Hear

Oscar Ekponimo, Founder & CEO – Chowberry Inc

Named in Time Magazine's list of 10 Next Generation Leaders. Oscar Ekponimo is the Founder of Chowberry Inc, a technology driven social business that helps retailers cut food waste and improves food accessibility and affordability for disadvantaged households facing food poverty. He has championed various innovative solutions, winning awards such as the International Telecoms Union (ITU) Young Innovators Award 2013 among others in recognition of his contribution in leveraging technology and enterprise to address local challenges in Africa. He was named in the list of top 30 African innovators 2017 by Quartz Media as well as the BBC Top 10 Innovators of 2018. He is a recipient of the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise in Applied Technology by Rolex Watch Company for his work on Chowberry which today has impacted over 50,000 disadvantaged households facing food poverty in Nigeria.

Mark Hyman, Physician

Dr. Mark Hyman is a practicing family physician and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Functional Medicine. He is the founder and director of The UltraWellness Center, the Head of Strategy and Innovation of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, a thirteen-time New York Times best-selling author, and Board President for Clinical Affairs for The Institute for Functional Medicine. He is the host of one of the leading health podcasts, The Doctor’s Farmacy. Dr. Hyman is a regular medical contributor on several television shows and networks, including CBS This Morning, Today, Good Morning America, The View, and CNN. He is also an advisor and guest co-host on The Dr. Oz Show.

Marty Kolewe, President & CTO, Incredible Foods

Marty Kolewe is a pioneering engineer, material scientist and food technology leader. Prior to joining Incredible Foods in 2014, where he has led development of the scientific and technical platform, Marty held positions in biotechnological plant systems and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Marty’s degrees in chemical engineering include a BS from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from UMass Amherst. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Robert Langer at MIT, and has published scientific articles in the field of bio materials and drug delivery.

Nadia Michaud, Executive Chef, Senses Cambridge

Chef Nadia Michaud comes from Paris and Athens, where she has developed culinary programs for several Mediterranean restaurants, including Maison Noua in the 16th arrondissement (Voyage Gourmand du Liban, Elle, March 2018). Michaud is the executive Chef and co-founder of Senses Cambridge.

David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Education of Sierra Leone

David Moinina Sengeh is the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation in Sierra Leone. He studied biomedical engineering at Harvard University. He researched aerosolised vaccines for tuberculosis and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2010. He was listed in the 2013 Wired magazine Smart List. David Moinina Sengeh joined MIT for his postgraduate studies, working under the supervision of Hugh Herr. He was named as a TED fellow in 2014, delivering a talk entitled The sore problem of prosthetic limbs. He was selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2014. He won the 2014 Lemelson–MIT Prize for his innovations in healthcare. He was selected as one of Face2Face Africa's Young Africans Committed to Excellence. He completed his PhD at MIT in 2016. David Moinina Sengeh was offered a position at IBM in Africa, working on data driven healthcare. In May 2018 David Moinina Sengeh joined the Office of the President of Sierra Leone, working as chief innovation officer. In 2019 he was named Minister of Education of Sierra Leone.

Dariush Mozaffarian, Cardiologist & Dean

Cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, & Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School. Dr. Mozaffarian has authored more than 400 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and on evidence-based policy approaches to reduce these burdens in the US and globally. In 2016, Thomson Reuters named him as one of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. Dr. Mozaffarian received a BS in biological sciences at Stanford (Phi Beta Kappa), MD at Columbia (Alpha Omega Alpha), residency training in internal medicine at Stanford, and fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Washington. He also received an MPH from the University of Washington and a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard. Before being appointed as Dean at Tufts in 2014, Dr. Mozaffarian was at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health for a decade and clinically active in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Nuha Saegh, Food Educator, Gastronom & cook

I'm Syrian from Aleppo, where I studied Education at the University of Aleppo. After graduation, I worked as a teacher in Syrian public schools for 5 years, besides being a volunteer during the war, in Al Ikhaa, an association that was collaborating with WFP. I was forced to leave my country due to the war in 2017. Here in Italy, I participated in the course (Food For Inclusion) which was held with the joint collaboration between UNHCR and UNISG (University of Gastronomic Sciences) of Pollenzo. Then I applied for a Master in Gastronomy Creativity, Ecology, and Education at UNISG. Eventually, I graduated with a dissertation on "How Food Insecurity Changed Women's Roles In Syria During The War". I did an internship in Berlin in (Food Art Week) Momentum Worldwide, recently I'm collaborating with schools for my Educational project (Food Art Education). Besides having work experience in restaurants, I have spoken about food education, creativity, art, and migration in national and international events and occasions.

Xavière Masson, Dubbing/Moderator

Xavière Masson is the founding director of the World Frontiers Forum, and executive director of the Cloud ArtScience Foundation. Before joining in 2017 to launch the World Frontiers Forum, she led various art institutions and not for profit. She was the Executive Director of Le Laboratoire Paris, the Director of Development & Communication for B.K. Museum Designs in NYC. She worked as lab administrator at Harvard University for several years. She started her career as Director at Nuage France. She is also the Co-Founder of Phase One Photography.

Dennis A. Ausiello, MD, Director of the Center for Assessment Technology & Continuous Health (CATCH)

Dennis A. Ausiello is the Director of the Center for Assessment Technology and Continuous Health (CATCH), a program he founded as a joint effort between Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT physicians, scientists and engineers to discover earlier markers of disease, real-time measurements in daily life, and analysis of the human phenotype in wellness and disease, for better patient control. He is also a Jackson Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School.He is a nationally recognized leader in academic medicine, having been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science (1999) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003).

Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna

Stéphane Bancel has served as Moderna's Chief Executive Officer since October 2011 and as a member of Moderna’s board of directors since March 2011. Before joining the Company, Stéphane served for five years as Chief Executive Officer of the French diagnostics company bioMérieux SA. From July 2000 to March 2006, he served in various roles at Eli Lilly and Company, including as Managing Director, Belgium and as Executive Director, Global Manufacturing Strategy and Supply Chain. Prior to Lilly, Stéphane served as Asia-Pacific Sales and Marketing Director for bioMérieux. Stéphane currently serves on the board of directors of Qiagen N.V. and previously served on the board of directors of BG Medicine, Inc. and Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYRS). He is currently a Venture Partner at Flagship Pioneering and a trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston. Stéphane holds a Master of Engineering degree from École Centrale Paris (ECP), a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Anurag Behar, CEO, Azim Premji Foundation

The Foundation is committed to a vision of "contributing towards a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society". It runs institutions and programs in India for improving school education and for other areas of human development. The field work of the Foundation is in collaboration with various State governments, to help improve equity and quality of the public education system. The current geographical focus of this work is in 7 states of India, which have over 350,000 schools. The Foundation also does significant work on policy and curricular reforms across India. The Foundation has established the not-for-profit Azim Premji University, with teaching and research programs focused on the fields of Education and Development. Anurag also serves as the President of this University. He is closely involved with Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, to support not-for-profit organizations working on certain specific issues in the social sector, by providing grants. Anurag has been engaged with efforts to improve education in India for the past sixteen years. He has been a vocal advocate for the critical importance of public systems, in particular the public education system. His many years in business have given him an insider’s view in to both the possibilities and limits of markets. For the past few years he has also been engaged with environmental and ecological issues. He writes widely, including a fortnightly column for the newspaper Mint. Anurag has earlier played leadership roles in business. As the CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, he led the business from being No. 20 in the world to being the No. 1 in 5 years. The business has operations in Europe, India, Brazil, US and China. He has been responsible for many corporate functions for Wipro including Brand, Quality and Innovation. In the early part of his career he was part of the team that built the leadership position of Wipro GE Healthcare in South Asia. He continues to be associated with Wipro, providing oversight to the social and ecological initiatives of the Wipro Group, as its Chief Sustainability Officer. He is a member of Wipro's Group Executive Council. Anurag has served on various Boards including that of Wipro GE Healthcare Ltd, The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and of the TERI University. He serves on many government & sector councils, such as the National Mission on Teachers and Teacher Education, the Government of India implementation committee for the Justice Verma Commission, Karnataka Knowledge Commission, and with the CII’s National Climate Change Council. He was elected as a ‘Young Global Leader’, by the World Economic Forum in 2008. He has an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a BE in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Both institutions have honored him with their Distinguished Alumnus award. He enjoys long distance running.

Utibe R. Essien, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine

Utibe R. Essien, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a general internist and health disparities researcher. Dr. Essien’s research focuses on racial and ethnic disparities in the use of novel therapeutics in the management of chronic cardiovascular diseases. He has recently applied this research framework to the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly becoming an expert in the health disparities that are disproportionately affecting minority communities with COVID-19. His work has been featured in leading medical journals and he has been interviewed by several national news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. Dr. Essien is a fierce advocate for diversity and equity in medicine, leadership that led him to be named a 2019 National Minority Quality Forum 40 under 40 Leaders in Minority Health awardee and recent recognition by Business Insider as one of "30 Leaders under 40 Transforming Healthcare."

Dr. Uché Blackstock

Dr. Uché Blackstock is a thought leader and sought-after speaker on bias and racism in health care. She is the Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which partners with healthcare and related organizations to address racism in healthcare and to eradicate racial health inequities, through trainings and consulting services.

In 2019, Dr. Blackstock was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of "10 Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazers You Need to Get Familiar With". In 2020, she was one of thirty-one inaugural leaders awarded an unrestricted grant for her advocacy work from the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund.

Dr. Blackstock's writing has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Scientific American, the Washington Post and STAT News for the Boston Globe. Since June 2020, she has been a Yahoo News Medical Contributor and appears regularly on cable and broadcast news programming to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic and to amplify the message around racial health inequities. She is a former Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the former Faculty Director for Recruitment, Retention and Inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine. She left her faculty position at NYU School of Medicine in December 2019 after almost 10 years to focus on Advancing Health Equity.

Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University. She currently lives in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York with her two small children.

Alex Goldberg, General Partner, AdAdstral Investment Partners

As a serial entrepreneur for more than two decades, Alex Goldberg has deep domain expertise in enterprise software, artificial intelligence, and a wide range of emerging technologies. He spent the earlier part of his career working in strategic product management and business development roles at two of the earliest Unicorn tech startups that spawned from MIT, followed by a role working for one of the top executives at a Fortune 500 company, serving in the Office of the CTO. In parallel to Canary Ventures, Alex Goldberg has acquired & operated several technology-based businesses as CEO or Executive Chairman. Alex Goldberg is an active member of the New York Angels, a regular mentor to more than a dozen startup incubators in NYC and is frequently a speaker & panelist at a range of industry events. Alex Goldberg has an MBA from Columbia Business School and studied finance in Mumbai, Buenos Aires, London and New York.

Robert Langer, Institute Professor, MIT

Robert Langer is an American chemical engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor and one of the twelve Institute Professors at MIT. He was formerly the Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and maintains activity in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is also a faculty member of the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. His publications have been cited over 315,000 times and his h-index is 276. According to Google Scholar, Langer is one of the 10 most cited individuals in history. He is the most cited engineer in history. Langer's research laboratory at MIT is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world; maintaining over $10 million in annual grants and over 100 researchers. In 2015, Langer was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Robert Langer is co-founder of the World Frontiers Forum alongside David Edwards and Denny Ausiello.

Olivier Nosjean, Research Scientific Director, Servier

Olivier Nosjean is the Research Scientific Director at Servier and has been contributing to drug discovery activities for over 20 years. He has a strong experience in the management of research projects and inter-cultural collaborations. Olivier is leading the R&D Technology Program and the PhD and Post-doc Program at Servier. He is an active contributor to initiatives related to transformation, open innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships.

Padmini Pillai, Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT

Padmini Pillai is an immunoengineer who is bridging the gap between advances in immunology and the development of new biomaterials to treat human disease. Padmini received her Ph.D. in Immunobiology from Yale University, where she revealed how innate sensors orchestrate an antiviral response to fight influenza infection, and how death from the flu could be caused by the immune response to the infection rather than the virus itself. Padmini is a CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow in the Langer Lab at MIT, where her research focuses on the design of diverse biomaterial strategies to boost antitumor immunity, resolve chronic inflammatory disease, and identify pathways involved in allergic inflammation. Padmini has provided backup vocals for Grammy award-winning artist Angélique Kidjo since 2011 and has performed with her at the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, the Newport Jazz Festival, Bonnaroo, and Carnegie Hall. She was a 2018-19 Koch Institute Convergence scholar and a 2019 delegate to the American Academy of Achievement.

Felix Sesay, Moderator

A DAFI (scholarship programme by UNHCR) medical student in Ghana who was the refugee co-sponsor on the Education theme at the Global Refugee Forum.

Maurizio Vecchione, President & CEO, WGHA

Maurizio Vecchione is the president and CEO of WGHA. WGHA plays a pivotal role in this vision by fostering collaboration among leading global health institutions. Maurizio has spent the last 30 years at the forefront of global and public health, focusing on innovation to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. From 2014 until 2020, he was the executive vice president for Global Good and Research at Intellectual Ventures (IV). He simultaneously led the research programs of the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory and Institute for Disease Modeling. Maurizio has built global alliances for breakthrough programs in women’s health, infectious disease prevention and elimination, primary care, and chronic disease management. Throughout his career, Maurizio has blended scientific research and innovation with public policy and global development and built alliances to improve health equity globally.

Xavière Masson, Dubbing/Moderator

Xavière Masson is the founding director of the World Frontiers Forum, and executive director of the Cloud ArtScience Foundation. Before joining in 2017 to launch the World Frontiers Forum, she led various art institutions and not for profit. She was the Executive Director of Le Laboratoire Paris, the Director of Development & Communication for B.K. Museum Designs in NYC. She worked as lab administrator at Harvard University for several years. She started her career as Director at Nuage France. She is also the Co-Founder of Phase One Photography.

Nhial Deng, Moderator

Nhial Deng has lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya for ten years. His father, originally from South Sudan, was displaced by the Sudan Civil War in the 1970s and found a new home in Ethiopia. Nhial found hope and peace in Kakuma after fleeing an armed attack on his village in Ethiopia in 2010 and today he is a community activist helping young people in the camp to improve their lives through education, mentorship, and social entrepreneurship. He embraces the power of storytelling to change how people think about refugees and help shape narratives around the refugee crisis. He is also very articulate on the need for refugees to not only have authorship over their own stories but control over how those stories are framed and shared. Nhial is currently working toward a Certificate in Journalism and Filmmaking from the FilmAid International Media Training Program.

Janet Echelman, Artist

Janet Echelman is an American artist who gives visual form to ideas with soft sculpture at the scale of buildings. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, her work defies categorization, as it intersects Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design, Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, and Computer Science. Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for "changing the very essence of urban spaces," and received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts. Echelman's artwork has been reviewed in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and Oprah Magazine published her art as #1 on her List of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow! Echelman's art transforms with wind and light, and shifts from being "an object you look at, into an experience you can get lost in." She is the first visual artist to serve on Harvard University's Board of Overseers.

Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition & Education

Howard Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Harvard University and senior director of Harvard Project Zero. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship and a Fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1981 and 2000, respectively. In 1990, he was the first American to receive the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Award in Education. In recognition of his contributions to both academic theory and public policy, he has received honorary degrees from thirty-one colleges and universities. He has twice been selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. In 2011, Gardner received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, and in 2015, he was chosen as the recipient of the Brock International Prize in Education. He has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education, and the London-based Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss art curator, critic and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is also co-editor of the Cahiers d'Art review. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show "World Soup" (The Kitchen Show) in 1991 he has curated more than 300 shows. In 2011 Obrist received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, and in 2015 he was awarded the International Folkwang Prize for his commitment to the arts. Obrist has lectured internationally at academic and art institutions and is contributing editor to several magazines and journals. Some of his recent publications include "Conversations in Mexico", "Ways of Curating", "The Age of Earthquakes" with Douglas Coupland and Shumon Basar, and "Lives of The Artists, Lives of The Architects."

Kim Samson, Headmaster, Beaver Country Day School

Kim Samson brings 35 years of experience as a teacher, leader, and innovator in education. More specifically, her work as the Assistant Head and Director of the Upper School for eight years at Hawken School in Cleveland, Ohio. An innovator who knows how to develop ideas and put them into action and a developer of people, Kim has been leading the charge to make school relevant and impactful for students and teachers. She is devoted to championing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and serving the needs of a diverse student body. Most of all, she gets students! Kim is known for her close and intentional relationships with kids, faculty, staff, and parents. Returning to her New England roots, Kim, her wife, Folly, and their puppy, Riley are thrilled to be closer to family, including their two daughters. An active skier, hiker, and swimmer, Kim will be right at home.

Maya Sanbar, Artist & Film Director

Her work in both moving image and installation is centered on the art of storytelling. Her award-winning films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlinale, Sundance, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film festival, Dubai International Film Festival and others. Her art works have been exhibited internationally, notably installations at Shoreditch Town Hall in London "Waiting" (2015), the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City "Alex in Wonderland" scented experience (2016), and at the Berlin Wall on the 30th anniversary of its fall "Chasing the Light" (2019). She is fluent in 6 languages, and passionate about crossing cultural boundaries using words with images to bring about a fresh point of view. Her experience is varied as is her career. From her beginnings in international law and the United Nations, to her pioneering work in marketing and branding as Head of Advertising at HSBC, she has honed the skill of telling stories that have relevance, in both the public and corporate worlds. Maya Sanbar also has background in technology, one of her previous roles being Head of Partnerships at 3 (Hutchison telecoms), and Head of Mobile Marketing at the Cabinet Office under Tony Blair. She takes a keen interest in education as an engine for change – Maya Sanbar is a Trustee of Madrinha mentoring children to thrive to their highest potential, and she is a Governor of a London state school.

Tavares Strachan, Artist

Tavares Strachan is a contemporary conceptual artist whose practice activates the intersections of art, science, and politics, offering uniquely synthesized points of view on the cultural dynamics of scientific knowledge. Aeronautics, astronomy, deep-sea exploration, and extreme climatology are but some of the thematic arenas out of which Strachan creates monumental allegories that tell of cultural displacement, human aspiration, and mortal limitation. His text-based neon sculptures are an anthem for our political and cultural moment, and his lexicon an effort to mobilize community and societal change. Strachan's ambitious, open-ended practice has included collaborations with numerous organizations and institutions across the disciplines. Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, and currently lives and works between New York City and Nassau. He received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006. Strachan was the 2018 Frontier Art Prize recipient, as part of the World Frontiers Forum.

Xavière Masson, Dubbing/Moderator

Xavière Masson is the founding director of the World Frontiers Forum, and executive director of the Cloud ArtScience Foundation. Before joining in 2017 to launch the World Frontiers Forum, she led various art institutions and not for profit. She was the Executive Director of Le Laboratoire Paris, the Director of Development & Communication for B.K. Museum Designs in NYC. She worked as lab administrator at Harvard University for several years. She started her career as Director at Nuage France. She is also the Co-Founder of Phase One Photography.