Ankur Garg is a Partner, Firmware Engineering as part of Microsoft Azure Hardware and Infrastructure Group. His team is responsible for the end-to-end Firmware Architecture, Development, Integration and Quality engineering functions. He has over 24 years of experience across PC Client, Consumer Electronics and Data Center Products. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was Vice President and General Manager of Platform Architecture, Integration and Validation at Intel’s Data Center and AI Group where he led the overall system architecture and engineering for Intel Xeon Roadmap.
Dr. Zane A. Ball is a Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center and AI (DCAI) Product Management Group. DCAI Product Management is responsible for end-to-end stewardship of DCAI’s systems, SW, CPU, GPU, and custom product line through the entirety of the product lifecycle. Prior to his product management role, Ball was CVP and GM of platform engineering and architecture for Intel’s data center business. Ball has also served as Co-GM of Intel’s foundry effort as a VP in the Technology and Manufacturing group and VP of the Client Computing Group including roles as GM of the desktop client business and as GM of global customer engineering.
Ball has a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, all earned from Rice University. He also holds six patents in high-speed electrical design.