Saemin Ahn is a partner at the multi-stage VC firm 500 Global, where he focuses on its Southeast Asia growth initiatives. Prior to 500 Global, from 2013 to 2022, he was founding managing partner of Rakuten Ventures, Rakuten Group’s US $285 million CVC fund. He has led investments in more than 25 tech companies, including Algorithmia (acquired by DataRobot). Beyond AI, Ahn led investments in GoTo Group (IDX: GOTO), Carousell, Epic! (acquired by Byju’s), Coda Payments, and Polymorph (acquired by Walmart), while advising them on their product roadmap and growth strategy. Along with his VC practice, Ahn managed a diverse range of instruments, including public equities, debt, and derivatives. He has deep expertise in advising companies on public listings and acquisitions, and helping institutional investors capture the upside of assets while managing volatility. Ahn also held management roles at Google Korea and Singapore.
Ellie Austin is deputy editorial director of Fortune Live Media, the company’s global portfolio of live events. Before joining Fortune, Austin was an editor of live journalism at the Wall Street Journal, where she regularly interviewed CEOs and entertainment personalities live onstage. She was also a writer and editor at the Sunday Times Magazine in London, where she wrote magazine features and profiled such notables as Roger Federer, Hailey Bieber, and Whitney Wolfe Herd. Austin grew up in Jersey, Channel Islands, and graduated from Durham University, England, with a degree in modern languages. She lives in New York City.
Vinay Awasthi, HP’s managing director of Greater Asia, is responsible for the region’s overall operations, where he drives personal systems, print, accessories, advanced manufacturing, and managed services for both the commercial and consumer segments. Prior to his current role, he was global head of HP’s print operations, overseeing manufacturing and R&D partners in building a seamless, differentiated supply chain through best-in-class cost management, operational processes, and strategic partnerships. Awasthi also helped grow HP’s Personal Systems business in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) as its general manager and vice president. Under his leadership, the Personal Systems business in APJ recorded the highest-ever market share and became the No.1 leader in the commercial PC segment in Asia Pacific.
Gullnaz Baig is the executive director of the Angsana Council, a not-for-profit advisory council committed to advocating for growth and prosperity across Southeast Asia, underlined by technology, innovation, and sustainability. The council is supported by Monk’s Hill Ventures, a pioneering early-stage tech VC investor based out of the region. Throughout her career, Baig has consistently driven business growth and fostered collaboration and innovation at the convergence of technology, policy, and governance. She has held positions in the civil service in Singapore, specializing in driving policy reviews and implementation, profiling Singapore’s excellence in education globally, while supporting whole-of-government efforts to develop Singapore's forward-looking strategies. Baig subsequently went on to leadership roles in global technology firms, including Meta, TikTok, and Twitter, as well as early-stage startups. There, she led and developed teams in areas such as policy, trust and safety, and partnerships, ensuring that emerging products and features were developed in line with policies and regulations, and to mitigate potential harms. Additionally, her teams were responsible for managing advocacy, programs, and partnerships across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, with the ultimate aim of fostering a community that supports the responsible development of technology. As part of her commitment to ensuring that technology is developed safely and responsibly, she has a network of trust and safety professionals who volunteer advice to startups and tech developers while advocating for a safety-by-design approach to tech development.
Tim Baldwin is provost and professor of natural language processing at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). He also serves as a Melbourne laureate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, and chief scientist of LibrAI, a startup focused on AI safety. Baldwin is the author of some 500 peer-reviewed publications across diverse topics in natural language processing and AI; he has more than 25,000 citations. He has received a number of prestigious awards at top NLP conferences. He is also a co-developer of widely used LLMs for languages, including Arabic, English, and Indonesian, with more than 1 million downloads on Huggingface. Baldwin has been featured in media outlets, including MIT Tech Review, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Economist, CNN, Financial Times, IEEE Spectrum, The Times, and ABC News, and his research has been funded by organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Australian Research Council, Google, Microsoft, Xerox, ByteDance, NTT, and Fujitsu.
Serena Cesareo is a senior researcher at Tortoise Media and co-author of the Global AI Index, the first global country ranking on artificial intelligence capacity, used by governments and academics around the world to inform AI strategies. Before joining Tortoise, Cesareo led large-scale public policy research projects at think tanks and in media contexts, including at the Economist Group, covering artificial intelligence, migration, energy, and sustainable development.
Clay Chandler is Fortune’s Asia editor. Based in Hong Kong, Clay oversees Fortune’s editorial operations throughout the region, contributes feature articles, commentary, and news analysis to the magazine and Fortune.com, and leads the Asia- and China-based conferences. Clay writes Eastworld, a twice-weekly newsletter with analysis of developments in Asian business, finance, and technology. Clay returned to Fortune after a six-year stint at McKinsey & Company. He worked previously for Fortune as Asia Editor in Beijing, and before that covered business, economics, and technology in the U.S. and Asia as senior staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Clay has lived in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, and reported from every major Asian capital. He speaks Mandarin and Japanese, is a graduate of Harvard University and a former fellow of Harvard’s John King Fairbank program on Chinese studies.
Chris Chelliah is responsible for driving digital transformation for Oracle’s customers in the Japan and Asia Pacific region. He is accountable for the organization’s hypergrowth in cloud infrastructure and autonomous database. Chelliah leads cloud specialist sales teams, industry architects, and the Oracle Insight team to provide the expertise needed for a collaborative, consultative approach to help customers achieve their objectives. Chelliah has some 30 years of experience across a variety of portfolios in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. Previously at Oracle, he focused on customer success with consulting and implementation services in global projects in the telecommunications, financial services, and government sectors, implementing disruptive and innovative software solutions. Chelliah holds a postgraduate degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He is a frequent industry speaker and contributes regularly to trade and industry journals with opinion pieces on applications for emerging technologies.
Professor Simon Chesterman is David Marshall Professor and vice provost of educational innovation) at NUS, where he is also the founding dean of NUS College. He is senior director of AI governance at AI Singapore and editor of the Asian Journal of International Law. Previously, he was dean of NUS Law (2012–22), and global professor and director of the New York University School of Law Singapore Program (2006–11). Prior to joining NYU, he was a senior associate at the International Peace Academy and director of UN relations at the International Crisis Group in New York.
Brian Cox is a veteran of the video game industry, having worked at some of the industry’s most innovative studios: Triumph Studios (Netherlands), Rare (UK), Creative Assembly (UK), Ubisoft (China), and NetEase (China). His game development credits include Age of Wonders 3, Kinect Sports Rivals, Rare Replay, Sea of Thieves, Halo Wars 2, Far Cry 5 (+ DLCs), Far Cry New Dawn, and Cygnus Enterprises. At NetEase Games, one of the world’s most prominent gaming studios, Cox managed an AI development team responsible for evaluating emerging technologies for use in games. At Inworld AI, he is the director of AI gameplay engineering, working with partners like Microsoft Xbox, Ubisoft, NVIDIA, and others to bring AI-powered gameplay to the forefront.
Teodora Danilovic is the UK’s first Prompt Engineer and she currently works at AutogenAI as a Prompt Engineer Analyst and Researcher. In this role, she bridges the gap between cutting-edge AI technology and natural language. Prompt Engineering, a field that emerged from the rapid development of generative AI, is the process of effectively extracting information from large language models to build reliable functionality for real-world applications.
Teodora's academic background in Philosophy and Linguistics, combined with her professional experience in cryptocurrency, GDPR compliance, and managing data teams, equips her with a unique perspective and skill set to navigate the complexities of AI functionality.
Dr. Seth Dobrin is a renowned artificial intelligence (AI) and data science leader known for his transformative work. At Monsanto, he revolutionized agriculture by integrating AI to enhance farming through precision agriculture. As IBM’s first global chief AI officer, he led the IBM Data Science Elite Team, driving ethical AI development and diversity across multiple projects. His leadership was instrumental in IBM’s transformation. He continued his journey by founding Qantm AI, championing a human-focused approach centered on ethical AI in business. His work at Qantm AI guides Fortune 500 companies and private equity firms in developing responsible AI strategies. He is also a general partner in 1infinity Ventures and Silicon Sands Venture Studio. A strong advocate for diversity and against technological colonialism, Dobrin supports organizations like WLDA and Wonder Women Tech. His multidisciplinary expertise, combining molecular and cellular biology with industry experience, sets AI leadership benchmarks, shaping its future to be responsible, ethical, and inclusive.
Evi Fuelle is Global Policy Director at Credo AI, where she leads the development of Credo AI’s policy philosophy, translates policy learnings to inform product, and manages relationships with Credo AI’s global network of policy ecosystem partners. Prior to joining Credo AI, Evi served for three years as Advisor, Digital Economy Policy at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States of America (2019-2022). Evi joined the EU delegation after four years (2015-2019) at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), where she worked closely with senior government affairs staff from the world's leading technology companies. Prior to joining ITI, Evi worked in the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC) at the U.S. Department of Commerce; before joining Commerce, Evi worked with the Trans-Atlantic Business Council (TABC), where her work focused on enhancing the trans-Atlantic relationship and advancing trade agreements.
Evi received her Master of Arts degree in European Union Policy Studies, with a concentration on Economic and Social Policy, from James Madison University, in partnership with the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy. Evi earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs, with a minor in Political Science, from James Madison University.
Nicholas Gordon is a Hong Kong-based associate editor, where he assists with audience development and commentary coverage for the Asia-Pacific region. Before joining Fortune, he worked as a content manager for a Hong Kong-based think tank working on regional economic development issues. He has a masters in international relations from Oxford University and a bachelors in social studies from Harvard College.
Guan Dian is a staunch believer in the power of innovation to make the world a better place. As Patsnap’s co-founder and APAC general manager, Guan built the SaaS business in Asia from the ground up to become a leading player in the region. She was instrumental in the fundraising efforts, which catapulted Patsnap—now a global leader in AI-powered innovation intelligence—into the unicorn club, with a valuation of more than US $1 billion. Championing customer-centric initiatives, such as the Patsnap’s Academy, a curriculum for IP & R&D professionals, Guan is also the driving force behind the thriving Patsnap ecosystem that fosters symbiotic relationships with government agencies, educational institutions, and the private sector. For her achievements, she was named to the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list and recognized as one of China’s Top 25 High Potential Businesswomen by Forbes China.
Matt Heimer helps oversee Fortune’s longform storytelling in digital and print and is one of the editorial coordinators of Fortune’s bi-monthly magazine. He specializes in investment and finance coverage, but also edits feature stories about technology, health care, retail, entertainment, and other industries. Mr. Heimer is a co-chair of the CEO Initiative and the lead editor for the Change the World list and the annual Investor’s Guide. Previously, Mr. Heimer was a senior editor at MarketWatch and a reporter, senior writer, and deputy editor at SmartMoney magazine, where he won a SABEW Best in Business award for explanatory journalism. Mr. Heimer holds a master’s degree from Yale Law School, where he was a Knight Journalism fellow. He’s also a former Jeopardy! contestant.
Dr. Christine Yuan Huang is the technology transfer director of Hong Kong Quantum AI Lab. She is also the founder of QuantumLife, and managing director of HK Longevity Medical Center, focusing on providing end-to-end precision longevity medical technology solutions to improve health span. Huang has vast experience in the biotechnology and longevity fields and shares her professional insights as a venture partner of LongeVC. She is also the vice president. Huang was selected as one of Forbes China 2020 30 Under 30 (Health Care and Science) for her development of cancer liquid biopsy technology, and was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (U.K.). She is also an advisory board member of the Wing Wah Charity Foundation Hong Kong, and a columnist for Forbes China. Huang was elected a fellow of Guangzhou Youth Federation in 2022. She obtained her MD from the Southern Medical University and an MPH from the University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. She is an honorary senior research associate at the University of Hong Kong.
Sheena is a leading Asian technology lawyer with a strong AI, cybersecurity, privacy and technology practice at CMS Holborn Asia, part of international law firm CMS. Sheena has been active in technology in Asia for more than 25 years. She also represents a significant number of industry players in the technology, media and communications industry and has strong experience with cutting edge technology issues including the developing legal issues involved in the adoption and deployment of AI systems as well as in relation to their development. Sheena works closely with a team of technology lawyers and advises on issues across the Asia Pacific region.
Sheena is consistently ranked as a leading TMT lawyer in Asia and is known for her sound, commercial advice. She advises clients on digital regulation including digital marketing, cybersecurity issues, data regulation and the regulation of AI systems.
Sheena has been a member of the Global Board of iTechlaw, the first Singaporean to hold this post. She was also the only lawyer in Singapore listed as one of the Top Women in Cybersecurity and has written numerous articles on privacy, cybersecurity and AI. Qualified in New York, Singapore, England & Wales, Sheena is uniquely placed to support international clients in Asia.
Arvind Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Glean, the AI-powered work assistant that brings people the answers they need to be more productive and happier at work. Prior to Glean, Jain co-founded and led R&D at Rubrik, one of the fastest-growing companies in cloud data management. He also spent more than a decade at Google as a distinguished engineer, where he led teams in Google’s Search, Maps, and YouTube products. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at Akamai and Microsoft. He earned his BTech degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and his master’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington.
Sonita Jeyapathy is a former mergers & acquisitions practitioner-turned-educator, who teaches at the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore, where she is co-director of the Center for Pro Bono & Clinical Legal Education, and deputy director of the Legal Skills Program. A member of the Law Faculty’s Teaching Excellence Committee, Jeyapathy focuses on the design of learning environments to facilitate the student learning experience. She has a keen interest in exploring the role of AI in tertiary education.
Jeremy Kahn is Fortune’s AI Editor, leading our coverage of this fast-evolving and crucial technology. In addition to writing cover stories on OpenAI, Google, and other companies at the forefront of the AI revolution, he writes Fortune’s Eye on AI newsletter and co-chairs its Brainstorm AI conferences. He is the author of the forthcoming book Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future (Simon & Schuster, July 2024). Before rejoining Fortune in 2019, he spent eight years at Bloomberg, where he covered technology, including AI, as well as finance and economics. He has written for numerous publications including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Atlantic, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, and Portfolio. He is the former managing editor of the New Republic. He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics. He is based in London.
Dr. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Addo, is a leading AI expert and Forbes-recognized entrepreneur, with 20 years of experience in digital transformation. Holding degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and the London School of Economics, and having spent more than a decade on Wall Street, she advises CEOs on AI and data transformations and serves on boards such as Johnson Controls, NEOM Tonomus, and L'Oreal's scientific advisory board. A passionate advocate for inclusivity and diversity, Khanna provides AI education scholarships to girls and mid-career women through her education company, Amplify.
Cha-Ly Koh is the founder and CEO of Urbanmetry, a data company that cleans and analyses large amounts of city data, through its proprietary algorithms. Trained in city planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, Koh hopes to harvest intelligence from big data to help governments, city planners, corporations, and urban dwellers shape better global cities. Since its founding, Urbanmetry has provided intelligence to various listed companies and government agencies. He has shared the big data approach with the property market through various talks and seminars held for the movers and shakers, including Malaysia’s Central Bank, the World Bank, listed companies, and architects and designers who shape our cities.
Donn Koh is the co-founder and design principal of STUCK Design and the creator of Hypersketch, the AI-powered rapid ideation tool. He is also a senior lecturer at the Division of Industrial Design at NUS. Besides design and innovation accolades, Koh holds NUS’s Outstanding Educator award and Singapore’s prestigious SkillsFuture Fellowship. His expertise includes generative AI in design research, design entrepreneurship, and organizational agility. His contributions to the design world include iconic products like the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse, where he invented its bend-and-snap mechanism. Koh was also the lead industrial designer of the HTC Evo 4G and the Air+ Smart Mask, and the inventor of the Leapfrog Walker for cerebral palsy. With Hypersketch, developed by Koh, designers can seamlessly use AI to multiply their creativity. His work continues to shape design education and practice, using inventive approaches to redefine design processes and products.
Shaun Koo is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur, with more than a decade of experience in software and hardware startups. He mentors high-growth startups with 500 Global, specializing in AI, construction-tech, robotics, IoT, and analytics. As CEO and CTO at H3 Zoom.ai, Koo oversees digital strategy, development, and go-to-market initiatives. He is responsible for managing digital product roadmaps and leading technology commercialization and implementation domestically and internationally. Koo's leadership drives H3 Zoom.ai’s growth and innovation for smart cities.
Shameek Kundu is an experienced chief data officer, with a strong focus on data and AI trust. Most recently, he helped build a new business around testing and monitoring AI systems at California startup TruEra (acquired by Snowflake). Until 2020, Kundu was group chief data officer at Standard Chartered Bank. Outside his day job, Kundu is closely involved in industry initiatives around AI governance. He is a member of the Singapore Government’s Advisory Council on AI and data ethics, co-chairs the data governance working group at the Global Partnership on AI, and was one of the authors of the MAS FEAT guidelines on responsible AI.
Hanyi Lee’s life as a lawyer was put on hold indefinitely (thankfully) for an about-turn into branding. She was trained at Parsons School of Design and started her career in New York at Publicis and SpotCo Design. She founded Anak, a brand practice that specializes in merging the world of branding with art, publishing, technology, product creation, and entertainment, creating brand transformations for such companies as Apple, Netflix, Banyan Tree, Potatohead, Mandai, and the Asian Civilizations Museum. Anak was named Campaign magazine’s Southeast Asia Brand Design Agency of the Year in 2022 and 2023. Lee has judged at Cannes Lions, D&AD, Art Director’s Club, the One Show, Creative Circle Awards, and the Gong Show. One of Campaign Asia’s Top 40 Faces to Watch, Lee has spoken at Spikes Asia Awards and the Find Design Fair, and has lectured at Lasalle College of the Arts.
Joon-Seong Lee spearheads Accenture’s Center for Advanced AI and serves as Southeast Asia lead. Based in Singapore, he has more than 27 years of consulting experience, having served local and regional clients across diverse industries. He holds a prominent position on Accenture's SEA executive committee and its Global Leadership Council. As the driving force behind the Center for Advanced AI, Lee is responsible for its expansion across Asia Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM), cultivating a robust pool of advanced AI talent, developing unique assets that set Accenture apart, fostering partnerships within the AI ecosystem, spearheading applied research initiatives, and launching generative AI experience studios. He leads a large team of data scientists, data and AI engineers, and AI strategists throughout the region. Under his guidance, Accenture's Data & AI business has seen significant growth, solidifying the company’s position as a leader in Asia Pacific's AI landscape. Among other accomplishments, he led an award-winning, first-in-the-world gen AI implementation in the region and collaborated with the Monetary Authority of Singapore for years to champion responsible AI practices within the financial services sector. Beyond Accenture, he serves on the advisory board of the Engineering Systems and Design (ESD) Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and as a board member of iShine Cloud Ltd. Named a SCS fellow in 2024, he holds an executive MBA from INSEAD.
Co-founder and CEO of ModelBest. He graduated with a Master's degree from the Department of Mathematics at Peking University. After graduation, he joined Google and became one of the founding employees of Google China. Subsequently, he served as the Director of Engineering at Yunyun Network and the Head of Search Technology at Wandoujia. In 2015, Li Dahai joined Zhihu, where he served as a Partner and CTO. He has 12 consecutive years of entrepreneurial experience.
ST Liew is vice president of Qualcomm Technologies and president of Qualcomm’s business in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. In this role, he is responsible for leading all business and operational functions for Qualcomm in these regions. Prior to this, he served as vice president and president of Qualcomm Taiwan. Liew has more than 30 years of experience leading business and engineering teams in the telecommunications industry. Most recently, he was president of Acer Smart Product Business Group. Before joining Acer, he held multiple business and technical roles at Motorola, including leading that company’s design centers as well as its product management, product development, manufacturing, and test engineering. Liew spent many years at Motorola responsible for a variety of R&D projects, ranging from walkie-talkies, pagers, and cellular products in markets worldwide. He received his MBA from the National University of Singapore and holds a BSc degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Leeds, U.K.
Kisson Lin is co-founder and COO of Mindverse AI and the former monetization strategy director at TikTok and corporate strategy manager at Meta. Mindverse AI was founded in January 2022, with its unique large personalization model and its flagship product MindOS, an AI agent creation platform for businesses.
Vivek Luthra is an inspirational, 360-degree, value-focused C-suite executive, with more than 25 years of progressive management experience, including last 14 years with Accenture based in Melbourne / Singapore. He has deep expertise in total enterprise reinvention, with a successful track record of building high-performing teams working across industries, especially resources and products in the APAC, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America region. He has served in his current role since September 2023. Luthra is part of Accenture’s global executive leadership team and a member of Accenture’s Global Leadership Council, responsible for managing and growing Accenture’s data and AI business and bringing together service functions to help clients reinvent and optimize their business. Luthra is a trusted advisor in helping businesses become AI-fueled, leveraging modern data and AI solutions throughout the enterprise. He is currently working with a leading telco and a leading beverage company in the region, guiding these entities to reinvent their business with AI and generative AI. He previously served Accenture as supply chain and operations growth markets lead (2020–23). Before joining Accenture, he held leadership roles with Schlumberger, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Infosys, Patni (now Capgemini), and two technology startups. Luthra earned an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Delhi Institute of Technology, India.
Panos Madamopoulos is the founding managing director of Industry Programs & Partnerships at Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI). Overseeing a vast portfolio of industry initiatives, Madamopoulos accelerates the AI journey of companies through human-centric strategies. His partnerships span tech giants such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft, and industry leaders including Wells Fargo, McKinsey, Accenture, PepsiCo, Siam Commercial Bank, LVMH, and SAP. Madamopoulos designed and manages the HAI industry programs with a strategic vision to connect companies to Stanford’s interdisciplinary research, policy, and education at the nexus of AI and diverse industry verticals. He concentrates on two principal domains: spearheading large-scale R&D initiatives and championing applied intelligence, which entails assisting partners in harnessing and operationalizing the groundbreaking developments emerging from Stanford’s labs and startups. To achieve this, he nurtures alliances between industry collaborators and Stanford's frontier AI groups, notably the Center for Research on Foundation Models and the Digital Economy Lab. Beyond this, Madamopoulos is committed to cultivating vibrant partnerships across the entirety of Stanford’s academic and research landscape. In addition to his executive role, Madamopoulos co-teaches the AI startup sessions for certain courses led by Professor Erik Brynjolfsson. Before HAI, Madamopoulos co-initiated ReGeneration, the premier education and employment impact program for Greek young graduates. He was also a late co-founder in Agora Trading (now Amarla Retail), a global fashion and consumer goods group active in 15 markets. Alongside his entrepreneurial journey, he has been an angel investor and advisor to AI startups and frontier tech-focused venture funds. He holds an LLB degree from Democritus University, an LLM degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in management from Stanford Business School, where he earned the Rochat fellowship.
Anant Maheshwari is president and CEO of Honeywell’s global high growth regions, with broad responsibilities for leading the company’s business across a diverse set of geographies that include China, India, and Southeast Asia; Central and Eastern Europe; the Middle East and Central Asia; Africa; and Latin America. Maheshwari joined Honeywell from Microsoft, where he served as president and CEO of Microsoft India. In this role, he was responsible for Microsoft’s business and presence in India, leading engagement with policymakers, customers, business partners and industry leaders. During his tenure, he led Microsoft India’s transformation to become the fastest-growth geography for the company, setting the company’s benchmarks for new business models. Earlier in his career he was with Honeywell, joining the company in 2004 and holding a series of senior leadership roles in which he launched new business lines and led mature business portfolios. He served as president of Honeywell India from 2014 to 2016, with responsibility for one of Honeywell’s key growth markets within its high growth region strategy. Prior to Honeywell, he served six years at global management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Maheshwari holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where he graduated as an industry scholar in 1998. He also graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, with an MS degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree of engineering in electrical and electronics in 1996. He is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and since 2017 has served on the NASSCOM executive committee, most recently as chairperson. He also serves on the boards of the U.S. India Business Council and Confederation of Indian Industry.
Sami Mahmal leads the integration of artificial intelligence into strategic initiatives across the APAC region at Zurich Insurance. With more than a decade of experience in advanced analytics, IoT, and web technologies, he spearheads the Data & AI strategy, driving innovative solutions that seamlessly blend technological advancements with significant business impacts.
Ahmed Mazhari, as president of Microsoft Asia, oversees a vibrant and diverse region comprising 20 countries, some 30,000 employees, and 100,000 partners. He focuses on accelerating the Asia Pacific region’s digital transformation enabled by Microsoft, as the leading productivity and platform company, through its product, service, and support offerings. He also continues to build and reinforce Microsoft’s reputation as a trusted partner for individuals, organizations, and governments. Mazhari believes in deepening collaborations with Microsoft’s customers and partners in Asia to accelerate digital adoption and empower innovative advancements in the region. This belief is fueled by his deep understanding of business process transformation and his passion for embracing change and implementing creative solutions in a fast-paced world. He is a big believer in the power of long-term partnerships, with both employees and customers, to achieve stronger and longer-lasting growth. Mazhari joined Microsoft Asia in February 2020, following 23 successful years at GE and Genpact (a spinoff from GE in 2005), where he last served as senior vice president and chief growth officer leading the company’s growth globally across all industry verticals, products, service lines, and geographies. Prior to this, he held senior leadership roles at Xerox. Mazhari holds a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, India.
Juhi Jotwani McClelland is a results-oriented business leader who values client centricity and diversity. She is passionate about applying technology to make the world a better place, developing people, learning, and growing global businesses through diverse perspectives. As the general manager and managing partner for Asia Pacific, IBM Consulting, McClelland is responsible for a multibillion-dollar service P&L leading sales and delivery organizations focused on consulting, hybrid cloud, and generative AI services. Having held senior leadership roles at IBM for more than 20 years, McClelland is a member of IBM’s Performance Team and Client Leadership Team, and co-chair of IBM’s Women’s Council. She received the Asian American Executive 2022 award for her outstanding contributions to engineering and business as an Asian American leader. McClelland has a bachelor’s degree (honors) in economics and an MBA. She is a co-founder and serves on the board of See Insights, which provides parks usage insights by deploying IoT sensors.
Ellie Austin is deputy editorial director of Fortune Live Media, the company’s global portfolio of live events. Before joining Fortune, Austin was an editor of live journalism at the Wall Street Journal, where she regularly interviewed CEOs and entertainment personalities live onstage. She was also a writer and editor at the Sunday Times Magazine in London, where she wrote magazine features and profiled such notables as Roger Federer, Hailey Bieber, and Whitney Wolfe Herd. Austin grew up in Jersey, Channel Islands, and graduated from Durham University, England, with a degree in modern languages. She lives in New York City.
Ritu Narayan is the founder and CEO of Zum, a technology company modernizing and decarbonizing school transportation and the energy grid. Accelerating its growth, Zum recently announced $140 million in funding led by GIC, with additional investment from return investors such as Sequoia and Softbank, bringing Zum’s total fundraise to $350 million. An accomplished entrepreneur, with more than 20 years of experience as a tech industry leader, Narayan has been named one of CNBC’s 2024 Changemakers, Goldman Sach’s Exceptional Entrepreneurs, Inc.’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs, and Entrepreneur’s 100 Women of Influence, and she received the 2023 Power of Women award from GSV ASU, among other awards and accolades. Before starting Zum, Narayan led teams at eBay, Oracle, Yahoo, and IBM. A graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Narayan earned her undergraduate degree in computer science at the Delhi Institute of Technology. She lives in California, USA, with her husband and two children, both of whom commuted to school safely, reliably, and sustainably thanks to Zum.
Sinisa Nikolic is responsible for establishing the strategy, route to market, and progression of Lenovo ISG’s HPC, CSP, and AI technologies across Asia Pacific. As part of Lenovo’s AP leadership team, he works closely with the global HPC team to drive the portfolio across all AP markets. His areas of expertise include GTM strategies focused on the client, collaboration with marketing and technical teams for “closer to client” offerings. Nikolic joined from 30 years with IBM, spending an illustrious career building teams and driving smarter HPC performance for clients across several industries. He transformed and rebuilt multiple IBM sales teams into growth positions across Latin America, Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa, driving bottom-line growth and profitability for global expansion. Nikolic has built a solid reputation in the industry for his ability to win client confidence and drive synergies. He holds several distinctions and awards from IBM. He is also a prolific speaker and has presented his AI solutions in several technical forums in AP. Nikolic holds a bachelor’s degree in computer programming from Perth Technical College.
Wee Wei Ng,Senior Managing Director,Southeast Asia Market Unit Lead, Accenture. Based in Singapore, Ng joined Accenture in 1995 and became a managing director in 2007. For more than 25 years, she has been responsible for delivering large-scale IT initiatives across many government functions and ministries—supporting their drive to innovate and improve public service delivery through digitalization. Her current role involves advising government leaders on critical steps that need to be taken to govern in the New. Her areas of expertise include Government-as-a-Platform initiatives, digital citizen services, and future of work, with a focus on the shifting role of government and human–machine interaction. Outside of Accenture, Ng has served as honorary secretary of the IT Management Association, a Singapore-based association of influential IT leaders from both the private and public sectors. She is currently serving on the board of directors of the Institute of Systems Science at National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS).
Justin Nguyen is a general partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures (MHV), a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies, primarily Series A, in Southeast Asia. He has more than two decades of experience in Silicon Valley and in Asia as a founder, entrepreneur, and engineer of early-stage tech startups and global tech companies. In his career, he has helped his startups grow to more than US $50 million, from zero, in revenue. He has also helped raise more than US $80 million for three startups in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Vietnam. Prior to MHV, he founded one of Asia’s leading game suppliers, Aspect Gaming. Before that, Nguyen was the China CEO of StarCite, which he helped transform from a dotcom consumer play into a thriving enterprise SaaS company. He studied engineering at the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.
Suthen Thomas Paradatheth is the CTO of Grab. Based in Singapore, he oversees Grab’s technology teams across the company’s deliveries, mobility, and financial services businesses. In his role, Paradatheth is responsible for driving Grab’s technology vision, strategy, and execution across the entire company. He plays a critical role in optimizing Grab’s superapp synergies to drive sustainable growth and create greater value, convenience, and efficiencies for consumers and partners. Prior to this role, he was CTO of mobility, automation and platform excellence, deliveries, and experiences. He was also Grab’s first technical lead when the company was founded in 2012. Throughout his time at Grab, he led the development of many Grab products and platforms, which supported the rapid growth of the company’s deliveries and mobility services. He also held operational leadership roles and founded the Business Operations team. His unique background in technology and operations closely mirrors Grab’s business, which connects offline services with online consumers.
Chan Yip Pang joined Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India in 2022. He covers Southeast Asia in sectors including consumer, enterprise software, fintech, and enabling technologies. Before joining Vertex Ventures, Pang was the Asia Pacific investment director in Experian Ventures (the corporate venture arm of one of the largest credit information firms globally), where he focused on financial inclusion for the next billion users. He was also part of the M&A team and has worked on key acquisitions for the company. In addition, he represented Experian as board of director/observer in several portfolio companies. Before Experian, Pang was a senior investment manager at the corporate investment arm of Singapore Economic Development Board, where he covered consumer and emerging tech in Southeast Asia and the U.S.
Andrea Phua currently drives the national agenda to foster a thriving AI hub in Singapore, characterized by the attraction of frontier AI companies, accelerated AI adoption, and the advancement of new job opportunities and better lives for Singaporeans. She is also one of the leaders of Singapore’s international cooperation on AI governance, putting Singapore at the forefront of responsible and inclusive AI development, for AI to serve the public good. Phua’s extensive career in the Singapore government has included a wide range of roles in education, economic development, trade negotiations, and international diplomacy. Prior to her technology stint, Phua was based in the Singapore Embassy in Washington, DC, where she focused on strengthening her country’s trade and digital ties with the U.S. and securing supply chains at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jacqueline Poh is the managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). She was previously deputy secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Strategy Group. Poh was also the founding chief executive of the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and managing director of the Infocommunications Development Authority (IDA). She has also held key positions in the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Defense. Poh is an alumnus of Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD (MBA), and Stanford. She currently serves on the boards of SingHealth, the Singapore Institute of Technology, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. She is the chairperson of the DesignSingapore advisory board and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.
Tim Rosenfield is the co-founder and co-CEO of SMC and Firmus. Rosenfield and his team are on a mission to power the AI revolution sustainably. SMC designs and deploys groundbreaking GPU infrastructure across the globe, reducing the energy consumption of AI workloads by up to 50%. After eight years of research and development, the proprietary AI infrastructure built in collaboration with NVIDIA and Dell Technologies offers sustainability while also delivering a total cost of ownership (TCO) up to 70% lower than traditional cloud platforms. A passionate advocate for sustainable technology, Rosenfield is dedicated to reshaping the industry through SMC’s immersion systems, aiming to foster a more efficient and environmentally friendly tech landscape for future generations.
Debanjan Saha is the CEO of DataRobot, where he is responsible for the expansion of the company’s AI platform, and the impact and innovation it delivers to customers globally. Saha joined DataRobot in 2022 as president and COO. Saha is a visionary technologist, with 20 years of product, engineering, and operational leadership experience at some of the world’s most successful technology companies, including Google, Amazon Web Services, and IBM. He is also co-author of more than 50 patent applications, serves as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, USA, with his family.
Sambit Sahu is currently senior vice president at Krutrim, an Ola company. He is leading the silicon products efforts at Krutrim, focusing on AI, automotive, and edge products. A 30-plus year veteran in the semiconductor industry (more than 16 years working in the U.S.), he has held leadership roles at Intel, Qualcomm, Procket Networks, and Sun Microsystems. In his past role as a vice president at Intel, Sahu led an end-to-end global engineering team to deliver server/edge/AI/client products worth US $7 billion in revenue per year. He has delivered more than 75 products in his career on many architectures, technologies, and segments, valued at more than $100 billion in revenue. He has also served as the site lead of Qualcomm Design Center in India. Sahu has a strong presence in the India ECO system and has spoken at numerous conferences.
Satyen Sangani is the CEO of Alation and a co-founder. In founding Alation, he aspired to help people dispassionately observe the world around them, empowering them to passionately work to improve it. Before Alation, Sangani spent nearly a decade at Oracle, where he ran the Financial Services Warehousing and Performance Management business. Prior to Oracle, he was an associate with the private investment firm, Texas Pacific Group, and an analyst with Morgan Stanley. He holds an MS degree in economics from the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.
Vishnu Saran is the founder of Invigilo AI, where the core vision is to have a zero-workplace-accident future through the use of advanced AI and IoT technologies to enhance safety in high-risk workplaces. Saran is trained in software product management and design thinking and has experience working on a multitude of technologies. He is always working on ways to utilize innovation to solve real-world problems. With his efforts, Saran has been recognized by Forbes Asia as a 30 Under 30 awardee. He also has research experience, having published and authored four research papers in different esteemed publications.
Torrey Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Endiatx (pronounced "ehn-dee-ah-tix"). PillBot™ is the world's first virtual endoscope, comprised of a swimming robot pill that works like a moving eyeball in the stomach. PillBot will transform millions of hospital visits into AI-enhanced telemedicine for the upper endoscopy patient population. Prior to Endiatx, Smith developed medical devices across three exits: Mara™ Water Vapor Ablation (exited to CooperSurgical), Phoenix Atherectomy™ System (exited to Volcano Corp, now owned by Philips), and EXOSEAL™ Vascular Closure Device (exited to Cordis/JNJ). An aerospace engineer by training, Smith takes a keen interest in the deep tech sector and is a proud mentor at the Founder Institute. He is also the principal founder of the international arts collective known as Sextant, and he has had his design work featured in the Smithsonian.
Sng Ren Yeong, managing director at Temasek, is responsible for the global investment company’s AI venture-building efforts and investments, with a focus on accelerating the deployment of AI technologies to create scalable AI products and solutions, as well as new AI-focused revenue opportunities. Sng currently represents Temasek on the boards of its AI-focused ventures, which include Aicadium, Temasek’s AI Centre of Excellence, and minden.ai. Sng was formerly CEO of minden.ai, which aims to redefine brand-consumer engagement in Southeast Asia. The Temasek-founded technology venture is behind yuu Rewards Club in Singapore. Sng is also on the board of Mediacorp, Singapore’s national media network.
Miao Song is chief information officer of GLP, responsible for all aspects of technology across the entity. She also oversees the company’s global data and digital strategy. Before joining GLP, Song was global chief information officer and board member at Mars Petcare, driving digital transformation and innovation. Prior to that she was vice president and chief information officer at Johnson & Johnson. Song has more than two decades of international IT industry experience across diverse industries, including oil/energy/natural resources as well as consumer goods and health care. She has lived and worked in China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Singapore. and Belgium, and held leadership positions at Royal Dutch Shell, Nestlé, and Golden-Agri Resources. In 2019 she was named Chief Information Officer of the Year – Europe by International Data Group and was listed as a Global CIO 100. She was named CIO 75 in ASEAN in 2021. Song holds a BS degree in information management from Peking University and an MBA from Beihang University.
Stephanie Sy is the founder and CEO of Thinking Machines, a technology consultancy building AI and data platforms to solve high-impact problems. Since 2015, Sy and her team have been building cutting-edge AI and data solutions for leading businesses in Southeast Asia. Thinking Machines has published original research at top scientific conferences, such as ICML, NeurIPS, and KDD. They are part of the UNICEF Innovation Fund for their work using artificial intelligence for economic development and sustainability issues. Sy’s work has been recognized by Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2018 Enterprise Technology) and Asia 21 Young Leaders (2019). She holds an independent director board seat at BPI-AIA and is on the AI advisory board of the Philippine Department of Science and Technology. She received her undergraduate degree in MS&E from Stanford University.
Ewa Szymanska leads development of new technologies as the Global Head of Rakuten Institute of Technology (RIT) and Executive Officer at the Rakuten Group. She is responsible for bridging academic research with business applications to drive innovation at Rakuten and to deliver novel solutions utilizing latest findings in computer vision, natural language processing, automatic speech recognition, and advanced customer analytics across RIT offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Bengaluru, Paris, Boston and San Mateo.
Prior to her global role, Ewa established and led Rakuten Institute of Technology office in Singapore, focusing on machine translation and Asian language learning technologies. Ewa and her team received NIKKEI Deep Learning Award in 2019 for the development and scaling of deep learning technologies with global impact.
Before Rakuten, Ewa was a founding member of Singtel’s (Singapore Communications) data monetization group, leading research and product marketing for location-based services, including mobile advertising.
Prior to SingTel, Ewa was with General Mills’ Consumer Insights in Minneapolis, USA, bringing Voice of the Customer to cross-functional teams for strategic planning. Before that, she worked at the digital marketing consultancy Rosetta in New York (now part of Publicis).
Ewa received her Ph.D. in Psychology of Decision Making from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Tan Su Shan is the global head of corporate and commercial banking at DBS. DBS is the largest bank in Southeast Asia, with a market capitalization of US $64 billion (Aug 2023). Prior to leading the corporate banking business, she was group head of consumer banking and wealth management for close to a decade. Tan is a board member of the Singapore Central Provident Fund Board (CPF), which is the compulsory retirement plan in Singapore. She also serves on the advisory board of Dyson’s family office, Weybourne Holdings, and is a board member of Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust. She also served as a nominated member of Parliament in Singapore from 2012 to 2014. In October 2014, Tan became the first Singaporean to be recognized as the world’s Best Leader in Private Banking by PWM/The Banker, a wealth publication by the Financial Times Group. In 2018, she was nominated by Forbes magazine as a Top 25 Emergent Asian Woman Business Leader. In the same year, she was also named Retail Banker of the Year by the Digital Banker in their inaugural Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards. Tan graduated with an MA degree from Lincoln College, Oxford University, where she studied politics, philosophy, and economics. She has also completed executive leadership courses at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, and Singularity University
Josephine Teo was appointed minister of digital development and information and minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity on 15 May 2021. She has been the second minister for Home Affairs since September 2017, and is concurrently a member of the Future Economy Council. Teo was the minister for manpower from May 2018 until May 2021. She previously served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Finance, Transport, and Foreign Affairs ministries. During the pandemic year, Teo was also a member of the National Jobs Council, which oversaw efforts to support and rebuild jobs for Singaporeans in the wake of COVID-19. As manpower minister, Teo actively promoted good employment outcomes, sustainable wage growth, and productive longevity for Singaporeans. During her term, tripartite consensus was achieved on a 10-year roadmap to raise the retirement and reemployment ages. The Silver Support and Workfare Income Supplement Schemes were significantly enhanced, along with a major expansion of the Progressive Wage Model. In the PMO, she coordinated whole-of-government efforts to better support marriage and parenthood. Her efforts led to significant enhancements in pre-school subsidies, parental leave provisions, medical care of young children, and support for assistive reproductive technologies. As minister of state for finance, Teo coordinated the government’s successful implementation of the Pioneer Generation Package. As senior minister of state for transport, she chaired the Changi 2036 steering committee to enhance the Singapore’s position as a leading global air hub. As chairperson of the public transport tripartite committee, she ensured the effective transition to the bus contracting model and the establishment of the Singapore Bus Academy. She has served as a member of Parliament since 2006.
Leslie Teo, PhD, is senior director of AI Products at AI Singapore, where he is tasked with catalyzing the use of AI in businesses. He and his team work with companies to identify important use cases and build enabling AI products to support such use cases. Teo is passionate about data, data science, machine learning, and AI. He pivoted from a career in economics, finance, and investing in 2019. He was previously with Grab, Great Eastern Life Insurance, GIC Pte Ltd., and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He was also at the International Monetary Fund, where he worked on financial sector restructuring, financial stability, public debt management, monetary policy, and operations. Teo has a PhD in economics and finance from the University of Rochester. In addition, he is a certified financial risk manager and a CFA charterholder.
Geraldine Wong, PhD, is group chief data officer at GXS, one of the two successful digital full bank license applicants in Singapore. GXS is backed by a consortium that includes Grab and Singtel. At GXS, Wong is responsible for driving and building the bank’s AI and data strategy, with the goal of leveraging ecosystem data assets, promoting data-driven financial inclusion, and reimagining the way customers engage and experience the digital economy. Her career spans industry and academia, where she has led teams in developing and executing regional AI initiatives across the public, transport, and info-communications sectors. Wong was named to the inaugural list of the Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders and to the SG100 Women in Tech list by Infocomm Media Development Authority (2021), in recognition of her contributions to Singapore’s technology industry. For her achievements in data analytics, she was named one of the global top 100 Innovators in Data and Analytics by Business of Data in 2022. Wong is currently a member of the tech advisory committee of Synapxe, Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Future-enabled Skills workshop, and an adjunct associate professor at NUS Faculty of Science (Department of Statistics and Data Science). She seeks to inspire and nurture the next generation, through her active mentoring for the NUS Uplift mentorship program and as an ExCo member of the Free and Open Source Software Group at the Singapore Computer Society.
Gina Wong is the head of global alliances for strategic markets in Kyndryl, where she is responsible for leading and growing the company’s alliances ecosystem business. Prior to that, Wong was the managing director of Kyndryl Singapore, where she led a high-performing team to exceed country goals and established deep relations with clients and partners. She was the face of the company in Singapore; under her leadership, Kyndryl Singapore led the region with one of the highest skills and certification expertise teams, expanded base client growth, and acquired new branded clients with strong public-facing customers. She is also known to have built a culture of high employee engagement, including executive sponsorship for women, diversity and inclusion, and corporate social responsibility. In her previous role, she was IBM’s Asia Pacific head of technology consulting and implementation services. Prior to IBM, Wong was senior vice president of sales and customer success at ST Telemedia-LEAP, a tech startup designed to leverage innovative cloud and AI technologies to deliver measurable customer outcomes. Wong helped grow the business from a three-member team to an 80-member organization with successful customer and partner acquisitions across Asia. As a founding member, she was pivotal in defining the company’s culture, strategy, and go-to-market approach. One of the few women leaders with deep cloud and innovation expertise, Wong has been instrumental in helping large enterprises adopt emerging technologies, such as spearheading the cloud journey for the world's No. 1 digital bank and the world’s No. 2 PET manufacturer. Before ST Telemedia, she has held senior leadership positions at IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, and Avaya.
Joe Xia is the CEO of JIDU Auto and a distinguished tech entrepreneur dedicated to leveraging technology to create unparalleled user experiences. Since taking the helm in 2021, Joe has spearheaded the transformation of smart electric vehicles, pioneering the integration of large-scale AI model technology into the automotive industry. Under his visionary leadership, JIDU has championed the robotization of automobiles and established the innovative smart car brand Jiyue, engineered specifically for autonomous driving. An accomplished inventor, Joe holds over 40 invention and utility model patents and has been honored with the China Excellent Patent Award. Recognized for his contributions to the industry, he was named one of Fortune’s top 40 business elites under 40 in 2017.
Caroline Yap is an internationally recognized expert in applied AI, specializing in the convergence of AI and business strategy. As global managing director for AI business and applied engineering at Google, she drives transformative outcomes for enterprises, particularly within the advertising and marketing sectors. Her deep understanding of AI's potential, coupled with extensive experience in networking, security, and cloud infrastructure, allows her to guide organizations toward strategic AI adoption that delivers measurable business impact. A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Yap is committed to ethical AI development and serves on the global board of the International Advertising Association.
Zee Kin is the CEO of Singapore Academy of Law and is an internationally recognized expert on AI ethics. His experience as a technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) lawyer spans both the private and public sectors. He has spoken and published in areas related to electronic evidence and intellectual property, as well as legal issues on blockchain and AI deployment. Zee Kin is also a well-regarded expert on data privacy issues. He has contributed to publications on legal issues on the subject of data privacy and has spoken at numerous international and domestic platforms on this topic.
Zhang joined FORTUNE China in 2009, and was promoted to Executive Editor in 2013. Zhang currently have more than 2.9 million followers on LinkedIn. Before joining FORTUNE China, Zhang was Managing Editor of InformationWeek China. In 2004, he was admitted by Cambridge, Oxford and Carnegie Mellon University and chose to pursue MSc of Computer Science in Oxford. In 2005, he graduated with straight “A”s from Oxford University, gave up an early offer from a sub company of News Corporation in West London and came back home to continue his career in China’s media business.
Zhang has a BA in English & American Studies from Beijing Foreign Studies University and joined China Daily to work as a reporter and editor. In his earlier days, Zhang won the “best story award” from China Daily twice and played a key role in creating the ELT weeklies for the group. Zhang also got the Certificates of "Building a Business" course from Said Business School, Oxford University, and Finance Media EMBA Fellowship Program from PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University.
Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation generative artificial intelligence and robotics platforms for drug discovery. Since 2014, Zhavoronkov has invented critical technologies in the field of generative artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning (RL) for the generation of novel molecular structures with the desired properties and the generation of synthetic biological and patient data. Under his leadership, Insilico raised more than $400 million in multiple rounds from expert biotechnology, health care, and financial investors; opened R&D centers in six countries and regions; and partnered with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic institutions. Since 2021, the company nominated 18 preclinical candidates, started six human clinical trials, and entered Phase II with an AI-discovered novel target and AI-designed novel molecule. Since 2012, Zhavoronkov has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers and three books. He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, Aging, and Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (10th Annual in 2023). He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.