Leadership Team

Simon Edwards is the Chief Executive Officer of Groq. Edwards has extensive leadership experience guiding technology companies through periods of rapid growth and transformation. Prior to Groq, he served as CFO at Conga, overseeing finance, corporate development, and revenue operations. He previously served as CFO of ServiceMax, where he steered the company through profitability and expansion, culminating in its acquisition by PTC in 2023. Earlier in his career, Edwards held senior finance leadership roles at General Electric, including CFO of GE Digital. Edwards holds a BS from the University of the West of England and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Claire Hart is a strategic legal executive and business advisor with over 20 years experience steering innovative technology companies at various stages of growth through unchartered legal, business and cultural challenges and opportunities. She is adept at tackling novel legal challenges and forging strategic partnerships in new technologies and evolving markets as well as guiding companies through high stakes situations. Claire has previously led legal teams at Google, was the Chief Legal Officer at Blizzard Entertainment, and most recently built out the legal, people and business affairs functions at Genies, an avatar technology startup. Outside of her day job, Claire is a frequent speaker, teacher and mentor, particularly focused on creating opportunities for early career legal professionals.

Allison Hopkins has 35 years of experience as an HR business leader, advisor and investor working with start-ups, pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies. Her choices have mostly led her to companies that were attempting to change an industry and/or in hyper-growth mode.

The most notable organizations she was a part of are E*Trade, Netflix, Palo Alto Networks and thredUP. While being the Chief People Officer at thredUP she was also the COO for 2 years and led operations which included HR, distribution centers, customer service, logistics & industrial engineering. She was also part of the team that took thredUP public.

Prior to thredUP she was the SVP of HR at Palo Alto Networks and also assisted in taking them public. She served as Vice President of Talent at Netflix, and Head of Human Resources at E*TRADE. During her tenure all three companies experienced hyper global growth (Ranging from 180-10,000 people, $250M-$7B in revenue). She was also the Founder and CEO of Core Elements, Inc., which provided human resources and internal communication consulting to global tech companies. Core Elements was nominated 6 years in a row as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in Silicon Valley.

She was nominated & elected to Leadership California and was awarded the YWCA’s prestigious Manager of the Year award. She has had numerous published articles and speaking engagements on the impact of human resources, communication and culture in business.