Ron Schmelzer

Ron Schmelzer has held a variety of roles in the technology sector. Since 2011, they have been the Founder, Ring Leader, and Visionary of TechBreakfast, a successful startup and tech event series with over 50,000 members and $2M in revenue. Ron has also been a Contributing Writer for Forbes since 2018, TechTarget since 2017, and COGNITIVE WORLD since 2017. In addition, they have been a Limited Partner for A-Level Capital since 2015, a CEO for Bizelo since 2010, a MIT Educational Council (Admissions) since 2021, and an Interactive Awards Judge for SXSW since 2014. Since 2017, they have been the Managing Partner/Principal Analyst for Cognilytica, a leading analyst firm focused on application and use of artificial intelligence (AI). Ron was also part of the Techstars 2010 Pool Fund.

Ron Schmelzer obtained a BS in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1993 and 1997. In 2008, they began an MBA program at The Johns Hopkins University - Carey Business School, which they completed in 2010. In addition, they have obtained certifications from IBM, Cognitive Class, and Cognilytica, including Data Science Foundations - Level 1 (2020), Introduction to Data Science (DS0101EN) (2020), and Cognilytica AI & ML Project Management (2018).