Mind the Tech London 2023London calling: Who’s who at Mind the Tech London 2023
Mind the Tech London 2023
London calling: Who’s who at Mind the Tech London 2023
From senior executives at Lego, Tesco, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nvidia, Warner Bros. Discovery and The Economist, to leading entrepreneurs and investors from Israel and the UK - all of these will meet on one stage at the Mind the Tech conference next week
The Mind the Tech conference by Calcalist and Bank Leumi, which is returning to London for the fifth time, will bring together next week senior executives from Lego, Tesco, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nvidia, Warner Bros. Discovery and the Economist, alongside leading entrepreneurs and investors from Israel and the UK.
The conference will open on March 20 with a cocktail event at the iconic Sanderson Hotel (designed by Philippe Starck). The following day the actual conference will take place followed by a series of workshops, networking events, roundtables and exclusive B2B meetings. The conference will be opened by Bank Leumi CEO Hanan Friedman and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
Calcalist publisher Yoel Esteron said: "While the high-tech community is one of the leaders in the battle against the government's anti-democratic legislation, it is of particular importance to continue to present the wonderful achievements of Israeli high-tech in the important capitals of global business.”
The conference stage will host a rare appearance by the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes, in a conversation with venture capital investor Fiona Darmon, about the current economic crisis, its causes, how it can develop and what the role of the economic press is in 2023.
Representing BlackRock, the largest and most influential investment fund in the world that manages assets with an estimated value of $8.5 trillion, will be Alex Brazier, Managing Director, BlackRock Investment Institute. The institute leverages BlackRock's expertise and produces proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics and long-term asset allocation - all to help clients and portfolio managers navigate financial markets. Alex helps to oversee all of BII's activities and ensures that BII integrates research insights on portfolio construction, economics and markets with the long-term, whole-portfolio perspective that BlackRock's clients need today.
London bridges: From the London Stock Exchange to Lego
Additional speakers include: Julia Hoggett, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in Europe and one of the most important in the world. With about two decades of experience in the financial system, Hoggett has been leading the London Stock Exchange for nearly two years and is responsible for the long-term strategy of the financial institution. Angela Maurer is Head of Product at the LEGO Group, which leads the field of product management in the company's retail operations. As an employee of one of the most loved brands in the world, Maurer develops loyalty programs, physical and online shopping experiences, and core commercial systems with the aim of enhancing customer loyalty and connecting them to LEGO’s core values.
Antonio Garcia Maldonado is an investment manager at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Strategic Investment Fund. The largest philanthropic foundation in the world is a leading force in dealing with issues that are at the heart of human existence, including the climate crisis, the spread of epidemics and diseases, poverty and hunger. Maldonado focuses on biotech investments in Israel and Europe, and technology enabling products in South Asia and Africa.
Michael Kagan is the CTO at the technology giant Nvidia. The company, which in its early days was known mainly for its graphics processors, is now one of the main players in the field of chips, and carries out significant and groundbreaking development activities in areas such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, big data and mobile computing.
Kenechi Belusevic is the vice president of business development and distribution at the media giant Warner Brothers-Discovery. Since Warner Bros. and Discovery merged into one company last April, the united entity has become one of the most influential factors in the global media and entertainment market, with control over brands that are known in every household such as CNN, DC and HBO, and activity in the film, television, streaming, music, and gaming markets.
Jim Bassett is the head of site operations and product content for Argos, the physical retail and online trade company that was acquired in 2015 by Sainsbury's, the UK's second largest supermarket chain.
Bassett will sit down for a joint conversation with the CEO of Glassbox, Yaron Morgenstern. Glassbox is a leading provider of solutions for analyzing user data on digital channels (websites and mobile applications).
The third largest supermarket chain in the UK, Tesco, will be represented at the conference by Jo Hickson, head of Tesco Technology's laboratories, the chain's innovation group. Hickson leads Tesco's R&D team, which is focused on developing and testing new ideas and products in areas such as IoT, voice applications and developer tools.
Google will host a double session. The first part will discuss diversification of investments during this period, and the second part will focus on marketing with an emphasis on profitability.
Two Leumi Bank executives, head of the commercial division and deputy CEO Shmulik Arbel and Leumitech CEO Timor Arbel-Sadras will present the innovation and technology in banking. Dr. Eytan Wertheim, director of Rabin Medical Center, will talk about integrating innovation in the hospital with the help of special big data databases, an innovation incubator that effectively develops startups with a combination of the development of artificial intelligence algorithms and the organizational DNA of tomorrow's medical innovations. In addition, Beilinson hospital executives will participate in a special expert panel with Prof. Ran Kornowsky, Director of the Cardiology Unit, Prof. Asnat Walfisch, Director of the Women's Hospital, Prof. Iris Dotan, Director of the Gastroenterology Unit, and Prof. Gal Markel, Director of the Davidoff Cancer Center.
Other speakers include Michail Zekkos, a technology partner and chairman of the portfolio review committee of the Permira investment fund, and Ran Maidan, the head of Permira Israel. Permira is one of the most prominent investment funds in the world, which manages assets worth close to $75 billion and has invested in companies such as McAfee, Clearwater Analytics, and GoCardless.
One of the main sessions will host Nadav Zafrir, former commander of Unit 8200, and co-founder and managing partner of the cyber investment company Team8. The company, which includes several former officers from 8200, invested in or founded companies such as Illusive Networks, Duality Technologies, Portshift and Sygnia, which was acquired by Temasek for $250 million. He will be a guest on the panel alongside Mickey Boodaei, founder and CEO of Transmit Security. Boodaei is one of the veteran high-tech entrepreneurs in Israel, and is one of the founders of Imperva and Trusteer. His current company has created an advanced user identification system that provides organizations with improved security without the use of passwords. Zafrir and Boodaei will talk with Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski, founder of the cyber crisis management company Cytactic; and Eyal Efrat, board member of The Garage and head of the strategy division at Leumi.
Omer Keilaf is the CEO and co-founder of the Israeli LiDAR developer Innoviz. LiDAR is a sensing detector that replaces the human eye in autonomous vehicles or semi-autonomous driving. LiDAR also includes a software component and a decoding layer, which should allow better vision than the human eye and reduce the chance of errors and traffic accidents. Last year, the company signed a $4 billion contract to supply its product to one of the largest automobile companies in the world, after winning a tender that was contested by dozens of companies.
Venture capital panel and meeting with startups
The Doral renewable energy company, under the management of Yaki Noyman, raised last October half a billion dollars from Apollo, one of the largest investment funds in the world. The investment was made in the Doral LLC subsidiary, which coordinates the activities of the parent company in the USA.
Prof. Yaniv Erlich is the CEO of the biotechnology company Eleven Therapeutics, which develops preventive drugs for viral diseases. Erlich, formerly the chief scientist of MyHeritage, is one of the world's leading researchers in the intersection between computer science and life sciences. In his work at MyHeritage, he was among the pioneers in the field of identification of people based on the DNA of their relatives found in extensive genetic databases (genetic genealogy), which also makes it possible to capture dangerous criminals, some of whom have eluded law enforcement for decades.
A panel on the state of venture capital in light of the current crisis will bring together several leading partners from prominent funds: Isabelle Amiel Azoulai, founder and managing partner at Sienna Venture Capital, which focuses on early growth companies; Nowi Kallen, managing director of Salesforce Ventures, which has invested in companies such as Dropbox and Zoom; Irit Kahan, partner in DTCP; Jonathan Tudor, investment partner at Clean Growth Fund; and Sivan Shamri Dahan of Qumra Capital.
With the end of the official conference, a series of roundtable meetings will be held that will examine relevant issues and challenges in depth. The Israel-UK Chamber of Commerce and London & Partners will host a roundtable on the topic of raising funds in the UK - challenges and solutions, moderated by attorney Anita Leviant, president of the Israel-Britain Chamber of Commerce.
UK-IL Women Leading Innovation and VC Club Event will host a roundtable on "Investing in Change: Opening Opportunities for Women Investors", moderated by Elinor Honigstein, Director of Business Development and International Growth Partnerships at LinkedIn.
The day before the conference itself, the BizLabs Showcase 2023 event will be held, which will deal with providing tools and networking opportunities for ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs who wish to grow their startups, and will also include presentations and strategic meetings with possible partner investors.
First published: 11:17, 16.03.23
