Unleashing the Potential of Autonomous Driving: A Conversation with Annie Lien

Sonya Shorey is a World Economic Fellow, Vice President of Strategy, Marketing, and Communications for Invest Ottawa, Bayview Yards, and Area X.O; the Co-Founder, Executive, and Director of the Board of SheBoot, a national non-profit corporation dedicated to helping women tech founders acquire investment to scale and succeed; and a strategy executive and management consultant with more than 24 years of leadership experience in public and private organizations.

About International Women’s Month: www.investottawa.ca/IWM

• On March 8th, the world celebrates the economic, social, cultural, and political achievements of women on International Women's Day.
• In Canada's Capital, we join forces with 40 to 60 partners and people across our region, country, and worldwide to create an entire month of impactful initiatives dedicated to advancing these important goals: International Women’s Month
  • Members across our local, national, and global community participate in, and benefit from, a series of leadership events and initiatives for current and aspiring women leaders from all walks of life
• International Women's Month is far more than a set of activities - it's a powerful driver for long-term, sustainable change.
  • Together, we leverage and harness the power of our collective resources and strive to create a critical mass of successful women leaders from every walk of life who significantly impact our economy and society.
  • We unite to inspire, empower, and equip women in professional fields spanning tech, entrepreneurship, investment, industry, government, academia, research, media, and nonprofits during the entire month of March
  • It shines a spotlight on the work we undertake as a community all year long
• Strategic, collaborative action is needed now more than ever.
  • According to the World Economic Forum, at the current rate of progress, it will take 131 years to reach full gender parity.
  • We call on all regions and nations to join in and create an integrated, powerful wave of global action to move the dial.
• Over the last five years (2019-2023), IWW has engaged more than 20,000 participants, and women leaders from all walks of life.
  • This includes internationally recognized speakers such as Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, Monique Woodard, Sarah Kunst, Dr. Anita Sengupta, Melissa Hanna, Sarah Lacy, Esosa Johnson and Regina Gwynn, the founders of Black Women Talk Tech, Elizabeth Yin, Arlene Dickinson, Michelle Romanow and Manjit Minhas (all from Canada’s Dragon’s Den akin to the US Shark Tank), Joanna Griffiths (Knix), Jenn Harper, and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Health Officer

Thanks to infoedge LLC for supporting this episode!

Estephania, a first-generation American, possesses a natural talent for fostering startups. Her portfolio includes successfully building global startup teams in prominent cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, Munich, Stockholm, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Tel Aviv, and across the United States.  She has a track record scaling startup teams, from the early stages of pre-seed funding to the more advanced stages like series C. She has garnered invaluable experience working internally with renowned industry giants like Apple, Meta, and Waymo.

Currently, she has launched her own Talent accelerator dedicated to driving the success of startups; she partners with venture capital firms and accelerators to guide their portfolio companies from inception to Series A. Her expertise extends to advising pre-seed to Series A founders on holistic people organization strategies.

Steph enjoys traveling, Pilates, cooking & reading in her spare time.

Regina received her BA in International Affairs from George Washington University. She then went on to receive both her MBA and Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University.   After completing graduate school in 2004, Regina spent four years working on Media Mergers & Acquisitions at Goldman Sachs in Los Angeles.  She joined Morgan Stanley in 2009 and now sits in the Chicago office as a Managing Director within the Global Industrials Group.

She oversees the global automotive and global mobility technologies verticals.  For over twenty years, Regina has dedicated her career to advising corporate clients on a variety of transactions, including traditional mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as a variety of debt and equity capital markets transactions. 

Regina lives in Oak Park, Illinois with her husband and their two children.

Sandra Roksić is a systems engineer on the high voltage battery team at Lucid Motors with experience in designing and validating automotive systems. Her career has been focused on emerging automotive technologies such as infotainment systems, autonomous vehicles, and most recently electrification. 

Her current role is centered around: optimizing the charging experience, electric vehicle serviceability, and battery system safety and reliability. Sandra is passionate about creating innovative solutions that make a difference in the world and strives to make leading transportation technologies accessible to the broader community. She believes that the EV industry is the opportunity to achieve this and works on defining the intersection between technology and society and how emerging technologies can be used to improve people’s lives.

She holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. 

Annie started her career in UX and Machine Learning at Robert Bosch's Silicon Valley research center. During this time at Bosch Annie also moonlighted on the weekends as Team Leader of Team AnnieWay for DARPA Urban Challenge 2007, where AnnieWay was an “underdog” team with very little money, manpower, resources and time, and against all odds, successfully qualified as a Finalist for the DARPA race. Thereafter, at VW Group’s Silicon Valley innovation lab, Annie co-created and led companywide initiatives on USA Product, PR, Legal, and Governmental Affairs for Audi Autonomous Driving. After Audi/VW Annie spent 6+ years in the startup world of innovative solutions for self-driving cars and robotics automation; advised/consulted entrepreneurs, investors, auto OEMs, suppliers and other entities on autonomous driving; joined Toyota’s Silicon Valley lab; and briefly co-led Hexagon’s Autonomous Solutions group. Today, Annie is excited about her current journey as Deputy CEO at VinAI.

Thank you to infoedge LLC for sponsoring this episode.

Tilly Chang is the Executive Director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority which plans, funds, and delivers improvements for San Francisco’s multi-operator transportation system. She developed San Francisco’s 30-year transportation investment blueprint known as the San Francisco Transportation Plan. 

She is Chair of the Self-Help Counties Coalition, Vice-Chair of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority's Peninsula Rail Program Executive Steering Committee, and serves on the boards of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, UC CONNECT Advisory Committee, and Self-Help for the Elderly.



Thanks to infoedge LLC for supporting this podcast.

Selika Josiah Talbott is a leading industry voice for the adoption of New Mobility: Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric vehicles. The Founder of Autonomous Vehicle Consulting, LLC and Solutions 4 New Mobility Education, LLC., she provides strategic advice to companies and organizations in the mobility space and educational materials for youth and adults on new mobility. 

She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California and Co-Directs the UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies' Environmental Justice Fellowship. Selika has extensively published on Forbes.com and is considered a go-to expert media source as well as a highly sought-after speaker. 

Selika has had a Distinguished career in public service at the federal, state, and local levels. She served at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and State of New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and held policy positions in County and Township public entities. As an attorney, she practiced product liability defense representing franchises, taught continuing legal education, and authored several papers on insurance and product liability defense. 

Selika has a J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, a B.A from SUNY Stony Brook with a Political Science Major, and a Minor in Socio-legal studies. She also holds Certifications in Executive Leadership from American University, and Diversity Equity and Inclusion from Cornell University and Corporate Board Readiness from Santa Clara University.

Big thanks to infoedge LLC for supporting this episode.

Amy Jones Satrom is Head of Operations at Nuro, where she oversees on-road operations, software quality and mapping operations, and operations product. She leads teams across the US, most notably in Houston, TX, Scottsdale, AZ, Los Angeles, and Mountain View, CA. Prior to joining Nuro, Amy led operations at 23andMe where she was responsible for overseeing supply chain, lab operations, logistics, and operating systems. Previously, she held various leadership roles at Amazon, across both operations and the company’s retail businesses. Amy started her career as a nuclear engineer in the US Navy. Amy received her Master of Philosophy in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge where she was a Gates Scholar and her B.S. in Oceanography from the United States Naval Academy. 

Thank you to infoedge LLC for sponsoring this episode.

Tune in to get to know Imogen Pierce.
 
She was Head of City Engagement and Integration at Arrival where she worked with cities to develop their mobility solutions. Before Arrival, Imogen worked as an aerodynamicist at Jaguar Land Rover. Since we spoke to Imogen she has become an ambassador for sustainable transportation at Fully Charged the largest Clean Energy & Electric Vehicle consumer channel.


This episode was supported by infoedge LLC.

Tune in to our discussion with Sohaila Ouffata, Director of Platform, BMW iVentures.  She is the ultimate Tech-Evangelista and a passionate tech Venture Capital investor. She believes in the long-term opportunities through backing purpose-driven tech startups tackling the biggest problems in the transportation industry. Sohaila is also the founder of The African Tech Vision.