ed Nielsen has held executive leadership roles at high-growth and category-defining companies including UKG, viaPhoton, and Thoughtworks. As a proud technologist and generalist, he has successfully driven product-led growth and AI reinvention in verticals ranging from healthcare, e-commerce, HCM/WFM, and retail pharmacy. He is passionate about building valuable ecosystems and win-win environments for strategic partners, and he has extensive experience in M&A and corporate development. Ted is always happy to nerd out about ecosystem thinking, game theory, late imperial Rome, the latest arXiv papers on AI/ML, or the best anchovies in Barcelona. He has a Bachelors in Classical Languages from the University of Chicago and is finalizing an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern. He, his husband, their hundreds of books, and the reinforced shelves for those books live in Chicago, IL.