K. Venkatesh Prasad, Ph.D.

SVP of Research and Chief Innovation Officer at Center for Automotive Research

Dr. K. Venkatesh Prasad, who goes by Prasad, serves as the Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at the Center for Automotive Research.

Prasad comes to CAR after a 26+ year career at Ford Motor Company. During his tenure at Ford, he held a broad range of leadership roles in R&D and innovation acceleration across Ford’s global Vehicle Components & Systems Engineering organization, and most recently in Corporate Strategy. During that time, he co-founded and led Ford’s Silicon Valley Labs in Palo Alto, California.

Prior to joining Ford, Prasad was a Senior Research Scientist at the Ricoh California Research Center. Prasad earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University, both with an emphasis in computer engineering. He earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the IIT Madras, and a B.E. in Electronics and Communications Engineering from NIT Trichy, University of Madras, where he received a distinguished alum award.

Jeff Peters

Partner at Ibex Investors

Jeff Peters is a Partner at Ibex Investors where he joined to launch and lead a $113M early-stage VC fund focused on manufacturing, logistics, and mobility. The fund leads rounds or are significant investors in pre-seed, seed, and Series A stage companies around the world. Jeff spent most of his life at the intersection of high-tech and core industries—and as an investor for nearly a decade. 

His portfolio at Ibex includes technology companies spanning the digital and physical divide with investments in trucking, EV battery design and manufacturing, battery QC inspection, and ADAS sensors. He is attracted to founders with strong founder-market fit and long-term differentiation delivering software to core industries. Prior to Ibex, Jeff was a Partner and the first investment team hire at a corporate-backed VC firm focused on ground transportation. He led investments in edge AI, autonomous mining, automated agriculture, micromobility, and QC inspection. 

Prior to his VC career, Jeff was a post-doc at Stanford in Management Science and Engineering. He has a PhD in Applied Economics, and MS in both Transportation Engineering and Economics from Purdue University. He started his career at Northrop Grumman Space Systems after earning a BSE in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. He spent most of his high school years taking apart a 1974 Plymouth Duster and working at his friend's car dealership.

Dave Blakely

EVP of Growth Institute at Mach49

As EVP of Mach49’s Growth Institute, Dave leverages his time with two successful startups and innovation firm IDEO, and his background as an instructor at Stanford and UC Berkeley, to cultivate dynamic new paradigms of training and distance learning, to transform a global network of professionals into successful venture builders and venture investors. He loves working with small interdisciplinary teams to build businesses that were not imaginable just 5 or 10 years ago, and lives for the magical moments when those teams foresee the implications of technical advances and visualize truly new opportunities. 

Upon joining Mach49, Dave discovered a space where he could fully tap into all his life experiences — from his technical skills and business savvy to his understanding of global socio-economic issues. His role at Mach49 allows him to mentor intrapreneurs, emboldening them to shake up the status quo, dream up and deliver on disruptive products and services, and foster a culture of entrepreneurship within their own organizations.

Greg Kahn

President & CEO at Emerging Tech Exchange

Moderator

Greg Kahn is a catalytic force in the technology, media and entertainment industries, renowned for connecting innovators with investors, growing brands and driving billions of dollars in transactional deals. A former award-winning executive at the Meredith Corporation and Publicis Groupe who received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Greg’s powerful network of high-level business relationships and public sector leaders stretches from coast to coast and beyond. Earning the trust and respect of some of the biggest companies in the world, including Verizon, Comcast, Google, 

T-Mobile, Mastercard, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Microsoft, ADT Security, LG Electronics, Cox, Whirlpool, Bank of America and SwissRe to name a few, he has an unparalleled reputation for making the impossible possible.

Passionate about creating a world of ethical connections, both human and through technology, Greg is a founding member of the Gun Safety Alliance and the Internet of Things Consortium, as well as a member of the Emma Bowen Foundation, the Guggenheim Technology & Innovation Council and an executive committee member of the UJA Federation of New York’s Entertainment, Media & Communications Division. Named a principal influencer driving IoT forward by Inc. and others, Greg is a regular keynote speaker and moderator at numerous industry events, including the Consumer Electronics Show.