Gareth Block, Ph.D., is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur with more than 25 years’ experience.  He is the co-founder and CEO of Third Insight, where he oversees corporate strategy and development of the company’s proprietary (and patented) artificial intelligence. Gareth has a relentless, never-tiring attitude that has served him well when trying to solve hard problems. 

Third Insight’s software brings human-like reasoning and abstract planning capabilities to autonomous unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. In 2019, the company was awarded a fundamental patent that integrates knowledge graphs with deep learning to create “neuro-symbolic” architectures that support Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Third Insight has grown organically since its founding in 2016. The company has been awarded more than one dozen contracts from the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security (DHS), and was selected by the USAF to participate in its Catalyst Accelerator, by the Texas Venture Labs, and by the DHS-sponsored EMERGE program to commercialize technologies with First Responders.

Gareth has a B.S. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics. His doctoral and post-doctoral research in SONAR and subsurface weapons design were performed at US Navy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, respectively. Gareth joined ExxonMobil in 2006 to lead teams focused on hydraulic fracturing, and he later rose to oversee key components of multi-billion dollar offshore capital projects.  Gareth joined SIGMA3 in 2012 as Director of Technology Commercialization, where he supported $45M in VC-funded corporate acquisitions and R&D strategy. In 2013, Gareth became the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AWMS, an oil & gas technology startup that raised an $18M Series A led by Texas Pacific Group (TPG-A).  Under his leadership, AWMS built multiple facilities across Texas and deployed a first-of-its-kind cloud-based simulation platform in support of real-time operations for multi-million dollar well injection programs.