An invitation-only, global initiative connecting thought leaders, global entrepreneurs and future change-makers to discuss why we are here, how we can better understand each other, and how we can work together to create the world we want to live in.
How can you cultivate these inherently human skills to not only succeed, but lead in today’s interconnected world? And how do you use that edge to have a positive global impact? Join us at the WQ Summit to find out.
WQ Summit
Philip Hult is the co-chairman of EF Education First, a privately held international education organization founded by his father, Bertil Hult. Together with his younger brother, Alex Hult, Philip Hult oversees the strategy and operations of EF’s 15 business units, which specialize in language training, educational travel,academic degrees, and cultural exchange.
Philip Hult graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1993 with a degree in International Relations and Comparative Literature. Upon graduation, he joined EF where his focus has been on emerging markets and digital learning.From 2001 to 2006
Philip Hult lived in Hong Kong and subsequently moved to London. He sits on the board of both EF Education First and Hult International Business School.
Cristina Stenbeck has been the lead shareholder of Kinnevik over the last 20 years. Cristina began her career within the Kinnevik group when she joined her first public investee company board in 1997, and she has since then held Board positions in a number of Kinnevik’s investee companies within e-commerce, financial services and communications, including Zalando, Invik & Co., Millicom, Tele2 and MTG. Cristina became the Deputy Chairman of Kinnevik in 2003, and served as Chairman and Executive Chairman of the Board between 2007 and 2016. Cristina still serves on the Board of Kinnevik today and is also a Board Director of GoEuro and Spotify.
Cristina graduated with a B.Sc. from Georgetown University in Washington DC, USA.
Kinnevik is a family-led entrepreneurial investment group spanning 80 countries around the world, focused on building digital businesses within TMT, e-Commerce & Marketplaces, Financial Services and Healthcare. Kinnevik was founded in 1936, and its shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Georgi Ganev was appointed CEO of Kinnevik in January 2018. He joined Kinnevik from Dustin where he served as CEO since 2012. He is also Chairman of the Board of Tele2 having been a Board Member since 2016, and a Board Director of Babylon Health. Prior to Dustin Georgi was CMO at Telenor Sweden AB between 2010-2012 and CEO of Bredbandsbolaget AB 2007-2010. Between 2002 and 2007, Georgi worked within the Kinnevik Group as Sales & Marketing Director and Product Manager at Tele2.
Georgi holds a MSc in Engineering in Information Technology from Uppsala University.
Kinnevik is a family-led entrepreneurial investment group spanning 80 countries around the world, focused on building digital businesses within TMT, e-Commerce & Marketplaces, Financial Services and Healthcare. Kinnevik was founded in 1936, and its shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Helena is the CEO and founder of GLOBHE, a Swedish startup on a mission to create a better future with drones. Helena is a firm believer that the future of possible is already here and passionate about using innovative technology and collaborations to show it.
Helena has been ranked "Europe´s Top 50 Women in Tech" by Forbes, ranked among the top 100 young business leaders in Sweden, won "Female Founder of the Year" by Di Digital, named among the "Top Women to Watch in the Drone Industry”, won "Rivstart" the prestigious innovation competition by Swedbank and been featured as the "Drone Queen" on BBC.
Ola Rosling is President and Co-Founder of Gapminder Foundation which he founded together with his wife and his father.
Since 1999 Ola lead the development of the Trendalyzer software, which was acquired by Google in 2007. At Google, Ola and his team delivered the Motion Chart as part of Google Spreadsheets. As Product Manager for Google Public Data, Ola then helped democratized access to Public Statistics by developing the infrastructure needed to make official statistics part of Google Search results. Ola and Anna went back to Gapminder in 2011 to develop free teaching materials for a fact-based worldview.
In 2014 Ola coined the term Factfulness, which Gapminder is now promoting in order to make the education about Sustainable Development less ideological and more fact-based.
Together with his wife Anna and father Hans, Ola wrote the Factfulness book which launched in April 2018.
Karin Forseke is a business leader who has lived and worked in the US, UK and Sweden. This includes extensive experience of both business and financial leadership internationally from private and public companies, mutual and political organizations.
Karin is currently active on a number of boards including Greater Than AB, (insure-tech company), Chair of Investment Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and Member of Swedish Security Council and Swedish Academy of Science and Engineering.
Earlier positions include; Chair or Alliance Trust Plc, Deputy Chairman of the British Financial Services Authority (FSA), Private Advisor to the Swedish Minister of Financial Markets and Local Government, Chairman Swedish Government Privatisation Committee. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of D. Carnegie & Co AB and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the London International Financial Futures Exchange, LIFFE.
Karin was awarded an honorary CBE in 2015 for her services to the Financial Services industry
Jacob de Geer is a serial entrepreneur. Recognised as one of the most influential leaders in fintech, Jacob de Geer is the CEO and co-founder of iZettle, a business headquartered in Sweden and named by The Financial Times as one of Europe’s most innovative and fastest growing companies.
Under Jacob’s leadership, iZettle's commerce platform has expanded into 12 markets in Europe and Latin America with more than 1000 new small businesses signing up to access iZettle’s financial and commercial tools each day. In 2018, iZettle was acquired by PayPal for $2,2 bn.
Livio is an entrepreneur working at the intersection between private and public sectors, developing breakthrough technologies for sustainable development. His first company, Vaxess Technologies, develops vaccines that do not need refrigeration and can be applied via a simple micro patch. Vaxess received ~$20mn in venture capital funding from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Harvard Business School (HBS), Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) published teaching case-studies on Vaxess. In 2014, Livio was named by Forbes Magazine one of the Forbes 30 under 30 top innovator under 35 by Wired Magazine. He also co-founded Cambridge Crops, and Moveo, start-up based on Harvard and MIT technologies in the ag-tech and mobility/robotics fields.Livio the United Nations General Assembly calling for member countries to renew funding commitments for new technologies to advance Sustainable Development Goal 3 (health). He received a Master in Public Policy (MPP) from HKSand both a Bachelor and Master degree in economics from Bocconi University (summa cum laude). Before Harvard, he worked as economist at the United Nations in their Cambodia office.
Lucas Carlsén is the CEO and Co-founder of the insurtech company Hedvig, which offer renters and homeowners insurance to Swedish consumers. The idea behind Hedvig was born in 2016 when Lucas was working in the insurance industry in his role as a management consultant at McKinsey. He realized that consumers were tired of the complex and cumbersome user experience provided by incumbent insurers. Together with his co-founders Fredrik and John he decided to start from a blank sheet of paper and create a new kind of insurance company, one that leverage AI and user-centric design to make insurance delightful to use.
Vilas is a serial social entrepreneur and movement builder with a passion for creating and scaling sustainable models for public good. Among his endeavors, the Next Mile Project grew to become a unique incubator for high impact global nonprofits until its acquisition in early 2017, while his work to build a nationally recognized public interest law firm at Dhar Law, LLP developed a new model for socially conscious lawyering, balancing social outcomes with a highly successful public-private business. Through his private office, Vilas now manages a global portfolio of direct, venture, and philanthropic investments, mentors and supports global social changemakers, and sits on multiple private and philanthropic boards.
He has held posts as the Gleitsman Fellow on Social Change at Harvard University, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Illinois, a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, and as an invited speaker at YPO, the White House, and the United Nations. He holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, an M.P.A, from the Harvard Kennedy School, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Illinois.
Javad is a multi-award winning young professional, recognized innovation leader and serial social entrepreneur from Norway. He has background with corporate strategy from a Norwegian energy corporation, and is the Founder and CEO of a few social startups, focusing on Diversity and Inclusion, Education for All and Entrepreneurship and Youth. In addition, Javad serves as the youngest person in several Board of Directors, Advisory Boards, and is part of the Norwegian Government's Expert Committee on Digitalization, Education and Lifelong Learning. Through his initiatives, Javad has reached and impacted several thousand people in 4 continents, and is working on a long-term goal to impact 1 billion people. Javad’s areas of expertise include strategy, (social) entrepreneurship, technology, education for all, and diversity.
Ming is Chief Culture Officer at EF Education First. Despite having zero cooking abilities, Ming holds the 'secret sauce' recipe of EF's extraordinary culture which has helped turn a small entrepreneurial enterprise based in Lund into a multinational conglomerate that spans 53 countries. She has been closely affiliated with the EF's English Proficiency Index ( www.ef.com/epi), Hult International Business School, and growing EF's huge consumer business in China.
Ming is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. In her spare time, Ming runs (64 marathons), writes blogs and children's books, sits on the philanthropic board of the Keswick Foundation, and is an ambassador for Sweaty Betty (www.sweatybetty.com- a terrific British yoga and running brand)
Sheel is CEO & Founder of Amplo, a global venture capital firm helping build companies that matter. Amplo portfolio companies include Robinhood (democratizing access to financial services), One Concern (machine learning aiding in disaster response), Mark43 (public safety software), and Parsley Health (functional medicine). He is the longest serving Board of Directors member for Andela, most recently named both the #1 most innovative company in Africa and the best company to work for in Africa.
Sheel graduated from Stanford University in three years, at the age of 19. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2013. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School. In 2016, upon an invitation of the White House, Sheel was part of the US delegation with President Obama on his historic visit to Cuba.
Tove Larsson is the Chief Investment Officer at Norrsken Foundation. Norrsken wants to create a world that is optimised for both people and planet and believes that entrepreneurs building rapidly scalable businesses are the best bet to solve some of the toughest challenges that our world is facing. Tove has been active in the impact/social entrepreneurship space since 2012, before Norrsken at Inkludera Invest where she helped social entrepreneurs build scalable and financially sustainable organizations. Prior to focusing on this sector, Tove worked as a Management Consultant at Bain and Company and ICA Sweden.
Livio Valenti, Co-Founder & VP Policy, Vaxess
If you’re interested in making an impact on global challenges such as equitable access to healthcare, reduction of food waste and enhanced mobility, you should check out this session. Livio Valenti is the former UN employee and Harvard-grad turned science-entrepreneur. With 3 startups under his belt, all based on patented research, Livio will take you through an interactive, off the record discussion where you’ll learn how you can get started on solving global issues using financially sustainable business techniques. The session is based on the Harvard case written on his first business Vaxess
Marcus Ivarsson & Julia Hoffman - Executive Directors, EF Central Creative Studio
Design starts with empathy. You need to put your user in the center and truly understand what problems they want you to solve for them, before you rush to find a solution. This might sound trivial but is often overlooked across businesses as time is scarce and most of us overestimate our abilities to understand our customers based on our own preferences. Your problem is not necessarily their problem.
In a global business operating across markets understanding you customer is crucial, as cultural differences among our customers define different behavioral patterns and needs.
This workshop will help you approach problem solving in a global context and from a customer-centric perspective by applying design thinking methodology.
Bring your thinking hat and roll up your sleeves. This is not about us teaching you the ropes, this is all about learning by doing!
Ming Chen, Chief Cultural Officer, EF Education First
How have global companies managed to build thriving cultures? What does it mean to “hire for culture”? How do you define your own cultural identity to stand out in the crowd? Hear from EF’s chief of culture , Ming Chen, who has spent 20 years growing EF’s unique and contagious company spirit to attract and retain talent. Learn about what ecosystem you come from, where you are going, and how you can uniquely contribute in new environments.
Tanya Budler – Lifecycle Product Owner, EF Education First
Harnessing your WQ to lead multicultural teams can be challenging since each individual is inspired and influenced by their own culture. Despite these differences there is a common culture found across all people- tribal cultural. Utilizing the work of Dave Logan in his book “Tribal Leadership” and that of Seth Godin in his book “Tribes” this workshop is a look into what makes the best people want to work together to make an impact on the world around them.
You will leave this workshop with a new lens in which to see the groups of people who surround you—whether it be your friends, family, colleagues or team—and the tools necessary to lead your own tribes by being a force for good.
Carl-Johan Westring - President, EF Custom Solutions
The 4th industrial revolution is around the corner. The labor market is changing rapidly, and students and workers of the future will have to repeatedly reskill themselves to stay competitive in the 21st century globalized economy. The demographic situation in many parts of the world also demands scalable human capital development solutions in order to ensure a peaceful and prosperous future. Skilling at scale is the mantra of the day for both CEOs and Heads of State.In this highly informative and interactive session, you will learn about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. How will AI and modern technology impact the future of learning and how can skilling at scale be secured globally? Come and learn and debate!
Manon Dave - Vice President, EF Ed-Tech
In a world where you can customize most services, education is transforming from a one-size-fits-all approach to a tailor made learning experience based on individual needs.
Driving this transformation is machine learning, a technology leveraging big data to predict development. In this session, you'll learn more about, and dive head first into, the world of Machine Learning and AI, understanding how it will impact your future, and find ways to leverage AI in your own development and career going forward. Work with Manon Dave, VP of Product Innovation at EF Ed-Tech who as pioneered AI in contexts ranging from music to advertising for the past 10 years.
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