Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship, and also examines the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education. He also leads Wharton Interactive, an effort to democratize education using games, simulations, and AI. His academic papers have been published in top management journals and his research has been covered by CNN, The New York Times, and other leading publications. He has created numerous teaching games on a wide variety of topics. Prior to his time in academia, Ethan co-founded a startup company, and he currently advises a number of startups and organizations. Mollick received his PhD and MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Ethan Mollick | LinkedIn

Omar has a career spanning more than 30 years driving growth and transformation for leading multinational companies. He joined Pearson with a background steeped in technology and innovation, and with a deep understanding of how to shape and execute successful strategies in a world of disruption.

Most recently, Omar was the President of Microsoft Industry Solutions with responsibility for driving sales, service and solutions across Microsoft’s largest customers. While there he led industry and technical business units, including strategy, engineering, partnering and sales teams that shaped product roadmaps and strategic campaigns. Prior to Microsoft, Omar spent three decades at Accenture where he helped to orchestrate the company’s digital transformation, and led a large and highly successful business unit. He served in numerous senior leadership roles at Accenture, including Chief Strategy Officer and ultimately as Chief Executive of the global Communications, Technology and Media business.

Omar was previously a Non-Executive Director of Zuora, Inc., an enterprise SaaS company. He holds a degree in electronic engineering and information sciences from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s degree in business administration from INSEAD.

Omar Abbosh | LinkedIn

Baratunde Thurston is a writer, host, and speaker exploring how we live well with technology, with each other, and with the planet. He has spent decades creating with and criticizing technology, from The Onion to The Daily Show to his Webby Award-winning project Life With Machines, focused on how we live well with AI and don't just endure it. He also hosted the PBS series America Outdoors and co-created How To Citizen. At the end of the day, he's an Earthling.

Baratunde Thurston | LinkedIn

Jody Gajic is Director of Innovation & Emerging Technologies at Pearson Labs, where he leads Pearson’s applied research agenda focused on the future of learning and work. He oversees experimentation with AI and other emerging technologies, bringing together internal teams, startups and external partners to develop prototypes and identify new opportunities. His work spans technology strategy, product development and R&D, with a particular focus on translating emerging technologies into practical applications that create value for learners, educators and organisations.

Jody Gajic | LinkedIn

Dr. Ken Beatty, Anaheim University TESOL Professor, has worked in schools and universities in Asia, the Middle East, and North and South America, lecturing on language teaching and computer-assisted language learning. Author of 67 textbooks for Pearson, he’s given 500+ teacher-training sessions and 100+ conference presentations in 36 countries.

Dr. Ken Beatty | LinkedIn

Dr Mike Perkins is Head of the Centre for Research & Innovation at British University Vietnam in Hanoi. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of York and is an Honorary Reader at the University of St Andrews. His research examines generative AI in education, including assessment design, academic integrity, AI detection, governance, digital equity and synthetic media. Mike is a creator of the AI Assessment Scale, a five-level framework translated into more than 30 languages and used by hundreds of schools and universities worldwide.

Dr Mike Perkins | LinkedIn

Jessica Bernards is an award-winning mathematics educator with two decades of experience in higher education. She teaches at the University of Oregon and Portland Community College, and is recognized for supporting educators through AI teaching strategies and faculty development. She is also a curriculum consultant, author and conference speaker, with a focus on active  learning. 

Jessica Bernards | LinkedIn

Mustafa Akben, PhD, is Director of AI Integration and Assistant Professor of Management at Elon University. His work focuses on human-AI collaboration, AI literacy, organizational decision-making, and the responsible integration of artificial intelligence into teaching, research and institutional practice. At Elon, he helps translate emerging AI capabilities into practical, ethical and sustainable learning and work systems.  

Mustafa Akben | LinkedIn

Dr Saeed Al Dhaheri is Director of the Centre for Future Studies at the University of Dubai and serves as UNESCO Co-Chair on Anticipatory Systems. His work focuses on the responsible use of AI in education, and AI governance, with an emphasis on academic integrity, creativity, critical thinking and the human qualities that make learning meaningful.   

Dr Saeed Al Dhaheri | LinkedIn

Claudia Del Pozo is founder of Eon Institute and an AI education policy leader whose work focuses on AI literacy, digital skills and responsible AI adoption. She has led initiatives across Latin America that support universities, educators, public sector leaders and institutions in preparing for an AI-enabled future. Her work includes faculty development, responsible AI capacity building, and contributions to the International Baccalaureate curriculum on AI and its wider implications.  

Claudia Del Pozo | LinkedIn

Joe is a member of Pearson’s Chief Strategy Office, where he focuses on R&D and thought leadership strategy. Since joining Pearson in 2018, he has helped shape and deliver the company’s research agenda, with a growing focus on the intersection between AI and learning in formal education and the workplace. He helped develop Pearson’s AI Readiness research in partnership with AWS, and brings experience spanning education research, strategy, and social impact. Previously, Joe led a UK education social enterprise focused on tackling the disadvantage gap. He holds master’s degrees from the University of Edinburgh and University College London.

Professor Tanzila Saba is a Research Professor, Associate Director of the Research and Initiatives Center, and Leader of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) Lab at Prince Sultan University, Riyadh. She holds a PhD in Document Information Security and Management from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, medical imaging, data analytics, pattern recognition, and information security, particularly AI-driven healthcare. With over 500 peer-reviewed publications, 28,500 citations, and an h-index of 96, she is internationally recognized for her research contributions. She is a Senior IEEE Member and has been recognized among the world’s top 2% of scientists for five consecutive years.

Professor Tanzila Saba | LinkedIn

Graça Carvalho is Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Innovation, powered by AWS, and a member of the Office of the Vice Provost Research, Innovation and Global Engagement (RIGE). She leads programmes that bring together academia, industry and emerging technology to accelerate responsible digital innovation, particularly across the verticals of education and healthcare. Graça helped establish the Centre through UCL’s strategic partnership with AWS, which is now expanding to include NVIDIA and CGI, and oversees initiatives supporting researchers, startups and students in translating research into real-world solutions. A Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Graça’s expertise spans computer networks and distributed systems, AI, cloud computing, research partnerships and large-scale technology innovation across the public and private sectors. 

Dr Graça Carvalho | LinkedIn

Ali Bebo is a C-suite executive who leads with a people-first lens and a commercial mindset. As Chief Human Resources Officer at Pearson, Ali is shaping the future of work and learning where potential is discovered, curiosity lives alongside credentials, and skilling is the strategy for growth. With 25+ years of experience, including as CHRO of Hologic, she’s known for building high-performing cultures that unlock both talent and business value. Ali believes learning agility, not tenure, is today’s competitive advantage. She challenges her teams to treat employee experience not as a program, but as a lever for performance, purpose, and progress.

Allison Peek Bebo | LinkedIn

Art has more than 30 years of leadership experience in assessments, testing and technology. Prior to his 20 years at Pearson serving as a senior leader of Pearson Professional Assessments and as Managing Director of Pearson Clinical Assessment, Art worked at global technology organisations including Accenture, Perot Systems and Promissor, which was acquired by Pearson in 2006. Art earned his BS in Mathematical Science/Computer Science from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Art Valentine | LinkedIn

Ashok Seetharaman is a senior HR leader with 28+ years of end‑to‑end experience across U.S. and global roles. He leads the U.S. HR agenda at Tata Consultancy Services—strengthening employee experience, strategic workforce planning, talent acquisition, leadership development, and culture across a geographically distributed workforce. Known for pairing empathy‑led leadership with data, AI and analytics, he focuses on building inclusive, high‑performing organizations and pragmatic governance that scales. 

Ashok Seetharaman | LinkedIn

Jeana Jorgensen is Corporate Vice President of Global Skilling at Microsoft, where she advances workplace skilling and inspires the next generation of technologists. She previously led AI, developer, and Google Cloud awareness initiatives at Google and held multiple Microsoft leadership roles. Jeana also serves as Executive Director of The Pepper Foundation and as a board member for Women in Cloud and other nonprofits.  

Jeana Jorgensen | LinkedIn

Pasquale Fontanetta is Group Vice President of Learning & Development at ServiceNow, where he leads learning innovation, design, delivery, certification, and operations. He has more than 20 years of experience building high-impact learning organizations at Google, Meta, and ServiceNow, with a focus on learning strategy, AI-enabled talent development, credentialing, and large-scale workforce transformation.

At ServiceNow, Pasquale Fontanetta helps shape programs that connect skills development to business performance and prepare employees, partners, and customers for the future of work. He is recognized as a pragmatic, forward-looking learning leader focused on helping organizations build capability, accelerate AI readiness, and support continuous growth in a rapidly evolving workplace.

Pasquale Fontanetta | LinkedIn

Sebastian is IBM UK’s Data and AI Transformation leader, with over 15 years of experience in delivering sympathetic and impactful change using innovative technologies. Working across Industry vertical, Seb has a depth of understanding and expertise that has informed and driven IBM’s Leadership in AI adoption.

Sebastian Weir | LinkedIn

Tom has 20 years of international business and finance experience. At Pearson, he has led the Virtual Schools business, worked in finance for the emerging markets businesses and led M&A activity in the US. Previously, he worked in investment banking at RW Baird. Tom holds an MA in Economics and Politics from the University of Edinburgh.

Tom ap Simon | LinkedIn

As General Manager for AWS’s Global Education team, Valerie is responsible for leading strategy and initiatives for Higher Education, Research, K-12, EdTechs, and outcome-based education worldwide. Her team works across the globe to accelerate the digital transformation of education in partnership with the full education community including learners, educators, researchers, and technology providers.   

In her over ten-year tenure at AWS, Valerie has held numerous leadership positions, including driving strategic customer engagement within AWS’s Worldwide Public Sector and Industries. Valerie established and led the AWS’s public sector global partner team, AWS’s North American commercial partner team, was the leader for teams managing AWS’s largest worldwide partnerships, and incubated AWS’s Aerospace & Satellite Business Group. Valerie established AWS’s national systems integrator program and promoted partner competency development and practice expansion to migrate enterprise-class, large-scale workloads to AWS.  

Prior to joining AWS, Valerie held senior positions at Quest Software, Adobe Systems, Oracle Corporation, BEA Systems, and Cisco Systems. She holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Maryland and a Master in Public Administration from the George Washington University.

Valerie Singer | LinkedIn

Joseph T. Yun, Ph.D. serves as Director of AI Enablement at the University of Pittsburgh and Research Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering. His work focuses on building production-ready AI systems and translating them into real-world impact. At Pitt, he started and runs the Amazon AWS AI Cloud Innovation Center and has helped lead applied AI partnerships with organizations including Dell, Amazon AWS, and Anthropic.

Dr. Joseph Yun | LinkedIn