Speaker's Profile

Hands-on technology leader and PhD with 15+ years of experience applying AI/ML to drive business results as a startup founder, executive, consultant, and advisor. Worked with Fortune 500 corporations and VC-funded startups on AI strategies, products, platforms, and built high-performance AI orgs from zero multiple times. Managed multi-year digital transformation programs and software projects with $10M+ R&D budget and multiple cross-functional and globally distributed teams. Marquee clients: Canon, Dentsu, Vodafone, McDonald’s, GSK, Intel, BillGO, Jibo Robotics.

Now, Nik is the Director of AI Platform at NVIDIA driving MLOps adoption and best practices across the company. In the past, Nik was the co-founder & CEO of Metapixel AI, SaaS company providing AI-powered visual content production for eCommerce. As the Director of AI at Gigster (YC ’S15, A16Z, Redpoint), he managed the full cycle AI practice (technical sales, AI discovery workshops, scoping, team formation, delivery, hand-off), AI platform and methodology development, and strategic AI engagements. Nik also advises startups, provides on-demand high-value consulting services and speaking engagements via his boutique firm (ask in DM).

Nik holds a PhD Degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, summa cum laude Masters in Applied Math and Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (5.0/5.0 GPA), and is a Google-certified Professional Data Engineer. He publishes and reviews for top academic conferences, like CIKM, KDD, SIGIR, WWW, and gives talks at world-class industry events, like Google Next, Agile Days, Sberbank AI Journey, DataFest, ClickCDO, RIT++, TechWEEK, DSGOX, to name a few.

Nik actively shares his knowledge with the fellow industry practitioners and executives via master classes and workshops at top-50 business schools and corporate training centers. He is the author of “Accelerated Artificial Intelligence Deployment for Digital Leaders” and “AI Product Manager” executive courses produced by Netology. His work was covered by major industry publications and expos, including Google Next 2019, CES2019, CES2020, Digital Imaging Reporter, PetaPixel, Digital Photography Review, Time Magazine, RBC, Expert Magazine, Snob, Rusbase.

Specialties: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Search, Recommendations, NLP, Spam Detection, Crowdsourcing, Human-in-the-Loop/Hybrid AI Systems, Cloud AI, Mobile AI, Solution Architecture, Product and Technology Strategy, Data Monetization, Program Management.