SDG Innovate: Technology & Sustainability – The Next Big Trend

SGInnovate and the UNDP are joining in an exciting new partnership that aims to create a Tech for Sustainability community of leaders, startups, and talents committed to creating a better and more sustainable world - in Singapore and beyond.

As part of this partnership, we are initiating a speaker series titled SDG Innovate to bring together leading experts from both Singapore and UNDP’s global network.

Our inaugural event will be a discussion on Technology & Sustainability – The Next Big Trend, understanding how technology can help accelerate solutions towards a more sustainable economy and society, contributing to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Date: 19 August 2019, Monday
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Venue: 32 Carpenter Street, Singapore 059911

Speakers:

• Atsushi Taira, Chief Growth Officer, Mistletoe
• Prof. Beth Simone Noveck, Professor – Technology, Culture and Society and Director – The GovLab, New York University
• Dr. Derek Wang, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Singapore
• Robin Hu, Senior Managing Director and Head - Sustainability & Stewardship Group, Temasek

Moderator: Steve Leonard, Founding CEO, SGInnovate

Programme Details:
5:00pm – 5:30pm: Registration
5:30pm – 5:35pm: Opening Remarks by SGInnovate and UNDP
5:35pm – 6:30pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A;
6:30pm – 7:00pm: Networking

Speakers’ Profiles:

Atsushi Taira, Chief Growth Officer, Mistletoe

Atsushi has 25 years’ experience in the tech/consumer industry in a variety of roles. During his 12 years in SoftBank, Atsushi worked closely with Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, holding various executive positions in the Softbank Group. These include Global Business Strategy SVP for global startup investments and JV formations, Bharti SoftBank India CEO, MySpace Japan CEO, InMobi Board member, SingTel JV Board member and Yahoo! Japan CMO. Hike Messenger, which he funded with an Indian partner, reached 100M registered users and $1.4B company value in 5 years.

Prior to SoftBank, Atsushi played a key role in propelling the use of technologies as DoCoMo AOL Chief Marketing Officer, Coca-Cola Senior Brand Manager and Consultant for retail, manufacturing and distribution at Accenture.

In 2016, Atsushi joined Mistletoe Inc. in Japan as Chief Growth Officer before relocating to Singapore in 2017 to set up Mistletoe’s global headquarters there. As Managing Director of Mistletoe Singapore, Atsushi’s passion is in building the startup ecosystem in Singapore and the region.

Atsushi received his B.Eng in Industrial Engineering and M.Eng in Mechanical Engineering (Robots and AIs) at Waseda University.

Prof. Beth Simone Noveck, Professor – Technology, Culture and Society and Director – The GovLab, New York University

Beth is a professor in the Technology, Culture, and Society department at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and director of the Governance Lab and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is an inaugural ICMA Local Government Research Fellow. In 2018, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer. She is also an affiliated professor at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress and Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge and a Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project. She also serves as one of nine members of the Digitalrat, a council to advise German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues concerning the digital transformation of society.

From 2009 to 2011, she was the United States deputy chief technology officer for open government and led President Obama’s Open Government Initiative. She was based at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and served as an expert on governance, technology and institutional innovation. On May 16, 2011, she was appointed senior advisor for Open Government by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. She is a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance. She is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Government (Harvard 2015), Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings 2009), and co-editor of the State of Play: Law and Virtual Worlds (NYU 2006).

Dr. Derek Wang, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Singapore

Dr. Derek Wang is the general manager of Alibaba Cloud Singapore, leading team across marketing, sales, pre-sales and technique support, to ensures Singapore customers success in cloud computing and data intelligence. He joined Alibaba Group in January 2014, where he had been overseeing the global technical team responsible for Alibaba’s cloud solution design and delivery before he took current role.

Robin Hu, Senior Managing Director and Head - Sustainability & Stewardship Group, Temasek

Mr. Hu Yee Cheng Robin joined Temasek in December 2016 and is currently Head, Sustainability & Stewardship Group. In this role, Mr. Hu is responsible for such global functions as Corporate Affairs, Institutional Relations, philanthropy including Endowments and Foundations, and Sustainability policy, solutions and impact investing.

Mr. Hu was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the South China Morning Post (“SCMP”) Group in Hong Kong since June 2012. Prior to SCMP, Mr. Hu was Senior Executive Vice President, Chinese Newspapers Division and Newspaper Services Division of Singapore Press Holdings (“SPH”) for eight years, where he was responsible for managing the group’s three Chinese dailies, a bilingual free-sheet, events and exhibitions, retail and magazine operations and China business development.

Mr. Hu also served as Managing Director (Global Business) of Singtel NCS Ltd. from August 2001 to June 2004. Mr. Hu gained earlier experience in China as the Regional Director (China) for the Singapore Economic Development Board based in Shanghai and Suzhou between 1995 and 1997 and in Beijing in 1998. During this time Mr. Hu was a Counsellor with the Embassy of Republic of Singapore (Beijing) between March 1998 and December 1999. Mr. Hu also served as SVP and Country GM (China) of Nasdaq listed Dotcom start-up Asiacontent.com Ltd from January 2000 to June 2001.

Mr. Hu serves on the Board of Ascendas-Singbridge Pte Ltd, Business China and Mediacorp Pte Ltd.

Mr. Hu holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics from the University of Kent and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Wales.

Moderator’s Profile:

Steve Leonard, Founding CEO, SGInnovate

Mr. Steve Leonard is a technology-industry leader with a wide range of experience, having played key roles in building several global companies in areas such as Software, Hardware and Services. Although born in the US, Mr. Leonard considers himself a member of the larger global community, having lived and worked outside the US for more than 25 years.

In his current role as the Founding Chief Executive Officer of SGInnovate – a private limited company wholly owned by the Singapore Government – Mr. Leonard has been chartered to lead an organisation that builds ‘deep-tech’ companies. Capitalising on the science and technology research for which Singapore has gained a global reputation, Mr Leonard’s team works with local and international partners, including universities, venture capitalists, and major corporations to help technical founders imagine, start and scale globally-relevant early stage technology companies from Singapore.

Prior to his role as the CEO of SGInnovate, Mr. Leonard served three years as the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), a government statutory board under the purview of Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information. In that role, he had executive responsibility at the national level for various aspects of the information technology and telecommunications industries in Singapore.

Mr. Leonard serves on the advisory boards of a range of universities and organisations in Singapore. Mr Leonard also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost), a global leader in e-commerce logistics; and AsiaSat, a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed commercial operator of communication spacecraft.