Event Details

Join us for the Innovate@UCLA 2025 Executive Leadership Awards!

Our signature event will take place on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM at the UCLA Luskin Ballroom.

What to Expect:

5:00 PM – Reception and Networking

• During the networking reception, connect with peers, thought leaders, and innovators.

6:00 PM – Dinner

• Enjoy a delightful plated dinner service.

Hosts:

• Heidi Pease, Head of Investment Products, Wave Financial, Innovate@UCLA Executive Leadership Awards (ELA) Vice Chair
• Thomas Phelps, SVP & CIO, Laserfiche, Innovate@UCLA Immediate Past-Chair

Keynote Address:

“From Stablecoins to Tokenized Assets: How Digital Assets Will Reshape Enterprise Strategy and Our Personal Lives”

• Joel Telpner, Chief Legal & Policy Officer, Input Output Global (IOG)

Speaker:

“Navigating the Next Wave of Disruption: Tariffs, Crypto, and Technology”

• Kevin Parikh, Founder & CEO, Avasant, Innovate@UCLA CEO Advisory Board Chairman

Panel Discussion:

“Looking Ahead Through Reflections on the LA Fires“

• Dr. Darlene Greene, Councilwoman, Altadena Town Council
• Haylynn Conrad, Councilmember, Malibu City Council
• Moderated by Davida Johnson, Executive Director, UCLA Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC), Innovate@UCLA Program Sponsor

Awards Presentation:

• Emerging Technology Award: Local Kitchens

  • Jay Gentile, CEO
  • Alex Pien, SVP Brand

• Community Impact Award: YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles

  • Victor Dominguez, President & CEO

Other Notable Speakers:

• Andy Schlei, Retired SVP, Information Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment & Avasant Fellow, Innovate@UCLA Executive Leadership Awards (ELA) Chair
• Jim Rinaldi, Former CIO, Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) & Senior Fellow, Avasant, Innovate@UCLA Executive Director
• Bhupesh Arora, Executive Partner, Gartner, Innovate@UCLA Executive Chair

8:40 PM – End of Program

About Innovate@UCLA Executive Leadership Awards

The Innovate@UCLA Executive Leadership Award (ELA) recognizes the exceptional creation of value to achieve a company’s vision via the application of innovative, forward-thinking, and disruptive technologies and operating models.

Sponsors

Avasant is a leading global management consulting firm helping enterprises translate technology into business results. With deep expertise in digital and business transformation, strategic sourcing, benchmarking, and research, Avasant delivers client-centric solutions that drive sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

The Silicon Partners (TSP) is a leading IT professional services partner helping enterprises innovate and transform with confidence. TSP specializes in ERP planning and execution, combining deep expertise in SAP, Automation, AI, and HCM to enable organizations to leverage technology to scale innovation and streamline operations. 

NTT DATA is a trusted global innovator of business and technology services, helping clients innovate, optimize and transform for success. As a Global Top Employer, we have diverse experts in more than 50 countries and a robust partner ecosystem. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group.

Event Chair

Andy Schlei
Executive Leadership Awards (ELA) Chair
Retired SVP, Information Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment & Avasant Fellow

Unapologetic Value Proposition Workshop

Most professionals are taught to let “the work speak for itself.” But the reality is, if you can’t articulate your value, you risk being overlooked.

The Unapologetic Value Proposition (UVP) is more than just a framework for career advancement—it’s a powerful tool for building lifelong relationships that will support you through every stage of your professional and personal life.

Innovate@UCLA invites you to hear from Beate Chelette, The Growth Architect, our facilitator and a recent Palisades Fire survivor, who lost everything but gained an invaluable gift: the realization that success isn’t just about achievements—it’s about the relationships you build along the way.

Through Beate’s firsthand experience and decades of business strategy, this workshop will guide you to:

• Speak confidently about your strengths.
• Position yourself for advancement and leadership.
• Build relationships based on who you are—not just what you do.

Beate’s journey through loss revealed the true power of community—from people driving hours to deliver help to a mentor showing up with a copy of her own book, reminding her of the lessons she had once written but now needed to hear.

Your Unapologetic Value Proposition is not just about career moves—it’s about creating a foundation of trust, credibility, and impact that lasts beyond any job title.

JOIN US for this powerful conversation and take the next step in defining your value—at work, in leadership, and in life.

Please contact us at info@innovateucla.org for more information.

About Beate Chelette

Your guide for this workshop, Beate Chelette, is a seasoned strategist and keynote speaker who has presented at organizations and conferences across the country, including WiTH, Merck, Chevron, and numerous Leadership Conferences. Recognized as one of the “Top 100 Global Thought Leaders” by PeopleHum and a “Must-Follow Woman Entrepreneur” by HuffPost, Beate successfully sold her multi-million-dollar business to Bill Gates and now works with start-ups and Fortune 100 companies to achieve personal and professional growth. She aligns spirituality with strategy to deliver actionable insights that drive results.

About Our Sponsors

At the intersection of technology and people, we provide cutting-edge IT solutions and Agentic & Generative AI capabilities – enabling our clients innovate, scale, and succeed.

Board members save the date for our fourth quarter meeting!

Board members save the date for our fourth quarter meeting!

Join Innovate@UCLA for our third Career Exchange virtual session led by Janet Horan, Vice Dean for Finance, Administration, and CFO at USC Marshall School of Business and moderated by Ghalib Kassam, EVP, CIO, and CISO at Los Angeles Times, and Programs Committee at Innovate@UCLA.

When a search is launched today to recruit a CIO in higher education, what is the search committee looking for? Which key skills and experiences rise to the top as essential to keep pace with the disruptive technology for the current business model. 

Fifteen years ago, CIO roles required technical depth and expected to deliver complex IT projects. The need for soft skills has been increasing to add value as a strategic partner with leadership and the business. These skills bring the ability to effectively manage people and streamlining processes to align technology with business goals.

Let us talk about the changes over time for the key competencies sought in CIO roles today and institutions seeking to balance technical knowledge and risk mitigation with the need for human centered leadership in our IT teams.

Open to all: members and non-members are welcome!

About Janet Horan

Janet Horan serves as the USC Marshall School Vice Dean for Finance and Administration and CFO. Janet serves on the Dean’s Cabinet and provides leadership and oversight of the school budget, Human Resources, IT, Facilities, Financial Planning, Graduate Admissions and Marshall Career Services.

Janet previously was at Columbia University’s Business School for 23 years, where she served most recently as the Vice Dean for Finance and Administration. Along with responsibility for all administrative operations and financial oversight of Columbia Business School’s budget and project planning for the transformational $500 million capital project to build two new business school facilities which opened in 2022. 

Janet holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Human Resources from Baruch College/City University of New York, Executive MPA in Non-profit Management and Finance from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a Master of Dispute Resolution from USC Gould School of Law.

About Ghalib Kassam

Ghalib Kassam is the Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Information Security Officer at the Los Angeles Times, where he leads technology strategies to support journalism and business transformation. With over 25 years of experience across diverse industries, he specializes in delivering IT solutions and managing global teams to achieve metric-driven outcomes. Kassam also serves on multiple boards, including Innovate@UCLA.

Get together with Southern California’s top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:

1. Shaping the Efficient Enterprise with AI & Automation
2. Strengthening Partnerships for Wider Business Impact
3. Illustrating IT’s Value through Business-first Initiatives

*Please note that this is an invitation-only event.

Please join us for our holiday party to celebrate all of this year’s many accomplishments!

*This event is invite-only. Please contact us at info@innovateucla.org for more information.

About Our Sponsors

At Patrio AI, we believe the future belongs to organizations that harness AI with intention, responsibility, and expertise. As a certified DVBE firm headquartered in Los Angeles, we partner with healthcare systems, government agencies, and enterprises to design AI-powered solutions, modernize infrastructure, and unlock actionable insights from data. Our approach is simple: listen deeply, build collaboratively, and deliver technology that drives transformation.

Join Innovate@UCLA for our first 2026 Women In Technology (WIT) virtual session led by Amber Senteno, Chief Technology Business Officer at City of Hope.

The Power Pivot: Turning Unmet Expectations Into Strategic Advantage

Every leader encounters moments when expectations aren’t met – being overlooked, unheard, or underestimated. While these moments can drain energy and trigger reactive responses, they can also become catalysts for clarity, confidence, and intentional leadership.

In this session, Amber Senteno reframes unmet expectations not as setbacks, but as strategic openings. Using a practical mindset framework grounded in gratitude, intentionality, and internal grounding, participants learn how to shift from emotional reactivity to empowered clarity. Drawing on patterns familiar to women in tech – such as being talked over, underrecognized, or excluded from key conversations,  the session focuses on reclaiming control, redirecting energy with purpose, and turning disappointment into leadership momentum.

The session is reflective and actionable, offering tools to recalibrate mindset in real time, strengthen presence, and respond with intention rather than instinct – elevating influence and strategic impact.

Open to all: members and non-members are welcome!

About Speaker

Amber Senteno is a senior healthcare technology executive with extensive experience leading strategy, operations, and transformation across complex, highly regulated organizations. Her “why” is personal: she stays in healthcare technology because everyone is a patient, including her – and technology decisions and outcomes shape the patient experience in the communities we live in and serve. She serves as Vice President, Chief Technology Business Officer at City of Hope, overseeing the enterprise business of technology – portfolio management, investment strategy, and value realization, including prioritization, governance, partner strategy and management, and funding and resource models across the Enterprise Technology Group.

Her career spans the healthcare technology ecosystem – health plans, care delivery, PBM, and specialty environments – as well as a health tech company developing and delivering technology solutions. Amber brings deep experience in technology strategy, digital enablement, delivery, and operations (including serving as a CIO for care delivery organizations) and partners closely with executive, clinical, and business leaders to modernize operating models, strengthen governance, and deliver measurable outcomes at scale.

Known for bridging vision and execution, Amber builds high-performing teams and develops leaders by cultivating cultures grounded in clarity, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Join us for the Innovate@UCLA Spring CxO Exchange session, From Innovation to Impact: The Data Storytelling Skill Every C-Suite Leader Needs, led by Timothy Park, MBA, Executive Director of the Easton Technology Management Center at UCLA Anderson. The event will be held on April 8, 2026, from 5:00-8:00 PM at UCLA.

Innovation only creates value when people understand it, trust it, and act on it. Despite significant investments in analytics and AI, many insights stall because leaders struggle to clearly articulate why they matter, creating a growing gap between technical teams and executive decision-makers.

In this session, you’ll learn how data storytelling becomes a leadership multiplier—translating complex insights into actionable business imperatives, unlocking ROI from data and AI investments, aligning technical and business teams, and driving adoption by connecting analytics to outcomes that matter.

Whether you’re championing AI transformation, justifying technology spend, or navigating resistance to data-driven change, this data storytelling skill determines whether your insights gather dust or drive results.

This is an invite-only event. For more information, please contact info@innovateucla.org

About Timothy Park

Timothy Park is a data science and technology leader with deep experience spanning multiple industries including aerospace engineering, entertainment, quick-service restaurants, and educational technology. Recognized as a thought leader in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), Tim has published several technical papers and frequently speaks at national analytics and data science conferences.

Driven by a passion for making data accessible and actionable, Tim has taught courses in calculus, statistics, machine learning, data visualization, and AI applications at UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, Cal State LA, and The Aerospace Institute. He remains committed to advancing the next generation of technology leaders through his new role as the Executive Director of the Easton Technology Management Center.

Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Occidental College and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He’s also a lifelong Bruin sports fan and champion of ethical, human-centered innovation in tech.

About Our Sponsors

Founded in 2019 with headquarters in Southern California, USA. KniTT is a team of industry experts who have delivered world class cloud services for Global 1000 corporations around the globe and now running revolutionary Private Cloud Platform – ELYSIUM.