Opening Keynote

Bridget Karlin is the senior vice president, Information Technology, Services & Operations, at Kaiser Permanente, a $95 billion healthcare business. In her role at one of the largest integrated healthcare institutions in the world, with more than 88,000 physicians and nurses to provide care to 12.6 million members, Karlin is responsible for the information technology, services and operations that power Kaiser Permanente’s business. She is redefining how services are delivered to patients, members, employees, and partners, by transforming to an AI-based, automated, and secure IT shared services model that is enabling enterprise-wide digital transformation. Karlin leads the strategy, development, and services for a hybrid, multi-cloud enterprise IT environment, including platforms, network, infrastructure, application support, disaster and cyber resiliency, workplace technologies, and end-user services. 

Karlin leverages artificial intelligence, automation, security, cloud, and open-source technologies to enhance care delivery, strengthen resiliency, ensure compliance, and for modernizing offerings and capabilities across applications and infrastructure environments. She defines the technology vision, sets the strategy, and provides the technical leadership that drives collaboration, keeping Kaiser Permanente at the forefront of the industry by building technical communities with developers and strategic ecosystem partners to flourish in thought leadership, new ways of working, and innovation for a more compelling healthcare experience.

Prior to Kaiser Permanente, Bridget served as IBM’s Global Chief Technology Officer of the $20 billion Global Technology Services division. In this role, she was responsible for the industry’s largest IT Infrastructure services estate of more than 750,000 servers supporting millions of endpoints from the edge to the cloud, with a global team of distinguished engineers, data scientists, and advanced architects. As global CTO, her notable innovation with AI-based automation across private and public cloud environments earned IBM the industry leadership ranking for Intelligent IT Infrastructure Services Automation, while delivering key operating results. 

Before joining IBM, Karlin held senior leadership roles at Intel Corporation, as general manager of its Internet of Things division, and prior to that, as general manager of Intel’s Hybrid Cloud business. Additionally, she has served in executive positions at Union Bank, managing director at Redleaf Venture Capital, and was president and co-founder of Thinque Systems, a pioneer in mobile software deployed in 43 countries. 

Karlin serves on the board of Dana Inc. (NYSE: DAN), a Fortune 500 world leader in automotive manufacturing for conventional, hybrid, and electric-powered vehicles. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a non-profit organization that represents the $398 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. Karlin is a recipient of the 2021 Technology Hall of Fame, the 2019 National Technology Humanitarian Award, the 2019 Women in Consumer Technology Legacy Award, the Industrial IoT 5G Innovators Award, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and the Bell Labs Technology Innovator Award.