Scott Penberthy
A builder of new businesses, often inside big ones. The web at IBM, the cloud at PwC, applied AI at Google. Now video models, aimed at cancer.
Said Pen-ber-thee.
- 300+ keynotes given
- 2016 started Google Cloud’s first applied AI team
- 25 years chasing one problem
Scott Penberthy went to MIT at sixteen and finished a PhD in computer science and artificial intelligence at the University of Washington. In 1992, before most people had heard of the web, he built IBM’s first browser and web server. He was Lou Gerstner’s technical assistant. His team grew from four people to two hundred, and became two internet businesses earning four and thirteen billion dollars annually.
He ran engineering at Photobucket with fifty million users, then moved PwC to the cloud across a hundred and sixty countries. He joined Google Cloud in 2016, when it was under half a billion a year, and started its first applied AI team. Two dozen projects with NASA. Then healthcare, where he landed two billion dollars of business.
Twenty-five years ago he lost his mother to cancer. She asked him to help. He is on the Lustgarten Foundation board, which funded early KRAS work when that target was called undruggable. The first drug to hit it was approved this August. It nearly doubles survival. He advises ClinPGx at Stanford, which matches medicines to a person’s genes.
He works in digital video now, because it teaches a machine how things change. Then he brings it back to cancer.
Short version
119 wordsFor a panel listing, a slide, or anywhere with a tight word count.
Scott Penberthy was Lou Gerstner’s technical assistant at IBM when he built its first web browser and web server in 1992. Four people became two hundred, and two businesses earning four and thirteen billion dollars a year. He ran engineering at Photobucket with fifty million users, then moved PwC to the cloud. He joined Google Cloud in 2016 and started its first applied AI team, first with NASA, then in healthcare, where he has landed two billion dollars of business. Twenty-five years ago his mother asked him to help with her cancer. He sits on the board of the Lustgarten Foundation, which backed early KRAS research when that target was still called undruggable. He is still working on it.
Spoken introduction
about 30 secondsWritten to be read aloud from a stage, and kept short on purpose. The surname is said Pen-ber-thee. It ends on the handover, so whoever is introducing me knows exactly where to stop.
Our speaker built IBM’s first web browser in 1992, before most people had heard of the web. He started Google Cloud’s first applied AI team. He has given more than three hundred keynotes.
Twenty-five years ago he lost his mother to cancer. She asked him to help. He has spent the years since becoming someone who could. Today he builds video models to go after it. A builder, keeping a promise to his mother.
Please welcome Scott Penberthy.
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| Name | Scott Penberthy |
|---|---|
| How to say it | Penberthy is said Pen-ber-thee |
| Title | Distinguished Engineer, Google |
| How to introduce him | Scott, or Dr. Penberthy in writing |
| Speaking experience | More than 300 keynotes |
| Boards and advisory | Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research, Stanford’s cancer tumor board advisory, and ClinPGx at Stanford with Teri Klein |
| Site | scott.ai |
| The thesis | The Approximation Era, which most talks build on |
| Speaking | scott.ai/speaking |
| This page | scott.ai/bio |
| Everything as a PDF | scott.ai/bio/scott-penberthy-bio.pdf |