DJ Patil is an entrepreneur, investor, scientist, and leader in public policy. He has held senior roles in industry, academia, and government and his work has been featured in two Michael Lewis books.

Notable early stage investments include Figma, Confluent, Ola in India, Monte Carlo, Chronosphere, Sumologic, Peoplehood, RelateIQ, and Rebellion Defense.

He is a board member for Devoted Health where he was a member of the founding team and CTO with the mission to build a health care system that takes care of every member like they were family. Previously he led the product teams at RelateIQ which was acquired by Salesforce, and was founding board member for Crisis Text Line which works to use new technologies to provide on demand mental and crisis support. At LinkedIn he was Chief Scientist, Chief Security Officer and led the data efforts which included recommendation systems like People You May Know, Who Viewed My Profile, and Jobs You May Like; new technologies like Kafka; co-coining the term Data Scientist. 

Dr. Patil public policy work includes being appointed by President Obama to be the first U.S. Chief Data Scientist where his efforts led to the establishment of nearly 40 Chief Data Officer roles across the Federal government. Establishing new health care programs including the Precision Medicine Initiative (now the NIH All of Us program) and the Cancer Moonshot, new criminal justice reforms including the Data-Driven Justice and Police Data Initiatives that cover more than 94 million Americans, as well as leading the national data efforts. He also has been active in national security and for his efforts was awarded by Secretary Carter the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service which is the highest honor the department bestows on a civilian. 

As a member of the faculty at the University of Maryland, his research focused on nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory and he helped start a major research initiative on numerical weather prediction. As an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow for the Department of Defense, Dr. Patil directed new efforts to leverage social network analysis and the melding of computational and social sciences to anticipate emerging threats to the US. He has also co-chaired a major review of US efforts to prevent bioweapons proliferation in Central Asia and co-founded the Iraqi Virtual Science Library (IVSL). And if you’ve read this far, he barely graduated from high school because of his math grades, but lucked out because of his local community college.

DJ Patil

9 years ago I posted this card that I kept in my White House notebook as a reminder of how we were going to maximally serve the public. It's taken off in a way I never expected. From stickers to posters, I'm thrilled it has helped so many. Here's the backstory of how the card came to be: https://lnkd.in/gJxpJSMe

Investor, entrepreneur, public policy, former U.S Chief Data Scientist

I really would love to see this as a feature film! Especially as a mathematician, this is close to my heart. Also if you want to be inspired watch The Man Who Knew Infinity!

AI Mathematician, Data Scientist, Engineer and Statistician.

ANNOUNCING 🎬 The team behind The Man Who Knew Infinity is reuniting to honor Maryam Mirzakhani.

I am thrilled to announce MARYAM: The Mirror and the Map, a feature film about the brilliant Maryam Mirzakhani—the first woman to win the Fields Medal.

Writer/director Matt Brown, with Manjul Bhargava and I as associate producers, are reuniting for this project. We spent years ensuring Ramanujan’s math was portrayed authentically in The Man Who Knew Infinity (starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons), but math history didn't stop in 1920. It is time for the next chapter.

Maryam’s life was a cinematic arc of resilience. As a girl in war-torn Iran, she sketched math on a fogged bathroom mirror to block out the chaos—sketches that eventually turned into the geometry of curved surfaces that revolutionized the field.

This project is deeply personal. Manjul Bhargava stood on stage with Maryam in Seoul in 2014 when they both won the Fields Medal, a historic moment for mathematics. We aren't just telling a story; we are honoring an icon and a friend.

Developed at the Infinity Arts Foundation, the project is gathering momentum. I’m also proud to share that Axiom Math is championing the educational campaign, ensuring this story inspires the next generation through future university screenings.

Maryam belongs in culture, not just in textbooks.

Read more about the vision here: https://lnkd.in/eCuPQd7F
#MaryamMirzakhani #WomenInSTEM #Mathematics #Film #TheManWhoKnewInfinity #MathEd Axiom

Sara Holoubek

Sara Holoubek is the Founding Partner of Luminary Labs, a strategy and innovation consultancy established in 2009 that serves the private sector, federal agencies, and philanthropic organizations. With over 25 years of experience guiding clients through technological disruption, regulatory complexity, and organizational transformation, Sara now focuses on executive advisory services, helping senior leaders navigate change and make confident decisions in the face of uncertainty.

Throughout her career, Sara has pioneered new ways of working, structured public-private partnerships, helped organizations place considered bets on the future, and designed novel funding mechanisms. Under her leadership, Luminary Labs designed and produced open innovation programs –– including accelerators, prizes, and piloting programs –– representing more than $350 million in potential incentives for effective and scalable solutions.

Sara is an active angel investor and serves as an independent board director of Contextere, an industrial AI company. Her nonprofit roles have included serving on the inaugural RWJF Pioneer Fund Advisory Group, the Aspen Health Innovation Project Planning Committee, the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History 2020 Visiting Scientist Committee, the 2024 Health Datapalooza Advisory Committee, and as national board chair of Step Up.

An active writer and public speaker, Sara authored “Open Innovation for Impact,” a chapter in Perspectives on Impact: Leading Voices On Making Systemic Change in the Twenty-First Century. She has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Voice since 2017, by Mashable as a female founder to watch, and by PepsiCo WIN for her contributions to women in technology.

Sara brings a global perspective to her work, having lived and worked in Latin America and Europe; she speaks Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and an MBA from HEC Paris.

CEO and Founder

Luminary Labs is a New York City-based strategy and innovation consultancy established in 2009. Thorny problems are our strong suit: We are energized by complex, multistakeholder spaces where the solutions are not obvious and the potential for impact is high. Our work spans a broad cross section of topics across four focus areas: the future of health, the future of work and education, scientific breakthroughs, and multidimensional infrastructure

⚡️A new year, and new beginnings…

I’m thrilled to announce that Janna Gilbert has been named CEO of Luminary Labs!

20 years ago I left a role thinking that I would consult as a stop gap. At the time, I carried a business card with the title “Free Agent and Aspiring Luminary.” You see, I wanted nothing more than to work with smart people and solve interesting problems. I also wanted the freedom to do things, well, a little differently!

Never, in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that Luminary Labs would become the company it is today. Over the past 16 years we have addressed some of the world’s thorniest problems (120 and counting!) across the future of health, scientific discovery, the future of work and education, and infrastructure. 

With roots providing strategy services for the private sector such as Sanofi, Pfizer, Merck, this woman-owned business expanded to serve federal agencies from NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, designing and producing some of the federal government’s largest incentive prize mechanisms to date. And more recently, we have found the opportunity to accelerate change working with forward-thinking philanthropic organizations including Walton Family Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, Bezos Earth Fund, and RWJF. With an equal appreciation for strategy and execution, we have designed dozens of open innovation programs – including accelerators, prizes, and piloting programs – representing more than $350 million in potential incentives for effective and scalable solutions.

But what I am most proud of are the people who placed a bet on Luminary Labs. I offer my deepest gratitude to the clients, supporters, and team members – both past and present – who signed on to doing things differently. 

And that most certainly includes Janna! 

Janna joined Luminary Labs in 2013, was promoted to President in 2019, and became a Partner in 2024. She is an exceptional leader who has played a central role in translating Luminary Labs’ visions and ambitions into the company it is today. 

This leadership transition reflects our long-term strategy and a natural next step for Luminary Labs. Going forward, Janna will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the company across all functions, focus areas, and capabilities. She is an exceptional leader – and I could not have asked for a better successor.

Janna and I will continue to serve as Partners on our respective client engagements, and remain equity owners of our (proudly!) independent firm. 

What’s next for me? After taking some time off, I will focus on expanding our executive advisory services to help leaders make confident decisions in the face of change and uncertainty.  (Stay tuned for more details!)

Please join me in congratulating Janna and Luminary Labs on this next chapter!

Founding Partner and Executive Advisory | Board member | Investor

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