As Autodesk's architecture innovation evangelist, Cesar leverages his two-decade career at industry leaders like Gensler, HOK, and Flad Architects to champion cutting-edge technologies. A deep passion for computational design and digital prototyping complements his expertise in delivering multi-billion-dollar projects. A recognized thought leader, Cesar shares his knowledge through speaking engagements and education while actively shaping the industry through leadership roles in the American Institute of Architects. Cesar is the 2025 Chair of the AIA National Technology in Architectural Practice Knowledge Community and Board Director of the AIA San Francisco.

As Director of Platform Architecture & Data Insights, I focus on how the enterprise operates across external design and construction platforms. I also turn data from those platforms into insights about project performance.
My work starts with the 'shared platform estate': the vendor-operated design and construction cloud platforms that have matured into critical environments for enterprise data, content, workflows, and institutional knowledge.
That estate is singular as an enterprise concern but federated across multiple design and construction platform operators. Each platform has its own infrastructure, data models, APIs, automation, AI capabilities, and governance boundaries. No individual vendor owns the full chain. The enterprise still depends on the chain as a connected whole.
Platform Architecture creates preferred, governed ways of working, or “golden paths,” across that federated estate. Rather than focusing on Internal Developer Platforms, I work on the customer-side architecture that connects vendor platforms with enterprise policy, data, automation, and AI. I also pull project, carbon, and operational data from these environments to support better decisions. I treat these environments not simply as software tools, but as programmable infrastructure that can be integrated, automated, observed, and controlled from the customer side.
The goal is straightforward: make the preferred way of working in these external environments easier to observe and aligned with internal policies, while turning platform data into actionable insights.

Sheena Zhang is​ the AECO Sustainability Strategy​ Senior Manager at Autodesk, where she leads strategy for sustainability solutions across Autodesk's platform for the architecture, engineering, and construction, and operations industries. As a LEED AP​, Living Futures Accredited professional​, and registered architect, she has a record of delivering a multitude of sustainable design projects and is passionate about democratizing sustainability tools for impact in the built environment. She has taught at the Pratt Institute and the Parsons School of Design, and has served as a guest critic at the Yale School of Architecture and Columbia GSAPP.