Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA): Paul is an experienced advocate, lawyer, and expert in technology policy, government affairs, regulatory design, privacy, and national security. He has advised senior leaders in business and government for two decades. Previously, Paul served in senior legal and policy positions with the U.S. government. He was the Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) at the Department of Defense, with responsibilities for significant litigation, constitutional issues, privacy, congressional investigations, and certain counterterrorism and cybersecurity matters. He also served as General Counsel of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Services and as director of research and analysis and senior advisor to National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). With NSCAI, Paul led all work on foreign policy and developed recommendations that have served as a blueprint for Biden administration initiatives on critical and emerging technologies. His government service followed over a decade in private law practice in New York and Washington, DC, where he represented dozens of individual and institutional clients in litigation, sensitive investigations, and strategic counseling. Paul’s outside activities include membership in the following: Future of Privacy Forum Advisory Board; EdSAFE AI Alliance Advisory Counsel; G7 Task Force on Governance for a Digitized Society; and NIST Generative AI Public Working Group. He is an advisory on foreign policy and AI for the Special Competitive Studies Project and served as national security legal counsel to the Biden-Harris Transition Team in 2020-21. Paul received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University.

KENNETH HERTZ is a Senior Partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk LLP. Ken and his partners specialize in representing talent and media companies in the sports and entertainment industries. The firm's clients include Will, Jada Pinkett, Jaden, and Willow Smith, H.E.R., Gwen Stefani, The Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Keke Palmer, Simon Sinek, Esther Perel, Keith Richards, Herbie Hancock, Jason Mraz, David Blaine, Jamie Oliver, and Annie Leibovitz. Ken is also a principal in memBrain - an entertainment marketing and strategy consulting firm. memBrain's clients include Intel, Hasbro, UBS, and Logitech. Ken is a frequent speaker and commentator on the subjects of entertainment, marketing, and convergence. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal; has appeared on CNBC's "Business Nation;" and has taught graduate classes at the business schools of Stanford, USC and Berkeley; and has held adjunct professorships at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, and USC's Gould School of Law.

Silke Meixner is a Principal for Customer Centric Digital Marketing, with a focus on Cognitive Enterprise Transformation, Digital Marketing Strategy and Digital Business Operations. Silke leads digital Marketing and Brand strategy, growth and innovation work, with direct linkages to Marketing Operations and multi-channel Campaign execution and measurement, as well as end-to-end Customer Experience design. Silke has a strong background in Marketing Effectiveness, Commercial Operating model restructuring, Marketing, Branding CRM and Sales process design, simplification, and cost optimization for global F500 companies. Silke specializes in the approach design and structured delivery of Operating Model changes to drive growth and optimize spend in B2B and B2C settings. Silke has led global client projects in the areas of growth strategy, process design and simplification, Marketing and Sales Operations, and maturity assessments, B2B and B2C segmentation, Go-to-Market and channel, e-commerce Marketing strategy at leading multinational organizations.

Lauren Fried, Partner, Loeb & Loeb, LLP: Lauren Fried is an experienced litigator representing high-profile clients in the entertainment, technology, and media sectors. Her practice includes representing production companies, studios, satellite and network broadcasters and high profile celebrities and athletes in a range of matters including business disputes, copyright and intellectual property litigation, right of publicity, false advertising, and unfair competition. Lauren has extensive hands-on experience researching and writing dispositive and other substantive motions in state and federal courts, and she works closely with clients to develop and manage case strategies. She advises clients on their most sensitive business matters. Lauren has tried multiple cases in both state and federal courts and has represented clients in commercial arbitration. Outside of her entertainment practice, Lauren has experience with eminent domain litigation. Prior to her private practice, Lauren served as associate counsel for Zebra Technologies Corporation and has conducted mediations in Illinois courts for the Center for Conflict Resolution. Lauren is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law teaching sports law and business.

Ghen Laraya Long is an experienced international technology and entertainment attorney. She specializes in transactional contracts for the creation, production and distribution of all forms of content over traditional and emerging media platforms. Long has a roster of technotainment clients ranging from producers, directors, writers, actors, musicians, athletes and influencers and from large multimedia companies to small startups for whom she provides business and legal advice, in-house counsel and production attorney services. Prior to recent stints with Disney and Red Bull Media, Long was VP Business and Legal Affairs for Mandalay Digital Group Inc. and its subsidiary Digital Turbine Inc., AGCounsel and Director of Mobile for CBS Corporation, International Corporate Counsel for Amp’d Mobile and Business and Legal Affairs Counsel for Tokyopop! Inc and Yahoo! Inc. Long is currently a board member of Fil-Am Arts, has served on the board of Women in Film and Echo Training and is a co-founder of Greenlight Women. Long is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves on its AI Task Force. She is qualified to practice law in California and Ontario, Canada and is a polyglot.