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Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the largest software-focused investors in the world, with over $181 billion in assets under management. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions in accordance with its principles of partnership, innovation and performance. He has overseen approximately 555 software and technology acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing approximately $285 billion in enterprise value.

Orlando was born and raised in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Brown University, and earned a JD from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

He is the Founder and Chairman of the Bravo Family Foundation, which aims to provide young adults in Puerto Rico with access to opportunity. In 2019, Orlando committed $100 million to the Foundation’s Rising Entrepreneurs Program (REP) with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship on the island. In addition, he has been personally involved in responding to the hurricanes that have devastated communities across Puerto Rico, providing millions in funding for humanitarian and relief efforts following Hurricanes Maria (2017) and Fiona (2022). 

In addition to his commitment to Puerto Rico, Orlando is dedicated to supporting the next generation of scholars and future leaders. To further these efforts, he has been deeply involved in Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a nonprofit that seeks to create a more equitable society by closing the academic and career opportunity gap for young people from underserved communities. Orlando serves on the SEO board and spearheaded the 2024 expansion of the SEO Scholars program, a fully funded, eight-year academic program aimed at helping low-income high school students succeed in college, to Miami-Dade County. 

Orlando remains connected to his alma maters. At Stanford Law School, he created the Bravo Family Public Interest Post-Graduate Fellowship Fund in 2018 to support students seeking full-time employment in public interest. In 2019, Brown University founded the Orlando Bravo Center for Economics Research to support innovative research, collaboration and training for faculty and students in the Department of Economics. In 2023, Orlando endowed a finance professorship and a research fund to support the professorship at Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Orlando’s philanthropic interests also include causes in healthcare. He supports a wide range of medical research at Stanford Health Care, UCSF Health and The Mount Sinai Hospital. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 

You can follow him on X and LinkedIn. 

Frank Cairo is co-founder and CEO of the Caivan Group and its affiliate, the Advanced Building Innovation Company. Frank is a multidisciplinary entrepreneur leading a cyber-physical revolution in the community development and homebuilding sector. Caivan is one of Canada’s largest land development and home building companies, harnessing software engineering and AI, advanced manufacturing technologies and automation in the optimization and construction of built form and community design. This includes the establishment of one of North America’s largest advanced manufacturing facilities, where 5-7 homes per day are built in a cost-effective, sustainable and highly precise methodology.

Frank believes deeply in the intersection of science and design. Frank applies mathematics, algorithm and the scientific method in solving complex problems that span engineering, architecture, finance and land use planning. Caivan is the Founder of the Future Cities Institute at the University of Waterloo, where Frank has dedicated personal time along with a $11 million initial contribution to foster inter and transdisciplinary work in addressing some of the most complex urban and rural challenges in Canada and beyond.

Frank is a lifelong learner and holds a B.E.S. in Honours Planning Co-Op with Specialization in Land Development Planning and Environmental Planning, is a Registered Professional Planner and a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. Frank is a candidate for a Master of Engineering Degree from the University of Ottawa in Management, specializing in Operations Research and Systems Optimization and he is a member of the American Physical Society (Physics of Climate section).

Deb Pimentel is the President of IBM Canada and the General Manager of Technology Canada where she is responsible for driving the IBM Technology business unit strategy and growth for the country.

Throughout her career at IBM, Deb has brought visionary leadership and strategic acumen to support Canadian organizations in leveraging cutting-edge technologies to solve complex business challenges. Deb's tenure at IBM is marked by her relentless focus on delivering value to clients through IBM's robust hybrid cloud and AI capabilities. She believes in the transformative power of these technologies to reshape industries, enhance operational efficiencies, and to drive sustainable growth.

Deb is a graduate of York University where she studied both Business and Psychology. She is passionate about empowering the next generation of technology leaders through mentoring and coaching girls in STEM.

Richard leads the global Technology and Innovation team in his role as Chief Technology and Information Officer (CIO/CTO) for CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – a large North American based Financial institution). In this role Richard is responsible for delivering strategic, high-quality, innovative, and operationally resilient technology solutions that contribute to building a relationship-oriented bank for a modern world. His team is focused on driving technology innovation, agility, speed and simplicity across our technology platforms, as well as implementing many of the investments we are making to transform our bank and create the best experience for our strategic business units, employees, and clients. In prior roles at CIBC, Richard has also led and managed the Enterprise Digital, Process, and Innovation teams, as well as leading many of the CTO and CIO portfolios including Wealth Management, Commercial Banking, Payments, and Capital Markets and Risk Technology.

Prior to joining CIBC in 2011, Richard was Managing Director and Head of Technology Solutions for the Wholesale Bank at TD Bank Financial Group as well as working in TD Securities on the Derivatives Trading desks before joining Technology.  

Richard has been a past Board member of SKETCH (Community Arts Programs for Street Youth) and is passionate about giving back to the local communities. Richard is also currently Co-Executive Sponsor for CIBC’s Run for the Cure which raises key funding for breast cancer and associated research and support services. Richard also holds a 4th degree black belt in Taekwondo and has taught and mentored youth in the martial arts over the years. 

Richard has an Honors BA in Economics from Western University and also holds his CFA Chartered Analyst Designation and his PMP (Project Management Professional). 

Durga Kota is the Chief Technology Officer for the Americas region and is responsible for leading the strategies to translate Fujitsu technology innovation into differentiated and industry-ready solutions for the region's customers. 

Throughout his 24-year career, Durga has held customer-facing, consultative solution-selling and technology leadership roles. His collaborative spirit and deep technical expertise enable him to build trust, work in true partnership with customers, and provide solution leadership that leverages advanced technologies to solve even the most complex challenges.  

Durga holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, and a B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India.  

Durga resides in the San Diego area with his family and likes to spend his free time trekking on one of the many trails in the area, or volunteering for the local food bank. 

Dr. Vivek Goel is the University of Waterloo's President and Vice-Chancellor. He has held a number of senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto including as Vice-President and Provost and most recently as Vice-President Research and Innovation.

He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014 and also as a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Goel has served as Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses.

Goel obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Goel obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Community Health from U of T and a master’s degree (MS) in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health.

Sanjana Basu is a Partner at Radical Ventures, where she backs founders building AI companies that reshape trillion-dollar industries. Sanjana was early to the AI shift, diving into the field in 2016. She joined Radical at inception in 2019 and has been investing in AI-native companies replacing traditional software, generative science and multimodal intelligence. 

She works closely with the founders of Ribbon AI, Orbital Materials, Nabla Bio, Attuned Intelligence, PocketHealth, Signal 1, Synex, Lisa Health (exited), and Ubenwa. 

Originally from Mumbai, Sanjana earned her bachelors degree in Economics & International Relations from Tufts university and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM Bangalore), India’s top business school at the heart of its tech ecosystem. Sanjana began her career in investment banking at Barclays, followed by venture investing at Tata, India’s largest industrial and technology group, where she focused on deep tech, AI and consumer tech. 

She’s excited by the next frontiers in AI including voice, multimodal, and science-meets-software. If you are building in this space, reach out.  

Jochen Koenemann is a professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization and the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. A highly respected researcher, Dr. Koenemann works at the intersection of theoretical computer science and operations research, with a focus on the foundations of optimization and their real-world applications. His research has addressed a broad range of complex problems across diverse domains. Notably, over the past six years, Dr. Koenemann held both Scholar and Principal Scientist roles at Amazon, where he worked on a variety of optimization challenges arising in the company’s global delivery network.

As Dean, Dr. Koenemann leads the Faculty of Mathematics through transformative change across teaching, research, and administration.