Bio
Jeff Jonas, Data Scientist, Former IBM Fellow, Serial Entrepreneur
Senzing, Founder and Chief Scientist
Jeff Jonas, founder and CEO of Senzing, is an acclaimed data scientist and the leading creator of Entity Resolution systems. For more than three decades, he has been at the forefront of solving complex big data problems for companies and governments. National Geographic recognized him as the Wizard of Big Data.
A three-time entrepreneur, Jonas sold his last company to IBM in 2005. Prior to founding Senzing, Jonas served as an IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist of Context Computing at IBM. He led a team focused on creating next-generation AI for Entity Resolution technology, code-named G2. At IBM G2 was deployed in many innovative ways, including modernizing U.S. voter registration through a joint effort with Pew Charitable Trust, and helping the Singaporean government build a maritime domain awareness system to better protect the Malacca Straits. In August of 2016, Senzing was founded from a unique, one-of-a-kind IBM spinout of the G2 technology and team.
Jonas is a highly sought-after speaker. He regularly meets with government leaders, industry executives and think tanks around the globe about innovation, national security and privacy. Jonas serves on the boards of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the advisory board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a Distinguished Engineer of Information Systems (adjunct) at Singapore Management University (SMU).
Jonas was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Science in 2015 from Claremont Graduate University, and is the author or co-author of 14 patents. His work has been featured in documentaries airing on networks such as the Discovery Channel, and he has been the subject of prominent chapters in books such as No Place to Hide; Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World; The Numerati; and The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State.
On a more personal note, Jonas is one of only five people in the world who has completed every Ironman triathlon currently on the global circuit. This is especially significant given he was briefly a quadriplegic in 1988 following a car accident. Triathlete Magazine profiled Jonas and his triathlon accomplishments in a cover story in the September 2017 print edition entitled “Mastermind, Madman, Miracle.
