Dr. Ashley Llorens, Corporate Vice President & Managing Director, Microsoft Research

Llorens leads the Microsoft Research Accelerator organization, which invests in projects and programs that accelerate research from initial concept to real-world impact at scale. Llorens currently oversees projects driving transformative innovation in AI for science, AI for the physical world, and AI for global south and a program portfolio that includes the world's largest corporate hackathon, incubating emerging technologies across Microsoft and driving a global culture of innovation. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2021, Llorens served as the founding director of the Intelligent Systems Center for machine learning, robotics, and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Joining Microsoft as a Distinguished Scientist, his own work has fundamentally advanced AI and machine learning for autonomous systems across domains including undersea, land, air, and space. As a subject matter expert in AI and autonomous systems, Llorens has served on advisory boards and strategic studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Academy of Sciences, and the White House. Alongside his role at Microsoft, he serves as a technology consultant for movies to help enhance the representation of science and technology in film in partnership with the National Academy of Sciences and is a voting member of the Grammys.