Madeline Kawanaka

Madeline Trudeau Kawanaka is a strategist and builder modernizing Louisiana's legacy industries through frontier technology. As Executive Director of Innovation Partnerships at Louisiana Innovation (LA.IO), she runs frontier tech deployment for the state, putting humanoid robotics, autonomous systems, and embodied AI inside the industries that already operate here: maritime and shipbuilding, defense, future energy, advanced manufacturing, and ports and logistics. She builds the pilots, sandboxes, and industry partnerships that let hard tech get tested at speed in live industrial environments, and connects founders to capital through the state's venture capital fund programs.