Judges and Mentors

2023 Full Proposal Judging Resources

Join the Big Ideas Network!

The Big Ideas network includes hundreds of individuals and organizations who support the contest in various capacities. Learn more about the academic and industry professionals in the Big Ideas Network below and apply today!

Judges

Each year, we look for 300+ judges to help us review submissions for each of our two contest rounds. Judges have the opportunity to preview and provide feedback on students’ innovative ideas, and help us to determine which teams move on as finalists and are ultimately selected as winners. Visit our judges page to learn more about becoming a judge!

Mentors

Starting in mid-February, Big Ideas finalists are carefully matched with mentors from our mentor pool who have relevant skills and expertise to their project. Mentors are professionals from a set of diverse fields, ranging from business and finance expertise, to entrepreneurship experience, to technical expertise in one of our category areas, and more. Together, finalists and mentors work to refine the team’s project ideas, explore what it will take to implement it, and ultimately develop a 9-page “final proposal,” due April 2024. Visit our Mentor page to learn more about how to be included in our mentor pool!

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Big Ideas Judge & Mentor Network?

Judge and Mentor Network

Abigail Manz

Impact Strategy Manager

Smart Data Foundry

Adam Wilson

Founder / CEO

Polyform Studio

Adara Citron

Senior Principal Analyst

California Health Benefits Review Program, UC Berkeley

Alejandro Maldonado

CEO

At HUM

Alexandra Orozco

Associate Director International Partnerships

UC Riverside

Alicia De Toffoli

Senior Advisor, Corporate Social Impact

Tides Foundation

Amanda Brief Frankel

Brembo Inspiration Lab Manager

Brembo

Andree Sosler

Global Lead, Market Development and Product Introduction

FHI 360

Anuj Dron

Product Manager & Technology Leader

Amazon

Ashwin Kavasseri Venkitaraman

Safety Engineer

Rivian Inc.

Ben Manilla

President and Owner

BMP Audio

Beth Ferguson

Assistant Professor

UC Davis

Bill Buchan

CEO

Market Potential, Inc.

Brittany Powell

Policy Analyst

University of Global Health Equity

Carol Caruso

CEO

Bloom Impact

Cathy Farmer

Co-founder/Investor/ Advisor/Autism Advocate

Self-employed

Chandra Shukla

Data Scientist

AIG

Christelle Scharff

Professor

Pace University

Christian Damsen

Enterprise Sales

Salesforce

Danesh Tavana

General Partner

Carroll Project LLC

Dariush Zahedi

Executive Director

AMENA Center, UC Berkeley

Dave Weiner

Program Director, Bay Area NSF I-Corps

UC Berkeley

David Ochi

Executive Director

CSUDH Innovation Incubator

Dawn McGee

Administrator + Lecturer

UC Davis Student Startup Center

Debra Lambrecht

Founder, Head of School

Caulbridge School

Deepa Vora

CEO

CitizenGrown

Denis Pitzalis

Web Architect

UNESCO

Di Lacey

VP WesternU Oregon

Western University of Health Sciences

Diane Wang

CEO

Sweetgum

Dickson Mushabe

CEO

Hostalite

Divya Sripathy

Data Analyst

Intel Corporation

Don Weil

Past Chairman & Startup Advisor

SCORE

Edwin Gommers

President & CFO/COO

Shoe Crazy Wine

Estefanía Palomino

Director

Aspen Institute

Ferisca Putri

Biotech Innovation Fellow

UC Davis

Gayatri Suri

Program Manager, Social Finance

UBS Optimus Foundation

Gelsey Bennett

Senior Director, Resilience & Growth

ACDI/VOCA

George Anwar

Lecturer

UC Berkeley

Gopal Krishnan

Chief Innovation Officer

AAA

Gozde Goncu-Berk

Associate Professor

UC Davis

Greg McNutt

Technical Director

Pure Storage, Inc.

Guillaume Signorino

Head of International Relations & Sustainable Development

Université PSL

Hannah Eaves

Head of Product

Distributed Media Lab

Heather Lofthouse

Executive Director

Inequality Media

Hisham Zawil

Director, Private Sector Partnerships

World Food Program USA

Ilana Lipsett

Design Strategist & Facilitator

Ioana Aanei

Associate Director

Scribe Therapeutics

Ivan Low

Assistant Director

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts

Jacen Greene

Assistant Director, Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative

Portland State University

Jacie Jones

Co-Founder & CEO

The Perennial Foods Group

Jack Rolo

Founder & CEO

Polygon

James Wire

Consultant

Self Employed

Jay Chikobe

Senior Associate

Resonance

James Canton

CEO & Chairman

Institute for Global Futures

Jean-Christophe Quillet

AI/ML Lead Technologist

Digital Catapult

Jesse Leaman

CEO

Gryphon Foundation for People with Disadvantages

Jill Finlayson

Managing Director, CITRIS Innovation Hub

University of California

Julia Kramer

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

University of Michigan

Julieta Ross

Co-Founder and CEO

Okee Labs

Kaitie Penry

Director of Research Innovation

Naval Postgraduate School

Karin Meyer

Strategic Advisor

Self Employed

Katy Herchson

Senior Manager, Human Rights, Responsible Sourcing

Target

Kim Longfield

Founder and Principal

Databoom

Kirk Shirley

Head of Strategic Partnerships - Americas

CAB International (CABI)

KJ (Kejian) Zhao

Manager, Impact Improvement Team

IDinsight

Lance Eliot

CEO

Techbrium

Laura Abrams

Artist and Writer

Retired

Laura Paonessa

Latam Community Leader

Amani Institute

Laurie Goldman

Strategic Advisor

The ClimateMusic Project

Levi Bridges

Freelance Journalist & Podcast Producer

Luke Latimer

Cofounder & CTO

Zestbio Inc

Madalina Bouros

Co-founder

AllGrow

Marc Rahlves

Managing Director

Rahlves Management Consulting Group

Marco Gottini

Managing Partner

BIZAL Management Consulting

Marina Rojo

Health Product Specialist

Osana Salud

Marjorie Weingrow

Career Strategist, Author

Workshop Presentations and Coaching

Max Aaronson

Principal

A Tierra Realty

Mayank Taneja

Director, Product Management

Visa

Meryll Dindin

Director of Data and AI

Parallel Learning

Michael Lindenmayer

Partnerships

Tata Trusts

Mimi Kaplan

Executive Analyst

Department of Water Resources

Mothusi Pahl

VP Business Development & Government Affairs

Modern Electron

Mrinal Mohit

Software Engineer

Glean

Natasha Chatlein

Project Manager Startups, Technology & Innovation

Advantage Austria

Nathaniel Prorok

LaunchPad Co-Director

UCSF

Neal Johnson

CEO & Founder

Hypnos Biomedical LLC

Nick Lee

Data & AI Consultant

Enterprise AI Consulting

Nikki Stief

Lead User Researcher

Indigo

Otto Thav

Consultant

THAV LLC

Pamela Chan

Sr Director, Direct Response Marketing in UDAR

UC Berkeley

Paolo Shamoon

Investments Team

Plug and Play Tech Center

Paul Ellingstad

Managing Partner

PTI Advisors

Peter Dudley

Leadership Coach

Gray Bear Coaching

Peter Brantley

Director Online Strategy

UC Davis

Pramod Gavade

Staff System Engineer

Airbnb

Prasad Vaidya

Director

Solar Decathlon India

Rachel Flynn

Director, Funder Alliances

Skoll Foundation

Rafique Mustafa Shaikh

Provincial Civil Servant

Provincial Government of Sindh, Pakistan

Rahul Nayak

Emergency Medicine Resident Doctor

Stanford Health Care

Reid Dabney

Managing Director

Oberon Securities and CFO-911

Richard Tuck

CEO

Wakopa Financial

Robert McKee

Assistant Professor of Teaching

UCR

Robert Girling

Professor Emeritus

Retired

Robert Ssekitoleko

Lecturer/Head of Biomedical Engineering

Makerere University

Ron Shigeta

Founder

iAccelerate.tech

Roxanna Samii

Communication Strategist

Freelance Consultant

Rubayat Khan

Chairperson

Jeeon Foundation

Ryan Kushner

Director of Outreach

RMI / Third Derivative

Sabrina Patrick-Urrutia

Consultant/Change Manager

NSW Department of Education

Saeed Elnaj

CTO

Healthkey Technology

Saira Qureshi

Solution Leader

McKinsey & Company

Sara Dean

Assistant Professor

California College of the Arts

Saurabh Gupta

Director

Blue Pencil Strategies P Ltd

Sean Paavo Krepp

Google Maps Data Ops, Board Advisor, Startup Advisor

Google

Sean Burns

Discovery Hub

UC Berkeley

Shalini Gopalakrishnan

Founder

Metaverse University

Shana McCracken

Sustainability & Community Outreach Manager

Recology

Shivani Garg Patel

Chief Strategy Officer

Skoll Foundation

Skylar Economy

Director & Producer

Conde Nast (Architectural Digest)

Sophi Martin

Experience Designer & Client Breakthrough Lab Facilitator

Deloitte

Stephanie Marrus

Managing Director Entrepreneurship

UCSF

Stephen Honan

President

Frontier Allies

Steven Horowitz

Principal

Ovidian Group

Susana Sitja

Senior Advisor, Office of the Presidency

Inter-American Development Bank

Tash Sundar Leeburn

Scrum Master

Aon

Tej Pochiraju

CEO

IoTReady.co

Thomas C. Hayes

Book Collaborator, Editorial Coach

Thomas C Hayes Associates LLC

Vidya Raghu

Professor

NMIMS

Vincent Kimura

Director of Program & Partnerships - Ideation Studio

University of Hawaii

Vivian Qu

CPO

Tidal Vision Products Inc.

Wesley Farrow

President

Christians in Commerce International

William Humnicky

Director of Operations and Planning

UC Berkeley, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

Zen Tharani

CEO and Founder

Xenex Consulting Inc.