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.

Sam Sebastian is the leader for the North American regions business of Google Cloud. In this role he is responsible for scaling the Cloud and AI go to market functions for the region and for bringing Google’s technology and innovation to large enterprises across the US and Canada. Prior to this role Sam was the VP & Country Manager for the Cloud/AI business in Canada. Prior to Google, Sam was the President and CEO of Pelmorex Corp, one of the largest weather data multi-platform media companies in the world. Sam joined Pelmorex from Google, where he held many executive-level positions in the US and Canada, including VP & Country Manager for Canada. Prior to his first stint at Google, he was a General Manager and Senior Vice President at a large online classified business, Classified Ventures (cars.com, apartments.com), and started his career as a consultant with Arthur Andersen in Chicago.

Murali Gandhirajan is Global Healthcare and Life Sciences CTO at Snowflake with strong background in data, analytics and AI in healthcare and life sciences. With a passion for thought leadership, he has consistently set and executed strategy that delivered significant business value through data-driven insights for various business functions across healthcare and life sciences organizations. He is focused on innovating healthcare through AI and committed to helping healthcare and life sciences organizations build next-generation data and AI platforms by harnessing the full potential of Snowflake’s capabilities.

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. Adrianna Nava is an Applied Research Scientist at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) where she serves as the scientific lead for the Primary Care and Prevention Center. The center focuses on work related to immunizations, cancer prevention, wellness, climate sustainability, and primary care delivery. She works across organizational teams to create and integrate HEDIS measures into population health standards, research concepts and policy recommendations. She is also the Immediate Past President (2021-2024) of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), where she advocated for the advancement of nurses in leadership, research, and policy to advance Latino health. Previously, she served as the Chief Nurse of Quality and Systems Improvement at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL. In this role, she led a team of quality, patient safety and infection control experts to drive meaningful clinical improvement activities to improve Veteran outcomes. She is a mentor to future health care professionals through her positions as graduate faculty in the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the George Mason University College of Public Health , Adjunct Instructor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and Capstone Faculty for the Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership (SQIL) Program at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Nava was recently named one of the Top 25 Emerging Healthcare Leaders of 2023 by Modern Healthcare; and was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2024.

Dr. Sharief Taraman, is dual board-certified in Neurology with special qualifications in Child Neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Clinical Informatics from the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Taraman was the former Division Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Children’s Health of Orange County and University of California-Irvine. He remains an active member of the medical staff and the Sharon Disney Lund Medical Intelligence, Information, Investigation, & Innovation Institute at CHOC.
He is a Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics and Affiliate Professor at Chapman University, Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering.

Recognized globally as an innovator and specifically an advocate in the field of pediatrics, Dr. Taraman has been involved with the development of multiple FDA designated breakthrough devices, awardee of the prestigious National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation grant and is an advisor to Board of Directors for the International Society for Pediatric Innovation.
Currently, he is the Chief Executive Officer at Cognoa and formerly served as the Chief Medical Officer leading the clinical trials that led to the FDA authorization of Cognoa’s lead product, Canvas Dx, the first and only FDA authorized AI based diagnostic device for autism for children 18-72 months old with concern for developmental delay.
Dr. Taraman is active in the community having previously served as a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Orange County Chapter, board member of AAP-California, and committee member for the development of the AAP National CHILD health registry. He continues to volunteer on the Irvine Unified School District Medical Advisory Board, with the Capistrano Unified School District and Girl Scouts of Orange County.

Dr. Taraman graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan having majored in Biochemistry. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and went on to complete residency training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology at the Detroit Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

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.