Most Promising Engineer - Undergraduate Degree

Education: M.S. candidate, automotive and manufacturing engineering, University of Michigan; B.S., mechanical engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez 

Growing up in Humacao, Puerto Rico, Keysha M. Camps Figueroa’s parents engrained a spirit of perseverance in their young daughter, something she demonstrated when she raised her own funds to attend an engineering leadership conference during high school. That experience fueled her passion for science and motivated her to pursue Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

If anyone exemplifies the importance of internships in developing a successful career path, it’s Keysha Camps. In her freshman year at UPRM, she interned at Lockheed Martin in their energy initiatives program, where she learned how engineering can positively impact the environment. She returned to Lockheed Martin the next summer as a Manufacturing Technology Intern for the F-35 program, where she learned how technologies positively affect the quality and speed of manufacturing. 

It was her internships at General Motors, however, that directly led to her current position. Starting as a Brake Component Development Intern, then moving to become a Fuel Development Intern, Ms. Camps demonstrated her value to GM by implementing a condensing system that generated $26,000 in annual savings. 

She quickly fell in love with the automotive industry, with its fast-paced environment and highly technical work.  Ms. Camps joined General Motors full-time after graduation, and almost immediately she was assigned to crucial safety-related areas of vehicle design.  She worked as a fuel development engineer, then moving onto roles in fuel design and brake performance. Her stellar performance led to a promotion to Assistant Program Engineering Manager in the Full Size Truck Division.

Today, Ms. Camps works at the cutting edge of the most exciting area of the automotive industry: self driving cars.  In her current roll, she is a critical program team member responsible for executing GM’s first entry into this breakthrough area of technology, including specifying engineering/program requirements, setting cost targets, evaluating designs, supporting vehicle builds, and achieving program deliverables on-time and with excellence.  Ms. Camps also exercises technical direction over other engineers and provides leadership to engineering support personnel and the cross-functional team. Her role requires a high level of independent judgment, indirect leadership capability and the ability to navigate in a highly evolving business space. 

Despite her high-profile position in the most important new division of General Motors, Ms. Camps still finds ample time to both study for her Master’s Degree in global automotive and manufacturing engineering at the University of Michigan, and to give back to the community in the Detroit area she now calls home. She is the chief engineer of the Mercy Midnight Storm All Girls FIRST Robotics team at the Robotics Engineering Center of Detroit – a program through the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation. She spends at least 300 hours each year working with girls from the predominantly Hispanic Southwest Detroit and surrounding areas and has created a powerhouse, diverse team of strong young women who are now entering top universities to study engineering. With Ms. Camps as an inspiration, they have a clear role model to emulate.

Executive Excellence – Corporate

Education: MBA (equivalent) and BS (equivalent) telecommunications and software engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)

Artificial intelligence – or A.I. – is perhaps the most exciting field in all of STEM. The brightest minds across disciplines ranging from software engineering to neurology to philosophy have flocked to corporations and research labs that are investing billions to apply the technology today and unlock its tremendous potential for tomorrow. 

Jesus Mantas is at the center of the revolution at IBM.  In his dual leadership roles at IBM’s Cognitive Process Transformation and Global Business Consulting units, Mr. Mantas is zealously focused on the reinvention of every aspect of business with Artificial Intelligence.  He has been consistently recognized as a transformational leader, unmatched innovator, and a visionary with ability to define winning strategies

He’s also credited with being an inspirational operator who can execute and power organizations to the future. Known for his ability to select and develop talented leaders and change cultures, Mr. Mantas employs remarkable energy, performance and engagement in every organization he leads – all while being responsible for over 25,000 employees.   The Global Business Services unit alone constitutes one of the world's largest consulting organizations, generating revenue of $17 billion.

Mr. Mantas began his career in 1992 as a trainee with Procter & Gamble in his native Spain. After a year-long stint as an officer in the Spanish Air Force, he moved to the United States to join Ernst & Young’s enterprise resource planning practice. Later, to maximize his English language skills, he took advantage of an opportunity to become a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, and experience he credits with helping hone his ability to present ideas. 

He soon moved on to Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting where his ability to innovate and grow new areas such led to firm naming him one of its youngest partners after less than four years. After IBM acquired PWC Consulting, Mr. Mantas quickly rose to Vice President of North America General Business.  In that post, he led the successful transformation of IBM’s consulting strategy towards a packaged-based set of assets fit for smaller clients and focusing on fusing technology and business consulting.

In 2010, Mr. Mantas was named IBM’s Managing Partner and General Manager for Latin America, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Responsible for all aspects of the business, including strategy, talent acquisition, client relations and overall operations, he doubled the size of the consulting business in the region. 

His success in Latin America led him to be named General Manager of Global Process Services in 2014.  Within two years, Mr. Mantas had successfully integrated his division with IBM Global Business Services. This feat included the launch of the new digital consulting service line; the creation of the world’s first and largest cognitive consulting practice; and the integration of four different service lines into IBM Business Consulting, a simplified but more robust and far reaching offering for business clients. 

His latest mission is to lead the business unit missioned to transform consulting for the cognitive era, helping clients reinvent their business processes into digital services. As one of the pioneers in an exciting new frontier at the crossroads of business and technology, Mr. Mantas is an inspiring leader who is surely among IBM’s most valuable assets. 

Executive Excellence – Academia

Education: Ph.D., economics, New School for Social Research; M.S., nuclear science and engineering, Columbia University; B.A., physics and philosophy, Reed College. 

Dr. Eduardo M. Ochoa’s remarkable journey to the top of academia has taken him form the shores of the Rio De La Plata in his native Argentina, to the Pacific shores of the Golden State, his current home.  As the President of the California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), a post he’s held since 2012, Dr. Ochoa oversees a $120 million budget and 878 faculty and staff and is responsible for developing and implementing university strategic priorities.  Dr. Ochoa’s strong mission of social justice and equity has taken CSUMB from a small university with three colleges to one with five, making it the fastest growing university within the 23 campus CSU system.

Young Eduardo was a high school student when his family moved from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Portland, Oregon, where soon met his future wife.  He stayed close to home after high school and pursued a bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy from Reed College. Graduate school ambitions then took him east, to Columbia University in New York City, where he earned an M.S. in nuclear science and engineering.

After working for three years as an engineer in New York, he returned to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. in economics at the New School for Social Research.  Teaching offers took him to Fresno State University and California State University, Los Angele, where he spent 12 years as a professor in the Department of Economics and Statistics, culminating in an appointment as Acting Dean. After launching a reengineered MBA program at Cal State LA, he was recruited down the 10 freeway to become the Dean of the College of Business Administration at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.  At Cal Poly Pomona, he managed an annual budget of approximately $13 million and a college of over 170 faculty and 4,800 students.  He also raised nearly $8 million in donations and developed international programs with institutions in England, Russia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brazil.

In 2003, Dr. Ochoa became Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Sonoma State University, where he managed the Division of Academic Affairs, with a budget of $50 million, five Schools, 600 faculty, and 8,900 students. He was instrumental in strategic planning for the university and worked extensively on reforming curriculum, setting up shared governance, and addressing issues in accreditation, faculty development, fiscal management, and diversity. He played a key role in securing a $1.5 million endowed Chair in Native American Studies and assumed direction of the ongoing efforts to develop the programming for the Green Music Center, for which $45 million were raised privately.

The U.S. Department of Education called on Dr. Ochoa’s talent and years of experience next when he was named Assistant Secretary for postsecondary education in 2010.  In this role, he was responsible for directing, coordinating, and recommending policies for over 70 programs awarding $2.5 billion annually, providing financial assistance to students enrolled in postsecondary educational institutions.

With numerous publications, grants, and awards to his credit, Dr. Ochoa is a member ofnumerous boards and committees, including the Board of Trustees of Reed College; the Presidents’ Trust of the American Association of Colleges and Universities; the Committee on Policies and Purposes at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities; and the Economic Development Committee of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.