The AI Strike Team is rebooting as Strike Team 2.0, adding a number of local CEOs to its leadership board as it looks to 2026 and beyond.
The Strike Team was first established in January of 2025, launching to make strategic asks for the region’s AI efforts. Most recently, those efforts included successfully pitching robotaxi firm Waymo to begin testing the Pittsburgh region, and past efforts include identifying shovel-ready sites for possible data centers and commissioning an analysis quantifying the economic opportunity of AI for Western Pennsylvania. On January 1, the team is adding many executives from local companies from across a wide range of backgrounds.
The newly announced additions are Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO of unicorn medtech startup Abridge; Toby Rice, the president and CEO of natural gas producer EQT Corp.; Joe Mastrangelo, CEO of Eos Energy Enterprises, an energy storage company that recently made the decision to move its headquarters to Pittsburgh; Mike Keslar, president of BNY Pennsylvania; Michael Pohl, Google‘s local site lead; Sunil Wadhwani, co-founder of Mastech Inc. and an AI investor; Rob Cherry, CEO of Partner4Work; Martial Hebert, dean of CMU’s School of Computer Science; and Abby Smith, president and CEO of Team Pennsylvania.
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