Ken Washington has been preparing for his job as Amazon’s vice president and GM of consumer robotics for his entire career.
A nuclear engineer by training, with a doctorate from Texas A&M, his past roles include CIO for Sandia National Laboratories; the first chief privacy officer for Lockheed Martin; and CTO for Ford Motor Co. as the automaker expanded into autonomous technology.
In his position at Amazon, he oversees initiatives including the company’s Astro home robot, combining his expertise and experience from all of his past roles.
In short, we’ll have a lot to talk about when Washington joins us as one of the featured speakers at the GeekWire Summit, our signature technology and business conference, which is coming up Oct. 6-7 in Seattle.
Tickets are available now to join us either in-person or online.
Washington will be speaking on the morning of Friday, Oct. 7, part of a larger theme of autonomous technology on the second day of the conference: Speaking separately that same morning is Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, one of the leaders in technology for autonomous vehicles and big rigs.
They’re part of a larger lineup over the two days that also includes:
- Julie Larson-Green, CTO of Magic Leap.
- U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.
- Charlie Bell, the EVP leading Microsoft’s security business.
- Hill Harper, actor, author, and founder of The Black Wall Street.
- Jaime Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist.
- Introductory remarks from Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.
- Expert panels on the future of work, tech investing, and the economy.
- The finals of GeekWire’s Elevator Pitch competition, live on stage.
Those are a few of the highlights to expect at this year’s GeekWire Summit. See the event page for more details, and stay tuned for the full agenda soon. We’ll be featuring additional speakers and topics as we preview the event in the weeks ahead, leading up to the Summit on Oct. 6-7.
We’ll be returning this year to Block 41, a great indoor-outdoor space in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. See the FAQ for more information, and register to attend in-person or virtually at geekwire.com/summit or below.
Thanks to presenting sponsor Bank of America, to all the sponsors who make the GeekWire Summit possible, and to all of you for supporting GeekWire’s work.
Email events@geekwire.com with any questions. Hope to see you there!
Register here or below.
