Meet Darrell your “techie’s favorite techie” who leads one of Microsoft’s most important racial equity commitments, the Nonprofit Tech Acceleration of Black and African American Communities.   Darrell created this national program designed at leveling the tech playing field for nonprofits serving our most underserved communities. Prior to leading this program, Darrell served in a advisor role helping the world’s largest nonprofits such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Cancer Society and the Salvation Army on their digital transformation to the cloud.  Darrell has served in CIO and CTO roles in the past leading teams of developers in nonprofit as well as other industries such as automotive and banking.  Darrell also has an entrepreneurial spirit, co-founding a tech startup for the fitness industry used in hundreds of gyms across the U.S. and Canada.

Hardie Davis’ rise to service, as the 84th Mayor of Augusta, Georgia is a unique story rooted in an abiding faith.  Born to Hardie and Delois Davis, Mayor Davis grew up in Forsyth, Georgia, and relocated to Augusta in 1985.  His parents instilled within him the values of hard work, respect for his fellow man, and service to others.

Mayor Davis is an electrical engineer and his career includes 24 years of system, automation, and controls engineering in addition to his public service, which spans three years as a State Representative and five years as a State Senator in the Georgia General Assembly. A distinguished lawmaker while in the state legislature, Mayor Davis served as Chairman of the Interstate Cooperation Committee and an active member of the Economic Development, Ethics, Finance, and Higher Education State Senate Committees.

Mayor Davis is a founding member and the immediate past president of the African American Mayor’s Association. He also serves as Director At-Large for the Georgia Municipal Association. Nationally, Mayor Davis currently serves on the Executive Committee of the United States Conference of Mayors and as Co-Chair of the Technology & Innovation Task Force.

During his tenure as Mayor, Augustans have seen tremendous economic growth and development, public and private sector investments, as well as global recognition. Significant accomplishments to date include a reduction to the city unemployment rate to under 4%, the establishment of the $126 million dollar Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center in collaboration with the State of Georgia, City of Augusta, and Augusta University, achieving the highest bond rating in city history of Aa2 and the transformative rollout of Open Augusta, the financial transparency database for the City of Augusta which allows stakeholders direct access to government spending. Under the leadership of Mayor Davis, Augusta is a place of opportunity for everyone and continues to be a place of choice in the State of Georgia and the Nation.

A revered statesman, Mayor Davis has been recognized by numerous community and philanthropic organizations as well as constituent groups, to include but not limited to Georgia Bio, The Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Smart Cities New York, Smart City Expo Atlanta and the Georgia Association for Career and Technical Education. Mayor Davis has also consistently been featured in Georgia Trend magazine’s annual list of 100 Most Influential Georgians.

Mayor Davis is a product of Richmond County Schools graduating from Hephzibah High School and receiving a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree from Georgia Tech. He earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Christian Life School of Theology. Through his stewardship, he founded Abundant Life Worship Center in Augusta, Georgia where he serves as senior pastor.

Mayor Davis resides in South Augusta with his wife of 25 years, Evett, their son, Benjamin Joshua and their family dog, Diego.

Todd Harris (@toddalanharris) is an accomplished entrepreneur who has been leading video game and esports businesses for 15 years and involved with technology product startups for 25 years. Todd co-founded Hi-Rez Studios, one of the largest video game studios in the Southeast and is currently Founder & CEO of Skillshot Media, a leading esports infrastructure and production company, President of the North American Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), and co-owner of esports professional team Ghost Gaming.  

Skillshot connects leading brands to engaged esports fans.  The company has hosted thousands of esports tournaments, paid out over $10M in prizing for competitive video games and delivered over 1 billion views of esports content.  Skillshot also powers the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) competition with member universities awarding over $16M in esports scholarships.  

Ghost Gaming is an Atlanta-based professional esports team and gaming lifestyle brand that has won 13 tournament championships and cultivated a fan base of over 5 million.  

NASEF is the leading scholastic esports solution for high school students, providing opportunities for all students to use esports as a platform to acquire critical communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.

Throughout his career, Todd has garnered industry recognition including “2019 Most Admired CEO” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as he works with partners toward advancing the esports industry.

Julia Pallé is an expert on sustainability within motorsport.

She is Sustainability Director at the world’s first fully electric single-seater racing series, the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.

Most recently, Pallé lead the charge to certify the championship as “net zero” – being the first sport in the world to achieve such status since its inception after previously having achieved sustainable events certification (third party ISO 20121 accreditation) making it the first ever motorsport series to achieve this prestigious standard together with a renewed three stars level for FIA’s Environmental Management system.

She is also the Sustainability Advisor for Extreme E, the all-electric SUVs series, bringing electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems.

Away from the track, Pallé is President of Sports and Sustainability international (SandSI), an international association of sustainable experts working to broadening and harmonising the international sport and sustainability movement.

In her previous role, the French native was already focussing on sustainability and motorsport, this time from the perspective of tyres, at Michelin Motorsport.

Her primary area of research has focused on Business & Sustainability, Change Management and Project Management especially in Motorsport.

Jamey Rootes has been one of Houston’s leading executives for more than two decades. He currently serves as President of the Houston Texans and President of Lone Star Sports & Entertainment. A member of Sports Business Journal’s distinguished “Forty Under 40” list, Rootes has led his team to earn many distinctions, including numerous “Crystal Awards,” two American Business Awards for marketing excellence and, most recently, the Texans were awarded one of Houston’s Most Innovative companies in 2020 by the Houston Business Journal (HBJ). As the HBJ’s first-ever Business Person of the Year in 2016 and one of the HBJ’s Most Admired CEOs in 2019, Rootes maintains an active role in the community by serving on the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Partnership and the United Way of Greater Houston, both of which he previously served as Chairman of the Board. Rootes has given his time to help raise millions of dollars to support the most vulnerable individuals and families in the community. His leadership style inspires, encourages and develops business professionals within their jobs and in life.

Karen Wishart is EVP and Chief Administration Officer for Urban One, the largest distributor of urban content in the country. For more than 35 years, Urban One has been the leading voice speaking to Black America. First, as the largest local urban radio network. Then, as the largest syndicator of urban programming. Urban One is the largest African-American owned television network and distributor of digital urban content.