While I value humility, I've also come to appreciate the value of sharing one's story and I try to inspire others to wear their passion and tell their story as well, whatever it may be.

As a first-generation Swedish-American, I'm fortunate to have seen our world from many perspectives and many countries. In my younger childhood, my family migrated to the mossy forests of Northern Sweden where we lived without any digital technology whatsoever in the small village of Järvso. It was the pre-internet era and I spent my summer days wondering millenium-old nordic ruins, reading encyclopedias under ancient granite monuments, not thinking about their mythology but about what our world might look like another millennium forward. Odd as it may seem, that experience sparked my lifelong interest in technology, philosophy, artificial intelligence and ultimately those technological futures humanity ought to aspire to.

10 years later I began my undergraduate education in Astrophysics at UCSC working alongside Frank Drake and the Seti Team at Lick observatory. I loved the science and big-picture long-term perspectives but eventually realized that the life of an academic researcher (stranded in a high-altitude observatory for a PhD and Postdoc) was not for me. I wanted to build.

In my second year of university with my key scholarship ending, no money in the bank and a deep aversion to debt, I took a full time job as a database admin for the University. I grew more intersted in technology, systems modeling and translating useful solutions to market and so transitioned to study Economics, Business and Law. After graduating I accepted an opportunity with The Wall Street Journal in Palo Alto, 3 years later I joined Google - but never lost my appreciation for the perspective and peace found in nature.

My weekend backpacks away from the office turned more and more ambitious. Over the course of 8 years, I'd summit all 15 14,000ft peaks in the western US, trekked countless backcountries, and volunteered with the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit. I then started Grad School at SCU, again working full time throughout. In late 2013, after a decade of long-hours in the Silicon Valley and nearing the end of an MBA in business information systems, I was burned out. I left my job at a Cyber-security startup and booked a ticket to climb solo for a month in the Himalayas.

The trip did not start as planned. On day 3 my helicopter went down in sudden winter storm in a remote canyon on route to the trailhead. Fortunately I had the training, food and gear needed, so I began a two-day scramble off-trail towards a series of Buddhist Monasteries and farms. From there, the trek took me 120 miles, traversing several 6000m peaks to the base of Mount Everest near the Tibetan border... only to later find myself detained and deported by China. Returning to California was an adjustment but it marked an inflection point in my life.

Back home, I was faced with the nagging requisit master's thesis juxtaposed with a taste of real adventure. I wanted both and so I did. Armed with a satellite hot-spot, solar panel and laptop, I pulled the trigger on another one-way ticket -this time to the South of Patagonia. For nearly a year I traveled over 7,000 miles by land (nearly 2,000 by foot and bike) across the various back-countries, villages and jungles of South America all the way to Mexico.

I've had the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing innovative organizations in the world and I'm enormously grateful for the unprecedented opportunities that we enjoy in this time and age. I beleive in the democratization of technology, rationality, compassion, humility and giving back to society. I'm an optimist but also keenly aware of how technology can be dual-use with a social impact that's not always values-neutral.