CEO, PolArctic

Leslie is the CEO of PolArctic LLC, an oceanography and data science company focused on solving business challenges in the Arctic using Artificial Intelligence. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration on International Business, and is a veteran of the US Air Force where she served as a commissioned officer. From the USAF she transitioned to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for five years conceptualizing and initializing programs with complex geospatial components and analytics. She left NGA to found the technology start-up PolArctic LLC based on her experience and passion for the Arctic, and to bridge the gap between science and business requirements. Leslie is Yup’ik, Alaska Native, born and raised in Alaska. She was awarded the Women in Artificial Intelligence (WAI) North America Award for AI for good: Environmental Social Governance (ESG) for 2022, and was listed as a 2021 Forbes Next 1000 entrepreneur.