2023 SuperNova Award Judges

AI and Augmented Humanity

Dr. David Bray (@stimsoncenter)
Principal, LeadDoAdapt Ventures, Inc. & Distinguished Fellow Henry S. Stimson Center, Business Executives for National Security
Dr. David A. Bray is a Distinguished Fellow with the Stimson Center as well as a non-resident Distinguished Fellow with the Business Executives for National Security. He is Principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures and has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005, Executive Director for a bipartisan National Commission on R&D, providing non-partisan leadership as a federal agency Senior Executive, work with the U.S. Navy and Marines on improving organizational adaptability, and with U.S. Special Operation Command’s J5 Directorate on the challenges of countering disinformation online. He has received both the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal. David accepted a leadership role in December 2019 to direct the successful bipartisan Commission on the Geopolitical Impacts of New Technologies and Data that included Senator Mark Warner, Senator Rob Portman, Rep. Suzan DelBene, and Rep. Michael McCaul. From 2017 to the start of 2020, David also served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet coalition Chaired by Internet co-originator Vint Cerf and was named a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition starting in 2018. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World” under 40 and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. For twelve different startups, he has served as President, Chief Strategy Officer, and Strategic Advisor roles.

Craig Stedman (@craigstedman)
Industry Editor
TechTarget
Craig Stedman writes about AI, analytics and data management technologies for several TechTarget websites, including SearchBusinessAnalytics, SearchDataManagement and SearchEnterpriseAI. He's also involved in planning editorial content for the sites and tracking market trends. Craig has more than 30 years of experience as an IT journalist. Before joining TechTarget in 2009, he worked for 16 years as an editor and reporter at Computerworld, where he covered a variety of enterprise technologies. Craig is a graduate of Boston University, with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Liza Lichtinger (@LichtLiza)
CEO
Future Design Life
Liza is a thought-leading executive, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, futurist, and psychologist at the intersection of the Wellness Tech Industry, CEO of Future Design Life, and VC advisor on neurobehavioral drivers of human & financial performances. Recently, Liza served as the Director of Research at the AI Foundation, applying research grants in human machine interaction to launch the Deepak Chopra AI product and publish in the AGI Springer journal. Reflecting on the various threats preventing positive evolution, Liza left AIF to focus on human and planetary wellness. A few months later a global pandemic emerged, as CEO of Future Design Life, Liza globally deployed her Resilience Recovery Response program to encourage investors and entrepreneurs to adopt practices that serve the greater good, incentivize sustainable and circular economies as a summer venture partner. Liza works on various projects and peace policy under Martin E. Hellman. At JumpScale Liza leads research and partnerships.

Liza holds an M.S. in Counseling Psychology and Mental Health Psychotherapy with a Behavioral Neuroscience Focus, graduate level Mindfulness degrees, computer and data science training, a BA/BS in Psychology, Philosophy, and Slavid Languages, and attended and received a certificate from the ILR school at Cornell University in Human Capital Development, Labor/Law/Human Relations/Human Resources. She is passionate about mentoring accelerators, advising incubators and founders, serving on boards, delivering keynotes and public speaking about human resilience, wellness tech, planetary wellbeing, how to incentivize sustainable and circular economies, is a lifelong practitioner of the healing arts, and invests in Human Capital Development.

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R "Ray" Wang (@rwang0)
CEO & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
R "Ray" Wang is Principal Analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, Inc. Wang is the bestselling author of Disrupting Digital Business. In addition, he is the author of the popular enterprise software blog "A Software Insider’s Point of View". With viewership in the millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models impact the enterprise. Prior to founding Constellation, he was a founding partner and research analyst for enterprise strategy at Altimeter Group and one of the top analysts at Forrester Research for enterprise strategy.

Andy Thurai (@AndyThurai)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.

Andy Thurai is an accomplished IT executive, strategist, advisor, enterprise architect and evangelist with more than 25 years of experience in executive, technical, and architectural leadership positions at companies such as IBM, Intel, BMC, Nortel, and Oracle. Andy has written more than 100 articles on emerging technology topics for publications such as Forbes, The New Stack, AI World, VentureBeat, DevOps.com, GigaOm and Wired.

Andy’s fields of interest and expertise include AIOps, ITOps, Observability, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud, Edge, and other enterprise software. His strength is selling technology to the CxO audience with a value proposition rather than the usual technology sales pitch.

Data to Decisions

Doug Henschen (@dhenschen)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Doug Henschen is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering big data and analytics. Henschen is a keen observer of how organizations utilize emerging analytics technologies to build new business models. Prior to joining Constellation, Henschen was executive editor at InformationWeek.

Eric Avidon (@EricAvidon)
Reporter & Editor
TechTarget
Eric Avidon, a journalist with more than two decades of experience as a reporter and editor, covers analytics for TechTarget's Enterprise Software and Services Media Group. He began his career writing about financial markets in his hometown of New York City before moving to Massachusetts and becoming a sports reporter and editor for 17 years. Avidon, a Bard College alumnus, values time with his wife and daughter and is a fitness enthusiast who enjoys swimming, biking, rowing and slowly building a home gym.

Jon Reed Constellation SuperNova Award Judge
Jon Reed (@jonerp)
Co-founder
Diginomica
Jon Reed has been building enterprise communities since 1995. These days, Jon is a roving blogger/analyst. He also advises vendors and startups on reaching today's informed enterprise buyer, now that the sales funnel is discredited. He is a diginomica co-founder, Enterprise Irregular, and purveyor of multi-media content. Jon is an advocate for media over marketing; he sees diginomica as a chance to disrupt tech media, with the BS-weary enterprise reader in mind. Jon's signature weekly column, Enterprise Hits and Misses, is a strike-through-laden enterprise review for readers who enjoy puncturing hype balloons. Jon's core areas include the problem of CX, the pursuit of AI/analytics ROI, work futures/skills development, and the realities of transformation efforts. Lately, he's been documenting the art - and perils - of virtual event design.

ESG and Sustainability

Heather Clancy (@greentechlady)
Technophile & Planet Lover
Heather Clancy is an award-winning journalist specializing in transformative technology and climate tech. As editorial director for GreenBiz.com, she chronicles the role of technology in decarbonization and business innovation meant to catalyze a low-carbon economy. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. She co-authored the Amazon best-seller for entrepreneurs, Niche Down, How to Become Legendary By Being Different.

Marketing Transformation

Liz Miller (@lizkmiller)
VP & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Liz Miller is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation focused on the business demands on today’s Chief Marketing Officer, the evolution of customer engagement and the rising requirement for a new security posture that accounts for the threat to brand trust. A 27-year marketing veteran, in her new role Miller will offer guidance on the leadership, business transformation and technology requirements for today’s marketing organizations and how to effectively transform business models to stay competitive in the shifting digital landscape. She will examine the key trends modern CMOs face, ranging from the realities of engagement in the trust economy to how marketing has become enterprise security’s greatest threat and critical champion.

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Soon Yu (@soonspeaks)
Bestselling Author
Iconic Advantage®
Soon Yu is an international speaker and best selling author on innovation and design who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine and New York Times. His book, Iconic Advantage®, challenges businesses to refocus their innovation priorities on building greater iconicity, and offers deeper insights on establishing timeless distinction and relevance. He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation where he created a $2 billion innovation pipeline, established 3 global innovation centers, and initiated industry-leading design best practices.

Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos)
Independent Analyst
Constellation Orbits
Gavin is a marketing technologist, strategist and advisor. He is the founder of the Disruptor’s Handbook – a strategy and innovation firm that helps organisations design and create a collaborative future for a digital world. Gavin has worked at the intersection of marketing and technology for over 20 years for companies and clients including SAP, IBM, McDonald’s and PwC, has co-authored five books and is a regular speaker on marketing, technology, startups and innovation.

Digital Safety, Governance, and Privacy

Steve Wilson (@steve_lockstep)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Steve Wilson is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, focusing on digital identity and privacy. Wilson has over twenty-five years experience in ICT innovation, and research and development. Wilson is credited with numerous breakthroughs in difficult areas of identity infrastructure and governance, including national and industry level authentication frameworks, PKI systems, smartcards, digital credentials, fraud control, and privacy engineering.

Tricia Wang (@triciawang)
Co-Founder
Sudden Compass
With astronaut eyes and ethnographer curiosity, Tricia Wang is obsessed with discovering the unknown. Tricia is a global tech ethnographer living at the intersection of data, design, and digital. Her passion is to help organizations uncover how our bias towards the quantifiable comes at the expense of profits and people, and how to fix it. She is the co-founder of Sudden Compass, a consulting firm that helps enterprises move at the speed of their customers by unlocking new growth opportunities in their big data with human insights in their digital transformation. Organizations she’s worked with include P&G, Kickstarter, Spotify, and GE. She also co-founded Magpie Kingdom, a consultancy that helps globally minded companies gain actionable insights about the Chinese consumer. Their newsletter, Magpie Digest, unpacks trending conversations in China to reveal insights about youth culture and macro social implications.

Debra J. Farber (@privacyguru)
CEO, Privacy & Ethical Tech Advisor
Principled LLC

Debra J. Farber is a globally-recognized Privacy, Security and Ethical Tech Advisor and CEO of Principled LLC. Through Principled, she works with early and growth stage startups to craft go-to-market messaging that resonates with privacy, security, and data governance executives; evangelizes privacy-by-design and privacy engineering methodologies and tactics; and evaluates the uses of distributed ledger technologies, verified credentials, and decentralized identifiers for building ethical, transparent, verifiable, and trusted technology. She thrives when she pours her passion into the development of ethical ecosystems.

Debra serves as Metaverse Guardians Program Lead at XR Safety Institute (XRSI), Advisor to The Rise of Privacy Tech, a member of The Metaverse Reality Check oversight board, and a member of The Open Voice Network’s Industry Advisory Council. Previously, Debra was a privacy and security leader at Amazon Prime Video, AWS, BigID, Visa, and IBM.

Michelle Finneran Dennedy (@mdennedy)
CEO, Stealthy Privacy, Inc.
Partner, Privatus.Online
Michelle Finneran Dennedy currently serves as Board member and advisor to data centric technology organizations. In addition: Stealthy Privacy is an early stage venture that applies requirements based and user centric design principles to plan, measure and map privacy excellence. Michelle serves as Stealthy CEO Privatus Consulting is the home of Wicked Privacy™ and assists clients with metrics, methodologies and mentorship to build and accelerate data protection practices. Michelle serves as Partner. She is the co-author of The Privacy Engineer’s Manifesto & the Privacy Engineer’s Companion.

Future of Work - Employee Experience

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Dion Hinchcliffe (@dhinchcliffe)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, bestselling author, enterprise architect, industry analyst, and noted keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT. Dion is a recognized industry expert on the topics of digital transformation, digital workplace, social collaboration, API strategy, social business, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), online business models, CIO issues, digital business, and next-generation enterprises.

Dr. Janice Presser (@DrJanice)
TeamingScience.com
Dr. Janice Presser spent her formative years researching how people team together, finding answers in systems theory and physics. Having written her first line of code in high school, she was positioned to architect a system to measure how people work together and develop the underlying theory and practice of Teaming Science. She continues to write, speak, and consult on all aspects of human interaction, motivation, and perception. Her books are available at Amazon.com/author/drjanice.

Virginia Backaitis (@actbrilliant)
Reporter
Virginia Backaitis wear a lot of hats. She run Brilliant Leap, a 30 year old search and consulting firm. She is also a journalist who writes about two seemingly unrelated things: 1) enterprise technology and 2) what it’s like to work in the modern workplace. My work gets published in places like CMSWire, SeekingAlpha, the New York Post, and the Daily Telegraph. Virginia has a new project, DigitizingPolaris which covers select tech industry news and views that don’t get the sunlight they deserve elsewhere.

Terri Griffith (@terrigriffith)

Professor, Author, Keynote Speaker, Consultant

Terri L. Griffith holds the Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business. Her research focuses on human and technical systems for the future of work, most recently the bottom-up application of AI and other forms of automation. She spent two decades in the Silicon Valley and in 2012 was honored as a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal following the publication of her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology, and Organization to Thrive.

She offers programs and projects for companies and associations including Oracle, IBM, Cisco, ESADE, Sonera, SIM APC, and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. She serves on the advisory boards of GeoPogo, and Intelenz. Terri has served as a senior editor for Organization Science and associate editor for MIS Quarterly. Her undergraduate degree is from UC Berkeley; her MS and PhD are from Carnegie Mellon.

Rachel Happe (@rhappe)
Founder
The Community Roundtable
Rachel Happe is the Founder of The Community Roundtable, a firm that collaborates with clients to develop proven, practical strategies for better engagement. Clients rely on TheCR’s models, research, expertise, and community of practice to advance engagement, collaboration, culture change, and innovation goals. Clients including AMEX, City Year, Hilti, AAAS, Microsoft, EA, Ciena, the Canadian Medical Association, and the World Bank Group benefit from Rachel’s ability to make sense of abstract trends and her ability to see the implications that technical and operational decisions can have on people and processes. Rachel has over twenty-five years of experience working with emerging technologies, including enterprise social networking, eCommerce, and enterprise innovation management software. Rachel has served as a product executive at Mzinga, Bitpass, & IDe, and as IDC’s first analyst covering social technologies. She started her career as a business analyst at PRTM. She has written for Information Week and Harvard Business Review and serves as the Communications Chair on the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association’s board of directors.

John Ragsdale (@john_ragsdale)
Distinguished Researcher, Vice President of Research, Service Technology
Technology Services Industry Association
John Ragsdale is the distinguished vice president of technology research for TSIA. His area of expertise is in assisting enterprise technology firms with the selection and value realization of service tools and platforms, with a constant focus on the customer experience. John drives TSIA's highly regarded technology research agenda, delivering insightful, thought-leadership research and analysis on the most pressing business issues facing services leaders to enable them to better plan and execute their service strategies. John earned the title of TSIA Distinguished Researcher when he reached over ten years in a research role at TSIA, having authored over 250 research articles, answered 3,000+ member inquiries, and developed frameworks and survey methodologies that helped members address complex business challenges. John also continues to take a lead role as a mentor, helping other members of the TSIA Research team master their skills.

Future of Work: Human Capital Management

Holger Mueller Headshot
Holger Mueller (@holgermu)
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Holger Mueller is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on next-gen apps and human capital management technology. Previously Holger was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There he lead the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a service (BPaaS) capabilities.

Dickson Tang (@imDicksonT)
Author & Speaker
Dickson Tang is a keynote speaker, author and influencer. He helps people and organizations get creative towards the future of work and business, so that they can unlock ideas and opportunities in new products, services and processes. He is author of the book "Leadership for future of work: 9 ways to build career edge over robots with human creativity". He was featured in media such as Forbes, Irish Tech News and “Money FM 89.3”. Why he cares so much about creativity and the future? Because the future needs creativity, but traditional schools don’t teach creativity. That’s why he wants to do something to bridge this big gap. People called Dickson an “ideas” person; he is a strong believer that “idea is the new currency in the new economy.” He also runs a corporate training company, working with leaders and executives from Cartier, CITIC Telecom, JVC Kenwood, Mannheim Business School, Menicon, Montblanc, Novartis and many more. He is based in Singapore.

Trish McFarlane (@TrishMcFarlane)
HR Technology Analyst/ Consultant/ Writer/ Podcaster
Seasoned HR executive focused on alignment of strategic business objectives. Advises organizations on product strategy in order to bring HR professionals and technology vendors closer together. Provides research and analysis of market trends. Experienced in technology selection and implementation since 2005. Trish is the co-host of the most listened to HR industry podcast, the HR Happy Hour. She joins her co-host, Steve Boese, in episodes that focus on what is important to the HCM industry and leaders. They also host the HR Happy Hour on Alexa. She co-founded HRevolution (http://thehrevolution.org), a conference that highlights emerging trends and the future of HR. She also co-founded the Women of HR blog (www.womenofhr.com) in order to give a voice to practitioners who are passionate about issues affecting women in the workplace.

William Tincup (@williamtincup)
President at RecruitingDaily.com
William is the President of RecruitingDaily. At the intersection of HR and technology, he's a writer, speaker, advisor, consultant, investor, storyteller & teacher. William has written over 200 HR articles, spoken at over 150 HR & recruiting conferences and I've conducted over 1000 HR podcasts.

Sarah White (@imsosarah)
CEO
Aspect43

Marketing & Sales Effectiveness

Soon Yu (@soonspeaks)
Bestselling Author
Iconic Advantage®
Soon Yu is an international speaker and best selling author on innovation and design who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine and New York Times. His book, Iconic Advantage®, challenges businesses to refocus their innovation priorities on building greater iconicity, and offers deeper insights on establishing timeless distinction and relevance. He most recently served as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation where he created a $2 billion innovation pipeline, established 3 global innovation centers, and initiated industry-leading design best practices.

Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos)
Independent Analyst
Constellation Orbits
Gavin is a marketing technologist, strategist and advisor. He is the founder of the Disruptor’s Handbook – a strategy and innovation firm that helps organisations design and create a collaborative future for a digital world. Gavin has worked at the intersection of marketing and technology for over 20 years for companies and clients including SAP, IBM, McDonald’s and PwC, has co-authored five books and is a regular speaker on marketing, technology, startups and innovation.

Next-Generation Customer Experience

Brent Leary (@BrentLeary)
Co-Founder and Partner
CRM Essentials
Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business. Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award. He blogs at BrentLeary.com.

Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe)
Board of Advisors (Constellation Research, Inc.) & President
The 56 Group, LLC
In addition to being the author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century, Paul Greenberg is President of The 56 Group, LLC, an enterprise applications consulting services firm, focused on CRM strategic services including go-to-market strategies for vendors and integrators, CRM strategic planning and vendor selection. The 56 Group also provides writing, speaking and educational services. Paul has years of experience with both CRM and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). He has built SAP and People Soft practices and, has extremely deep ties into the CRM and enterprise applications communities.

Marshall Lager (@Lager)
CRM Industry Analyst
Marshall Lager is an independent analyst, consultant, and writer with more than 15 years' experience in the CRM space. He can provide insight on a broad array of related topics, but has a particular love for customer experience and customer journeys. Marshall has worked for CRM Magazine/destinationCRM.com, Informa, and G2.

Tech Optimization and Modernization

Debra Lilley (@debralilley)
VP Customer Success
Inoapps

Debra Lilley is an Oracle ACE Director and Fusion Applications UX Advocate. She is a passionate about user communities, a board member for ODTUG and Past President of UKOUG. Debra led the Product Development Committee of the IOUC; the user group team working with Oracle during the development of Fusion Applications. She has worked with Oracle Applications and technology since 1996 and presented at over 300 events around the world about Oracle Applications and the Technology they are built on.

Mike Wheatley (@Mike_Wheatley)
Senior Staff Writer
SiliconANGLE
Mike Wheatley is a senior staff writer at SiliconANGLE. He loves to write about Big Data and the Internet of Things, and explore how these technologies are evolving and helping businesses to become more agile. Before joining SiliconANGLE, Mike was an editor at Argophilia Travel News, an occassional contributer to The Epoch Times, and has also dabbled in SEO and social media marketing. He usually bases himself in Bangkok, Thailand, though he can often be found roaming through the jungles or chilling on a beach.

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Sholto Macpherson (@sholtomac)
Publisher, Digital First
Contributor, Constellation Orbits
Sholto Macpherson is an analyst in online accounting software for SMEs and a business technology journalist for more than 15 years. Since June 2011 he has published DigitalFirst.com, a blog covering the latest cloud technologies for SMEs and disruption in the accounting profession.

Sean Michael Kerner (@TechJournalist)
Freelance Journalist
Sean Michael Kerner is a freelance journalist and IT consultant for over twenty years covering a range of topics covering the entire spectrum of IT topics, at a diverse array of publications. He has spoken at multiple industry events around the world and considers Klingon to be his second language. Follow hiim on Twitter @TechJournalist