AI Leader of the Year

Dr. Julia Penfield, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President and Chief AI Officer at VelocityEHS, the global leader in enterprise EHS software. A machine learning scientist by training, she joined VelocityEHS in 2021 as the company’s first machine learning scientist and, in under five years, built the organization’s entire AI capability—growing from a single researcher into a purpose-built team of 10 PhD-level AI scientists, doctoral researchers, and embedded academic faculty.

Dr. Penfield holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from the University of British Columbia and is currently pursuing an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Prior to VelocityEHS, she spent eight years at BC Hydro leading machine learning programs for electrical demand forecasting, asset failure prediction, and renewable energy generation modeling.

Under her leadership, VelocityEHS has become one of the industry’s leading AI-driven Environmental, Heath, and Safety (EHS) software companies. Her team has secured 14 U.S. patents, published peer-reviewed research including two papers in Nature Scientific Reports and developed advanced AI technologies that are now embedded in the VelocityEHS Accelerate Platform, protecting more than 10 million workers across 19,000 organizations worldwide.

Dr. Penfield is widely recognized for advancing the application of advanced artificial intelligence within the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) industry and demonstrates how scientific rigor and responsible AI deployment can reduce workplace injuries and save human lives.