Meet Our Judges
DEREK PETERSON
CEO/Founder of Soter Technologies
Derek Peterson is the Founder and CEO of Soter Technologies. Mr. Peterson leads a growing team technology experts who devoted to the practical application of technology to improve and save lives. Using advanced sensor and software technology the company develops and delivers innovative solutions for environmental intelligence – to make the world a safe place. Mr. Peterson’s software and innovations have received numerous awards as well as national media attention. Soter’s Fly Sense vaping detection and anti-bullying sensor has attracted national attention and was featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox 5 New York and many other media outlets across the United States. Mr. Peterson is regularly interviews by the media about entrepreneurship, technology and how it is being used to reduce vaping and prevent bullying at schools.
bob williams
President of IVMatters Inc.
IVMatters was formed in pursuit of providing advisory, strategic planning, marketing, product development and regulatory support to med tech companies. Bob is an active angel investor in the medical device and healthcare information technology space. Prior to founding IV Matters, Bob has served in executive roles for Bracco S.p.A and ACIST Medical Systems INC. Other career highlights include product development and business management of Bracco’s highly successful Empower CT & MR contrast injector lines, novel angiographic injection technologies, patient monitoring systems, CT colonography accessory products, gastroenterology products, medical consumables, invitro diagnostic devices and Healthcare IT product lines. Bob is also an inventor of 17 issued U.S. medical device patents with numerous pending applications.
James Keane
Serial Entrepreneur | Former AB-InBev Corporate Venture Capital
ames is currently the Founder and CEO of Airfoil Corp., a strategic advisory firm focused on serving enterprises, startups, and family offices with innovation & disruption strategy, product vision & roadmaps, finance, and portfolio investments. James also leads product for TappTek, an IoT based data analytics product for the beverage industry, and Picket Now.
Jame designed, built, and led successful and widely scaled innovation, incubator, and accelerator teams at AB InBev, MetLife, and Accenture, practicing Open Innovation, Design Thinking, and Lean Startup principles. At AB InBev James established a global technology innovation strategy & operations platform, ABI’s premier Silicon Valley outpost, and explored and commercialized the future of digital marketing and sales with startups, VC’s, and incubation partners. In his role leading technology innovation James delivered $100M's of recognized top line and bottom line value. James was a founding partner of Anheuser Busch-InBev’s disruptive growth and venture capital team, ZX-Ventures. James executed AB InBev’s very first investments in data-driven startups leveraging exponential technologies to glean actionable business insights into consumer preference and choice.