2020 was a year that shook us all- the whole world was shaken and at times even paralyzed. Our modus operandi and the status quo were questioned and of course we wavered in the face of an uncertain future. Economies staggered, currencies continue to fluctuate, large companies have gone bankrupt as we all look for a way to get ahead in the face of an unprecedented reality.
Although the only constant is change, the mentality and perspective with which we face it makes all the difference. This is the differentiator between those who come out triumphant or defeated, change brings new opportunities and this is not the exception. Digital transformation and the use of technology have been accelerated surprisingly, but we know that the world will continue to change and more transformations will be necessary.
That is why we want to walk by your side, help you continue to grow as a company and as a professional, accelerate your transformation and be prepared for the changes that are coming.
Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community that uses exponential technologies to solve the world’s biggest challenges and build an better future for all.
The collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations to learn, connect, and innovate with disruptive solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology.
Based at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, with members from 119 countries and over 431 impact initiatives. The SU community includes entrepreneurs, corporations, impact organizations, governments, investors, and academic institutions that are driving positive change in the areas of health,
environment, security, education, energy, food, prosperity, water, space, disaster resilience, shelter, and governance.
, join the SingularityU Virtual Summit in Jalisco, an event that mixes the virtual with physical interaction, combining technology through cutting-edge platforms with an extraordinary experience by receiving your welcome package at home and finding in it everything you need to navigate the world that we have prepared especially for you.
Enjoy a virtual tour of the Moon and Planet Mars, as well of extraordinary conferences, interactive workshops, discussion tables and many Networking spaces.
Circumstances and the world changed, but that doesn't mean we can't go big and bring you a spectacular event
Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community that uses exponential technologies to solve the world’s biggest challenges and build an better future for all.
The collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations to learn, connect, and innovate with disruptive solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology.
Based at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, with members from 119 countries and over 431 impact initiatives. The SU community includes entrepreneurs, corporations, impact organizations, governments, investors, and academic institutions that are driving positive change in the areas of health,
environment, security, education, energy, food, prosperity, water, space, disaster resilience, shelter, and governance.
Abraham Lincoln
Master of ceremony | exponentiality
Innovation for social good and the use of technology to help humanity are Vivian Lan’s biggest drives, who in addition to studying graphic design at CDMX, majoring in fine arts in New York and being a Montessori teacher, has always been involved in projects of social impact. As a social entrepreneur and consultant with experience in leadership, innovation and design, Vivian believes in tackling global grand challenges through creativity and collaboration; working together to change the world. After several years of working with marginalized communities in Mexico, Israel and Kenya, in 2011 she launched a cost-free social media campaign to help the hunger in Africa caused by the drought, in which she raised $ 100,000 USD in 10 days, brought together 57 international volunteers and delivered 40 tons of food and medical care to 20,000 affected people.
In 2013, she attended Singularity University at NASA, where she studied the use of exponential technologies, to integrate them into humanitarian work and apply them to change the world. After graduating Vivian became the Singularity University ambassador in Mexico, in addition to being the Director of the Innovation Ecosystem of at the Presidency of the country and the Exponential Growth Director at ExO Works. At the moment Vivian is an international speaker and is the director of the SingularityU Mexico Summit in Jalisco, an initiative to promote Mexico through collaboration, in order to build a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Exponential Mindset
Jason Silva is an Emmy-nominated and world renown TV personality, storyteller, filmmaker, and sought-after keynote speaker and futurist. Jason is known for hosting 5 seasons of the Emmy-nominated, global hit TV series Brain Games, on the National Geographic Channel, broadcasted in over 171 countries. His inspirational videos, Shots of Awe, have received over 100 million views across social platforms. The videos explore topics such as futurism, technology, creativity, the science of awe, disruptive innovation, relationships and mental health. Most recently Jason hosted the global miniseries ORIGINS: The Journey Of Humankind, on the National Geographic Channel. A global keynote speaker, Jason has given talks at events for Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Cannes Lions, Tribeca Film Festival, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, 20th Century Fox, Cosmopolitan, PHD Worldwide, Google Zeitgeist, TED Global, The Economist, and more.
Positive Leadership
Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer who taught the most popular course at Harvard University on "Positive Psychology," and the university's third most popular course on "The Psychology of Leadership"—with a total of more than 1,400 students. Ben-Shahar consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. Topics include leadership, ethics, happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His latest book is Short Cuts to Happiness: Life-Changing Lessons from My Barber . He is also the author of The Joy of Leadership: How Positive Psychology Can Maximize Your Impact (and Make You Happier) in a Challenging World , The New York Times bestseller Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment , and others. Ben-Shahar is a serial entrepreneur and is the co-founder and chief learning officer of the Happiness Studies Academy (HSA) , Potentialife , Maytiv , and Happier.TV . An avid sportsman, Ben-Shahar won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.
Adaptability and resilience
Pascal is Co-Founder (and enfant terrible) at be radical, EY’s wavespace Advisory Board Chair, Singularity University’s Chair for Entrepreneurship & Open Innovation, and Venture Partner at BOLD Capital Partners, Peter Diamandis' $250M VC fund investing in exponential transformation His work focuses on the intersection of technology, global impact, and culture; inspiring, educating and empowering entrepreneurs, corporate irritants and change makers to create a positive future.He has spent his career pushing the boundaries of technology and passionately believes it can profoundly impact the betterment of humankind. He got started on the net before there was a web browser, founded a series of technology startups, led eBay’s Platform Solutions Group in Europe, launched a consulting firm helping entrepreneurs with their strategy & operations, and invested into early-stage tech startups. Pascal led Mozilla’s Open Innovation Lab, created Mozilla’s accelerator program WebFWD, and headed up Mozilla’s Office of the Chair. As Principal at Google.org, he invested into social impact organizations around the globe. Recently he built Singularity University’s startup programs including the SU Accelerator and Venture Fund.
Artificial intelligence
Dr. Vivienne Ming explores how to maximize human capacity as a theoretical neuroscientist, serial entrepreneur, demented author, and mother of two. Socos Labs, her fifth company and second co-founded with wife Dr. Norma Ming, is a mad science incubator. It explores seemingly intractable problems—from a lone child’s disability to global economic inclusion—for free. Vivienne’s previous companies have applied machine learning to bias in hiring and education at home and in school. She started her professional life as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience pursuing her research in cognitive neuroprosthetics. In her free time, Vivienne works to design AI systems to help treat her son’s diabetes, predict manic episodes in bipolar sufferers, and reunite orphan refugees with extended family members. She sits on the boards of numerous companies and nonprofits. For relaxation, she writes science fiction and spends time with her wife and children. Vivienne was named one of “10 Women to Watch in Tech” by Inc. Magazine and one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2017. She is featured frequently for her research and inventions in The Financial Times , The Atlantic , Quartz Magazin e and the New York Times.
Cybersecurity
Jaya Baloo, currently Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Avast Software has worked in the cybersecurity area for nearly 20 years. She won the Cyber Security Executive of the year award in 2015 and is one of the top 100 influencers in the field. Jaya frequently speaks at security conferences on subjects around lawful interception, mass surveillance, cryptography. She is a faculty member of the Singularity University and a member of various infosec boards. Expert on quantum computing, Jaya is a quantum ambassador of KPN Telecom and a Vice Chair of the Quantum Flagship Strategic Advisory Board of the EU Commission.
Digital and retail behavior
Pola Zen is the Sr. Director of Corporate Marketing at Quotient, a digital media and promotions technology company powered by first-party verified location intelligence, purchase intent and consumer spending data that delivers valuable outcomes for consumers, brands and retailers. An award-winning storyteller, Pola explores how the combination of ideas, technology and distribution have the power to connect people and create meaningful experiences. Her career began in film and television, where she worked as a director and script supervisor for a decade before transitioning into technology. Since then she has led marketing strategies for digital analytics and eCommerce solutions, and was VP of Marketing at Ubimo leading up to the acquisition by Quotient in 2019. Fascinated by digital behavior and Gen Z, she has studied and shares consumer trends, and the impact new technologies have on people, products and brands.
Impact Leadership
Moderator and speaker on Exponential Technologies, Impact Leadership and Customer Experiences Laila is Co-founder & CEO of SingularityU Nordic, co-author of the book “The Fundamental 4s: How to design extraordinary customer experiences in an exponential world”, and has received numerous awards, among others the Experience Management Achievement Award, top 50 people in tech in the Nordics, Inspiring50 women in the Nordics, and Distinguished Women Entrepreneurship Fellow at the UN in New York. Laila has been nominated twice as Female Entrepreneur of the Year, Investor of the Year, and is on the list of the top 100 female role models. She is an active angel investor, board member and advisor to both private and public sector around the world
Digital Manufacturing
Erick is a trailblazer in the world of digital and additive manufacturing and is known in the Danish media as “Mr. Disruption”. He has – through exponential and transformative leadership – revolutionized his family’s old-fashioned tool company, creating an inspirational and purpose-driven 3D business. He is also part of the 2020 European Horizon Framework Program and appointed member of the Danish Disruption Council.
Mental Health and
Stress management
Parneet Pal, M.B.B.S., M.S. is a Harvard- and Columbia-trained physician working at the intersection of lifestyle medicine, technology and behavior change. An educator and science communicator, she curates and teaches content to optimize human health and its impact on planetary wellbeing. She strongly believes we can create a compassionate society where health is the default. As Chief Science Officer, Wisdom Labs, she focuses on solving for stress, burnout and loneliness in the workplace. Wisdom Labs aspires to build wiser workplaces using the science of mindfulness and scaling the skills of mental resilience, emotional intelligence and compassionate leadership across organizations. Parneet is an international speaker and podcaster, has written for the Harvard Business Review, is a TEDMED scholar and has been featured on the cover of Mindful magazine.
CEO Singularity University
Steve is a technology-industry leader with a wide range of experience in software, hardware, consulting and managed services. As a passionate advocate for constructive debate about technology and the future of humanity, Leonard is a regular speaker at United Nations Development Program and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific events. He is also a frequent on-stage and on-air contributor at a wide range of technology events, hosted by leading media groups including WSJ, Forbes, CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC, and The Economist. In his most recent role as Founding CEO of SGInnovate – a private limited company wholly-owned by the Singapore Government – Steve created an organization whose mission is to build investable early-stage deep tech companies. Capitalizing on the top-ranked education system and world-class scientific research for which Singapore has gained a global reputation. He and his team worked with local and international partners, including universities, venture capitalists, and major corporations to help technical founders start and scale investable early-stage deep tech technology companies based on scientific research. SGInnovate has played a role in building nearly 90 deep tech startups and formed a community of 33,000 members during Mr. Leonard’s tenure. Prior to his role as the CEO of SGInnovate, Steve served three years as the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), a government statutory board under the purview of Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information. In that role, he had executive responsibility at the national level for various aspects of the information technology and telecommunications industries in Singapore. Prior to joining Singapore Government in 2013, he held executive leadership roles in Europe and Asia for two decades with several global technology companies including EMC, Symantec and EDS with a focus on growth, market share and profitability. Steve serves on the advisory boards of several universities and organizations and also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost), an international leader in e-commerce logistics and services, and chairs their Business Risk and Technology Committee. He is also an alum of a two-year Executive Education program with MIT Sloan School around building a national entrepreneurship ecosystem. Although a proud US citizen, having lived and worked outside the US for nearly 30 years, Steve considers himself a member of the larger global community.
Future of education
Dr. Taddy Blecher is part of the SingularityU South Africa faculty with a focus on Exponential Education. He is CEO of the Maharishi Institute and the Imvula Empowerment Trust. He is a pioneer of South Africa’s free tertiary education movement and has helped establish six free-access institutions of higher learning. He also co-founded the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship with Sir Richard Branson. Taddy is a World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader of the World. He has also received two honorary doctorates. As a qualified actuary and management consultant, Taddy is passionate about the approach of Consciousness-Based Education, which develops the full potential of every student.
Space exploration
PhD Astronomer, Senior Scientist and Senior Education Manager jointly in the Department of Astrophysics and the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History. Working at the forefront of brown dwarf and exoplanet atmosphere detection and characterization. Striving to create more opportunities for underrepresented minorities to enter STEM fields through unique outreach endeavors.
Innovation methodologies
Founder and CEO of RedBox, the innovative agency with more experience in Latin America, with offices in Mexico City and New York. In 18 years, he has developed innovation projects for 80 brands in 10 countries, which have resulted in more than 400 solutions that are now in the market, for brands such as Sabritas, Kidzania, DHL and Sportsworld, among others. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Internacional Commerce by the ITESM and an MBA by Lund University in Sweden. He is a fellow professor at IPADE in México and an active speaker in the main innovation forums of the region. He is also a mentor for high impact entrepeneurs in organizations like Endeavor and a member of Make a Wish Mexico.
Skills to overcome times of crisis
With a clear desire to disrupt the status quo in every opportunity he finds, Gabriel Weinstein is the Ambassador of Singularity University in Argentina and Partner and Director of Innovation at Olivia, a company focused on transforming organizations to meet the challenges of this new era. He is an innovative leader with more than 15 years of experience and a combination of strategic and business skills.
His entrepreneurial and leadership characteristics led him to start a number of technology-based companies, including Virtualmind Software House. The experience and knowledge gained throughout his career, led him to become an advisor to other companies and entrepreneurs.
Passionate about technology, a lover of freedom and with the conviction that education is the pillar that will allow us to evolve as a society, he became a teacher and then director of educational innovation, with the clear purpose of transforming the educational system using new technologies and creative solutions.
In December 2015, Gabriel was invited by the Minister of Education of Argentina to design and lead Infinito por Descubrir, a non-formal education initiative that deploys educational innovation centers throughout the country, where children learn based on real projects that combine disciplines such as programming, robotics, music and biotechnology, encouraging the use of technologies and the development of social-emotional skills such as leadership, collaboration and critical thinking.
Gabriel graduated from college in computer science with the third highest academic achievement.
In 2014, he was selected to be part of GSP, Singularity University's flagship program, an organization that educates, inspires and empowers leaders around the world in applying exponential technologies to solve the great challenges of mankind. After returning to Argentina, he was recognized as one of the 35 most inspiring, creative and talented youngsters under 35 years old in the country.
Currently, Gabriel is Olivia's partner and director of innovation, dedicating much of his time to mentoring, speaking, advisoring and carrying out social impact activities.
Today Gabriel supports innovative education efforts such as TED Ed and Singularity University Clubs.
LEGO® workshop SERIOUS PLAY® METHOD
With a Bachelor’s Degree in Education Sciences and specialized in education technology, he founded and directs the consulting firm Juego Serio™ (Serious Game). He specializes in the design, development and execution of strategy projects in real time, and has enabled workshops, taught courses and workshops, projects and innovation strategy and formation programs at institutions and international companies. He currently the Director of "Serious Game" Real Time Strategizing.
Ocean exploration
John Sparks travels the world in search of bioluminescent and biofluorescent marine organisms. His research is focused on the evolution and diversification of the bacteria-driven bioluminescent signaling systems in ponyfishes—small, silvery fishes restricted to the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific that have light organs surrounding their throats—as well as the evolution of specialized hearing in marine and freshwater fishes. His recent fieldwork includes biotic surveys and inventories of freshwater and nearshore marine fishes in Madagascar, the Indo-Pacific region, South America, the Western Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Dr. Sparks is curator-in-charge and associate curator in the Department of Ichthyology, a professor in the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the Museum, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. Dr. Sparks received the M.Sc. degree in biology from the University of Michigan in 1997 and the Ph.D. degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Michigan in 2001.
Transhumanism
Neil Harbisson is a Catalan-raised, British-born contemporary artist and cyborg activist best known for having an antenna implanted in his skull and for being officially recognised as a cyborg by a government. The antenna allows him to perceive visible and invisible colours via audible vibrations in his skull including infrareds and ultraviolets as well as receive colours from space, images, videos, music or phone calls directly into his head via internet connection. Harbisson identifies himself both as a cyborg; he feels he is technology, and as a transpecies; he no longer feels 100% human. His artwork explores identity, human perception, the connection between sight and sound and the use of artistic expression via new sensory inputs. In 2010 he co¬-founded the Cyborg Foundation with Moon Ribas, an international organisation that aims to help humans become cyborgs, defend cyborg rights and promote cyborg art. In 2017 he co-founded the Transpecies Society, an association that gives voice to people with non-human identities, defends the freedom of self-design and offers the creation of new senses and new organs in community.
Future of food
Mark Post has a medical degree and a PhD in Pulmonary Pharmacology. He has been an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Vascular Physiology at Maastricht University and Professor of Angiogenesis in Tissue Engineering at the TU/e. He soon became involved in a Dutch government-funded program investigating “in vitro meat”, which resulted in the world's first lab-grown burger in 2013. In October 2015, Post and food technologist Peter Verstrate announced the launch of their company Mosa Meat, which seeks to bring cultured meat to the market.
Future of health
DDaniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, and innovator and is serving as the Chair of the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance Task Force. With over 25 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and healthcare innovation, Kraft has chaired the Medicine for Singularity University since its inception in 2008, and is founder and chair of Exponential Medicine, a program that explores convergent, rapidly developing technologies and their potential in biomedicine and healthcare. Following undergraduate degrees from Brown University and medical school at Stanford, Daniel was Board Certified in both Internal Medicine & Pediatrics after completing a Harvard residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital & Boston Children’s Hospital, and fellowships in hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at Stanford. Daniel chair the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance Task Force. He is often called upon to speak to the future of health, medicine and technology and has given 5 TED and TEDMED Talks. He has multiple scientific publications and medical device, immunology and stem cell-related patents through faculty positions with Stanford University School of Medicine and as clinical faculty for the pediatric bone marrow transplantation service at the University of California San Francisco. Daniel is a member of the Kaufman Fellows Society (Class 13) and member of the Inaugural (2015) class of the Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship. Daniel’s academic research has focused on: stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, stem cell derived immunotherapies for cancer, bioengineering human T-cell differentiation, and humanized animal models. His research has been published in journals that include Nature and Science. His clinical work has focused on: bone marrow / hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for malignant and non-malignant diseases in adults and children, medical devices to enable stem cell-based regenerative medicine, including marrow-derived stem cell harvesting, processing, and delivery. He also implemented the first text-paging system at Stanford Hospital. He is heavily involved in digital health, founded Digital.Health, and is on the board of Healthy.io and advises several digital health-related startups and established healthcare organizations. Daniel recently founded IntelliMedicine, focused on personalized, data-driven, precision medicine. He is also the inventor of the MarrowMiner, an FDA approved device for the minimally invasive harvest of bone marrow, and founded RegenMed Systems, a company developing technologies to enable adult stem cell based regenerative therapies. Daniel is an avid pilot and has served in the Massachusetts and California Air National Guard as an officer and flight surgeon with F-15 & F-16 fighter Squadrons. He has conducted research on aerospace medicine that was published with NASA, with whom he was a finalist for astronaut selection.
Future of logistics
Juliana, is an entrepreneur with ample experience in the fields of e-commerce, retail, technology and consumer logistics. She has built her career under a vision of creating companies in Latin America with the purpose of building a globalized, fair and competitive commerce, through the creation of industries based in tech companies. Presently, she is co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Envioclick, the first intelligent logistics platform, which operates in Colombia and Mexico. It connects delivery and cargo companies with businesses and through a technology unique in Latin America, offers its clients having an automatized logistics operation with the highest efficiency level of the market. This achieves savings of up to 70% for companies in operation costs and for the end customer, something similar to Amazon Prime. Before joining EnvioClick, Juliana was the Regional Commercial and Seller Experience Director in Linio.com. She leaded the commercial strategy and innovated with the construction of what now is known in Latin America as the ecosystem model for the Seller. She also led projects and teams dedicated to commerce, both national and international, to product and finance in companies like Spectrum Brads, Alqueria, Telefónica and Home Sentry. She was founder and CEO of JS Events. Juliana lived in Colombia and graduated from the CESA Business School, where she was awarded with the Excellence in Entrepreneurship award. She also has a Master’s in Strategic Administration, Finance and International Commerce from a scholarship at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Spain, where she graduated first in her class. She has been a speaker and participated in the most important workshops and meetings in e-commerce and logistics in Latin America, such as the ECSE, Google Launchpad, she was the 2019 Forbes promise, Endeavor, AMVO Workshops, among many others.
Artificial intelligence
Dr. Ayesha Khanna is Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm and incubator. She has been a strategic advisor on artificial intelligence and smart cities to leading corporations and governments. Ayesha also serves on the Board of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Singapore government's agency that develops and regulates its world class technology sector. She is the co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization. ADDO AI was featured in Forbes magazine as one of four leading artificial intelligence companies in Asia in 2017, and Ayesha was named one of Southeast Asia's groundbreaking female entrepreneurs in 2018 by Forbes. She is also founder of 21st Century Girls, a charity that teaches girls coding and artificial intelligence. Prior to founding ADDO AI, Ayesha spent more than a decade on Wall Street developing large scale trading, risk management and data analytics systems. Ayesha has a BA (honours) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and a PhD in Information Systems and Innovation from the London School of Economics.
Skills to overcome times of crisis
SPECIALISTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION Communications professional with 15 years of experience in management positions. Specialist in cultural transformation processes as well as advisor and educator in cultural subjects, change and tranformation, development of leadership abilities and strategic planning. With a Bachelor’s in Publicity and Communication at the Universidad Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales, he is a certified coach by the San Andrés university since 2014. He gives counselling to C-level executives. He has participated in the direction of numerous projects in Latin America and in the direction or the cultural transformation of several projects. His expertise in different industries like Health, Telecommunications, Automobile, Bank and Finance has let him be a key part of strategic projects in Banco Ciudad, Naranja, Falabella, Sodimac, Telecom, Mercedes Benz, Ledesma, YPF, Boheringer Ingelheim, Southern Cross, Farmacity, OSDE, Quilmes, and many others. He has experience in design and execution of Change and Transformation Offices (CMO) in high complesity companies. He has defined governance, prioritized projects, developed methodologies to the clients specifications, formed Agents of Change and mediated conflict resolution, as well as done other many things in his experience. In the last years he has specialized in the direction of cultural transformation programs, besed in the following environments: • M&A processes, in the contexxt of integration of companies that are very geographically disperse as: Telecom, Cablevisión, Banco Nación-Banco Bice, Santander-Citi • Digital transformation programs (SAP, Microsoft, Oracle). • Designin strategies and implementing innovation models based on client-centric frameworks. Before, he worked at Grupo Assa with the main aim in generating business, under the header of consulting sales, focusing the pre sales in the business processes of clients with a Business Process Management focus. As he passed by GA he had the oportunity of participating in the regional developing team, gearing the development of offices in Chile, Perú and Colombia.
Digital fluency
As Chief Exponential Officer of Causeit, Inc., MJ builds the business and technology platforms to help companies harness the power of platforms for exponential growth as a speaker, strategist and facilitator. His academic background is in a field of study called Cyborg Anthropology, which studies the relationship between humans and technology. MJ specializes in helping others understand the mental models necessary to navigate new technologies. Since 2006, Causeit has helped transform how hundreds of clients think about and work towards the future, including Volkswagen, Swift, Google and the Omidyar Foundation. MJ was the Cyborg Anthropologist in Residence for NTT, served as a founding advisor of the Gates Foundation's digital financial platform for poverty alleviation, and is a repeat invitee to the Accenture TechVision Advisory Board. He is an alumnus of Lewis & Clark College and is currently authoring “Cybiomes: Biology, Technology and Hope.” MJ is a translator of trends, provocateur of new ways of thinking and guardian of values. He draws from his experience with startups and digital businesses, global travel and research to create compelling narratives of possible futures, catalyzing innovation for top teams in global companies, organizations and governments.
Tequila tasting
Based in Mexico City, Sandra Fernández is a sommelier, certified spirits specialist, and tequila expert who has devoted the past 20 years to the food, wine and spirits industry. She is considered by her peers and the media as the most recognized sommelier in the country and a top opinion leader. She holds the highest number of certifications in the wine field in Mexico, having studied at The Court of Master Sommeliers, The Society of Wine Educators, The Culinary Institute of America, UC Davis, The Regulatory Council of Jerez, The National Academy of Tequila Tasters, and Le Cordon Bleu. Fernández’ deep understanding of wine brings an unparalleled level of expertise to tequila training and tastings, where she is fully knowledgeable about all aspects of tequila, from its origins to the nuances of production to Casa Dragones’ role in the culinary world. Prior, she was Chief Sommelier and Wine Director of Grupo La Europea, one of the most important wine and spirit retailers in Mexico. Her unparalleled expertise has been recognized by El Conocedor magazine, the Association of Mexican Sommeliers, and she has been named by Líderes Mexicanos magazine as “One of the 25 Most Influential Wine Leaders” for five consecutive years. She is the first woman to speak about Mexican wine in the United States during several keynote speaker engagements. Today, she works with Casa Dragones, teaching an extensive Tequila Proficiency Course.
Digital technologies
University of New York, Buffalo, NY.
His most relevant professional career was for 35 years at the ITESM, performing as a teacher in the areas of Leadership and Strategic Planning at the undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education programs and especially in management positions, highlighting in:
● General Direction of the Saltillo, Sonora Norte, León and Guadalajara Campus of ITESM (1990-2006).
● Rector of the West Zone of the ITESM, which includes the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato and Querétaro. (2006-2012).
● Rector of the South Central Zone of the ITESM, which includes the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City , State of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, Hidalgo, Veracruz and Chiapas. (2012-2016).
● Vice-President of the Campus of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, with national responsibility for the 26 Campus. (2016-2018).º
In his experience he led and actively participated in various projects of educational innovation, linking and technological transfer, as well as as in councils of citizen organizations, in the various regions of the country and abroad in which he prioritise the :
● Design and implementation of Educational Models focused on the student and the development of their skills and knowledge, supported by technology platforms.
● Creation and operation of Educational Programs abroad, especially China, the United States, Canada and Eastern Europe.
● Projects focused on the transfer of technology between University-Business, with large international companies, as well as for small and medium business.
● Creation of 5 Technology and Innovation Parks, in different states.
● Projects of Regional Development and of Great Vision, as well as of Attractive Cities in diverse states of the republic.
His responsibilities included the sustainable operation and academic quality of the ITESM Campus, as well as the relationship with the Regional Councils that sponsor the Tecnológico de Monterrey and the representation of the Institute before various academic and researchers bodies, with society and government.
His current field of academic expertise and consulting is Leadership.
He has actively participated in social benefit organizations and philanthropy projects in each of the communities where he has professionally developed.
His main personal hobbies are reading and activities related to nature, such as sailing, mountain biking, hiking.
After a successful career of 35 years at Tecnológico de Monterrey, he decided to retire to pursue long-awaited professional projects with social impact and contribution to the country’s development.
