Ignite Talks @ Davos

Welcome to the unDavos Summit - A community-organized series of interactive panels, talks, and networking taking place in Davos, Switzerland - and online - in parallel to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 20-24 Jan 2025. Our mission is threefold: 

• Democratizing Davos: We open the doors to diverse voices and ideas, breaking down traditional barriers to participation.  
• Humanizing Davos: We foster genuine, relationship-driven connections that go beyond transactional networking.  
• Bringing Action to Davos: We turn meaningful discussions into tangible, real-world solutions.  

Join us for an inspiring and fast-paced session of Ignite Talks at unDavos! This unique event features a series of 5-minute talks where passionate speakers will share their big ideas on innovation, technology, and the future of collaboration. Expect bold insights, thought-provoking concepts, and actionable takeaways in a high-energy format designed to spark new connections and ideas. Whether you’re a leader, creator, or entrepreneur, Ignite Talks at unDavos will ignite your creativity and inspire your next big move. Don’t miss out on this dynamic experience—come ready to be inspired!

Moderated by Deepak Chopra, a globally acclaimed pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation, and Melissa Stires, a champion for AI innovation and global speaker, our exceptional roster includes:

- Dr. Safiya George, President of the University of the Virgin Islands
- Simi Nwogugu, President & CEO of JA Africa
- Cid Wilson, President & CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR)
- Alexia Hilbertidou, CEO of GirlBoss New Zealand
- Sarah Antor, Managing Partner at Helena Capital
- Dr. Thomas Juli, Co-Founder and CEO of Human Business Labs
- Trisha Rao, President of GLOW (Global Leadership Outreach and Wellbeing)
- Cathy Allara Latiwa, Founder of Latiwa Development Foundation 
- Dr. Deborah Brosnan, President and Founder of Deborah Brosnan & Associates 
- Dan Gardner, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Code and Theory 
- Lee Bressler, CEO of Spring Close Advisors 

Would you like to hold an Ignite Talk? Apply here! https://www.undavos.com/dl/speaker-application 

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Transcript

(00:08) excited to have you here this is the last event of today ignite at Davos 2025 we have some incredible speakers lined up for you you can still come and find a seat there's still some open seats happening we are so excited um these speakers come from all walks of life this is an event like no other because it's going to be five minutes each that you're going to hear from them slides are going to go super fast and they are going to share from their hearts stuff that's really important but before that I have somebody that's kind of like my
(00:37) very best friend in the world he's you may have heard of him his name is Dr deepok Chopra and um I love him so much and he's agreed to come and open up our program with just some words of wisdom but the thing that I love about my best friend is that now I'm going to be able to put him in my pocket because if you go to this QR code right and right there you will be going to Deo chopra.
(01:00) com always have your best friend around with his wisdom with his kindness with his humanity and so Dr choer thank you for being here and opening this program for us thank you [Music] so what what should I say it is okay so uh let's do a very short experience okay um close your eyes bring your awareness to your breath and now bring your awareness to your heart if possible uncross your legs and keep your hands open with your fingers point in upward
(02:04) so bring your awareness to your heart and try to feel your heartbeat see if you can feel your heartbeat and you should be able to feel something your heartbeat some throbbing some feeling and if you don't feel anything then just pretend that you're feeling it and now bring your awareness to your open hands and your fingers and feel your heartbeat in your fingers and you should be able to feel it feel your heart beat in your fingers something some throbbing some tingling some something and now bring your awareness
(03:01) to your entire body feel the sensations in your body from the inside out and have the intention to feel your heartbeat in all the cells of your body because it's there your heartbeat is there in every cell of your body just like it was in your fingers that's what life is it's the throbing of intelligence everywhere in in the universe in your body is part of it and now keeping your awareness in your body direct your attention to any part of your body that you think needs healing any part of your body that you think physical healing and if you're
(03:56) perfectly healthy then just keep your heartbeat in your heart which is the emotional Center anyway and now start to repeat these words mentally as you feel the sensations of your body I'll pronounce the words and you repeat them mentally but feeling your body okay feeling the sensations in nobody peace peace peace harmony harmony
(05:12) Harmony joy joy joy love love love now commit to yourself that wherever you go and wherever you are you'll carry those four intentions with you peace Harmony joy and love and now relax into your
(06:18) body and slowly open your eyes and if you have any questions of course you can go there also if you want to learn any meditation for sleep for healthy relationships for energy you can check it out thank you thank you so much Dr choer that was beautiful and so grounding we were so honored to have you with us I hope you all are feeling great he's not able to do photos or anything right now so don't worry about chasing him down because you can't do it but um that was a beautiful start I hope we all feeling present and
(06:58) excited and are ready for um our very first talk but before we do that I feel like it's probably a good idea to introduce myself my name is Melissa Styers I am the chief Global growth officer for Mia AI we are an AI startup who is setting out to change the world because we have a wonderful learning platform for non-technical talent we have a goal of empowering 1 million women with the skills of AI by 2030 we work with businesses we work with nonprofits we work with individuals because we believe that the skills of
(07:27) the future are happening now and we don't want to see any Talent left behind so I'm honored to be here today and now normally I don't need a script but these people the speakers that you're going to be hearing from these ignite amazing speakers are so brilliant I'm going to have to read from uh their bios because there's no way I can remember everything about them so the first speaker that I would like to welcome to the stage is Dr Sofia George now Dr Sofia George is the president of the University of the Virgin Island you can come on up and
(07:55) stand next to me and is a Pioneer in both Higher Education and healthc Care innovation her research focuses on using AI hey hey and machine learning to develop predictive models for covid-19 outcomes and Alzheimer's disease she is a fellow of multiple multiple prestigious AC prestigious acmy and Dr George what I really love about her aside from the fact that maybe one time I used to work for her and she is the best is that she is shaping the future of education and health care with compassion and caring heart so if
(08:25) everybody can please give a round of applause to Dr Sophia George thank you Melissa I'm so happy to be here with all of you today to talk about courageous caring leadership and the tools that all of you can use to advance your respective organizations in ways that will transform the world so one of these Keys include avoiding death by meetings how many of you love meetings not many of you by using tactical and strategic meetings as well as using agile strategic planning of course using Ai and machine learning to develop
(08:55) predictive models as well as using leanix Sigma to improve efficiency so courageous caring leading courageous caring leadership is an intersection between courage between intentionality between excellence and Innovation inclusive Excellence that includes the tenants of equity diversity and fairness so caring science is what grounds this courageous caring leadership framework and it includes competence commitment conscience confidence compassion comportment and I threw in a seveny of creativity just for fun now when we talk
(09:28) about avoiding death by meetings tactical meetings and strategic meetings are important so not just coming to a meeting with agendas that are full of a number of items that you won't be able to get through but instead coming to those meetings with um data and also getting to the point additionally focusing on the three PS focusing on progress that's been made within an area also the plans to advance that area and then the problems that exist but more importantly how leaders in their components are erors are addressing
(10:00) those problems when I talk about agile strategic planning it's starting from 20-year possibilities narrowing that down to twoyear progress indicators and then two quarter projects and then the important part is refreshing that plan every six months and as all of you know as you engage in a strategic planning process engaging all stakeholders fully getting U Buy in from those stakeholders but most importantly a plan that you refresh every 6 months ensuring that of course it advances your mission and vision now now lan6 Sigma has been used
(10:31) for many decades in manufacturing and many of industries that have improved include Aviation include it but not so much of it has been used in Academia for example but as you think about your respective organization lean Six Sigma can be used to improve efficiency by focusing on defining measuring analyzing improving and control in order to reduce waste including waste of Human Resources as well as um Financial waste now AI you heard a lot about in machine learning but the important thing is to also remember that it requires human thinking
(11:05) and cognition to also develop the best predictive models and to work closely with with these machine learning models to develop those predictive models so this is an example we used 5,000 patient records including 1,200 variables and we able to design a model using our human cognition and then using a machine learning approach using random Forest classifier to identify 15 variables that were able to predict mortality in that case of course augmented reality can also be used for student learning or even in manufacturing or even in the
(11:40) industries where you have people engag in high technical skills in order to practice and improve those skills other examples of how Ai and machine learning can be applied including in healthcare in particular to Foster collaboration also to optimize electronic health records in order to build predictive models to predict anything can also be used used in finance although that's not an example here and so in this case using AI within Healthcare environments have been able to improve outcomes in healthcare environments um through our
(12:10) research Partners in partnership with Department of Health for example and then ultimately the goal is to streamline workflows so that applies to healthcare but also can be apply to your areas and also to help bridge the gap between Innovation and practical application of AI I think we hear a lot about the highlevel aspects of what AI and machine learning can do but these are some examples of practical ways that you can use Ai and machine learning to improve outcomes to improve um building capacity in terms of training but also
(12:41) more importantly to reduce the bias that you and I might have reducing those biases through medical through um these predictive models also in many Industries getting an understanding of what people have in terms of perceptions about AI in general is a is a good starting point so that then you can improve training of AI and help improve outcomes this is an example of using an ocean glider for example underwater machine Marine environmental science research to collect realtime data in oceanographic research to build
(13:13) predictive outcomes that can help transform climate change for example now the most important part is when you engage students and new people who are new to AI whether through a game and fright approach or not in order to improve learning and the student experience but overall with all of these tools comb combined together you can go out and be a courageous caring [Applause] leader Dr George that was fascinating and I think we all learned a lot we all can I think go without some meetings and be a little bit more organized the next
(13:48) speaker that I have the honor to bring to the stage is Sid Wilson now Sid Wilson is the president and CEO of of the Hispanic Association of corporate responsibility and S you can come on and watch up here with me now this is the United States largest advocacy group advancing Hispanic issues in Corporate America the first afro Latino CEO of a national Hispanic Hispanic organization Sid spent 21 years on Wall Street and what I love about Sid's story is he started if I got this correct in the mail room so Sid started in the mail
(14:21) room to become yes I love this to becoming a Forbes number one ranked analyst so I think this guy's got some hle hustle and some growth mindset that's pretty freaking awesome and he's been appointed by two US presidents um Sid Sid's leadership continues to make such a prop profound and incredible impact in the world Sid Wilson thank you so much for being here with us at night thank you diversity equity and inclusion we know that these are initiatives that were put in place to address the disparities that have impacted people of
(15:01) color women lgbtq plus communities people with disabilities or others that have been historically marginalized but there are those that think that it's time to put an end to Dei um people that want to take us backwards so I'm here to debunk some of those myths that we hear out there as to why uh we should no longer think about these things that are so important that we know our empowering in exchange for disempowering let's first start with the opposite of diversity equity and inclusion homogeneity inquality and exclusion that's not what
(15:41) we want right of course not this is why diversity equity and inclusion matters at all levels within Corporate America and so when next time they tell you that oh Dei is a quota we are not quotas we are people who are qualified that when given the opportunity that we will succeed we will prevail and we will excel the next time they try to say oh Dei compromises uh uh uh qualifications or Merit remind them when's the last time you asked those others about their qualifications before you ask people of diverse backgrounds about our
(16:21) qualifications let's understand that when given the opportunity we will prevail and make sure that there are more voices in there not just group thing but let's understand also one of the biggest misconceptions about Corporate America that we think that Merit and qualification is linear from early career all the way to the corporate boards here's the reality when you show me your resume I'll show you a midlevel manager job because those are qualification based but when you show me Your sponsorship then I will show you those
(16:58) SE sweep positions but we understand that sponsorship is subjective to bias people who are go who are sponsored into higher levels are sponsored for a variety of different reasons because sometimes it's qualification but sometimes it's about nepotism it might be about favoritism it might be about uh you know someone that looks like me or talks like me or has some of the similar backgrounds that's why we need diversity Equity inclusion at all levels so that that way we are all not just showing that we can be our
(17:40) full authentic selves regardless of your race or your gender or who you love or your diverse uh uh backgrounds that we can show that we have what it takes to do that but it requires us to think about intentionality it requires us to think about uh allyship so so that that way people that are not in the room who should be in the room that we can be a part of those opportunities because when that happens then we know that Corporate America and our society will look like what we are servicing this is why diversity equity and inclusion matters
(18:18) we should be able to not only bring ourselves together but don't treat it like just a peac meal a checkbox a little bit here a little bit there it has to be system wise wide and it requires us to really think about intentionality because when you have all of these uh uh aspects together when Corporate America ultrat to us not asking us to assimilate to an existing corporate culture of the past then we know that in a cultur rated uh Dei strategy means that we're bringing those ideas and that's why it can't just be
(18:55) diversity Equity inclusion it requires another one intentionality we call this Dei Square because you take de and then you add intentionality then you are begin to unleash the full potential of what we all can do when we're given the opportunity not only to show that we can make a difference that we count but also that we can do it being who we are and that is why it's so important that we continue to build Bridges not take those bridges down lift each other up not take each other down and next time someone
(19:30) tells you that Dei somehow uh is taking us or pulls us apart understand that diversity equ inclusion is what brings us together so let's make sure that we continue to empower and have diversity equity and inclusion with that thank you all very very much Sid that was awesome and inspiring you can set the microphone that we're GNA oh my gosh that was wonderful thank you so much as people are coming in coming out we've got seats available there's it's nice and warm and toasty in here because it's so freezing outside um
(20:06) thank you so much so I am really excited about this next speaker because she is incredible and I have to read her last name but I think I got it right it's Alexia hilber Tido did I say it right Alexia hilber hilber Tido who is affectionally affectionately known as girl boss enie she is the founder I'm sorry she's affectionately known as head Mistress of genz she's the founder of girl boss Enz which boasts I believe 17 over 17,500 participants they're from New Zealand they're from from the Pacific Islands they're from Australia she is a
(20:42) flipping rock star she's you know no big deal flown with NASA as we all do right she's flown with NASA she's a National Geographic Explorer she has captivated over 150 stages so I think maybe this is 151 we're really excited about that she is a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient ient and Honore and then this is very cool I've got to read this right she is the queen she is the youngest ever recipient of the Queen's young leader award that's really really awesome um Alexia she is a Powerhouse and we are so honored to have
(21:14) her with us today so I'm going to ask you to go and grab that microphone and turn it on and we are going to Welcome to the stage Alexia hilber T do who is Miss jenzy NextGen amazing amazing wonderful woman thank you for being thank you my career has been beyond my wildest imagination and it hasn't happened because I'm the smartest in the room or the most popular or because I followed the advice of Dr Phil but in fact because I was never afraid to be the odd one out at 14 I was the only girl in my school's digital technology class and
(21:54) later at 15 I was the only girl in my Advanced visits class I wasn't detur by this however and I remember entering my first coding competition and they had an inspiring speaker take to the stage and he said if you code hard if you work hard one day you can grow up to be just like these guys and showed this exact picture here does anyone want to guess who these guys are they're the founding members of a company that starts with p PayPal exactly they're now referred to in Silicon Valley as the PayPal Mafia which just goes to show your you're not
(22:29) uncool you're just not rich yet but I remember sitting there and seeing these role models and uh really wondering we need to get more diverse uh people in these spaces I wasn't deterred and a few months later I entered another coding competition this was pretty exciting I was 16 I just won a university level coding competition and I was on track to achieve my the dreams I've dreamed about since I was eight I just won a full ride scholarship uh $330,000 h a paid job at IBM and all of the technology equipment I could
(23:06) possibly imagine so can as you can expect the next day I walk into my technology class and my proud teacher announces the news to the boys in my class now because I'm feeling pretty cool I'm expecting a bit of Fan Fair to be honest you know maybe a standing ovation as I walked into the room perhaps my computer in the computer lab would engraved in my honor Alexia coded here just some of the standard Fanfare I was expecting but instead I got a completely different reaction you only won because you're a girl they probably just wanted you for
(23:48) the promotional ads I thought that was quite the compliment actually girls brains are smaller than boys Brains it's been scientifically proven and that's why they're not in Tech yes really these were the comments from the boys in my high school at 16 I wasn't deterred by that however and so I thought I'm going to do something about it I started girl boss New Zealand a network for young women passionate about science technology engineering maths leadership and Entrepreneurship it's been an incredible journey since then
(24:18) we're now New Zealand's largest Organization for young women one in seven of all young women in New Zealand are currently enrolled we've impacted over 100,000 young people and raised over 63 million for women and girls it's taken me to places I never could have imagined when I was sitting alone in that classro like right here where I met this woman that some of you may recognize uh now the number one most common question I get asked by uh the young people in my workshops is uh what can I do to be equipped for the fourth
(24:53) Industrial Revolution how can I be prepared and future proof but there is a better question question to ask how can I be more entrepreneurial empathetic and adaptive the entrepreneurial adaptive uh gen Z will survive any wave of Automation and that's what we teach at girl boss uh and I'm really passionate about making sure that women are prepared for the fourth Industrial Revolution women's predominance in retail Administration and their lack of presence in engine engineering and technology mean they're twice as likely to be automated it can
(25:33) feel easy to be overwhelmed but I remember the number one best piece of advice I received which was from this guy Jamie Oliver and he said to me when you walk into a boardroom when you walk into a meeting who is the person that holds the most power the one with the most hope be the one with hope be the one with vision be the one with optimism and when I reflect on that experience in my classroom I realize I didn't need their praise for I can praise myself I didn't need their acceptance for I can accept myself and I
(26:15) didn't need them to see my worth as I know I am worthy and it's 20125 and no girl needs a permission slip from the boys in her class to follow her [Music] [Applause] dreams that was awesome oh my goodness these speeches are just getting better and better this is amazing and we're trying to fix the tech I'm looking at my amazing Tech person uh we're working on it um so the next gentleman that I'm going to be calling up uh I just wanted to show this off this is Dr Thomas yuli's uh newest book The Spirit of hum of human business how to ReDiscover our
(27:01) human being to shape our future so this is pretty awesome is it on Audible yet because I'm an audible person so I don't know like um but this is his newest book and I'm really excited Thomas to bring you up to the stage as I just share a little bit about you and we get this technology working so aside from being an incredible author he is a transformation strategist an agile leadership coach he is the founder of human business Labs which sounds really cool and kind of freaky so I like that um he has over 25 years of experience in
(27:32) working with at in working with making people more agile and also really bringing purpose and also profit to organizations and their and the people that work for them he has really innovative ideas about accelerating transformation and turning ideas into impacts um and sometimes he's even done this with companies in little of two days so that's really cool and I'm at a startup so I might be following you up with that because that's pretty awesome um Thomas empowers organizations to embrace change Foster collaboration and
(28:04) Achieve measurable success which is amazing now I don't want to bring Thomas to the stage unless he's got slides right so I think we've got the slides going Dr Thomas Julie will you come on up here we're so happy to have you well good afternoon let's talk about change everyone does business needs to change but who actually is we business us there is a paradox that and let's explore this Paradox and how to solve this you may go to the next slide there you go and we start with business transformation the problem is 70%
(28:39) according to McKenzie of all business Transformations fail and not because of Technology not because of processes but because businesses do not engage people as a matter of fact 77% of the global Workforce is not actively disengaged and this causes business trillions of dollars every day I believe we can do better imagine a future where Transformations do not impede but unlock potential where we have teams that are energized that are empowered to lead the change this is not a vision this is a necessity okay we know we have to you
(29:22) know people purpose and profit we have to align it but why is it that we're struggling doing so for years for decades why what is holding business back well maybe it's because businesses doesn't trust people that your business wants to control you what can you do about it that's a big question and as a matter of fact there's more that you can think you can do let's do an experiment and we go for in in the next questions go through your mind and really just think about the following and we start with this what's important
(30:06) to you what motivates you and why is this important dig a Little Deeper why is this important and now imagine someone or something comes along and takes this away you will never ever get it what happens if nothing happens you feel the pain nothing's going to change till the next slide now take the pain and now dream big what's the ideal scenario how do you want to live in the future experiences how do you want to work what do you experience and what do you contribute this your this is your vision the next question then is today
(30:52) or until the end of this week what are you going to do that will bring you closer to your vision and addresses your motivation that's the practice no you're not alone you're working with say teams so uh what's important to you and your team when you're working with people what do you value the most and why is it important and now we do the same exercise again an ideal scenario a Dream Team what does it feel like what do you want to experience how does it feel a dream and then the question is what are the rules and principles of Engagement
(31:36) that address your motivation and your vision your values and your dreams concretely what are the rules and principles of Engagement now we're talking about business the question is can you change business overnight no you cannot so let's start small think of an idea for a project for a pilot project anything can something small okay and then you ask yourself what are the issues that you're trying to solve what's the root cause of these issues who's affected by these issues what happens if nothing happens you feel the pain hopefully and
(32:21) now enter dream world what's the ideal scenario now we're not talking about a solution we're talking about a dream a vision what does it feel like what do you want to experience Go Far Far Future and then the next question is in your project what concretely can you do that will bring you a little bit closer to your vision and that addresses the root cause of the is issues you're trying to resolve practice walk the talk and then bring it all together align the driveways the dreams the needs of yourself of your team and the
(32:58) business and you know what right in here right there that's a w project that's your first human business project so moving along there are lots of questions keep in mind what's important to you how do you want to live how do you want to work and what can you do today to shape the future even if it's just a project impossible no go for it thank you Dr Thomas oh my goodness makes me want to dream really big and I already have big dreams I'm like getting excited I'm getting pumped um this is amazing thank you thank you thank you
(33:36) now I have the distinct honor to welcome up to the stage Trisha rrow now Trisha come on up you can find your mic there she is actually our youngest speaker for the entire the entire session um she is the founder and president of glow and this is an international nonprofit that addresses Health inequities food food security and also deals with Refugee welfare which is absolutely amazing she's a high school senior but much taller than me I don't know how that's fair but that's okay um she's a high school senior and she's already impacted
(34:10) over 10,000 lives 10,000 lives as a high school senior um through all these amazing amazing people that she's working with um she also created an AI tool to actually help and and assist refugees as they move to New areas she's an award-winning author artist an advocate author artist advocate so fun um she's an author artist Advocate who's raised thousands of dollars for disaster relief in education can we please give Trisha the biggest Round of Applause thank you Melissa it's an honor to be here yeah so going to talk about
(34:47) power of youth leadership and my nonprofit glow yeah next slide yeah okay so I actually grew up spech Dela um and I was able to Find My Voice through ART uh and through painting I was able to express myself to the world around me and use it to make an impact so yeah so when there were floods on Pradesh a couple years ago I felt scared in the face of nature I knew I had to do something to help um and I used my art to help I started with creating paintings that would be sold to later raised funds so both the Reconstruction
(35:26) efforts and also to give 10 children scholarships um and through this I realized that art was not just from expression it could be a tool for change worldwide and something that's inspired me is my grandparents have always instilled me the Valley of the world as one family um and something I've been P since I was young on the left is a photo of my grandfather working with Mother Teresa to um improve orphanage in orphan orphanages India um and when I saw the student Refuge crisis I felt you know I felt way gripped by the
(36:01) idea that they lost the homes been dislocated and I used my art to help out would later my book believe in yourself um that focused on a message of Hope and resilience I'm using my art and my poem the main card is my dog Sunshine she's very cute um who goes to the Jungle to life lessons such as hope teamwork Etc and we would actually launch an aable in 2016 to certain refugees uh and it would serve as a message of Hope um to them I would read it to 10,000 Refugee children worldwide in places like Lebanon Kenya India um yeah
(36:44) and it was something that least took me because I saw how resilient they were despite everything they do becoming doctors lawyers um despite everything that had happened to them and I had had lot support through this from family from mentors I wanted to create a similar platform of support for other high schoolers so I started by nonprofit glow as Melissa briefly talked about um and I assembled Board of advisers from various areas experience with AI experience food Equity Global health research research design thinking Etc
(37:21) they've all been really um helpful in uh empowering uh youth leadership so we've worked with Partnerships like e2g safety club with sopia um and UPF to really expand our reach and go create Solutions we also raised 150,000 in Grants last year through things like Microsoft and Cana and something that stuck with me is I've seen how empowering youth can be really powerful they've really grown into their roles um and helped us with all these projects to make a huge impact um yeah so some of our highlights include we did a breast canc awareness
(37:58) command in India um they focus on raising awareness for breast cancer um and early identification of breast cancer to rule woman India we were able to impect a 100,000 rle women India uh through coning with ubf um as Mista mentioned we also uh created a chap of refes help them learn English more efficiently and integrate into the new culture um yeah and then I've also be search how AI um can help uh increase the efficiency and impact on nonprofits um specifically in the area of child sexual abuse um partnering with
(38:40) safety club and then most recently we actually did workshops um in Lebanon with the syan refugees uh through book readings and art workshops ping with nor and hope team they do amazing work there helping the refugees and some a key mat is is we had 50 plus High School interns over the last year and in total um we've done initiatives in in six countries that have been critical and something that I've seen is that despite no matter how small uh the Ripple of impact each personent makes we can work together to reach a huge impact
(39:23) um yeah so join me and let's glow together thank you oh my gosh together I love that who's inspired who's inspired I'm inspired and Trish I got to tell you you're sitting next to a university president her vice president of fundraising is here in the room and so hearing you raised $150,000 this I mean they might try to poach you early so I'm just saying be you got to watch yourself okay so that was amazing and I I hope that everybody here understands how incredibly difficult it is to do talks like this I am a talker and to be timed with slides
(40:03) they don't even have a confidence monitor can we just do a round of applause for all of our speakers so far this is amazingly hard very hard speaking in public is hard enough for most people not me I was born with a microphone but as I say that let me bring my buddy Lee brester up to the stage here Lee is such a star in his own right Lee you can grab that mic for yourself he is the founder and CEO of spring close advisors a strategy and consulting firm um he's got two over two decades of experience in finance and
(40:31) technology and he's advised Industries like Microsoft and I think what JP Morgan a lot of those um from designing okay this is pretty cool from designing CNN's magic wall interesting to rebranding the Washington commanders which is a football team no no no oh I'm that's I'm sorry someone else that's the other guy just kidding Microsoft JP Morgan previously okay so we're back to Microsoft I I apolog ol Le let's let's go back to you so you've got two decades of finance and Technology experience right yes you have you have advised
(41:05) industry leaders like Microsoft and JP Morgan okay previously did you lead Microsoft's US capital markets program wow okay I did that's a pretty big deal that's a pretty big deal and you've held roles at like numerous top financial institutions okay now you also are a marathon runner I am that's right so you're a masochist okay and um you are a season strategist and he's also super go with the flow very fun and stepped into this he wanted to do this so bad and we're so honored to have you here Lee thank you so much for being here let's
(41:37) give Le a round of applause thank you do we have slides okay there we go today I'd like to talk to you about running something I'm very passionate about something that I started doing about five years ago uh I used to be a gym rat I would go to the gym and bang weights around and Grunt and do all the things you're not supposed to do but then Co started and all the gyms were closed and so I had no choice I had a pelaton treadmill Plus in my basement I love it it's an incredible product and uh so I decided to start
(42:14) using it I started with five minutes see how it goes the next day I did six minutes and then seven minutes and you just keep going now the the pelaton is interesting you can kind of see those lines on the belt so most treadmills have one continuous belt this has slats which make it much softer on your knees and your joints and encouraged me to run and felt really good now I'm very competitive and I liked that the treadmill would give me a score for every run so I felt like I could improve every time I did it I used to wear my
(42:46) regular sneakers when I went running that's a big no no do not do that get proper running shoes and put them on only when you are going running and take them off when you are done running they are not your walking around shoes there is an incredible advancement in running technology in the last several years and the biggest one is carbon fiber plates in the shoes which help return about 6% more energy to you with each stride which means that you can run 6% faster with the same amount of energy used nutrition is vitally important
(43:25) carbohydrates are your fuel you can imagine in your body a a can a canister of uh of nutrition and when you burn that down you need to replenish it now the first race that I did was called a virtual Marathon because it was 2020 there were no real races so I picked a friend's house it was exactly a half marathon away I ran there and I ran home and it went just fine but you can find local races no matter where you live and you should they're a lot of fun in New York City if you run nine races and volunteer in One race then you get
(43:59) guaranteed admission to the next New York City marathon that's a good trick you should do that now people will tell you you need to rest all the time you need breakes this isn't what you need I'm not saying run every day but the more you run the stronger you get the stronger your joints and your ligaments and your muscles get and you get better at running and you will want to do it more now next thing don't go barefoot at home don't do that get a pair of house shoes sneakers that you can slip on easily Crocs do the trick when you are
(44:29) Barefoot your foot is like this and when you are wearing sneakers you are like this and that extra little bit of lift takes all the pressure off of your posterior chain have a training plan a training plan is very important I use H higgons but there are many plans you should use one you will hit plateaus as you run you will find your performance starts to flatten out that's okay just keep going just keep pushing not every week will be better than the prior week set a goal and push yourself it will go okay weightlift mix it up a little bit
(45:04) I'm not saying you're going to exercise every day you should if you can but mix it up and you will have great results I like to weightlift just the basic stuff you don't need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger it's okay just do some squats and some lunges so you feel stronger now I did the New York City marathon again in 2022 and in 2023 2022 was not a great success I ended up in a porta potty for like 15 minutes don't recommend that 2023 went much better and then I learned some tricks for 2024 hydration is vitally important I carried
(45:37) a water bottle with me just a disposable one and I just took sips as I went every few every few seconds I took a sip of water I ended up drinking two liters of water over the course of the race I didn't stop at any water stations because when you do that your heart rate goes down and then back up and that is not fun that doesn't feel good salt is very important I used uh a a product called Solace which is uh concentrated electrolyte tablets and I also brought salt packets in my pocket I took one of them every three miles that's 5
(46:07) kilometers you just do like this it helps you replenish the salt in your body I use these Morton gels every 4 and a half miles those replenish the carbohydrates now I'm excited to run with all of you and I'd love to invite you to come running with me tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. we're going to do a group run leaving from the Train train station here in Davos plots I welcome anyone of any skill level it'll be fun a great way to meet people in Davos thank you for listening to me I work for a firm called Spring clo advisors and we'd
(46:38) love to tell your story so thank you all for being here oh my gosh that is so cool I think I might become a runner now that's very join us very cool tomorrow okay so you guys you heard that tomorrow is the run I think we all picked up some really neat skills that's I the two thing any excuse to for me to buy any more shoes I like it so even in-house shoes thank you so much Lee now I would like to bring to the stage Kathy elwa Alara allara sorry um Kathy if you could come to the stage and find the microphone now Kathy has told me to
(47:08) share with you that she is that French is her first language so this is English is not a second language it's probably not even a third language because she's so brilliant but she wanted to make sure that you all know that she is a jurist she's a gender expert and a development specialist she's got a deep deep deep commitment which I know very well to empowering women and girls she has her own foundation and she's be the founder of the lwa development foundation which operates all across Africa and also in Europe and she is the co-founder of
(47:36) build her a future which is an initiative that's that's been implemented in four countries in Africa so far with so many more to go like I said she's fluent in multiple languages she's a certified trainer Cathy is a sought-after public speaker and an advocate for sustainability she's an advocate for climate change and she's an advocate for equality and I've watched her in work she is one of the most compassionate caring people on the planet can we please give Kathy a round of applause thank you for being here good afternoon everyone I'm so
(48:08) aligning with Nicole who was here before imagine this you assembling 1,000 piece of puzzle but someone decided that you will use only 700 pieces is that fine sound ridiculous right of course yet that's exactly what we are doing in technology by leaving Alpha of the world Talent untapped globally did you know that only 28% of tech Workforce are women and in Africa even smaller 20% only and yet over three years we've seen progress women participation in different program is increasing anding gender gap by 8% and this year in Davos 35% of
(49:01) participants were are women that's progress you're saying but let not put ourselves on the back too quickly at this rate we might achieve equality in 2225 now let me introduce youi who is GOI a 15 years old Nigerian student GOI couldn't study back home why because she didn't have electricity but you know why uh what instead of complaining goie with her schoolmate co-create a solar bag at 15 years old and with solar bag she could lighting her school her community and also people around her GOI is not alone there is many GOI in Africa
(49:59) let talk about makila Prisa from the DRC young engineer created electric smart cubicle to evoid asold fire issues our Rebecca Enon who has built a Global Tech Empire while advocating for African women in Tech many others organizations are supporting women in Tech in Africa like level up by makutano Builder future and many others who are present in Davos but you know what women are proof all those women are proof that brance isn't question of geography or gender it's a question of opportunity by 2025 did you know that
(50:48) Africa's digital economy is projected to contribute $180 billion globally but only 177% of African women have access to formal stem education it's like running a race ground without no support when African women enter the take space they don't just participate they also innovate from Moringa School in Kenya training women in coding and AI to Farm Drive which use AI to connect women farmer to financial services to young girls like GOI creating Tech solution in the schoolyard African women are already shaping the
(51:39) future this is only few of examples and yet here we are in Davos where Global decision are made how many African women are sitting in this room today look at by yourself very few too few that's not just disappointed it's missed opportunity because when African women lead we all win so here's the plan one invest in stem education for girls two found African women Le setup three partner with vs to ensure the next big breakthrough in Ai and clean tech as a woman woman name on it not only not only African but any woman ladies and gentlemen the digital
(52:35) Revolution is no gender and talent knows no borders we need to work together towards supporting women to use technology in scaling up the entrepreneurial Erse the business the Builder future project which I'm privileged to co-found aspire to give African 60,000 African women entrepreneur trainings opportunity in circular economy Agri Tech waste management and renewable energy by 2030 because you know why we are doing this because empowering women isn't just about doing the right things is about doing the smart thing it is the golden
(53:27) investment opportunity let's collaborate and go to work thank you work I love it thank you so much and I love the reference about running without shoes I thought that was a good that's really neat how that kind of flowed together and speaking of kind of running together I would like to call to the stage simy wugo who is amazing she is the CEO of Africa's largest Youth Empowerment nonprofit and the 2023 African education Medal winner with a focus on education entrepreneurship and gender equality simy is transforming
(54:04) the lives of young PE young people all across Africa her work is particularly with young girls in underserved communities and she addresses critical issues like digital skills ha digital skills access to them financial literacy driving lasting change and making sure that these women have resources so everyone will you please welcome to the Miss simu thank you very much I think you've seen by now from the stories of our two young women and from her story that how you eliminate extreme poverty in the world is by empowering African girls so
(54:43) so I want to tell you the story of Amina Amina like millions of African girls work from Walks from her Village um to the nearby town for school and as they walk past um to uh to the school they see thousands of miles of rotten fruits and vegetables from their parents' Farms because their parents don't have the access to transport these vegetables to the market they get to town where their school is and they see expensive vegetables that are not um affordable to most people and so Amina is worried that you know the parents Farms might
(55:26) actually go out of business her parents might lose their income or pull her out of school to get married early so what do we do we bring in Junior Achievement and Junior Achievement teaches Amina and her friends how to code they set up an app where they're able to sell products directly from their parents' Farms to uh uh consumers around their Village and even in nearby cities they build a website and on that website they're able to sign up additional Farm in their communities this is a true story they sign up Farmers within their Community
(56:01) they get okada Riders I don't know if you guys have been to Africa and seen the motorbikes that people use for transport these are okada Riders they use them as delivery men carrying the produce to their customers and guess what these young girls who have never had a dollar to their name turn $4,000 of rotten produce to a $47,000 thriving business now how many businesses do you know will go from $1 to 47,000 that's an amazing return on investment they're able to set up sign up 300 Farmers um grow 16 firms and uh
(56:41) 50 businesses out of this initiative and so this is what ja does we bring um these programs across 23 countries in Africa to underserved communities where these young girls just by learning how to code digital skills Entre R preneurship skills design thinking can take their own future into their hands and solve the problems within their communities they they they don't have to wait until government or somebody else solves those problems they can do it we've reached over five million students across Africa to do this but this is not
(57:16) enough there are millions more like Amina who face an uncertain future where their parents are pulling them out of school to get married Africa still has the highest number of girls out of school highest number of girls getting married before age 15 highest number of girls who have to choose between marriage and education and losing that fight because you know the parents have to survive the family has to survive the farm income is not sustaining us anymore and and somebody wants to marry you and give us money but
(57:48) we find a lot of girls who go through this company program these are girls who are presenting their businesses to panels of judges who give the and and they are these are all high school students they have thousand uh businesses that are empowering them to solve problems and so what we want to do is scale that up to 10 million girls by 2030 you know so your 60,000 will be part of our 10 10 million you know 10 million girls can you imagine empowering 10 million girls with entrepreneurship and Leadership skills forming Global
(58:24) Connections to mentors such as you and and what that could do for the continent and for the world because we believe that they at the bottom of the uh privileged pyramid and if we uplift them we uplift everybody else across Africa not just across Africa but across the world and so what we're trying to do is get this 10 million girls the opportunities that you and I have to be in this room and this is what happens when you do that these are our African girls that are running the world in D wiell she's here she's the president and
(58:56) want first female African to to lead one campaign you have uh our first female director general of the World Trade and you have ter and all these other wonderful girls who do not only take their own uh success but they actually multiply it by Leading Global organizations like this that are in the fight for ending Global poverty thank you very much my gosh I'm pumped I'm pumped and I'm ready to see that change the 10 million by 2030 right okay we're marking it down we're marking it down and I think that is a great segue to our next
(59:32) speaker Miss Sarah Anor you're actually not last no we're we we're we're bringing you up early because it just makes so much more sense no we love you we want to have you on stage here so Sarah's career spans over three decades that it and it has a really interesting intersection she intersects with banking law and technology so she comes from the high yield debt research to Leading fintech company and has done incredible stuff driving Workforce in these really interesting industries that we might be hearing more
(1:00:03) about but the thing that I really like about her is she is a champion of female Founders helping them scale their business and and and Achieve strategic exits I would like to say can I get a heck yeah because I want to say a cuss word right there woo um she is most recently she served as the CEO for the Raymond James Europe and CEO of German subsidy I think I'm saying that right Sarah is a force to be reckoned with she is a woman's woman she is brilliant and she is on our stage right now can we please give her a round of applause you
(1:00:35) thank you thank you um this has been amazing uh and I think I'm changing a little bit what I'm how I'm starting because of everyone has been speaking here two things that are really important to me are also being an advocate for women um I am coming a little bit from sort of the investor standpoint because I think as important as it is to come up from the community we also need sort of that power that lies at the top of the hierarchy to start paying attention as well so um I'm I'm gonna this won't match ter perfectly
(1:01:12) so I believe that uh gender equality and saving our planet basically go hand inand I think as we increase gender equality um we're going to be able to uh uh to reverse climate change and and Achieve Net Zero um so what I believe is that we need to empower female Founders we need to invest in uh businesses that are led by women uh and and we also need to invest in in climate um but this funding is failing I'm going to jump now to to here there's been a word called resilience resiliency here at Davos it's been a word of the week um planetary
(1:01:53) economic uh and human resiliency I think that the investors and some of you are sitting in this room um investors need to step up and start investing in climate Tech um every climate startup this is really interesting let's just go straight here uh we've got four investment categories down here is Venture Capital um and the trajectory normal trajectory is going up here here's where private Equity reaches down and and picks up uh companies that are interesting to them but this is later stage funding this is big money right
(1:02:28) this is a lot of money spread over many many companies and wondering you know hoping that one of them is going to become a unicorn this is normal classic trajectory this is what happens to climate Tech and this is what happens to female Founders there's a dip right here um after they've received some early early stage funding they enter what we call the valley of death um it's around series B in Europe uh and I'm based in in Europe but it's around series a between a and b in the United States or in North America um this is a real
(1:03:02) funding Gap we call it the missing middle for those uh who are actually in um in the investment this is the Valley of Death so for for women less than 5% of female Founders actually make it to series B and for climate Tech you've got you need big money but the ideas are too bold right so you have early stage investing that uh uh early stage invest vors who want to invest a little bit of money in bold ideas um but you actually have a a late stage investors who don't want the risk of a bold idea until it's become uh stable so I believe
(1:03:42) this is not a negative I think actually that we shouldn't call it the Valley of Death we should call it the valley of opportunity mainly because for female Founders as well as climate Tech if you actually this is for for the people who really want to want to see this number down here if you actually invest this money or pull that money into a Syndicate um early on you can put large amounts of money into a bold um idea so the reward actually matches the risk this is uh specifically for climate Tech uh uh companies but female founded
(1:04:17) companies you'll appre some of you will appreciate this um female founded companies are actually five times more likely to become become a unicorn as mail lead companies mainly because the pool is so small only the best of the best are are making it um so you've got bold women out there doing things but they they arrive at the series B and they actually uh aren't receiving receiving that funding um women women businesses um they they actually bring a greater Roi we're going to see a cool slide in a minute um they
(1:04:54) have less of a burn rate so for us when we do a ticket of leading into a female founded business we can do a ticket of 6 to8 million versus a ticket of 10 to 12 for a mail Le company so hopefully the investors in the room recognize that that means we can get in really low at a discount because these are underfunded under represented uh women who are running their businesses lean mean and they're ready at series B to actually IPO so what we're trying to do is get in there we're early mover we're out here we're the only ones doing it right now
(1:05:29) uh uh and we're also women L please QR and get in touch um these women uh we're getting in at a really good deal it's an Arbitrage opportunity and it's also good for all of us thank you I saw a lot of people snapping some pictures of those slides I think we're all very excited to become investors and I love that um the tips about the startups for women as I'm working for women founded women run Tech startup well I thank you so much Sarah I would like to bring now to the stage last but not least Dan Gardner who we've heard
(1:06:04) just a little bit of his uh bio because I got it mixed up with Le but that's okay um Dan if you want to come on up and grab he's here right there you are thank you if you want to come up and grab the microphone which is uh in Sarah's lap there so Dan is the co-founder and executive chairman of code code and theory and he's a technology first Network renette and he's he's a technology first Network renowned for shaping some of the most Innovative digital experiences guess what he's done you guys did you guys know he he may have or may have not
(1:06:33) created CNN's magic wall I think we heard about that to reband rebranding Washington commanders so Dan's leadership has left really a lasting mark on a lot of a lot of areas in the tech and media industry so we're super honored to have him he's a trusted voice in digital transformation and an AI and he's been featured in Forbes Fast Company and on global stages like do and web Summit and now ignited Davos so can we please give Dan Gardner a round of applause as he closes out our program you hear me so I'm going to talk
(1:07:12) about how the internet sucks and despite the negative title um I'm actually an optimist and uh you know how being online got us off course um but it's not too late you know I've just heard a lot of talks here uh and the internet is a lot of part of the solutions um and it's done a lot of great things you know lots of times I say the internet sucks it's like well you know we had me too because of the internet and Arab Spring and we had new Industries and new ways to communicate you know during covid without the internet it would have been
(1:07:42) horrible but for all its accomplishments it's uh hasn't delivered on its biggest promise which is enriching our lives if you had like the the early days it was like we're going to go to space it's going to be all these amazing things access it's like it's going to make us Happ happier but I don't know about anybody else but I don't think we're happier than we were before the internet there was this huge promise where technology was going to empower us to be like more fulfilled but the reality is we're just overwhelmed distracted
(1:08:09) disconnected um from a deeper potential that this technology could give you know if you think back to like the early 2000s like information Super Highway we're going to have access at our fingertips but the reality is we're just overloaded with information we have Echo Chambers we don't even know what's real that's obviously going to get worse with the Advent of gen or the promise of social networking it's like oh we're going to be connected with people and our College friends and uh we're going to have meaningful ways we don't even
(1:08:36) call it Social Network anymore it's social media it's a media distribution Channel we've turned into consumption we Doom scrolling mental health is worse or even if we think about the mobile web it was like on Theo without friction this access to information and transportation but we're just dependent our heads are down we're tethered um we have this always on fatigue so this promised reality of what the internet could be is just not there because efficiency doesn't equal happiness engagement is not fulfillment and information is as we
(1:09:06) see is actually not driving perspective you know we've never been more connected yet never felt more alone this quote that I thought kind of resonates with a lot of people um and here's a little fancy animation uh and it doesn't even work well I mean it feels like a boring conference room you know it's functional but it's not inspiring Everything feels like I'm filing my taxes even when I'm booking travel and we just live in boxes and I like to think are we going to be have our heads down looking at boxes and
(1:09:36) boxes and boxes and zoom calls and Netflix and with our in the future with phones in front of us in 5 10 20 years if you really fast forward I don't know if it's going to look like the way it looks like now the internet is a tiny moment we've been living with constructs that we think will always look like that because that's what we lived in the last 10 15 years but it was only 20 years ago we were reading newspapers on with paper um but the good news is the possibilities are endless and our imagination um is our only limitation
(1:10:09) and actually I heard something early today about literally education that is the limitation is change so our imagination um is our limitation true Innovation doesn't have to just improve on what we have this is the way it was shouldn't just be incremental it asks what should exist how can we do things in a different way we don't have to be stuck to the constructs that exist today um but we need to shift our Focus you know we we're coming from what I think is the information technology age it it professionals it Consultants to
(1:10:38) emotional technology this is really at the heart of what AI can do it actually can be emotional it can connect us in different ways we're historically did so here's three starter principles that I think can help us design and remove some of the you know these limitations to a better internet um the first first one is this feels a little longer than the other one um I don't know what's happening right here but okay I thought it was me here you know I'm not used to not controlling the flow and uh I thought it was quite
(1:11:15) impressive actually being so young because this is I was like how am I going to do this um okay three principles here we go at least I got a little extra five minutes to why the internet that sucks here um the first one is designed for fulfillment not addiction um you know we all go on Tik Tok and we come out an hour later no one feels fulfilled you know crack is good but it's not good for you and I think there's a way that you could be a business and actually do the right thing and give fulfillment secondly purposeful
(1:11:46) friction we've spent decades in the internet removing friction on how to actually create engagement but actually friction like discourse drives perspective and decisions and actually is fulfilling it creates memorable moments if you're a brand that is important build for Human Relationships we talked a little about uh being more human earlier um do things that give you belonging there's a difference between connected in a relationship the internet talks about Connections a lot I'm connect I'm Linked In we're connected
(1:12:15) but that doesn't mean it's a relationship in the age of AI and the internet this moment this is where I think the white space is that I do not see a lot of people talking about this will transform business this is will give differentiation as AI takes over everybody's roles and businesses this is where creativity is um let's design a better internet thank you thank you so much Dan thank you to all our speakers this was so tough as we just ex as we just heard this was amazing can we please give our speakers a round of applause speakers if you're
(1:12:47) still in the room come on up to the stage the stage for a photo thank you everyone for joining us I hope you guys feel ignited I hope you walk away and I do hope you connect with these amazing speakers their authors their their entrepreneurs their children that are taller than me they are amazing so come on up to the stage and thank you all for being with us for night Davos 2025 thank you [Music]