Brian Brackeen

Brian Brackeen is a General Partner at Lightship Capital, the Cincinnati-based firm investing in the most remarkable innovators and ecosystems across the nation.

Brackeen is also a thought leader on the uses of Artificial Intelligence, having founded and led a globally recognized provider of face recognition technologies. His leadership saw the company positioned alongside tech giants like Microsoft and Face++ as one of the industry’s foremost providers, with operations in the US and Asia. His early acknowledgment of the dangers associated with algorithm-focused ethnic bias, stance against the government's use of facial recognition, and commitment to eliminating racial discrimination in its datasets inspired the current movement toward organized regulation and oversight of the technology.

Before becoming a tech entrepreneur and investor, Brackeen was a Senior Project Manager for Apple Inc. and a Senior Managing Consultant at IBM.

In addition to his work at Lightship, he lectures extensively around the world on entrepreneurship, code, the digital economy, AI, and machine learning — and participates in mentorship programs for organizations like Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code, and The School District of Miami, and is an advisor to the University of Chicago Science Commercialization Center.