TEAM

Founder & President

Nathan Pettyjohn is the Founder & CEO of the Applied AI Association. He is an entrepreneur with experience running software companies, technology consulting companies, experience at large corporate technology companies and growing global business associations. Nathan is the Founder & President of the VR/AR Association, the largest global trade association for VR and AR, which hosts the Immerse Global Summit, a series of conferences with tens of thousands of attendees annually. He’s the President of The Immerse Group, a consulting agency offering GTM and business development services.

Previously, Nathan was a strategic technology executive at Lenovo, managing the global go-to-market strategy for Lenovo’s augmented reality and virtual reality technology division.

Nathan keynotes conferences on the subjects of business growth mindset, marketing and sales execution, and technology start-ups, and has been featured on CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Bloomberg and TechCrunch.

Global Executive Director

Omar Nawaz is the Global Executive Director of the Applied AI Association. For over 27 years, Omar has led transformative initiatives across businesses of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. His passion lies in leveraging emerging technologies to drive business growth, with a proven track record of scaling two companies from $0 to $100 million.

Most recently, as Chief Product Officer at Chargebee, Omar orchestrated a remarkable transformation in just 3.5 years, driving the company's valuation from $125 million to $3.5 billion. Through product innovation, exceptional user experience, and customer success alignment, he achieved 10X revenue growth and 4X customer base expansion. He built and led a global product and engineering team of 350 members to deliver this unprecedented growth.

Passionate about emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, Omar is committed to advancing adoption across industries and transforming how we work and learn. As Global Executive Director of the Application AI Association, he focuses on bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI technology and practical business applications, helping organizations harness AI’s transformative potential while ensuring responsible and ethical implementation.

Head of Marketing

Marv Su is the head of marketing for the Applied AI Association. Marv has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and business development in spatial (VR), mobile, and personal computing, consumer electronics hardware, software, and semiconductors, subscription services, and e-commerce. He was CEO and Co-Founder at Athanos, Inc., a company developing a platform that enables immersive 3D experiences without a head-mounted display (HMD). Prior to Athanos, Marv was Senior Director of Marketing at Analogix Semiconductor, a leading provider of display controllers for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets, where he led Analogix’s corporate marketing team, certification lab team, and mobile accessories business unit and was the marketing lead for an industry initiative to standardize the VR hardware interface for mobile devices and PCs. Prior to Analogix, Marv held senior marketing and business development management positions at Vindicia, eMusic.com, Intuit, Infoseek, and Apple.

Over the last 6 years, Marv was Co-Founder and Chapter Vice President, Marketing and Events, for the VR/AR Association Silicon Valley Chapter, which fosters collaboration, education, and community in the spatial computing ecosystem.

Head of Operations

Martha is the Head of Operations at the Applied AI Association, bringing over thirteen years of experience in managing programs and processes across various industries. For the last eight years, she played key internal roles at the VR/AR Association, which promotes collaboration and education within the VR, AR, and XR ecosystem. Her time there has equipped her with a deep understanding of what it takes to optimize internal operations and deliver maximum value to members in the fast-evolving AI industry.

A self-proclaimed "to-do list conqueror," Martha thrives working with the team to ensure efficient workflows and seamless execution of processes that keep everything running smoothly.

Beyond her role at AAIA, Martha continues to run operations of a joyful and (very) loud home in St. Louis Missouri with her husband and three young sons.