Andrea Carafa

Andrea Carafa is a Silicon Valley–based technology leader, startup and institutional advisor, and lecturer. He currently leads the Blackstone Launchpad powered by Techstars, advises startups as CIED & QB3 entrepreneur in residence, and teaches innovation at UCSC. He has been named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, member of the Fast Company Impact Council, member of the Partnership on AI, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 ambassador and judge, member of the UN U4SSC Group on AI in Cities, Berkeley Skydeck mentor, member of the Review Committee for America's Seed Fund of the National Science Foundation, fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and delegate to the UN Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum. Through his cross-sector work, Carafa champions a humanistic approach to technology, catalyzes responsible AI and deep tech, and builds bridges among startups, investors, academia, policymakers, and industry.

Previously, he advised startups and policymakers, conducted research, and lectured on technology innovation, human-centered design, and entrepreneurship at Stanford, the University of Milan Bicocca, CERN, Bocconi, and the European Commission. He also was the founder and CEO of the consumer tech startup ArtsUp, the food biotech startup Vita, and the innovation studio GYE. Carafa chaired the Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative at President Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit and advocated for the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the UN. He was an EU Marie Curie fellow in emerging technology for global impact, and helped shape Future Earth, a global research and innovation initiative announced at the UN Rio+20 Summit. He also co-created an EU Knowledge Alliance aimed at spurring innovation and entrepreneurship in European universities, and inspired and helped CERN build CollSpotting, a data analytics platform that accelerates technology transfer from labs and companies to society. Carafa has been a speaker at summits hosted by organizations such as the World Economic Forum, European Commission, The Economist, and UN, and his work and ideas have been featured by publications such as Reuters, Fortune, Huffington Post, and Fast Company.