Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
Founder Khan Academy
Sal Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere. Khan Academy's content and mastery learning platform has more than 100 million registered users from all over the world and has been localized into more than 40 languages.
Sal holds three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. He has been profiled by 60 Minutes, was the only nonprofit leader ever profiled on the cover of Forbes and was recognized as one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Best-selling author & Founder of FutureofWorkUniversity.com
Jacob is a four time bestselling author, keynote speaker, and trained futurist who explores leadership, employee experience, and the future of work. He is the founder of FutureofWorkUniversity.com, an online education and training platform that helps future proof individuals and organizations by teaching them the skills they need to succeed in the future of work. He is regularly featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, CNN, USA Today and others. His work has been endorsed by the CEOs of Unilever, Mastercard, Cisco, T-Mobile, Best Buy, SAP, Nestle, KPMG and many others.
President & CEO West Coast University
Sandra Pham is the president and CEO at West Coast University, offering both online and on-campus
healthcare programs in nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistants and
nurse practioners. Ms. Pham has oversight for strategic growth, market benchmarking, legal, compliance,
and data analytics. Ms. Pham oversees the admissions and enrollment processes as well as campus
operations, both online and for the school’s main locations in California, Texas, and Florida.
Sandra has more than two decades in the healthcare world working in hospitals and medical offices around
the world, including Africa and the Middle East. Previously, Sandra held a variety of leadership roles at
Kaiser Permanente, including CFO for Finance Operations and Vice President of Finance for the real estate
portfolio, where she had financial oversight of the organization’s multi-billion-dollar annual capital program.
A respected leader in her field, Ms. Pham has been a guest lecturer at Oxford University, a participant for the
Robert Half Women in Leadership panel and Ernst & Young Diversity Leadership panels. Ms. Pham has
been honored as a finalist for the Orange County Business Journal 2018 Woman Leader of the Year.
Sandra received a Master of Public Health from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration
from Keenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She attended college at
the University of Minnesota and graduated with a BS in biology and a BA in psychology.
In addition, she has several other certifications including: Certified Executive Coach (CPCC certification),
Co-Active Training Institute and Certified Management Accountant, Institute of Management Accountants.
Ms. Pham is a visiting scholar in the Yale Healthcare Leaders program and serves on several boards
including:
• The Harvard Business Review Advisory Council
• Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• The Executive Advisory Board for the Yale Healthcare Conference
Sandra enjoys spending her spare time with her two children and being a Girl Scout Mom — especially
during girl scout cookie season.
Founder Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program
Esther Wojcicki is a internationally known journalism teacher and the founder of the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program, a program that focuses on empowering students through the use of media (newspaper, magazine, yearbook, websites, video production, photography, radio, & television). The program started in 1984 with an already established (1918) 6 -8 page newspaper and 19 students; it has grown to become one of the most distinguished and the largest scholastic media program in the nation today (2016) with 600+ students, five additional teachers, nine publications, and a new 25,000 sq. ft Media Arts Center (2014).
Esther is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at MediaX at Stanford, a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Research Fellow, ; the 2002 California Teacher of the Year by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing; the 2011 Charles O’Malley Award recipient from Columbia Scholastic Press. In 2013, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Palo Alto University, and in 2016 an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island School of Design. In November, 2016 she was awarded the MyHero AAward for her work in global education.
Senior Producer CNN
Christina Zdanowicz is a Senior Producer at CNN. Her expertise lies in online storytelling, breaking news, user-generated content and finding great stories. She is a leader at CNN Digital and manages the hectic evening shift for the Social Discovery Team, the network's hub for social media newsgathering. Assigning, writing and editing stories, verifying user-generated content and making tough editorial decisions are all part of what she does. Her role involves identifying trending topics and social conversations around CNN's top news priorities, as well as curating content for a social and digital audience. The highlight of her day is mentoring interns, whom she recruits, hires and supervises. They've gone on to full-time jobs at CNN, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, NPR and The Wall Street Journal.
Her leadership skills were recognized in 2018 when she was chosen to be part of Poynter's Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Over the last 11 years, she has held various roles at CNN. Before that, she worked for the Chicago Tribune, CBS 2 Chicago and COSMOS, an Australian science magazine.
Founder
Khan Academy
Sal Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere.
Special Panelists
Host
Q&A Moderator
Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
General Partner LearnLaunch
Partner at LearnLaunch. LearnLaunch Institute, Accelerator and Campus together support the growth of greater Boston’s edtech cluster. The goal is to drive innovation and transform learning by providing support for the creation and growth of education technology and learning companies in New England.
Jean is an active angel investor focusing on early stage high tech start-ups. She was honored with the highest award for angels in the US, the Hans Severiens Award in 2014. She was a founder of the Boston branch of Golden Seeds (focused on investing in women-managed businesses) and a member of Launchpad Venture Group and Hub Angels.
Jean is serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the high-tech industry. Her entrepreneurial activities include co-founding and managing Quarry Technologies and AXON Networks and, following 3Com’s acquisition of AXON, focusing 3Com's WAN strategy.
MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Entrepreneur in Residence, Mentor at MassChallenge and TechStars.
She has played an active board level role with a number of her Boston area investments including Crimson Hexagon, Hire Reach, Home Portfolio, Instream Media, iTeam, Peach Underneath, Pixibility, Playrific, Ten Marks, ZipCar, and a number of others. Her activities with nonprofits include being on the board of The Capital Network.
Growth Investor Gaia Capital Partners
Morgan brings a diversified experience in finance and technology. He started his career in telecom & tech investment banking, working on various M&A transactions for clients such as Altice, Criteo, Cellnex, etc. Morgan then co-founded a company, Wing, which helps retailers implement omni-channel logistics operations. Wing has successfully developed in various French cities and raised funds from CMA CGM, leading worldwide shipping group. Two years ago, Morgan joined forces with a first-time team to launch Gaia Capital Partners, a growth-equity fund which invests in the next generation of European leaders.
Morgan graduated from EMLyon Business School and also studied at East China Normal University and Copenhagen Business School.
Managing Partner Blockchain Founders Fund
I am passionate about emerging technologies to help change the world. This includes blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, articifial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, education, and FinTech. I’ve spent my last few years investing and working on several blockchain ventures and lead Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in and venture builds top-tier Start-ups and consults companies and governmental organizations on emerging technologies. Prior to that worked in Management Consulting and Assurance with PwC in Canada, The United States, Brazil, and the Caribbean. I love to spend my free time working on social sector improvement and have served on the Board of Directors of the University of Toronto and Advantage Mississauga. I previously held roles with PayPal, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and the Royal Canadian Air Force.
I enjoy spending time on millennial development and authored 3 books including an international award-winning book entitled 'Your Guide to Succeed in University' as part of the 'Succeed Series', where each book is available free of charge. I also perform workshops and speaking engagements for parents, students, and executives. Most recently we published 'Your Guide to Get Into Medical School' and 'Your Guide to Succeed After Graduation'.
I am an INSEAD MBA December 2016 graduate (Singapore and France) and a Schwarzman Scholar from Tsinghua University. I hold a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Toronto. I also hold the Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, and Chartered Investment Manager designations.
VC South Central Ventures
Pedja Predin brings 9+ years of experience in VC investing, corporate strategy, business development and global expansion. Prior to joining SC Ventures, he served in various management roles at Norwegian growth stage company Gelato (www.gelato.com), including Head of Global Expansion, China Country Manager and Head of Logistics, and as Business Manager at Microsoft CEE (based out of Germany). Pedja also plays an active role in the startup community in Serbia through mentoring and coaching. He obtained his MBA from INSEAD (France), and BS in Finance from St. Francis College (New York, US).
ENDI is a solution that addresses the needs of Small Companies and Corporations experiencing the challenges that come with the new ways and trends of work.ENDI provides a virtual collaborative workspace where people can choose the location and place to work from, be productive, and feel satisfied with their work. ENDI substitutes existing work solutions, complements the physical workplace, and helps to manage internal and external employees providing users the most powerful features to organize and manage their work. All in one collaborative virtual workspace.The company was founded in 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
Placense is a location intelligence company that provides businesses with the link between consumer behaviour and their physical location. The company prides itself on data privacy with a proprietary mathematical algorithm they developed to make sure this data is totally private whenever it is in any way exported or exposed. The essence of this process is that we alter parts of the data records in a way that makes it impossible to conclude anything on the individual while remaining accurate at scale and allowing us to reach strong insights when looking at larger datasets. Backed by Innogy Innovation Hub and Nielsen research, the company is well positioned to become an innovative leader providing granular location intelligence to decision makers in the physical world. Placense was founded in 2018 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
TakeTask has created a system to manage tasks: to assign, execute and verify tasks on a large scale in many locations simultaneously for any industry. Their aim is to help enterprises to simplify management of their tasks by replacing paperwork to ensure processes are delivered to the highest standards. The system enables distribution, confirmation and verification of tasks in companies with big and dispersed out-of-desk labour force. Employees receive prioritised tasks, clearly defined guidelines and real-time feedback. TakeTask was founded in 2017 in Poland.
Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
Senior Producer CNN
Christina Zdanowicz is a Senior Producer at CNN. Her expertise lies in online storytelling, breaking news, user-generated content and finding great stories. She is a leader at CNN Digital and manages the hectic evening shift for the Social Discovery Team, the network's hub for social media newsgathering. Assigning, writing and editing stories, verifying user-generated content and making tough editorial decisions are all part of what she does. Her role involves identifying trending topics and social conversations around CNN's top news priorities, as well as curating content for a social and digital audience. The highlight of her day is mentoring interns, whom she recruits, hires and supervises. They've gone on to full-time jobs at CNN, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, NPR and The Wall Street Journal.
Her leadership skills were recognized in 2018 when she was chosen to be part of Poynter's Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Over the last 11 years, she has held various roles at CNN. Before that, she worked for the Chicago Tribune, CBS 2 Chicago and COSMOS, an Australian science magazine.
Journalist Fast Company & The Globe and Mail
Jared Lindzon is a journalist and public speaker based in Toronto. Beyond his regular columns in Fast Company, The Guardian and The Globe & Mail Lindzon has also been published in The New York Times, POLITICO, the BBC, Rolling Stone, OZY, Fortune Magazine, TIME Magazine and many more.
Lindzon regularly shares the insights he's learned through years of reporting on the future of work in keynote presentations at events around the world, and has shared the stage with experts from a range of disciplines as a moderator and interviewer.
Reporter/Producer CGTN America
Connie Lee is a Reporter/Producer for CGTN America based in Washington D.C. She's been covering global headlines throughout her career. She previously lived in South Korea as a journalist, and has produced documentaries in Seoul and in Jordan. At CGTN America, Connie launched an original profile series ‘Asian & American’, and has covered latest digital and social trends across the globe. She started her career in journalism working at the ABC News affiliate based in the Washington region. Connie is fluent in Korean, conversational in Spanish, and is currently working on her Mandarin.
Senior Technology Reporter BuzzFeed News
Alex Kantrowitz is a Senior Technology Reporter at BuzzFeed News. He is the author of “Always Day One”. He covers how Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Snapchat are shaping the way we share information and interact. He has published in-depth stories on Facebook's artificial intelligence research division, Twitter's business struggles and comeback, Tinder's date-matching algorithm, and the spread of fake news. His work has been cited by publications ranging from The New York Times to Sports Illustrated. He has made multiple appearances on CNBC, CNN, and BBC Radio, and has plenty of moderated panels. In 2019, He won a Mirror Award as part of a BuzzFeed team recognized for reporting on 'Social Media in the Crosshairs.'
Special Panelists
Host
