Mike Sutcliff is the Retired Founder/Group CEO at Accenture Digital – a $22 billion dollar business unit with responsibility for the global Applied Intelligence practice.   The Applied Intelligence practice included a combination of data services, technology platforms, and more than 6000+ PhD/Master’s level data scientists working across industries on a global basis.  Mike retired after 34 years at Accenture in March 2020.  Mike is currently working as an Operating Partner with Advent Private Equity evaluating and coaching companies in the technology, data, and applied intelligence markets.  He is active on three boards of directors and launching three startup companies in the healthcare, digital content, and technology markets. Mike is CEO of a technology startup company in stealth mode with plans to introduce new technologies to the market in 2022.

Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford and Senior Fellow for Innovation at Columbia University. He has been described as the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship.  Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement and the curriculums for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and Hacking for Defense and Diplomacy, he’s changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate.

Steve is the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner’s Manual which revolutionized how startups were built– and his May 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story redefined how large companies can innovate at speed.

Steve is a founding faculty member of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford, where his latest class is Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition, is providing crucial insight on how technology will shape all the elements of national power (our influence and footprint on the world stage).