Honored to present to the Bethel University Physics and Engineering Department about smart home tech, my career in software engineering, and ways students can think about integrating calling, character, and conviction in their careers to make an impact in the world.

ABSTRACT: In this talk, Mark Benson, CEO of SmartThings and Bethel University graduate, reflects on his journey from college student to technology leader. He shares how his experiences at Bethel helped shape his character, priorities, and understanding of leadership. Drawing from his work at SmartThings and Samsung, Mark explores how faith and work continue to intersect in meaningful ways—through decisions grounded in trust, humility, and integrity. This talk invites students and emerging leaders to reflect on calling, character, and what it means to lead with conviction in a complex, fast-moving world.

Honored to be part of a panel at CES moderated by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge about the current state of smart home device interoperability and insights from the last two years of Matter adoption in the smart home industry. Full video.

• Ben McInnis, Director of Smart Home at Amazon
• Matt Van Der Staay, Engineering Lead of Home at Google
• Darcy Clarkson, CEO of BSH Home Appliances Corporation - North America
• Michelle Mindala-Freeman, COO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance
• Mark Benson, Head of SmartThings at Samsung Electronics

ABSTRACT: Experts discuss Matter & smart home adoption, sharing insights from two years of experience & highlighting opportunities for service providers to shape a connected future.

Honored to take part in the Samsung eXperience 2024 event at the Venetian in Las Vegas. During the event, I was interviewed on stage as part of a thought leadership and innovation segment on the state of the smart home in the US, recent product announcements, and what people can look forward to in the future.

ABSTRACT: This fireside chat with Mark Benson focuses on innovation as it relates to the smart home in the US including user trends, device category trends, use case trends, economic trends, and demographic shifts. In addition, Mark will share the latest SmartThings product announcements and what may be coming in the future.

Honored to be invited to speak to the Willmar Rotary Club on my life, career highlights, and leadership roots in Willmar, Minnesota where I grew up in a family and surrounded by people that were hard-working, honest, kind, driven, and full of character and integrity.

ABSTRACT: In this presentation, Mark Benson shares about the global impact that Samsung and SmartThings are making in the lives of millions through smart home technology and experiences. Also, Mark shares his personal story of growth into leadership and the roots that he formed in west centeral Minnesota centered on core values of trust, honesty, integrity, kindness, and hard work. Mark shares how these roots have formed his leadership style and approach, and are in turn having a significant impact on the company he leads and the hundreds of millions of US homes that he impacts every year.

Honored to speak on a US Cyber Trust Mark panel called, "A Secured IoT World?: Programs, Rules, Brands, Retailers and Consumers" along with Michael Dolan (Senior Director, Head of Enterprise Privacy and Data Protection, Best Buy), Kat Megas (Cybersecurity for IoT Program Head, NIST), Scott Register (Vice President, Security Solutions, Keysight Technologies), and moderated by Mike Bergman (Vice president, Technology and Standards, Consumer Technology Association).

ABSTRACT: The Internet of Things (IoT) enhances how we live, work and play. Increased adoption of connected devices prompts questions about how to effectively address security of these devices, protect the networks they run on and safeguard the data they collect. 

A public-private sector effort led by the White House, with input from CTA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other government and private sector stakeholders is developing a voluntary cybersecurity label program for consumer connected devices (consumer IoT). The U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program will give consumers more information about the cybersecurity of the connected products they buy and ensure that those products meet certain standards.

This panel discusses the implications of the US Cyber Trust Mark, the EU CRA, and other related programs.

Full video replay