The Ultimate Metaverse Panel Webinar: Everything You Need to Know

Chris Bendtsen is a Senior Analyst at CB Insights, where he researches emerging technologies, startups and venture capital trends in financial services. Prior to joining CB Insights, Chris was a principal researcher at Gartner, where he covered marketing in retail banking, wealth and asset management, and insurance. Previously, he was a senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. Chris graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Economics.

Kedar covers how emerging technologies in Genomics, Biotech, and Pharma will pave the way towards precision medicine. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, STAT, and Yahoo Finance, among others. 

Prior to joining CB Insights, Kedar invested in medtech startups at Lawala Capital, and did strategy consulting and algorithm development at Mercury Data Science.

Kedar holds a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Houston.

Laura Kennedy covers how technology is transforming retail in stores, online, and beyond, building on a foundation of knowledge about retail's biggest players to help clients understand where to place their innovation bets. 

Prior to joining CB Insights, Laura was a Vice President of Retail Insights at Kantar, where she led research on retail and shopper trends in the US market, with a specialty in big-box retail. 

Before Kantar, Laura was a reporter and editor for the Kiplinger Letter, a weekly business forecasting publication in Washington, DC, where she covered retail and business law. 

Deepashri Varadharajan leads AI research at CB Insights. She’s passionate about studying the new business models and opportunities AI is creating for enterprises, and how traditional corporations are adapting to a rapidly changing landscape. 

Deepashri holds an undergraduate degree in electronics and communications engineering from VIT University in India and an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Louis Fischer is an Intelligence Analyst at CB Insights, where he researches artificial intelligence trends across industries, with a special interest in the convergence of AI and healthcare. He is passionate about identifying AI's opportunities for good, such as its impact on sustainability, social equity, and health. Louis holds a B.S. in Economics from George Washington University.