QIB 2026 Speaker Lineup

Drawing on more than two decades of engineering, operations and strategic leadership in the electric industry, Janet Rehberg is focused on advancing EPB’s mission to enhance quality of life for our customers while preparing Chattanooga for the future. Before becoming CEO, Rehberg served as EPB President of Strategic Initiatives, leading efforts to operationalize innovation by deploying next-generation energy and fiber optic technologies. In doing so, she helped forge our community’s national reputation as the most advanced hub for commercializing quantum technologies while expanding Chattanooga’s opportunity ecosystem through major partnerships with universities, private sector companies, and government research organizations.

Tim Kelly is the 66th mayor of Chattanooga. He grew up in Chattanooga and attended undergraduate school at Columbia University. Upon returning to Chattanooga, Kelly expanded his family’s automotive dealership and launched several successful ventures, including co-founding Chattanooga’s professional soccer club.

He later earned his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business. Kelly has always been active in the community, serving on boards for multiple nonprofits and even teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Since being elected mayor in April 2021, he has made great strides in his vision to create One Chattanooga — a city where every resident has the opportunity to thrive and prosper.

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp is a former early-stage venture capitalist and the founder of a fiscal policy nonprofit. As the Chief Executive of Tennessee’s fourth largest county, Wamp is responsible for a budget exceeding $1 billion annually. In his first two years as mayor, Wamp has led historic investments in public schools, committing hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize facilities, prioritizing investments in roads and infrastructure improvements, and restoring career and technical education to downtown Chattanooga.

He and his wife, Shelby, live on Signal Mountain with their five young children, who attend Hamilton County Schools.

Dr. Shaun S. Gleason is the Director of Partnerships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), responsible for mission areas including technology transfer, commercialization, economic development, industry and non-DOE partnerships, and research security. He has more than three decades of service at ORNL across three different directorates (Energy Science and Technology, Computing and Computational Sciences, and National Security Sciences).

Shaun has 35 years of experience in R&D leadership, applied image processing, data science, and machine learning for energy, industrial, security, and medical imaging applications. He earned the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has authored and coauthored 120 publications, four book chapters, and has been issued 10 patents in the field of electrical engineering, computer vision, and machine learning. He is a fellow of AAAS, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and served as chair of the East TN Chapter of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

Evann serves as Vice President of Government & Community Relations at EPB, where he leads efforts to strengthen partnerships that expand opportunity and innovation.

A Chattanooga native, Evann has played a central role in initiatives like HCS EdConnect, providing internet at no charge to more than 28,000 K-12 students and their family members while also advancing Chattanooga’s position as a national leader in fiber and quantum technology.

Evann serves on multiple state and regional boards, including the Fiber Broadband Association, Tennessee Municipal Electric Power Association, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, and the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, where he focuses on building coalitions that connect economic growth with community impact. Prior to joining EPB in 2020, he held various roles with former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, collaborating extensively with local, state, and federal stakeholders.

Niccolo de Masi is an experienced public company chief executive officer and board member with expertise in deep tech, mobile, and creating enterprise software-hardware ecosystems. He has served as IonQ’s CEO since February 2025 and was named Chairman of the Board in August 2025. Prior to that, de Masi served on IonQ’s board of directors since 2021.

Over the course of his career, de Masi has served on the boards of 14 public companies including IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), Xura (NASDAQ: MESG), Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), Monstermob (LSE: MOB), Rush Street Interactive (NYSE: RSI), Genius Sports Group (NYSE: GENI), Resideo (NYSE: REZI), Planet (NYSE: PL), and six dMY Technology Group blank cheque vehicles. He has immense public market corporate governance experience having chaired or served on compensation, nominating and governance, and audit committees for over a decade. de Masi also has extensive global market experience as a three-time public company CEO and a three-time private company CEO, and was appointed ChiefExecutive Officer of Glu Mobile and of Monstermob before the age of 30.

de Masi has also served on several private boards including Chairing Carlyle-backed Jagex and General Catalyst-backed Ares Interactive. He has helped lead and consummate approximately 50 mergers and acquisitions and has helped raise over $5 billion in equity to support public and private companies he has led. He began his career in roles at JPMorgan, Siemens, and Technicolor.

de Masi received first class B.A. and M.Sci degrees in physics from Cambridge University where he specialized in quantum mechanics and next-generation electron-beam lithography. He has been a member of the Leadership Council of the UCLA Grand Challenge for nearly a decade.

Charlie Brock is CEO of the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative, where he leads efforts to drive economic growth and workforce development through quantum technology and position Southeast Tennessee as a national innovation hub.

He brings more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, and ecosystem builder, including leadership roles as CEO of Launch Tennessee and CO.LAB. He also co-founded the Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, the region’s first angel investment fund, and has launched and scaled multiple companies.

Dr. Rick Mukherjee joined the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in December 2024 as the inaugural Director of the Quantum Center and an Associate Professor of Physics. He earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and held research appointments at Rice University, Harvard University, and the University of Hamburg, with expertise spanning AMO physics, optimal control, and machine learning applied to quantum science.

He has authored nearly 40 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, holds patents in quantum optimization, and actively contributes to the field through NSF service, scholarly reviewing, invited talks, and his role on the board of the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative.

Dr. Krishnendu (Krish) Roy received his B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, his M.S. from Boston University, and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. After two years in the biotech industry, Dr. Roy joined the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 2002, eventually becoming Professor and Fellow of the Cockrell Chair in Engineering Excellence. In 2013 he moved to Georgia Tech, where he was most recently a Regents Professor and the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering. He also served as Director of three centers — the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), The Marcus Center for Therapeutic Cell Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), and the Center for ImmunoEngineering. In 2023, Dr. Roy joined Vanderbilt University as the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering and a University Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering, and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, with a secondary appointment in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

In recognition of his seminal contributions, Dr. Roy has been elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and the Controlled Release Society (CRS). He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Biomaterials, the Industry Growth Award from Georgia Bio, Young Investigator Awards from the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and The Society for Biomaterials (SFB), the NSF CAREER award, etc. He has also received the Best Teacher Award from the Biomedical Engineering Students at UT-Austin and the Best Advisor Award from Bioengineering students at Georgia Tech. Dr. Roy serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Controlled Release, the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine, and the Journal of Advanced Biomanufacturing and Bioprocessing. He also serves as a board member of the Standards Coordinating Body for Regenerative Medicine and several other academic and industry advisory boards. Starting in August 2023, he co-chairs the Forum on Regenerative Medicine of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).

Dr. Muhammad Ismail is the Director of the Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (CEROC) and an Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN, USA since August 2019. He is an experienced academic with more than 12 years of research and teaching experience in prestigious institutes including Texas A&M University at Qatar, University of Waterloo, and Ain Shams University. Dr. Ismail has a research portfolio of over $10 million. He is a co-recipient of the best paper award at IEEE ICC 2014, IEEE Globecom 2014, SGRE 2015 and 2024, Green 2016, the IEEE Technical Committee on Green Communications and Networking (TCGCN) best paper award at IEEE ICC 2019, the IEEE Intelligent Systems (IEEE IS) 2020. His research interests include cyber-physical security, quantum networks and security, AI-assisted cybersecurity, wireless networks, smart grids, deep machine learning, blockchain, optimization, and stochastic modeling.

Dr. Ismail taught various courses both at undergraduate and graduate levels and presented in various leading conferences around the globe. He is an IEEE senior member and an Associate Editor for IEEE Journal on Internet-of-Things, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, IET Communications, and Elsevier PHYCOM. He served as an Editorial Assistant for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He serves regularly in conference organizations and TPC membership for several IEEE flagship conferences, in addition to refereeing for leading IEEE journals.

Dr. Hanna Terletska is a Professor of Physics at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where she serves as Founding Director of the QRISE Center. A nationally recognized researcher in quantum materials and quantum information science, she has secured more than $14M in external funding as Principal Investigator on multiple NSF and DOE projects, including an NSF CAREER award, NSF ExpandQISE and ExLENT, and DOE RENEW and DOE-BES programs. Her research investigates many-body effects in quantum materials, with a focus on the interplay of disorder and electron correlations in strongly correlated and disordered systems, using advanced computational quantum methods. Alongside this work, she focuses on expanding quantum workforce development programs at emerging research institutions and strengthening their role in the national quantum enterprise.

She is currently leading the Middle Tennessee Quantum Consortium under the DOE TN-QuMat program, uniting five Nashville-based universities with ORNL laboratory partners to collaboratively grow the region's quantum research and workforce ecosystem, with an emphasis on democratizing access to quantum training and infrastructure for underserved communities. Dr. Terletska also advances quantum education and workforce development through interdisciplinary curricula, undergraduate and high school summer programs, and training initiatives for faculty, teachers, and students. She works closely with university, national laboratory, industry, community college, and K–12 partners.

Monica VanDieren is Senior Manager of Technical Product Marketing for Quantum at NVIDIA, focused on technical enablement for quantum-GPU supercomputing. She works to equip researchers, developers, and students with the knowledge and tools to leverage NVIDIA's quantum computing platform.

Dr. Monica VanDieren specializes in quantum and high-performance computing, driving the CUDA-Q Academic initiative. Before joining NVIDIA, Monica contributed to IBM’s Quantum Accelerator program. VanDieren has served as a board member of The WeBWorK Project, supporting an open-source homework platform, and as an advisory board member for CalcPlot3D, an online 3D-graphing calculator. With a Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, she brings over 20 years of academic experience at universities such as Stanford, University of Michigan, and Robert Morris University to her work.

As President of Strategic Initiatives, Robert Long leads EPB’s efforts to identify, develop and advance forward-looking initiatives that leverage EPB’s advanced energy, connectivity and quantum infrastructure to benefit local customers while opening new economic opportunities for the Chattanooga area.

With more than three decades of experience across industries that include energy, advanced manufacturing, consumer healthcare and emerging technologies, Long joined EPB from Novonix Limited, where he was Chief Financial Officer of the publicly traded company focused on advanced battery materials. Before that, he was the entrepreneurial founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bridges Consumer Healthcare and Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at Shaw Industries. Long previously held multiple leadership roles at Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, including Head of North America Region and Chief Executive Officer of Chattem, Inc.

Long earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance with a minor in Economics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A lifelong Chattanoogan, Long has been active in community and professional organizations, including serving on the board of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association at the national level, United Way of Greater Chattanooga, and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

Matt Cimaglia is the Founder and Managing Partner of Quantum Coast Capital (QCC), an investment firm working to build the foundational layer of the quantum economy. QCC's thesis is that infrastructure comes before applications: the networks, facilities, and connective systems that early-stage quantum companies have historically had to build alongside their own products. Cimaglia has spent more than two decades founding and scaling technology and media companies, with operating experience spanning SaaS, digital infrastructure, and content platforms. That background informs QCC's emphasis on the practical realities of bringing frontier technology to market.

He is an active voice in the development of the U.S. quantum economy, with particular engagement in Florida's emerging quantum corridor. He works across capital, public policy, and industry, collaborating with academic institutions, federal stakeholders, and quantum technology companies on workforce development, infrastructure, and post-quantum security initiatives. Outside of his professional work, Cimaglia is an avid cyclist and has trekked to Everest Base Camp. He has served on boards including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and The Center for Arts & Innovation in Boca Raton.

With a decade of dedicated service at EPB, Daniel Crawley is a seasoned expert in energy and communications technologies, currently serving as the Manager of Strategic Research. Crawley’s career is marked by his expertise in research and economic modeling of cutting-edge technologies, including 5G/Spectrum, Electric Vehicles (EVs), Geothermal (Thermal Energy Networks), Quantum Computing/Networking, Artificial Intelligence, Solar Power, Energy Storage, and Blockchain.

His strategic insights into these areas help identify and analyze strategic opportunities for EPB to remain well-positioned to incorporate state-of-the-art innovations over the next 10 to 15 years. Crawley also translates complex data into actionable strategies that influence decision-making. His contributions are pivotal in guiding EPB through the evolving landscape of energy, connectivity, and community, ensuring the organization remains at the forefront of innovation while addressing the challenges of tomorrow.

Crawley’s academic background includes a dual Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance and a Master of Science in Data Analytics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, equipping him with a robust blend of financial insight and advanced analytical skills.

John Licata is a Futures Director and Quantum Lead at ServiceNow, where he drives the company’s long-term innovation vision, connecting current offerings with future-ready possibilities. With over 20 years of experience in research, strategy, and trading, John bridges the technical and business worlds.

Before joining ServiceNow, John was the Chief Innovation Foresight Strategist for SAP and the CEO of Blue Phoenix Inc., where he led research and strategy projects for clients like Dow Jones, Salomon Smith Barney, and Toyota.

John's passion for digital transformation and his diverse experiences have made him a sought-after industry expert, featured in media outlets such as Bloomberg, Reuters, and CNBC. He is based in New York and holds degrees from Saint Peter’s University and NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is also the author of "Lessons from Frankenstorm".

Tim Liston is EY’s US Civic Strategy & Engagement Lead working with civic and business leaders in the largest US markets to drive meaningful public-private partnerships and civic engagement across the firm. He spent two years each as EY’s Market Strategy & Operations Leader – Great Lakes and Corporate Responsibility Leader – US Central Region. Before joining EY, Tim held senior leadership roles at Big Shoulders Fund, Navy Pier, and Old St. Patrick’s Church; he started his career at WXRT 93.1FM. Throughout his career he has focused on executive stakeholder engagement, revenue growth, and social impact.

Chad Sakac leads the Field Engineering team at IonQ, who are at the intersection of frontier quantum technology and applied use cases. Chad has experience spanning early stage startups (in Silicon Valley: Metricom, Allocity; Israel: Regatta) to executive leadership at leading FT500 multi-billion companies (Dell EMC, Pivotal, VMware) in market leading positions. Chad holds an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.