As Vice President, Managing Director, and Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research (MSR), Ashley Llorens drives global strategy and culture across MSR’s laboratories and locations around the world. He leads MSR’s global Outreach team, which spearheads MSR engagement with the broader research community, invests in high-impact collaborative research projects, and creates pipelines for diverse, world-class talent. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ashley served as the founding chief of the Intelligent Systems Center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where he directed research and development in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and neuroscience. As a subject matter expert in AI and autonomous systems, he has served on advisory boards and key strategic studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Global Partnership on AI. Ashley currently serves on the National AI Advisory Committee, a group recently chartered to advise the President and the White House on matters related to artificial intelligence.