Co-facilitator, AI for Executives
Founder and CEO, Techné AI

Khullani M. Abdullahi is the founder of Techne AI, a Chicago-based consultancy specializing in AI governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) for regulated sectors. With more than 14 years of experience commercializing emerging technologies across cybersecurity, digital health, legal tech, and AI startups, Khullani partners with executive teams to design responsible AI strategies, build operational governance systems, and guide organizations in adopting AI safely and effectively.

Her work centers on the institutional layer of AI safety—helping health systems, public agencies, and enterprise leaders translate broad policy frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, and state AI acts into practical oversight structures, accountability mechanisms, and workforce enablement. She also advises boards of directors on fiduciary responsibilities and risk governance in an era of rapidly advancing AI capabilities.

Beyond her organizational work, Khullani contributes to civic and public-interest AI governance, examining how societies can navigate the economic, cultural, and ontological shifts introduced by increasingly autonomous systems. She is the host of the AI in Chicago podcast, where she convenes researchers, policymakers, and institutional leaders shaping the region’s AI future.

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Co-facilitator, AI for Executives
Founder and CEO, Intentional Gravity
Director of Platform, PACE Healthcare Capital

E.J. Reedy is an executive and entrepreneur with a two-decade track record of building companies, organizations, platforms, and catalytic communities that unite the people shaping the future of innovation—entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, corporations, investors, operators, and civic leaders.

Trained as an economist and grounded as a creator and connector, E.J. has worked across industries including biotech, fintech, food innovation, and climate tech. He is known for identifying patterns others miss, bridging siloed environments, and helping individuals and organizations make intentional choices that create new value and shift their trajectories.

E.J. has held senior leadership roles across the private and nonprofit sectors, including founding Intentional Gravity to advance people-centered technology; helping scale Portal Innovations into a national biotech venture platform; leading strategic programs at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center; and positioning the Kauffman Foundation as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national outlets.

Today, E.J. focuses on coaching leaders, advising organizations, and designing communities where deeper connection enables meaningful progress. He is particularly drawn to small, trusted groups—spaces where people can be honest about hard choices, map their next moves, and support one another with clarity and courage.

He often collaborates with explorers: mission-driven professionals navigating complex systems and building what comes next. His role blends strategist, coach, and mission control—gathering the right people, tightening their orbits, and helping them gain velocity for change and impact.

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Host, AI for Executives
Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, P33

Tifair Hamed is an award-winning growth and marketing executive serving as Chief Growth Officer at P33, a public-private initiative led by Chicago’s business, civic, and technology leaders to position the region as a globally competitive tech hub. Her work focuses on ecosystem strategy, narrative development, and elevating Chicago and Illinois across advanced industries including technology, climate, and quantum.

Prior to P33, Tifair held senior leadership roles across agency and enterprise environments, including leading social media and cultural strategy for McDonald’s through Burrell Communications. She advised Fortune 100 brands on audience engagement, influencer marketing, and brand relevance, driving measurable gains in reach, sentiment, and market share, including McDonald’s first earned partnership with Meta.

Tifair’s career spans partnerships with global brands, startups, nonprofits, and public institutions including AT&T, UPS, Molson Coors, Toyota, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble, TikTok, Essence, BET, and NASCAR. Her approach is strategic and purpose-driven, grounded in the belief that relevance, performance, and impact must move together.

She has been recognized as an American Marketing Association “4 Under 40” Emerging Leader and a Stevie Award winner for Marketing Campaign of the Year. Tifair holds executive training from Harvard Business School and earned her master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.

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Host, AI for Execs
Senior Associate, Chingona Ventures

Grisel Hernandez is a venture capital operator and investor focused on the infrastructure of modern life—how people live, work, and learn as technology reshapes the economy. As an investor and operator at Chingona Ventures, she supports all aspects of the firm’s work, from evaluating early-stage companies to designing internal systems, conducting market landscape analyses, and strengthening data operations across the fund.

Her background bridges research, policy analysis, and finance. Before joining Chingona Ventures, Grisel managed student innovation investments at the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer and conducted market and financial research at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP). She brings a systems lens to each role, blending qualitative and quantitative methods to understand how capital flows, how markets evolve, and how innovation reaches the communities it intends to serve.

Grisel’s technical foundation was strengthened through the University of Chicago’s Data and Policy Summer Scholars (DPSS) program, where she developed open-source analytical skills and applied statistical rigor to policy and market questions. Her undergraduate training in economics, political science, and Latin American studies at Grinnell College continues to shape her approach to investment strategy, operational problem-solving, and market analysis.

Throughout her career, Grisel has been drawn to messy, ambiguous environments where systems must be built from the ground up. At Chingona Ventures, she channels this strength into supporting founders, improving operational clarity, and developing data frameworks that inform investment decisions across fintech, edtech, food innovation, and the future of work.

She is an active member of Global Women in VC and Let’s Talk Ops and previously served as a VC Fellow with Chicago:Blend. Her work reflects a commitment to building more inclusive investment ecosystems and strengthening the operational backbone of early-stage venture.

Host, AI for Execs
Principal Consultant, sr4Partners
Author

Alida Miranda-Wolff is a Principal Consultant at sr4 Partners and a nationally recognized leader in organizational culture, inclusive leadership, and employee experience. She specializes in creating the structures, habits, and communication systems that help organizations build healthy cultures from the ground up. Her work spans the full employee lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding through retention, development, and long-term growth.

Before joining sr4 Partners, Alida founded and led Ethos Talent, where she established a practice centered on belonging, neurodiversity inclusion, and values-driven leadership development. Her approach has made her a sought-after facilitator, advisor, and culture builder for organizations navigating periods of change or growth. She is particularly known for designing better meetings, coaching executives on inclusive leadership behaviors, and helping teams make the implicit explicit through clear, direct communication.

Alida is also an accomplished author and world-builder. She is the Amazon-bestselling nonfiction author of two books with HarperCollins Leadership, and her writing has appeared in Salon, Hippocampus, Writer’s Digest, and Books by Women. Her debut fantasy novel, A Raven in the Storm, is the first in her four-book Gods of Tellus series. She hosts Care Work with Alida Miranda-Wolff, a podcast exploring the emotional and practical realities of caring for others as a profession.

Her career includes early recognition from the University of Chicago, where she received the Early Career Achievement Award. She holds a degree in creative writing from the University and remains deeply involved in Chicago’s literary and creative communities.

Outside her professional work, Alida maintains what she describes as a “menagerie”—a household shared with her family, multiple rabbits, and several cats. Her experiences caring for animals—including writing about loss in her widely shared essay “Year of the Rabbit”—inform her broader commitment to empathy, belonging, and human connection.

Host, AI for Execs
Senior Associate, Impact Investing, Sorenson Impact Foundation

Ibrahim Rashid is an impact investor and AI educator focused on channeling capital and technology toward low-income and marginalized communities. He serves as a Senior Associate in Impact Investing at the Sorenson Impact Foundation, where he backs founders advancing environmental justice, health equity, economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and responsible technology. In parallel, he teaches venture capital firms how to use AI to improve internal operations, diligence, and portfolio support.

A Pakistani-American who grew up in South Africa, England, Nigeria, and the UAE, Ibrahim brings a distinctly global lens to his work. Early ambitions to become a diplomat led him into foreign aid, where he saw firsthand that the scale of challenges like climate change, displacement, and healthcare access required private capital—alongside government—to step up. That realization shaped a career at the intersection of finance, policy, and entrepreneurship: running a digital health startup, contributing to a U.S. presidential campaign, and ultimately moving into impact investing.

Before joining Sorenson, Ibrahim revamped the sustainable investing platform at Marquette Associates as a Research Analyst for Sustainable Investing, guiding asset owners on climate action, racial equity, and place-based investment strategies. He has written playbooks for integrating climate risk into public fund portfolios, redesigned ESG and impact due-diligence processes, and supported clients through leading impact benchmarking initiatives. His ecosystem work includes a Chicago:Blend Venture Fellowship with mHUB Ventures and founding Rashid Impact Strategies, advising investors and entrepreneurs on fundraising, AI-enabled diligence, governance, and policy.

Ibrahim is also a founder and author. As Co-Founder and COO of Strong Haulers, a digital health startup for people with Long COVID and infection-associated chronic conditions, he led product, operations, and fundraising, with the company featured at TechCrunch Disrupt, the Clinton Global Initiative, and in national media. His book, Strong Hauler: Learning to Live with Long COVID, and his keynote speeches and writing have helped shape the emerging “Long COVID economy” and broader innovation ecosystem around chronic illness.

Across these roles, Ibrahim is known for translating complex systems—capital markets, public policy, AI, and healthcare—into clear strategies that are both actionable and values-aligned. His work with AI sits squarely in that space: helping investors and leaders adopt AI tools in ways that are operationally effective, ethically grounded, and aligned with long-term impact.