Jes LEFCOURT

Director, Conservation Technology, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Jes is the Director of Conservation Technology at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), where he leads the EarthRanger program to create software to help protected area managers, ecologists, and biologists monitor areas of interest and make operational decisions for wildlife conservation. He's from Boulder, Colorado where he studied applied math and computer science at the University of Colorado.  In his early career, Jes worked for Lockheed Martin simulating systems of the Atlas V launch vehicle, Sun Microsystems automating complex, multi-organizational processes, and then co-led the startup Verical, a marketplace to prevent excess electronic components from being discarded into landfills.  After selling Verical to Arrow Electronics, Jes joined the National Geographic Society, where he led Digital Product efforts, before then moving to EarthRanger.  In his off-time, Jes enjoys hiking, skiing and photography.