Agenda

Prof. Salma Abbasi is a technologist, philanthropist and social activist, with a proven track record as a visionary leader with dynamic drive and positive energy, she motivates both, professionals and the civil society. She is the Chairperson and CEO, eWorldwide Group, an international social enterprise focusing on innovation, sustainable development and holistic inclusion of marginalised communities, both at the strategic and tactical level. A former Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer, Lucent Technologies, she has over 40 years’ experience in the field of technology, innovation, people centric design and policy development.

Prof. Abbasi started her career in 1981 in Silicon Valley as a design engineer for AMD and rapidly progressed holding a series of diverse executive management positions in fortune 500 companies in fields ranging from engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance and reliability, international business development and customer satisfaction. This rich experience has given her unique capabilities, knowledge and understanding to think outside the box in multiple cultures, challenging situations and in times of crisis. As a triple engineer, Prof. Abbasi is a global advocate and role model for women and girls active engagement in STEM.

This led Prof. Abbasi to form the eWorldwide Group in 2001, a dynamic consortium of over 20 companies, universities and organizations, providing multiple services and solutions focused in three primary areas: digital transformation, sustainable development and innovative advanced technology for social good. She is also lecturing in Universities around the world, focusing in the space of global health, prevention of avoidable deaths, pandemic preparedness and resilience, ethical artificial intelligent systems for a sustainable future, digital transformation and resilience and is actively supporting innovators, start-ups and entrepreneurship development. She is committed to engage, challenge and inspire the next generation with empathy to create a united and sustainable future.

As Chairperson of the eWorldwide Group, Prof. Abbasi is using her vast international experience and knowledge, along with her global network to create resilient and safe inclusive ‘green digital economies and societies’. She is leveraging and transforming best practices to develop unique multi-sector, multi-stakeholder engagement partnerships and models. She has successfully created a series of strategies and initiatives that disrupt, integrate and reform policies to promote innovative technologies such as AIS, Big data and blockchain, along with driving ethical standardisation for prevailing technologies, data privacy, trust and security to focus on ‘win-win’ scenarios for social good. This is laying the foundations for sustainable green digital economies, particularly for rural and marginalised communities.

She advocates that the only way to develop a truly resilient and inclusive digital economy is to engage and equip local communities, particularly women and youth, along with SMEs, MSME’s and the informal sector with holistic capabilities to promote entrepreneurship, digital proficiency, cyber resilience, innovation to drive financial inclusion and build inclusive sustainable societies. She is also creatively blending fintech with Islamic financing principles to fast track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is directly benefiting local economies resulting in sustainable socio-economic development, harmonized within the local context, disrupting local power structures to ensure greater equity and survivability for women and young girls at the grass roots to flourish.

Hazami Habib is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), a Thought Leader, Strategic Partner & Advisory Body on Science, Technology, Innovation & Economy (STIE) policy and related matters, nationally and internationally. She leads the Management of the Academy that comprises an amount of more than 1,000 STIE experts in Malaysia.

In her 28 years at the Academy, she has been involved in several national and international level studies and initiatives such as the National Astronaut Programme, National Science Challenge, ASEAN, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings related to STI, 1st, 2nd & 3rd Science and Technology National Policy and others. She has continuously worked with the team in developing policies and roadmaps for the nation such as the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation (NPSTI) 2021 - 2030, National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030, Industry4WRD, 10-10 Malaysian Science, Technology, Innovation & Economy (10-10 MySTIE) Framework, National Biotechnology Policy (NBP) 2.0, National Planetary Health Action Plan (NPHAP), as well as several national roadmaps such as the Development Research, Development, Innovation, Commercialisation and Economy (RDICE) Roadmap, National Biotech Policy 2.0 and National Robotics Roadmap 2021 – 2030, among others. Additionally, as the CEO, she also oversees ASM Flagship Studies including Mega Science Framework Study, Foresight Study on Malaysia 2050, Science Education Study, Science Outlook, and others. In recognition of her service, she has also been appointed as the member Board of Trustee of the Yayasan Pintar Negara (YPN) that focuses on designing learning modules for gifted children.

Regionally, she has represented Malaysia in a few talks and forums, including the China-ASEAN Technology Transfer and STI Cooperation Forum, Nanning, China; ASEAN Talent Mobility Workshop, Thailand; Asian Innovation Forum, Korea; 2019 AAAS Symposium, Washington DC; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, UK; Asian Productivity Organisation, Sri Lanka & Japan; and National Academy of Sciences Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka.

She is the Chair of Capacity Building Sub-Group in APEC Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (2017-current), the Secretary for Malaysia in IIASA Council (2014-2019), Disciplinary Panel for Malaysian Medical Council (2018-current) and Council Member for Industry4WRD lead by Ministry of International Trade and Industry (2019-current).

Her area of interest and expertise is on STEM Talent Development, Policies, Strategic Science Communication, Foresight, Science Diplomacy, and Governance.

Shuchi brings 20+ years of Silicon Valley and Cross-Border experience with a focus on technology, investment, impact and ecosystem building. She is currently an investor and heads up portfolio development for ServiceNow Ventures, ServiceNow’s Strategic Venture Fund with a commitment to invest $1B by 2026 in cutting edge enterprise startups. 

Shuchi has previously served as the GM for VentureBeat Transform, helping some of the largest brands with thought leadership. She was also the head of GTM for HeadSpin, a google backed startup. Prior to that she was the Head of SAP.iO at SAP, a strategic program that invests in and accelerates enterprise software startups. In her role she helped growth stage startups go to market with SAP and it's customers. In her previous roles she has led operations, funding diligence and M&A for startups. 

Over the course of her career she has worked with great entrepreneurs, mentored, advised and angel invested in several startups. 

She is a big advocate of anti-recidivism, inclusion and has worked with the likes of UCLA, ARC (Anti-recidivism coalition), and tech/startup ecosystem to create inclusive opportunities. She was named a digital leader by the united nations foundation. 

A lover of serendipity, people, and good Pu’er. Trained Yoga Instructor.

Mei Lin Fung, Co-Chair of People Centered Internet which she co-founded with Vint Cerf. An early pioneer of CRM, working with Tom Siebel and Marc Benioff at Oracle, she also worked at  Shell and  Intel. Mei Lin studied Finance at MIT under two future Nobel Economics winners. She served as Socio Technical lead for the US government Federal Health Futures, and was finalist in the GSA Citizen Engagement GEAR challenge and chairs the IEEE Technical Committee on Sustainability. She orrganized “Program for the Future” 2008 with Douglas Engelbart and “40th Anniversary of the Internet” (www.tcpip40.com) in 2014 with Vint Cerf. Fellow of Hasso-Plattner-Institute. Mei Lin curates the People Centered Internet’s Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy network and co-authored G7 policy contributions. She initiated and chaired the 3-day series of 60 speakers, including ITU Secretary General Doreen Bogdan Martin, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf the fathers of the Internet as part of 10 panels on Digital Cooperation, Governance and Regulations at the UN Science Summit in Sept 2023. She is currently organizing with the IEEE History and David Gonzalez, IEEE Ambassador, the 50th Anniversary of the Internet.

Alaa Abdulaal has been the vice president of strategy and governance at the Digital Cooperation Organization since September 2021.

The organization, a global multilateral entity that aims at increasing social prosperity through accelerating the growth of the digital economy, was established by a group of countries that share an interest in collaborating to realize their collective digital potential. These countries are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Oman, and Pakistan.

Prior to joining the organization, Abdulaal had served for more than a year as the director of IT strategy and governance at the Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services. For over nine years, beginning in 2011, she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a database unit leader, technical operation strategist, and a strategic planning and development manager.

In the latter role she established key performance metrics, designed reporting solutions, and promoted the use of structured information to drive enhanced business performance. She also led critical communication development and business reporting.

In 2015, she spent eight months as a research intern at Riva Modeling Systems in Toronto, where she demonstrated a strong interest and aptitude for user experience.

Before that, she worked for more than four years as a database administrator at the Saudi Exchange Market. There, she helped enhance the database’s performance and security. Her job responsibilities also included evaluating the proposed auditing systems and developing the availability process from scratch with the IT service management project consultants. Moreover, she created availability dashboards for Tadawul production services.

Abdulaal received a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2006 from King Saud University, where she graduated with first-class honors. In 2014, she obtained a master’s degree, majoring in applied computing, with the highest GPA result.

She is a certified strategic business planner and a professional business process manager.

Angela Elzir has been at the World Bank for 14 years. She first joined in 2010 as a Research Analyst in the Social Protection and Labor Unit based in the Lebanon Country Office. In 2015, she joined the Jobs Group as a Junior Professional Associate based in Washington D.C, and in 2017, she moved back to the Lebanon Country Office as a Labor Market and Social Protection Specialist.

Angela leads the dialogue on employment in Lebanon and has worked on a range of operational and analytical projects focusing on the areas of jobs and employment (including on digital skills, women/youth economic empowerment, productive economic inclusion of the poor), and also has experience on social assistance. She has published a number of reports and analytical notes on employment.

Angela holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and a Bachelor degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut (AUB).