The Seidman College of Business hosted their tri-annual Peter F. Secchia Breakfast Lecture on Wednesday, Oct 3. The event, through the generosity of Peter and Joan Secchia, is hosted by the alumni association three times a year. 

“We feature speakers who share experiences and commentary on a variety of business-related topics, both regional and national,” Director of External Relations and Communications Vonnie Herrera said. 

This Secchia Breakfast Lecture’s speaker was Missy Young, an expert in data strategies and technology trends. Young, a chief information officer and partner for Switch, gave a special presentation titled “Artificial Intelligence: Keeping the Human in Humanity.”

“Young talked about maintaining the ‘human’ in ‘humanity’ in a technology world,” Herrera said. “She also provided provocative ideas of leveraging the value of artificial intelligence and balancing that with ensuring that artificial intelligence is used to serve humanity in a positive way.” 

Switch is a global technology infrastructure ecosystem corporation based in Las Vegas whose core business is the design, construction and operation of the most advanced data centers, which are the foundations of the most powerful technology ecosystems on the planet. Since joining the company in 2005, Young has held roles with leadership responsibilities for all sales operations and solutions. 

Prior to becoming a partner at Switch, Young was director of sales engineering and voice over internet protocol services for Mpower Communications. She entered the business industry in the mid 90s as a network engineer through Cisco, Microsoft and Novell certifications, and has since served in senior sales positions. 

A large part of the usual Secchia Breakfast Lecture’s audience were employers and employees grappling with the changes that artificial intelligence is introducing into the workplace. 

“As a university, it’s incumbent upon us to listen and learn what experts are saying,” Herrera said. “We have the opportunity to expose students, faculty, and the business community to the issues, to examine and be better prepared to manage and lead the inevitable changes.” 

The Secchia Breakfast Lecture is offered three times a year, each time with a new business related lecture and guest speaker that will benefit all students, both regionally and nationally—and of course, a free full-course breakfast is included as well.