Holy Cross College is proud to announce Leading the Holy Cross Way: An Executive Series with President Marco J. Clark, Ed.D. This second lecture in the series will take place on October 11, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. in Driscoll Auditorium and will feature Kyle Ballarta, founder and CEO of Falkon Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on catalyzing technologies that systemically address our biggest global challenges.
Ballarta’s topic will highlight Holy Cross and the Integral Human Development in the Digital Age. In a digital age where technology is advancing faster than ethical and moral discernment, how can Catholic Social Teaching and the values of Holy Cross inspire us to promote the human family and foster the development of the whole person in a world increasingly shaped by technology? Ballarta will deliver a lecture on his career and experiences at the intersection of technology, faith, and science in his pursuit of human-centered technology. He will share key insights from his work as a scholar, entrepreneur, and investor, focusing on norm-setting, ethical technology development, and AI & technology governance. He will also discuss the important role of religion in guiding global technology governance and how the charisms of Holy Cross can serve as a source of inspiration.
Ballarta is a technologist, serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and scholar working at the confluence of technology, faith, and reason. Through his lived experience as an entrepreneur and scholar, he has navigated some of the most complex design and ethical challenges sparked by the disruptive technologies of our time. In collaboration with Vatican institutes, Kyle has led several projects promoting Integral Human Development in the digital age. In this role, he has been at the forefront of helping the Church navigate moral and humanistic questions surrounding technology, while promoting the ethical and responsible development, deployment, and use of emerging technologies in service to the human family. Kyle is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a British American Project Fellow, and Knight of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
This new series builds on Holy Cross College’s mission to educate and form global citizens with the competence to see and the courage to act, and the Leading the Holy Cross Way is centered on the topic of leadership from the perspective of Holy Cross President Dr. Marco J. Clark and invited executives in residence. “The senior executives who will join us on campus,” explains Dr. Marco J. Clark, President, “are known to be individuals of distinction and honor among their peers in terms of accomplishment, character, and Godly leadership over a lifetime – considered to be a leader among leaders. Or, as the apostle Paul would say, ‘a leader above reproach.'”