Gilad Berenstein is an AI entrepreneur, Board Director, and Venture Capital investor with three decades of experience at the intersection of technology, travel, hospitality, and lifestyle businesses. Based in Seattle, Gilad leads Brook Bay Capital, an AI-focused investment firm backing category-defining companies across travel, hospitality, fintech, and experiential consumer platforms. He serves on the boards of both large, established organizations and high-growth startups, including Virtuoso, Faye, Mindtrip, and ResortPass, and advises CEOs and institutional Investors navigating technological disruption, platform strategy, and long-term growth.

Gilad is widely regarded as one of the industry’s leading thinkers on artificial intelligence, personalization, and what he has termed the “Great Commoditization”; the structural shift reshaping competitive advantage, product differentiation, and power dynamics across industries. His perspective is grounded not in theory alone, but in operating experience: he founded Utrip in 2011, the world’s first AI trip-planning company, which helped more than 200 million travelers and pioneered the first large-scale integrations of AI into many global hospitality brands. Earlier exposure to AI through his father, a machine-learning pioneer in the 1990s, shaped a lifelong focus on applying advanced technology in practical, human-centric ways. In addition to his board and investment work, Gilad is a frequent keynote speaker at major global conferences (including Skift, Phocuswright, Arival, Forbes Travel, etc.), co-hosts the Travel Tech Insider podcast, and mentors founders through platforms such as Plug and Play.

Known for strategic nuance, long-term thinking, and calm leadership in moments of change, Gilad brings boards a rare combination of AI depth, operating experience, and sector-specific insight. Helping organizations build resilient advantage in an increasingly intelligent, dynamic economy.