Vikrum Aiyer

Head of Global Public Policy & External Affairs, Heirloom

climate policy, government affairs, public policy, technology regulation, political communications

Vikrum Aiyer is Head of Global Public Policy at Heirloom, where his team works to align climate policy, workforce development strategies, and legislative affairs to accelerate carbon mineralization sciences that can remove greenhouse gasses from the air, in support of our global net-zero goals.

He previously held roles in the Obama Administration including as senior policy advisor in the White House National Economic Council, and as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. In these capacities, he served as the principal political and policy advisor to the undersecretary of commerce and coordinated a $3.2B budget, in support of 13,000 employees, to execute the daily operations, priorities, and global communications of the President’s intellectual property & STEM agenda. In 2016 Aiyer led a U.S. delegation to Cuba to reset relations between the two nations patent offices, and served on Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Task Force, to accelerate progress towards a cure by fast tracking immunology patenting. Aiyer also helped steer investments in several advanced manufacturing technologies including smart fabrics, autonomous vehicles, high performance computing, and next generation semiconductors through the National Network of Manufacturing Hubs.

Aiyer also served as the global vice president of the start-up Postmates, where he oversaw the public policy & communications team, through their acquisition by Uber. Aiyer was also a Deputy Division Director in the ACLU’s national political team where his team managed the political response to the attacks on transgender rights and the reversal of abortion rights in America. 

Aiyer has also served on the communications team of Senator Ed Markey (D-MA); Mayor Adrian Fenty (D-Washington, D.C.); and the Democratic National Conventions in 2012, 2016, and 2024. In 2015, Forbes Magazine named Aiyer to the 30 Under 30 list for Law & Policy. In 2017 Aiyer was named a Public Policy Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. And in 2021, the San Francisco Business Times named him to their annual 40 under 40 in business list.

Lai Feng Gu

Director of the National Technology Transfer Center Platform, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Carbon Emission Reduction Policies, ESG Policies, New Energy Technology Transfer, Smart Energy Innovation  

Lai Feng Gu is the Director of the National Technology Transfer Center Platform at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He leads a team focused on new energy technology transfer, smart energy innovation, carbon reduction policy and ESG policy research. Together with his team, he has established the New Energy Industry Alliance in Shanghai.

Lai Feng Gu holds a Ph.D. in Management and completed postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on open innovation, and he has continuously applied open innovation theory to university innovation and technology transfer practices.

Previously, Lai Feng GU served as the Deputy Dean of the Overseas Education College at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he was responsible for international collaborations over the long term. He has managed international cooperation projects between Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Overseas Education College and institutions such as the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, the Cambridge Judge Business School, Saïd Business School at Oxford University, as well as various schools in the University of Southern California, and Tel Aviv University, cultivating a large number of entrepreneurs with global vision.

Giulia Picci

Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project

Giulia is a PhD researcher in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage at IMT School of Advanced Studies Lucca. Her research focuses on the legal dimensions of return, restitution, and repatriation claims, with particular attention to the institutional frameworks and normative constraints that regulate these processes. She holds a master’s degree in Law from the University of Trieste where her dissertation explored the complexities of conceptual art circulation through a comparative legal approach. She later expanded her expertise in art business studies, developing knowledge at the intersection of legal and economic aspects of the art market.

Before joining IMT, Giulia served as a research fellow at the University of Turin, investigating AI-driven predictive models and their impact on museum visitor engagement. Her background combines academic research with professional experience in integrating innovative digital tools into exhibition experiences. 

Amy Pitelka

Managing Partner, Barker Pitelka PLLC

M&A, technology law, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, government tech

Amy Pitelka is a legal and policy advisor with deep experience in emerging technologies, converging regulatory environments, commercial transactions, and product and program development. With more than 15 years of legal experience, Pitelka’s practice focuses on sustainability growth and public benefit technology, helping organizations navigate overlapping regulatory regimes, draft and negotiate complex commercial agreements, quickly launch new products and features in uncertain legal environments, and build and manage ongoing legal advisory teams.

Prior to restarting her own practice, Pitelka was the Head of Legal at an employee benefits fintech. There she managed the legal, compliance, and people teams, and helped to navigate the company through health, insurance, payments, banking, ERISA, GDPR, and other regulatory regimes. Previously, Pitelka was the Chief Legal Officer of Nightingale Open Science based in the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business’s Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence. At Nightingale Open Science Pitelka helped to create a secure, open data hub that brings together health systems and research communities from across the world, enabling researchers to push the boundaries of medical science.

From 2016-2017 Pitelka was the lead Counsel (and briefly Acting Deputy Administrator) for the United States Digital Service at the White House, where she focused on identifying, combating, and removing key legal and policy hurdles to the USDS’s ongoing efforts to revolutionize the federal government’s use of technology in delivering services to the American people. Relatedly, Pitelka served as the technology liaison to the United States Department of Agriculture in the Biden/Harris 2020 transition team, focusing on efforts to modernize the delivery of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in the context of the COVID epidemic.

Pitelka has also worked at Dropbox, Google, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She graduated from Harvard Law School.

 

Robin Willscheidt

Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project

Robin is a corporate attorney in O’Melveny & Myers’ Los Angeles office. As part of her practice, Robin advises on a range of transactions and executive compensation and benefits law matters. Robin also actively contributes to the firm’s pro bono practice by advising small businesses and non-profit organizations regarding general corporate and arts matters. Prior to joining O’Melveny, Robin completed an externship with the US Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Robin is also a graduate of University of Southern California Gould School of Law and Stanford University, where she earned a BA in Political Science, Art History, and Archeology. At USC Gould, Robin was President of the Gould Art Law Society. She has interned in the General Counsel’s Office of the Smithsonian Institution and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is particularly interested in intersections between art and law as they relate to managing arts institutions, public access to the arts, and cultural heritage matters. Robin has published on the Antiquities Act and related cultural heritage and land management topics. In her free time, she volunteers as a docent at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles and serves as an ex-officio trustee for the Moab Museum in her hometown of Moab, UT.

Daniela Zhang

Growth Marketing, McKinsey & Company

Growth & Digital Marketing Strategy, Marketing Analytics & Data Insights, Sustainable Business & ESG Integration, Leadership & Mentorship

Daniela Zhang is a seasoned Growth Marketing expert at McKinsey & Company, blending strategic consulting experience with deep domain knowledge in digital growth. With an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Daniela partners with startups and established firms to design and scale customer acquisition strategies, optimize monetization levers, and deliver measurable business outcomes

Before McKinsey, she honed her skills at Google, where she led cross-functional marketing campaigns and leveraged analytics to drive user engagement and conversion. A CFA charterholder in ESG investing, Daniela brings a data-driven mindset grounded in ethics and sustainability.

Passionate about mentorship and empowerment, she’s a Forbes International Leader (2023) and a recognized voice on LinkedIn advocating for women in business and marketing innovation.