Speaker

• 
  Talia Sanhewe

  Moderator

  

  Talia Sanhewe

  Moderator

  Talia Sanhewe is an international moderator and keynote speaker, whose passion is using the art of storytelling as a tool to authentically connect with her audience.

  Founder of Talia Productions (PTY) Ltd, a corporate communications and television production company based in Cape Town, her work also includes presiding as a current affairs jury judge for the International Academy of Art and Television Sciences (International Emmy Awards, New York) from 2011 to date.

  She has moderated signature events across Europe, Africa and North America with a keen focus on global innovation, technology, gender empowerment, entrepreneurship, asset management and private wealth.

  An award-winning reporter and producer for CNBC Africa, she won the regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award for her work in social entrepreneurship and has interviewed heads of state, celebrities and moderated LIVE from the World Economic Forum on Africa.

  Her experience also includes media training with C-suite executives and work with one of Africa’s largest financial services companies, where she worked as a capital raising consultant, using the skill of storytelling to help articulate the African growth story to international institutional investors.

  Her work includes, being a board member for the World Design Capital, Cape Town 2014, work for BBC World Service, CNN International, Forbes Magazine Africa, O, The Oprah Magazine, producing and co-hosting a prime-time women’s radio show on SAfm and work for SABC’s Top Billing TV series.

  Talia Sanhewe holds a BA Film and Media degree from the University of Cape Town. Her television education also includes a scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles where she took classes at their prestigious school of Film & Television.

  Twitter: - | Website: taliaproductions.tv

• 
  Joana Breidenbach

  Interviewer

  

  Joana Breidenbach

  Interviewer

  Joana has a PhD in cultural anthropology and is the author of numerous books on the cultural effects of globalisation. Including Tanz der Kulturen (Rowohlt 2000), Maxikulti (Campus 2008), and Seeing Culture Everywhere (University of Washington Press, 2009). Joana is co-founder of betterplace.org, Germanys largest donation platform. In 2010 she founded the betterplace lab, a think and do tank researching the use of digital technologies for the common good.

  In line with her interest in digital-social innovations, she supports initiatives such as the Redi School, CRCLR and Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft.

  Joana also invests in mission-driven start-ups such as Stadtfarm, DeepL and nebenan.de.

   

• 
  Ooooota Adepo
  

  Ooooota Adepo

  Ooooota Adepo is the founder of Cross Culture Creative, a consultancy which creates business solutions in Technology, Education and Real Estate between Africa, Europe and Asia. Motivated by her drive to creatively address social challenges and to capture the business opportunities of a more globalized market place, Ooooota seeks to build a world, in which all cultures are uplifted and respected.

  As director of TheTip, Ooooota feeds her passion for food and travel through culinary insights and anecdotes from some of the world’s most interesting food lovers. She is a fan of the Arts in all its manifestations.

  Ooooota holds a Master’s degree from Cambridge University in Urban Planning and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is fluent in English, Yoruba, French, Spanish and Italian.

  Twitter: - | Website: crossculturecreative.com

• 
  Hannah Bürckstümmer
  

  Hannah Bürckstümmer

  Hannah studied chemistry following her curiosity for why our environment is set up the way that it is and how new things can be created. She focused on the idea of synthesizing new dye materials for organic solar cells, and that became the topic for her PhD at the University of Würzburg in Germany. She joined Merck seven years ago, where she has been continuing research into third-generation solar cells and, later, on the strategy and marketing for organic photovoltaics (OPVs).

  Twitter: - | Website: linkedin.com/in/hannah-bürckstümmer-45498548/

• 
  William Browder
  

  William Browder

  William Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

  In 2009 his Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow prison after uncovering and exposing a US$230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials. Because of their impunity in Russia, Browder has spent the last eight years conducting a global campaign to impose visa bans and asset freezes on individual human rights abusers, particularly those who played a role in Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture and death.

  The USA was the first to impose these sanctions with the passage of the 2012 “Magnitsky Act.” A Global Magnitsky Bill, which broadens the scope of the US Magnitsky Act to human rights abusers around the world, was passed at the end of 2016. The UK passed a Magnitsky amendment in April 2017. Magnitsky legislation was passed in Estonia in December 2016, Canada in October 2017 and in Lithuania in November 2017. Similar legislation is being developed in South Africa, France and Ukraine.

  In February 2015 Browder published the New York Times bestseller, Red Notice, which recounts his experience in Russia and his ongoing fight for justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

  Twitter: - | Website: billbrowder.com/

• 
  Tomas Björkman
  

  Tomas Björkman

  Tomas Björkman is an author and social entrepreneur with great interest in science and philosophy. He used to be an investment banker and property developer working all over Europe. He has founded several companies and organizations, including Investment Banking Partners AB. He has also served as chairman of EFG Investment Bank and is a member of the Club of Rome. Ten years ago, he founded the Ekskäret Foundation in Stockholm, with the aim of supporting the co-creation of a more conscious society. He has also founded the research institute Perspectiva in London and the Co-creation Loft in Berlin.

  Tomas is the author of three books: The Market Myth (2016), Världen vi skapar (eng. The World we Create) (2017) and, together with Lene Andersen, The Nordic Secret (2017). He divides his time between London, Stockholm and Berlin.

  Twitter: @Perspecteeva | Website: tomas-bjorkman.com

• 
  Juan Enriquez
  

  Juan Enriquez

  Mexican-American academic, businessman, and speaker. Works in business, science, and domestic and international politics.  Recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences.  Author of numerous best-selling books.  Serves on a variety of boards including Cabot Corp., Synthetic Genomics, Openwater, Harvard Medical School Advisory Council, Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center, Tuft’s Biomedical Engineering, WGBH, Boston Museum of Science. Is a TED All-Star with nine TED talks and many TEDX talks.  He was the Founding Director of the Life Sciences Project at Harvard Business School and was recognized for his breakthrough ideas and lecturing.  Was fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs and is an affiliate at MIT’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group.  Is Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, a life sciences venture capital firm.  He earned a BA and an MBA from Harvard, with honors.

  Twitter: @EvolvingJuan | Website: -

• 
  ‚Cookie‘ Heinz Gindullis
  

  ‚Cookie‘ Heinz Gindullis

  Unlike any other, Cookie has shaped Berlin’s club and hospitality scene. A vegetarian himself since the age of 8, he opened Cookies Cream in 2007. Cookies Cream was awarded a Michelin star in 2017, as the first strictly vegetarian restaurant in Germany and one of very few worldwide.

  In 2014, Crackers, a restaurant with internationally inspired dishes, was opened. Crackers is located at the last premises of the legendary Cookies Club that was first opened in 1994.
  The most recent gastronomic project is Data Kitchen - a digital concept in cooperation with SAP where guests use an app to order.

  In addition, Cookies Events organizes and develops international events and caterings.

  Twitter: - | Website: cookiescream.com

• 
  Rachel Eve Ginsberg
  

  Rachel Eve Ginsberg

  Rachel Eve Ginsberg is a multidisciplinary strategist and experience designer, navigating the relationship between story and embodied experience. She is a lead artist on Frankenstein AI: a monster made by many – a multi-year design research project that launched with an immersive theatre installation as part of Sundance’s 2018 New Frontier line-up. In addition to independent consulting, Rachel leads strategy and partnerships at Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab (DSL). The Lab's mission is to explore future forms and functions of storytelling at the intersection of collaborative practice, play, technology, and social impact.
  
  Increasingly, Rachel's interests are moving towards exploring the power of speculative practices as a tool to envision and manifest collective futures, particularly as they pertain to emerging technology. She received a Master’s degree in Management of Fashion, Experience and Design from SDA Bocconi in Milan, and a BA in Literature from UC Santa Cruz.

  Twitter: @rachelginsberg | Website: racheleveginsberg.com

• 
  Fabian Hemmert
  

  Fabian Hemmert

  Fabian Hemmert is a design researcher, born and raised in Germany. During his studies towards an M.A. degree in Interface Design at FH Potsdam, he worked for Nintendo of Europe and Marvel Comics. He holds a doctorate in engineering (Dr.-Ing.). In 2014, he was a deputy professor for interface design at the Muthesius Kunsthochschule in Kiel, Germany.

  Fabian worked as a researcher at the Design Research Lab at the Berlin University of the Arts and is now a professor for Interface and User Experience Design at the University of Wuppertal. His work focuses on new interactions with technology.

  Fabian is regarded one of the world's foremost innovators in mobile telecommunication, having presented his work at multiple visionary events, including TED, CeBIT, the EuroVision TV Summit, and SXSW.

  His TED talk on shape-shifting mobile devices of the future has been viewed more than 700.000 times and translated into 35 languages. It can be viewed here: http://on.ted.com/9Czr

  Twitter: @fabianhemmert | Website: fabianhemmert.com

• 
  Lawrence Lessig
  

  Lawrence Lessig

  Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Prior to re-joining the Harvard faculty, Lessig was a professor at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. Lessig serves on the Board of the AXA Research Fund, and on the advisory boards of Creative Commons and the Sunlight Foundation. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, and has received numerous awards, including the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award, Fastcase 50 Award and being named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 Visionaries. Lessig holds a BA in economics and a BS in management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in philosophy from Cambridge, and a JD from Yale.

  Twitter: @lessig| Website: lessig.org

• 
  Kristina Paltén
  

  Kristina Paltén

  Kristina Paltén is the ultramarathon runner who decided to use her running as means to change the world. In a time when most of the Middle East was associated with problems and conflicts, Kristina put on her running shoes and ran, as a single woman, through Iran. Her friends and family urged her not to go, fearing for her safety, but for Kristina, this perception was exactly why she had to go. Kristina was tired of all the fear polarized between West and Islam and she wanted to discover if a world of trust could be true.

  This former civil engineer personalizes the boundless potential that is set free when following your own heart fully and truly. This potential is of course not limited to Kristina – it is the true greatness in everyone of us.

  Twitter: @KristinaPalten | Website: palten.se

• 
  Anne Philippi
  

  Anne Philippi

  Anne Philippi was born in Saarlouis, close to the French border to Germany.  She began her writing career at Vogue, wrote for the "Berliner Seiten" of FAZ, worked for GQ as a reporter, met international celebrities for several Conde Nast magazines. In 2007 she went to work as a reporter for the German Vanity Fair where she mainly wrote about Hollywood topics and America. In 2009 she moved to Los Angeles as a Hollywood reporter for Süddeutsche Zeitung and GQ, meeting and interviewing Jeff Bridges, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, George Clooney, Meryl Streep etc. She was also interested in Hollywood’s rapidly changing, new social media entertainment world.

  In 2015 Philippi’s much discussed first novel  Giraffes came out in which she is describing her life in the party loving Berlin in the mid 2000nds. Now she is working on the second book, about her time in Los Angeles  and the female midlife crisis. She writes for FAS and FAQ.

  Philippi is very interested in the digital world, moderated at the "DLD" in New York, wrote for refinery29.de, heywoman.com and iconist.de. She is interested how writing in the digital age works. For her upcoming book she is already thinking of a digital strategy and is working on a digital business idea with her business partner Claudia Hofmann. Philippi is currently commuting between Los Angeles and Berlin.

• 
  Mark Levy
  

  Mark Levy

  Mark is a seasoned globally minded Employee Experience Leader who has chosen to work for big hearted companies and focus on how he and his team can unleash the talents and passions of a company’s employees. Early in his career, he worked with the likes of Best Buy, Levi Strauss & Company and Gap Inc. partnering with business leaders to support their HR needs including innovative ways to create a learning organization and ensure integration between work and life. Mark also spent two years living and working in Paris, France for Thomson/Technicolor.

  Most recently, Mark was the pioneer of designing the Employee Experience at Airbnb, which has since created significant changes in the way organizations globally are looking at expanding the HR function to focus on the entire employee journey. This group included traditional HR functions, in addition to broader teams focused on social impact, culture and workplace. Mark helped to further Airbnb’s mission “to create a world where you can belong anywhere,” by establishing the employee experience mission that employee’s feel they belong at Airbnb. Glassdoor recognized Mark and his team’s work by naming them the #1 Place to Work in 2016.

  Mark is now taking his learnings to consult with companies, from start-ups to large global brands, to advise on how to evolve from HR to Employee Experience, how to create an integrated internal and external brand, how to bring the mission and values to life, and how to create a greater connection between the company and their employees, between employees, with the company’s customers, as well as the communities in which they operate.

  Mark has his JD/MBA from the University of Colorado after four formative years at Colorado College. Mark chose to leave the practice of law after one year to focus his career on helping organizations do the right thing and to attract, develop, engage and retain creative and diverse talent to drive business results, curate the culture and create community connections.

  In addition, Mark has been actively involved in giving back, including helping organizations enable their employees to help those less fortunate through volunteering programs and community involvement. He served on the Gap Foundation Board of Directors, and is currently on the Board of First Graduate, a non-profit which helps those who are first in their family to attend and graduate college.

  Twitter: @Levymarkj | Website: linkedin.com/in/mark-levy-b695201

• 
  Daniel Wehrenfennig
  

  Daniel Wehrenfennig

  Daniel is motivated to resolve conflicts. He grew up in Germany but travelled to the Middle East during his youth, where he witnessed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace efforts first-hand. His early exposure to conflict was sometimes by choice, like working with children traumatized by the war in Kosovo and sometimes by chance, like when he interned for the US Congress during 9/11. How to address conflict is at core of his academic work, he got his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. His desire to put research into practice lead him found the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), an experiential learning program that takes students into conflict regions. OTI has grown from a single campus to ten chapters in the US and the UK. It studies conflicts in the Middle East, the South Caucasus, and race-relations in the U.S. Daniel has mentored over 500 student leaders and seen how studying conflicts helps them develop leadership skills and become engaged citizens.

  Twitter: @Wehrenfennig | Website: olivetreeinitiative.org

• 
  Johannes Vogel
  

  Johannes Vogel

  Johannes Vogel is the Director-General of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and Professor for Biodiversity and Public Science at the Humboldt University Berlin. He chairs the Leibniz Research Alliance Biodiversity and is Deputy Chair of the German National Bioeconomy Council. In 2016 he was appointed Chair of the European Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP), which brings many important stakeholders across Europe together to advise the EU Commission, the Intergovernmental Competiveness Council and national stakeholders on a Europe-wide transition towards Open Science. Supporting bottom-up scientific and civic engagement he chairs the European Citizen Science Association. Studying biology in Bielefeld he moved to the University of Cambridge in 1989, obtaining a Ph.D. in Genetics in 1995. Thereafter he pursued a research career at the Natural History Museum in London, becoming Keeper of Botany in 2004. His interests are the role of museums in science and society, public engagement with science, open science, democracy and innovation, (inter-) national science policy, biodiversity and plant evolutionary biology.

  Twitter: @MfNBerlin | Website: museumfuernaturkunde.berlin