​Join us for important conversations about AI Policy & Economic Development, the future of Washington State, and networking to kick off #SeattleAIWeek 2025!

​Speakers:

• ​Governor Bob Ferguson

• ​Randa Minkarah, Chief Operating Executive for the WTIA

• ​Joe Nguyễn, Director for the Washington Department of Commerce

• ​Representative Cindy Ryu

• ​Nathan Lambert, Senior Research Scientist at Allen Institute

• ​Brittany Jarnot, Manager, US State and Local Government Affairs for Salesforce

• ​Colleen Kerr, Assistant General Counsel, AI Economy Institute Microsoft AI for Good Lab

• ​Dave Cotter, CEO of Greenwood

​Agenda

• ​3:00PM: Doors Open

• ​3:30 - 3:45: Opening Remarks

• ​3:45 - 4:45 - AI Policy & Economic Development Panel

• ​4:45 - 5:00 - Hear from Gov. Ferguson on the Future of Washington

• ​5:00 - 5:30 - Fireside Chat between Colleen Kerr and Dave Cotter

• ​5:30 on - Networking!

​Speakers

​Governor Bob Ferguson

​Washington State Governor

​Randa Minkarah

​Chief Operating Executive for the WTIA

​Randa Minkarah is a seasoned executive in technology and media, known for her entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in driving growth. She co-founded Resonance AI, an AI startup focused on media content analysis, recognized by NVIDIA’s Inception Program and TechCrunch. Previously, she was Senior VP at Fisher Communications, leading revenue and digital transformation until its 2013 sale. Currently, she serves as Consortium Chief Operating Executive for WTIA and Portalus, managing operations and member services. Minkarah is an active speaker, advisor, and investor in tech and healthcare, and serves on boards including Washington Delta Dental and WTIA. She holds a BFA from the University of Cincinnati and resides in Seattle.

​Joe Nguyễn

​Director for the Washington Department of Commerce

​Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn was born and raised in Seattle. His experiences as a life-long Washington resident and second-generation Vietnamese American make him an ardent champion for investing in Washington families and residents, expanding economic opportunities, and taking bold steps in our fight against the climate crisis.

​Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed Joe as Commerce director on Dec. 27, 2024. He took the helm at Commerce on Jan. 15, 2025. Before that, he was a state senator from 2019-2024. In the senate, he chaired the Environment, Energy & Technology Committee and supported legislation for housing affordability, health care, public transit, climate, and education. He is a longtime advocate for working families and community members who are historically left out of the political process.

​Joe grew up in White Center, attended high school in Burien and college at Seattle University. He now lives in West Seattle. He’s worked for Expedia and Microsoft, and has volunteered with organizations for homelessness services and law enforcement oversight.

​Representative Cindy Ryu

​Rep. Cindy Ryu is a 56-year resident of Washington state and lived previously in South Korea, Brunei and the Philippines. She received a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology with honors and an MBA in Operations Management from the University of Washington - Seattle. She served as President of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region 2024-2025.

​Rep. Ryu chairs the Technology, Economic Development & Veterans Committee, with jurisdiction over economic development; rural economic development; small business assistance; underserved communities; minority and women’s business enterprises; community development; international trade; tourism; and emergency preparedness, response, and resiliency. The committee also considers issues relating to broadband and digital equity; telecommunications; emerging technologies; artificial intelligence; data privacy; cybersecurity; and state information technology; and veterans’ and military affairs.

​Nathan Lambert

​Senior Research Scientist at Allen Institute

​Nathan Lambert is a Senior Research Scientist and post-training lead at the Allen Institute for AI focusing on building open language models. At the same time he founded and operates Interconnects.ai to increase transparency and understanding of current AI research, models and systems. Previously, he helped build an RLHF research team at HuggingFace. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley working at the intersection of machine learning and robotics. He was advised by Professor Kristofer Pister in the Berkeley Autonomous Microsystems Lab and Roberto Calandra at Meta AI Research. He was lucky to intern at Facebook AI and DeepMind during his Ph.D. Nathan was was awarded the UC Berkeley EECS Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award for Altruism for his efforts to better community norms.

​Brittany Jarnot

​Manager, US State and Local Government Affairs for Salesforce

​Brittany Jarnot (she/her) is Manager, U.S. State and Local Government Affairs, Northwest for Salesforce, covering legislative and strategic engagement across 9 states in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West regions. She has over 12 years of experience in public policy, advocacy, and political campaigns. She previously worked as the Public Policy Manager at the Washington Technology Industry Association and formerly served in the district office of U.S. Representative Rick Larsen. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and French from Gonzaga University.