Beth Rudden
Full CV.
Business and technology executive · Founder & CEO, Bast AI · IBM Distinguished Engineer, appointed 2016 · Board trustee
Updated October 15, 2026 · Four-page PDF
Executive Profile
I build and lead teams that turn complex problems into systems people can understand, trust, and use. My background in anthropology and engineering shapes how I lead: understand the people and the mission, make the problem clear, and build the organization capable of solving it. I connect technical depth with business judgment to help institutions serve people better.
Founder and CEO of Bast AI, IBM Distinguished Engineer (appointed 2016), and board trustee. My work brings together the realities of running a business and the realities of how people learn, make decisions, and care for one another.
The work in five outcomes
- Led IBM's workforce transformation, upskilling and reskilling 23,000 people in 16 months.
- Created the data-science profession through which more than 10,000 data scientists have been certified globally.
- Owned and grew two P&Ls by double digits, helping establish the foundation for AI at IBM.
- Created technology spanning 27 issued IBM patents and five Bast patents.
- Built Bast over four years, securing $1.5M in revenue and $750K in investment.
Professional Experience
Founder and CEO, Bast AI · October 2022–present
Founded Bast to build explainable AI for healthcare and other regulated institutions. Lead engineers and domain experts, giving each the authority to do their best work and setting the standards that connect them. Own client outcomes from scoping through production.
We build the knowledge layer underneath AI, structuring domain expertise so answers can be traced to evidence and unresolved terms are flagged. From BastCare to institutional deployments, our work helps people understand care and access expert knowledge in difficult environments.
Led Bast’s transition to agentic delivery, with human review of every change. Build the teams, partnerships, and evaluation practices needed to deliver dependable systems and sustain the business.
Bast architecture provides an AI system that uses 70–85% fewer tokens per interaction versus standard retrieval-augmented generation.
IBM business and technical leadership · 23 years
Owned and grew the Content Intelligence and AI at Scale businesses, carrying responsibility for their P&Ls and leading teams to deliver business results. Established the Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence and recruited its leadership.
As Chief Data Officer for IBM’s services division, led workforce transformation through upskilling and reskilling. Used the urgency of enterprise change to help people move into new kinds of work, and directed large-scale endpoint remediation to address security and data-protection requirements.
Created and secured The Open Group accreditation for the data-science profession, building the skills and professional standards needed to deliver AI at global scale.
Board & Advisory
Board of Trustees, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Board of Trustees, Maryville University
Advisory Board, Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence (CASMI), Northwestern University
Cognitive World Think Tank Member
Conference Host, Enterprise AI World at KMWorld (2024, 2025)
Writing & Expert Contributions
Data is a belonging of human experience — Ground Truth (October 4, 2026)
Field notes, early October 2026 — Ground Truth (October 3, 2026)
What Do People Do All Day - with AI? — Ground Truth (October 2, 2026)
It’s time to focus on the water — Ground Truth (September 22, 2026)
One Man Cannot Hold the Future — Ground Truth (September 12, 2026)
AI Will Become Ubiquitous. Human Judgment Will Not. — Ground Truth (July 23, 2026)
Moving From Adoption to Adaptation for Explainable AI — Enterprise AI World · Crossing the AI Chasm (June 23, 2026)
Why Data Products Break the Binary — Enterprise AI World · Crossing the AI Chasm (March 19, 2026)
The Users We Didn’t Plan For — Enterprise AI World · Crossing the AI Chasm (January 9, 2026)
“7 Ways to Spot Someone Who Thinks the AI Understands Them” — most-read essay on Beth’s Substack, 63K views (2026)
Cognitive World — Writer and Expert Contributor
VentureBeat — Writer and Expert Contributor
Enterprise AI World — "Crossing the AI Chasm" featured column
Selected Podcasts & Interviews
Explainable AI with Beth Rudden CEO at Bast AI — Trending in Education · Mike Palmer (June 23, 2026)
Human Wisdom and Better Leadership with Beth Rudden — Authentic Ewe · Penelope Aiken (April 11, 2026)
Your data isn't exhaust. It's a belonging. — Untangled · Charley Johnson (March 28, 2026)
Your AI Is Your Mirror, Not Your Oracle: How Heuristics Hijack Your Thinking — Alistair Langer · Episode 72 (January 8, 2026)
Masters of Scale Strategy Sessions — with Reid Hoffman and Rana el Kaliouby
Redefining AI Ethics: The Key Role of Explainability — DataStax Podcast
Selected Keynotes & Public Leadership
September 25, 2026
Who Did the Work? — WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America
Developing talent and sustaining human accountability as AI changes work
2026
The Cynefin Exploratory — Eagle
One of three Eagles with Dave Snowden and Delia McCabe
2026
EarthX — Speaker
2025
Concordia Live
Gen. David Petraeus (Ret.) and Arvind Krishna in attendance
2025
Denver Council on Foreign Relations — Keynote
Followed by the Dean of the Korbel School, the Ambassador of the Middle East, and Representative of Taiwan
2024
Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee — SB24-205
Testimony on Colorado's landmark AI consumer protection act
2023
ISP Symposium, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
With Congressman Joe Neguse — ethics of science communication
2023
The Salzburg Dialogue (Austria)
2023
Global Female Leaders Economic Forum (Berlin)
Upcoming Speaking
Explainability Is Infrastructure, Not a Feature — Scheduled · Enterprise AI World 2026 (November 18, 2026)
Closing Keynote: Knowledge Sharing, AI, & Enterprise Intelligence for Enterprise Success — Scheduled · Enterprise AI World 2026 (November 19, 2026)
Patents, Publications & Open Technical Assets
27 issued IBM patents and five Bast patents, spanning work in AI, natural language, knowledge systems, and data protection. Patent records are commonly indexed under Mary E. Rudden. Select patents and open technical assets were contributed to open-source ecosystems, including the Linux Foundation.
Open Technical Assets
IBM Data Science - Best Practices: open-source production-readiness playbook for data scientists and ML engineers, covering versioning, scalability, monitoring, engineering, testing, quality measurement, model training, deployment, automation, sizing, and security.
Bast AI
Five Bast patents covering the core ontology engine and explainable AI architecture.
Selected IBM-Era Patents
Ontology-driven Feature Engineering in Statistical Predictions
Hyperplane Optimization in High Dimensional Ontology
Generative Learning Paths for Autonomous Upskilling
Representation of Distributional Similarity in Semantic Graphs
Violation and Exception Life Cycle Management via Blockchain
Method to Identify and Prevent Privacy Violations in Consumer Devices
Books
AI for the Rest of Us (co-author) — Nominated #1 book to read in 2024 by Constellation Research
Julian Steward and the Great Basin (co-author and editor)
Awards & Recognition
Empressa AI25 — Named one of 25 Women Setting the Standard for Leadership in AI (2026)
WOW3 Unstoppable — Most Inspirational Women of Web3 and AI (2025)
Distinguished Data Scientist — Professional Certification, The Open Group (2024)
Bast AI awarded OEDIT Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant (2024)
AI for the Rest of Us — Nominated #1 book to read in 2024 by Constellation Research
100 Most Brilliant Leaders in AI Ethics (2023)
IBM Master Inventor (2019)
Lifetime Achievement Award, IBM Academy of Technology
Policy & Public Accountability
Testified before the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee on SB24-205, Colorado's landmark AI consumer protection act
Panelist alongside Colorado AG Phil Weiser at Silicon Flatirons on the regulatory future of AI
Speaker at ISP Symposium, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, with Congressman Joe Neguse on science communication ethics (2023)
Education & Credentials
MA Anthropology — University of Denver (1998)
BA Classical Archaeology (Greek and Latin) — Florida State University (1996)
IBM Appointments
Distinguished Engineer — IBM (appointed 2016)
Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) — IBM (appointed 2012)
IBM Master Inventor (2019)
Professional Certifications
Distinguished Data Scientist — Professional Certification, The Open Group (2024)
Recognized through the data-science profession Beth created and secured accreditation for through The Open Group in 2018
Recognized through the data-science profession Beth created and secured accreditation for through The Open Group in 2018
L3 Thought Leader Certified Data Scientist, The Open Group (2018; renewed 2022 and 2024)