We strive to disrupt.

Alex Hawkinson

Disrupted Consumer IoT and Smart Home

Alex founded one of the first, and largest, Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, SmartThings, in 2012. This revolutionary technology transformed physical homes into intelligent systems, enabling a safer, simpler, and more entertaining life.

Acquired by Samsung in 2014, under Alex's leadership SmartThings became a global platform with more than 150 million users and over 1 billion connected devices across 88 countries. This innovative platform attracted more than 250,000 developers and device creators to develop unique solutions for every aspect of consumer life, from security and peace of mind to energy management to entertainment.

SmartThings isn’t Alex’s only brainchild. The experienced tech entrepreneur and business executive founded and operated multiple companies over the course of more than 25 years. Alex’s product and business-building experience, plus his expertise across IoT, AI, SaaS and cloud-based software, and mobile applications led him to create BrightAI.

As a co-founder of BrightAI, Hawkinson works with large enterprises to drive the technological transformation of their businesses, with a particular focus on leveraging the power of IoT to digitize physical operations, and then infusing intelligence into these environments with AI.

Hawkinson serves on the board of directors at CSC ServiceWorks, iFit, Latham Pools, One Tap Away, and Mural 365. Hawkinson also serves on the Advisory Council of the College of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. These companies reach more than 100 million consumers with essential services and are pushing forward the frontiers of IoT and AI into the physical world. 

Robert Parker

Disrupted Voice Assistants & Cloud

Robert has engineered some of today’s biggest life-changing innovations. From Amazon Alexa to Fire TV and Prime Music, Robert has disrupted everyday consumer life with voice assistants and entertainment technology. After serving as the Director of Engineering at Amazon for five years, Robert became the CTO of SmartThings, leading the company’s product and engineering teams, while building the proprietary platform.

From SmartThings, Robert teamed up with Alex to develop the newest transformative platform, BrightAI. As a co-founder, Robert develops the technology that makes industry disruption and extraordinary growth opportunities possible.

Prior to creating groundbreaking technologies, Robert spent 18 years as a general manager at Microsoft. As an industry-awarded and recognized technical leader, he holds more than 20 patents of his own.

Nathan Hanks

Disrupted Local Marketing & Music Promotion

Nathan's career has been driven by his love of technology and entrepreneurship. From ReachLocal to Music Audience Exchange (MAX), this tech business leader has disrupted industries like local marketing and music promotion.

While other companies were busy trying to develop the next great search engine, Nathan set his sights on securing search listings for small businesses to help them unlock new customer streams and revenue growth from digital. As the co-founder and president of ReachLocal, Nathan scaled the company to 24,000 clients in 15 countries, 2,200 team members, and a half-billion dollars in annual revenue.

From ReachLocal, Nathan moved on to make his mark on the music promotion industry, leading a team of engineers, data scientists, music professionals, and media experts to revolutionize music sponsorship for the digital age. Since its inception in 2014, MAX has connected more than 500 top music acts with a roster of leading global brands, delivering over 70 million dollars in sponsorship deals to breakthrough artists.

To fulfill his passion for applying business and technology to drive society forward, Nathan supports a range of companies as a board member, advisor, and investor. He currently serves as board director at iD Tech, the leader in STEM education with 700 Certified Tech Rockstars coaching 60,000 kids and teens annually in coding, game dev, robotics, design, and math. Students learn online year-round and on-campus during the summer at MIT, Stanford, and 150 other top universities.

Previously, Nathan was a director at Quartet Health, a Google Ventures-backed technology company working to improve the mental health system. Nathan has also been an early advisor and investor in more than two dozen companies, including Noble Money (building inflation-resistant currency), SmartThings (smart home platform), and Parade Ventures (seed fund supporting tech entrepreneurs).

Douglas Burman

Disrupted Consumer & Industrial Spaces

Doug has been pushing the boundaries of the value that can be delivered through connectivity and automation for more than 17 years. His passion for hands-on creation and team enablement has created the technology and platforms that have disrupted the consumer and industrial spaces. 

At the beginning of his career, Doug created solutions and consulted in the startup space for green energy solutions, medical devices, and power grid companies. After developing engineering solutions and pushing forward new standards in the industrial automation and smart grid space, Doug became interested in shaping the evolution of the consumer at-home experience. 

Doug joined the SmartThings team early in the company’s journey. He innovated first-party devices, the realization of an open-device ecosystem, and a security-hardened platform. After the acquisition by Samsung, Doug became Vice President of Engineering, shaping the production of Samsung IoT products and integrations with industry leaders.

Through his position on the board of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance), he worked to mold the future of consumer smart homes through industry standardization, which was backed by the largest Internet of Things brands.

Propelled by the belief that technology could do more, Doug joined Alex and Robert on their BrightAI venture, delivering impact to not just one consumer, but to millions of people at once. As a BrightAI co-founder, Doug leads an engineering organization that infuses innovative intelligence capabilities into our physical surroundings.