EQ + AI: Building Human Leadership in an Autonomous World - S3 E5

On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, AJ Thomas joins us back in studio as guest co-host as Brian Bernasconi and I sit down with Richard Hua, Chief EQ Officer and global keynote speaker, and Elena Beloshapkova, two-time founder, CEO of inspace, and EY Businesswoman of the Year—exploring the intersection of emotional intelligence and autonomous AI. Rich is a global authority on building emotionally intelligent cultures of innovation at scale. As Chief EQ Evangelist and Worldwide Head of EPIC at Amazon, he built the world’s largest corporate EQ community—70,000 members strong—scaling emotional intelligence from theory into global practice and impacting over 1.5 million people worldwide. He has delivered keynotes, workshops, and executive coaching for Fortune 100 leaders and institutions including Stanford, Wharton, and UC Berkeley. Rich also served as an expert advisor to the Amazon Alexa team, helping embed empathy and emotional intelligence into Alexa+, now integrated into over 600 million devices. A globally sought-after speaker featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and AWS Executive Insights, Rich is the founder of EPIQ Leadership Group. His message is clear and urgent: in the age of AI, IQ alone is not enough. Leaders must harmonize EQ + IQ—what he calls the EPIQ skill set—to thrive in complexity and drive human-centered innovation. Elena is a second-time founder and CEO of inspace, the autonomous AI Workplace Agent transforming how modern offices operate. She is leading the shift from static booking tools to intelligent, AI-driven orchestration across desks, rooms, visitors, services, and workplace infrastructure. Under her leadership, inspace has become the operating layer for the modern workplace, achieving 96%+ employee adoption and scaling across organizations from 300-person teams to 128,000-employee global enterprises in 18 countries. With more than 20 years at the intersection of technology, design, and workplace strategy, Elena has contributed to over 800 office projects spanning 5+ million square feet—combining deep software expertise with real-world operational insight. Often described as “Jarvis for Offices,” inspace enables employees to simply talk to their workplace while the AI autonomously orchestrates collaboration, integrates with 65+ enterprise systems, and connects to building infrastructure, robotics, and smart devices. With +570% YoY ARR growth and enterprise clients including Yext, Unilever, Konica Minolta, Roofstock, and LHH, inspace is scaling rapidly. Named Business Woman of the Year, Elena’s mission is clear: transform every office into a proactive teammate that helps people do their best work. This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact! Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:   🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J 🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823 📺 Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact   Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.   Event Partnerships: Join us in Long Beach, April 22-25th for the IIT 2026 Conference. Get your tickets register here: https://www.iit2026.org/register   Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.