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BLACK FUTURE WEEKEND

Be a part of a legacy cultivating future leaders and entrepreneurs to create a pipeline of diverse talent that will shift the culture of the tech sector.

Join Dream Corps TECH for 2 days of culturally relevant panels, forums and lifestyle events that will shift the landscape of tech.

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About The Event

Black Future Weekend is Dream Corps TECH’s annual conference to convene thought leaders, influencers, subject matter experts and the community for an interactive experience to prepare the Black Diaspora for the technologically heightened future.

2-Day Lineup
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Speakers & Featured Guests

OCT
1-2
Van Jones
Co-Founder, Dream Corps TECH
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Dr. Paul Judge
Managing Partner of Panoramic Ventures
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DJ Envy
DJ & Radio Personality
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Brian Michael Cox
Bryan Michael Cox
9x Grammy-Winning Record Producer
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Darrell Booker
Corporate Affairs Specialist, Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African Communities, Microsoft Philanthropies
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Dexter Turner
CEO, OpConnect
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DJ CeNO
DJ, Writer & Producer
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Erin Ashley Simon
Personality, Host, Producer, Co-Owner of XSET
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Gilbert Campbell
Gilbert Campbell
CEO, Volt Energy
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Harry Johnson, II
Harry Johnson, II
Government Affairs & Policy Manager, Dream Corps, Green For All
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Jacoby DuBose
Founder/ CEO, dubDigital & TECH Cohort Alum
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Mina McCullom
Mina McCullom
President & CEO, SynEnergy
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Reginald Parker
Reginald Parker
CEO, Optimal Technology
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Robert Kabera
Robert Kabera
President & COO, Sync Energy AI
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Robinne (Burrell) Eller
Director of Product, STARZ, Founder of Code.chella & LA City Commissioner
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Sharon Murphy
EVP/CIO for the Chief Operating Office, Wells Fargo
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Tanya Sam
Director of Partnerships, TechSquare Labs
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Xavier BLK
Xavier BLK
DJ/ Co-Founder of WERC Crew
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Sponsors Ready To Participate

Where can you lend your leadership, voice and/or brand messaging? Sponsorship opportunities are available for in-person and virtual touch points for you to leverage dynamic subject matter experts on relevant topics in Workforce Development, Finance, Health and Wellness, Entertainment, and Clean and Emerging Tech.

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Thank you to our network of Corporate and Community Partners who value the earnest work of increasing tech equity in order to create an inclusive future with unlimited opportunity for all.

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2 days of culturally relevant panels, forums, and lifestyle events that will shift the landscape of tech.

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Van Jones

Co-Founder, Dream Corps TECH

Van Jones is a CNN host, political commentator, Emmy Award-winning producer, and New York Times best-selling author. Van has also found success as a social entrepreneur, having founded and led many thriving enterprises including the REFORM Alliance, Color of Change, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Dream Corps, which works to close prison doors and open doors of opportunity in the green and tech economies. 

In 2009, as the Green Jobs Advisor to the Obama White House, Jones oversaw an $80 billion dollar investment in clean energy jobs. 

Jones was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act. Signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, the Green Jobs Act was the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” During the Obama Administration, the legislation has resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.

Jones has stewarded several bipartisan legislative and advocacy efforts, racking up wins under the last four US Presidents: Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. Jones’ most recent victory was advocating successfully for the passage of the FIRST STEP Act, which the New York Times calls the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation.

A Yale educated attorney, Jones has won numerous awards, including the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leader” designation, Rolling Stone’s 2012 “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done”, TIME’s 2009 “100 Most Influential People in The World”, the 2010 NAACP Image Award, a 2017 WEBBY Special Achievement Award, a 2019 Lumiere Award and a 2020 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program.

In 2009, as the Green Jobs Advisor to the Obama White House, Jones oversaw an $80 billion dollar investment in clean energy jobs. 

Jones was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act. Signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, the Green Jobs Act was the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” During the Obama Administration, the legislation has resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.

Jones has stewarded several bipartisan legislative and advocacy efforts, racking up wins under the last four US Presidents: Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. Jones’ most recent victory was advocating successfully for the passage of the FIRST STEP Act, which the New York Times calls the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation.

A Yale educated attorney, Jones has won numerous awards, including the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leader” designation, Rolling Stone’s 2012 “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done”, TIME’s 2009 “100 Most Influential People in The World”, the 2010 NAACP Image Award, a 2017 WEBBY Special Achievement Award, a 2019 Lumiere Award and a 2020 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program. 

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Dr. Paul Judge

Managing Partner of Panoramic Ventures

Dr. Paul Judge is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He has co-founded three companies that were acquired and has invested in over 30 companies. He is Managing Partner of Panoramic Ventures, and Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Pindrop. Previously Paul was co-founder of TechSquare Labs. Paul was also Co-Founder of Purewire, a web security company, that was acquired by Barracuda in 2008. Paul served as Chief Research Officer at Barracuda through its IPO in 2013. Prior to this, Paul was Chief Technology Officer of CipherTrust, a leader in email security, that was acquired by Secure Computing in 2006.

 

Paul is the lead inventor of over 30 patents and has received many awards including being named to the Fortune’s Top 40 Under 40 List.

 

He is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. Paul holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Computer Science from Morehouse College.

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Brian Michael Cox

Brian Michael Cox

9x Grammy Winning Record Producer

Bryan Michael Cox is wildly regarded as one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful songwriters and producers in the history of contemporary R&B music. His work with superstars Usher, Jermaine Dupri, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Diddy, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Toni Braxton, Trey Songz, and Jagged Edge just to name a few, has solidified him as a main stay in the world of pop music. 

 

With over a 100 million record sales, 9 Grammy awards, countless “SESAC Songwriter Of The Year” awards, an induction to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and co-writing Billboard’s Top R&B Song of All Time (Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You”) he shows no signs of slowing down, as he is currently been in the studio with an entire new generation of artists that define the new urban landscape like Ella Mai, DVSN, Internet Money, Derrick Milano, Ari Lennox, and 6lack to name a few.

 

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Darrell Booker

Corporate Affairs Specialist, Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African Communities, Microsoft Philanthropies

Meet Darrell, your “techie’s favorite techie” who leads one of Microsoft’s most important racial equity commitments, the Nonprofit Tech Acceleration of Black and African American Communities, a national program designed at leveling the tech playing field for nonprofits serving our most underserved communities. Prior to leading this program, Darrell served in an advisor role helping the world’s largest nonprofits such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Cancer Society, and the Salvation Army on their digital transformation to the cloud.  Darrell has served in CIO and CTO roles in the past leading teams of developers in nonprofit, primarily child welfare, as well as other industries such as automotive and banking.  Darrell also has an entrepreneurial spirit, co-founding a tech startup for the fitness industry used in hundreds of gyms across the U.S. and Canada.

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Dexter Turner

CEO, OpConnect

Dexter is the Co-Founder and CEO of OpConnect, a payment processing and energy management platform for Electric Vehicle charging. The overall vision is to make the EV driving experience better by providing a mobile app that reserves a charging station, takes payment, and predicts how long it’ll take to charge while you grab a coffee. In 2008, Dexter Turner capitalized on his 17 years of Engineering and Software expertise by launching his own EV charging company, OpConnect. Dexter has a strong history of leading the electric transportation and software industry. He explores his strengths in Smart Grid, Systems Engineering, Software Design, and growing Early-stage Startups. He has been awarded 4 patents around EV charging and access control technology with 3 additional patent applications outstanding.
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DJ CeNO

DJ, Writer & Producer

DJ CeNo was born Cameron Taylor on November 21, 1991 in Memphis,TN. He began his music journey at the age of 12, rapping and making beats for fun along with a few of his classmates. However, he did not begin to take his music career seriously until his freshman year in high school in which he started producing and rapping in a group with his brother, GeTiT, and some friends. He continued making music with the group throughout the entirety of his high school, resulting in them doing a mini tour and song with Project Pat.

After high school, the group disbanded, but he and GeTiT continued making music and performing. It was not until his junior year in college that he actually began DJing. This was the result of him DJing a concert for his college, in which his now manager, Del Ro, coordinated and hosted, during the spring of his sophomore year. After that, he begin purchasing equipment and officially started a career as a DJ at the beginning of his junior year in college. Since then, he has DJed several events including concerts, parties, cooperate events and weddings. He has DJed shows for Cyhi the Prynce, Rockie Fresh, Charron and many more. Currently, he DJs for an online radio station, Digital Boombox Network, a weekly Twitch show and continues to rock shows, events and weddings.

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Erin Ashley Simon

Personality, Host, Producer, Co-Owner of XSET

Erin Ashley Simon is a multi-media personality, host, producer, and consultant. Her love and passion for video games, sports, music, and content has helped to shape who she is today, pushing the culture forward and breaking barriers as a female in the industry. In doing so Erin was the first individual female public figure to have their own esports clothing line with PUMA. Additionally, she has been working tirelessly behind the scenes with one of the world’s largest video game publishers leading up a DE&I focused career development program

 

 

Her vast knowledge and creative mindset have led her to be tapped by well-known brands and organizations such as AT&T, Nike, Columbia Records, eMLS, Forbes, Gen.G, Evil Geniuses, The Wall Street Journal, University of Kentucky, REVOLT TV, and more. Leveraging her deep-rooted connections in the music, entertainment, and gaming industry, Erin looks to continue to build an intersection between gaming and culture.

 

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Gilbert Campbell

Gilbert Campbell

CEO, Volt Energy

Gilbert Campbell is the co-founder and CEO of Volt Energy. Volt Energy is a national minority owned renewable energy firm that finances and develops solar projects, electric-vehicle charging stations and energy storage solutions for commercial, government, educational and non-profit institutions. Gilbert serves on the Board of Directors at The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and at The American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE).

Gilbert’s passion is driving inclusion in the clean energy sector by providing STEM education and outreach opportunities for young people across the country. Gilbert has been nationally recognized for his efforts. Gilbert had the distinction of being recognized during President Obama’s administration, and in 2016, he received the White House Champions of Change Award for his leadership in advancing climate change equity. Gilbert was named to EBONY magazine’s 2014 Power 100 List, which recognizes influential achievements by African-Americans annually. Under Gilbert’s leadership, Volt is a 2014 recipient of Amtrak and The Washington Wizards Pioneer Award, which honors companies that have made a positive impact in their community.

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Harry Johnson, II

Harry Johnson, II

Government Affairs & Policy Manager, Dream Corps, Green For All

Harry Johnson, II, is a national government affairs leader, serial entrepreneur, and community builder. He is a North Carolina native where he studied political science at Winston-Salem State University. Harry leads Green for All’s federal government affairs work to promote wealth and health through equitable investment and innovation in clean transportation, clean energy, and jobs policies. Harry has formerly held a number of senior political roles with multiple gubernatorial campaigns, Hillary Clinton for President, Forward Together PAC, United States Congress, United States Senate, and Pittsburgh City Council.

Mina McCullom

Mina McCullom

President & CEO, SynEnergy

Mina McCullom is the CEO and President of SynEnergy, a Mechanical, Electrical, & Plumbing (MEP) design firm with a strong focus on energy efficiency and high performance building design. With over 19 years of experience in project management, business development and mechanical engineering, she brings her unique understanding of multidisciplinary expertise to deliver efficient building-systems solutions to projects from concept phase to execution. Mina focuses on promoting high performance building design coupled with energy management to deliver cost-effective building systems solutions.

Remaining active in the academic community, she taught Building Performance Institute coursework for the Energy Efficiency Department at Red Rocks Community College. The courses trained students in industry approved techniques for energy audits. She has also conducted research on building envelopes and their impact on energy efficiency, recently publishing the results of a detailed study that uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to compare the energy consumption of both SIP and wood-frame residential buildings modeled in all seven climate zones across the United States using Quick Energy Simulation (eQuest).

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Reginald Parker

Reginald Parker

CEO, Optimal Technology

Reginald Parker is the CEO and founder of Optimal Technology Corporation, a hardware-as-a-service company that provides products and processes to reduce energy costs in commercial buildings.  Dr. Parker has more than 25 years of experience in technology design and management. He has developed or co-developed over 15 clean energy and manufacturing technologies, commercialized material and renewable energy technologies, developed and implemented successful business plans, and optimized manufacturing processes and products.

Dr. Parker developed a nanobio composite which can be used as a semiconductor, solar material, conductive paste, and a structural enhancer. He also developed two associated manufacturing processes which can be used on a wide class of nanomaterials. He has commercialized over $60 million in new products and optimized technology for a $600 million business unit while at Rohm and Hass (now Dow). A former university professor at Morehouse, FAMU, FSU, and UND for 8 years, Dr. Parker has distinguished himself as a thought leader in business, engineering, and commercialization.

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Robert Kabera

Robert Kabera

President & COO, Sync Energy AI

Robert Kabera is the co-founder and COO at Sync Energy AI, the leading power outage prediction firm in the United States. Sync’s predictive grid failure analytics tool visualizes all vulnerabilities on the electric grid, ahead of time. He is a Stanford University trained engineer and was named to the 2018 Global US Forbes Under 30 List in the Energy Sector.

Under the Obama Administration’s Power Africa Program, Robert was the Chief Consultant for the United States Africa Development Foundation (USADF) energy investment portfolio, empowering over 50 energy companies in 9 African countries to secure follow-on financing to provide cleantech to 6,000 people living off the electricity grid. He also founded Credimarks Savings and Loan, a financial institution in Ghana devoted to enhancing the productivity and prosperity of smallholder farmers with transparent financial products.

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Robinne (Burrell) Eller

Director of Product, STARZ, Founder of Code.chella & LA City Commissioner

 

Over the past decade, Robinne Burrell has been at the forefront of technology and emerging media, having worked with brands spanning digital, interactive, mobile and social experiences. Robinne led product development and strategy at Amazon/IMDb, Match.com/Tinder and myspace at its peak. Through her company Redflight Innovation – an interactive development company located in Los Angeles and Johannesburg, she has built digital products for NBC’s The Voice, Comedy Central and Steven Spielberg’s The VR Company, to name a few.  In addition to her work as an innovator and leader, Robinne was named in the top spot as “5 People Pushing Technology You Want to Work With Now” in Forbes Magazine and “Code Breaker of the Year” by Google and the Digital Diversity Network for her groundbreaking work in tech and media. Standard and Poor’s identified her as part of the “Society of Industry Leaders” and Hollywood Reporter named her “The Next Generation of Industry Execs”.  She has been featured on CNN and NBC and is on the board of the Interactive Peer Group for the Television Academy (The Emmys), the most influential board of influencers determining excellence in digital media.

 

Prior to her leadership positions at top tech and media companies, Robinne also held management positions at Universal Music Group, Sony Electronics, and was an early member of Jimmy Iovine’s start-up Inside Sessions, a digital curriculum designed to introduce young musicians on how to break into the business of music. Robinne would later go on to be an Ambassador of Goodwill and Peace in Mexico, where she launched a non-profit program for kids to learn arts and humanities. In 2016, Robinne authored the virtual reality user experience for “Take Back the Mic: The World Cup of Hip Hop” for Oculus, which would lead her to become the first African-American woman to be up for an Emmy in VR. Robinne is also the creator of Access to Innovation workshops, part of Redflight’s social enterprise efforts around the world to bring emerging technology to underrepresented communities through an immersive curricula in coding, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality and entrepreneurship. She recently partnered with the Mandela Family and Africa Rising to implement the program in Nelson Mandela’s hometown of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

 

Robinne holds a B.A in Cinema/Television from USC and completed the Leadership Strategy Program at MITs Sloan School of Business. She is the co-creator of “In Your Shoes” a broadcast and virtual reality series that allows historically untold stories to be brought to life by 360-degree video. In 2016 she was awarded First Place in the National Association of Broadcasters Innovation Pilot for her “outstanding commitment to furthering the future of broadcasting” for her work on the project.

She is  working closely with the Mandela Family and Africa Rising, A Kweku and Ndaba Mandela organization – the most prolific of the heirs to the Nelson Mandela legacy, as  Founder of the Mandela Cultural Fellowship and in 2019 was awarded the honor of being a patent owner of Match.com/Tinder for authoring a location-based dating algorithm and specifications. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently appointed Robinne as City Commissioner of Community and Family to advise the Mayor’s office on preventive anti-poverty strategy using the agility of technology this past January 2020.

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Sharon Murphy

EVP/CIO for the Chief Operating Office, Wells Fargo

Sharon Murphy is an EVP and serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Wells Fargo’s Chief Operating Office (COO).  This new organization was created to focus on delivering technology solutions to modernize and optimize the portfolio of corporate applications supporting platforms for COO Risk and Control Functions, Business Operations, Chief Administrative Office (CAO) as well as their Business Office, Strategy and Transformation.

 

Prior to merger, she has held global technology roles responsible for creating the IT product/service strategy for the Corporate & Investment Banking line of business, the Chief Financial Office (CFO) and Enterprise Infrastructure & Mobility.

 

Sharon has over 30 years of financial services technology experience and is very active in technology-based initiatives within Wells Fargo and within the community.  Her many efforts include early-childhood STEM education, mentoring and recruiting.  She was Co-Chair for the WF Technology Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Council. She is a frequent panelist/speaker on IT topics related to emerging trends and innovations within the financial technology (FINTECH) industry.

 

Since 2018 she has represented Wells Fargo as a National Corporate Board Member for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and serves as Chair of the Strategy Committee.  Sharon is also a proud member of the Charlotte Alumnae Chapter(CAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated where she is
Co-Chair of the CAC Technology Committee.

 

Sharon is a native of Ewing, New Jersey and earned a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Hofstra University.

 

Awards & Recognition:

  • “50 Most Influential Women in Charlotte”
  • “Technology All-Star” by Women of Color Magazine
  • Who’s Who in Black Charlotte
  • Bank Systems & Technology – Class of 2014 “Elite 8 Technologists”
  • BDPA Award recipient for “Outstanding Technical Contribution”
  • Co-Inventor on awarded Patent # 7,415,267 for “Methods and systems for managing mobile call reports for the financial services industry”
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Tanya Sam

Director of Partnerships, TechSquare Labs

Tanya Sam is a tech-savvy investor that has made it her mission to empower the next generation of minority entrepreneurs. As the Director of Partnerships at TechSquare Labs, Tanya has mentored over 60 companies with women and minority founders and helped invest in over 50 companies that have generated a total of over $100 million in revenue. She also co-leads the Ascend 2020 Atlanta program that supports minority and female founders and co- founded BuiltxWomen, a business accelerator for female entrepreneurs.


Prior to joining the technology industry, Tanya served as an Oncology nurse practitioner at Northside Hospital, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and more. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Genetics and Cell Biology from McGill University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Toronto.


Currently, Tanya is the host of the tv docu-reality series Making of a Mogul. Launching in Fall 2020, this series is dedicated to highlighting successful entrepreneurs in the Black, Brown and Latin communities.


She also appeared on the hit Bravo TV show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and serves on the Board of Directors for Kate’s Club, a non-profit organization that empowers children that have experienced the death of a parent or sibling. Tanya is a native of Toronto, Canada, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her fiancé Dr. Paul Judge.

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Xavier BLK

Xavier BLK

DJ/ Co-Founder of WERC Crew

Xavier BLK uses his eclectic New York and Puerto Rican roots to fire up dance floors around the world. Since his move to Atlanta in 2010 he has served as a vanguard to a new nightlife landscape. Xavier has developed a distinct sound that fuses African, Caribbean, Latin rhythms with 808 bass, deep r&b and gritty electronic influences. His most recent releases, Night Time with King Charlz (Jamaica) and Vibras Sanas with KATONTHEMUV (Dominican Republic) provide an infectious spin on traditional dancehall and reggaeton sounds.

 

His extensive experience includes performing for Afropunk, Jack Daniels, MTV, VH1, BMI, LVRN, The Recording Academy and Redbull. He has played alongside notables such as Goldlink, Kaytranada, Sango, Mr. Eazi, Major Lazer, Konshens, Khalid, Vic Mensa, Questlove, Nas, Mary J. Blige, Russ, Prince Royce, Young Guru, 9th Wonder and many more. His unique mixing style was featured live during a set on Sirius XM’s, Sway in The Morning Show. Xavier is co-founder of the WERC Crew agency and talent collective. 

 

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