Paola Santana

Paola Santana is a lawyer, public procurement expert, and serial tech entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, known for building transformative solutions at the intersection of government, technology, and regulation. She is the founder and CEO of GLASS, a Silicon Valley startup pioneering G-Commerce and revolutionizing how governments procure goods and services through cutting-edge software. Previously, she co-founded Matternet, a Silicon Valley company that built the world's first drone logistics networks, where she worked directly with The White House, U.S. Congress, the FAA, and NASA to enact the first drone regulation in the United States in 2016, and achieved the historic milestone of becoming the world's first drone delivery platform authorized for permanent operations over a populated city in 2017. Earlier in her career, Paola co-established the Dominican Republic's Constitutional Court and served at the National Elections Court coordinating the Elections Litigation Chamber. She has also collaborated with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the OECD on public infrastructure projects integrating exponential technologies, and co-drafted the public-private partnership enabling the first multi-state Hyperloop system in the United States. A Fulbright Scholar with degrees from George Washington University, Georgetown University, and Singularity University, Paola has been recognized as a CNET Top 20 Latin in Tech, Forbes Next 1000, and LinkedIn Top Professional Under 35 in Enterprise Tech. She has served as Lead of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Advisory Group and as an appointed member of the inaugural FAA Drone Advisory Committee, cementing her reputation as a global leader in introducing breakthrough technologies into highly regulated markets.