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Marquis Who’s Who : Michael E. Kounavis, PhD – Innovation in Data and Artificial Intelligence

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SCARSDALE, N.Y., May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — With three decades of experience, Michael E. Kounavis, PhD, has solidified himself as a senior industry leader whose achievements Marquis Who’s Who is proud to recognize. Specializing in computer science, particularly cryptography and machine learning, Dr. Kounavis has made numerous contributions to these areas as well as microprocessor innovation. Today, he aims to continue protecting data while advancing new fields of technology.

Before beginning his professional career, Dr. Kounavis established his academic foundations. He first earned a bachelor’s degree in Athens, Greece, before pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University in New York. From 1996 to 2003, he served as a graduate research assistant at the university. In 2003, he graduated with a doctorate from the same institution.

Contributions at Intel Corp

In 2004, Dr. Kounavis joined Intel Corp., where he worked as a senior staff research scientist. In this role, he developed computer architecture extensions to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data. This involved extending microprocessor circuits to prevent the malicious alteration or theft of data. While cyberattacks persist, this development in microprocessor architecture was significant for the field.

At Intel, Dr. Kounavis became familiar with artificial intelligence. While focusing on his work in microprocessor architecture, he approached the new technology from an academic standpoint, building new skills from the ground up. He contributed to innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, developed patents and published research papers.

Becoming Involved at Meta

During this time, Dr. Kounavis also became involved with the Georgia Institute of Technology in the field of adversarial machine learning. By 2021, this involvement had paved the way for him to become an expert in the field, and he was eventually hired as a software engineer at Meta. As the company has become interested in generative artificial intelligence and large language models, the ability to do applied research in this space is considered invaluable.

“As part of Meta,” Dr. Kounavis said, “I’m leading artificial intelligence research projects that are very revenue-focused and that allow me to see many of the challenges that usually [aren’t] seen at a university, because you have the chance to work on big systems…”

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence

Through his work, Dr. Kounavis has come to recognize that artificial intelligence is positioned to change the nature of white-collar jobs. While humans retain the upper hand in using, changing and processing information, their judgment remains essential; artificial intelligence agents can accelerate processes.

In addition to his work in artificial intelligence, Dr. Kounavis has received notable professional recognition for his contributions to computer security and cryptography. He was honored with the Intel Achievement Award in 2008.

During his tenure at Intel, he helped deliver advanced encryption technologies, including new encryption techniques and the co-invention of the Intel AES-NI instruction set, which significantly improved data protection performance. His technical leadership and research contributions have also been recognized in The New Yorker.

Plans for the Future

Within the next few years, Dr. Kounavis intends to focus on his continued professional growth and technical research. At the same time, he hopes to see his children mature into responsible adults and actively encourages them to engage with the global challenges posed by artificial intelligence.

Moving forward, Dr. Kounavis recognizes that there are many ethical and moral considerations to be evaluated in the field of artificial intelligence.

About Marquis Who’s Who®:

Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who’s Who in America®, Marquis Who’s Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who’s Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who’s Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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Media Name: Marquis Who’s Who ; Media Contact: info@marquiswhoswho.com 

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PhoenixAI Joins Cloudera as a Foundational Database Partner

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PhoenixAI Cloud database engine to be available on Cloudera Anywhere Cloud ™ Marketplace, bringing sub-second real-time analytics and agentic AI workloads to Cloudera’s user base.

MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PhoenixAI, the Agentic AI Database, today announced a strategic partnership with Cloudera, the only company bringing AI to data anywhere. PhoenixAI is joining as a foundational data partner for Cloudera’s newly launched hybrid data and AI platform, and Cloudera Anywhere Cloud Marketplace. Through this partnership, enterprise customers can deploy PhoenixAI’s high-performance cloud database engine directly within Cloudera’s secure private and public cloud environments.

As organizations accelerate their adoption of autonomous AI agents and real-time decision-making systems, access to fresh, sub-second enterprise data is critical. PhoenixAI’s inclusion in Cloudera’s private and sovereign infrastructure offering delivers an AI-native database foundation designed specifically for high-concurrency, low-latency workloads while adhering to strict enterprise governance and data sovereignty mandates.

Speed, Reduced Complexity, and Enhanced Security

By making PhoenixAI natively available within Cloudera’s ecosystem, the joint solution delivers three core advantages to enterprise engineering and data teams:

Sub-Second Speed at Scale: PhoenixAI delivers sub-second SQL query performance across live streaming data and historical lakehouse formats, sustaining high concurrency without performance degradation.

Radically Reduced Complexity: Customers can instantly spin up a managed database cluster in a couple of clicks via the Cloudera Anywhere Cloud Marketplace. PhoenixAI queries real-time and lakehouse data in place—eliminating mandatory data denormalization, complex pre-aggregations, or unnecessary ETL pipelines.

Enhanced Security and Enterprise Trust: Deployed securely within the customer’s private cloud environment, PhoenixAI enforces fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC), per-query auditing, and full data sovereignty, ensuring sensitive AI workloads remain protected under enterprise security protocols.

Executive Commentary

“PhoenixAI was selected as an early foundational database partner for Cloudera’s innovative private cloud initiative,” said Andy Ye, co-founder and chief product officer of PhoenixAI. “AI agents and modern real-time applications demand sub-second data access without compromising security or operational simplicity. Partnering with Cloudera allows our mutual customers to deploy PhoenixAI’s high-concurrency database engine instantly within their trusted private cloud infrastructure, enabling them to move AI from experiment to production faster than ever.”

“Our customers want AI on their own terms, in their own environments (self-hosted or Bring Your Own Cloud) with data under their control,” said Michelle Hoover, SVP of Global Alliances & Channels at Cloudera. “Through Cloudera’s collaboration with PhoenixAI, we can offer them a real-time database built the way agents need it to work, with the governance our customers expect.”

Experience PhoenixAI Live at Evolve 26

PhoenixAI will showcase the new integration and host live technical demonstrations at Cloudera’s annual global customer event, EVOLVE26, on October 27, 2026, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Attendees can visit the PhoenixAI booth to see sub-second agentic AI query execution in action and explore how to instantly spin up cluster environments via the Cloudera Anywhere Marketplace.

To learn more about PhoenixAI Cloud or to schedule an executive meeting at EVOLVE26, visit phoenixdata.ai.

About PhoenixAI

PhoenixAI is the Agentic AI Database, purpose-built to give autonomous AI agents sub-second access to live enterprise data at massive scale. The platform unifies real-time and at-rest data in a single AI-native engine, combining the speed and concurrency that agentic workloads demand with the governance and deployment flexibility enterprises require to put AI into production. PhoenixAI runs fully managed inside the customer’s cloud platform of choice, or self-managed on the customer’s own private cloud, or on their own hardware, including on-premises. Formerly CelerData, and the creators of the StarRocks open source project, PhoenixAI is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Learn more at phoenixdata.ai.

About Cloudera

Cloudera is the only hybrid data and AI platform company that large organizations trust to bring AI to their data anywhere it lives. Unlike other providers, Cloudera delivers a consistent cloud experience that converges public clouds, on-prem data centers, sovereign clouds, and the edge, leveraging a proven open-source foundation. As the pioneer in big data, Cloudera empowers businesses to apply AI and assert control over 100% of their data, in all forms, improving security, governance, and real-time and predictive insights. The world’s largest brands across all industries rely on Cloudera to transform decision-making and ultimately boost bottom lines, safeguard against threats, and save lives.

To learn more, visit Cloudera.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X. ©2026 Cloudera and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cloudera, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Sida Shen

Product Marketing

PhoenixAI

423374@email4pr.com 

650-519-5190

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Stravito Launches MCP Server to Put Consumer Evidence Inside Enterprise AI Tools

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Stravito’s MCP Server brings the market and consumer research enterprises own into the AI tools teams already use

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Stravito, the customer intelligence platform that helps global brands understand their customers, validate ideas, and make better decisions, today launched its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server to bring each company’s market and consumer research into the everyday AI tools its teams use, so decisions get made on evidence the business owns and trusts.

The launch addresses a consistent problem across the enterprise: commercial results suffer when siloed consumer intelligence doesn’t reach the decisions where it is needed. Even connected to a company’s files, generic AI often reads a research report like a text document, missing the charts, graphs, and visuals where key findings live, or falling back on unverified answers from the web.

Stravito’s MCP Server changes that, connecting to AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and the custom agents enterprises have built, through a single, governed connection. It draws on the full body of a company’s research, reading not just text but also visual findings from reports and presentations to videos, audio, and spreadsheets. For marketing and brand teams, real consumer evidence now surfaces where they work, to shape stronger launches, campaigns, and strategies, without switching AI tools.

“The most valuable consumer research is worthless if it never actually guides real business decisions,” said Thor Olof Philogène, Founder and CEO of Stravito. “Our MCP Server puts company knowledge into the AI tools teams already use, so they can launch better, spend smarter, and go-to-market faster using consumer evidence they can trust.”

Every AI response from Stravito’s MCP Server follows a Glass Box AI approach. It is drawn from the company’s own research, source-cited, and is scoped to the person asking. The connection inherits the user’s existing permissions and is read-only.

A global media and information provider is among the first to pilot the Stravito MCP Server, using it to bring research findings directly into the specialist tools its teams work in.

Today’s launch reflects a wider shift in enterprise software. After building or buying tools, enterprises are now connecting them through open standards like MCP. A company’s research in Stravito can now sit alongside its CRM, BI, and social listening data in the same AI conversation, offering a more complete picture than any single application can provide.

Stravito’s platform remains the destination where enterprises can manage their proprietary research, run analysis, and build AI Personas. The MCP server shares that research in connected enterprise AI tools, enabling better, faster business decisions. Stravito also offers a set of developer-grade APIs for Search, AI Assistant, Usage, and Audit Logs, giving teams additional ways to access, manage, and apply their trusted research.

In the coming months, Stravito will release additional tools to bring more customer intelligence into the tools teams use, and deeper into commercial decision-making.

For more, visit www.stravito.com. For imagery, click here.

About Stravito

Stravito is the Enterprise Customer Intelligence Platform global brands trust to understand their customers, validate ideas, and make better decisions with AI grounded in their research.

Built for insights and marketing teams, Stravito unifies and activates research in a secure space. Teams ask strategic questions and receive synthesized, source-cited answers through Stravito AI Assistant. AI Personas, built from each organization’s segmentation studies, simulate consumer perspectives, enabling teams to pressure-test products, campaigns, and strategies before investment is committed.

Founded in Sweden in 2017, Stravito is used by global leaders including Nestlé and Lavazza Group. The company is ISO 27001 certified, SOC 2 Type II attested, and has been recognized in the Financial Times’ FT 1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies.

Media Contact
Caroline Doggett
Griffin360
415-609-6634
423405@email4pr.com

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Parks Associates Announces CONNECTIONS™ Summit and 2027 CONNECTIONS™ Agenda Focused on AI, New Connected Services, Security, Energy, and The Intelligent Home

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Annual connected home executive conference May 4-6 examines business transformation across the smart home

PLANO, Texas, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — International market research and consulting firm Parks Associates today announced the key topics for CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference, taking place May 4-6, 2027, with a special pre-show research workshop on May 4. The executive conference will examine how artificial intelligence (AI), new service models, partnerships, connectivity, security, energy, and changing consumer expectations are transforming the connected home business.

The research firm’s latest research shows smart home device purchases in the last 12 months dropped slightly to 28%, while high purchase intent for the next six months reached a new peak of 49% in Q2 2026.

The 2027 CONNECTIONS™ program begins with two virtual CONNECTIONS™ Summit sessions designed to analyze key trends ahead of CES® 2027 in Las Vegas and then comment on market developments following the show:

“What’s Next for the Connected Home: Year-End Insights and CES Preview” – December 15, 2026“Beyond CES: What’s Next for the Connected Home in 2027” – January 19, 2027

“The gap between past purchases and future high intent creates opportunity for vendors to convert new buyers through clearer value propositions, promotions, and new features,” said Mindi Sue Sternblitz-Rubenstein, VP, Marketing, Parks Associates. “CONNECTIONS™ will focus on the partnerships, business models, and tech innovations making these experiences valuable to consumers and sustainable for companies.”

CONNECTIONS™, now in its 31st year, brings together executives from device manufacturers, security providers, broadband companies, platforms, utilities, insurers, builders, multifamily operators, and technology partners. Discussions will address who owns the customer relationship, where recurring revenue opportunities are emerging, and how partnerships can accelerate adoption and scale.

Topics for CONNECTIONS™ 2027:

AI-powered and agent-ready homesSecurity, safety, and cybersecurityThe predictive homeBroadband and new home servicesHardware and interoperabilityWhole-home energySmart spaces and multifamilyNew routes to marketAI-powered customer supportPartnerships and business models

“Connected products are becoming part of larger service ecosystems,” Sternblitz-Rubenstein said. “The next phase of this market will be defined by how effectively companies can work together to deliver intelligence, connectivity, security, energy management, and support throughout the customer lifecycle. Our 2027 program is designed to bring those different parts of the ecosystem into the same conversation.”

CONNECTIONS™ brings together senior executives and industry leaders from across the connected home ecosystem for Parks Associates research presentations, executive panels, keynotes, networking, and partnership development.

View the CONNECTIONS™ 2027 agenda. For information on the December and January virtual programs, view the CONNECTIONS Summit agenda.

About Parks Associates
Parks Associates helps companies identify new opportunities, refine strategy, and accelerate growth in connected technology markets through data-driven insights and industry expertise. With more than 40 years of experience, the firm delivers proprietary consumer and industry research, market forecasts, and strategic analysis that guide business decisions across personal, connected home, small business, and commercial technology ecosystems. Parks Associates supports clients in navigating evolving markets including AI, security, smart home, broadband, entertainment, energy, multifamily, smart buildings, and connected health.

The firm also fosters industry growth and collaboration by convening thousands of leaders each year through its flagship executive conferences, including CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. Learn more at https://www.parksassociates.com.

Follow Parks Associates on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Mindi Sue Sternblitz-Rubenstein
Parks Associates
972.490.1113
423387@email4pr.com

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