and college football fanatic.

Dennis Bonilla is a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Baltu Technologies. At Baltu, Mr. Bonilla is creating human-centered tools to augment and improve the future of work.

Over 20 years of technology experience, Dennis has helped develop software and decision support systems for NASA and other U.S. agencies, created groundbreaking data visualization systems, and served in roles supporting committees advising U.S. President Barack Obama about options for future human space flight. 

Experienced, results-driven executive and information technology professional managing diverse groups and teams for over 19 years. Focus on vision and strategy, business development and growth, and organizational leadership and management to accomplish business strategies and goals. Detail-oriented strategic thinker and decision maker with the ability to map high-level vision to actionable steps through excellent written and verbal communications skills. Comfortable leading and managing technical and business-oriented teams to successful project outcomes. 

Ross Newman is a doctoral researcher at the Human/Machine Intelligence and Language Technologies Lab at the University of North Texas, specializing in research in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence. Ross’ interest in the cross-section of artificial intelligence and virtual worlds emerged from an experiment in Second Life by Linden Labs, where he attempted to create a virtual “fish tank” with fish that would grow, reproduce, and compete using genetic algorithms. After watching his first creation’s rapid demise, his intrigue into discovering a set of guiding principles for AI was firmly established. Ross’ personal interest in the moral and ethical dilemmas intrinsic to the intersection of AI and XR guides his work today.

XRSI’s AI advisor, Ross Newman, helps investigate and identify critical ethical issues where artificial intelligence meets society. Ross’s work includes identifying product vulnerabilities and recommending detection/prevention strategy adjustments based on trends and patterns. Ross represents XRSI for global collaboration with international institutions for governing AI while advising on various aspects, including

• Anthropocentrism in AI ethics
• Corporate governance of AI
• Expert judgment on long-term AI
• Global strategy for AGI
• National security dimensions of AI
• Transfer of safety techniques to AI projects

After working in the industry for a number of years, in 2019 Ross returned to the world of academia and research. His research interests include object recognition, neural network design, and defense against adversarial attacks on neural networks.

A seasoned CTO, with experience in AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Disaster Recovery, Bigdata, &managed services professional focused on business value. Jorge As delivered advice in several AI, ML, ICO, STO with comprehensive understanding of technology disruption effects caused by both Artificial Intelligence & Blockchain technology.

He created the process A⁶ of security: Assess, Architect, Apply, Administer, Awareness and Agility. He architects practical & business focused solutions using standards and industry best practices, designed SLAs to meet today’s business resiliency using cloud computing & managed services business requirements. Mr. Sebastião has been the speaker at numerous international conferences with topics including: Blockchain, AI, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Big Data, & Managed Services.

Jorge is action and results oriented with passion to deliver a results…

Tech entrepreneur focused on digital health and mental well-being, TEDx speaker, and writer.

Biologist, Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology, with International academic research experience in pharmacology, organic chemistry, and molecular biology in the fields of oncology and neuronal metabolism.

Since 2017, CEO and co-founder of Softcare Studios, a digital health startup specialized in developing virtual reality solutions for stress management and therapy education in patients undergoing medical treatments.