The Silicon Valley
Faculty Network

Chief AI Officer Program

Step into the Chief AI Officer seat.

A 16-session executive program taught live by Carlos Escapa, who led AI and machine learning practice at AWS, and Gregory La Blanc, faculty at UC Berkeley, with the practitioners who built the field as guests.

Starts 11 January 2027 16 sessions 24 hours live 30 seats $6,500
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Who it's for

You've just been handed the mandate

The board expects results from AI and there is no playbook for getting there.

You're moving toward the chief seat

VP or Director of Data, AI or Analytics, and you want the frame and the vocabulary that go with the title.

You're translating in both directions

Technical teams below, a skeptical C-suite above, and no shared language between them.

Not for you if you are looking for an introduction to AI, or for a technical course. This assumes seniority and gives you the executive view.

Free · no obligation

Try it first.

Leading Today's AI in the Enterprise, a forty-five minute masterclass with Carlos Escapa on 21 September at 18:00 CET. The same format as a real session, and free.

Save my seat

What you leave with

  • An AI transformation plan for your own organization, reviewed by the faculty.
  • A framework for prioritizing use cases and proving return.
  • Language that works in a board meeting and in an engineering review.
  • Roughly thirty peers in the same seat, and the faculty's contact details.
  • Optionally, a working prototype you built yourself.

Curriculum

Sixteen sessions, four blocks.

01

Strategy and value

  1. Data and AI at the core of business strategy
  2. From business strategy to AI strategy
  3. Data as a strategic asset and the economics of data
  4. Measuring return, and proving it to a board
02

Technology, at executive altitude

  1. How AI actually works, enough to lead the conversation
  2. Generative AI strategy and build versus buy
  3. Agentic AI: agents, centaurs and failover to human
  4. Technology selection, procurement and delivery at scale
03

Organization and people

  1. Organizing for data and AI
  2. Talent, skills and the shape of the team
  3. Change management and evangelizing transformation
  4. Getting CEO commitment and resources
04

Risk, governance and the long game

  1. Governance, ethics and regulation
  2. Security, privacy and the risk of not adopting
  3. Competitive advantage and proprietary models
  4. Bringing it together: your transformation plan

Once a year

The network meets in person.

The programs run online. One day a year they do not. Everyone from across our programs gathers in Silicon Valley for a day, and it is one of the things being part of this network gets you. Having taken a program, your place is $2,000. Without one it is $4,000.

You meet the industry

A day on the ground: visits to companies building this work, and the conversations that follow. The kind of access that is difficult to arrange on your own and impossible to get from a video call.

The whole network in one room

The people who taught you, plus participants, faculty and guests from every other program we run. Sixteen sessions of context, then a day to use it.

You arrange the trip

We organize the day and the access. Flights, accommodation and meals are yours to book, so you can build the rest of the trip around it.

Faculty

Carlos Escapa

Program Lead

Carlos Escapa

Carlos led AI and machine learning practice at AWS for nearly a decade, first as Global AI/ML Practice Leader and later running Data and AI for the Accenture-AWS Business Group, with a period at Meta in AI business development in between. He has worked on hundreds of implementation projects worldwide and coauthored The AI-Driven Business: Leading, Competing and Thriving in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. He advises startups on corporate development and go-to-market, and lectures at Berkeley Haas, ESADE and IE.

Gregory La Blanc

Faculty Director

Gregory La Blanc

Greg is Faculty Director of Professional Education at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering and a Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Berkeley Haas and Berkeley Law. He has taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and HEC Paris, and holds the Haas Cheit Award for teaching. He has advised leaders at more than a hundred companies and governments on strategy, finance and technology, and hosts unSILOed, a podcast now past six hundred conversations.

Guest practitioners

Douglas Laney
Douglas Laney Coined the term infonomics · Gartner, Deloitte
Matei Zaharia
Matei Zaharia Creator of Apache Spark · Databricks
Ion Stoica
Ion Stoica UC Berkeley · Databricks, Anyscale
Pascal Bornet
Pascal Bornet Intelligent automation and agentic AI
Ricardo Baeza-Yates
Ricardo Baeza-Yates Responsible AI
Irina Kofman Meta, OpenAI Generative AI strategy
Sunil Mallya CTO and cofounder · Flip AI Agentic AI
Esteban Arcaute Responsible AI · Walmart, Meta Governance, ethics and regulation
Ricardo Bion VP Data · Airbnb, Instagram, Slack Organizing for data and AI
Ryan Gross VP Data · GE, Caylent Organizing for data and AI
Stephen Orban Led enterprise adoption at AWS · Dow Jones Change management and transformation
Mariano Maluf CTO and CIO · Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark Change management and transformation
Craig Suckling Former CIO · UK Government, Amazon, Accenture Change management and transformation
Sergey Patsko Data and AI · Capgemini Technology selection and delivery at scale
Phil Mui Salesforce Technology selection and delivery at scale
Jim Guszcza Chief Data Scientist · Deloitte, Stanford From business strategy to AI strategy
Michael Wu Chief AI Strategist · PROS From business strategy to AI strategy
Sam Naghsineh CTO and cofounder · Ninja AI, Meta Competitive advantage and proprietary models

How it runs

Live on Mondays at 16:00 Central European Time, which is 10:00 in New York and 07:00 in San Francisco. Each session runs an hour and a half and is recorded if you miss one.

On top of the sessions, an hour of office hours is available every day on request, for private support on your own plan.

The cohort is capped at thirty so sessions stay discussion rather than lecture.

That slot is chosen to work for Europe, both American coasts and India in the same room. It is late evening in East Asia and Australia, which is why every session is recorded and office hours can be booked at any hour.

Optional track

Build it yourself.

Most executive programs stop at a written plan. Alongside the core sessions, an optional set of labs where you build a working prototype using AI coding tools, no engineering background needed. Take them or don't; the strategy track stands on its own.

3 labs +4.5 hours Included

Tuition

$6,500

Includes all sessions, the Build Labs, recordings, all materials, faculty review of your capstone and the certificate. The day in Silicon Valley is a separate $2,000 add-on, and travel is your own.

  • Group rate from five participants. Write to info@siliconvalleyfaculty.com and we will send you a quote.
  • Payment in full on acceptance, or in two parts: half on acceptance and half before the first session. Companies can be invoiced on thirty day terms.
  • Invoice and receipt for expensing, plus a one-pager you can send to your manager.
  • Cancellation. Full refund up to thirty days before the start. Half up to fourteen days. Inside fourteen days we cannot refund, but you can send a colleague in your place or move to the next cohort once, at no cost. If we cancel or move the program, you get everything back.

Not sure it is the right program?

Thirty minutes with us, no pitch. Bring the questions you would not put in a form.

Book a call

On completion

Certificate of Completion

Issued by The Silicon Valley Faculty Network and signed by Carlos Escapa and Gregory La Blanc, with their affiliations. Shareable on LinkedIn.

A professional certificate, not an academic qualification. It records that you completed the program and who taught it.

Questions

How much time does it really take?

Twenty-four hours of live sessions across the program, an hour and a half at a time. Every session is recorded. Office hours are available for an hour each day on request if you want private time on your own plan.

Do I need a technical background?

No. The program is pitched at executive altitude: strategy, economics, organization and governance. The optional Build Labs require no coding experience either; that is the point of them.

What certificate do I get?

A Certificate of Completion from The Silicon Valley Faculty Network, signed by the faculty who taught you. Certification differs by program and each one states clearly what it carries. Our online programs are not UC Berkeley certified.

What is the day in Silicon Valley?

Once a year everyone on our programs gathers in Silicon Valley for a day: visits to companies doing this work, time with the faculty in person, and the rest of the network in one room. It runs separately from the programs. Your place is $2,000 once you have taken a program, and $4,000 without one. Flights, hotels and meals are your own.

What if I miss a session?

Every session is recorded and available to the cohort. Faculty office hours cover anything you want to pick up afterward.

Can my company pay?

Yes. We invoice directly, on thirty day terms, and provide a receipt for expensing plus a one-page summary you can send to your manager. A group rate applies from five participants: write to us and we will send a quote.

Cohort one starts 11 January 2027.

Thirty seats. Applications reviewed as they arrive.

Apply now Join a masterclass