Breakthrough Technology Dialogue

Muhannad AlAzzawi has over 26 years of experience in business and investments. His extensive experience includes dealing in international financial markets, contracting and lobbying.

During his long exposure to financial markets, he has gained an invaluable wealth of experience in Treasury, Investments, Infrastructure Projects, Trading and Saudi Government advisory.

Muhannad is the Vice chairman of the National Contractors committee at the council of Saudi Chambers, the Vice chairman of the Contractors committee at Riyadh Chamber of commerce and Industry, and a member of several committees at the Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers Member of the Board of Directors, Member of The investment committee, Remuneration and Nomination committee TAIBA Holding a Saudi Joint Stock Company.

Member of the Board of Directors Saudi Golf Federation (SGF) Muhannad has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Engineering.

Jonas Andrulis has been working with software and intelligent systems since 1998, often close to academic innovation, and has published numerous papers in the research community. After studying industrial engineering at KIT in Karlsruhe and writing a thesis on Bayesian networks, he worked as a consultant in the field of AI and modeling. He successfully founded two AI software companies: The first to plan and optimize logistics, the second to optimize human-in-the-loop training and the validation of deep learning algorithms in human-machine interactions. After three years as Engineering Manager for AI research in Apple’s Special Projects Group in Cupertino and later in AI research at Siri, he founded Aleph Alpha in Heidelberg in 2019, the third AI start-up with a focus on innovation and application of sovereign generalizing artificial intelligence. Since then, Aleph Alpha has raised a total of 500 million euros from some of the best European deep-tech investors and strategic partners with the aim of establishing independent cutting-edge AI research and providing basic technology for a new type of information-based value creation.

Peter Beck is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Engineer of Rocket Lab, a Nasdaq-listed leading launch and space systems company opening access to space to improve life on Earth. Rocket Lab’s capabilities span the space economy, including satellite design and manufacture, industry-leading spacecraft software and components, and reliable launch services. Under Mr. Beck’s leadership, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the most successful small launch vehicle globally and Rocket Lab satellite subsystems have featured on more than 1,700 missions. Rocket Lab technology enables some of humanity’s most ambitious space missions, including complex interplanetary science missions, national security programs, and vast commercial constellations.

Since founding the company in 2006, Mr. Beck has grown Rocket Lab into a global organization of 1,800 people across the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Today, Rocket Lab’s launch vehicles, satellites and space systems are relied upon by a range of global mission partners including NASA, the United States Space Force, DARPA, the National Reconnaissance Office, and a broad range of commercial satellite and constellation operators.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. As co-founder/CTO of Inrupt, he has created pioneering Solid open-source technology to provide data sovereignty for citizens, governments and companies. Co-founder of the Open Data Institute and World Wide Web Foundation he has received numerous awards, including the Turing Prize.

Lady Rosemary Leith Berners-Lee, Senior Advisor, SandboxAQ
Rosemary’s focus is Deep Tech, Data and Fintech following a career in PE. An investor and Advisor, she is a Non Executive Director of Proton AG, Non-Executive Director of Intermediate Capital Group plc and Chair of the Risk Committee, Senior Advisor to PE Motive Partners/ Motive Ventures, Senior Advisor to SandboxAQ, a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and co-founding Director of the World Wide Web Foundation.

JoeBen Bevirt is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: Joby), a California-based company developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which will operate as part of a fast, quiet and emissions-free aerial ridesharing service in cities around the world.

A natural-born engineer, JoeBen has dedicated his life to driving radical innovation in the fields of electric propulsion, robotics and consumer products. In 1999, JoeBen co-founded Velocity11 to develop high-performance robotic laboratory systems. JoeBen also founded Joby Inc., which develops uniquely useful consumer products, including the popular Gorillapod flexible camera tripod.

JoeBen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He is the recipient of the 2018 Haueter Award for outstanding technical contribution to the field of VTOL aircraft development. He holds more than 65 US patents.

Aditya Bhasin is chief technology and information officer for Bank of America and is a member of the company’s executive management team. Bhasin leads a global team of more than 60,000 employees responsible for designing and delivering technology solutions for all eight lines of business, staff support groups, Global Information Security, Technology Infrastructure and Global Business Services.

Previously, Bhasin was head of Consumer, Small Business, Wealth Management and Employee Technology. In this role, he was responsible for designing and delivering technology for Consumer, Small Business and Wealth Management clients through Bank of America’s online and mobile banking apps as well as in financial centers and in Merrill and Private Bank offices. Bhasin and his team also drove the evolution of software delivery methodologies, agile development practices and architecture standards companywide, while identifying partnerships that connect Bank of America to the emerging technology ecosystem and innovations for clients.

Since joining the bank in 2004, Bhasin has held numerous leadership roles. He has led teams in Marketing, Analytics, Digital Banking, Home Loans and Strategy. Previously, he was a principal at Booz Allen & Hamilton, serving clients globally.

Bhasin is executive sponsor for the Women in Technology & Operations advocacy group, the Hispanic and Latino Leadership Advisory Council and the Black Leadership Advisory Council for Global Technology. He also serves on Bank of America’s Asian Advisory Council, which advocates for teammates of Asian descent to help advance and grow their careers. In 2022, he received the A-List Award for courageous leadership from Ascend Inc., the nonprofit pan-Asian membership organization for business professionals.

Bhasin is a trustee of Hamilton College and chairs the board of trustees of the Discovery Place science and technology museums for children in the Carolinas.

He holds master’s degrees in computer engineering and engineering management from Dartmouth College, and undergraduate degrees in chemistry and computer science from Hamilton College.

Sébastien Bubeck is Vice President, GenAI Research at Microsoft. He won multiple awards for his machine learning results around robustness and optimization. Most recently, he has been interested in understanding how intelligence emerges in large language models. With collaborators at MSR, he wrote the Sparks of AGI paper studying the emergent abilities of GPT-4. This work was covered in The New York Times, Wired, This American Life, and more.

Kimberly S. Budil sets the strategic vision for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and exercises broad delegated powers to ensure successful execution of programs and operations to enhance national security through application of cutting edge science and technology and to maintain an outstanding and diverse workforce. She leads the development and implementation of the Laboratory’s scientific vision, goals and objectives and serves as the Laboratory’s highest-level liaison with the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, the LLNS Board of Governors, the University of California and other government, public and private organizations.

Budil leads a workforce of more than 8,700 employees and manages an annual operating budget of approximately $3 billion. Along with the directors of Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, she shares the responsibility of providing the United States government with an annual institutional assessment of the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and enterprise. She is the 13th director of the Laboratory and serves as president of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.

Budil has held roles of increasing management responsibility at the Laboratory, most recently serving as principal associate director for Strategic Deterrence. Budil served as a detailee twice in Washington, D.C and was Vice President for National Labs at the University of California Office of the President. She currently serves on several boards and participates in numerous professional and community outreach activities.

Budil holds a Ph.D. in engineering and applied science from the University of California, Davis, where she was a Hertz Fellow, and a B.S. in physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Benj Conway is an entrepreneur, investor and former diplomat. He studied medicine at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge (1st Class) and University College, Oxford. He spent his early career at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office working across Asia and the Middle East, with much of that decade posted overseas. Since leaving government, Benj has founded and invested in companies in pre-emerging markets and technologies, including InFrontier, a leading frontier-market private equity firm. Benj co-founded Zap Energy with Uri Shumlak and Brian Nelson.

John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. In his role, Chambers focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale. Drawing upon his track record as a tech disruptor himself, Chambers coaches next-generation CEOs and invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as AMD Pensando, ASAPP, Aspire Food Group, Balbix, BigSpring, Bloom Energy, Dedrone, Denim, Lilac, Nile, OpenGov, Parkour SC, Pindrop, Privoro, Quantum Metric, Rubrik, Safe Security, SparkCognition, Sprinklr, Uniphore, and Virsec. He serves on the Board of Directors for Bloom Energy, OpenGov, Pindrop, Quantum Metric, Sprinklr, and Uniphore.

Prior to founding JC2 Ventures in January 2018, Chambers served as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman at Cisco Systems. During his 25+ years at Cisco, he helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined in 1991, to $1.2 billion when he became CEO in 1995, to $47 billion when he stepped down as CEO in 2015. Chambers is the author of Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World, where he shares lessons for lasting success in the Digital Age. Chambers is the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and the Global Ambassador of the French Tech under French President Emmanuel Macron.

Kyle Clark is an aerospace engineer, pilot, and the founder and CEO of BETA Technologies, a Vermont-based company working to electrify aviation. Kyle and his team are focused on building solutions that move goods and people more safely, efficiently, and with minimal environmental impact to help shift the transportation paradigm and turn the corner on climate change. To do this, BETA is building innovative electric propulsion systems, electric; net-zero aircraft; and a cross-country, multi-modal charging infrastructure that powers electric transportation more broadly.Prior to founding BETA, Kyle co-founded Venture.co and was Director of Engineering at Dynapower, where he and his team of programmers, engineers, and technicians developed a full line of inverters, pulse modulators, and control systems, and served as a founding partner and Vice President of Engineering at iTherm Technologies. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Kyle played right wing in the NHL’s Washington Capitals organization. He is a Certified Flight Instructor as well as a licensed commercial airplane and helicopter pilot. Kyle holds a degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Harvard University, where he studied flight dynamics and control algorithms.

Dr. Benedict Cross is the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Platform at PhoreMost Ltd, a pre-clinical drug discovery company based in Cambridge, UK. He is a geneticist & biotechnologist and has pioneered the use of computationally engineered mini-proteins to enable new medicine development and degrader-based drugs. Ben has research expertise in proteostasis, functional genomics and chemical genetic screening and in 2014 founded the UKs first CRISPR-based screening platform.

He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed studies and patents working at the intersection of biology, drug discovery and data science. As a serial biotech platform builder, Ben has a particular proclivity for collaboration and for engineering business alliances across the life sciences sector.

Claure Group: Founder & CEO

SHEIN: Group Vice Chairman

Bicycle Capital: Executive Chairman and Managing Partner

Harvard University: Co-Chair, D^3 AI Institute

Marcelo Claure is a globally recognized entrepreneur and investor, known for his transformative impact across industries. He is the Founder and CEO of Claure Group, a multi-billion-dollar global investment firm deploying proprietary capital across AI & technology, climate & energy transition, and lifestyle & entertainment. Claure Group invests directly in companies and through leading investment funds.

Notable investments include T-Mobile, the world’s most valuable telecommunications company, where Claure is the largest individual shareholder; SHEIN, the fastest growing global on-demand fashion company, where Claure serves as Group Vice Chairman; and Bicycle Capital, Latin America’s premier growth equity fund, where Claure serves as Executive Chairman.

Claure’s investments reflect his passion for sports as well. He played a pivotal role in expanding Major League Soccer when he founded Inter Miami CF. Today, he owns Club Bolivar, Bolivia’s largest professional soccer team, and co-owns Girona FC, a top team in Spain’s La Liga, one of the world’s most popular soccer leagues. Additionally, he owns Team Brazil, which competes in the E1 series, the first and only electric race boat championship.

Claure is also at the forefront of AI through his role as co-chair of Harvard University’s Digital Data Design (D^3) AI Institute, which focuses on how AI will shape the future of business and society.

As a young entrepreneur, Claure founded Brightstar, growing it into the world’s largest global wireless distribution and services company. In 2014, Claure sold Brightstar to SoftBank Group and became the CEO of Sprint, one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies. He went on to lead Sprint’s iconic turnaround and the $195 billion merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. Claure was then promoted to CEO of SoftBank Group International, overseeing a portfolio of 40 companies and managing over $450 billion. He also launched the $8 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund, the largest tech fund ever created in the region.

Claure has received numerous awards throughout his career, including induction to Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame, recognition as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and the Great Immigrants Recipient by the Carnegie Corporation, an award given to extraordinary immigrants who have made notable contributions to the progress of American society.

Claure holds a B.S. in Economics and Finance from Bentley University, and honorary Doctorates from Bentley University and Babson College. He also is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Jim DeMare is President of Global Markets for Bank of America and is a member of the company’s Executive Management Team, Management Risk Committee and Operating Committee. He also co-chairs the Global Markets Risk and the Global Reputational Risk Committees.

DeMare has more than 25 years of financial services industry experience. Prior to joining Bank of America in 2008, he held various management and senior trading positions in fixed income at Citigroup, Salomon Brothers and Bear Stearns. Under his leadership, Global Markets is focused on supporting Bank of America’s institutional and corporate clients with their financial market activities globally. Global Markets provides market-making, financing, securities clearing and settlement services across debt, equity, commodity, and foreign-exchange markets world-wide. DeMare is also responsible for the bank’s Global Commercial Real Estate Lending business.

He co-sponsors Bank of America’s Developing and Engaging African American Leaders (DEAL) employee network, which is focused on promoting African American and Black talent. He is engaged in the New York City community, serving as a trustee for Prep for Prep, a leadership development program that provides opportunities for diverse students. DeMare is also a member of the Dean’s Council at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Richelieu Dennis is the founder and CEO of Sundial Brands, which includes SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, and Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture, a premium hair-care line exclusively available at Sephora. Rich is also the founder and Chairman of Essence Ventures which includes ESSENCE, ESSENCE Studios, Afropunk, BeautyCon, Girls United, Naturally Curly, and the New Voices Foundation.

In November 2017, Richelieu architected a first-of-its-kind deal in the beauty and personal care industry when he negotiated the landmark acquisition of Sundial Brands by Unilever – one of the largest natural beauty/personal care deals in the U.S. and also the largest consumer products transaction by a majority Black-owned company. As part of this purpose-driven agreement, he created a groundbreaking $100 million New Voices Fund to invest in and empower women of color entrepreneurs. In addition, he founded the New Voices Foundation to provide support services for women of color entrepreneurs to achieve their vision through leadership development, skills-building, networking opportunities, and other innovative leadership initiatives. The Foundation currently serves over 2,500 Black businesses and foundations on its platform.

The New Voices Fund is the largest and most successful fund investing in women of color today, operating at 18x the Fund and flipping the traditional funding paradigm on its head. With over 30 years of experience building businesses from launch to exit, Rich and the Fund also support successful Black women-owned companies such as Mielle Organics, Slutty Vegan, The Honey Pot, Mented Cosmetics, The Lip Bar and McBride Sisters Wine Company.

Also in 2017, Richelieu founded Essence Ventures, an independent Black-owned consumer technology company focused on merging content, community, and commerce to create an ecosystem that meets the cultural and lifestyle needs of people of color. In January 2018, the company announced that it had acquired Essence Communications Inc. from Time Inc., placing the storied publication’s ownership back into the hands of a Black-owned company.

In December 2018, Richelieu announced the purchase of Madam C.J. Walker’s historic estate, Villa Lewaro, via the New Voices Foundation. Upon completion of restoration efforts, Villa Lewaro will be used as a learning institute, or think tank, where women of color entrepreneurs will receive in-person and virtual curriculum-based learning and other resources to help build, grow, and expand their businesses.

Richelieu has been named by OWN to its “SuperSoul 100” list celebrating 100 trailblazers using their power, vision, and life’s work to bring a higher level of consciousness and move the world forward. He has also been named one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company. In 2017, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, the country in which he was born, conferred upon Richelieu one of the nation’s highest honors – the distinction of Knight Commander, admitting him into the Most Venerable Order of the Knighthood of the Pioneers.

In 2023, Richelieu helped broker one of the largest acquisitions of a Black-female-founded company – the acquisition of New Voices Fund portfolio company Mielle Organics by Procter & Gamble. Rich has been featured in numerous publications. including Forbes, Adweek, INC., TechCrunch, AfroTech, CEO World Magazine, Black Enterprise, CNBC, NASDAQ, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,  Oprah Daily, and many more.

Dr. Herbert Diess is a prominent leader in the automotive and technology sectors, currently serving as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Infineon Technologies since 2023, a position he has held after being a board member from 2015 to 2020. He most recently was the CEO of Volkswagen AG from 2018 to 2022. Dr. Diess has also held various influential roles at BMW AG from 1996 to 2014, including Member of the Management Board for Development and Purchasing and Supplier Network, and significant leadership positions at Robert Bosch GmbH between 1989 and 1996.

Dr. Diess holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, where he also earned his Dipl.-Ing. degree.

Tony Fadell is an active investor and entrepreneur with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing products that profoundly improve people’s lives. He is the Principal at Build Collective, an investment and advisory firm coaching deep tech startups. Currently, Build Collective is coaching over 200+ startups innovating game-changing technologies. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at Arm. He is the founder and former CEO of Nest, the company that pioneered the “Internet of Things.” Tony was the SVP of Apple’s iPod Division and led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone. Throughout his career Tony has authored more than 300 patents. In May 2016, TIME named the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPod and the iPhone as three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” He is a best selling author of BUILD: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.

Lord Jitesh Gadhia has been a Member of the House of Lords since September 2016. He was previously Senior Managing Director at Blackstone based in London and has over 25 years’ financial services experience, having also held senior positions at Barclays Capital, ABN AMRO and Baring Brothers.

He currently serves on the boards the Bank of England,  Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, Taylor Wimpey plc and Compare The Market Limited.  He was previously a board member of UK Financial Investments Limited (UKFI) and UK Government Investments Limited (UKGI), the centre of excellence for corporate finance and corporate governance for the UK Government, between 2014-2022.

Lord Gadhia is also Chair of The British Asian Trust, a charitable foundation established by His Majesty King Charles III. He graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in economics and attended the London Business School as a Sloan Fellow.

Mark Gorenberg has three decades of venture capital experience, funding and serving on the boards of numerous successful start-ups.  Mark is currently the Founder and a Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, the first and leading early-stage fund focused only on AI for enterprise. Prior to his career in venture capital Mark served as a software executive, entrepreneur and a member of the first SparcStation team at Sun Microsystems.

Mark is currently the Chair of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation (Board of Trustees). In 2011, Mark was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a 21-person advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers.

He graduated from MIT and received Masters Degrees from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University.

Adam is Chairman & Managing Partner at UP.Partners, an early-stage venture strategy transforming the moving world. Previously, he was Group Head of Silver Lake Kraftwerk for 11 years, where he led successful private equity investments across the energy, automation, mobility, and data communications sectors including in Tesla (TSLA), Solar City (SCTY), Hyla Mobile (Assurant), Quorum (Thoma Bravo), Eka Software (STG), and Aras (GI Partners).

Before Silver Lake, Adam was a General Partner at Foundation Capital for 10 years after serving as President of Excite@Home. Prior to his role at Excite@Home, Adam served as cofounder, President, and CEO of Catapult Entertainment through its IPO. Earlier in his career, Adam held leadership positions with technology innovators Apple Computer, Lucasfilm, and Sony.

Adam serves on the board of LineVision, Range, Teleo, UnitX, Beyond Math and the advisory board of Beta Technologies, and until recently served as a Senior Advisor to the Canadian Pension Plan Advisory Board (CPPIB). Previously, he has served on the board of First Reserve’s energy platform, Aeva (AEVA), Calix (CALX), Carbon, EnerNoc (ENOC), Conviva, Control4 (CTRL), Sentient Energy (Koch), SiBEAM (SIMG), Silver Spring Networks (SSNI), Transmedics (TMDX), Arroyo (CSCO), Alteon (NT), Peakstream (GOOG), Peribit Networks (JNPR), and Traverse Networks (AV).

Adam builds boats and planes, bikes avidly if slowly, and kitesurfs at every opportunity. He is an ATP rated pilot and is active in the restoration, preservation, and flying of jet warbirds. Infused with a love of technology and art, Adam holds BA, MS and MBA degrees from Stanford University, is a lecturer at Stanford University, and contributes to National Public Radio’s Marketplace. He is a Senior Fellow at the American Leadership Forum, and in 2020 was awarded an Edmund Hillary Fellowship from New Zealand. He has been named to Forbes Midas List 4 times.

Hermann co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners in 1997 with Anne Glover. He has founded and invested in many technology companies including Acorn, ARM, Solexa which was bout by Ilumina, CSR, Graphcore and Photonic.

Hermann holds an MA in Physics from Vienna University and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded an honorary KBE in 2015.

Nick’s research into fusion began in 2007 as part of his masters thesis, where he worked at the University of Oxford with Yiannis Ventikos. This work continued into a DPhil, where he performed hydrodynamic simulations of shock-driven cavity collapse. These simulations showed that cavity collapse leads to inertial confinement of the gas inside the cavity and revealed that extreme states of matter could be reached, possibly entering the regime for fusion. To explore the concept of energy generation via this process, Nick and Yiannis co-founded First Light Fusion Ltd in 2011.

Nick also spent three years tutoring at Lady Margaret Hall during his studies. After finishing his DPhil in 2012, Nick joined First Light Fusion as CEO and CTO.  In 2024, Nick was appointed Chief Scientific Officer and continues to oversee the technical vision of the company.

Jack is the CEO of SandboxAQ which focuses on enterprise SaaS solutions at the convergence of AI and quantum tech. www.sandboxaq.com. SandboxAQ is backed by Eric Schmidt (who serves as Chairman of the company), T. Rowe Price, Marc Benioff, Jim Breyer, Guggenheim Partners, Amadeus Capital, and other leading investors. Here is a recent article on the company.

Jack worked previously at Alphabet leading AI and quantum teams. Jack is the author of Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach, published by Springer. This work, now in its second edition, is one of the leading textbooks in the field and is used both in undergraduate and PhD programs, as well as corporate training sessions.

Jack is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several tech companies, including EarthWeb/Dice (NYSE: DHX), which he led from its founding through IPO. He also co-founded Vista Research, a fintech company, which he and his team sold to S&P/McGraw-Hill. Jack is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation and has been a board member of Trickle Up, which helps thousands of entrepreneurs start small businesses each year. His foundation, The Hidary Foundation, is dedicated to medical oncology research and has supported work at Sloan Kettering and UCSF.

Jack has been recognized for his leadership by organizations such as the World Economic Forum and is a member of YPO. Jack studied neuroscience at Columbia and subsequently received the Stanley Fellowship in Clinical Neuroscience at NIH where he worked on functional brain imaging and neural networks.

▪2019 –Present, President | Chief Strategy & Investment Officer at LG Corp.

▪2014 –2018, Director at Bain & Company Seoul Office

▪2011 –2013, Partner at Bain & Company Seoul Office and Co-head of TMT

(Telecommunication, Media & Technology) Practice in Asia

▪2005–2010, Head of Innovation atSK Telecom

▪M.B.A. and M.I.A. (Master’s in International Affairs) from Columbia University

▪B.S. in Business Administration from University fromSouthern California

BumshikHong is a President and Chief Strategy Officer in LG Corp. and is in charge of group-level portfolio management in line with long term portfolio strategy. Mr. Hong is also responsible for M&A and divestments for LG Corp. and its subsidiaries. He focuses primarily on growth initiatives for corporate rebuilding along with M&A roadmap.

Mr. Hong has more than 20 years of experience in management consulting industries advising global companies. His particular interest lies in how multi-national companies compete across value chains, rather than within the traditional value chain, in this era of digital transformation. He specializes in projects ranging from global business portfolio development and organizational strategy to mergers and acquisitions in the global market, as well as new business model development for organic growth.

Prior to joining LG Corp., Mr. Hong was a partner and director in Bain & Company Seoul office and co-head of the firm’s Telecommunication, Media & Technology Practice in the region.

He also served as head of innovation at SK Telecom, responsible for its growth strategy and innovation.

He earned his M.B.A. and M.I.A. (Master’s in International Affairs) from Columbia University and graduated with a B.S. in business administration from the University of Southern California.

Zia Huque is a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where he focuses on growth-stage investing. Zia brings a wealth of experience in later-stage financing, having been in the business of risk investment and risk management across credit, rates, equities, and derivatives asset classes for the vast majority of his career. Zia also brings his operational expertise to Prime Movers Lab, having had vast executive, strategic and operational responsibilities across multiple businesses and regions of a top-five global investment bank managing tens of billions of dollars and thousands of employees. He serves on the boards of multiple Prime Movers Lab portfolio companies.

Zia served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, the US Broker Dealer of Deutsche Bank, from early 2018 until his departure from Wall Street in 2019. At Deutsche Bank, Zia was also Head of Equities, Fixed Income & Currencies for the Americas from 2016 to 2018 and Global Co-Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Banking and Securities from 2012 until 2016. During Zia’s 30-year finance career on Wall Street, he held multiple executive positions in the United States, Europe and Asia while leading investment banking, sales and trading functions spanning many industries, products, and clients.

Zia received his BA in Economics and in Political Science from Williams College. He resides in Wyoming with his wife and two daughters and is active in the local community.

Christian von Koenigsegg, CEO & Founder, Koenigsegg Automotive AB, Sweden

Groundbreaking achievements in automotive technology have traditionally been dominated by those in the highest echelons of racing. Those with decades of tradition. The early 1990s saw a young man from Sweden dare to challenge the status quo, to dream about what could be achieved with a clean-sheet design and a single-minded dedication to developing the absolute best in automotive technology.

Christian von Koenigsegg was just 22 when he founded Koenigsegg Automotive in 1994. He had little money and no formal engineering education. What he had, however, was an instinctive gift for design, an unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit, and the sense to surround himself with great people.

Koenigsegg’s first car arrived in 2002.  A technical tour-de-force for its time, it received both a Guinness World Record and a Red Dot Design Award. Records, awards and accolades have followed with each new model.

Koenigsegg’s new technologies are all developed in-house. Their recent HV8 engine and LST gearbox designs offer immense potential across the entire industry. Koenigsegg’s electric drive architectures, already proven in their own automotive applications, are now being adopted into parallel transportation industries.

Rewards and growth have followed.  In the last 10 years, Koenigsegg Automotive has 10x’d both its head count and physical footprint, patented innumerable new technologies, established a global distribution network, and sold out new models within days of release.

Halldora von Koenigsegg was born in Sweden in 1976.

She graduated with a marketing and economics degree from IUU and soon after, took managerial positions in marketing and sales. In 2000 she joined her husband, Christian, at the small automotive company they’d(?) started a few years prior – Koenigsegg Automotive AB.

Today, Halldora is the COO of Koenigsegg, a company renowned for its production of exclusive and bespoke extreme high-performance cars, with a global network of dealers and clients, and a stellar reputation in the automotive industry for cutting edge innovation and technology.

Halldora is an inspiring entrepreneur and business leader. She is a founder and key decision maker at Koenigsegg, and her three-decade entrepreneurial career demonstrates an impressive ability to overcome industry challenges and drive the company’s continued success.

Halldora’s passion for business and innovation is strongly linked to her commitment to developing people and promoting female leadership. She is an advocate for diversity in the workplace and believes that mixed teams lead to more creative and effective results. Halldora is a source of inspiration in the male-dominated automotive sector, and a pioneering force that contributes to opening doors for more women in leading positions.

Her leadership is characterized by an understanding of the global market and a commitment to building strong international relationships, which are critical for a luxury brand striving to excel in a competitive industry. Under Halldora’s leadership, Koenigsegg has continued to innovate and set new standards in automotive technology, while maintaining a personnel policy that encourages growth, learning and personal development.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, Halldora von Koenigsegg has repeatedly demonstrated that determination, strategic thinking and a commitment to people’s development are crucial components for achieving success in the international arena. Her leadership at Koenigsegg is not only an example of successful business operations, but also a strong testament to the power of female leadership.

Mark RN Kotter is a doctor, scientist, and serial entrepreneur. As a neurosurgeon, he treats patients with spinal cord injury. Mark is best known for discovering the importance of macrophages for brain regeneration, which led to the first regenerative medicine trial for degenerative cervical myelopathy, and for developing opti-ox, a gene targeting approach that enables faithful execution of genetic information in cells. Applied to cellular reprogramming, opti-ox demonstrated that robust activation of a new cell type program (encoded in transcription factors) is necessary and sufficient to deterministically induce a new cellular identity. These findings challenge the theory that cell reprogramming depends on stochastically determined permissive states and enable the production of any human cell within days at purities approaching 100%. He is the founder of bit.bio, the company coding human cells for novel cures, co-founder of cultured meat startup Meatable, scientific founder of clock.bio and co-founder and trustee of Myelopathy.org, the first charity dedicated to a common yet often overseen condition causing a ‘slow motion spinal cord injury’.

Arvind Krishna is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. As a business leader and technologist, he has led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain. He has also played a significant role in the development of innovative IBM products and solutions based on these emerging technologies.

Over his 30-year career at IBM, Arvind led a series of bold transformations and delivered proven business results. He most recently drove the successful USD 34 billion acquisition of Red Hat – the largest software acquisition – that has defined the hybrid cloud market. Together, IBM and Red Hat give clients the unique ability to build mission-critical applications once and run them anywhere.

Arvind previously was senior vice president of Cloud and Cognitive Software, where he pioneered the company’s hybrid cloud business, transformed IBM’s entire software and services portfolio and offerings for cloud, and grew the business. He also headed IBM Research, where he drove innovation in core and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, cloud platform services, data-driven solutions, and nanotechnology. In 2016, Wired Magazine selected Arvind as “one of 25 geniuses who are creating the future of business” for his foundational work on blockchain.

As general manager of IBM Systems and Technology Group’s development and manufacturing organization, Arvind led the strategy for data-centric systems and the widespread industry adoption of open and collaborative technology standards. He also grew the IBM Information Management business by 50 percent.

At IBM, Arvind has been an outspoken advocate for learning at every stage of one’s career. He has made scientific contributions in a number of technical fields, including wireless networking, security, systems, and databases. In addition, he founded IBM’s security software business and helped create the world’s first commercial wireless system.

Arvind is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and he serves on the Board of Directors of Northrop Grumman and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum. Arvind has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the recipient of distinguished alumni awards from both institutions.

Charlie is currently managing Never Lift, a venture capital fund focused on the future of mobility and supply chain. He recently completed his MBA at Columbia and prior to this he worked at 8VC, a venture capital fund in San Francisco, and Afiniti, a global SaaS AI company where he ran the UK sales and strategy team. Additionally, Charlie remains involved at Goodwood, working on the future of the Estate and tech-focused opportunities such as the development of the Gravity flying school.

Gary Marcus is a leading voice in artificial intelligence. He is a scientist, best-selling author, and serial entrepreneur (Founder of Robust.AI and Geometric.AI, acquired by Uber). He is well-known for his challenges to contemporary AI, anticipating many of the current limitations decades in advance, and for his research in human language development and cognitive neuroscience.

An Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU, he is the author of five books, including, The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, and the New York Times Bestseller Guitar Zero. He has often contributed to The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times. His most recent book, Rebooting AI, with Ernest Davis, is one of Forbes’s 7 Must Read Books in AI.

Strive Masiyiwa is a telecommunications and technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. In nearly four decades as an entrepreneur, he has started and invested in businesses throughout the world including Africa, the European Union, India, Latin America, the Middle East, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. He currently serves as a NED on the board of Netflix Inc., and as a trustee on the not-for-profit boards of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Geographic Society. Strive sits on several Global Advisory councils including Bank of America, Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and Stanford University. For 15 years, he served as a trustee of The Rockefeller Foundation, amongst many other pan-African and international initiatives in which he’s played co-founding, advisory, or leadership roles. An International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Strive graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has received several honorary doctorates from universities globally. He and his wife Tsitsi are Giving Pledge signatories and have six adult children. https://www.econetafrica.com/strive-masiyiwa

Miron Mironiuk, a Polish tech entrepreneur, moved to Asia 10 years ago to found Cosmose AI. Cosmose AI’s personalization model is integrated with 33% of global smartphone shipments and ensures the highest level of privacy protection by running AI computation on the edge. As one of only few Europeans he has managed to establish himself in the East Asian market, with Cosmose largest markets being Indonesia and China.

His leadership in AI was recognized by the newly appointed Polish government, and since Jan’24 Miron has been chairing a new government advisory committee, PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland. The objective of the team is to propel Poland to become one of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world by 2050, thanks to the superiority of Polish engineers who are second only to China, a country 40 times more populous, in the International Olympiad in Informatics over the last 35 years.

Beyond his business ventures, Miron is a philanthropist promoting equal opportunities by championing programming education worldwide. In October, Miron launched ‘Code with Pope’ at the Vatican alongside Pope Francis, the global expansion of Cosmose AI’s ‘Programming = Our Second Language’ initiative.

Simon is an award-winning entrepreneur and sustainability leader, helping to solve some of the world’s largest environmental challenges today.

Over the past 19 years he has built up Ground Control Ltd to be a highly respected, multi-award-winning environmental services business looking after over 60,000 sites in the UK, for which he received the UK’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for Transformational leadership in 2018 and British Business Excellence Award’s Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2021.

Simon is now CEO and founder of Xlinks, which is tackling the problem of renewable energy intermittency through long-distance HVDC transmission coupled with large-scale solar PV, wind turbine, and battery storage installation. Xlinks’ first project will transmit 3.6 GW of renewable electricity from generation in the Moroccan desert to the UK through an HVDC sub-sea cable link – providing ~8% of UK electricity needs in the process.

Simon also founded XLCC, a pure-play HVDC manufacturer, which is designing the world’s most advanced cable production factory to meet the critical demand for low-loss electricity transmission cables from wind farms, grid operators, and long-distance transmission players such as Xlinks.

In addition to this, Simon has also focused significant energy on other environmental initiatives. Simon founded Solar Ventus in 2010, which has built over 100 wind turbines and invested in a number of other climate impactful businesses. Likewise, he founded Future Motors to supply 40%+ more efficient electric motors to businesses across Europe to reduce both their energy costs and emissions. Simon also founded Skyports and Levitate Capital to accelerate the world’s trajectory to sustainable aerial mobility.

Simon is an ex-McKinsey consultant and Morgan Stanley Derivatives analyst. He holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a Master’s degree with Honours in Economics, Engineering and Management from Oxford University.

Alexandra Mousavizadeh is the co-founder and CEO of Evident, the AI benchmarking intelligence platform that specialises in ranking companies on their AI Adoption progress. Alexandra has 20 years experience in building indexes for nations and companies on economic and technological issues. Prior to Evident, she led Tortoise Media’s Intelligence business, where she developed the Global AI Index. Other roles include Head of Country Risk Management at Morgan Stanley, Senior Sovereign Analyst for Moody’s, CEO of ARC Ratings and Director of The Prosperity Index. She holds a degree in Economics and Game Theory from the University of Copenhagen.

Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan leads a team of more than 210,000 employees dedicated to making financial lives better for people, companies of every size, and institutional investors across the United States and around the world.

Bank of America was named 2023 World’s Best Bank by Global Finance and has been selected as World’s Best Bank by Euromoney magazine twice in the last six years while winning 15 of the magazine’s Awards for Excellence in 2023, including World’s Best Bank for Markets, Financing, Diversity and Inclusion and Digital Bank. The company was also named one of America’s Most JUST Companies, including Top Company for Workers. Bank of America has been recognized as a leader in financial services appearing on Forbes magazine’s list for World’s Best Employers and World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies as well as Fortune magazine’s list of World’s Most Admired Companies and Best Companies to Work For. Bank of America also was named on People’s Companies that Care list and is the top global bank on Fortune’s Change the World list. The company has been ranked four times on LinkedIn’s Top 50 Companies in the U.S. list, and also is recognized annually as a top employer by Working Mother, LATINA Style, Black Enterprise, Military Times and U.S Veterans Magazine.

Moynihan participates in several organizations that focus on economic and market trends, including the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics Initiative (chair), the Financial Services Forum, the Bank Policy Institute, the Business Roundtable, The Clearing House Association (chair), the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable (co-chair), and the Business Council. He also is chair of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, which was founded by His Majesty King Charles III in his former role as His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.

Moynihan serves as chair of the company’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council and is a member of the advisory council for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is also a member of the Brown University Corporation’s Board of Fellows and the Watson Institute Board of Governors (chair), the Catalyst Board of Directors, the Council on Competitiveness Board (chair) and the Appeal of Conscience Board of Trustees.

Moynihan works with public officials, businesses and civic leaders at the local level through his participation on the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council, the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (chair) and the Partnership for Rhode Island.

Prof. Jeremy O’Brien is co-founder and CEO of PsiQuantum, a quantum computing company soon to deliver the world’s first commercially useful quantum computers. These systems will be used to tackle some of the greatest challenges we face, and to create profound new opportunities. PsiQuantum is partnering with customers and governments globally to bring about transformation across healthcare, climate, finance, transportation, security and beyond.  Prof. O’Brien has dedicated 25 years to this mission, having identified quantum computing as the most profoundly world-changing technology, due to its potential to unlock critical solutions to otherwise impossible problems. PsiQuantum has invented a ‘fusion-based’ photonic architecture to enable utility-scale quantum computers to be manufactured in a conventional silicon chip foundry, and leverage the full semiconductor, packaging and computer systems supply chain, and to achieve compatibility with conventional control electronics, optical fibre networking and existing large-scale cryogenic infrastructure. Prof. O’Brien has published 150 papers with 40,000 citations (h-index 88); he demonstrated the first photonic 2-qubit logic gate, invented the field of Integrated Quantum Photonics, co-invented the Variational Quantum Eigen Solver (VQE), and implemented VQE on a photonic chip. Prior to founding PsiQuantum, he was Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Bristol Universities, and Founding Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics/QET Labs. He has held visiting professorships at NTT, Osaka University, Hokkaido University and the University of Tokyo, totaling two years. He received a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales and is an undergraduate and postdoc alumnus of the Universities of Western Australia and Queensland, respectively. He holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Emerging Technologies, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Mr. O’Leary is CEO of JetZero overseeing the developmentof the company’s transformational blended wing bodyaircraft. He is responsible for all facets of the company,including fundraising, partner relationships and businessdevelopment. He was the former COO of prominent eVTOLstartup BETA Technologies, where he collaborated withMark Page on the design of the BETA Alia eVTOL. He wasan early senior executive (Director of Sales and Marketing)at Tesla, putting in place much of the innovative marketfacing infrastructure for that pioneering mobility company.He is well versed in taking startup technologies andcompanies from their early stages to maturity. His entirecareer has been in mobility, starting at Autoweb.com,working at eBay Motors and with other innovators.

Franck was appointed by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as his Special Adviser on Business and Investment in March 2023. Franck has over 35 years’ experience in the City and Wall Street. He started his career at S. G. Warburg in London and then spent 30 years at Morgan Stanley in both New York and London. Franck ran Morgan Stanley’s investment banking practice for over 10 years and then headed up Morgan Stanley International; responsible for the firm’s operations outside of the USA.

Franck is very involved in the visual arts and holds various positions, as Deputy Chair of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and Trustee of the Goodwood Art Foundation. He is also very involved in conservation, particularly in West Sussex.

Franck is a member of the House of Lords. He’s the President of the UK Chapter of the French légion d’honneur.

About the Founder and CEO 

Markus is a dedicated quantum physicist, senior financial executive and deep tech entrepreneur. Since he was 14 years old, Markus has been a quantum physics enthusiast. He built on that passion, studying mathematics and physics at RWTH Aachen, and researched in the area of quantum field theory at CERN. His curiosity drew him to business and finance, and he subsequently joined Boston Consulting Group.

Later on, he assumed management responsibilities as a senior executive in various corporates including Deutsche Bank and UniCredit, as well as positions as Chief Financial Officer in owner-managed digital and high-tech companies.

Ultimately, he decided to leverage his expertise in quantum physics, business and finance to become an entrepreneur in the quantum technologies space. In 2018, he founded Terra Quantum AG, a deep tech pioneer commercializing quantum tech application. Markus is senior advisor to private equity funds and member of the “Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche (BBUG)”.

About the Company 

Terra Quantum AG is the globally leading quantum technology company, co-headquartered in Germany and Switzerland, focused on providing an end-to-end technology platform delivering real quantum advantage to its customers already today.

It provides “Quantum as a Service (QaaS)“ in three core areas, the first one being “Quantum Algorithms as a Service”. Here, customers are provided access to an extensive library of algorithms, such as hybrid quantum optimization and hybrid quantum neural networks, which can be used for solving complex logistics problems or pattern recognition, among other things. Terra Quantum also develops new quantum algorithms for its customers or adapts existing algorithms to their specific needs. Secondly, through “Quantum Computing as a Service”, Terra Quantum offers its customers access to its proprietary high- performance simulated quantum processing units (QPU), the quantum ecosystem’s physical QPUs, while also developing native QPUs. The third division is “Quantum Security as a Service,” through which Terra Quantum offers its unique solutions for secure quantum and post-quantum communications worldwide.

In a landmark deal in February 2023, Terra Quantum added Investcorp to the existing investor base, which includes Europe’s leading venture capital firm Lakestar and two of the largest and globally renowned German family offices, Terra Quantum has the backing of a truly entrepreneurial investor base with deep roots across pharmaceuticals, logistics, payment, blockchain and the wider cyber security spaces.

The addition of Investcorp to Terra Quantum’s shareholder base not only underpins Terra Quantum’s ‘private-equity’-readiness, but also signals the relevance of the wider quantum technology space to the alternative investment community.

Peter Rawlinson is Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and a member of the board of directors at Lucid (LCID), a California-based technology company focused on creating the most advanced EVs in the world. Peter is responsible for the company’s strategy and execution, as well as the creation and delivery of all Lucid products.

Before Lucid, Peter was Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S, where he led the engineering of Tesla’s flagship vehicle from a clean sheet to production readiness while building the engineering team. Before joining Tesla in February 2009, he led vehicle engineering at Corus Automotive, an advanced technology consulting firm. He was also Chief Engineer of Advanced Engineering at Lotus.

Peter spent nearly a decade at Jaguar, ascending to the position of principal engineer, working on advanced body structure design, layout and packaging, including crashworthiness. He was one of the first to apply computer-aided design to automotive engineering and was an integral part of the Jaguar team that advanced the integration of computer-aided-design with computer-aided analytical tools within a simultaneous engineering environment, a methodology he applied and refined at Lotus and with other global automakers. He has a mechanical engineering degree from Imperial College.

Growing up in South Wales near Cardiff, UK, Peter designed and constructed his own sports car in his spare time – featuring an innovative and efficient structure that influenced a generation of production cars. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys better weather and Silicon Valley’s relentless innovation.

Charles Richmond, The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, CBE DL, is Chairman of the Goodwood Group of Companies and the founder of the widely acclaimed Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival.

He took over the management of the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex from his father, the 10th Duke of Richmond and Gordon, in 1994 after a successful career as a photographer in London. Having had a passion for film and photography since the age of 10, he left school at the first possible opportunity and at 17 worked for the film director Stanley Kubrick on the film Barry Lyndon. He went on to forge a world-wide reputation as a still-life photographer, producing award-winning campaigns for some of the world’s most famous brands.

Motorsport at Goodwood was started by his grandfather, Freddie Richmond (the 9th Duke of Richmond and Gordon), who opened the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1948. Having established the Festival of Speed in front of Goodwood House in 1993, Charles Richmond brought motor racing back to the Goodwood circuit (which had been closed in 1966) with the creation of the Goodwood Revival in 1998. Both events have since become recognised as some of the most exciting and creative events in the world.

The Goodwood Estate Company is one of a diverse portfolio of businesses which includes Goodwood Racecourse which has been one of the highlights of the English summer season since 1802. Goodwood’s most famous meeting, the Qatar Goodwood Festival attracts many of the greatest thoroughbreds in racing and in terms of the experience is revered right across the racing world. The estate also enjoys a 4,000acre organic farm, two eighteen-hole golf courses, Goodwood Aerodrome and Flying School, a ninety-one-bedroom hotel and Hound Lodge, a luxury ten-bedroom sporting lodge. The Group employs over 650 people and attracts more than one million visitors each year. The Estate covers 12,000 acres and since 2003, has been the home and headquarters of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

In 2012, Nature Translated, a major exhibition of his photographic work (under the name Charles March) was staged at the Bermondsey Project Space in London. The exhibition was shown at the Marble Palace, part of the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, in January 2014 and in Moscow as part of the Moscow Photography Biennale in April 2014. Two new exhibitions were held in early 2015: Wood Land at the Venus Over Manhattan Gallery in New York City and Abstract and Intentional which was held at Hamiltons Gallery in London. In late 2016, Seascape was held at the Venus Over Los Angeles Gallery in the U.S.A. and was shown again at Hamiltons Gallery in London in September 2017. An exhibition of highlights from his photography career, and a new body of work taken on the Scottish island of Jura, was held in the Palazzo Borghese in Rome in 2018. At the same time, he launched a book of the Jura pictures called Gleann Badraig, published by Distanz and with poetry by Ken Cockburn.

Charles Richmond is President of the British Automobile Racing Club, Patron of the TT Riders Association, and an honorary member of the British Racing Drivers Club and the Guild of Motoring Writers. He received the CBE in 2024 for services to heritage, sport and charity.

He lives at Goodwood House with his wife, Janet (née Astor), and their five children.

Stuart Russell is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, holder of the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering, and Director of the Center for Human-Compatible AI and the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public. He is a recipient of the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, the IJCAI Research Excellence Award, and the ACM Allen Newell Award. From 2012-14 he held the Chaire Blaise Pascal in Paris. In 2021 he received the OBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and gave the BBC Reith Lectures. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, an AI2050 Senior Fellow, and a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, and AAAS.

His book “Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach” (with Peter Norvig) is the standard text in AI, used in over 1500 universities in 135 countries. His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence, with a current emphasis on the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity. He has developed a new global seismic monitoring system for the nuclear-test-ban treaty and is currently working to ban lethal autonomous weapons.

Samm Sacks is a Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. Her research examines China’s information and communications technology (ICT) policies, with a focus on China’s cybersecurity legal system, the U.S.-China technology relationship, and the geopolitics of data privacy and cross-border data flows. Previously, Sacks launched the industrial cyber business for Siemens in China, Japan, and South Korea. Prior to this, she led China technology sector analysis at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group and worked as an analyst and Chinese linguist with the national security community. She is a frequent contributor to the media and her articles have appeared in outlets including The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and Slate. She has testified multiple times before Congress on China’s technology and cyber policies.

Sacks is also a cyber policy fellow at New America and a former Fulbright scholar in Beijing. She holds an M.A. from Yale University in international relations and a B.A. from Brown University in Chinese literature.

David Schwimmer is Chief Executive Officer of London Stock Exchange Group and a member of the Board of LSEG plc. Prior to joining the Group in August 2018, he spent twenty years at Goldman Sachs where he held a number of senior roles, most recently as Global Head of Market Structure and Global Head of Metals & Mining. During his tenure, he also served as Chief of Staff to Lloyd Blankfein, who was then President and COO of Goldman Sachs, and also spent three years in Russia as Co-Head of Russia/CIS. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he practiced law at Davis Polk & Wardwell. He holds a B.A. from Yale University, and post graduate degrees in law (JD) and international affairs (MALD) from Harvard University and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, respectively.

Ian Shipsey FRS is a particle physicist who has shaped research directions in the US and UK in particle physics, cosmology and the application of quantum sensing and technology to fundamental questions about dark matter, dark energy and gravitational waves from the cosmos.

He is distinguished for contributions to the flavour problem, the Standard Model’s (the prevailing theory) inability to explain three generations of fermions (the quarks that are the constituents of protons and neutrons, and the leptons – the electron and neutrino are examples). He made crucial contributions to the most precise determination of four of the nine weak force quark couplings (with the CLEO/CLEO-c experiment at Cornell), observed rare b-quark decay processes (with the CMS experiment at LHC) and contributed to evidence for Higgs-field generation of the muon mass (with the ATLAS experiment at LHC), first measurement of LHC b-quark production (CMS); and Upsilon suppression in heavy-ion collisions, providing evidence for the Quark-Gluon Plasma (CMS).

To enable these measurements, he constructed silicon cameras for the CLEO and CMS, and currently ATLAS. Instrumental to the approval and success of the CLEO-c experiment, he was thrice elected CLEO/CLEO-c co-leader. Ian also co-led the LHC Physics Center at Fermilab. Leveraging his silicon expertise, he pioneered US DOE particle-physics involvement in Rubin Observatory’s flagship Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), contributed to development of its 3-Gigapixel CCD camera, and is an Executive Director of the LSST Discovery Alliance (LSSTC). He was instrumental in developing UKRI’s Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics Programme.

Prof Shipsey is the Henry Moseley Centenary Professor for Experimental Physics at Oxford. He has been the Head of the Department of Physics since 2018 and is a Professorial Fellow of St Catherine’s College. Prior to his appointment at Oxford, he was the Julian Schwinger Distinguished Professor of Physics at Purdue University. He received the IoP’s James Chadwick Medal and Prize in 2019, he was a co-recipient of the European Physical Society’s Europhysics Prize in 2005 and 2013, and is an APS, AAAS and IoP Fellow. He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2022.

Andrew Sibbald, Managing Director and Co-Head of Europe is based in London, and joined Warburg Pincus in 2023. Andrew was previously Chairman and before that, CEO of Evercore’s European Investment Banking business. Prior to this, he was the Founder and Senior Partner of Lexicon Partners, which was acquired by Evercore in 2011. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol. Andrew is a Vice President of Save the Children (UK) and an honorary visiting Professor in Bayes Business School.

Bejul is a senior leader at Lightspeed Venture Partners and a founding partner of Lightspeed India Partners with more than twenty-five years of experience as a builder and early stage investor, and has helped expand the firm’s canvas by spearheading several of Lightspeed’s global offices and strategic initiatives.

His background and interests encompass technology and consumer businesses. Investments made by Lightspeed Global Platform funds (both LSVP and LSIP) include: Freight Tiger, Freshmenu, Foxy, IEX, Limeroad, MagicPin, Million Eyes, Neuu Labs, One-Assist, Oyo, Priority Vendor (acquired by C2FO), Red Carpet, Setu, Shuttl, Tutor Vista, Udaan, Ula, Unilodgers, and several others.

Prior to joining Lightspeed India Partners in 2008, Bejul was Co-Managing Director of Twiga Fiberglass, a leading manufacturer of thermal and acoustic insulation solutions in India and a Partner of Saint Gobain, one of the largest building materials companies worldwide.

Before moving to India, Bejul started and bootstrapped Open List, a U.S. Web-search company that was acquired by Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX). Prior to Open List, Bejul was an investment professional at General Catalyst Partners, where he focused on early and growth investments in Internet, media, travel distribution, loyalty, and other consumer-facing applied technology businesses. Earlier in his career, Bejul was a strategy consultant with Bain & Company and an equity capital markets.

Don is a Partner and Chief Policy Officer at Sequoia Capital. In his role, Don serves as general counsel to the leadership, represents the business in numerous policy fora, and assists Sequoia’s portfolio companies facing regulatory and policy challenges. Don founded Sequoia’s Washington, DC office and leads its global policy engagement efforts.

Prior to joining Sequoia, Don was a senior partner at the law firm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, where he practiced at the intersection of regulatory law and national security policy. Before Skadden, Don founded and led the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and cyber practices at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR). Don also served in several positions within the U.S. government, including as Chief of Staff of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Deputy Chief Counsel to the House Permanent Selection Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Staff Director for HPSCI’s Subcommittee on Investigations, and as a federal prosecutor. Don began his legal career at the law firm of Williams & Connolly.

Don has received numerous awards while in public service, including from the Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Don was recently named a Tech Titan and one of Washington’s most influential people for his work at Sequoia.

Don serves on the boards of Genuity Science, Hakluyt, and the National Venture Capital Association.

Jimmy Wales is a American-British Internet entrepreneur best known for founding Wikipedia.org, as well as other wiki-related organizations, including the charitable organization Wikimedia Foundation, and the for-profit company Fandom.

Wales received his Bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University and his Master’s in finance from University of Alabama. He was appointed a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2005 and in 2006, he joined the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization Creative Commons.

In January of 2001, Wales started Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit and today Wikipedia and its sister projects are among the top-five most visited sites on the web. In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida, to support Wikipedia.org. The Foundation, now based in downtown San Francisco, focusses on fundraising, technology, and programming relating to the expansion of Wikipedia. Wales now sits on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, and as founder continues to act as a key spokesperson.

In 2004, Wales co-founded Fandom (then called Wikia), which enables groups of people to share information and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Wikia’s community-created wikis range from video games and movies to finance and environmental issues.

In 2007, The World Economic Forum recognized Wales as one of the “Young Global Leaders.” This prestigious award acknowledges the top 250 young leaders for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. In addition, Wales received the “Time 100 Award” in 2006, as he was named one of the world’s most influential people in the “Scientists & Thinkers” category. In 2013, he joined the board of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.

In December, 2013, Wales was awarded the UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal in Copenhagen, Denmark at a conference on “An Open World” to celebrate to 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr’s atomic theory. In February 2014, Wales was named one of “25 Web Superstars” by The Daily Telegraph.

Wales is currently living in London, where he intends to make his permanent home.

Alexander Walsh is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group in London, where he focuses on the Consumer, Media and Leisure sectors. In addition, Mr. Walsh is involved in Blackstone’s investment activities in the UK.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Walsh was a Managing Director at TowerBrook where he was involved in leading and executing investments in various sectors. Prior to that, Mr. Walsh was a Principal at CapVest.

Mr. Walsh received an MA in Economics and History at the University of St Andrews. He serves as a Director of Bourne Leisure and the National Exhibition Centre. He is also a trustee of the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Bobby Yerramilli-Rao is CSO & CVP, Corporate Strategy at Microsoft. He is responsible for helping the Senior Leadership Team identify and execute on the most important strategic priorities for the company. His mandate spans both existing business areas and new potential areas for Microsoft.

Prior to this role, Bobby spent 9 years as co-founder and managing partner of Fusion Global Capital, a growth stage venture capital firm focused on enterprise technology. Notable investments include RingCentral and The Trade Desk which are now both public companies. In addition, Bobby is the co-founder of two biotech companies, Biomodal and GenomeTx, both in the genomics space.

Bobby serves on the board of Global Foundries and is a board observer at Biomodal. Bobby was previously the Corporate Strategy Director at Vodafone, responsible for global strategy at the company. Bobby was a partner at McKinsey and Company working in the Palo Alto, New Jersey and London offices on technology related issues. He started his career as an engineer at Marconi.

Bobby holds an M.A. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a D. Phil in Robotics from the University of Oxford. He also conducted post-doctoral work on autonomous driving and traffic systems at the University of California at Berkeley. He is based in Redmond, Washington.

Maria Zuber is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy at MIT, tracking trends and seizing opportunities to inform and advance enlightened state and federal policy. She also provides strategic direction to campus labs, centers, and initiatives connected to defense or national security and represents MIT with external stakeholders.

Zuber served as vice president for research from 2013 to 2024, and was responsible for research administration and policy, research relationships with the federal government, and oversight of MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers. In that role, she led the team that developed and provided oversight for MIT’s Climate Action Plan.

Zuber’s research bridges planetary geophysics and the technology of space‐based laser and radio systems. Since 1990, she has held leadership roles associated with scientific experiments or instrumentation on ten NASA missions, most notably serving as principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. Zuber currently serves as Chair of the Standing Review Board of NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission.

Zuber holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an Sc.M. and Ph.D. from Brown. She has won numerous awards, including the MIT James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the MIT faculty bestows to one of its own. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society, and the American Geophysical Union. In 2019, she was awarded the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Zuber is the first woman to lead a science department at MIT and the first to lead a NASA planetary mission.

In 2013, President Obama appointed her to the National Science Board, and in 2018 she was reappointed by President Trump. She served as Board Chair from 2016-2018. In 2021, President Biden named her as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

James Harding is the Editor and Founder of Tortoise Media, a slow news company launched in 2019. Prior to this, he was Director of News and Current Affairs at the BBC, the world’s largest news organisation. He was the Editor of The Times of London from 2007-2012, winning the Newspaper of the Year in two of the five years he edited the paper. He was previously The Times Business Editor. He joined The Financial Times in 1994, where he worked as Washington Bureau Chief, Media Editor and China correspondent opening the paper’s bureau in Shanghai in 1996. He studied history at Trinity College, Cambridge; he was a Daiwa scholar 1992-93, studying Japanese at SOAS and in Tokyo. He is the author of Alpha Dogs- How political spin became a global business. He presented On Background on the BBC World Service with Zanny Minton-Beddoes, editor of The Economist. He is the host of the podcast, The News Meeting.