The NAII Fellow Network

NAII brings together researchers, executives and entrepreneurs whose experience spans foundational AI research, commercial technology development and organisational leadership. Our fellows combine scientific depth with practical experience in enterprise AI, intelligent agents, machine learning and digital health, drawing on careers across industry, academia and public institutions.

Portrait of Christian Guttmann

Christian Guttmann, PhD

Founder and Executive Director, NAII
Research affiliation: Karolinska Institutet

Christian Guttmann combines senior executive leadership, public-company board experience and foundational AI research. He has held AI leadership roles at EQT, Pegasystems and Tieto, alongside research leadership experience at IBM and British Telecom / Etisalat. He served as a Non-Executive Director of Intelligent Ultrasound Group when it was publicly listed and previously held a professor (adjunct) appointment at the University of New South Wales. His work connects enterprise AI strategy and commercial product development with deep expertise in intelligent agents and multi-agent systems.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Executive AI leadership · Enterprise AI strategy and execution · Agentic and multi-agent systems

Regional experience: Europe and international markets

University profile · christian.guttmann@nordicAIinstitute.com

Portrait of Anand Rao

Anand Rao, PhD

Distinguished Service Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Anand Rao previously led PwC’s global AI practice, advising senior executives and overseeing teams implementing AI across industries. He combines management consulting and enterprise AI leadership with foundational contributions to intelligent-agent research. His work addresses AI investment priorities, business value and responsible adoption. His professional roles include board and advisory work with Roots Automation and membership of the Advisory Council of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Executive advisory · AI strategy and business value · Responsible AI

Regional experience: North America, Europe, Asia and Australia

University profile

Portrait of Geoff Webb

Geoff Webb, PhD

Australian Laureate Fellow and Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, Monash University

Geoff Webb develops machine learning and data mining methods used in research and commercial software. His work spans classification, time-series analysis and learning from changing data, with applications in health, science and industry. His distinctions include an Australian Laureate Fellowship awarded in 2025 and the IEEE ICDM Research Contributions Award in 2024. An IEEE Fellow, he also brings commercial experience as a technical advisor to BigML and Froomle.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Machine learning · Data mining · Learning from changing data

Regional experience: Australia and Asia

Professional profile

Portrait of Benjamin Hirsch

Benjamin Hirsch, PhD

Benjamin Hirsch combines research in intelligent agents with practical experience in AI software and service engineering. His work connects formal logic and agent programming with the design of multi-agent systems and business processes. His background includes research leadership at the DAI Laboratory at Technische Universität Berlin and the Emirates ICT Innovation Centre, bringing together academic foundations and applied technology development.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Multi-agent systems · Agent programming · AI software engineering

Regional experience: Middle East and Europe

Portrait of Milind Tambe

Milind Tambe, PhD

Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University

Milind Tambe develops and deploys AI for problems with direct societal impact, including public health, wildlife conservation and security. His work combines machine learning, game theory and multi-agent systems to improve decisions about limited resources. Alongside his academic career, he co-founded Avata Intelligence, which was acquired by Procore Technologies. His contributions connect scientific advances with practical deployment, entrepreneurship and leadership in the international AI research community.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · AI for social impact · Multi-agent systems · Resource allocation

Regional experience: North America, Europe and Asia

University profile

Portrait of Freddy Lecue

Freddy Lecue, PhD

Managing Director, Head of Frontier AI Model Methodology, Wells Fargo

Freddy Lecue combines executive responsibility for enterprise AI with industrial research experience at IBM Research, Accenture and Thales. His work spans the development of generative and agentic AI for production environments, alongside research in explainability, knowledge representation and reasoning. He brings experience translating research into deployed systems while addressing the performance, cost and risk considerations that shape adoption in large organisations.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Enterprise AI development · Explainable AI · Learning and reasoning

Regional experience: Europe and North America

Portrait of Michael Georgeff

Michael Georgeff, PhD

Founding Director, Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute
Executive Chairman, Sicura Health

Michael Georgeff combines pioneering intelligent-agent research with institution-building, entrepreneurship and healthcare governance. In 1988, then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke invited him to establish the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute. His career includes research leadership at SRI International, a professorship at Monash University and founding Precedence Health Care. His work helped establish the Belief-Desire-Intention approach to intelligent agents. He also serves on Epworth HealthCare’s Board of Management.

Expertise: Artificial intelligence · Intelligent agents · AI entrepreneurship and commercialisation · Digital health

Regional experience: Australia, Asia and Europe

Professional profile

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