Abhinav Gautam
Abhinav Gautam is cofounder of FreshBox Rwanda. FreshBox is developing mobile cold chain solutions for agriculture supply chains in Rwanda and Africa. Abhinav is a serial entrepreneur with over 10 years experience in running social enterprises and technology based companies. He believes that technology and entrepreneurship is the best method to bring change. An avid globetrotter, Abhinav in his free time loves capturing intricacies of life on camera.
Dr. Anna Barchetti Durisch
Anna Barchetti Durisch, PhD, mentor and public speaker, Founder and CEO of HELIOS LIFE and ANNA FOR LIFE; her main goal has been revolving around the concept of serving humanity; among others through coaching for wisdom, excellence and financial empowerment.
She has been conducting life empowerment seminars as well as lectures on the subject of money; mentoring, coaching and providing counseling services. Since 2011, whilst working in a consultative capacity with the United Nations ECOSOC, Anna has been conceptualizing and delivering public statements during UN Human Rights Council sessions; raising the subjects of education, poverty, corruption, freedom, money, human rights, happiness, power, love, and justice.
Educated as a Master of Business Administration, Anna completed her PhD in Metaphysical Science in 2009 and for the past fifteen years she has been dedicated to her pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and service toward humanity.
In 1998 Anna became a member of MENSA - The High IQ Society; an international society founded in Oxford in 1946 with its members representing the top 2% of human intelligence in the entire world. In 2000 she became a member of ISPE – The International Society for Philosophical Enquiry; a global scientific - philosophical society founded in 1974, dedicated to high achievement, advanced enquiry, original research and creative contributions.
Anna has been engaging, advising, interacting and working with leaders, organizations, representatives of civil society, religious leaders, educators, individuals and communities over the years; attempting to channel their strengths and energies towards meaning and connection.
Buna Dahal
Buna Dahal, blind motivational speaker, has been spreading the philosophy of empowerment for 25 years.
Visionary philanthropist - noble leader Buna Dahal has led numerous multimillion dollar humanitarian programs globally. She has mastered the art of community philanthropy for social responsibility. To support such programs, Buna consistently achieves 100% success in fundraising. Her extraordinary achievements have been featured on Colorado Community Newspapers, Nepal Television, Kantipur Television, NBC, CBS, MSNBC… to name a few.
Buna is an entrepreneur who promotes vision leadership combining personal leadership through community outreach. The earthquake of April 2015 in Nepal created tremendous health and safety issues for more than eight million people. In response to this she coordinated efforts with the U.S. Congress to secure Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepalese living in the United States. This allowed them to travel home, and back, more easily so they could carry aid to family and friends.
Buna Dahal is recognized as a global leader. She is a published authority in employment and leadership. Working across cultural and economic boundaries Buna delivers competitive placement strategies which ensure success. By incorporating rigorous follow-up, reporting and analytics into her training products this female entrepreneur and philanthropist has instilled methods for consistent execution in organizations around the world. For the past 20 years these strategies have assured upward mobility for 95% of her clients.
As the appointed ambassador to the West Asia Region of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, Buna -keynote speaker- is a beacon of inspiration.
Buna Dahal has addressed the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, the Colorado School of Mines, and Microsoft. She has shared the stage with world leaders, inventors, entrepreneurs, humanitarians as well as U.S. legislators. Buna Dahal is a disruptor!
A single hour with Buna will immerse your audience in the art of possibility, lift them through their own ah-Ha! moments and deliver a shared sense of noble living. Learn from a woman born blind how to develop and exercise vision. How to route-find your career, and how to inspire a desire for legacy.
Chit Aein Thu
Chit is an advocate for quality education and youth empowerment. After earning her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the University Of Computer Studies Yangon and her post-graduate diploma in Systems Analysis from the National University Of Singapore, chit also gained experience working in the technology sector of both Singapore and Myanmar.
Chit is now in Myanmar promoting education through technological means. Her goal is to provide education in areas that lack access to quality teaching and schools. She has started a CCEducare organization to enhance the learning experience in Myanmar by collaborating with international partners. Her mission is to reduce the limitation of quality education accessible using information technology. Her passion and stories have been written by the University of Oklahoma, USA with the article name “From Myanmar to OU”. Her organization CCEducare has been awarded “YSEALI Seeds for the Future 2018” and “Mekong Innovative Winner 2017”.
Daniel de Gruijter
Daniel de Gruijter is cofounder and CEO of Incitement; the next-generation social business - powered through inspirational talks-connecting brands with social causes with volunteers to tackle pressing global issues together.
When Daniel started Incitement late 2011, him and his business partner Zikry tried to raise funds for their startup, but quickly found that it was impossible to convince investors that a social business was worth their time and money. They decided to bootstrap.
Today, Incitement is widely considered to be one of South East Asia’s most influential social enterprises, with chapters in 46 countries, 100s of events and impact projects, 1000s of beneficiaries and volunteers, and on average 350% revenue growth yoy. Their clients include multinational organizations from the likes of Pepsico, Nestlé, Cummins, L’Oreal, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Youth and Sports, and many more.
Daxeel Soni
Daxeel Soni is an young software engineer and with the passion of startup product building using tech skills. He is a founder of Version Labs which focuses on chatbot/voicebots, blockchain solutions for the startups and enterprises.
He is a tech community enabler in India who develops and teaches technology to young students and professionals. He is a co-lead of Facebook Developers Circle, Ahmedabad and Co-Organizer at PyData Ahmedabad which is a local chapter of US based premier non-profit tech organization.
He is a technology educator, public speaker, maker and engineer invited to various institutes and events such as Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2017, IIM Ahmedabad, Startup Weekend Ahmedabad & Gandhinagar, Django Girls UK (Ahmedabad Chapter), Nirma University, Ahmedabad University, Various Google Developer Groups, Maker Fest 2017, Maker Mela 2017, Intel Make Tomorrow 2017, Facebook events and many more.
He is a creator of world's first open source Blockchain learning interface - Blockshell, having 1300+ stars and 6 global contributors on github which is used of Blockchain at Berkeley group in University of California, Berkeley to teach fundamentals of Blockchain.
Prof. Datuk Dr. Hajjah Bibi Florina Abdullah
Prof. Datuk Dr. Hajjah Bibi Florina Abdullah is the Pro-Chancellor of Lincoln University College, Malaysia.
Lincoln University College was founded in the year in 2002 as Lincoln College and in 2011 Lincoln College was upgraded to Lincoln University College. Lincoln University College is a private institution that provides higher education, approved by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA, National Accreditation Board) and the Ministry of Higher Education. Situated in the cosmopolitan town of Petaling Jaya, the university college is close to the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. At present Lincoln University College has two campuses in Petaling Jaya, along with its clinical campus at Kota Bharu.
Lincoln University College has been offering courses on Medicine and Health Sciences, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Business and Accounting, Hospitality, Computer Science and Multimedia, Engineering, Science, Social Science, Arts and Humanities. The college has recently been forwarding its steps in entrepreneurial education. It is co-organizing the fourth edition of Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (GEB) as per its plan to excel in the sector of entrepreneurial education.
Juliana Roth
Juliana Roth is Associate Director of MBA Program at Asia School of Business. A global minded professional with focus on executive education, hybrid/distance learning, and technology, Juliana has more than 16 years of experience in the field of management education. Prior to ASB, she was with Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, United States as Associate Director for Goizueta Business School’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program and Associate Director/Instruction Content Developer, MBA for Executives. Juliana has a Juris Master and Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Emory University.
Dr. K K Singh
Dr. KK Singh is the Founder & Chairman of International Youth Committee. He is an iconic multi-humanitarian award winner, a youth crusader, an author and also a World Traveller. He is serving more than 1 million youth from over 170 countries to empower them by providing educational resources, leadership opportunities, and a global network to the next generation of world leaders. He had transformed more than 600 drug addicted youths to body builder, saved over 600 girls from human trafficking, established numerous village libraries, currently working to provide free education, food, basic healthcare and vocational training to over 3,000 arm victims children affected by arm conflicts in India as his biggest mission and dream of life
Matthieu Mertens
After graduating in electronic engineering, Matthieu worked two years as a software engineer for a big company. Looking for an unconventional lifestyle, he quit his job to travel the world and find his purpose. After visiting different countries and continents such as Europe, South East Asia, South pacific and Australia, he ended up in Malaysia where he met the founders of the Biji-biji Initiative. Seduced by the concepts and the values they were promoting, he joined the project in 2013. Since then he has been growing the technology department by building interactive art installations, managing CSR projects and developing a signature product: The Energy playground. Passionate about Sustainable and accessible Energy, his focus today is to further develop the Energy Playground as well as promote and develop Microgrid systems in Malaysia.
Muhammad Sumon Molla Selim
Muhammad Sumon Molla Selim is a tech entrepreneur, coding evangelist and problem solver based in Bangladesh. He is the founder and CEO of Lets Learn Coding - an educational platform built to empower the youth with coding and related soft skills to battle the youth's biggest problems - unemployment, lack of skills. Previously he had been the technical head for some successful startups such as Panacea Live, SmartKompare.com, Oi Khali, Muv.asia and so on. He is also a One Young World Ambassador and Yunus&Youth fellow.
Nguyen Quang Huy
Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy has had 10 years as Lecturer/ Researcher of the Foreign Trade University (Vietnam), and 5 years as Director of External Relations and Recruitment of the Executive MBA in Vietnam, University of Hawaii (U.S). Huy has mentored many Vietnamese student teams to win international business/ startup competitions, such as ICAEW Southeast Asia Regional Business Challenge, Mekong Business Plan Challenge, Global Social Venture Competition. Huy is an inspiring initiator and advisor for Vietnam Social Innovation Competition since 2012. Prior to that, he experienced positions with Citibank, UNDP and KPMG Vietnam.
Huy got the Bachelor of Economics and International Business from the Foreign Trade University (Vietnam), and the Master of Public Affairs, Certificate of Social Entrepreneurship and Certificate of Fund Development for Nonprofits from the Indiana University (U.S). He also got several professional development grants for his community initiatives and leadership.
Ponce Ernest
Ponce Ernest Samaniego is currently Senior Program Manager for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Asia School of Business (ASB), a new premier business school established in 2015 by MIT Sloan School of Management and Malaysia’s central bank. In this role, he is responsible for the design, coordination, and delivery of innovation and entrepreneurship courses for graduate students and corporate clients such as AirAsia, UOB, and United Nations Development Programme. Previously, he was a consultant for Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT) on knowledge sharing and capacity-building.
Having joined ADB as a consultant in 2012 at 22 years of age, Ponce is often acknowledged as ADB’s youngest consultant in the organization’s history. Since 2014, he has become ADB’s youngest Team Leader managing a program that promotes inclusive development through increased stakeholder participation in ADB’s operations across 15 countries in Asia in urban development, environment, water and sanitation, and climate change. Previously, he was a consultant for ADB’s Water Sector Group and a researcher on ADB financing small-scale rural infrastructure project.
As an active community leader, he is an adviser to the UNEP Tunza Southeast Asia Youth Environment Network, an alumnus of the programs - British Council Global Changemakers, World Economic Forum Global Shapers, New Media Consortium Emerging Leader, and World Innovation Summit for Education Learners’ Voice.
Under a full scholarship award, Ponce obtained his Master of Business Administration degree as part of the inaugural batch of ASB in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon graduation, he received ASB President’s Leadership Award and the Best Action Learning Project. In 2012, he obtained his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of the Philippines where he received the Student Achievement Award. In 2009, Ponce was awarded an Erasmus Mundus scholarship through which he spent a semester in the University of Warsaw’s International Business Program.
Prof. Rajesh Nair
Prof. Rajesh Nair is an inventor, product designer, and entrepreneur with more than 25 years experience in multiple startups in Boston area. He is Professor of Practice in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Asia School of Business, a new school started by MIT-Sloan in Kuala Lumpur where he heads the ASB-Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His research is in developing ways to catalyze innovators and entrepreneurs in communities from the ground up and to build local entrepreneurship ecosystems. He has conducted transformational workshops on Making, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India, USA, Malaysia, East Timor, and Vietnam. His work has catalyzed more than 50 student startups.
Rajesh is a teacher and practitioner of Design Thinking process. He founded three product manufacturing companies in the US. He is also the founder of a nonprofit organization, TechTop Trust that promotes innovators & entrepreneurs among Indian youth since 2006.
He holds 13 US patents. He received Master degrees in Engineering & Management (MIT), Manufacturing Engineering (UMass, Amherst) and Electronic Product Design (IISc, Bangalore). He holds Bachelor degrees in Physics and Electronics & Communications Engineering.
Dr. Renard Siew
Renard Siew is part of the World Economic Forum Expert Network Group focusing on Sustainable Development in Asia. He is also involved in implementing the environmental agenda for Sime Darby, a multinational conglomerate based in Kuala Lumpur with operations across key growth industry sectors including Plantation, Property, Industrial, Motors, Energy and Utilities as well as Healthcare. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM). He continues to serve as a Stakeholder Council Member for the Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB) Foundation, a Global Advisory Board Member of Economists Without Borders (EWB) and is the Curator (Head) of Global Shapers Kuala Lumpur, a not-for-profit organization focusing on creating sustainable impacts in Malaysia. He actively participates and contributes in various stakeholder platforms including the ‘Water for Growth’ initiative and the Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) task force seeking to develop a National Level Water Transformation Roadmap for Malaysia. He is a Climate Reality Leader trained by Al-Gore, former Vice President of the USA in Pittsburgh. Renard is a graduate of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Cambridge University.
Ryosuke ISHII
Ryosuke ISHII is a Japanese researcher, entrepreneur and project manager, connecting and applying academic finding into the real world.
He is a founder of Japan Institute of Cognitive Science, board member of ZENTech Inc., and also a Senior manager of JEPLAN. Inc., and a former president Entrepreneurship Club, National University of Singapore.
He was born in Kobe, Japan. He received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tokyo (2009) and received an excellent students’ award for his graduation thesis.
He has been in charge of process innovation throughout his academic and business career in many areas. Such as started an educational company that makes children’s learning capability increased (2008), started a new consumer-centred recycling project which aims to create 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games’ medals by collecting and recycling old mobile phones (approved by Japan Olympic Committee in 2017, currently the project collect 3 million mobile phones).
He also invented “Therapeutic tool and therapeutic apparatus for psychiatric disorder" (Patent pending: WO2018/073974, applied in 2016), which is used for reducing anxiety and depression, increasing employee’s productivity.
His talent also underlies explaining complicated things as simple way: He wrote a book "The mildest happiness training method —for the troubled hearts" by explaining how his invention/patent works. The book is ranked No.1 in the Mental Health category and ranked No.12 in whole 3 million Japanese Books in Amazon Japan (2018). He made a lot of lectures and presentations for university students, business persons, business executives, children and for academic conferences.
Currently, he is researching “Team Psychological Safety” at ZENTech Inc., as a Chief Scientific Officer and helping companies enhance their team productivity.
Raw Chef Yin
Raw Chef Yin is Malaysia’s very own raw vegan celebrity chef with a book, a cooking show and countless demos and workshops under her belt. She trained at the world’s leading raw & plant-based culinary academy and now dedicates her time to helping others make beautiful, delicious raw vegan cuisine.
As a Certified Raw Food Teacher, she is constantly sought after to conduct fun and interactive sessions across Asia including Bali, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Malaysia. She was seen recently presenting at TEDxUSMNibongTebal 2018 where she spoke on “The Transformative Power of Raw Vegan Food”.
Raw Chef Yin was selected to represent Malaysia at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Beyond Food Bootcamp, where she became part of the MIT innovation community that is working towards solving the world’s food challenges focusing on key areas of sustainability, transparency and health.
Watch her on VELICIOUS with Raw Chef Yin, Malaysia’s very first (un)cooking show or buy her book - Raw Vegan Delights: Asian Edition or attend one of her pop-up dining experiences.
