TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 | TechCrunch

Mary Barra is chair and chief executive officer of General Motors. She was elected chair of the GM Board of Directors in 2016 and has served as CEO of GM since 2014.

Under Barra’s leadership, GM envisions a world with zero crashes, to save lives; zero emissions, so future generations can inherit a healthier planet; and zero congestion, so customers get back a precious commodity — time.

She is focused on creating the best customer experience and strengthening GM’s core vehicle and services business, while also working to deliver transformative technologies such as electrification, autonomous driving, and software.

Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering, and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.

Previously, she served as vice president, Global Human Resources; vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering; plant manager, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly; and in several other executive engineering and staff positions.

Barra began her career with GM in 1980 as a General Motors Institute (Kettering University) co-op student at the Pontiac Motor Division. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1985, followed by a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1990.

Barra serves on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company, the Duke University Board of Trustees, and the Detroit Economic Club.

A.C. Charania

Agency Chief Technologist, NASA

As the Agency Chief Technologist, A.C. Charania serves as principal advisor to NASA’s administrator on technology policy and programs. He also leads technology innovation at the agency and aligns NASA’s agency-wide technology investments with mission needs across the six mission directorates. Charania oversees technology collaboration with other federal agencies and the private sector while coordinating with external stakeholders.

Charania is an experienced leader in entrepreneurial space and aviation ventures, whose private sector work also includes projects under contract for NASA, the Air Force, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). His breadth of experience spans multiple areas, including launch vehicles, hypersonics, human/robotic exploration, lunar landers, planetary defense, small satellites, and aviation autonomy. Before joining NASA, he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics.

Denise Dresser

Chief Executive Officer, Slack from Salesforce

Denise Dresser is the CEO of Slack. For over 20 years, Denise has spearheaded business transformations within many of the world’s largest and most innovative companies. At Slack and as a part of Salesforce, Denise leads the team of Slack technologists, product innovators, marketers, communicators, and customer success professionals who are grounded in Slack’s mission to make people’s working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. Denise previously served as President of Accelerated Industries Sales at Salesforce, leading the distribution and go-to-market strategy for some of Salesforce’s most strategic accounts and for the company’s industry-leading cloud solutions. Prior to Salesforce, she was a sales leader at Oracle. Denise graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a member of the Ad Council Board of Directors, a passionate mentor to future women leaders and top talent, and the executive sponsor for ALSForce, a Salesforce equality group focused on raising awareness about ALS. Denise is based in San Francisco and is the mom to two amazing teenage boys.

Sara Foster

General Partner / Co-Founder, Oversubscribed Ventures / Favorite Daughter

Sara Foster is the co-founder of clothing and lifestyle brand Favorite Daughter, now with two of its own stores and sold at Moda Operandi, Nordstrom, and Saks. Sara is also an executive producer on “Nobody Wants This,” a Netflix show to be released in September 2024, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. Her and her sister Erin have also launched Oversubscribed Ventures, a venture capital firm aimed at investing in consumer brands and tech. Sara and Erin also have a weekly podcast called The World’s First Podcast, which discusses dating, bettering yourself, and the fights they get into. Sara also has an extensive personal portfolio, investing in companies like Summersalt and Rowan.

Colin Kaepernick

Founder and CEO, Lumi and Super Bowl QB

Colin Kaepernick is the founder and CEO of Lumi, a groundbreaking platform that empowers creators by providing them with the tools needed to independently create, publish, and merchandise their stories both digitally and physically. In 2016, he took a knee during “The Star Spangled Banner” to bring attention to systemic oppressions against Black and Brown people, and quickly became known as one of America’s foremost civil rights activists. As an NFL player, Colin led the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII and is the holder of the all-time NFL record for most rushing yards in a game by a quarterback. He has been awarded a number of prestigious honors, including Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope honor, GQ magazine’s “Citizen of the Year,” the NFL’s Len Eshmont Award, the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, the ACLU’s Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award, and the Puffin/Nation Institute’s Prize for Creative Citizenship. Since 2016, he has founded and helped to fund three organizations — Know Your Rights Camp, Kaepernick Media, and Kaepernick Publishing — that together advance the liberation of Black and Brown people through storytelling, systems change, and political education. In 2019, Kaepernick helped Nike win an Emmy for its “Dream Crazy” commercial. In 2021, Colin released Colin in Black & White, a six-episode limited series on Netflix exploring his high school years, which won two NAACP Image Awards. In 2022, he became a New York Times bestselling author for his acclaimed children’s picture book, “I Color Myself Different.” He will release his next children’s book, “We Are Free, You and Me” in October 2024, co-authored with his wife Nessa and published in partnership with Scholastic.

Vinod Khosla

Founder, Khosla Ventures

Vinod Khosla is an entrepreneur, investor, and technology fan. He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, focused on impactful technology investments in software, AI, robotics, 3D printing, healthcare, and more​. 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.

Ashton Kutcher

Co-Founder and General Partner, Sound Ventures

Ashton is an entrepreneur, technology investor, actor, and philanthropist. Ashton has been investing in tech for nearly two decades and has co-founded two VC firms, A-Grade Investments in 2010 and Sound Ventures in 2015 alongside Guy Oseary. Ashton’s overarching investment philosophy is to invest in “enduring happiness,” a strategy that has proven to be highly successful. With more than $1 billion under management and 300 portfolio companies, Ashton and his partners have been at the helm of six top quartile venture funds. A-Grade and Sound Ventures’ investments include Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), Airtable, Anthropic, Brex, Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL), Gitlab (NASDAQ: GTLB), Hugging Face, OpenAI, SentinelOne (NYSE: S), and Uber (NYSE: UBER). He is an active and sought-after technology investor with proven expertise in product and user experience. Ashton was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and was on the cover of Forbes’ Midas List issue for Tech’s Top Investors. He was also included in Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List,” which identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies and entrepreneurs. Ashton studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.

Matt Mullenweg

Co-Founder / Founder and CEO, WordPress / Automattic

Matt Mullenweg is co-founder of the open source publishing platform WordPress, which now powers over 40% of all sites on the web. He is the founder and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, WPVIP, Day One, Beeper, and Pocket Casts. Additionally, Matt runs Audrey Capital, an investment and research company. He has been recognized for his leadership by Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc. Magazine, TechCrunch, Fortune, Fast Company, Wired, University Philosophical Society, and Vanity Fair.

Matt is originally from Houston, Texas, where he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer. He currently splits his time between Houston and San Francisco.

Assaf Rappaport

Co-Founder and CEO, Wiz

Assaf Rappaport is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wiz, the world’s fastest-growing startup securing everything organizations build and run in the cloud. Wiz serves over 40% of the Fortune 100 and has raised over $1.9 billion at a $12 billion valuation in just four years, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Howard Schultz, and others. Before founding Wiz, Assaf was the founder and CEO of the security company Adallom, which was acquired by Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. He then served as Microsoft’s youngest-ever General Manager, overseeing the company’s Cloud Security Group and Israeli R&D Center.