SPEAKER

Rika is a senior technology executive, VC investor, best-selling author, and frequent public speaker on next-generation technologies and their impact on business and society. She is Chief Commercial Innovation at NTT, a leading technology and business services and solutions provider with over 340,000 innovators worldwide. Her focus is on advancing commercial and sustainability applications of Photonic networks and Space & Satellite innovations, and orchestrating impact initiatives across global public and private sectors via the World Expo. Rika was recognized on the Forbes 50>50 list in Innovation. And for 2 consecutive years, 2022 and 2023, she has been awarded “Power 70” and “Power 80” recognition for the Women of Channel awards with The Channel Co’s CRN network. She has also been ranked as “Top 100 in Emerging Tech” by Women of the Future.

Trilingual in Japanese, German, and English, Rika grew up in Japan and moved to the US to attend Princeton University. Rika has since worked internationally in senior executive roles in strategy, business development, consulting, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies – NVIDIA, Accenture, Capgemini, Sony – and Silicon Valley startups. She is a digital innovation veteran and has served on multiple boards in AI, Next-Gen Computing, Web3, and Cybersecurity ecosystems.

Rika is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Leipzig in Germany, holds a Master’s MSc/MBA Degree from the UK’s University of Leeds, and is the best-selling author of “Dear Chairwoman,” which explores the evolution of corporate board governance. Her next book, featuring the intersection of sustainability, digital innovation, and the pandemic, called “Beyond the Black Swan: How the Pandemic and Digital Innovation Intensified the Sustainability Imperative – Everywhere”, was released by business/academic publisher Taylor & Francis.

Kuldip is a creative disruptor who uses humor and storytelling to inspire innovation and ignite change. He uses his resilience and creativity amidst an AML Leukemia diagnosis to empower others to re-imagine the medical field with an effort to integrate AI in healthcare and patient management by leading Viitals (www.viitals.us), an AI based healthcare platform to address the critical needs of healthcare delivery.

Using the latest tools in AI, Large Reasoning Models (LRM), and natural language processing, Viitals enables physicians to provide quality healthcare remotely, providing quick access to healthcare, while improving outcomes in the US, Africa and soon in LATAM.

Kuldip also founded NeuVisium Foundation an organization to help patients while building a bridge to help companies and institutions relook at their research and development strategies by putting a patient first focus.

Mr. Ahluwalia is experienced in helping companies commercialize technologies and implement growth initiatives. His corporate background covers several years with multinationals like GE, Thales and Toshiba (Canon) where he helped these companies become leaders in their markets. He has been part of several startup’s including Lumisys (Kodak), Step Communications (Dolby) and Gliimpse (Apple) with successful exits.

Mr. Ahluwalia holds a M.S. in BioRadiology / Applied Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is an alum of the GE Executive Management Program.

Louis Murayama is Executive Director and Partner of Antares Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm investing in transformative deep tech startups. He leads the firm’s operational and strategy, enabling industrial and sustainability innovation across Asia’s growth markets.

Hidemi began her career in investment banking, specializing in M&A and equity markets. She then gained experience at a U.S. unicorn startup and in VC before founding Apprecia Capital. Based in Switzerland, Apprecia Capital is a VC fund focused on deep tech across Europe. Hidemi actively fosters collaboration and co-creation between cutting-edge European technologies and Japanese companies.

After graduating from Keio University with a degree in Economics, Tomosaku established a renewable energy fund in Mexico and led venture investments for Europe at a government-affiliated financial institution before founding NordicNinja VC in 2019.
Based in Finland and the UK, he will make venture investments in the European region with a focus on the Nordic region.
Focus area is DeepTech including Climatetech, and supports business development, including participation in the Japanese market, as a board of director of the portfolio company.
He is also a board member of the Nordic Asian Venture Alliance, an accelerator between the Nordic region and Asia, including Japan, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Tiffany has 25+ years’ experience in Services and Technology businesses with international roles across the Americas, Europe and Asia. She is currently the General Manager responsible for the AWS Startup ecosystem across Asia Pacific and Japan. She leads the sales, development, partner and technology teams focused on helping founders prove that their world-changing ideas are possible, regardless of stage in growth or level of funding. She and her team support founders, VCs and developers to drive the next generation of disruptive ideas and growth, to help every Startup achieve their full potential. Her teams work hand-in-hand with AWS partners to provide deep expertise in the architecture, design, development and implementation of cloud computing initiatives that result in real business outcomes.

Born on October 29, 1972 in Fukuoka Prefecture. Entrepreneur. Founder of SNS media & consulting Inc.

He plays an active role in a variety of fields, including rocket development, app production, and, as a board member of the Japan Preventive Medicine Association (JPMA), preventive medicine.

At the members-only online salon “Takafumi Horie Innovation University (HIU),” he is developing a wide range of projects with nearly 500 members. http://salon.horiemon.com/ His books include Jakusha no Heihō (The Strategy of the Weak), Itsu made Eigo kara Nigeteru no? (How Long Are You Going to Shy Away from English?), and Nippon Shakai no Honto no Shōtai: Tōshi to Okane to Mirai (The Real Face of Japanese Society: Investment, Money, and the Future). (All titles unofficial translations)

For more details, please visit https://snsmandc.jp/

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