Liat Krawczyk is the inaugural Executive Director of the New Jersey AI Hub, a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between Princeton University, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Microsoft, and CoreWeave, designed to accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence and position New Jersey as a global leader in the field. Its aim is to bring together AI researchers, entrepreneurs, industry, educational institutions, and the public sector to advance world-class research and development; drive transformative AI innovation; empower the workforce for the AI era; and shape the future of responsible AI deployment.

Previously, she served as Senior Advisor for Workforce Strategy and Head of Child Care at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Program Office, supporting the rollout of a $300M workforce effort aligned with $37B in semiconductor investments and shaping the care economy strategy. Before that, Liat was Vice President of Innovation Industries at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, where she led workforce strategy across emerging tech, the green economy, and life sciences. She founded the NYCEDC Childcare Innovation Lab and co-led Cyber NYC, a $100M public-private initiative focused on inclusive talent pipelines and R&D to grow NYC’s cybersecurity ecosystem. She also served as Head of Strategy for a machine learning PropTech startup.

Liat brings over a decade of experience across government, startups, and nonprofits at the intersection of technology, workforce, the care economy and industrial policy, driving the creation of inclusive innovation ecosystems.

Jeffrey Oakman has served as Senior Strategic AI Hub Project Manager since September 2024, working first under the Provost’s Office and now for the NJ AI Hub itself. He works with the Hub’s Executive Director in advancing the Hub’s goals of promoting advanced research in the field, driving regional economic growth and talent development in the tech sector, supporting private- and public-sector entities in AI utilization, and strengthening the AI start-up ecosystem in New Jersey.

Previously Jeffrey worked in Governor Murphy’s office for five years as a Senior Policy Advisor, with a portfolio including economic development and planning, housing, workforce development, and innovation policy. His career both in government and in the nonprofit and private sectors has focused on using creative financing to realize impactful economic and community development projects. He graduated from Rice University and holds a Masters in Public Affairs and Urban/Regional Planning from Princeton University SPIA, where he also worked as an Associate Director in the Graduate Program Office from 2016 to 2019.