Carolina alumna co-chairs AI for Public Good Conference
Marina Carreker ’03 helps businesses use artificial intelligence responsibly at Galleon Strategies and is bringing industry expertise to the Carolina community.
Carolina alumna Marina Carreker used her artificial intelligence background to help bring leading researchers and industry innovators to Chapel Hill for the inaugural AI for Public Good Conference, held April 13.
Carreker ’03 is co-chair of the conference and founder of Galleon Strategies, an advisory firm helping business leaders navigate AI adoption confidently.
“We’ve seen technology waves come and go, but we’ve never seen anything poised to change so many aspects of our lives all at once, and at such an astonishing pace. People are clamoring for opportunities to make sense of what this means for them,” Carreker said. “This is what Carolina does best: bring together researchers, policymakers, business leaders and students to grapple with these hard, important challenges.”
While widespread AI use is new, lessons learned as a Tar Heel guide Carreker’s approach to her current work.
“So much of how I approach my work today traces back to what I learned at Carolina — how to think critically, how to stay open to new ways of thinking, how to tackle problems that don’t have easy answers,” Carreker said. “Bringing this work back to Chapel Hill is incredibly meaningful to me.”
Carreker launched Galleon Strategies two years ago after noticing firsthand the massive gap between AI’s capabilities and business leaders’ ability to harness them for measurable value. She realized the challenge in the earliest days of generative AI was human rather than technological.
The company’s goal is to help leaders and management teams understand how to adopt AI, obtain desired results and manage risk responsibly.
“This technology moves so fast that the way we’re helping clients one month can look completely different the next,” said Carreker. “It’s exhilarating to be at the center of that kind of change, and it certainly keeps us on our toes.”
Carreker, a native of Boone, North Carolina, studied history at Carolina. Coming to Chapel Hill was an easy choice, with a Morehead-Cain scholarship and the opportunity to run track and cross country for the Tar Heels.
“What really defined my time at UNC academically was certainly getting to grapple with hard topics and learning to engage with new perspectives, big ideas and challenging problems,” said Carreker. “That’s so much of what being a student at Carolina is about.”
Carreker’s career took a “zigzagging path” following her graduation. She earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and spent a decade in the legal field, mostly representing technology companies. She then moved to the business side, first in communications software, then in AI.
At Carolina, she also met her husband, Justin, a fellow Morehead-Cain scholar. Another scholar set them up on a blind date six weeks before their graduation. They dated long distance for two years before reuniting for graduate school at UVA.
The two now live in Raleigh with their three kids and visit Chapel Hill as much as possible to watch Carolina sports and visit their favorite spots.
She is delighted to give back to Carolina through her work with the AI Conference and more.
“My hope is that this conference is just the opening chapter of a long and fruitful dialogue about AI for the public good,” said Carreker. “Carolina is uniquely positioned to lead that conversation. I’m proud to be part of it, and I’m excited to see where it goes.”
