IEEE Industry Advisory Board

M. Michelle Blaise, senior vice president of Technical Services, is responsible for Engineering, Project Management and Smart Grid & Technology for ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, IL, USA. ComEd delivers electricity to approximately 3.8 million residential and business customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population.

Exelon Corporation, now including the Pepco Holdings utilities, is the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with 2015 revenues of approximately US$34.5 billion. Headquartered in Chicago, Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Exelon is one of the largest competitive US power generators, with more than 32,700 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to approximately 2 million residential, public sector, and business customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100. Exelon’s six utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to approximately 10 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, USA, through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO, and Pepco subsidiaries. Follow Exelon on Twitter @Exelon.

Prior to her role as senior vice president of Technical Services, Blaise served as vice president of Engineering and Project Management and oversaw maintenance, reliability, and capacity planning. She was also responsible for planning and execution of transmission and substation projects as well as execution of Energy Infrastructure Modernization (EIMA) program.

Blaise has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibilities in customer operations, strategic planning, distribution operations, and engineering including manager of Construction and Maintenance, Manager of Strategic Planning, and Manager of Business Planning.

Blaise serves as a member of the board of directors for the Women’s Business Development Center and on the board of trustees of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Blaise holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and an MBA from DePaul University.

Kirk Bresniker is Chief Architect of Hewlett Packard Labs and a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Fellow and Vice President. He joined Labs in 2014 to drive The Machine Research and Advanced Development program, leading teams across Labs and across HPE business units with the goal of demonstrating and evangelizing the benefits of Memory-Driven Computing. His current focus is accelerating the transfer of technologies from The Machine research program in order to drive differentiating value into existing product categories as well as disruptive new offerings from Edge to Cloud. Prior to joining Labs, Kirk was Fellow, Vice President and Chief Technologist in the HP Servers Global Business Unit capping 25 years of innovation leadership in product development.

Kirk joined HP as an electrical engineer in the PA-RISC system hardware team in 1989, refining his understanding of customer-focused innovation through five generations of mission-critical compute platforms. Starting in 1997, Kirk began a decade-long research and development effort to develop novel new modular system architectures which would eventually become a new category of integrated hardware and software offerings known as Blade Servers. This early work was eventually refined and blended with the contributions of the combined HP-Compaq merger, lead to become HP BladeSystem c-Class, the undisputed leader in Blade Server platforms. His early work catalyzed the transformation of the HP-UX UNIX, VMS and fault tolerant to BladeSystem, culminating in the Superdome X mission critical X86 blade platform, the highest performing HPE Mission Critical ProLiant system ever created. It was also during this period that he led the earliest investigations into what would become The Machine Research program and is now reflected industry wide in the drive to accelerators, memory-fabrics, photonics, and novel distributed software systems.

Kirk is a Senior Member of the IEEE, is a founding member of the IEEE Industrial Advisory Board, and chairs the Systems and Architecture chapter of the IEEE International Roadmap of Devices and Systems. He represents HPE in the World Economic Forum Global Future Councils on Computing and Quantum Computing. He is co-chair of the HPE AI Ethics Advisory Board working group and a member of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Industrial Advisory board. Kirk currently holds 28 US and 10 foreign patents in areas of modular platforms and blade systems, integrated circuits, and power and environmental control. He graduated in 1989 Cum Laude from Santa Clara University with a BSEE and the Humanities Honors program.

Deborah "Deb" Dunie brings over 30 years of senior-level business experience through key executive positions with leading technology companies. Dunie retired in 2015 as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of CACI International, a worldwide information solutions and services provider. During her tenure at CACI she focused on driving the solutions/services portfolio and was instrumental in identifying and closing 18 mergers/acquisitions aligned to the corporate growth strategy. Dunie has demonstrated expertise in cyber security, cloud, mobility, data analytics, and intelligence. Widely quoted in industry publications, Dunie was featured as the cover story for Washington Technology “Tech Gurus” in May 2011 and in the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Magazine, April 2017, “Special Section: Cybersecurity.” Throughout her career, Dunie focused extensively on developing corporate culture, leadership, talent, and succession planning.

Dunie is currently a Board Director of two publicly traded Fortune 500 companies, SAIC and Alliant Energy Corporation. At SAIC she serves on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee; the Human Resources and Compensation Committee; and the Classified Business Oversight Committee. At Alliant Energy, she is a member of the Compensation and Personnel Committee; and the Safety, Environmental, Policy and Operations Committee.

Prior to CACI, Dunie was a member of the Department of Defense Senior Executive Service within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. As principal advisor to the USD(I) she was responsible for providing executive leadership, guidance, and reviews of Department of Defense activities and programs as they related to US national interests, defense policies, operational requirements, and state-of-the-art technologies. Her portfolio included the multibillion-dollar Defense Intelligence IT budget.

In November 2006 Dunie was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. Specific mention in the citation states, "Ms. Dunie was a driving force in transforming the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community policies, guidance, and standards. These efforts led to improvements in intelligence information sharing at the National level and Combatant Commander level in support of the Global War on Terrorism."

Prior to her work with the federal government, Deb was responsible for e-business solutions within the national intelligence solutions group at Oracle Corporation, guided the strategic direction of Raytheon E-Systems' Advanced Technology Program, and was in charge of new and follow-on business development in advanced technologies at Martin Marietta/GE Aerospace.

Dunie also serves on the Boards of Bricata, LLC., a venture-backed advanced technology company in the cyber domain; and Objective Interface Systems, Inc., a privately held technology company. She is a member and former Chair of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) International Technical Committee. She also is a member of the IEEE Industry Advisory Board, the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering Advisory Board, the George Mason University Volgeneau School of Engineering Industry Advisory Board, the Tufts University Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board, and the Washington CTO Roundtable Board of Directors. Dunie is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Board Leadership Fellow; recognized for her commitment to the highest standards of boardroom excellence. Since 2016, she has also served on the faculty of the Director Professionalism Program of the NACD. She mentors executives and is called upon to speak to boards about strategic growth and c-suite relations. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University in Medford, MA, USA, and a Master of Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, USA.

Mazdak Hashemi's career has been focused on building and scaling platforms and infrastructures for both consumer and enterprise companies. He was formally the Vice President of Engineering at Twitter where during his tenure (2012–2018) he championed a number of efforts that improved Twitter’s reliability, scalability, and efficiency. Prior to that, he was leading Infrastructure and Security for Support.com, the remote technology company, and he was part of their core team to architect and launch their cloud platform. Mazdak was the CTO/Founder for a software startup company and has held different engineering roles for small to medium-size global software companies both in early stage to mature public companies. He has served as faculty at the University of Colorado, USA, his alma mater. His areas of technical expertise include software engineering, data mining, databases, and distributed systems. Mazdak is an advocate of promoting equality in technology and was a male ally executive sponsor for @TwitterWomen.

Dr. Danny Lange is Vice President of AI and Machine Learning at Unity Technologies, where he leads multiple initiatives in the field of applied artificial intelligence. Unity is the creator of a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR, and AR experiences. Previously, Lange was Head of Machine Learning at Uber, where he led the efforts to roll out a company-wide Machine Learning platform to support all parts of Uber’s business, from the Uber App to self-driving cars.

Before joining Uber, Lange was General Manager of Amazon Machine Learning, where he also rolled out an internal company-wide Machine Learning platform used in all corners of Amazon. He also launched the first public machine learning cloud service on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Prior to Amazon, he was Principal Development Manager at Microsoft, where he led a product team focused on large-scale machine learning for big data. Lange spent eight years on voice-enable virtual assistants, first as CTO of General Magic, Inc., and then as founder of his own company, Vocomo Software. Lange started his career as a computer scientist at IBM Research.

Lange holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the Technical University of Denmark. He is a member of ACM and IEEE Computer Society and has numerous patents to his credit.

Teck Seng Low is presently the CEO of the National Research Foundation (NRF) in Singapore. He is a tenured professor at Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Engineers, Singapore and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, UK. Prior to his appointment at the NRF he was the Managing Director of the Agency for Science, Technology & Research, in Singapore. He is the founding Principal of Republic Polytechnic and had served as Dean of Engineering at the NUS. He also founded the Data Storage Institute. He was awarded the National Science and Technology Medal and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 2004 and 2007, respectively, by the Government of Singapore.

Naresh Mehta has served as Chairman of Schneider Electric Kenya Ltd for two years, after the successful merger and acquisition of Power Technics businesses by Schneider Electric.

Prior to the transition to Schneider Electric, he served as Managing Director of Power Technics Ltd., a market leader and driving force in the region for “quality.” The company signed an agreement with Schneider Electric of France for the manufacture of Type Tested Assemblies (TTA). Power Technics was the only company licensed by Schneider Electric to manufacture the Blokset range of switchboards, motor control panels “TTA” in Africa. These TTAs are certified with the Diamond Mark of Quality by Kenya Bureau of Standards.

Mehta has been awarded The Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) for distinguished service to the nation. He also received French Knighthood; ‘Ordre National du Merite’ is the ‘Legion d’Honneur,’ the most prestigious official award of the French Republic that can be awarded as well to non-French nationals. Other awards include Dr Kaburu Memorial Award (Excellence in Engineering Profession) from the Kenya Polytechnic University College for exemplary service as Member of the Advisory Panel.

Mehta holds professional memberships from the Institute of Engineers of Kenya, Engineers Registration Board, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and IEEE. He has served on several committees, including as Commissioner, Commission for Higher Education (2010 – 2013), Technical Advisory Committee, Kenya Polytechnic University College, and Formerly Board Member, Moi University Holdings, Eldoret.

Recently, Mehta was appointed as a member of the Advisory Board on Engineering Education at Strathmore University.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Electrical Power Degree from Bangalore University, India. He speaks English, Gujarati, and Kiswahili.

Dr. Bernard S. Meyerson, an IBM Fellow, serves as IBM’s Chief Innovation Officer. Completing his Ph.D. in Physics in 1980, he joined IBM Research, inventing Silicon:Germanium technology, then founding and leading IBM’s highly successful Analog and Mixed Signal business. Allying with Harris Semiconductor, he and his team enabled the pervasive deployment of Wi-Fi. He went on to take many executive roles, leading global semiconductor development, strategic alliances for the Systems and Technology Group, transforming IBM’s Academy of Technology, managing global University Relations, and culminating in his present role from 2010 as IBM’s first Chief Innovation Officer. His team presently leads the client facing definition and execution of corporate-wide technical and business strategic initiatives spanning all aspects of IBM’s business portfolio. He is a prolific speaker to private, public, and government audiences around the globe, representing IBM in the press, on television, and across social media. His focus is on innovation and the implementation of resultant technologies to serve the audience at hand, with the overarching goal of improving the state of the world.

Meyerson devotes a significant fraction of his time to public service, extensively engaged in driving innovation in governance as well as business innovation around the globe. As examples, he has recently keynoted government summits in Dubai and Singapore focused on the digital transformation of government services and the implementation of AI to facilitate this. He similarly serves Governor Rauner on the Smarter Illinois Committee supporting efforts to drive the digital transformation of government services. He has long supported Singapore through his service on boards advising technical entities such as I2R, the Land and Livability council serving the needs of an ever-aging population, and he was recently appointed for a three-year term on the International Advisory Panel on Urban Solutions & Sustainability. He chaired the 2015 and 2016 Meta-Council on Emerging Technology for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, now serving on the WEF Global Future Council addressing the societal impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In collaboration with the Editor in Chief of Scientific American and Nature, Meyerson has most recently agreed to continue driving the creation of an annual report identifying The Top 10 Emerging Technologies as a standalone endeavor to be published annually by Scientific American.

Meyerson has received numerous industry and global honors, being appointed the sole IBM Fellow in 1992, IBM’s highest honor. Meyerson is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, IEEE, and a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering. Awards for combined business and technical achievements include the Lifetime Achievement Award from SEMI, the 2011 Pake Prize of the American Physical Society, appointment as the 2014 Turing Lecturer at the Royal Institute of London, and many others. Most recently, Meyerson was honored with the 2015 National Medal for Public Service by the government of Singapore for his decades of volunteer service and significant positive impact on the nation and its citizens.

Mike Muller was one of the founders of ARM. Before joining the group, he was responsible for hardware strategy and the development of portable products at Acorn Computers. He was previously at Orbis Computers. At ARM he was VP, Marketing from 1992 to 1996 and EVP, Business Development until October 2000, when he was appointed Chief Technology Officer. In October 2001, he was appointed to the Board.

Mark Papermaster is chief technology officer and senior vice president of Technology and Engineering at AMD, responsible for corporate technical direction, product development including system-on-chip (SOC) methodology, microprocessor design, I/O and memory, and advanced research. He re-engineered engineering processes at AMD that led to the development of the award-winning “Zen” high-performance x86 CPU family, leadership GPUs, and the company’s modular design approach, Infinity Fabric. He also oversees Information Technology to deliver AMD’s compute infrastructure and services.

His more than 35 years of engineering experience includes significant leadership roles managing the development of a wide range of products, from microprocessors to mobile devices and high-performance servers. Before joining AMD in October 2011, Papermaster was the leader of Cisco’s Silicon Engineering Group, the organization responsible for silicon strategy, architecture, and development for the company’s switching and routing businesses. He served as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple, where he was responsible for iPod and iPhone hardware development. He also held a number of senior leadership positions at IBM, overseeing development of the company’s key microprocessor and server technologies.

Papermaster received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and master’s degree from the University of Vermont, USA, both in Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering Advisory Board, Olin College Presidents Council, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Haifeng Wang, Ph.D., joined Baidu in 2010 and was promoted to senior vice president in May 2018. Wang is in charge of Baidu’s Artificial Intelligence Group (AIG) and heads Baidu Research, overseeing Baidu's development efforts in machine learning, big data, computer vision, natural language processing, speech technology, knowledge graph, robotics, augmented reality, and Baidu Maps. From 2014 to 2017, Wang oversaw Baidu’s core search products. From 2002 to 2010, Wang served as the chief research scientist at Toshiba’s R&D Center.

In 2013, Wang served as the president of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) and is currently an ACL fellow. He is the president of National Engineering Laboratory for Deep Learning Technology and Applications. He also serves as a vice president of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, CyberSecurity Association of China, the Chinese Information Processing Society of China, Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance, and National Engineering Laboratory for Brain-inspired Intelligence Technology and Application. Wang is an adjunct professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology, where he obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in computer science. Wang has published approximately 100 peer-reviewed papers related to the development of artificial intelligence technologies. Wang was honored with the National Scientific Innovation and Advancement Award (2017) and the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award (2015).