Meet the speakers

Steven Kotler is a New York Times–bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective. He is the author of sixteen books, including eleven bestsellers. His work has been nominated for three Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 80 languages and appeared in over 100 publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review. His book Stealing Fire was named Best Business Book of the Year by both CNBC and Strategy + Business, and helped spark today’s psychedelic renaissance. His other titles—The Art of Impossible, The Rise of Superman, and Gnar Country—are considered foundational texts in the field of performance neuroscience. At various times, Kotler has been a staff writer or blogger for Forbes, Psychology Today, GQ, Bikini, Freeze, V-Life, Blue, and Penumbra. Kotler is the host of Flow Radio, a top-ten Apple iTunes science podcast regularly featured on “best-of” lists across the web. He has lectured globally, and has appeared on platforms including Fareed Zakaria GPS, NPR, CNBC, Big Think, and The Joe Rogan Experience.

Recognized as a pioneer in applied performance neuroscience, Kotler publishes peer- reviewed research on flow, altered states, creativity, intuition, and consciousness. He has been called “one of the world’s leading experts in ultimate human performance” by The New York Times. His training programs have reached individuals in 156 countries
and over 28 industries—including U.S. Navy SEALs, Olympic athletes, and executive teams at Google, Meta, Microsoft, Audi, and Accenture. He is also known for radical self-experimentation: flying a MiG-17 fighter jet into G-LOC to explore the neurobiology of near-death experiences, free falling 150 feet into a circus net to study flow and time perception, and breaking upwards of 80 bones along the way. As an entrepreneur, Kotler has launched or helped found sixteen companies. He was instrumental in the creation of several media and tech firsts, including Buzznet (one of the first online magazines), Bikini (the first punk lad-mag), Freeze (the first freeskiing magazine), Maxim (the first men’s magazine to exceed a million subscribers), EcoHearth (an early green marketplace), and Transcape (the first biofeedback-based branching video game). In 2021, Forbes named the Flow Research Collective one of the fastest-growing companies in America. Kotler lives in a small town in the big mountains of northern Nevada, with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, and too many dogs.

Dr. Brian Anderson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Health AI
(CHAI) where he leads a national coalition in the development of technical standards and best
practices for MLOps, including governance, testing, evaluation and monitoring in Health AI
Assurance Labs.
Prior to CHAI, Dr. Anderson was the Chief Digital Health Physician at MITRE where he led
research and development efforts across major strategic initiatives in Digital Health, including
partnering with the United States Government and private sector organizations. He was
responsible for leading MITRE’s efforts in Advancing Clinical Trials at the Point of Care
(ACT@POC), an effort that develops digital tools and approaches to support more diverse and
efficient pragmatic clinical trials in Cancer and other diseases. He was also the co-PI on
MITRE’s largest Health R&D effort in Oncology, supporting Cancer Moonshot efforts.
Dr. Anderson is an internationally recognized expert and author in digital health and Health AI;
he is regularly engaged as a speaker on digital health innovation, Health AI assurance and best
practices, health standards development, clinical decision support systems, and interoperability.
Prior to MITRE, Dr. Anderson led the Informatics and Network Medicine Division at
Athenahealth where he launched a new approach to clinical decision support leveraging
machine learning models. He has also served on several national health information technology
committees in partnership with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC).
Dr. Anderson trained at Massachusetts General Hospital and also practiced at Greater
Lawrence Family Health Center. He received his MD with honors from Harvard Medical School,
and a BA in Social Anthropology, cum laude from Harvard College. Currently he lives in the
greater Boston area, with his wife and 3 children.

Prashanth Cannanbilla is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience driving transformation, data engineering, and solution delivery across healthcare, finance, banking, and technology sectors. He currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Enterprise Delivery Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, where he leads enterprise-wide business transformation and customer-centric healthcare initiatives, both clinical and non-clinical, across the state.

Previously, Prashanth served as Head of Data and Analytics at Verily (an Alphabet company), focusing on reducing the burden of chronic conditions. He has also held senior leadership roles at BCBS Louisiana, FNB Corporation, and Highmark Inc., where he spearheaded enterprise data governance, strategic programs, and technology modernization.

Prashanth holds master’s degrees in computer science and business administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP), a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, and holds AHIP designations in Health Insurance and Managed Healthcare. He serves as Treasurer on the board of Hill CDC, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, and has contributed as an advisory board member for the University of Pittsburgh Computer Science Department and as a board member for Small Seeds Inc., supporting children and single mothers.

Raj Vavilala is the Chief Sales, Marketing and Product Officer at Government Employees Health Association, Inc. (G.E.H.A), a nonprofit member association that provides health and dental benefits that millions of federal employees and retirees, military retirees and their families have counted on since 1937. In this role, Raj leads the strategic direction for sales, product development and customer experience and is focused on delivering brand promise through the development, implementation and administration of G.E.H.A’s product portfolio, sales and marketing programs.

A core tenet of Raj’s expertise is the enhancement of the member experience. Throughout his career, he has consistently aligned organizational goals with consumer-centric strategies. At G.E.H.A, he leads initiatives that prioritize member satisfaction and engagement.

Vavilala is a marketing leader with more than 20 years of experience in helping large insurance companies serve their members and, in turn, achieve growth and profitability for the enterprises. Previously, he served as chief marketing officer at HIQ, where he played a key role in its rapid growth and helped transform how consumers more easily access the Medicare Advantage product that best suits their personal needs. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president and chief marketing officer at GuideWell Connect, where he drove the sales and marketing performance of large health insurance organizations in numerous states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Earlier in his career, Vavilala was vice president of marketing and sales at New York Life Insurance Company and senior director of marketing at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. Vavilala received his master’s in business administration and marketing from the T.A. Pai Management Institute in Manipal, India and his bachelor’s in business and commerce at Osmania University in Telangana, India.

Mohamed El-Demerdash brings over 25 years of global healthcare technology leadership to his role as President of TELUS Health. Prior to joining TELUS, he spent 27 years at GE HealthCare, where he held a series of senior leadership positions across technology innovation, commercial operations and global market expansion. In his current role as President of TELUS Health, Mohamed leads a global team of nearly 7,000 team members who are on a mission to leverage our world-leading technology innovation to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals around the world. His passion for improving global health outcomes – shaped by his diverse international experiences – is what led him to TELUS Health and its holistic approach to primary and preventive health and wellbeing. By integrating advanced healthcare technology with comprehensive employee support services, he is focused on scaling TELUS Health’s innovative digital health platforms that empower healthcare professionals, employers and governments to deliver personalized care efficiently, expanding access for all, and driving innovation that enhances care and wellbeing worldwide.

Prior to this, Mohamed led GE HealthCare’s service business across the U.S. and Canada. Under his leadership, the business delivered sustained profitable growth and introduced transformative operational solutions that improved efficiency and care delivery for large hospital networks.

Earlier in his career, Mohamed served as Chief Technology Officer for GE HealthCare’s MRI business, where he led global R&D teams in launching award-winning innovations. These included the industry-first air coil technology – recognized as Best New Radiology Device – and the first FDA-approved AI-based deep learning reconstruction for MRI.
A seasoned international executive, Mohamed has lived and worked across Africa, the Middle East, India, Turkey, Russia and Southeast Asia. He successfully established new operations and go-to-market strategies in multiple regions, managing both direct and indirect commercial channels.
He holds advanced degrees in Engineering Management from Marquette University and is widely recognized for his ability to lead cultural transformation, build high-performance teams and translate vision into scalable impact.

Dr. Matea Deliu is an academic General Practitioner and Clinical Lead for Digital Delivery at NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (public sector government body in the U.K.) where she also serves as Clinical Safety Officer. Drawing on a PhD in Health Informatics and more than a decade designing, evaluating, and scaling technology-enabled models of care, she modernises primary care, optimises pathways, and embeds safety-by-design from discovery through deployment. Her portfolio spans AI-driven population health analytics, virtual wards, remote-monitoring services, and the integration of decision-support within EPRs, delivering measurable gains in outcomes, equity, and operational efficiency across complex systems. She continues frontline practice with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust @home and in urgent care/ED, keeping innovation grounded in real clinical need.

Beyond the NHS, Matea is Director of Partnerships and System Transformation at KneuHealth, helping to build and scale a digital dementia platform combining cognitive assessment, longitudinal monitoring, and carer support. She is an Expert-in-Residence at London Business School and a trusted adviser to VC-backed start-ups and scale-ups. As a fractional Chief Medical Officer to early-stage companies, she shapes end-to-end go-to-market strategies—navigating UKCA/MHRA regulation, NICE HTA alignment, DTAC assurance, and ICB reimbursement—and leads multidisciplinary teams to move evidence-based products from pilot to population-level impact. Her work champions equitable, data-driven, clinically safe transformation at scale.

Further roles include being the Primary Care Advisor for the Responsible Ai UK Health And Social Care group, a supervisor for the NHS Clinical Fellowship in AI, and mentor for the NHS Innovation Accelerator.

Laura O’Riordan is a clinician and senior healthcare executive with a distinguished track record in transforming clinical services at scale. Drawing on her background in frontline care, she has successfully led major NHS and private sector operations, consistently driving improvements in patient outcomes and operational performance. Passionate about delivering meaningful change, Laura continues to shape the future of healthcare through bold, forward-thinking leadership.

Dr. Charles DeShazer is a physician-executive and health tech strategist with a proven track record of using data, digital innovation, and AI to drive clinical and financial performance across payer, provider, integrated delivery systems, and high-tech platforms.

He is one of the few physician leaders in the country to have served as a Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Medical Officer—giving him a uniquely comprehensive view of healthcare transformation across clinical, quality, operational, and digital domains.

Most recently, he served as Chief Quality & Health Advocacy Officer at The Cigna Group, where he led enterprise-wide functions spanning quality, health equity, patient experience, and population health. His leadership accelerated AI-driven process transformation and delivered measurable improvements in outcomes and efficiency. At Google Health, Dr. DeShazer helped shape next-generation global AI platforms powering clinical informatics at scale. As Chief Medical Officer at Highmark Health, he led clinical transformation initiatives for value-based care, achieving over $100 million in medical utilization savings.

Today, Dr. DeShazer is the Founder and Managing Partner of Nuvanta Consulting Group. Nuvanta partners with payers, providers, technology companies, and private equity-backed firms to transform complexity into clarity through AI-driven strategy, execution, and storytelling. The firm specializes in helping organizations accelerate digital transformation, enhance quality and inclusion, deliver measurable ROI, and position assets for sustainable growth in value-based models.