José Pires, MBA, Global Excellence & Innovation Leader, Andeavor
José Pires serves as the Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation (formerly Tesoro), where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.
Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.
Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.
Dr. Duilia de Mello, Vice Provost at The Catholic University of America, Washington DC.
Dr. de Mello is a Brazilian Astronomer with a PhD from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), a Masters degree from National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and a Bachelors degree from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She was a Post Doc at Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. She was an assistant professor at Chalmers University in Sweden and moved back to the US to be a research associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2002. She is a full Professor of Physics at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC and she continues to collaborate with NASA GSFC.
In 2013 she won the Professional of Year award of the Brazilian Diaspora and in 2014 she was listed as one of the most influential people in Brazil by the Epoca Magazine.
She has won over 70 awards including the Researcher of the Year by the Brazilian Association of Industrial Chemistry.
Dr. Joana D'arc Felix de Souza, Associate Professor/Coordinator at the State Technical School Prof Carmelino Correa Jr, Brazil
Dr. Joana D'arc Felix is a Brazilian chemist with a PhD in Chemistry by University of Campinas (UNICAMP). After a PostDoc at Harvard University, she decided to go back to Brazil and dedicate to teaching and engaging basic education students in scientific research projects.
She teaches at the State Technical School Prof. Carmelino Corrêa Júnior in Franca, SP - Brazil, where she develops research in reutilization of industry waste material.
She has won over 70 awards including the Researcher of the Year by the Brazilian Association of Industrial Chemistry.
Dr. Ulisses Mello, Director of Research at IBM Brazil.
Dr. Ulisses Mello directs one of the 12 IBM global laboratories around the world, the IBM Research Brazil (in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro). After earning his PhD at Columbia University (New York City, USA), he joined IBM as a Research Staff, and in 2010 he returned to Brazil to help to establish the first IBM Research Laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere, leading the areas of Natural Resources and Smarter Cities.
He is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, IBM Industry Academy, and New York Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Marcio Resende, Associate Professor at University of Florida
Dr. Resende completed his Masters at Universidade Federal de Viçosa, his PhD at University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville and established his own start-up biotech company called "Rapid Genomics", providing new molecular genotyping services in the Forest sector of over 1000 species of trees.
After that, he joined the Agriculture Department of University of Florida as an Assistant Professor, researching Sweet Corn Genomics and Breeding.
He has over 30 published articles in the field of Biotechnology and Plant Biology, including in the journals Science, Genetics and Frontiers in Plant Science.