Political cartoonist and comics reporter, Der Spiegel, The Boston Globe, NZZ am Sonntag, Le Temps and Le Canard Enchaîné. Formerly with The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Pioneer of graphic journalism, a genre of reporting developing in print, web and animation form. Reports include the slums of Nairobi, gangs in Guatemala, death row prisons in the USA. Organizer of projects involving editorial cartoonists in conflict-ridden countries to foster a dialogue on human rights through art (www.crossed-pens.com). President of the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation in Geneva, formerly Swiss foundation Cartooning for Peace, whose honorary chair was Kofi Annan. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2006). Visiting Fellow, University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism. Recipient, Cartoon Award, Overseas Press Club of America (2011, 2015 and 2018). TED speaker (2010 and 2019).

Jules is CEO of Kokoro, a not-for-profit that champions mental health as a foundation for a safer, kinder and more productive world. Kokoro runs the Future Mental Health Collective - a global peer-to-peer network for private funders who include mental health in their giving.

Formerly, Jules was a Managing Director at London & Partners, working closely with the Mayor of London's office to drive thought leadership, city to city collaboration and innovation around areas of passion and importance for London, from cleantech to diversity to the use of data and artificial intelligence to improve public services. She started her career as a UK diplomat, based in Jordan, Iraq, the US, Ethiopia and Guatemala, where she was the UK's youngest ever appointed Ambassador, aged 31.

Jules holds various positions, advising the Climate Cares Team at Imperial College London, the NFL UK Foundation, the Women of the Future Summit, the global learning platform Apolitical and the Unsung Foundation, which supports post-traumatic growth for those who serve on the front line.

In 2016, she was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Dr. Sandeep Chatterjee is the CEO of a group of diversified, multi-national enterprises that focus on areas critical for the 21st Century, including: innovation and intellectual property rights; intellectual property and commercial litigation; mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies; and, education focused on innovation and the future of jobs.

He earned a BSc in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His PhD dissertation at MIT was selected as one of the most important inventions in computing, and the invention is preserved and showcased in a time capsule at the Boston Museum of Science. Other recipients of this honor include Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft) and Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web).

He developed one of the first mobile banking solutions, and his technology was identified as a Bloomberg Innovation, and featured on Bloomberg TV’s “Bloomberg Innovators” program. He was a member of the JSR 172 Expert Group that defined the worldwide standard for J2ME mobile Web services.

He also has extensive experience with providing expert testimony for intellectual property and commercial litigation, including for high stakes patent litigation, copyright and trade secret misappropriation, contract disputes and licensing cases. He is regularly retained by the largest law firms and the largest companies in the world for multi-billion dollar litigation.

He has co-authored books on technology and mobile systems innovation that is used by universities around the world. The Government of India, through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), has identified him as an international expert on mobile and digital forensics technologies. The Government of Andra Pradesh has appointed him as the Dean for the Center of Mobile Excellence at the government’s International Institute for Digital Technologies (IIDT).

Host of The China Current and World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador. Special Advisor to Dr. Margaret Chan, Dean, Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health. Interviews with world leaders in politics, science and health, including: Nobel laureates Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Muhammad Yunus. Formerly, Guest Presenter, BBC World News and Main Anchor, China Central Television. 2016, appointed by the World Health Organization as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health. 2009-2016, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador. Frequent public speaker; chair and moderator of high-level international events led by Laura Bush, Bill Gates, Angela Merkel, Erna Solberg, Justin Trudeau. Studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated from Cambridge University. Trustee, MTV Staying Alive Foundation; Advisor, Global Health 50/50, The Commons Project; Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum.

Nirvana Chaudhary, founded his own independent company - CG Finco - at the age of 19. Educated in Doon, Harrow and EMBA at MIT and LBS, he became the Managing Director of CG Corp Global, a $2.5 Billion private conglomerate, before turning 30. CG (Chaudhary Group) is a multinational headquartered in Nepal, with a portfolio of 136 companies and 76 brands spread across 30 different countries.
Nirvana is well-known for his diverse interests, ventures and accolades - an artist, musician, trekker, a former national squash player and, most importantly, as a philanthropist. Nirvana is the Vice Chair of Chaudhary Foundation - the philanthropic arm of his group that he leads. Chaudhary Foundation extended instant support to build homes to those displaced after the massive earthquake that struck Nepal in April 2015 and is continuing build schools and homes for the survivors. The Foundation opened Nepal’s largest spiritual institute. Along with successfully executing various social projects, the Foundation partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates on the much needed health and sanitation projects in Nepal. Thus Nirvana has touched many lives and the social impact thus generated has been widely recognized. Nirvana is the recipient of the YPO’s SEN Sustainability Award for Philanthropy (2019), the Asian Leadership Award (2019) and the President’s Award for Social Contribution from Lions Club International (2015). He sits on the board of the Center for Asian Philanthropists.
Nirvana is currently the Honorary Consul General of Serbia to Nepal. In his earlier role as the Consul to Maldives, he was the recipient of the highest civilian award by the Maldivian Govt. for his humanitarian work. He has been the Brand Ambassador of WWF Foundation, Founder of Himalayan Climate Change, the youngest Founder Member of Entrepreneur Organization (Nepal Chapter), and Founder Member of the Young Presidents Organization. He has led a campaign on "Spirit of Entrepreneurship” and has just been featured as the First Nepalese in CNBC’s Young Turks. Nirvana is also part of The Art of Living Apex Board.
On the business front, Nirvana was elected the Vice President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in 2016 and the Chair for the India - Nepal Center. He has served as the Personal Advisor to the Minister of Industries of the Government of Nepal and has held offices of various bilateral chamber of commerce and industry. He became the Chairman of ASSOCHAM Nepal Chapter and was nominated to the board of UN Business Advisory Council, UN Global Compact High Level Steering Committee of the Action Platform and Member High Level Task Force on Nepal Government Response to Disaster.
Rounding up his recent achievements, in 2020, Nirvana was featured in Tatler’s New Face of Asia and Asia’s most influential. And in 2021, he conceptualized and founded the Union of Asian Chambers. In 2021, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Nirvana also founded the Nepal Super League for youth development through sports and launched a private foundation named after his parents- “Binod & Sarika Devi Foundation.” Nirvana is often sought by youth organizations, schools, universities and young entrepreneurs as a motivational speaker. He has authored several articles on leadership and management for prominent business magazines and runs his Podcast “Making It Bigger.” Nirvana and his wife Ashrayata have a daughter (Araaya) and a son (Arhaan).

Managing Director
Global Co-Head EM Sales | APAC Head of FIC Sales | APAC Co-Head of FIC Structuring

Serene is Global Co-Head of Deutsche Bank Emerging Markets Sales, runs Fixed Income and Currencies (FIC) in Asia Pacific across corporations and institutions, and additionally co-heads Structuring in Asia Pacific. She sits on the board of Deutsche Bank International (Asia) Limited.

Serene was previously Head of Risk Management Solutions for APAC, and prior to that led Deutsche Bank’s Cross Border and Treasury Solutions for Asia, leading cross border risk solutions and driving technology innovation in the region. Over the years, she has been instrumental in developing Deutsche Bank’s FIC business across APAC and in emerging markets, including pioneering the bank’s offshore yuan franchise for Greater China.

Serene joined Deutsche Bank over 16 years ago as a graduate from University of Chicago with a double degree in Economics and Statistics, and from Harvard Kennedy School and University of Oxford Saïd Business School executive programmes. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2019.

Bachelor's in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Since 1996, with VIA. Began career at the company's Taiwan headquarters, managing the sales and marketing offices of Japan and Korea. Responsible for VIA worldwide business development and strategic partnerships for VIA Technologies, a leading innovator of PC silicon and platform technologies. Besides presiding over VIA's Global Sales & Marketing, serves as technical assistant to the President and CEO of VIA, Wenchi Chen. Board and advisory positions at a number of technology companies. Involved in social ventures, social media, premium content providers, hardware companies at the semiconductor and system level, faith-based endeavours, a premium winery in China as well as being a hobbyist angel investor.

Calvin Cheng is currently Co-Chairman of ASX listed Retech Technology Co Ltd (RTE:ASX), a technology solutions provider that creates online platforms for corporates, mainly in China, to deliver their corporate training online. Retech’s clients include large Chinese SOEs and MNCs. In 2010, Calvin founded Jue Rui Bao Si, a training company in China that trained some of the leading companies in China in soft skills. In August 2015, Calvin merged his company, and a PRC online corporate training company Rui Tai (Retech), to form Retech Technology Co in Hong Kong, which he then led to an IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange in June 2017. It was the largest technology IPO in Australia in 2017.
Previously, Calvin was the co-founder of Lumina-Looque International, an integrated media company with offices in Singapore, Malaysia and China, which owns event companies, model agencies and a publishing company. Calvin was also the Asia-Pacific Head of Elite Model Management, the world’s largest modelling agency.
He is now an independent investor in technology, media and entertainment, especially in Ed-tech, Blockchain and Fin-tech. In the last 3 years he has successfully invested and divested from a leading Singaporean blockchain solutions company, and a Chinese online brokerage. Calvin was issued one of the first 25 virtual asset licenses in Dubai, alongside global virtual asset companies like Binance and Okex.
Calvin was an appointed Member of Parliament of Singapore in the Eleventh Parliament. He has also served on various Ministerial advisory boards including the Media Literacy Council, the Singapore Media Festival, Screen Singapore and the Government Feedback REACH supervisory council. In October 2022, Calvin was appointed as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia to the Republic of Singapore, and tasked to establish the first Consulate of Serbia in Singapore.
Calvin graduated from the University of Oxford with a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and a Master of Science in Management. Calvin is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Cheng Ming Yu is the Director of the Institute of Management and Leadership Development (IMLD), Chairperson of the Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre and Professor of Economics at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia. She works on projects related to economic development, particularly on social capital, globalization and human capital development as well as competitiveness studies. Cheng has been a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (JSPS), a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Washington State University, USA, a Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and Visiting Professor at National Taiwan University. She is one of the principal investigators for the World Value Survey (WVS) in Malaysia, a Member of the DAAD Alumni Association, one of the BMW Foundation Young Leaders, Executive Secretary of ABEST21 Japan and an alumna of the “Building a Better Asia-Young Leaders Retreat” organized by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan. Cheng is also the Founding Curator of the Kuala Lumpur Hub of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community.

Based in Washington DC, investor & entrepreneur Sarah Chen is Co-Founder of Beyond The Billion (launched as The Billion Dollar Fund for Women), a global consortium of over 100 venture funds and limited partner investors that have pledged to invest beyond $1B towards women-founded companies. To date, the consortium has deployed $638M and counting into close to 800 female-founded companies, of which 11 were recognized as unicorns. Previously, she was on the pioneer team of a corporate venture capital unit within a $13B publicly traded Asian conglomerate, investing in later-stage biotechnology companies. Since then, she has been at the forefront of multi-million cross border investments, structuring and executing commercialization plans with her portfolio companies.

Determined to see more women at the helm, she sits on multiple boards, including 131 & Counting, a bipartisan effort to fete the unprecedented number of women serving in the House and Senate, encouraging more women to run for office in the US; and Lean In Malaysia, which she co-founded, a platform accelerating women into leadership in Muslim- majority Malaysia. Named Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and Forbes Under 30 VC, Chen is a recognized speaker, strategist and commentator on venture capital, startups and women in leadership, having been featured on Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, Der Spiegel and at the United Nations, and is a celebrated host on the show and podcast #BillionDollarMoves backed by the Hubspot Podcast Network. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Laws, LL.B (Hons.) from King’s College London.

To find out more: www.beyondthebillion.com
@sarahchenglobal on all handles; www.sarah-chen.com

BA in Economics and MPhil (Hons) in Finance, Cambridge University; MBA, Harvard Business School. Since 1995, with Bain & Company: since 2007, current position; worked with global consumer products companies and clients in technology, financial services, retail, private equity and heavy industries sectors; experience in US and Asia including corporate portfolio strategy, full potential growth strategy, acquisition screening and due diligence, post merger integration, supply chain management.

Francesca Chia is the Co-Founder and CEO of GoGet, an on demand workforce technology platform that connects businesses to trust and reliable part timers, called ‘GoGetters’. Francesca is pushing boundaries in the technology industry and the traditional labour market of Malaysia. She brings with her insights on the future of work, how businesses will adjust models to suit new labour requirements and how empowerment is possible through technology innovation. Francesca graduated with a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and was inspired by social enterprises because they redefined traditional ways of doing business and running a non-profit. Prior to launching GoGet, Francesca was a Management Consultant in The Boston Consulting Group for 4 years. GoGet was also invited as a one of the selected ASEAN start up to speak in the World Economic Forum, Hanoi 2018 to discuss the Future of Work. Francesca is also an Alibaba eFounders Fellow from the program jointly created between Alibaba and UNCTAD. Most recently, Francesca was invited to speak at a summit in conjunction with United Nations General Assembly 2019 about the platform and how it is specifically addressing the Sustainable Development Goal #8: To promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive.