Speakers
A scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. Scientist to observe the world, inventor to ideate improvement, entrepreneur to bring it to life.
Alex is Founder and CEO of ab|inventio, the award-winning invention factory behind QLess, Whozat and mynew.TV. ablinventio was honored as Most Innovative Company of the Year in North America Distinguished Honoree by the 2010 International Business Awards, alongside Salesforce.com and a handful of others.
Mr. Backer will also present at Humanity+ Hong Kong on the same weekend.
Chair Professor Gary C. BIDDLE teaches accounting at the world's leading business schools, including Columbia Business School, London Business School and HKU Business School. He has served as professor at University of Chicago, where he earned his MBA and PhD degrees, University of Washington, CEIBS (China), IMD (Switzerland), as Associate Dean at HKUST, and as Dean at HKU. A CPA (USA), he is Independent Non-Executive Director (INED) of leading listed and private companies, and he contributes frequently to the financial press, including the Economist and Wall Street Journal. His research spans financial accounting, valuation, value creation and appears in leading academic journals globally. He has won over 20 teaching awards.
Patri Friedman received a BS in math from Harvey Mudd College, an MS in computer science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Cardean University. While in school he experimented with technology startups, ran a small consulting business, and co-founded two intentional communities. He was a software engineer at Google from 2004-2008. Patri is the Founder & Chairman of The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit which seeks to build cities on the ocean to experiment with diverse political systems. He is also CEO of Future Cities Development Inc, a startup working to build innovative new cities in partnership with countries such as Honduras. Patri is on the board of Humanity+ and co-created Breakthrough Philanthropy with Peter Thiel.
Mr. Friedman will also present at Humanity+ Hong Kong on the same weekend.
Dr. Glenn Frommer was born in the USA. His background is in aerospace engineering, where he focused on high speed and later on low speed aerodynamics before receiving his second major in medicine from Stanford University in California. After years of research Glenn started working for a local company of the F. L Smidth Group in 1981, focusing on acoustics and got more and more involved with environmental issues. As a consequence of Glenn's efforts, his company received the Danish Working Environmental Prize in 1984 for the development of a mineral-wool free sound absorbing ceiling.After a short stay in Australia in 1991, being in charge of an engineering company, he moved with his family to Hong Kong where they now reside. Glenn has been working for MTR ever since and has designed the company's environmental and sustainability programmes to be among the world's leaders.
Aubrey de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999) and co-author of Ending Aging (2007). He challenges the most basic assumption underlying the human condition -- that aging is inevitable. He argues instead that aging is a disease -- one that can be cured if it's approached as "an engineering problem." His plan calls for identifying all the components that cause human tissue to age, and designing remedies for each of them — forestalling disease and eventually pushing back death. He calls the approach Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).
Dr. Grey will also be the keynote speaker for Humanity+ Hong Kong on the same weekend.
John Terence Hung SBS JP is a fourth-generation Hong Kong resident of Scottish and Chinese ancestry and a well-known figure in the corporate and sporting world. His career led him through a myriad of different business sectors. He retired from the Wharf Group in 2002, but continues to live in Hong Kong and engages in writing and in advisory and consultancy work. He is the father of Samantha Hung, another speaker in this conference.
Samantha Jane Hung (LLB (Hons), BComm, MA International Development) was born in Hong Kong and is of 5th generation Hong Kong Eurasian heritage. She has worked for many years advancing women's rights and promoting gender equality across the Asia Pacific region. As a young law/commerce graduate, Samantha chose to do good rather than do well, and headed off to serve as a volunteer in Viet Nam, instead of pursuing a career in the legal and corporate world. She was rewarded for this choice when she later received an Australian Government award for her contribution to poverty reduction and sustainable development. Her initial exposure to the adversities faced by rural women in developing countries led her to embark on an enriching career dedicated to advocating and advising on gender issues for a range of organizations such as UNICEF, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the New Zealand Agency for International Development, the Institute of Development Studies in the UK, and the Australian Government. Samantha currently works as a Gender Specialist with the Asian Development Bank and is based in Manila, where she resides with her partner and 3 young children.
Katrien Jacobs is a scholar, artist and activist who works as associate professor in cultural studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her work investigates the role of digital networks in people's experiences with the body, art, and sexuality. She has lectured and published widely on pornography, censorship and media activism . She is also working on long-term research projects in visual anthropology that detail the impact of Japanese animation on South East Asian youth cultures and social networks. She is the author of three books about Internet culture, art and sexuality. Her forthcoming People's Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet has been widely commented on in the mass media. Her work can be found at www.libidot.org/blog
Dominic Man-Kit Lam was born in Swatow, grew up in Hong Kong. He studied under two Nobel Laureates at Harvard Medical School before joining the Harvard Faculty and subsequently became Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman of Center for Biotechnology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He is the president of the World Eye Organization.
His main achievements include:
1989, became the founding director of Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology and received the U.S. High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He was also appointed a member of the U.S. President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities by George H.W.Bush, and received a Presidential Medal of Merit. 1991, was named "Asia Society Man of the Year" and wrote two articles for Scientific American.
2005 Appointed Chairman of Arts Promotion Committee, Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
Ravi is a medical writer interested in addressing the root cause of illness. He is also concerned with how the profit motive can distort the medical community into prioritizing chronic disease management over prevention. Ravi's upcoming book promotes alternative health using the scientific method, bringing together two concepts that were until recently seen as incompatible. Born and raised in India, he has spent over two decades in the US and London, and currently lives in Singapore.
Jeffery is a Harvard trained social scientist who researches personal transformation. He specializes in bringing rigorous empirical research and testing to transformational techniques and theories that have previously been supported anecdotally. For the last several years Jeffery has been leading the first major international research effort aimed at understanding non-symbolic consciousness (enlightenment, nonduality, mystical experience, union with God/nature, etc.). A bestselling author and award winning educator, Jeffery has co-edited, authored, or co-authored over 20 books and numerous other publications; appeared in a wide variety of media; and lectured broadly in both academic and public forums. He is currently the director of the Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness (www.nonsymbolic.org). Portions of his research on Non-Symbolic consciousness are also available in the popular novel, The Fourth Awakening (www.fourthawakening.com). In addition to his academic research, Jeffery is a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold companies in the technology, media, real estate, and wellness sectors.
Dr. Martin will also present at Humanity+ Hong Kong on the same weekend and at the Asia Consciousness Festival the next weekend, both also in Hong Kong.
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Switzerland, Ho Yan is a PR professional with more than 10 years PR and Marketing experience. Before Wai Yin Association, she had worked for MTV Networks Asia as Director of Communications for over seven years overseeing the company's regional corporate communications strategies. She also was a winner of the 1993 Miss Hong Kong Pageant and was a TVB Hong Kong actress. She served as the President of Wai Yin Association in year 2009/2010.
Ho Yan studied Immunology and Molecular Biology at Basel Gewebe Schule in Switzerland. She then obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations from the School of Professional and Continuing Education at the Hong Kong University.
Dr. Max More is an internationally acclaimed strategic philosopher widely recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Max's contributions include founding the philosophy of transhumanism, authoring the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, and co-founding Extropy Institute, an organization crucial in building the transhumanist movement since 1990. At the start of 2011, he became President and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world's leading cryonics organization.
Dr. More will also present at Humanity+ Hong Kong on the same weekend.
Abi Muller is the CEO and Co-Founder of Picki Picki. By 17, Abi held two congressional recognitions for Artistic Discovery and created her own fashion line. She has studied haute couture as for apprentice for Nicolas Caito and in University she studied Fine Arts and Art History with a focus in Art of Mathematics. Her goal is to establish formal provenance for fashion. Picki Picki has recently been featured in Business Insider as a fashion company that is "More Disruptive Than Gilt.
Dr Louise Porter is an Australian Child Psychologist with 30 years' experience. She has worked in private practice, consulting with parents and practitioners about children's development, behavior, and social or emotional challenges.
Louise Porter started out working in mainstream and disability agencies. Dr Porter then went on to lecture at Flinders University in South Australia for 13 years. She spends time each year traveling around the world presenting Keynote addresses, talking to school and parents about children behaviors. In her extensive career she has written 18 books, contributed chapters in 4 books and written 9 journal articles and has written and presented 2 DVDs.
Eric Schuldenfrei is the co-founder of ESKYIU and a designer focusing on the evolving relationship between urbanism, architecture, and art. Architectural projects completed in collaboration with Marisa Yiu have been featured in many international biennales: 'Urban Pastoral' for the 2008 Venice Biennale; 'Human Motor' in Ljubljana; and 'Mediated Labour' for the 2007 Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale. Past projects include an art installation commissioned by Agnes Gund, President Emerita of the MoMA in New York.
Schuldenfrei received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University as well as a Master and Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge. He taught at Princeton University; Columbia University; and at the Architectural Association. Together with Marisa Yiu, Schuldenfrei was awarded the 'Architectural League Prize for Young Architects' and the Perspective '40 under 40' award. Their work has been published in MIT Thresholds, A/D, DomusChina, Architectural Record, and he has recently published Instant Culture, a book co-edited with Marisa Yiu. Schuldenfrei served as the Curator for Exhibition, Education, Film, and Media for the 2009 Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale. He has presented at the inaugural International Design Alliance congress, Harvard University AsiaGSD lecture series; Columbia University; the University of Cambridge; and at the V&A museum in London.
Yat Siu is the founder and CEO of Outblaze (www.outblaze.com), a digital services and solutions company specializing in gaming and cloud technology. A serial entrepreneur, Yat is a founder and board director of various companies including smartphone publisher Animoca (www.animoca.com), which in its first year published 200 game apps and accrued over 45 million players.
Yat began his technology career in his teens working for Atari Germany. In 1996 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Asia’s first free web page and email provider. In 1998 he started Outblaze, a multiple award-winning company that pioneered cloud-like multilingual white label web applications. In 2009, IBM purchased Outblaze’s messaging division and used it to open its first cloud computing lab in Asia. After the sale of assets to IBM, Yat reorganized Outblaze to focus on digital entertainment products.
Yat has received the URENCO Innovation Award, the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards, the Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP 2009 Business Awards, and many others. In 2002, the World Economic Forum named him a Global Leader of Tomorrow, and in 2006 he was declared a Young Global Leader. He is a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra and supporter of various NGO and charity organizations.
Willie Smits is a trained forester, a microbiologist,conservationist, animal rights activist and social entrepreneur.He has lived in Borneo since 1985 and is an Indonesian citizen.While working as a forest researcher in East Kalimantan, Indonesia in 1989, Smits encountered a baby orangutan in a cage in a market, and later returned to find it abandoned on a rubbish heap. Smits designed the Schmutzer Primate Centre at the Ragunan Zoo which opened in 2002 so that the orangutans have freedom and privacy in a habitat with a variety of forest trees and plants, a waterfall and water with turtles and fish, and small animals like porcupines and deer mice. he has continued to be involved in the study of the mycorrhizal fungi that improve the uptake of water and nutrients from the soil by the Meranti tree. In 2006 Smits launched TV 5 Dimensi, commonly referred to as TV5D, a North Sulawesi local television channel, based in Tomohon.
Douglas Young is the founder and CEO of G.O.D, as well as an innovative designer in Hong Kong. His creative designs including furniture to homeware, from street fashion to accessories, which are inspired by the "very Hong Kong" local culture and are captured all the long lost elements of Hong Kong people's daily lives.
G.O.D. is the phonetic sound of the Cantonese slang "to live better", because to live better is a basic human desire in Hong Kong, Asia and the world.
His awards include:
"Cognoscenti Award" by Eastweek Magazine "Keep-walking" Entrepreneur by Johnnie Walker "Ten Best Dressed Award" by HK Fashion Designers Association "Ten Outstanding Designers Award" by HK Comm. Art Centre "HK Hero" by Time Out Magazine HK "Man of the Year" by HK Business Magazine.
Born in Hong Kong in 1960, Eddy graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a Master Degree in Design. Before co- founding CoDesign Ltd with Hung Lam in 2003, he had worked for a number of renowned local graphic design firms including Kan & Lau Design Consultants and Alan Chan Design Company.
Eddy has won more than 100 awards in local and international design competitions. His work has been featured in prominent local and international design publications and collected Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany. He has been invited to show his work at numerous design exhibitions, as well as to speak for design seminars and judge for design competitions. Eddy was chairman of Hong Kong Designers Association (2006-2008) and is now a Fellow Member of the Association.
and more! Check back for updates to our speaker list.