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OUR TEAM

The Cambrian Group’s leadership brings together more than 100 years of combined experience in cutting-edge science and technology, for-profit and social entrepreneurship, corporate innovation and strategy, and global economics and policy.

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Olaf Groth 

Founder & CEO

Olaf is also the Co-author of Solomon's Code, professional faculty at Haas School of Business UC Berkeley, professor at Hult Int.' Business School and an executive for the global innovation economy with 23 years of experience in corporations, consulting firms, and academia. Olaf has helped build new ventures and change management initiatives for employers and clients in the energy, technology, aerospace and transportation sectors in 30+ countries. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Oliver Michaelis

CTO

Oliver is an executive technologist & serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in distributed embedded and mobile software architectures, full-stack applications, security, and digital content distribution. He has a track record in technical and business leadership roles taking ideas to prototypes to commercial products with great end-user experiences. His areas of expertise span a broad range of topics, from mobile and cloud services to infotainment solutions. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Tobias Straube

VP - Operations & Analysis

Tobias brings deep experience in governance, higher education, and entrepreneurship across Africa, East Asia and Latin America. As an adviser to the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and other organizations, Tobias co-designed and co-led development cooperation projects with combined budgets of $60 million. While at GIZ, Tobias also developed an IT system to integrate project and financial management for the agency’s 24,000 employees in 120 countries. Learn more on LinkedIn.

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Dan Zehr 

VP - Communications

Dan is an award-winning business journalist whose reporting spans most major industries and geographies. Prior to joining the Cambrian Group, he covered the economy and finance for the Austin American-Statesman. Dan has co-authored or edited seven books, including works on artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, digital marketing, social media strategies and consumer markets in developing economies. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Laura Pecoraro 

Head of UX/UI Design

Laura is a Ux/UI expert and digital strategist, with 20 years of experience in Global Brands. Coming from advertising, she was an award-winning creative director for BBDO, where she managed brand such as Mercedes, Smart, Pfizer, Canados, Ariston. She has a profound understanding of disruption across different industries. In 2013 she has founded a digital enabler agency that designs and develops applications and platforms. Learn more on LinkedIn. 

Manu Kalia

Head of Data Science

Manu's career as quantitative analytics and data science professional, entrepreneur, consultant and finance executive spans 25 years in large public corporations as well as in garage-founded startups. His domain expertise covers optoelectronics, semiconductor IP, renewable energy development, smart-grid technology, and cloud computing. Learn more on LinkedIn.

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Ryan Liu

VP - Business Insights

At Cambrian, Ryan leads the business insights work, diagnosing and designing solutions for clients. His expertise lies in uncovering strategic insights through industry experience built at the intersection of business and technology. As such, Ryan also serves as Google’s Global Head of Analytics for Central Planning within Google’s Devices and Services business unit, responsible for bringing advanced analytics capabilities to enable sales and operations planning for Pixel, Fitbit, Nest, and all Google hardware products. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Ander Dobo

Senior Advisor - Product

Ander is a global product builder with 18+ years of experience across e-commerce, payments, enterprise tech, ISPs, telecom, call centres and business consulting. He has led product development from conception through launch for customers across Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and North America. He brings experience diving deep to develop actionable insights on customers' problems, s using a range of technologies, and spanning business domains. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Leea Craig

Advisor - Innovation, Digitization, Change Management, Strategy, USA & Canada

Leea is driving innovation delivery as a Strategy and Innovation Tech Lead in Commercial Banking for a Fortune 500 company. In the last few years, she has empowered multiple woman led businesses as an Organizational Change Management Consultant. Leea’s expertise covers Operations, Organizational Change Management, Technologic Change, and Digitization. Learn more on LinkedIn

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Karen Coppock

Senior Strategic Advisor

Karen is a seasoned global executive with 15 years’ experience working at the intersection of technology, platforms and social change across the Americas and globally. Impact areas have included home-sharing in San Francisco and technology deployment for social good across North, Central and South America. She holds a PhD from the Fletcher School. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Terence Tse

Senior Strategic Advisor

Terence is a co-founder and Executive Director of Nexus FrontierTech, a firm that uses AI to make data machine-usable and provides a robust infrastructure for process automation. He is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School. A well-sought speaker around the world, Terence is an author of three books and has written 120+ articles. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Mark Nitzberg

Senior Strategic Advisor

Mark is also the Executive Director of UC Berkeley's CHAI, head of strategic outreach for the Berkeley AI Research Lab and Co-Author of the book Solomon's Code. Mark has built ventures in the areas of computer vision, machine learning, financial portfolio optimization, workflow efficiencies, online commerce, development aid, data capture, analytics, film, and theatre. Learn more on LinkedIn.

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Mark Esposito

Senior Strategic Advisor

Mark is a bestselling author, professor and thought-leader in matters relating to the 4th Industrial Revolution. He co-founded Nexus Frontier Tech, an AI Firm, dedicated to the productions of AI solutions. He was inducted in 2016 in the radar of Thinkers50 as one of the 30 most prominent business thinkers. He is a global expert of the World Economic Forum and advisor to governments. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Stefan Heuser

Stefan Heuser 

Senior Strategic Advisor

Stefan is a strategically oriented senior executive, with 20+ years experience in building and leading technology-driven organizations, incl. planning, building and running innovation centers and corporate venture organizations, execute various venture investments in startups at Samsung and Siemens, leading operations serving as start-up board member and advisor. Learn more at LinkedIn

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Erin Conaton

Senior Strategic Advisor

Honorable Erin C. Conaton is President of Conaton Strategies, advising technology and other companies that seek business with the U.S. government. During the Obama Administration, she was Under Secretary of the Air Force and Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. She previously served on the House Armed Services Committee staff. She has also taught at the U.S. Army War College and several universities. See more on LinkedIn.

OUR GLOBAL NETWORK

Our multidisciplinary network of experts from around the world allows the Cambrian Group to deliver both the depth and breadth of insight you need to navigate the Cognitive Era.

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