The most influential tech leaders today are shaping entirely new categories, modernizing legacy industries, and redefining how organizations think about infrastructure, workforce, healthcare, AI, climate, and digital operations.
This year’s list of the Top CEOs highlights 32 founders and executives leading companies across emerging tech hubs, remote-first ecosystems, and innovation markets outside traditional coastal power centers. From healthcare AI and workforce intelligence to creator commerce, clean energy, logistics, and enterprise infrastructure, these leaders stand out for business growth, the clarity of their vision, and the operational cultures they are building around it.
Mohan Giridharadas is the founder and CEO of LeanTaaS, a healthcare operations technology company applying AI, advanced analytics, and mathematical modeling to solve one of healthcare’s biggest challenges: making better use of limited capacity. Through its iQueue platform, LeanTaaS helps health systems improve access, reduce bottlenecks, and make more predictive, coordinated decisions across operating rooms, infusion centers, and inpatient units.
Under Mohan’s leadership, LeanTaaS has become a trusted partner to nearly 200 health systems, with its technology deployed across more than 1,200 hospitals and centers nationwide. The company’s work has helped providers reduce wait times and length of stay, improve throughput and utilization, and drive meaningful gains in financial and operational performance.
What makes Mohan stand out is his ability to bring rigorous operational thinking to healthcare without losing sight of the patient impact behind the numbers. He has been an early advocate for using AI, mathematical modeling, and lessons from industries like airlines and logistics to help health systems move beyond reactive, fragmented decision-making. LeanTaaS has been named Best in KLAS for Capacity Optimization Management for two consecutive years, and Mohan was named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s “Great Leaders in Healthcare” list in 2026.
Colin Darke is the co-founder and CEO of CompliSun, an AI-powered compliance management platform designed to help fintechs and regulated financial institutions navigate increasingly complex regulatory environments. Drawing from decades of experience in financial services and compliance operations, Colin built CompliSun around practical compliance infrastructure rather than purely theoretical regulation frameworks.
“Colin has established himself as a meaningful leadership presence in the fintech ecosystem. Through his network, advisory roles, and partnerships‚ including affiliations with organizations like the American Fintech Council, he actively contributes to shaping a more responsible and forward-thinking financial services industry,” said a colleague who nominated Colin for this award.
Ryan Stevens founded Digital Reference to rethink how professional reputation and credibility are represented within hiring and workforce systems. Ryan saw a fundamental flaw in professional identity systems: resumes and LinkedIn profiles often fail to capture how people actually work, lead, collaborate, and deliver results. His vision for the company centers on verified accomplishments, video references, and more human-centered representations of professional credibility.
His nomination shared, “Ryan Stevens stands out as a top CEO for his ability to build, scale, and transform marketplace and SaaS businesses at critical stages of growth. Before stepping into a CEO role, he served as COO of Clutch.co, where he played a central role in scaling the company into one of the leading global B2B services marketplaces. During his tenure, he led operations and customer experience through a period of rapid expansion, helping establish the systems, processes, and marketplace dynamics that enabled Clutch to become a trusted destination for businesses evaluating service providers.”
Chris Berry is the President and CEO of OhioX, the statewide nonprofit organization working to position Ohio as one of the nation’s leading technology and innovation hubs. Since taking the helm, Chris has helped transform OhioX into a central connective force across the state’s rapidly expanding tech ecosystem, bringing together startups, Fortune 500 companies, universities, investors, workforce organizations, and policymakers around a shared vision for Ohio’s digital economy. Under his leadership, OhioX has become one of the most visible advocates for the state’s growing momentum in AI, advanced manufacturing, biotech, fintech, cloud infrastructure, and workforce innovation.
As noted in his nomination, Chris is “leading Ohio's transformation into a tech hub by building up our ecosystem in new and novel ways. Other states have bigger and better-funded teams, but OhioX does more with less. That 'scrappyness’ causes Chris to invent new things and do things in new ways that are working. He is building up a digital media arm to amplify what a trade association typically does. He is also adept at navigating the existing tech communities across the state so that OhioX makes the sum greater than the parts.”
Mendel Rosenberg has built Gearsupply into a modern marketplace for professional audio, video, and live production equipment. The platform helps streamline an industry that historically relied on fragmented broker networks and outdated sales processes, serving everyone from local production crews to major venues and touring companies.
Under Mendel’s leadership, Gearsupply partnered with global audio company L-Acoustics to launch a first-of-its-kind certified pre-owned program for professional audio equipment. The company was valued at $20 million in 2025 and continues expanding its role in creating a more accessible and sustainable ecosystem for production technology.
What started as a hobby project positioned Amir Salihefendić, founder and CEO of Doist, as a pioneer in sustainable, asynchronous, fully remote work — before it became mainstream. Founded in 2007 as a bootstrapped side project, Doist’s Todoist platform has grown into one of the world’s most widely used productivity applications, serving tens of millions of users globally. Amir intentionally built Doist as a profitable, independent company focused on long-term sustainability, thoughtful product design, and employee well-being. His philosophy has positioned Doist as part of a broader movement advocating for calmer, more intentional approaches to work, productivity, and organizational culture in the digital economy.
As a result, Amir has become one of the most influential advocates for remote-first operations and asynchronous collaboration. Through Doist’s internal practices, public writing, and open operational transparency, he has helped shape conversations around distributed work, deep focus, work-life balance, and the future of global teams. At a time when many companies were still structured around office-centric management models, Doist demonstrated that highly distributed international teams could operate effectively while prioritizing flexibility, autonomy, and trust. Today, he is recognized for teaching “other CEOs, leaders, and community members to do the same through storytelling, talks, business development, friendly conversations, and creative projects. He is truly a one-of-a-kind human, impacting other leaders across all industries. He is the blueprint when it comes to building truly human connections that make a ripple effect of community and intentional impact,” shared a colleague in his nomination to this list.
Monty Ragland is the founder and CEO of PSI, a workforce development organization helping individuals overcome barriers to employment while supporting businesses facing workforce shortages. For more than three decades, Monty has helped reshape workforce systems across Ohio and the Midwest through programs focused on second-chance employment, digital skills training, transportation access, and long-term career advancement. His leadership has also influenced broader conversations around workforce equity, economic mobility, and public-private talent partnerships.
In his nomination for top CEO, a colleague shared, ”Monty Ragland represents the best of Midwest tech leadership: purpose-driven, people-first, performance-minded, and deeply committed to strengthening the ecosystem that makes innovation possible… His leadership combines a clear vision with a steady presence, creating an environment where people are supported, developed, and trusted to do their best work. He is widely respected for building healthy teams grounded in accountability, care, and follow-through, where performance and culture grow together.”
Following the loss of a close friend, Danny Freed founded Blueprint in 2019, a behavioral health technology company focused on helping mental health clinicians deliver higher-quality care leveraging AI-powered documentation, measurement-based care, and therapist enablement tools. Under Danny’s leadership, Blueprint has grown into one of the more visible companies shaping the future of behavioral health infrastructure. “Blueprint started as a measurement-based care platform,” shared a colleague in his nomination, “Danny never let the company stand still. He kept evolving it alongside the industry, following the real pain points clinicians faced, and today, Blueprint is an AI-assisted EHR built specifically for therapists. Over 70,000 clinicians use it, saving an average of 5 to 10 hours a week, time that goes back to their clients and to themselves. This startup journey is hard. Only about 8% of seed-stage startups ever reach Series B. As of last year, Blueprint is among them, having raised $31.9 million to date.”
At a time when AI conversations in healthcare often center on automation and efficiency alone, Danny has consistently framed Blueprint’s technology as a way to strengthen clinician capacity, reduce burnout, and improve therapeutic effectiveness. His approach reflects a broader belief that mental healthcare technology should enhance the clinician-client relationship rather than depersonalize it.
Jade Davis is the President and CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators, Ohio’s only energy technology incubator focused on accelerating advanced energy startups and strengthening the Midwest’s role in the clean energy economy. With a career spanning public policy, energy strategy, economic development, and government affairs, Jade has become a prominent figure in innovative infrastructure solutions. Since taking over leadership of BRITE, Jade has focused on expanding the organization’s statewide and national influence while helping energy startups navigate commercialization, investment, and regulatory complexity.
Jade’s nominator shared, “Under his leadership, BRITE has reached a milestone of 1 billion dollars in third-party investment and helped create more than 2,100 jobs, proving that hardware-led growth can revitalize regional economies. By leveraging his unique background in utility regulation and baseload power, Jade serves as a purpose-driven leader who builds consensus between startups and policymakers to ensure no community is left behind in the energy transition. His commitment to building the Silicon Heartland makes him the definitive leader for an era where the Midwest builds the technology that powers the nation.”
With Jade leading BRITE, he is helping increase the Midwest’s potential to become a national launchpad for advanced energy technologies, as he elevates the importance of ensuring that emerging energy innovation translates into job creation, long-term economic resilience, and new industrial growth opportunities in the region.
Kasey Devine is the founder and CEO of Entravia, a workflow automation and digital infrastructure company helping organizations modernize operations, compliance, and interconnected business systems.
Recognized for his strong leadership, Kasey has helped organizations streamline fragmented operational workflows while improving scalability, transparency, and long-term adaptability through Entravia. Kasey is leading Entravia to support the broader shifts across enterprise technology where automation, AI readiness, and systems integration are becoming central operational priorities. Kasey also became an advocate for operational modernization within emerging and mid-market business ecosystems that often lack access to the large-scale transformation resources available to major enterprises.
Dr. Audrey Wystrach is the co-founder and co-CEO of Petfolk, a modern veterinary care company reimagining how pet healthcare is delivered through a combination of technology, hospitality, and relationship-centered medicine. After more than 25 years in veterinary medicine, Audrey founded Petfolk to address her experience that veterinary care had become increasingly fragmented, transactional, and operationally strained for both pet owners and veterinary professionals. Under her leadership, Petfolk has emerged as one of the more innovative companies in the veterinary health space, combining physical clinics, virtual care, mobile services, and proprietary technology into a connected care platform designed around accessibility and continuity of care.
Her leadership style earned her a nomination for this award from a colleague who shared, “Dr. Audrey Wystrach is a visionary leader redefining veterinary care through innovation, compassion, and a people-first approach. As Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Petfolk, she blends clinical expertise with bold strategy, building a culture that empowers teams while delivering exceptional experiences for pets and their families.”
Her leadership has also focused heavily on veterinary team wellbeing and culture, positioning Petfolk as part of a broader movement to address burnout, staffing shortages, and mental health challenges within veterinary medicine. Through Petfolk, Aubrey is helping shape a future where veterinary medicine is more connected, technologically enabled, compassionate, and accessible for both pets and the people who care for them.
Reid Wilson is the founder and CEO of Elevate One, a digital infrastructure company helping organizations modernize connectivity, communications, and operational systems. He built Vast Network around the growing need for faster, more resilient, and more interconnected digital ecosystems as organizations increasingly depend on cloud computing, remote operations, AI-driven workflows, and data-intensive applications.
As an advocate for expanding access to modern digital infrastructure in emerging business regions and underserved markets that have historically lagged behind major technology hubs, Reid emphasizes the growing importance of connectivity and infrastructure modernization in enabling regional innovation, workforce flexibility, and business competitiveness. Through Vast Network, Reid is contributing to a future where connectivity, infrastructure resilience, and intelligent systems integration become central drivers of business growth and innovation.
Leslie Snavely is the CEO and President of CHG Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest healthcare staffing companies and the market leader in locum tenens. After serving nearly 12 years in senior leadership roles, including Chief Digital Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, Leslie became CEO in 2024 and established a long-term strategy focused on modernizing healthcare staffing while preserving CHG’s relationship-driven foundation. Under her leadership, CHG has expanded its role in workforce intelligence, enterprise digital transformation, and responsible AI adoption.
Leslie also helped transform CHG’s research division into one of the healthcare staffing industry’s most influential sources of workforce insight. These reports, including the State of Locum Tenens Report and Physician & APP Sentiment Survey, are increasingly used by health systems, executives, and policymakers to better understand workforce shortages, clinician sentiment, and staffing trends across healthcare. As her colleague shared in nominating her for this award, “This vision includes positioning CHG as the leading source of workforce intelligence, advancing enterprise-level digital transformation, and defining ethical standards for AI adoption. Leslie has transformed CHG’s research engine into the sector’s most influential source of labor insight.”
Paul Gross is building an ambitious climate-tech company in the Midwest through Remora, which develops mobile carbon capture systems for semi-trucks and freight locomotives. The company’s technology captures up to 90% of emissions directly from vehicles without requiring fleets to replace existing infrastructure.
Under Paul’s leadership, Remora has raised more than $117 million from investors including Valor Equity Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, First Round Capital, and Union Square Ventures. The company has also secured partnerships with key logistics companies like Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Ryder, DHL, and Werner while building a culture centered on rapid iteration, technical ambition, and large-scale industrial problem-solving.
Dr. Patrice S. Johnson is the CEO of Project Scientist, a national STEM education nonprofit that has directly served more than 30,000 girls and underserved youth across the United States and Mexico. Under her leadership, the organization has expanded its national footprint, strengthened strategic partnerships, and advanced a bold vision for STEM access as both a workforce and gender equity issue.
Known for her people-first leadership and strategic vision, Patrice is widely respected for building healthy teams, cultivating mission-driven cultures, and leading through change with resilience and purpose. Across her career in education, policy, and youth development, she has focused on expanding opportunity for underestimated communities while helping young people see themselves as future innovators, scientists, and leaders. Patrice is also an emerging voice on joyful leadership, equity, and innovation, writing and speaking about the intersection of leadership, joy, and systemic change.
Angela Adams, RN, BSN, is the CEO of Inflo Health, a company focused on using AI to improve diagnostic follow-up care and patient outcomes. Drawing from her background in bedside care, Adams built Inflo Health around a systemic problem: the persistent gaps in follow-up care completion from the time an insight is discovered to the next step in care.
Her clinical experience gave her firsthand insight into how fragmented communication, delayed interventions, and limited continuity of care were impacting both patients and providers. Under Angela’s leadership, Inflo Health has focused on creating technology that allows healthcare teams to leverage AI to identify risks earlier, monitor patients more effectively outside traditional clinical settings, and improve engagement throughout the care journey using a human-in-the-loop approach. Earlier this year, she was named to Inc. Magazine's 2026 Female Founders 500 list for her work in transforming how health systems handle critical diagnostic findings.
LuxWall, is a new kind of climate-tech company. Launched by Scott Thomsen, LuxWall is helping modernize building sustainability with vacuum-insulated glass designed to reduce energy loss in buildings. LuxWall’s Enthermal™ products can reduce building energy loss by up to 45%, and the company has experienced rapid growth, from a startup to one of the country’s most innovative companies to watch.
Under Scott’s leadership, LuxWall has raised more than $90 million from investors, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, while scaling advanced manufacturing operations in Michigan. Even after Department of Energy funding cuts impacted a planned Detroit expansion, Thomsen continued pushing forward with manufacturing growth, workforce development, and regional investment initiatives.
Anthony McIntosh leads UpRys, a strategic consulting firm that helps nonprofits and small-to-mid-sized businesses improve operations, leadership, technology, and organizational effectiveness through a people-first approach. His leadership philosophy centers on building organizations where people can thrive, innovate, and grow sustainably over time. That approach has helped Anthony build a strong reputation for collaborative leadership and community impact, including recent recognition as a finalist for the Columbus Chamber’s 2026 Small Business Leader Award.
Blending executive-level business expertise with community-centered leadership, Anthony came to UpRys with more than 25 years of experience across Fortune 500, nonprofit, and growth-stage organizations. He is a visible leadership voice within Central Ohio’s business community, serving as Vice President of the Central Ohio African American Chamber of Commerce and as a board member for the Columbus Metropolitan Club. With this type of leadership, it’s no surprise UpRys has earned recognition as a Columbus Business First Fast 50 honoree.
Through Lightship Foundation and Lightship Capital, Candice Matthews Brackeen has built a nationally recognized ecosystem focused on helping underrepresented founders access mentorship, funding, and growth opportunities.
Since launching in 2017, Lightship has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs through programs including Black Tech Week, Lightship Bootcamp, and Founder Gym, while helping founders collectively raise more than $100 million in funding. As a result, Candice has become one of the most influential voices shaping inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midwest.
Wade Foster has built Zapier into one of the most influential remote-first software companies of the last decade by helping millions of businesses automate workflows and connect the tools they rely on every day. Rather than focusing solely on enterprise customers, Zapier helped popularize no-code and low-code automation tools that empowered teams to streamline operations without needing engineering resources. Wade has led Zapier’s growth from a startup created during a hackathon into a profitable global automation platform serving more than 3 million users and connecting over 7,000 applications across productivity, marketing, sales, ecommerce, and operations.
Fully remote since its founding, Zapier became one of the most visible examples of how high-growth technology companies could scale successfully while prioritizing flexibility, autonomy, and distributed talent. The company has consistently been recognized for its remote-first culture, transparency, and employee experience, with Wade openly sharing lessons around sustainable growth, asynchronous collaboration, and people-first leadership. Wade also stands out for the clarity of his vision around democratizing automation and making powerful technology accessible to smaller businesses and nontechnical users.
Angelina Lawton built DIGIDECK into one of the most recognized sports technology and sales enablement platforms in the country by helping brands transform traditional presentations into immersive, trackable digital experiences.
DIGIDECK’s platform works with more than 500 sports, entertainment, and enterprise brands worldwide, including major professional teams and organizations. The company has also expanded beyond sports into broader enterprise markets, recently rebranding from Sportsdigita to DIGIDECK as its primary growth platform. Under Angelina’s leadership, DIGIDECK has earned significant recognition for both growth and innovation. The company was named to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Fast 50 list of fastest-growing companies, while Angelina herself has been recognized by Forbes as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Sports,” named to Sports Business Journal’s prestigious “Game Changers” class, and selected for Inc.’s Female Founders list in both 2025 and 2026.
She has been a strong voice for mentorships, building leadership teams, and helping women succeed in male-dominated industries while scaling a company rooted in creativity, storytelling, and innovation.
Chris Motley built Mentor Spaces, a workforce technology platform with a mission to scale mentorship for underrepresented communities through technology designed to make career guidance and professional networks more accessible.
Under Chris’ leadership, Mentor Spaces has worked with organizations including SAP, TIAA, GM Financial, and Omnicom Media Group while helping advance more equitable pathways into leadership and professional growth. The company has shown strong momentum since launch, raising $2.5 million in funding from investors including Serena Ventures and Techstars. As a voice around equity, workforce development, and inclusive innovation, Chris’ philosophy centers on helping people navigate careers with greater confidence, visibility, and support while building organizations where mentorship and growth are embedded into company culture.
John Shafaee has built ALIS with a focus on improving operations and care within senior living communities. Since its launch, he has grown ALIS into a major operating platform for senior living communities, supporting more than 2,000 organizations nationwide with clinical, financial, CRM, AI, and business intelligence tools.
John oversaw major innovation initiatives, including the launch of “Ask ALIS”, the senior living industry’s first AI-powered GPT platform purpose-built for assisted living operations. The company has also introduced one of the industry’s first large-scale operational and clinical benchmarking datasets, drawing insights from more than 30,000 resident records across 500 senior living communities to help providers make smarter, data-driven decisions. Through these tech evolutions, John keeps the company focused on caring for the humans at the center of the experience.
Beth Houck is a leader in healthtech who uses operational innovation to create meaningful patient impact. As CEO of SonarMD, Beth is helping transform care for patients living with chronic gastrointestinal diseases.
Beth has led SonarMD to expand its reach and clinical impact while positioning itself at the forefront of AI-enabled chronic care management. The company has raised more than $14 million in funding and has published data demonstrating improved patient outcomes and engagement through its digital platform. She has also regularly emphasized in her podcast a people-first leadership philosophy centered around transparency, active listening, and empowering teams with context and autonomy, helping SonarMD maintain strong alignment and culture as a growing remote organization.
Vadim Vladimirskiy has built Nerdio into one of the fastest-growing cloud infrastructure and IT automation companies in the country by helping organizations simplify and optimize Microsoft cloud environments.
As a leader, he frequently speaks about resilience, adaptability, and creating environments where teams are empowered to innovate and grow. With this mindset, the company has experienced significant momentum in recent years, including a $500 million minority investment from General Atlantic in 2025 that valued Nerdio at more than $1 billion.
As a public health data company, Metopio, under the leadership of William Snyder, has developed a community intelligence platform that helps hospitals, public health departments, and community organizations turn complex health data into actionable information. The company’s platform is used by more than 475 hospitals and public health departments serving communities representing more than 20 million people nationwide. For William, this growth is part of democratizing public health data. Metopio’s AI-enabled platform helps organizations dramatically reduce the time required for Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs), allowing healthcare and public health leaders to focus more on intervention and community impact rather than manual reporting processes.
Under William’s leadership, the company secured a multi-million-dollar growth investment from Plymouth Growth in 2025 and was named No. 14 on Inc.’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in the Midwest. Through partnerships with organizations including Yale School of Public Health and national healthcare systems, Metopio has expanded its role as a trusted platform for community health intelligence and public-sector innovation, reflective of the kind of purpose-driven leadership that aims to build technology that creates measurable social impact.
Crusoe is on a mission to design, build, and operate the infrastructure powering the next phase of AI. With Chase Lochmiller at the helm, Crusoe has evolved from a climate-focused energy startup into what it now calls an “AI factory company,” building energy-first data centers, cloud infrastructure, and AI campuses designed specifically for next-generation AI workloads. This shift is part of Chase’s systems-level vision that ultimately played a role in OpenAI’s Stargate project. The company also recently raised a $1.375 billion Series E round at a valuation above $10 billion, backed by investors including Nvidia, Mubadala Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, and Founders Fund.
Chase’s vision to connect emerging technologies with practical infrastructure and environmental challenges has positioned Crusoe as one of the most closely watched companies shaping the future of AI and energy.
Neha Sampat is the founder and CEO of Contentstack, a composable digital experience platform helping enterprise brands modernize how they manage and deliver content across channels.
A three-time founder, Neha previously launched digital consultancy Raw Engineering and the platform Built.io, which was acquired by Software AG in 2018. Under her leadership, Contentstack has become one of the leading names in the headless CMS and composable DXP space, raising more than $169 million in funding and serving major global brands including Walmart, Burberry, Mattel, and Alaska Airlines. Known for blending strong business growth with an emphasis on culture and equity, Neha has become a prominent voice in the future of enterprise content, AI-ready digital experiences, and women’s leadership in tech. She has been recognized by Inc., EY, and Springboard Enterprises for both her entrepreneurial success and her advocacy for inclusive leadership.
Arlo Gilbert has helped position Osano as one of the fastest-growing and most respected data privacy platforms in the country by helping organizations navigate an increasingly complex digital trust landscape. Under Arlo’s leadership, Osano has evolved into a major privacy management platform serving more than 40,000 users and delivering over 1 billion cookie consent banners each month while helping companies automate and scale privacy compliance programs.
With Arlo’s approach to leadership and company culture, Osano has repeatedly earned recognition as both an Inc. Best Workplace and a Great Place to Work, with 96% of employees reporting that Osano is a great place to work (that’s 39 points above the U.S. company average). Gilbert also stands out for his broader mission around trust, transparency, and ethical technology. As a Public Benefit Corporation, the company has become an influential voice in conversations around ethical technology and is shaping conversations around responsible data practices, digital trust, and privacy accessibility.
Amber Venz Box is the co-founder and president of LTK, the creator-commerce platform that helped redefine how influencers monetize content and how consumers discover products online. Drawing from her own experience as a fashion blogger and personal shopper, Amber recognized early that creators were generating enormous value for brands without meaningfully participating in the revenue. Originally launched as rewardStyle in 2011, the company pioneered the now-common model of shoppable creator links, connecting creators, brands, and retailers long before social commerce became mainstream.
Under Amber’s leadership, LTK grew from a startup launched with just $236 in her bank account into a global platform valued at $2 billion following a major SoftBank-backed funding round. Today, the platform supports more than 350,000 creators driving billions in annual retail sales. Her work has helped legitimize the creator economy as a major business category while creating new pathways for creators, particularly women, to build scalable, independent businesses around their audiences.
Nader Mikhail founded Elementum as a supply chain management platform before evolving the company into an enterprise AI and workflow orchestration business, helping organizations modernize operations and enterprise systems.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent global supply chain disruptions, Elementum’s technology became increasingly relevant as companies struggled with shortages, logistics failures, and operational volatility. Nader emerged as a prominent voice on the future of supply chains, enterprise AI, and digital operations, contributing commentary and thought leadership to publications including Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Business Insider. Since then, Elementum has raised more than $65 million and works with major global organizations across manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and enterprise operations.
Suneera Madhani founded Stax Payments in 2014 with her brother, a fintech company that has transformed subscription-based payment processing and become one of the fastest-growing fintech platforms in the United States. As the first female CEO to lead a unicorn out of Florida, she scaled Stax to over $1 billion in valuation before transitioning to new ventures in 2024. From there, as a prominent advocate for women founders and economic equity in entrepreneurship, she launched CEO School and Worth AI. Her work has positioned her as a prominent advocate for women founders, entrepreneurship, and economic equity within the tech industry.