< Back
Confidential Data Panel, Moderated by Aaron Fulkerson
June 5, 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Grand Ballroom Salon B
In today's data-driven world, stringent data security, privacy, and sovereignty requirements often hinder the ability to harness AI's full potential. This panel will explore how confidential computing can unblock AI projects and unlock significant value for businesses. Moderated by Aaron Fulkerson, CEO of Opaque Systems, this discussion will feature insights from industry leaders who have successfully navigated these challenges.
About the speakers
Aaron Fulkerson
Chief Executive Officer, Opaque Systems
Aaron Fulkerson stands at the forefront of AI innovation as the CEO of Opaque Systems, a pioneering company dedicated to accelerating AI innovation through confidential data for trusted AI. With a distinguished career spanning over two decades, Aaron is a seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur renowned for his strategic vision and ability to drive hyper-growth across various stages of tech businesses, from dynamic startups to established enterprises.
Before taking the helm at Opaque Systems, Aaron made significant contributions as a VP and GM at ServiceNow, spearheading Product Growth in the Customer Workflows business. He helped triple the business in two years. Further showcasing his innovative vision, Aaron introduced ServiceNow Impact. This groundbreaking product created a new category and emerged as ServiceNow's fastest-growing segment in the company's history. His journey in the tech industry began at Microsoft, laying a solid foundation for his entrepreneurial venture as the Founder and CEO of MindTouch. This company left a lasting impact on digital collaboration and customer engagement platforms.
Aaron's career is marked by a consistent track record of crafting, launching, and scaling groundbreaking businesses and products millions use globally. At Opaque, he is driving the future of AI by ensuring data privacy, security, and sovereignty, thereby establishing a new benchmark for trust in AI technologies. His work is not just about innovation; it's about building a trustworthy ecosystem where AI can flourish securely and ethically, paving the way for transformative advancements across industries.
James Edwards
Senior Director IT, Governance Planning and Strategy, Encore Capital Group
James has over 20 years experience in IT and financial services, including 15 years in leadership roles. Throughout his career he has been helping organizations drive business value from their data assets, apply governance and structure to IT projects and delivery and navigate the highly regulated world of financial services.
Eric Phillips
Director of Product, The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative
Eric Phillips is the Director of Product at The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative, a non-profit technology consortium within the insurance industry. Eric oversees the product development efforts within the consortium; he is responsible for leading innovative projects and driving the strategic vision of the consortium's product offerings to improve multi-party efficiencies and data exchange within the insurance industry. Prior to joining RiskStream, Eric spent 9 years at GEICO, where he held various leadership roles in insurance claims, including management positions within GEICO's casualty, litigation, medical, and fraud departments. Eric's experience in both product management and insurance claims allows him to serve as an innovator in the insurance technology space, dedicated to advancing the industry's approach to risk management through technology solutions.
Giuseppe Giordano
R&D Principal Director, Accenture Labs
Giuseppe Giordano leads the Accenture Labs Systems and Platforms R&D. This includes work around Trusted Distributed Computing and Privacy Preserving Computation. His current areas of focus are: Distributed Ledger and Blockchain Technologies, AI, Privacy Preserving Computation Techniques and Decentralized Identity. His experience includes internal research and Client Projects, where he mainly acts as a Technical Lead/Solution Architect. Giuseppe has incubated and helped Accenture scale on several technologies, and in particular Biometrics/Identity and Blockchain. Giuseppe holds a double degree in Computer Science Engineering between Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Eurecom (France) and he is an IEEE Certified Biometrics Professional. Giuseppe is a prolific inventor with 20+ granted patents.
Josh Wyant
Founder, Novapolis
Josh is the founder of Novapolis, a new stealth Confidential Computing startup. He previously worked for Google and Evernote. While not working on Novapolis, he is currently pursuing a M.Sc. in Computer Science degree at CU Boulder while he builds his startup. He is passionate about building sustainable, transparent technologies that accelerate human progress. He has 20 years of cross-discipline programming experience in ML, computer graphics, developing compilers, operating systems, virtual machines, and containers, distributed systems, data pipelines, algorithms, full-stack applications, and open-source software, privacy, security, and growth.
Novapolis is a private, secure, peer-to-peer cloud platform, community, and ecosystem. The ideas, having been 10 years in the making, are finally being realized through Confidential Computing. The platform operates a holistic decentralized architecture, allowing users to trade various resources with the community such as TEEs in CPUs and GPUs. The most important feature is the community, enabling community governance, secure vaults, and other important tools.
Previously at Google, I leveraged my expertise to process petabytes of data, contributing to significant savings on accelerator expenses. This role honed my skills in distributed computing and data analysis, which are now instrumental in driving Novapolis towards its mission of building an equitable internet.