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Industry Night

Industry Night 2024

MEM hosted its 10th Annual Industry Night on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at the Louis Room in the Norris University Center on Northwestern's Evanston Campus. This event included a panel session on Connected Health with guest speakers from emerging connected health companies based in Chicagoland.

Watch our Industry Night 2024 Highlights!

Panelists:

Iqbal Arshad

As Chief Technology Officer, Iqbal Arshad leads Cerence’s global technology, engineering, and product development organization. Iqbal has extensive experience in leading start-up efforts, developing breakthrough technologies, and leading businesses for iconic global technology brands. He has shaped some of the most exciting technological developments of the past decade. He led and created numerous industry-first product categories, including the original Droid smartphone, Google's first Android tablet computer, and the first Android Wear smartwatch. He also led the creation of foundational 4G technologies & chipsets, mobile software platforms, and industry-leading intellectual property. Iqbal most recently founded and served as the CEO of xCoefficient. Previously, he held Senior Vice President of Engineering & Product Development positions at Lenovo, Google, and Motorola. In these roles, he was responsible for building global product, technology, and engineering organizations to drive innovation and deliver products globally. Iqbal is currently an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and founder and advisor of its Center for Deep Learning lab. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami; a Master's degree in Science in Space Systems Engineering with a concentration in spacecraft design with distinction from Johns Hopkins University; and a Master's degree in Engineering Management from Northwestern University. 

Plamen Petrov

Plamen Petrov is CEO at Healee, a leading digital patient access & medical practice optimization platform serving healthcare systems & medical provider groups worldwide.

Healee’s advanced, AI-powered technology allows its clients to offer highly customized, fully branded and optimized patient access & experience at ground-breaking affordability and efficiency while still getting all the benefits of a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) commercial platform.

Prior to joining Healee, Plamen was co-founder & CTO of Hydrogen Health, an AI-powered Virtual Primary Care joint venture backed by Elevance Health & Blackstone, acquired by K Health in 2023.

Plamen was formerly Chief Data Officer & VP for AI at Elevance Health. (formerly Anthem) 

During his professional career, Plamen served in numerous technical, managerial, and executive leadership roles at multiple premier companies, such as KPMG, IBM Watson, Deloitte, Oracle (formerly Sun Microsystems), Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, United Airlines, Motorola. 

A life-long academic and researcher, Plamen has never severed his relationship with academia, continuously serving part-time in adjunct and research affiliate roles at leading Universities such as Northwestern University and University of Illinois, where he regularly teaches advanced graduate courses, and advises and oversees student research and projects. Most currently Plamen serves as faculty in the MSAI program at Northwestern University. 

Plamen holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science with focus on AI & Bayesian inference from University of Illinois, a Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degree from Northwestern University, and a MS degree in Computer Science from Loyola University.

Rick McNabb

Rick is a business entrepreneur and visionary with a portfolio of companies focused on solving the world’s most complex problems in the Digital Age. He also is a key stakeholder in Salt Flats Capital, a private equity company focused on investing in future business models and products. Rick has devoted his 40-plus-year career transforming Fortune 500 businesses and delivering strategic value to shareholders, customers and stakeholders.

Roozbeh Ghaffari

Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari obtained his BS and MEng degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and 2003. He received his PhD degree in biomedical engineering from the Harvard Medical School-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology in 2008. Upon completion of his PhD, Dr. Ghaffari co-founded MC10 Inc and currently serves as CEO/Co-Founder of Epicore Biosystems and associate professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Ghaffari's contributions in soft bioelectronics, micro/nano-scale systems, and auditory neuroscience have been recognized with the Helen Carr Peake PhD Research Prize, the MIT100K Grand Prize, MIT Technology Review Magazine's Top 35 Innovators Under 35, and Forbes Future of Work Top 50. Dr. Ghaffari has published over 110 scientific publications and is inventor on over 50 patents.