First Azerbaijani-American IT and AI Forum at Stanford: More Than 20 Azerbaijanis from Google, Meta and Eli Lilly

Azerbaijani engineers, founders and managers working in Silicon Valley are gathering in the same room at Stanford University for the first time today.

The “Azerbaijani-American Technology & Innovation Professionals Forum 2026” begins at 09:00 California time and at 21:00 Baku time this evening. The agenda includes 4 panels, an AI workshop, a traditional Azerbaijani lunch and an evening gala dinner.

The forum is organized by the Stanford Azerbaijani Students Association. The Azerbaijan Cultural Society of Northern California and the Alliance of Azerbaijani-American Organizations (AAAO) are supporting the event. Registration closed some time ago, and the page on the “Luma” platform says all spots have been filled.

Who are the organizers?

Five people are behind the forum. Nurlan Şükürlü (Nurlan Shukurlu) works as a test engineer at “ON24 / Cvent,” while Aytən Sadırova (Aytan Sadirova) is pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford. The team also includes finance professional Nicat Hüseynov, PhD (Nijat Huseynov), University of Wisconsin–Madison graduate Səbinə Hüseynova (Sabina Huseynova) and Hande Çetinkaya from the “GDG Sunnyvale” community.

Panel 1: “Beyond AI Hype”

The day’s first panel will look beyond the hype surrounding artificial intelligence and discuss real technologies. Moderator Nicat Behbudov (Nijat Behbudov) works at “Unity” on improving AI models’ ability to create video games and has more than 60,000 followers on social media.

He will be joined on stage by Sərxan Bədirli (Sarkhan Badirli), director of Molecular AI at “Eli Lilly.” S. Bədirli built the company’s first in-house generative AI platform for drug discovery and is also a co-founder of the “Glacies Biome” and “MindX” startups. Sehran Həsənli (Sehran Hasanli), who works on Gemini Enterprise at “Google,” previously worked at Meta and Coursera. The panel will also feature Cavahir Abbasova (Javahir Abbasova), who builds AI agents at “Typeface AI,” and Mehdi Əhmədov (Mehdi Ahmadov) from “Microsoft.”

Panel 2: “Trust, Security & Leadership in the AI Era”

The security panel will be moderated by Səbinə Hüseynova. “Check Point” regional director Sevi Boisvert has worked in cybersecurity for more than 20 years and leads a team responsible for $20 million in annual sales. Emil Efe Khalig, CEO of “Intelligence Security,” was previously involved in building security systems for Google, eBay and Meta.

The panel will also include Elçin Məmmədov (Elchin Mammadov), a digital forensics consultant at “Crowe LLP,” and Ayka Ağayeva (Ayka Aghayeva), who leads distributed technical teams at “Google.”

Panel 3: “From Silicon Valley to the World”

After lunch, the entrepreneurs will take the stage, with Nicat Hüseynov as moderator. Aslan Məmmədli (Aslan Mammadli), CEO of “Enverson AI,” is building an AI teacher for language learning, and this is his fourth company. His previous project, “Enverson Colleges,” served more than 10,000 students.

Anar Məmmədov (Anar Mammadov) is the CEO and technical co-founder of “EtaVista,” a data analytics and AI automation company, and leads a team of 23 people. Əli Novruzov (Ali Novruzov) is building a system at “Mycelic Labs” that operates without data leaving the company. Beybut Abdulrəhimov (Beybut Abdulrahimov), meanwhile, is a founder who has already sold one startup.

Panel 4: “From Innovation to Impact”

The day’s final panel will be moderated by Rəşid Əzimov (Rashid Azimov), director of FP&A at “Potter Global Technologies.” The speakers include a name familiar to Techzone readers: Dilarə Rüstəmzadə (Dilara Rustamzada), who created an entrepreneurship program for children in the US. D. Rüstəmzadə, the founder of “Passion Technologies,” has worked in technology for more than 15 years and has experience with a successful exit.

Vüsal İbrahimli (Vusal Ibrahimli) worked at Meta and BDO before founding “All My Taxes.” Elçin Bayramov (Elchin Bayramov) develops AI agents for finance at “CFOCrew.” The panel is rounded out by Yaşar Koyutürk, an aerospace researcher at Stanford.

A workshop titled “AI Inference in Action” will be held in the afternoon. The forum will be hosted by Nigar Həmidi (Nigar Hamidi), a data engineer at “Meta,” and R. Əzimov, and the program will conclude with an evening gala dinner.

Azerbaijanis have long worked at Google, Meta, Microsoft and Eli Lilly. But few people in Baku know their names. This forum brings those names together in one place for the first time.