LOS ANGELES, NOV. 11, 2020 — Innovate@UCLA, a member-based executive IT leadership organization, announced four honorees today for its annual Executive Leadership Awards in the Public Sector, Community Impact, Corporate Enterprise, and Emerging Tech categories.
Awardees include Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of LA County Health Services; Skye Patrick, director of LA County Library; Jack Dangermond, president and founder of Esri; and Rich Pierson/Andy Puddicombe co-founders of Headspace.
The awards celebration will open with a keynote speaker, Guy Kawasaki (MBA ’79), author, speaker and chief evangelist of Canva.
“Innovate@UCLA has responded to unprecedented times with a virtual Executive Leadership Awards celebration,” said Jim Davis, vice provost of Information Technology and chief academic technology officer at UCLA. “COVID-19 has caused a dramatic shift in how technology is used by companies to not only survive, but create new business models.”
“We are recognizing leaders across industries and government who are innovators — and especially how they served others in the middle of a pandemic,” said Jim Rinaldi, executive director of Innovate@UCLA and former CIO of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Our Executive Leadership Awards event will highlight the award recipients and their contributions. It promises to entertain, inform and provide insight into how leaders think and act.”
During the event, the four awardees will discuss their personal journeys to leadership positions, their viewpoints on emerging technology disruptions, and tackling the challenges faced by their organizations during the pandemic. Frank Mottek, the voice of business news in Los Angeles, will moderate a fireside chat with Dr. Anne Rimoin, professor of Epidemiology at UCLA, regarding the COVID-19 research conducted at UCLA.
