Katie McMahon

Katie McMahon in a leather jacket and a blue background smiling into the camera.

Former VP at Shazam, President & COO at Native Voice

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Katie McMahon is a trailblazing global tech executive and entrepreneur renowned for pioneering contributions to sound recognition and natural language understanding technologies. With over twenty years of experience, she has significantly shaped the mobile tech industry, especially during the rise of touch-screen smartphones. As Vice President at SoundHound Inc., Katie was instrumental in launching Hound, a voice search and assistant app, and the Houndify platform, setting the stage for the voice-interface era. Her tenure at Shazam as Vice President of Business Development was marked by the iconic music recognition app’s meteoric rise to 2 billion installs and 70 billion queries, leading to its acquisition by Apple.

Katie’s expertise spans from ideation and R&D to productization and market introduction. She has a proven track record in guiding early-stage tech companies to significant valuations, including SoundHound (Nasdaq: SOUN) and Shazam. Currently, she is an advisor and consultant focused on helping early-stage tech companies achieve product-market fit and mass-market adoption, with active roles at Neosensory, Native Voice, Valence Vibrations, NatureQuant, Wia, and Brainbaby Inc. She is also a member of the Berryville Institute of Machine Learning, emphasizing the safe, secure, and ethical development of AI technologies.

Katie's educational background is as diverse and impressive as her professional journey. She graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia in Political & Social Thought. Furthering her education, Katie has completed courses at Stanford, M.I.T. Sloan, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. She is dedicated to understanding the impacts of rapidly evolving AI and technology on business, society, and humanity. Her leadership style, characterized by passion, inspiration, and integrity, has guided her through various roles, including advisor, board member, and senior executive, making significant strides in digital innovation and technology.

More on Katie McMahon

What Past Clients Say

 
 

“Katie McMahon is an exceptional speaker and delivered a captivating and insightful presentation for me at ConverCon. As the co-founder and content curator for ConverCon – The Conversational Interface Conference – I had the pleasure of having Katie as one of our headline speakers in 2019. Her extensive background in AI-powered recommendation systems for music allowed her to share a compelling narrative about the evolution from those systems to a vision of vast network of AI's working in harmony across our everyday lives.

Katie's presentation was not only thought-provoking but also deeply engaging, and many people approached me on the day for further information on this topic.  Katie, thanks to her natural stage presence and ability to articulate complex concepts in an accessible manner, proved to be one of our most popular speakers in our post event surveys.  Her insights into the practical implications of AI and the future of conversational interfaces really resonated with our audience, and also left a lasting impression on me.

Katie's ability to inspire and educate makes her a standout choice for any speaking engagement. She combines deep technical knowledge and her own journey through the subject area with a relatable and inspiring delivery style, making her an asset to any conference or event looking to explore the future of AI and technology.”

— Paul Sweeney, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder at Webio

 
 
 

“Katie inspires and brings her others along with her. She captivates the audience, providing critical industry insight, and brings incredible value to anyone who watches her take the stage. Above all, her genuine passion is contagious - she energized the room and is on a mission to make an impact!

It was clear she doesn’t shy away from speaking hard truths and I made a point to catch her off-stage to talk to keep in touch. She’s very generous with her time, both when meeting with attendees after the event and also when holding space for panelists on stage.”

— Ivy Teng Lei, Chief Digital Strategy Officer for the State of California

 

Katie’s Previous Speaking Experience

Katie McMahon is a beloved speaker globally at leading tech events like CES, GovAI, Voice of the Car Summit, MojoFest, and AlexaConference. Her expertise in sound recognition and natural language understanding makes her a sought-after thought leader in the tech industry.

Weaving stories that make keynote topics relatable, actionable, and deeply authentic, Katie leaves audiences inspired to further discuss impacts on their business and society.

Katie McMahon speaking in Ireland to an audience in front of her.

If you have any questions or would like to book Katie for your event, contact us directly.