As a Research Director in the CIO practice, Brian focuses on emerging trends, executive leadership strategy, and digital strategy. After more than a decade as a technology and science journalist, Brian has his fingers on the pulse of leading-edge trends and organizational best practices towards innovation.

Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Brian was the Editorial Director at IT World Canada, responsible for the B2B media publisher’s editorial strategy and execution across all of its publications. A leading digital thinker at the firm, Brian led IT World Canada to become the most award-winning publisher in the B2B category at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. In addition to delivering insightful reporting across three industry-leading websites, Brian also developed, launched, and grew the firm’s YouTube channel and podcasting capabilities. 

Brian started his career with Discovery Channel Interactive, where he helped pioneer Canada’s first broadband video player for the web. He developed a unique web-based Live Events series, offering video coverage of landmark science experiences including a space shuttle launch, a dinosaur bone dig in Alberta’s badlands, a concrete canoe race competition hosted by Survivorman, and FIRST’s educational robot battles. 

Brian holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University. He is regularly featured as a technology expert by broadcast media including CTV, CBC, and Global affiliates.

As a Product Marketing Manager for Data Science and Open-Source, Marinela uses her cross-domain expertise in statistics, business, and marketing to position SAS as a leader in the data science and machine learning platform market. 

She focuses on helping customers apply advanced analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, and forecasting to solve their most complex problems. 

Over the past 5 years, Marinela honed her skills mining data, developing models and technical/business solutions, including deploying AI at scale. Her experience spans banking, manufacturing, retail, and energy. 

She is a keynote speaker and presenter at different global conferences, where she shares trends and priorities of the data science industry. She is a published author, contributor to several eBooks, and blog writer on major industry and data science blogs. 

She has a bachelor’s in economics, an MBA, and a master’s in statistics.

Jason Crawforth is a visionary tech innovator with over 30 years of experience in transforming the technology landscape. As a serial entrepreneur, Jason has founded and led several successful technology companies and has delivered cutting-edge solutions across various industries and Fortune 100 companies. His ventures have been pivotal in driving innovation and have collectively impacting over a billion dollars in revenue. 

Currently, Jason serves as the Founder and CEO of SWEAR.com, an award-winning company that is redefining digital trust. Under his leadership, SWEAR is at the forefront of the battle against the rising threat of AI-generated synthetic media (deepfakes). With a decade of focus on digital verification, Jason is committed to making SWEAR the gold standard for online authenticity and security. 

Jason’s commitment to excellence and his forward-thinking approach continue to set new benchmarks for technology and digital security, making a lasting impact on how we perceive and interact with information online.

Dr. Spendier is the Technical Prize Director for the XPRIZE Quantum Applications competition.
XPRIZE Quantum Applications is a 3-year, $5M global competition designed to generate
quantum computing algorithms that can be put into practice to help solve real-world challenges. 

Before joining XPRIZE, Kathrin served as Quantum Computing Technology Evangelist at
Quantinuum, where she led the outreach program for the quantum software development kit
TKET in North America. She spent over a decade at the University of Colorado, Colorado
Springs, where she served as Associate Professor of Physics and Director of Research
Programs. Kathrin earned her Ph.D. in Physics with distinction from the University of New
Mexico, specializing in Biophysics