Industrial Design grad from the Art Center College of Design and first ever intern in Nike Footwear. Aaron spent 25 years at Nike where he worked with athletes like LeBron, Scottie Pippen, and Serena Williams to create industry defining footwear. Aaron has traveled the world working extensively in Asia and lived 3 years in Amsterdam while starting the Footwear Design Studio for Nike. Passionate about holistic Human Performance and active biohacker himself, Aaron left Nike to pursue greater impact for our Health System becoming VP of Strategic Innovation at Thorne Health Tech. For the last 4 years Aaron has been working with leaders in the health and performance industry on brand strategy, design leadership, product design, social media influence, new business development, and marketing.

Aaron continues to work for big brands, budget brands, and start-ups. He has designed, engineered, and created footwear and apparel for the elite athletes on earth, literally. He has also created for “everyday” people in pursuit of something a little bit better. His greatest asset is solving problems beautifully that creates culture for communities, blending art and science into a symbiotic relationship. With modern technology it is very easy to create amazing renderings. Making great performance product is hard. Aaron has the unique ability to design, engineer, and build the greatest footwear in the world. With over 30 years of experience, Aaron has designed for almost every sport and activity.

IG @aaron.ac.cooper

Ana is an entrepreneur, media executive, and digital technology innovator. She is the co-founder of Sparrow Advisers, a strategic consultancy helping marketers and C-suite executives navigate the data-driven adtech and martech waters. A pioneer of digital data management in advertising, Ms. Milicevic was responsible for the development of the Demdex platform (now Adobe Audience Manager) from its early days through its successful acquisition and integration into the Adobe Digital Marketing suite. Prior to starting Sparrow she established Signal's Global Strategic Consulting group and helped Fortune 500 customers adopt advanced and predictive analytics across their marketing, ad ops, and digital content business units at SAS. Earlier in her career Ms. Milicevic has held key leadership roles in media & entertainment startups and scale-ups in Europe and the United States. Her consulting portfolio includes working for the United Nations and the World Bank, executing initiatives in 50+ countries, and advising companies on go-to-market strategies all around the globe. Ana is frequently quoted by media powerhouses like The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider (who in 2018 named her as one of 23 industry leaders working on fixing advertising) as well as industry trades like AdWeek, AdAge, Digiday, Marketing Magazine, AdExchanger, and Exchangewire. She has headlined marquee conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific and is a sought-after speaker on topics of adtech, martech, innovation, customer experience, data management and new frontiers of technology. 

Bijan Vaez is a seasoned technology executive and serial entrepreneur. As the Founder & CEO of Merchkit, he is building AI-native commerce technology, empowering retailers and brands with enriched product catalogs that rank, are recommended, and convert everywhere they sell.

Prior to Merchkit, Bijan helped scale a high-growth D2C marketplace as CTO , where he architected the platform's expansion to $65M GMV and helped secured Series A funding. He currently serves as a Venture Partner at Antler VC, where he leverages his operational experience to support portfolio companies in their growth journey.

Katie is a consumer expert, with over 15 years of consumer and retail experience, now leading the
Kearney Consumer Institute (KCI), the consumer think tank within the management consulting firm
Kearney.
Katie's career began in management consulting at Kearney, working on projects across consumer
goods, retail, and media. She then shifted into brand management for beloved brands at Tyson and
Kraft Heinz. Upon returning to Kearney to lead the KCI, Katie partners with leading Fortune 500
consumer and retail clients to reframe business challenges from a consumer-centric perspective.
She has published over 60 pieces of content and surveyed 250,000 consumers.
Katie is Kearney’s leading media spokesperson, regularly featured on and in top tier media,
including CNBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Financial Times, as
well as regularly presenting at global industry conferences.
She has a BBA from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan (go blue!) and an MBA from
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Kevin is an investor, advisor and advocate for creative people with extensive experience in building international teams.   At Design Core Detroit, a community-focused economic development department of College for Creative Studies, Kevin provides business coaching, talent search and global resource navigation for Detroit's startup community.    Previously as Head of Design, International at 3M, Kevin led multidisciplinary teams in six countries across Asia, Europe and the US.   Kevin's international experience includes a four-year role based in Tokyo, where he led the growth of design studios in Japan, India, China and Korea.   While based in the US, Kevin led award-winning studios for global brands such as Post-it, Scotch, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, and KitchenAid.   As Vice Chair for the Detroit chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Kevin will be a host and speaker at IDSA's upcoming International Design Conference in Detroit.

Vice President of Manufacturing & Innovation, ISAIC

Lionel Vargas Cruz joined the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC) in 2022, bringing 15 years of apparel manufacturing experience to ISAIC, the only organization in the nation that iteratively tests, validates and trains people on advanced technologies under one roof, accelerating industry transformation. With proven skills in supply chain management, lean manufacturing, innovation, integration and change management, he plays a key role in shaping ISAIC’s transformative role in modeling and advancing an innovative, human-centric approach to quality domestic manufacturing. 

As Director of Operations, Vargas Cruz leads ISAIC’s initiatives to ensure that new technologies and skills are adoptable, scalable and ready to define new industry standards. Before joining ISAIC, Vargas Cruz held management positions in manufacturing, operations, account management and business development at Peckham, Inc. Earlier in his career, he worked for Short Bark Industries in supply chain management. In addition, he is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.

Vargas Cruz earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. During his time off, Vargas Cruz loves to play sports and relax with his wife and two young sons. 

Nalin's journey began in India, where he graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Electronics engineering. After graduation, he co-founded Auro Robotics along with some college friends to develop self-driving cars. Soon they reached a saturation point in terms of growth opportunities for such a deep-tech company in India.

So in 2015, Nalin took a one-way flight to the US on a tourist visa and came to the Silicon Valley. Auro Robotics eventually went through the Y Combinator program, raised venture funding, and got acquired by Ridecell.

Currently Nalin is building a new startup, Wingman, which provides freelance product experts (such as gadget geeks or pro sportsmen) who give live 1:1 video shopping consultations on e-commerce websites.

Nalin is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient. He lives in the San Francisco bay area, where he enjoys working with startups and bold thinkers on world-changing ideas.

Priyaa has been working on generative AI long before it was cool. From engineer to product leader to startup founder, she has a track record of shipping world-class consumer products to millions.

She is the co-founder and CEO of Lica, where she and her team are developing foundational AI Models that democratize visual design and storytelling for consumer brands and enterprises. Backed by top VCs in silicon valley like Accel, Village Global, and South Park Commons, Lica's AI models are putting the power of an entire content production house in the hands of marketing teams, transforming how they bring stories to life to connect with customers. Before founding Lica, Priyaa led Microsoft Designer and spearheaded incubation efforts to bring generative AI to the M365 suite. At Snap, she led AI-powered Augmented Reality experiences for enterprises across mobile and Spectacles. Most recently, she worked at Waymo, leading autonomous driving in multilane roads.

When she’s not obsessing over AI-led creative expression, you’ll find her mentoring aspiring founders, or creating AI-generated comics of her dog, Dobby.

Sarah Russell is a partner and point person for domestic and international tax strategies at Wipfli. With over 20 years of experience, she brings a practical approach to helping closely held business owners and multi-national corporations with tax consulting and compliance. Sarah also advises clients on the latest tax changes and potential impacts to their business.