Special Speakers

Brian Baute

Human-Led, AI-Powered: How to Thrive in an AI-Native World

Higher education is in one of the most consequential technology shifts in history. Institutions must innovate faster and deliver better personalized outcomes for students, while operating leaner, reaching greater scale, and facing increasing competitive pressures. Cloud and AI are the foundation for how universities will teach, research, and operate in the next decade.

Brian speaks and writes about the future of higher ed cloud strategy & economics, AI, and leadership in complex institutions.

Bio

Brian is a former university CIO who now helps institutions navigate cloud, AI, and digital transformation at AWS.

His perspective comes from both sides of the table. He spent two decades inside higher education, including serving as CIO and business school instructor at Queens University of Charlotte, and IT leadership roles in the University of North Carolina system and at Elon University. Now at AWS, he translates between institutional reality and technological possibility, in both directions.

Outside of work, he is drawn to endurance challenges, from full and half marathons to Spartan races to multi-day Special Forces-led GORUCK events, because progress happens outside our comfort zone.

Steve Berg '89

Noah Zender '22

Warning: Don't Get Caught on the Wrong Side of the Growing AI Divide

"The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed." In the world of artificial intelligence, some organizations and people are already operating in a fundamentally different world, while others are barely getting started. In this fireside chat, Steve Berg brings a business and investment perspective on AI, while Noah Zender offers insight from the technical and deployment side of the field. They will explore why AI adoption varies so widely, what cutting-edge use cases look like, and how students can prepare for the opportunities and challenges ahead. The session will help identify the AI skills (and human being skills) that matter, better understand the changing job market, and think more strategically about how to stand out in an economy increasingly shaped by AI.