Search: How the Data Explosion Makes Us Smarter

About Stefan Weitz

Stefan Weitz is a Senior Director of Search at Microsoft and charged with working with people and organizations across the industry to promote and improve search technologies. While focused on Microsoft's product line he works across the industry to understand searcher behavior academic developments and innovations from all over and in his role as an evangelist for Search gathers and distills feedback to drive fundamental search improvements. Prior to Search Stefan led the strategy to develop Microsoft's next generation online platforms and developed Microsoft's muni WiFi strategy and implementation leading the effort to blanket free WiFi access across metropolitan cities. Stefan has been writing code since he was 8 years old and is fluent in both hardware and software architecture trends and potentials. A 16-year Microsoft veteran he has led various groups in Windows hardware Informatics Security and global business strategy in roles ranging from development to program management business development to marketing. Stefan holds a half-dozen patents in various disciplines and is a frequent lecturer to industry and academic groups on the future of information storage retrieval and usage. Stefan is a huge gadget junkie and can often be found in electronics shops across the world looking for the elusive perfect piece of tech. Stefan also serves on advisory boards for many startups ranging from biometrics to advertising to virtualization and is an active Angel investor. In his spare cycles he is working with national educational reinvention groups to reboot K-12 education and is actively advising startups focused on boosting student achievement through technology and big data. He is on the GenCon Board for Conservation International and active in Endeavor Global a non-profit dedicated to incubating high-impact startups in developing markets.