2023 Speakers

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One of the top 4 VCs, managing $1.6 Billion AUM and on board of Khan Academy, the Brain Foundation and many more

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Founder of AZ-VC, Arizona's largest VC firm and dormer PayPal founder and MD of top tier fund by Peter Thiel. Film producer, and tech advisor and investor in notable companies such as SpaceX, Palantir, Affirm, Halo and many more

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Christian Weedbrook is the CEO and Founder of Xanadu Quantum Technologies, a Canadian quantum technology company building fault-tolerant quantum computers using light. Over the last 15 years, he has been at the forefront of bringing quantum technology to the world through his research and leadership in academia, government, and industry. Christian holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Queensland and held postdoc positions at MIT and the University of Toronto.

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Christine GZ is a professional Rally and Off-Road driver with extensive experience in the field. Italian nationality, but currently living in Spain. Christine GZ has participated in numerous international competitions and she achieved remarkable results. Recently, she was racing in EXTREME E, driving 100% electric off-road vehicles in some of the world's most challenging locations to raise awareness about climate change. Her exceptional talent and hard work have earned her a reputation as one of the most promising female drivers in motorsports.

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Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan,
before graduating from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in Economics
and Computer Science, and obtained his Masters in Computer Science with a specialization in Databases from Stanford University.

Mudassir’s career in tech started with Silicon Valley startup “Brience”, and then as a summer
associate at Venture Finance Group, working with seed-stage companies in the software and
consumer internet industry. Mudassir then moved back to Pakistan and co-founded
“Device Anywhere”, a company that was acquired by “Keynote” in 2008 before joining
management consulting firm “McKinsey & Company” in Dubai.

In 2012, he left to build something big and meaningful with ex-McKinsey colleague Magnus
Olsson. Their mission was to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East
region and build an awesome organisation that inspires. They founded Careem in 2012 and
today, it is the leading technology platform for the region, operating in more than 80 cities in
10 countries, with 1400+ colleagues and more than 2.5 million Captains.

When he’s not working, Mudassir is learning how to scale growing organizations and
spending time with his wife and four daughters.

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Screenwriter and television producer, best known for his creation of the drama series Strange World, Heroes and Crossing Jordan

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Dan Westgarth is the Chief Operating Officer at Deel, where he is responsible for managing the company’s Fintech, Operations, Compliance and Expansion teams. Founded in 2019, Deel’s technology offers payroll, HR, compliance, and benefits needed to hire and manage a global team. In just under three years, the company has grown to 1100+ employees worldwide in 75+ different countries and has 10,000-plus customers, including Shopify, Coinbase, and Cloudflare.

Dan is a fintech enthusiast and was one of Revolut’s earliest employees. Before joining Deel, he was the General Manager for North America at Revolut and was also part of the Revolut international expansion team, which collectively set up local businesses in over 8+ international markets.

Outside of his day-to-day job at Deel, Dan spends his time making early-stage angel investments into interesting technology companies and helping them scale. He lives in New York City.

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Series E $1.69 Billion valuation, most popular online courses for Universities, Business, Government

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Founder of the leading news channel in Europe, Euronews, now launching a new worldwide media organization

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David Shing (known as “Shingy”) is an Australian futurist, speaker, creative director, strategic digital consultant, and entrepreneur. Known as the Digital Prophet, Shingy is a multidimensional creative who excels in guiding clients to their highest creative expression and brand value optimization through inventive, effective, and sustainable engagement of the emerging technological landscape. He is passionate about educating big brands about the unique opportunities afforded by emerging digital, social, and mobile technologies.

Shing has spent most of his adult life in the digital world working for both large and small creative companies globally, while also co-authoring several technology related patents. He previously served as Verizon Media's digital prophet, and prior to that, AOL’s European head of media and marketing responsible for 11 countries.

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Pablos is a hacker, inventor and technology futurist with a unique ability to distill complex technology into practical tools. Always building the future, his projects include cryptocurrency in the 1990s; AI for stock market trading; building spaceships at Blue Origin for Jeff Bezos; the world’s smallest PC and 3D printers at Makerbot. Pablos helped start the Intellectual Ventures Lab for Nathan Myhrvold to support a wide range of invention projects, including a brain surgery tool; a machine to suppress hurricanes; a nuclear reactor powered by nuclear waste; and a machine that can shoot mosquitoes out of the sky with lasers - part of an impact invention effort to eradicate malaria with Bill Gates. A member of the most prolific team of inventors in the United States, Pablos has over 70 patents.

A world-renowned expert in 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics, Automated Manufacturing, & Cryptocurrency, Pablos has contributed to visions for the future of urban transportation, entertainment, education, energy, manufacturing, health care, food delivery, sensor networks, payment systems & cloud computing.

With a unique ability to articulate practical solutions and visions for the future of technology, Pablos is often invited to speak at conferences about innovation, invention, hacking, technology & cyber security. He has spoken at Stanford, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Microsoft CEO Summit, The FORTUNE CEO Summit, the CIA, Google Zeitgeist, The Milken Global Conference, and to many of the top tech companies and conferences in the world. His TED Talks have over 30 million views.

Currently, Pablos is a venture capitalist at Deep Future backing mad scientists, rogue inventors, crazy hackers & maverick entrepreneurs who are implementing science fiction, solving big problems and helping our species become better ancestors.

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Leonard has recently been named one of top 30 management thinkers in the world. He has also been called,“a leader of the new world order”. Leonard is an award winning entrepreneur,venture capitalist,best-selling author and a 2 time Emmy nominated media visionary. Leonard has helped in raising hundreds of millions in capital for startup companies,been through taking a company to a 6 Billion market cap IPO and has been involved in the founding and successful exit of numerous companies to date.

After selling his company in 2009, Leonard became the President of the Innovation and Digital Group for the Anschutz Company,one of the largest live sport and entertainment businesses in the world. The company owns assets such as the O2 Arena in London and Staples Center in LA;sports teams like the LosAngeles Lakers, LosAngeles Galaxy and the LosAngeles Kings, and today,is one of the premiere concert promotion businesses in the world seating hundreds of millions of people a year.

Currently,Leonard is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Caravan, a joint venture with CAA (Creative ArtistsAgency in LA), the largest sports and entertainment agency in the world, often called“Hollywood’s Secret Society”. Leonard oversees the building of new ventures for some of the most well known celebrities and political leaders in the world such as Carrie Underwood, Tom Hanks and President Joe Biden.

He is also one of the proud owners of the professional soccer team Coventry City in England.

Currently, Leonard is authoring a new book in partnership with Forbes Magazine, entitled,“The Great Re:Write” based on the successful documentary series Leonard and Forbes produced which has already garnered an audience of over 7 million in the last year.

Leonard holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University, a law degree from Osgoode Hall and is a graduate of the Private Equity Program at the Harvard Business School.

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Nick Foster RDI is a designer and futurist based in California. He has worked at the intersection of technology and design within globally recognized organizations including Google, Sony, Nokia, and Dyson, and has established himself as a pioneering figure in the field of Futures Design. In 2021, he was awarded the title ‘Royal Designer for Industry' in recognition of his significant contributions to this field – the highest accolade for a British Designer.

Most recently he served as the Head of Design at Google X, where he led a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, strategists and designers in the development of world changing technology projects. Nick is known for his approachable, down-to-earth and occasionally irreverent vision work, which explores everyday moments from emergent futures. For over a decade he was a partner at The Near Future Laboratory, the seminal futures collective which developed the practice of Design Fiction, and published 'The Manual of Design Fiction' in 2022.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Nick also accepted an honorary role as Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art in London, he has acted as advisor to the United Nations Development Program, and he frequently lectures and tutors students at colleges and universities across Europe, Asia and the USA.

Born in Derby, an engineering city renowned for its role in the Industrial Revolution and the development of the jet engine, Nick was twice named 'Young Engineer for Britain' by the British Engineering Council. In 2001, he received his Masters degree from the Royal College of Art, and in 2018, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Nick moved to California in 2012, where he resides with his wife, Jayne

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Series C $1.5 Billion photo and video editing unicorn that built a creative community of more than 150 million monthly users and more than one billion downloads to date

Co-Founder of Picsart, a photo and video editing platform and creative community of more than 150 million monthly users and more than one billion downloads to date; unicorn series C company, worth $1.5 Bn. In his role, Vardanyan oversees product development and monetization initiatives at the company, and day-to-day operations at Picsart’s Armenia office.

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After globe-trotting across four continents, Harsh is the Chief Creative Officer for MRM New York. While he has been an ad guy for over fifteen years, he fell in love with it when he was 5 years old. According to his folks, mealtime, playtime or just about any time came to a standstill when the commercial breaks came on. He was transfixed. And has been since. With a career that’s spanned across India, Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America, the best agencies, and building the most exciting brands, Harsh continues to be smitten to this day. Maybe that’s what drives him so hard to continue creating magic for major brands such as the United States Postal Service, Reckitt, Motorola, Google, Legoland, New Balance, Diageo, and Ford to name a few.

Harsh has earned several creative awards from major advertising shows across the globe, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Spikes Asia and many more while earning personal recognition from Former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama for his leadership and campaigns he has delivered. He has had the honor to judge shows such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, ADC, and New York Festival to name a few, and also serves on the D&AD Impact Council and has been named as the rising star of Madison Avenue revolutionizing advertising by Business Insider.

Harsh has been lucky enough to build and lead teams of some of the most passionate people to help build global brands. Moving around the world, Harsh goes by the philosophy that the mix of cultures and curiosity to learn more always leads to great ideas and believes in the application of technology to ideas and ideas to technology and that a big idea can make far more than a great ad or an experience.

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Grammy Award Winning Producer of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way and Executive Producer of Fame Monster. Guest lecturer at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School and at M.I.T., as well as Stanford University.

Fernando Garibay is a record producer, songwriter, artist/ DJ, entrepreneur, academic and polymath. He was the official musical director of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball and Executive Producer of her Born This Way album. Garibay has written, produced and creatively directed for several artists; including Lady Gaga, U2, Whitney Huston, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, Bruno Mars, Sia, Kylie Minogue, Shakira, Paris Hilton, and many more. Fernando Garibay, formally an executive, producer and artist at Interscope Records; spent over a decade as part of the in-house creative team at Interscope, under the mentorship and direction of Jimmy Iovine. He is the founder and CEO of The Garibay Institute & Center and Paradise/Interscope. Fernando is a lecturer at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); as well as Stanford University and California Western Law School. Fernando has also participated with the World Economic Forum'/Young Global Leaders/Shapers as a keynote speaker and salon contributor. Fernando is also a lecturer at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School and at M.I.T., as well as Stanford University. Fernando has also participated with the World Economic Forum'/Young Global Leaders as a keynote speaker, a salon contributor and a co-producer of Digital Davos.

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An intrepid spirit, it’s no surprise that Patrick Woodhead’s first trip to the Seventh Continent was record-setting. Having been part of the youngest and fastest team to ever reach the South Pole in 2002, Patrick went on to lead the first ever East to West traverse of Antarctica, covering 1,850km in a total of 75 days and earning a second world-record. He is a lifetime explorer and outside of the polar world he has been on many successful expeditions, summiting unclimbed mountains in Kyrgyzstan, kayaking down uncharted rivers in the Amazon and in 2015 he broke the record for the fastest traverse of Greenland.

In 2005 Patrick co-Founded White Desert, the idea of which was born in 2004 during a brutal storm in the remote depths of Antarctica. “Here we are, sitting in a tent, having spent almost 80 days starving to death, dreaming of luxurious food and a beautiful bed! Why couldn’t we create a camp where normal people could come experience the interior, but do it in a luxurious way? Why is it that polar explorers and the odd scientists are the only ones who get to experience the interior of this Continent?”

For the last 18 years, Patrick and White Desert have been pioneering luxury tourism in the interior of Antarctica, allowing travellers to immerse themselves in the awe-inspiring remoteness and isolation without enduring a series of gruelling treks. The company has also been Caron Neutral since 2007. ”To see this wilderness with a small group of people gives you that sense of discovery and serendipity. It’s magical to see a penguin when you’re virtually standing alone.”

White Desert’s flagship camp, Whichaway, was so named as when Patrick was at the site, he and his team didn’t know ‘whichaway’ to go to get back to their base. In 2022 the company opened its second client camp, Echo which is the third camp overall for the business, the other, Wolf’s Fang servicing mainly scientists and expeditioners. A multi-award winning luxury adventure business, White Desert employs over 130 staff from 18 different nationalities.

Author of 4 bestselling books published in 11 different languages, Patrick is also a Prince’s Trust ambassador and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He holds a private plane licence and when not working, enjoys testing himself through a variety of martial arts activities and discovering the lesser-trodden areas of South Africa with his family.

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Najla Ahmed Al-Midfa is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), a government-supported entity launched in 2016, with a mandate to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sharjah, and support entrepreneurs as they build and grow innovative startups that will contribute positively to the region’s economy.

To date, Sheraa has built a portfolio of over 150 startups, which have raised around $161MM in investment, created over 1600 jobs, and generated over $247MM in cumulative revenue.
Sheraa also hosts the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF), which has drawn participation from 300 high-level speakers and over 13,000 attendees from around the world.

Najla is a board member of the United Arab Bank and Emirates Development Bank. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Dana Gas and of the Emirates Schools Establishment, and the Co-Chair of the 4th Industrial Revolution Working Group in the UK-UAE Business Council.

Najla is Vice-Chairperson of Young Arab Leaders, and a board member of Endeavor UAE. She is a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative, as well as an Eisenhower Global Fellow.

Najla holds an MBA from Stanford University.

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Lara Acosta is a personal brand strategist and entrepreneur born in Mexico and currently based in the United Kingdom. Her clear, simple and empowering approach has taken the world of LinkedIn by storm - helping personal brands unleash their true potential online. In her 12 months of being a LinkedIn content creator and entrepreneur, she's been featured on Forbes for her expertise. She was ranked #1 woman (2023) for personal branding and marketing worldwide by Favikon, and has been recognized as one of the top 10 LinkedIn influencers to follow in 2023 by Girls In Marketing + various social media posts. Alongside content creation, her agency LA Digital focuses on helping personal brands to go from boring to attractive through the use of copywriting and storytelling. Working with Fortune 500 companies as well as over 100+ Founders, CEOs and entrepreneurs from various industries and niches LA Digital is growing and aims to become a disruptive marketing agency in the future. A powerful podcast and keynote speaker, Lara has become the go-to source for marketing, personal branding and lifestyle advice in her community, sharing everything she wishes she knew a year ago to help her followers level up and reach their full potential.

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Chief Product Officer who led the product, design, and research teams at Hinge, Netflix, Spotify and KAYAK, currently helping to shape how aspiring product managers with The Product School.

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Mehdi Moutaoukil is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of L’Oréal Middle East. He comes with 14 years of marketing experience in the personal care, beauty and telecommunications industry.

As the CMO, Mehdi leads all aspects of L’Oréal’s marketing efforts in the GCC, including business strategy, digital, e-commerce, and market intelligence and consumer insights.

Mehdi brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his previous role as the Head of Marketing and Sales Director at Beiersdorf Middle East and North Africa, as well as his role as Senior Marketing Manager at French multinational telecommunications corporation, Orange.

He has served in a number of marketing and sales roles throughout his career, where he successfully launched several award-winning communications campaigns and digital platforms. He played an instrumental role in transforming the NIVEA face care business in the MENA region, implemented executive turnaround plans and established the very first Youth Marketing Strategy at Orange.

Mehdi holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from IAE de Toulon France and a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from ENCG Tanger. He has lived and worked in several countries in Europe and the Middle East region including France, Morocco and the UAE.

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Lisa Chatterton is a driving force behind ground-breaking initiatives at the Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion, using emerging technologies to accelerate the pace of change in the fashion industry. Lisa has spearheaded projects that meld virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence with the art of fashion. With an unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries, Lisa’s team at FIA are empowering fashion brands to create immersive experiences that captivate consumers in unprecedented ways. Lisa has worked with major brands including Microsoft, Disney, Unilever and Arcadia Group, alongside designers such as Preen and JW Anderson.  She has delivered a range of projects that include bringing Mixed Reality to London Fashion Week, launching a virtual art direction tool at the V&A, and a project that Forbes described as "the first example of truly beautiful wearable tech".

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Mayank is a Director of Product at Reddit Inc in San Francisco leading new product initiatives. He specializes in building zero to one products in growth companies and taking them to new international markets. This includes setting the foundation team, defining the strategy for a new product/business and creating a path to scaling. Previously, he was the head of Facebook/Instagram shops international expansion and head of facebook marketplace new categories (Real Estate and Autos). He was also the first 5 Product Managers at Uber and worked at Ebay and Handy (Marketplace for home services). Along with this, he advises and invests in startups and writes a monthly newsletter on Product Leadership and Strategy

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The most valuable unicorn of Africa worth $1 Billion Series B and Egypt's largest and fastest growing lender to the unbanked and underbanked

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As Global Chief Technology Officer, Nick leads R/GA’s Technology capability across the agency’s global network. In this connected age, Technology is a critical element of R/GA’s work with clients, infused into business consulting and transformation strategy, product and service development, and communications and campaigns. Nick oversees a global staff of developers and technologists, and works closely with clients such as Samsung, Nike, Beats by Dre, and Google as well as early stage and emerging startups to anticipate and strategically integrate advances in technology.

In his nearly 10 years at R/GA, Nick was deeply involved in the Nike and R/GA partnership that resulted in many breakthrough products such as NIKEiD and the Nike+ platform. Nick cofounded the R/GA Accelerator program and built the Technology capability for R/GA in Europe. Nick’s work has been recognized by the industry with many of its most esteemed awards, including the Cannes Integrated Titanium, the D&AD Black Pencil, International Andy Gold, One Show awards, and Adweek’s Campaign of the Decade. Prior to joining R/GA, Nick developed systems for managing Internet-connected hardware at a startup in San Francisco, and early web applications for clients at digital agencies in San Francisco and New York City.

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Sébastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox decentralized Metaverse, a virtual world where players can create, play, own, govern and monetize their experiences using NFTs & SAND, the main utility token of the platform.  Sebastien also became the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization of 400 key members of the industry. He was recently named #4 in the Top #100 2022 most influential people in crypto by CoinTelegraph. The Sandbox has been featured in TIME100 Top 100 most influential companies of 2022 by Times magazine.

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Agile growth leader
Vivek brings rich B2C and B2B marketing, business development and P&L management
experience across MNCs and the Singapore public sector.
Prior to joining WWF-Singapore, he was the founding Director of NTUC FairPrice Group’s FPG
Media, and Director of Strategic Marketing for FairPrice’s 160 Convenience Retail stores. He
developed a $60m P&L blueprint and launched the region’s most sophisticated Omnichannel
Retail Media Network, attracting CPG brands, Disney & FoodPanda to FPG Media.

Leading B2C Growth
In his 9 years at the NTUC HQ where he was an Assistant Director-General (ADG), Vivek and
his team led annual growth of NTUC Membership at 3-times Singapore's workforce growth rate.
Leading all aspects of sales, marketing, customer service, app development, etc, he grew the
overall base from 470,000 unique members in 2010, to 970,000 in 2020.

Previously, he was credited with leading revenue growth in Southeast Asia and the Pacific at
Shell Oil, including the award-winning launch of new brands such as Shell FuelSave, and the
world’s most successful rollout of co-branded Shell-Citibank credit cards in Malaysia, Hong
Kong and the Philippines. He was also instrumental in driving the marketing partnership with
UOB in Singapore and Coles in Australia.

Creating B2B platforms
Vivek pulled together a unique B2B platform for the NTUC HQ, called U Associate, leading to a
breakthrough growth to over 60 global and regional associates, adding over 1,000 leaders in
FinTech, accountancy, engineering, etc to the NTUC union/association leadership base.

He and his team also started the Future Leaders Programme, including the U Future Leaders
Summits which attracted thousands of attendees and large sponsors such as the Singapore
Exchange (SGX), Jabra GN, and Singapore’s Committee on the Future Economy (CFE).

Award-winning brand and people expertise
Vivek has been awarded as the ‘Industry Partner of the Year’ by apex bodies such as Institution
of Engineers Singapore, Supply Chain Asia, and Project Management Institute (PMI). He was
voted by fellow employees to win the coveted ‘People Builder’ award at the NTUC HQ in 2018.

Member of important international networks
Vivek presently chairs San Jose headquartered CMO Council’s advisory board in Asia Pacific.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM, UK), and is a Member of the Digital
Committee of the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID).

Vivek is a Member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association, and a Charter Member
of TiE Singapore. He was a Board Member of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)
for six years, and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) for four years.

Deep tech exposure
Vivek is presently a Board Member of Assurity Trusted Solutions (ATS), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Singapore’s Government Technology Agency. ATS is Singapore’s National
Certification Authority for digital identity of businesses. He is also a global advisory board
member of deep-tech companies such as the US-based Resulticks (marketech stack) and
India-based Heliware (Geospatial data visualization).

Global leadership experience
Vivek is a high energy leader with a global overview. He was previously a Member of the
Global Marketing Leadership Team (MLT) for Shell Oil, and is now a Member of the Global
Communications Leadership Group (CLG) of WWF.

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Mark Loughran joined inDrive as Group President in July 2023. His role is to chart and drivethe company;s business strategy, scale the company’s investments and new businesses, and optimize internal processes. Mark is spearheading the development of inDrive’s inVision hub,where the company engages in initiatives to support justice and equality in science,education, sports, and the arts.

Mark joined inDrive from Honeywell, where he was President for Central and Eastern Europe,and he previously headed up Microsoft’s Commercial Cloud Business in Poland, delivering a$1 billion investment in digital transformation. He has held leadership roles at global companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Nokia, Pace International and his own consultancy where he advised tech companies on consumer strategy and execution.

Mark holds a BA, MA and Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

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Sonali Krishna is well-known as India's ace journalist and is the editor & face of ET NOW's flagship feature show ‘Brand Equity’. Since joining the Economic times' team in 2006, she has evolved into one of the most respected Business Editors/ TV anchors in the media business. In addition to her editorial and anchoring responsibilities, she is also actively involved in creation & curation of the network's IP offerings.

Her expertise in the industry has enabled her to consistently break high-impact stories on. A stalwart at anchoring and engaging in live interviews with prominent personalities has gained her viewers' applaud for bringing a human side to stories and proven that she genuinely cares for their entrepreneurship & business development. Sonali is also ET NOW’s key interviewers and conducts a lot of business interviews on the channel. Sonali's core strengths pivot around analysing and deciphering the biggest trends not just in the country, but globally too. Sonali was brought in from The Economic Times, India’s leading business daily as part of the launch team of ET NOW, thirteen years ago.

India's ace journalist and is the Editor & face of ET NOW's flagship feature show 'Brand Equity', alongside being Senior Editor for The Times Network

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Fadi Ghandour is the Executive Chairman of Wamda Group, a platform that invests, nurtures and builds entrepreneurship eco-systems across the Middle East and North Africa.

Fadi was also the co-founder of Aramex, one of the leading global logistics companies based in Dubai. Fadi spent the first 30 years of his work life as CEO of Aramex, building the company, to become one of the leading emerging market logistics companies, and making it the first company from the Arab world to be listed on Nasdaq.

Passionate about impact and social entrepreneurship, Fadi founded and chairs Ruwwad for Development, a private-sector led community engagement platform that helps marginalized communities, across several countries in the MENA region, overcome marginalization through activism, civic engagement, education and financial inclusion.

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Y Combinator backed, EdTech unicorn valued at $2 Billion

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Asmaa Quorrich joined Saudi Tourism Authority as Chief Marketing Officer in April 2022, with a career spanning over 20 years, managing global brands and portfolios for renowned American Fortune 500 companies and independent brands of her own.

Her early career began with Procter & Gamble in the FMCG Space, where she spent three years honing her marketing skills, before assuming full responsibility of the PepsiCo portfolio in Morocco and Algeria, growing it two-fold in less than 2 years. She then moved to Dubai where she completed a decade with PepsiCo, assuming several marketing and commercial leadership roles covering Asia, Africa and Middle East markets.

Asmaa’s passion for brand building and modern marketing, secured her appointment with KFC as Chief Marketing Officer for MENA and Pakistan, where her strategic direction and bias towards data driven performance marketing culminated in the repositioning of KFC’s $1Bn brand in the region, adoption of a new pricing strategy, development of advanced consumer centric innovation processes, a new e-commerce platform and the introduction of Media Econometrics.

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Works with a financial technology company and sole issuer of the digital currencies USD Coin (USDC) and Euro Coin (EUROC). Teana works directly with policymakers on the development of regulatory policy for digital currencies.

Prior to Circle, Teana was the Chief Policy Officer for the Chamber of Digital Commerce, where she worked with Capitol Hill policymakers and regulators on policy developments for digital assets and blockchain. Previously, she held leadership roles at Crypto.com and Binance, where she was responsible for go-to-market strategies, operations, and government affairs. Teana was also previously the Executive Director of Global Digital Finance, leading policymaker advocacy initiatives focussing on the risks and opportunities of digital assets. Teana has held leadership roles in strategy and communications at Coinfloor, HSBC, Citi, Fiserv and Royal Bank of Scotland and Hilton Hotels.

Teana is also Non-Executive Director of CryptoUK.

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Leading the VC arm of Boeing to tackle challenges of aerospace innovators

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Named Top 100 Women of the Future, Nova is a Jamaican-born award-winning Fashion Designer, Author and Storyteller. Nova is a Futurist, Founder, Strategist, and Web3 Advisor. She is the winner of the She Builds Future Award as well as Metaverse Champion Award. She’s named Top 12 Leaders in the Metaverse as well as a LAMINA1 Art NFT Winner. Nova is an AI leader and recently launched the “AI for Creatives” Podcast. Nova is a 2x award-nominated podcast Host and Producer. She also founded Raine Magazine and its Web3 counterpart Raine Drops.io. Nova has interviewed best-selling authors, celebrities, and presidential candidates, including: Priyanka Chopra, Mark Cuban, Kendall Jenner & Ben Carson. Nova is a Web3 and Metaverse Advisor and enjoys speaking internationally.

A graduate of a NASA T2X accelerator, Nova combines phygital fashion, data & AI to soon launch: "House of Nova". Trained in fashion, mindfulness & holding a Masters in Clinical Psychology, Nova shares how to increase creativity and beat burnout in her podcast and book ‘Unleash Your Supernova’.

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Bolt quickly became a unicorn and now worth $11 Billion for the product excellence, and Ali has had the privilege of scaling out teams to 3x in the world of e-commerce and ride hailing.

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Ray Son, CSO at IGAWorks, the first unicorn company in the data sector of South Korea. He has since developed the company into Korea's leading data-tech firm, which boasts an unrivaled data business based on actionable data & SaaS platforms. IGAWorks offers a comprehensive marketing cloud ecosystem.

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Abbondandolo has over ten years’ experience supporting entrepreneurs and business leaders to scale their businesses across the MENA, Africa and APAC regions. At Checkout.com, Remo is responsible for expanding the business across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Prior to joining Checkout.com, Remo worked for Africa’s largest online travel agency, Travelstart, where he oversaw the company’s expansion into the Middle Eastern market. He was also part of the founding team of Africa Internet Accelerator (a Naspers’ investment), which launched three of the fastest-growing e-commerce businesses in South Africa. He also worked at Rocket Internet Australia & South East Asia where he was a founding member of the team that launched leading e-commerce companies The Iconic, Zalora and Lazada.

Remo is based in Dubai, UAE and holds a Dual Master’s of Science in Management of Innovation and New Technology from Bocconi University and Copenhagen Business School.

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Rethinking retail metrics & emotional experiences for the luxury brand known for its high-end apparel and accessories

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Mona Ataya, CEO and Founder of Mumzworld.com, has proven to be one of the Middle East’s most prominent and successful female entrepreneurs. She has a strong track record of not only building successful businesses but also shaping the changing landscape and disrupting the ecosystem.

A transformational leader and a change agent in every sense of the word, Mona has managed to grow Mumzworld from a business plan on paper to a leading and enviable brand reaching more than 2.5 million mothers across the region since inception in 2011. Mumzworld has pioneered a revolutionary and gold standard e-commerce shopping experience for all things mother and child in the Middle East region. Today, Mumzworld prides itself with being the largest, trusted and definitive source for all things mother and child, with the widest range of products, an engaged sticky community and content, exclusive product offerings and delivery to over 20 different countries. Mumzworld has become the leading transactional and experiential e-commerce vertical play and a respected gateway into the Middle Eastern household.

Under Mona’s leadership, Mumzworld has undergone tremendous growth and successfully established itself as the regional leader in this vertical space. With over 6 rounds of funding, renowned investors on board and a solid business plan, Mumzworld became #1 Funded Women-Led e-commerce Company in the Middle East and consequently the first regional, homegrown e-commerce company acquired by a Saudi, strategic giant. We expect to hear a lot from this brand in the years to come.

Regional recognition:
Mona has won more than 100 awards throughout her career. Most recently, she was voted as one of the top 75 Faces of the UAE by HSBC and 5 most Powerful Women Transforming the Business World in the Levant. She is voted among UAE’s Top 3 Most Prominent Women in the Tech World. She is amongst the top 2 Forbes women creating impact in the region, most recently featured in Forbes Middle East as one of Middle East’s Power Businesswomen in 2021, and was voted amongst the 100 most Powerful Arab Women, Forbes Top 10 Arab Women 2017, 2018, 2020; World's 100 Most Powerful Arabs - Generation Next - Arabian Business, 2019. She was also voted SME Executive of the year 3 years in a row and one of 30 Most Influential Women in the Arab World in 2019.

Mumzworld.com has won The Business of The Year Award and Best Kids Online retailer in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Mumzworld.com was also awarded the Images Most Admired Online Retailer of the Year 2014 and 2016 as well as the “Customer Service Excellence Award” by The Customer Festival Awards 2018.

Beyond the many awards she received, Mona plays an important role as an “Outlier” in the prestigious group of globally recognized Endeavor businesses’s and was the first woman selected into this network in the Middle East in 2014. Furthermore, she serves as a board member of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy (DCDE) and a representative of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) advocate for the region with a mandate to empower women and create enabling opportunities for women in the digital ecosystem. Mona serves year round as a mentor to entrepreneurs, passionate especially in enabling young female entrepreneurs.

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Serial entrepreneur in entertainment, hospitality, beauty and tech; also organised events across Europe including Unighted; launched music albums with David Guetta. Newly found the dj bookign entertainment app and raised 1 Mn euros.

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Multiple rewards and recognition for development of Artemis (humanoid robot); roboticist, magician, chef and professor.

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Mr. GAO Erji is Vice President of Caixin Media, heading funding and investment. He is also Executive President of Caixin Insight and Managing Director of Caixin Data, leading the financial information services.

Before joining Caixin Media, Mr. GAO was Vice President in Dept. of M&A in CITIC Securities, and having IB experience in America, Europe and Asia. Before joining CITIC Securities, Mr. GAO worked in the investment banking division of HSBC, covering HK equity financing and cross boarder M&A transactions.

Mr. GAO holds both MA and BA from Tsinghua University. He co-founded an Alumni Scholarship to the undergraduates in Tsinghua in 2011, and joined the Volunteered Alumni Mentorship Program since 2012.

Mr. GAO participated in the “Digit on China” by APEC China Business Council, in the “China M&A Industry Code of Conduct ” by CMAA, and “China Going Global ---- Manufacturing” by CGG Think Tank.

Mr. GAO also published his own poetry anthology, “The Flavor of the City ” in 2014, and finished two online novels, “The Tycoon Banker” and “Ladies in the Throne”.
Mr. GAO is acting as a valued advisor to many world-wide influential think-tanks, including Industry Expert of Digital Economy Committee of APEC, Member of the SCEWC Greater China Advisory Board, Invited Researcher of the China Carbon Neutrality Forum, Independent Board Member of Zhangjiakou News Media Group Co., Ltd, etc..

Due to a long-standing commitment to intercultural communication, he was selected for the Young Leader program of the USA and Italian Council in 2014, and co-founded China-Japan Young Leadership Program in 2015.

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Oji Udezue is an experienced Product leader of large software organizations, with stints in marketing, sales, engineering, and design leadership. He has a track record for building customer-centric products and bringing them to market while managing and mentoring high-performance teams. He is currently the Chief Product Officer @ Typeform.com

He is known for bringing product-led growth (PLG) mindset to the companies he joins. He led the Content, Creation, and Conversation team @ Twitter – leading Tweets, DMs, Spaces, the Creators Initiative, and more. He was formerly Chief Product Officer at Calendly where he helped 5x the company and turn it into a unicorn. He was also Head of Product for Atlassian’s Communication division where he led product strategy & execution for Atlassian Stride, launching Atlassian’s first product post-IPO. He has held product leadership positions at Spiceworks and at Bridgewater Associates, which he joined after over a decade in Product Management at Microsoft.

In his free time, he mentors startups, focusing on companies with diverse and women founders and B2B SaaS as ProductMind. He’s the Managing Partner of the Kernel Fund which invests in startups in Africa and a member of the Board of Directors at Quitch.

Oji is working on a book about Product Management for PLG companies and also writes a lot about building products on Substack.

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Driving the world’s leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, through poverty alleviation, jobs creation and women’s economic inclusion. The leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries, directly funding over 18,000 African entrepreneurs, recently announced the $500 Million Coalition to support 100,000 young African entrepreneurs including 50,000 women by 2033.

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Angel Investor and fintech founder providing growth financing to high-affinity brands.

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Janade du Plessis is a 5-times Fund Manager, currently the co-Founder of Launch Africa Ventures (the most prominent and active Seed stage VC in Africa) and Five35 Ventures (a leading Pan-African female-focused VC fund in Africa). He has previously started and managed a corporate VC fund for a listed African investment bank, an female-focused Pan-African SME fund, as well as an impact fund called Abrazo Capital, investing in women in rural areas in Africa.  He has invested in over 180+ technology start-ups across these funds. Janade’s background is as an entrepreneur, investment banker and human behavioural researcher with M&A, Management Consulting and Development Finance experience. To date, Janade has travelled to 50 of the 54 African countries (#51 planned for Sept. 2023). He is an Executive Coach with the International Coaching Federation, currently mentoring select entrepreneurs. Janade holds a Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Pyschology and Business Administration and a PhD in Business Science researching the psychographic archetypes of African entrepreneurs.

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 GCC's largest Series B vehicle sharing scaleup

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Arun Iyer stands as a dynamic force in the world of marketing and creativity, proudly serving as the Co-Founder and Partner of Spring Marketing Capital. One-of-a-kind skin-in-the-game creative consulting firm with an investment arm. His journey through the realms of advertising and brand innovation has been marked by exceptional achievements, reflective of his visionary leadership and creative brilliance.

Before his venture into Spring Marketing Capital, Arun Iyer held the esteemed position of Chief Creative Officer and Chairman at Lowe Lintas, a preeminent advertising agency in India. This role catapulted him into the vanguard of the industry, positioning him as one of the youngest leaders to helm a major agency. His inclusion in the prestigious Economic Times 40 under 40 leaders list further illuminated such distinction, a testament to his profound influence and exceptional achievements. Under his watch, the agency went to win major accolades including the most effective agency in the world.

Arun has indelibly shaped the trajectories of numerous brands within India's dynamic market landscape. His expertise spans a diverse spectrum, ranging from fledgling startups to sprawling multinational conglomerates, encapsulating his ability to transcend industry boundaries. Every engagement undertaken by Arun has been marked by a transformative creative vision, redefining brand narratives and resonating deeply with audiences.

Arun is super inspired by the founders they work with at Spring, who treat each day – irrespective of past accomplishments – as if it were their first. And fear that it could be their last.

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Mohamad Ballout is the co-founder and CEO of Kitopi, the world’s leading tech-powered, multi-brand restaurant. Founded in Dubai, UAE, in January 2018, Kitopi’s mission is to satisfy the world’s appetite. With 5000+ employees and 200+ locations across the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, Kitopi operates a portfolio of invested and franchised brands, helping them grow and scale - both in the delivery and dine-in space. In addition to its markets of operations, Kitopi operates its global Customer Experience Center in Dubai, UAE, its Engineering Hub in Krakow, Poland, and its Robotics Hub in Odense, Denmark.

Prior to founding Kitopi, Mohamad co-founded BMB, which is now the largest confectionery business in the Middle East. He was critical in spearheading BMB’s growth across 32 markets and setting up the first fully-automated ethnic sweets manufacturing unit. He sold his shares to a private equity group in May 2016. Mohamad holds a double major in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Warwick and a Masters in Management from Imperial College London.

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Nader started his career in the FMCG industry with Unilever, Kraft Foods/Mondelez, and Coca-Cola. He quickly asserted himself as a passionate innovator, with a strong multidisciplinary experience in brand management, innovation management, and trade/shopper marketing. Nader lead strong business results & built strong brands/innovations in the Middle East region as well as in Central & Eastern Europe.

With a sight always towards the future, Nader founded el Grocer with a group of friends, a mobile grocery delivery platform to once again be an innovation leader through helping make consumers’ lives even more convenient by combining his passions in FMCG & Technology.

In 2022, elGrocer was acquired by the Etisalat Group. Nader continues to lead elGrocer as the Chief Operating Officer.

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UAE's first technology unicorn listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:YALA).

Mr. Saifi Ismail took rein as the President of Yalla Group in 2019, which went public during his tenure, becoming UAE’s first technology unicorn listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:YALA). As part of his fruitful career journey, Mr. Ismail held a number of senior-level positions with leading multinational and local tech firms such as Huawei, ZTE Corporation, NetComm Wireless and Etisalat. In February 2023, he was Listed by Arabian Business as one of the 100 most influential people in Dubai.

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Founder of two successful startups, the food delivery platform Express24 and the taxi order service MyTaxi.

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BIOGRAPHY

Janade du Plessis is a 5-times Fund Manager, currently the co-Founder of Launch Africa Ventures (the most prominent and active Seed stage VC in Africa) and Five35 Ventures (a leading Pan-African female-focused VC fund in Africa). He has previously started and managed a corporate VC fund for a listed African investment bank, an female-focused Pan-African SME fund, as well as an impact fund called Abrazo Capital, investing in women in rural areas in Africa. He has invested in over 180+ technology start-ups across these funds.

Janade’s background is as an entrepreneur, investment banker and human behavioural researcher with M&A, Management Consulting and Development Finance experience.

To date, Janade has travelled to 50 of the 54 African countries (#51 planned for Sept. 2023). He is an Executive Coach with the International Coaching Federation, currently mentoring select entrepreneurs. Janade holds a Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Pyschology and Business Administration and a PhD in Business Science researching the psychographic archetypes of African entrepreneurs.

BIOGRAPHY

• Executive Board Member and Investment Committee Member,
Crescent Enterprises.
• Executive Board Member, Gulftainer
• Executive Committee Member, Momentum Logistics
• Board Member, Growthgate Capital
• Fund Advisory Board Member, TVM Capital Healthcare Partners
• Limited Partners’ Board Member, Siraj Palestine Fund
• Limited Partners’ Advisory Committee Member, Wamda MENA Ventures
• Board Member, FreshtoHome
• Board Member, Kitopi
• Board Member, Transcorp International
• Board Member, Furlenco

Tushar Singhvi leads corporate development and investments activities and is responsible for evaluating and executing new investment opportunities on behalf of Crescent Enterprises. He also manages the portfolio companies through strategy and corporate development. He has been instrumental in cultivating corporate prospects and in contributing to the development of Crescent Enterprises’ strategic and operational plans within the ports and logistics, business aviation, healthcare, private equity, and venture capital verticals.

Tushar has over 18 years of global experience in investment management, corporate development, strategy development, and project management in sectors including power, logistics, oil and gas, healthcare, and infrastructure development. He has worked on a range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, divestitures, and debt restructuring.

Before joining Crescent Enterprises, Tushar worked with KPMG Corporate Finance in Dubai and, earlier, with an investment banking firm in London, United Kingdom. Prior to that, he spent five years in the power and infrastructure industries in Asia and Africa.

Tushar holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Pune, India. He also holds a Master of Business Administration with distinction from the University of Oxford.

Tushar represents Crescent Enterprises in the Executive Network of the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance, helping mobilize joint effort and aligning priorities to enhance the case for digital investment.

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Ranked no 1 woman CTO as per Technology magazine for 2022, and rated as Top 50 CIOs/CTOs in the world from Fortune 500 companies as per Business Insider.

Elizabeth is the CEO of EHT Consulting GmbH, a company which partners with senior leaders of organizations on strategy, business transformation and technology innovation as a competitive advantage and enabler.

Elizabeth is a visionary and transformational leader with international experience across seven industries, leading technology and digital transformation, operational excellence and delivery.   Elizabeth believes in servant leadership and drives value-creation through innovation and effective business partnering, building trusted relationships with leaders at all levels by leveraging her highly collaborative and results-oriented style. Her strong business and deep technology skills make her very effective in delivering results in large-scale complex environments.   She has a proven track record in driving productivity to enable business growth as well as impact to the bottom line, while proactively managing risks.   She is an inspiring leader with high energy and strong communications skills who takes pride in learning from others, but also developing the next generation of technology leaders.   Elizabeth is an independent director on the Board of 8x8 Inc, California, US and SoftwareOne, Stans, Switzerland.  

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One of the top 9 US investors into sustainable startups.

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Dr. Luc JULIA, Chief Scientific Officer for Renault, was CTO and Senior Vice President of Innovation for Samsung Electronics, directed Siri at Apple, was Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and cofounded a number of start-ups in the Silicon Valley. While conducting research at SRI International, he was involved in the creation of Nuance Communications, now the world leader in speech recognition.

Recipient of Légion d’Honneur, the highest order of France, and member of its National Academy of Technologies, he holds degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télé communications de Paris.

He is the bestselling author of the book “There is no such thing as Artificial Intelligence”, holds dozens of patents and is recognized as one of the top 100 most influential French developers inthe digital world.

Dr. Luc JULIA est Directeur Scientifique de Renault. Il a été Directeur Technique et Vice-Président pour l'innovation chez Samsung Electronics, a dirigé Siri chez Apple, été Directeur Technique chez Hewlett-Packard et a cofondé plusieurs start-ups dans la Silicon Valley. Lorsqu’il poursuivait ses recherches à SRI International, il a participé à la création de Nuance Communications, aujourd'hui leader mondial dans le domaine de la reconnaissance vocale.

Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur et membre de l'Académie nationale des technologies, il estdiplômé en mathématiques et en informatique de l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie à Paris et aobtenu un doctorat en informatique à l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télé communications de Paris.

Il est l'auteur du best-seller « L'intelligence artificielle n'existe pas », détient des dizaines debrevets et est reconnu comme l'un des 100 développeurs français les plus influents dans lemonde numérique.

BIOGRAPHY

Nader started his career in the FMCG industry with Unilever, Kraft Foods/Mondelez, and Coca-Cola. He quickly asserted himself as a passionate innovator, with a strong multidisciplinary experience in brand management, innovation management, and trade/shopper marketing. Nader lead strong business results & built strong brands/innovations in the Middle East region as well as in Central & Eastern Europe.
With a sight always towards the future, Nader founded el Grocer with a group of friends, a mobile grocery delivery platform to once again be an innovation leader through helping make consumers’ lives even more convenient by combining his passions in FMCG & Technology.
In 2022, elGrocer was acquired by the Etisalat Group. Nader continues to lead elGrocer as the Chief Operating Officer.

BIOGRAPHY