Overview
Singapore and Sweden are both global innovation powerhouses. The two countries top The Economist Intelligence Unit's new 'Technological Readiness Ranking' for 2018-2022. And based on the Bloomberg 2019 Innovation Index recently announced in Davos at the World Economy Forum 2019, Singapore and Sweden are among the world's top ten nations in areas such as R&D spending, manufacturing capability and concentration of high-tech companies (Sweden is second only to Silicon Valley when it comes to the number of unicorns produced per capita).
Join us as we explore potential partnership and strengthening diversity in tech between Singapore's and Sweden's ecosystems, and also with the Nordic community at large.
Date: 21 February 2019, Thursday
Time: 5:30pm 7:30pm
Venue: 32 Carpenter Street, Singapore 059911
Speakers:
- Ms. Darja Isaksson, Director General, Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Agency)
- Ms. Karin Nilsdotter, Future Astronaut and CEO, Spaceport Sweden
- Ms. Rosaline Chow Koo, Founder and CEO, CXA Group
- Ms. Anna Eriksson, Director General, DIGG (Agency for Digital Government)
Moderator:
- Ms. SzeKi Sim, Head of Brand, SGInnovate
Programme:
5:30pm 6:00pm: Registration and Networking
6:00pm 6:10pm: Opening Remarks
- Ms. Darja Isaksson, Director General, Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Agency)
6:10pm 7:00pm: Panel Discussion
- Ms. Karin Nilsdotter, Future Astronaut and CEO, Spaceport Sweden
- Ms. Rosaline Chow Koo, Founder and CEO, CXA Group
- Ms. Anna Eriksson, Director General, DIGG (Agency for Digital Government)
- Ms. Darja Isaksson, Director General, Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Agency)
- Moderated by Ms. SzeKi Sim, Head of Brand, SGInnovate
7:00pm 7:30pm: Networking
Speakers' Profiles:
Ms. Darja Isaksson, Director General, Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Agency)
Darja has been serving as Director General of Vinnova since August 2018. Darja has extensive managerial experience from the private sector. In the public sector, she is a member of the National Innovation Council, the national collaboration program Life Science.
Vinnova is Sweden's government agency for innovation. The agency's mission is to contribute to sustainable growth by improving the conditions for innovation. This is mainly done by funding innovation projects and the research needed to develop new solutions. The agency also invests long term in strong research and innovation environments.
Ms. Karin Nilsdotter, Future Astronaut and CEO, Spaceport Sweden
Karin is the CEO, and partner, of Spaceport Sweden, which is a pioneering initiative to establish commercial human spaceflight as a new industry for tourism, research and education in Sweden. The vision of Spaceport Sweden is to create a world leading spaceport and enable access to space for mankind, but also to provide a platform for cross-industry innovation and empowerment through access to space in particular among young talent and women in across different disciplines.
Karin is recognised by WIRED as a game changer in the world, awarded Tech Woman of the Year in Sweden and is a graduate of Singularity University. She serves on the advisory board of the think tank Warp Institute, space executive board member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the National Space Innovation Hub in Australia, Plan International for children's rights, as an expert to the UN Space for Women, UN Equals Women in Tech Taskforce and as member of Space Angels, leading source of capital for space startups.
Ms. Rosaline Chow Koo, Founder and CEO, CXA Group
Rosaline invested $5 million of her savings and borrowed another $5 million to build CXA. CXA's vision is to unlock wellness in the workplace without firms spending more, by converting existing insurance and healthcare dollars into early detection and disease prevention. CXA empowers employees to become healthier while reducing healthcare costs. With more than 400,000 users across 20 countries in Asia, CXA is now valued at more than $100 million. CXA has been awarded Insurtech of the Year, and Rosaline recognised as the Top CEO and Woman Leader of the Year.
Rosaline supervised Procter & Gamble factory lines in Iowa and then worked at Bankers Trust on Wall Street. She launched two dot-com start-ups before moving to ACE insurance. Rosaline also grew Mercer Marsh Benefits' 14 APAC countries by 800% over 8 years. She graduated from UCLA Cybernetics and Columbia Business School.
Ms. Anna Eriksson, Director General, DIGG (Agency for Digital Government)
Anna is Director General and CEO of DIGG (Agency for Digital Government). The Agency for Digital Government is a newly established agency. The agency's mission is to coordinate and support the digitalisation of the public administration in order to make it more efficient and effective. The agency is also responsible for the public administration's digital infrastructure and assists the government by monitoring and evaluating the development within the area.
Moderator's Profile:
Ms. SzeKi Sim, Head - Brand, SGInnovate
A seasoned and passionate marketer, SzeKi joined SGInnovate as part of its pioneer team in Sep 2016. She is entrusted with building the brand and marketing team from scratch, to achieve SGInnovate's mission of enabling ambitious and talented men and women to build, commercialise and scale deep technology-based innovations from Singapore that will have a global impact. She leads the team in promoting Singapore as a place of thriving innovation in deep tech entrepreneurship and spearheads activities to create a holistic ecosystem, providing a platform where founders, researchers, academics, venture capitalists, corporations come together to share and discuss ideas of innovation in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and MedTech.
Her leadership has seen SGInnovate, in less than 2 years, establish itself as a leading force in driving deep tech innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore and internationally, having built a thriving community with 22,000 followers across its social media platforms, and clinching silver in the Best B2B PR Campaign at the Marketing PR Awards 2017.
Prior to SGInnovate, SzeKi's long career in marketing included leading teams with global technology brands such as Hewlett Packard, Motorola and Nokia regionally and globally. Her 15 years at Motorola saw her in various leadership positions including Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for Motorola Networks, and Head of Marketing - Asia and Middle East for Motorola Solutions. At Nokia Siemens Networks (now Nokia), SzeKi was the Global Head of Customer Marketing for their Global Services organisation.
