Panel Members

Ram Nagappan is the Chief Information Officer for BNYMellon Pershing. With more than 30 years of information technology experience, Ram oversees the firm’s technology and engineering of digital,experience-centric wealth management solutions.

Ram is a distinguished technologist as well as an accomplished innovator instrumental in building industry-first solutions. He developed the first-ever market-making system outside of an exchange floor for the US capital market system. Expert in building trading systems and ticker plants that are designed to handle massive market data streams, and electronic stock exchange systems (NY,Boston, Philadelphia) in the US. He is also part of the team that built the first online trading platform(PC Financial Network) - a significant market disruptor. Under Ram’s leadership, Pershing launched award-winning, open architecture-based wealth management products (NetX360®, NetXInvestor®and NetXServices) in the US.

Prior to assuming his current role, Ram served as managing director and chief technology officer at DLJdirect and CSFB direct, pioneers in online internet brokerage. During the late 90’s to 2000, he led the efforts to establish BNY Mellon India Technology (iNautix). Prior to that worked as a consultant for IBM in building their OS/360, CICS, and MQ.

As a spokesperson on technology trends and issues, Ram has been featured in a number of technology and financial publications including InvestmentNews, ThinkAdvisor, and Bloomberg Radio. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events and conferences. Additionally, Ram was recognized by ComputerWorld as a Premier 100 IT Leader and by the New Jersey Technology Council as “CIO of the Year.” Most recently, Ram was the first technology leader to receive the Bank Insurance & Securities Association’s (BISA) Circle of Excellence Award, their most prestigious recognition.

Over the years, Ram has served as a member in a number of industry positions - Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Operations and Technology Advisory Committee and Technology Advisory Committees for various national securities exchanges.

Ram actively contributes to social, community, and entrepreneurship programs. He is a founding member of the American Tamil Entrepreneurs Association (ATEA) and is an advisor and mentor in TiE Forums. Both ATEA and TiE are non-profit organizations and through these relationships, Ram connects founders of startups and helps them, with resources such as advisors, mentors, venture capitalists, and industry executives. Ram also published more than 8 books on various topics.

A graduate of Anna University (India), Ram earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronicsand Communication. Also completed various professional studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, and Harvard.

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JoAnn C. Stonier serves as Chief Data Officer for Mastercard, leading the organization’s data innovation efforts while navigating current and future data risks. She oversees the curation, quality, governance and management of the company’s extensive data assets. JoAnn and her team design and operationalize Mastercard’s global data strategy, guiding enterprise deployment of cutting-edge data solutions, including advanced analytics and AI, and the development of enterprise data platforms.

Her leadership is integral to Mastercard’s push to deepen the strategic value it can provide its merchant, banking and government customers and cardholders through its expanding data-driven products and capabilities.

JoAnn previously served as the company’s Chief Information Governance & Privacy Officer, responsible for global privacy and information governance, and leading regulatory engagement for data compliance.

JoAnn is a recognized and highly sought-after thought leader in emergent data and privacy issues. She has advised industry executives, governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs. Currently, she serves on the United Nations Expert Group on Governance and Artificial Intelligence and is Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Data Policy. JoAnn also serves as a Board Advisor for Truata, a data trust co-founded by Mastercard and IBM, on the Board of Directors and Governance Committee for Hope For The Warriors, a non-profit Veteran service organization, and on the Board of Trustees and Executive & Finance Committees for Academy of Mount St. Ursula, where she attended high school in Bronx, New York.

JoAnn received her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University and her Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis College. She holds memberships in the Bar of the State of New York and the Bar of the State of New Jersey. She is based in Purchase, N.Y.

Amy D. Grubb, Ph.D. is an internationally acclaimed speaker who has presented numerous keynote addresses and workshops on leadership, organizational culture, change, performance, working with others, and storytelling.  She has worked directly for three C-level functions (CHRO, CFO, CIO) for the past 15 years, and has been with the FBI for over two decades.  Amy is currently serving as the Digital Transformation Advisor to the Chief Information Officer at the FBI and is the founder of Organizational Insights, LLC.

Amy has been responsible for the implementation of numerous change initiatives within the FBI for over 20 years, from serving as a leader on the post-9/11 enterprise-wide cultural transformation of the FBI to implementing innovative HR systems and processes at all levels, with a current focus on the digital transformation of the FBI through its people and culture. She advises C-suite and executive leaders on risk from the human capital perspective regarding organizational performance, policy decisions, and change initiatives, and serves as executive coach to a number of leaders and executives. She worked extensively with Special Agents, pilots, undercover employees, Hostage Rescue Team members, forensic accountants, Intelligence Analysts, mid-level leaders, and executives up through the Director. She has presented numerous papers at professional conferences, has served on advisory boards both internal and external to the FBI, and liaisons extensively within the government and the private sector communities.  

A two-time FBI Director’s Award for Excellence recipient, she built the organizational development function at the FBI as well as led the development and implementation of an integrated Leadership Development Program for all employees at all stages of the employment lifecycle, for which she was awarded the SIOP/SHRM HR Impact Award.  Amy is on the American Psychological Association Change Management Advisory Board and was the Chair of the Bombardier Safety Standdown Advisory Council.  A Fellow of SIOP (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology), she earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Houston, earning her bachelor’s degree from Villanova University.

And when she’s not doing all of that, Amy loves sports and especially enjoys watching her five teenagers run, shoot hoops, catch, pass, kick, cradle the rock, dig, and dance.  She likes cooking, running, the beach, and hanging out with her husband and her Bernese Mountain dog Finn.

Dr. Seth Dobrin is a globally recognized expert in AI. He is the Founder and CEO of the Qantm AI. Previously, he was President of the Responsible AI Institute and Global Chief AI Officer of IBM, where he led the company's AI strategy. Dr. Dobrin is a sought-after speaker and advisor on AI. He believes that AI has the potential to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, but that it is important to use AI responsibly. He advocates for the development of ethical AI guidelines and for the responsible use of AI by governments and businesses.

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John Nicastro is a technology & corporate executive currently serving as Chief Data Officer at Major League Soccer. In his role, John oversees the League’s data and AI strategy, as well as all Fan technology, including digital products, marketing, and advertising platforms. Before joining MLS, John served as Head of the Enterprise Data Office at SiriusXM and Pandora. While there he was responsible for developing and executing a transformative data & analytics strategy for its brands including ground-breaking personalization and recommendation services. Collectively the platforms reached more than 150 million listeners - the largest reach of any digital audio provider in North America.

Cindi Howson is the Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot and host of the award-winning The Data Chief podcast. Cindi is an analytics and BI thought leader and expert with a flair for bridging business needs with technology.  As Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot, she advises top clients on data strategy and best practices to become data-driven, speaks internationally on top trends such as creating a data culture, align to business value, and AI ethics, and influences ThoughtSpot’s product strategy. Cindi was previously a Gartner research Vice President, as the lead author for the data and analytics maturity model and analytics and BI Magic Quadrant, and a popular keynote speaker.  She introduced new research in data and AI for good, NLP/BI Search, and augmented analytics and brought both the BI bake offs and innovation panels to Gartner globally. She’s frequently quoted in MIT, Harvard Business Review, Information Week and is rated a top 12 influencer in big data and analytics by Analytics Insight, Onalytica, Solutions Review, and Humans of Data. She has been named DataIQ100 in 2023, Motivator of the Year, by Women Leaders in Data and AI (WLDA) in 2023, and CDO Magazine named her a Leading Data Consultant and Global Data Power Woman in 20222 and 2023. In 2021 she was named data leader of the year by Women in Data.  Prior to joining Gartner, she was founder of BI Scorecard, a resource for in-depth product reviews based on exclusive hands-on testing, contributor to Information Week, and the author of several books including: Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data, Analytics Interpreted, and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference. She served as The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) faculty member for more than a decade. She serves on the board for Drexel University’s LeBow Business Analytics program and is a volunteer for Girls Plus Data, Women in Data, and the Mark Cuban Foundation, AI bootcamps. Prior to founding BI Scorecard, Howson was a manager at Deloitte & Touche and a global BI standards leader for Dow Chemical. She has an MBA from Rice University.

Nick Elprin is the CEO and co-founder of Domino Data Lab, provider of the enterprise AI platform that powers model-driven companies such as Allstate, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dell and Lockheed Martin. Before starting Domino, Nick built tools for quantitative researchers at Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest hedge funds. He has over a decade of experience working with data scientists at advanced enterprises. He holds a BA and MS in computer science from Harvard.

Matt Turck is a Partner at FirstMark, where he focuses on early-stage investments in enterprise software and cloud, with a particular predilection for data infrastructure, ML, and AI. His current portfolio includes companies such as Dataiku, Ada Support, Cockroach Labs, and Synthesia. For the last 10+ years, Matt has been publishing the annual MAD (ML, AI, Data) industry landscape and organizing Data Driven NYC, the largest data/AI meetup in the US.

Florian Douetteau is the co-founder and CEO of Dataiku, an AI software company that aims to make data analysis and machine learning more accessible. Florian was born in France, where he also pursued his education in Computer Science at ENS Paris. His passion for unraveling complex systems and processes led him to the world of data science and AI.

Ricky Ray Butler is an 18-year digital entertainment veteran and a pioneer in using AI technology to reshape the entertainment and media landscape. In 2008, he founded Plaid Social Labs, which was later acquired by BENlabs. Today, BENlabs is at the forefront of leveraging AI and deep learning to empower brands and creators to drive business outcomes through engaged human attention across media, content, and entertainment. Through its acquisition of TubeBuddy, BENlabs is empowering the 14 million influencers, creators, and brands on the platform to leverage data driven systems and processes to grow their audiences and revenues. Ricky Ray Butler serves as an advisor and investor for entrepreneurs and charities who share his relentless quest for disruption and deep learning. Like any data driven creative, Ricky spends his free time creating art no one should see and reading about the myriad of ways data has and can continue to improve the 21st century. Ricky Ray lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles.