We are privileged to have the opportunities to pick the brains of enterprise executives, experienced investors, entrepreneurs, business mentors/coaches, and industry leaders from the United States, Australia, Finland, India, Switzerland, and China, etc. Thank you!
Tom Kalinske, United States
Tom is a Venture Partner at Alsop Louie VC, the ex-chairman of Mixed Dimensions, Global Education Learning and Dear Doodles, he’s also currently serving on the boards of Cambium Learning Group (NASDAQ: ABCD), StoryWorld, Genyous Omnitura, Adjunct Professor Link, and Stitched Insights, and advising Lightneer. He’s former CEO of LeapFrog, Knowledge Universe, SEGA, Matchbox, and Mattel and had won several business battles that had become classical case studies in business schools, even turned into a best-selling movie “Console Wars” in 2020.
Duncan Davidson, United States
Duncan is the General Partner at Bullpen Capital. He had done two IPOs in bubble eras, and being the pitch person on one of them at the peak of the bubble, he learned firsthand that venture capital is a cyclical business. During the bubble, speed matters. During the downturn, he saw two successful strategies: long-term, deep tech; and short-term, value investing in oversold but otherwise solid companies. As the next tech boom arrived, he co-founded a micro VC fund to take three decades of tech learning and apply it. The key: help the companies succeed, not focus on the deal.
Paul Holliman, United States
Paul is an active mentor at 500 Global, Alchemist Accelerator, and other Silicon Valley accelerators. While head of worldwide strategic planning and operations for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, he was responsible for the global conversion from 35mm film to digital cinema, and played a key roll in the debut of IMAX®, Digital 3D, and ScreenX as theatrical distribution formats. He frequently lectures at universities on angel investing, cinema, and technology.
Ketan Kothari, United States
Over 25 years, Ketan has co-founded/co-led several companies that have developed hardware and software products used and loved by millions in over 150 countries. At Edmodo, Ketan helped build and grow the world’s largest community of K12 educators, students and parents to facilitate effective collaboration and communication. Ketan was a co-founder of Root-1, Inc., that was acquired by Edmodo in March 2013. Prior to that he was also the CEO and co-founder of AlphaSmart, Inc (IPO, NASDAQ in February 2004). Prior to co-founding AlphaSmart, Ketan worked at Apple.
Kevin Chen, United States
Kevin is a Partner at Lam Capital. He joined Lam Capital mid-2020 bringing over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials-centric deep- and bio-tech companies. Most recently, Kevin was CEO of Crop Enhancement, an agriculture technology company commercializing novel products that replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from Seed through Series B. Prior to that, Kevin held senior roles at Hanergy (EVP of Silicon Valley Product Development Group) and Applied Materials (CMO of Energy and Environmental Solutions and GM of Energy Storage Solutions). Prior to Applied, Kevin led business development and product management efforts at NanoGram (acquired), AMD/Spansion, and Lumentum. Kevin’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited early in his career when he co-founded Cumulus Photonics to commercialize innovative optical networking equipment. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT and is a mentor with the MIT VMS.
Hrishikesh Sathawane, United States
Hrishikesh is the Director of Product Planning at Samsung. He has his MS in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Semiconductors and Solar Cells, and MBA with a focus on Marketing/Strategy and Clean Technology. has had leadership positions in big companies – 10 years in Micron Technology, 6 years in Toshiba, 3 years in Western Digital, and currently the Director of Product Planning at Samsung. His strengths include product marketing (coordinate sales, customers, engineering and management to launch new products and opportunities), and strategic marketing (investigate big trends in technology and markets and relate them to the company’s product offering, conceptualize new products based on market direction and ensure company’s involvement in industry groups). He has a deep understanding in the market for electric vehicles, battery, Flash memory modules markets, Utilities and related regulations, among others.
Leslie Martinich, United States
Leslie is the President of Competitive Focus. She holds a Master Degree in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a regular speaker at global and corporate events, inspiring technology and engineering professionals to improve innovation capabilities. In her many years in the tech industry, she observed that engineers and leaders need to build skills in innovation management, leadership, critical thinking, communication strategies, negotiation, ethics, diversity and inclusion, and more. Knowing that engineering professionals prefer to receive that training from someone who understands their industry, she has been teaching those topics to engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders since 2001. She has also chaired several operating units in IEEE, including the IEEE Central Texas Section.
Aaron McEwan, Australia
He is an Advisory Leader at Gartner, and advises and coaches senior executives to innovate their HR strategies and challenge standard practice by harnessing data and insights derived from the world’s leading companies. Recently named a top 100 Global HR influencer by Engagedly, he is also a Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute, a columnist for InsideHR and serve on the national committee for the Australian Psychological Society’s Interest Group in Coaching Psychology. He also advises tech start-ups and teaches in the Masters of Organizational Coaching program at Sydney Business School.
Alex Chao Li, PhD, China
Alex is an experienced founder with a demonstrated history of working in e-commerce and education industry. Skilled in English, management, operation, leadership, and marketing, he has a strong business and academic background with a Ph.D. degree of Philosophy focused on Management Science and Engineering from Beihang University. Alex is currently the president of Muhua Education Research Institute and managing partner of Muhua Capital.
Ellen Wagner, United States
Ellen is an accomplished learning technology professional with career experiences in higher education, corporations and the not-for-profit sector. She is a former tenured professor and academic affairs administrator, as well as a senior executive (Hobsons), an entrepreneur (three acquisitions, including PAR Framework), a consultant, a Board Member, and a former senior director of Worldwide eLearning at Adobe Systems. Her broad areas of expertise include strategic planning for emerging technologies; change management; leadership; data analytics; e-learning; knowledge management; instructional design; team building, training, and organizational development.
Oliver Amrein, Switzerland
Oliver Amrein is the global Head of Executive Development at UBS University, the corporate university at UBS. Oliver is focused on innovating and executing strategic leadership and development solutions and mobilizing globallearning communities for executives and top professionals in UBS.
Pertti Reponen, Finland
Pertti is Co-Founder, CBO and Chairman at 5 More Minutes Ltd., Co-founder and CEO at Hitmine Ltd. With 16 years of experience in entrepreneurship, he has been involved in getting several sound recordings listed to Official Finland’s Charts, executed a successful custom merchandise business exit and has a track record of selling game software for over 15,000 schools worldwide.
Raymond Yang, China
Raymond founded Zhongshan Wide Area Network Co., Ltd. in 1996 to provide IT service for educational institutions. In 2009 he became the vice president of Zhongshan Wantong Intelligent Manufacturing Co., Ltd. which offered automation solutions for several application domains. He joined Qtone Education Group as the investment director in 2013. Currently, he’s the vice president of Qtone Education Group and leading the National Engineering Laboratory for Internet Education System Technology and Application .
Varadarajan Sridharan, India
Varadu is currently the Head of Technology at NTTF (Nettur Technical Training Foundation) which aims to bridge skillgaps, and was Association Director of Cognizant’s L&D overseeing design of learning solutions for Cognizant’s digital skilling needs, and Cognizant’s digital learning platform for engineering graduates. Besides, he has been mentoring education and EdTech startups.
Zhe Li, Japan
Dr Li is a Specially Appointed Researcher of School of Human Science Osaka University, and an entrepreneur — he’s the CEO of Syuto Education Corporation and Future Education International Corporation, and also very active in helping with exchange between China society and international network – he sits on the board of SICET (Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology).