The new rules for leading in chaos: How to plan, prioritize, and stay calm | Summit 2026
About Baratunde
- Hosted PBS series America Outdoors
- Webby Award-winning creator of Life With Machines
- Writer for The Daily Show and The Onion
- Co-created civics project How To Citizen
- Frequent speaker on tech, democracy, and culture
About Hayden
- President & CEO of Upwork, public company connecting millions of pros and businesses
- Led Upwork to $750M+ revenue and $4B annual client spend
- Scaled Upwork from a $10M startup to a publicly traded marketplace
- Transformed Upwork into an AI-native platform under her leadership
About Dara
- CMO at Autodesk; owns global marketing, digital revenue & e-commerce P&L
- First Black exec inducted into Forbes CMO Hall of Fame
- Named one of Forbes' World's Most Influential CMOs
- Past marketing leader at Peloton, Carbon, GE, Apple & Goldman Sachs
- Robinhood board member; Harvard cum laude, Stanford MBA
About John
- Co-founded & leads Watch Duty, used by millions and first responders nationwide
- Watch Duty won Apple’s 2025 Social Impact Design Award
- Led Watch Duty to TIME’s 100 Most Innovative Companies recognition
- Built Zenput as founding CTO; company acquired in 2022
- Scaled Watch Duty to all 50 states with 300+ staff and volunteers
About DJ
- First U.S. Chief Data Scientist, appointed by President Obama
- Received DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service, highest civilian honor
- Co-coined the term “data scientist”
- Co-founded Warp Sciences; founding CTO of Devoted Health
- Early investor in Figma, Confluent, Sumo Logic, and RelateIQ
About Raina
- Placement agent for Deep Tech, Space Tech & Climate funds via global LP network
- Registered with Old City Investment Partners; holds Series 63 & 82 licenses
- Clients include GoogleX, Kraken, ACTAI Ventures, TenOneTen & Kismet
- Founder of Spicewell, a food-as-medicine startup on nutrition & sustainability
- Advisor to Google X; CEO of Juggernaut, a storytelling & transformation bureau
About William
- Co-founder & COO of Arkenstone, bridging tech and U.S. national security
- Co-founded BMNT, scaled consulting and innovation firm to $20M annual revenue
- Builds companies at the intersection of technology and national security
- Serves in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
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In this live segment from Masters of Scale Summit 2026, Rapid Response host Bob Safian gathers leaders from across business, tech, and media to figure out how to thrive amid constant change. Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil opens with a double pendulum and a lesson in chaos theory. Raina Kumra, who now manages a team of 12 AI agents, explains why there is no keeping up, only keeping calm. Upwork’s Hayden Brown makes the case for leading like a pioneer, Baratunde Thurston tries not to become a machine, and Watch Duty’s John Mills explains why speed and haste are not the same thing. Then Autodesk’s Dara Treseder and her husband William, a Marine Reservist and co-founder of Arkenstone Defense, share how they juggle glass balls and rubber balls across career, marriage, and family, and keep score with a family NPS. Candid, surprising, and brimming with lessons about turning chaos to your advantage.
