Draft:Beena Ammanath

Beena Ammanath is an American business executive, computer scientist, author, board member, founder, keynote speaker focused on responsible technology value creation. She is the author of the books - Trustworthy AI, Zero Latency Leadership, and HBR's: The Year in Tech 2023.

Education
Ammanath holds bachelors degree in Computer Science from Fergusson College and masters degree in computer science from Nowrosjee Wadia college. She also holds a Diploma in German language.

Work
Ammanath is the founder of non-profit, Humans for AI, focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in AI.

She is a Board member at the Centre for Trustworthy Technology. The Centre for Trustworthy Technology aims to promote and facilitate safer and more trustworthy technology by improving the integrity of emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, digital reality, quantum computing, and the metaverse.

Beena serves on the United States Patent and Trademark Offices (USPTO), Nomination Evaluation Committee for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI). The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) is the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the president of the United States on America's leading innovators. The Medal is awarded to individuals, teams (up to four individuals), companies or divisions of companies for their outstanding contributions to America’s economic, environmental and social well-being.

She also sits on the Board of Trustees for AnitaB.org. AnitaB.org is a Global nonprofit organization advancing women in STEM, supporting inclusive technology. AnitaB.org is the sponsoring organization of Grace Hopper Celebration

She also sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Cal Poly School of Engineering. An internationally-recognized, top-ranked, undergraduate engineering college, Cal Poly College of Engineering provides an excellent Learn by Doing education and graduate in-demand, day-one ready professionals.

She is on the Innovation Board Committee for AACSB. AACSB accredits the best business schools in the world.

Ammanath is the Co-Chair of World Economic Forum Global Future Council, Future of Global Technology Policy. To seize the benefits of rapid technological progress, while managing its risks, it is essential to foster responsible technology governance and regulation, advance the digital transformation of sectors and industries, and promote tech-enabled solutions to serve people and the planet. How can policies, regulations and institutions be transformed to scale technologies responsibly?

Ammanath is currently the Global Head of Deloitte AI Institute. Her career spans across several industries including finance, industrial, e-commerce, marketing, manufacturing, telecom, software products, services, and retail domains with organizations like General Electric, Thomson Reuters, British Telecom, Bank of America, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, e*trade, and several startups. Her ability to ask the right questions while mitigating the associated risks of innovation make her a sought-after C-level leader in the digital age.

She is the host of the “AI Ignition” podcast.

Ammanath has been interviewed by, written for and quoted in various media outlets including CNN, Bloomberg, Harvard Business Review, MIT Technology Review, Wall Street Journal , The Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes, The Economist, Quartz, TechCrunch, HR Brew, AI Business, MIT Sloan Management Review, ventureBeat, O’Reilly Media and Fast Company.

Beena is in great demand as a speaker due to both her expertise and ability to communicate complex issues in understandable language. Over the past few years Beena has delivered keynote speeches at such events as MIT EmTech, AI Summit, Pujiang Innovation Forum, London Leadership Summit, SXSW, CES, WEF, Chief Data Officer Summit, CTO Forum, Chief Analytics Officer Summit, Data Science Innovation Summit and at the Big Data Conference, where she was the award winner for the “Most Innovative Use of Big Data Technology”.

As an expert, Beena has been honored for her contribution to tech and her philanthropic efforts, including 2023 CAIDP Global AI Policy Leader, UC Berkeley’s 2018 Woman of the Year in Business Analytics, San Francisco Business Times’ 2017 Most Influential Women in Bay Area, Women In Technology International’s Women in Technology Hall of Fame, National Diversity Council’s Top 50 Multicultural Leaders in Tech, CIO.com’s and Drexel University’s Analytics 50 Innovator, Forbes’ Top 8 Female Analytics Experts, and World Women’s Leadership Congress’ Women Super Achiever Award.

Personal Life
Ammanath is married, with two children and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.