Weston LaBar
Founder/CEO - CSO at V52 - Waterfront
Weston LaBar is a growth-stage logistics executive, operator, and AI and corporate growth strategist. He is founder and CEO of Ventures 52, an operator-advisory growth, strategy, and angel investing firm, and Chief Strategy Officer at Waterfront Logistics, a national logistics platform and 3PL.
Weston is a certified professional AI business strategist through the MIT Sloan School of Management, where his thesis on AI architecture was validated by MIT faculty. He is building an agentic-AI stealth start-up, and he has guest lectured on AI's role in sustainability at CSULB.
He chairs the Long Beach Workforce Innovation Board and Invest Long Beach, where his focus is aligning workforce systems with an AI-driven economy. He is a nationally recognized speaker on the role of technology in logistics and host of the podcast "On the Waterfront." His commentary has been featured in national media on supply chain, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, and NPR's Marketplace.
Weston has been recognized as Chief Strategy Officer of the Year by Global Supply Chain Leaders and named to CIO Views' "10 Most Impactful Leaders Making a Difference."
Talks
Data Con LA 2026
The Good, the Bad, and the Exciting: The Real Role of AI Now and in the Future
AI is not a silver bullet. It is a tool, and the organizations that treat it that way are pulling ahead. In this keynote, Weston LaBar offers a practical framework for putting AI to work: build strategy around real problems, not the technology; understand how AI reshapes the workforce; and treat AI fluency as a core competency for every professional. Weston is a certified professional AI business strategist through the MIT Sloan School of Management, where his thesis on AI architecture was validated by MIT faculty. He has guest lectured on AI's role in sustainability at CSULB. Drawing on his work in logistics and workforce development, Weston cuts through the hype with lessons leaders can use immediately. Attendees will leave with a clear-eyed view of what AI can do, where it breaks down, and why the people, not the algorithm, still decide whether it works.