← The Elemental Codices
Curriculum Vitae

Dave Graham

A curiosity-driven leader, researcher, educator, and emerging-technology advocate.

Letter of Introduction Curriculum Vitae

Letter of Introduction

There's a principle I've organized my working life around: taking an unproven idea seriously enough to test it properly, then making the case for it in a way that both inspires and convinces. Curiosity has driven me to engage with the broader world. Exploring different modalities to convey my findings — photography, the written word, videography, structured interviews, speaking engagements — has helped me find a community as diverse as the world itself. Through these interactions, I've discovered a long-standing passion for storytelling and community: the idea that by giving light to the moments, ideas, and world around us, we become even more human, more intentional, more…us.

That instinct has been put to professional use in rooms where an idea must survive contact with skeptics before it survives contact with the world. I built and led globally distributed expert teams at Juniper Networks; at Dell Technologies, I served in the CTO Research Office as an Engineering Technologist and chaired the Responsible Systems and Responsible Impact working groups of the Responsible Computing Consortium. Most recently, as Director of Marketing at MLCommons (a 501(c)(6) standards body with 125+ members including NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, and Meta), I repositioned the organization as the neutral, vendor-independent authority on AI performance and safety benchmarking. The through-line is a particular kind of work: forming a point of view about where to look, rigorously testing a claim so it holds under pressure, and building the recommendation that carries it forward.

I also know what it looks like when the best idea in the room belongs to someone with no standing. In March 2020, I led OpenSourceVentilators.ie as project and community manager, coordinating 2,500+ volunteer engineers and clinicians, and served as community liaison for CovidCommunityResponse.ie. I have mentored 500+ founders, CEOs, and investors through Scale Ireland and NDRC, and have led dispersed teams across Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Latin America. Those experiences are why proximate, community-oriented leadership reads to me as a description of how good work happens, not a preference.

The rest of my life runs on the same engine. Earlier degrees in psychology and clinical counselling taught me to listen for what people mean, not just what they say. I also maintain a photography practice, an essay archive, and this site, where a small pantheon of autonomous research agents works under a five-stage methodological approach: observe, conjecture, formalise, demonstrate, and publish only what endures. Most propositions never reach the final stage, and that is precisely the point. Being genuinely curious and genuinely rigorous at once — confident without certainty, decisive without rigidity — is the discipline I try to bring to any work of sourcing, curation, and diligence.

I want to direct that discipline toward ideas that matter more than benchmarks — the ones that need someone willing to take them seriously before anyone else will. Good ideas can come from anywhere, and patient diligence is what turns a promising one into a realized one. It is a privilege to spend a career doing that work: leading the search, building the team that sustains it, and helping carry the strongest ideas to the people who can make them real.

With warm regards,
Dave Graham

Curriculum Vitae

Co. Westmeath, Ireland  ·  [email protected]  ·  linkedin.com/in/grahamdave

Well-versed in the management of globally dispersed teams, emerging technologies, infrastructure design, strategic development, information technology management, and software development project lifecycles from initial feasibility and requirements gathering through conceptual design, implementation, and rollout. Passionate and highly skilled information technology executive with a passion for leading and managing globally diverse teams across Sweden, the UK, the EU, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Latin America. 15+ year proven track record contributing to strategic business visions, understanding the latest architectures, technology, solutions, and industry trends. Driven by the opportunity to create, build, and communicate market-defining solutions that maximize investments in technology and combine advanced technology with architectural process skills to envisage infrastructure or software development solution needs. Proven success in strategically developing customized full-lifecycle enterprise-level solutions that remove roadblocks and solve complex business operations problems. Exceptional business and technical acumen, innovative thinking, and relationship building. Hands-on natural leader, fostering highly collaborative teams to build strong and lasting relationships and communities. A natural storyteller using writing, videography, photography, and other modalities to build knowledge, increase awareness, and delight audiences and customers.

Areas of Expertise

Accomplishments

Career Experience

MLCommons Association Dover, DE, Global
July 2025 – August 2026
Director of Marketing

Served as Director of Marketing for MLCommons Association, a 501(c)6 non-profit technical standards organization, driving brand strategy, go-to-market programs, and communications across a 125+ member global community, including NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Meta.

  • Architected organizational narrative and messaging strategy repositioning MLCommons as the neutral, vendor-independent authority on AI performance, safety, and reliability benchmarking — shifting market perception from community research project to Technical Standards Organization (TSO) serving enterprise AI buyers, policymakers, and regulators.
  • Led design and launch of the AILuminate Candela, a three-pillar framework (Benchmarking-as-a-Service, AI Risk Labeling, and a Global Standards Framework) developed in collaboration with Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Google, PwC, and KPMG — creating a new commercial program line in AI certification and risk assurance.
  • Directed partner marketing and co-marketing programs for the MLPerf benchmark suite across 10 benchmark domains (Inference, Training, Client, Endpoints, Storage, Automotive, and more), coordinating technical content, press campaigns, and benchmark release launches with 125+ member organizations.
  • Orchestrated flagship industry events, including MLCommons Endpoints 2025 (108 attendees, 7.5 hours of NeurIPS-adjacent plenaries at Qualcomm Hall, San Diego), the MLPerf Endpoints GTC 2026 debut, India AI Impact Summit 2026, and AI Infrastructure Summit — managing full event lifecycles from venue logistics and speaker coordination to registration, social campaigns, and post-event content placed on YouTube.
  • Drove international policy positioning and thought leadership through representation at the India AI Impact Summit, coordination with IMDA (Singapore), ISO standards engagement, and government stakeholder outreach, advancing MLCommons as a reference AI governance body for emerging regulatory frameworks.
VAST Data New York City, NY
2024 – July 2025
Product Marketing Manager, Technical Marketing

Created messaging, research, and content frameworks for VAST Data, as well as partner enablement processes and collateral.

  • Responsible for developing sales and technical resources for multiple partners, including NVIDIA, Cisco, Arista Networks, and Supermicro, to enable go-to-market for partner-led solutions.
  • Interfaced with product management and engineering teams to determine go-to-market strategies for AI-enabled workflows, including real-time vector databases, columnar databases, real-time encoding, RAG, and inference.
  • Responsible for core data platform messaging, including hardware and software containerization, DPU, switch fabrics, speeds and feeds, and IP/InfiniBand fabrics (e.g. Spectrum-X).
  • Researched and wrote on disaggregated prefill and competitive analysis against Weka, Dell, NetApp, and Everpure, and provided enablement for NVIDIA SuperPod, AI for Enterprise, and other blueprint architectures.
  • Initiated the Cisco + VAST go-to-market marketing strategy for the combined VAST-on-Cisco launch, including deep architectural analysis, channel partner market development and enablement, and operational engagements.
Dell Technologies Hopkinton, MA
2021 – 2024
Engineering Technologist & Technology Advocacy Lead — CTO Research Office

Created messaging, research, content frameworks, and intellectual property, and engaged in technology-specific coaching and speaking across the Office of Research at Dell Technologies, Dell Technologies World, and outside conferences in the European Union and the United States.

  • Chair/Co-Chair of the Responsible Systems and Responsible Impact working groups as part of the larger Responsible Computing Consortium, driving thought leadership, research, and interest in a holistic understanding of responsible innovation, application, and development within social and technical industries.
  • Industry and regulatory analysis and synthesis of insights documentation, MRD/PRD documents, and forward-looking intelligence-gathering documents within the emerging technologies space.
  • Participated in speaking engagements on a variety of subjects including Ethics in AI, the use of data in adversarial ways to accomplish social transformation, and diversity and inclusion.
  • Created novel IP around Generative AI, Material Flow Theory, Materiality, and Agonism in intra/intersystem frameworks.
  • Established and recorded video & podcasts for Dell Technologies called “The Quantum Sandwich” and “ORO Exploration,” bridging the gap between nascent technology research, our customers, and internal technical sales teams.
  • Introduced and executed research plans as part of a five-year programme with a pan-EU team of universities and pharmacology industry partners to develop an AI-based meta-symptom checker for rare diseases.
Dell Technologies Hopkinton, MA
2018 – 2021
Senior Consultant, Emerging Technologies & Thought Leadership Messaging

Created show-ready messaging for Dell Technologies World. Produced educational material for inside/outside sales, including presentation materials, podcasts, webinars, and speaking engagements. Designed and implemented social, digital, and media strategy through corporate communications and brand management. Interacted with and enabled Dell Technologies partners and suppliers to deliver value to programs related to social transformation through technology.

  • Participated in events by demonstrating effective leadership at Dell Technologies Forums, Dell Technologies World, and international conferences.
  • Established and recorded podcasts for Dell Technologies Power Chat and AI: Hype versus Reality, and composed blog posts and series articles (ghost-written; attributed) for product business units.
  • Introduced and executed media plans for the Office of the CTO and the Office of Research (ORO) at Dell Technologies to support global efforts around COVID-19 research, as well as studies related to performance engineering.
Juniper Networks Sunnyvale, CA
2012 – 2018
Senior Consulting Engineer Manager

Hired and trained top technical experts from customers and competitors to build a team of global SMEs. Oversaw and integrated toolsets like Slack, Nikabot, and Dropbox/Box for dynamic team engagement and thought leadership. Partnered with global leaders to reduce time spent on recording activities and increase time-to-value and accountability for field engineering teams. Directed customer, engineer, and field-facing expertise, and BU/PLM interactions for feature enhancements, roadmaps, and performance engineering.

  • Spearheaded a globally distributed SME team of 12+ members based in the United States and European Union to resolve complex customer challenges in all commercially viable markets.
  • Steered the solutions management process, including definition, MRD/PDD, timelines, project management, and other critical-path technologies.
Symantec Corporation Waltham, MA
2011 – 2012
Senior Systems Engineer

Managed State Street Global Advisors and Fidelity Investments accounts. Executed on-site residency to support IBM's takeover of GIS operations, and hands-on training and education enablement for client GIS departments. Delivered technical deep-dive education on Veritas Clustering, Symantec Security, Symantec Archiving, and Data Loss Prevention solutions.

  • Established a scale-out prototype NAS/object solution using VxFS and Ceph on HP-based hardware to solve capacity and addressability concerns, and supported Symantec/Huawei joint-venture NAS solutions.
  • Assessed and examined GPGPUs for encryption/decryption with AMD for client PoCs, and built the prototype system.
Cirtas Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA
2010 – 2011
Senior Systems Engineer

Maintained customer production Bluejets, including field upgrades and CRU-type hardware operations. Performed QA-related roles through customer profiles and load-generating utilities to determine performance and usability profiles. Facilitated primary pre-sales functions within value-added resellers including Versatile Systems, Daymark, Varrow, Syscom Technologies, and Softchoice.

  • Conducted proof-of-concept trials with test cases, tooling, and use-case reporting for Bluejet field trials, using Amazon AWS S3 and EMC Atmos (ECS) API-driven object storage backends.
  • Created service kit offerings for cloud storage, including assessment, implementation, and health checks, and collaborated with VARs to develop managed service offerings for Cirtas Bluejet Cloud Storage Controllers.
EMC Cloud Infrastructure Group Hopkinton, MA
2009 – 2010
Corporate Systems Engineer

Engaged in technical validation and design support of Atmos software and hardware. Led discussions with Arista Networks, Qlogic, Cisco, LSI, and Fusion I/O to understand and characterize performance and cost-per-GB-to-serve capabilities. Interacted with customers to ensure the success of proof-of-concept engagements for the Atmos product family.

  • Hosted an advanced development lab and characterized designs around current and future fabrics, including Fibre Channel over Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (TwinAx, Optical, Copper), and InfiniBand, as well as scale-out cloud file systems (Hadoop File Systems, Ceph, Gluster, CloudFS, Atmos).
  • Coordinated successful proof-of-concept engagements for massive-scale cloud deployments, including competitive engagements against Bycast, Cleversafe, Nasuni, and Nirvanix.

Additional Experience

Volunteer Experience

Education

PhD Candidate 2020 – Present

“Adversarial Agonism: Changing the Sociopolitical Discourse through Artificial Intelligence and Data”

SMARTLab, School of Materials and Mechanical Engineering — University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

M.A., Clinical Counselling

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA

B.A., Psychology

Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL

Certifications