Mounir Zok

Company / Club:

U.S. Olympic Committee

Position inside the Company/Club:

Director of Technology and Innovation

Speaker Biography:

Mounir Zok is the Director of Technology and Innovation for the U.S. Olympic Committee and plays an instrumental and strategic role in bringing emerging technologies to Team USA. He is responsible for championing, setting up and running high-performance technology programs that increase the medalling chances of Team USA athletes at the future Olympic and Paralympic Games; such programs usually lie at the sweet intersection of various emerging technologies, among which: wearable technology, smart textiles and fabric, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. In this role, he leads and manages a group of internal and external individuals (technologists, engineers, data scientists, hardware/software developers, designers, business partners) as well as work very closely with the US Olympic Committee's leadership to ensure alignment with organization policies and strategies. Given the innovative topics that he deals with on a daily basis, Zok is a very strong advocate of Design Thinking and Lean Startup methodologies.

Prior to joining the USOC, Zok helped grow a couple of emerging technology startups in Italy into internationally renowned firms. Besides being a co-founder, he led the Product and Business Development teams and spearheaded the development of various applications that are currently being used at a number of organizations in Italy and around Europe.

Zok holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, speaks at major national and international conferences and meetings on Technology and Innovation, and is fluent in 4 languages. He currently lives with his wife and 2 children in the Silicon Valley, USA.

Track:

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT