DisrupTV Episode 454

Jeff Jonas, founder and CEO of Senzing, is a data scientist and creator of Entity Resolution systems. For more than three decades, he has been at the forefront of solving complex big data problems for companies and governments. National Geographic recognized him as the Wizard of Big Data.

Jonas sold his last company to IBM in 2005. Prior to founding Senzing, Jonas served as an IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist of Context Computing at IBM. He led a team focused on creating next-generation AI for Entity Resolution technology, code-named G2. At IBM G2 was deployed in many innovative ways, including modernizing U.S. voter registration through a joint effort with Pew Charitable Trust and helping the Singaporean government build a maritime domain awareness system to better protect the Malacca Straits. In 2016, Jonas founded Senzing, based on a one-of-a-kind IBM spinout of the G2 technology and team.

He regularly meets with government leaders, industry executives and think tanks around the globe about innovation, national security and privacy. Jonas serves on the boards of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the advisory board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a Distinguished Engineer of Information Systems (adjunct) at Singapore Management University (SMU).

Jonas was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Science in 2015 from Claremont Graduate University and is the author or co-author of 14 patents. His work has been featured in documentaries airing on networks such as the Discovery Channel, and he has been the subject of prominent chapters in books such as No Place to Hide, Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World, The Numerati and The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State.

Dr. David A. Bray is a Distinguished Fellow and Chair of the Accelerator with the Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council at the non-partisan Henry L. Stimson Center. He is also a non-resident Distinguished Fellow with the Business Executives for National Security, and a CEO and transformation leader for different “under the radar” tech and data ventures seeking to get started in novel situations. He is Principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures and has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005. Dr. Bray previously was the Executive Director for a bipartisan National Commission on R&D, provided non-partisan leadership as a federal agency Senior Executive, worked with the U.S. Navy and Marines on improving organizational adaptability, and aided U.S. Special Operation Command’s J5 Directorate on the challenges of countering disinformation online. He has received both the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal. David accepted a leadership role in December 2019 to direct the successful bipartisan Commission on the Geopolitical Impacts of New Technologies and Data that included Senator Mark Warner, Senator Rob Portman, Rep. Suzan DelBene, and Rep. Michael McCaul. From 2017 to the start of 2020, David also served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet coalition Chaired by Internet co-originator Vint Cerf and was named a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition starting in 2018. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World” under 40 and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. For twelve different startups, he has served as President, CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, and Strategic Advisor roles.

David’s passions include complicated, near-impossible missions involving humans and technology in challenging circumstances. Through the efforts of a team of “positive change agents”, he led the transformation of the Federal Communication Commission’s legacy IT with more than 207 different systems to award-winning tech. This included rolling out new cloud-based IT that achieved results in 1/2 the time at 1/6 the cost. He was the recipient of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronic Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Civilian Government. He also received the global CIO 100 Award twice, which usually is awarded to private sector Fortune 500 companies, both in 2015 and 2017, for his transformational leadership in change-adverse settings. From 2017-2021, he both worked with multiple services associated with the U.S. Department of Defense on improving organizational adaptability and countering disinformation online – including personally surviving a disinformation attack that occurred in 2018. In 2019, he was invited to give the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture to the United Nations on UN Charter Day. In 2025, he was invited to be an expert witness before a public Congressional hearing on AI, specifically to provide both verbal and written testimony as well as answers to questions from members of the U.S. Congress to help inform AI policies.

As Principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures, Dr. Bray’s passions include providing Board-level and CEO-level leadership to different “under the radar” tech and data ventures seeking to get started in novel situations to include activities that shape the Future of Data, Bio, and Space. He provides strategic direction, advice, and leadership to organizations confronting turbulent environments on multiple topics ranging from quantum computing to commercial space endeavors; synthetic biology to data cooperatives paired with AI. He accepted a role of Co-Chair for 2016-2017 with an IEEE Committee focused on Artificial Intelligence, automated systems, and innovative policies globally and has been serving as a Visiting Executive In-Residence at Harvard University since 2015 and as a Faculty Member giving talks on Impact and Disruption at Singularity University since 2017. In 2021 and 2022, he was named a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council. In 2023, he was named a distinguished Academy Fellow with the National Academy of Public Administration focused on the role of transformative technologies, like AI, on public service. In 2022, the Business Executives for National Security welcomed him as a Distinguished Fellow focused on the intersection of transformative technologies, global collaborations, and over-the-horizon challenges for the future ahead. David has been an invited keynote speaker to CEOs, world leaders, and crowds of more than 3,000 participants at events in India, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan, Dubai, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.