APEC SME Summit 2015

For the first time, APEC is giving an extra push in helping SMEs by having a summit for SMEs and this will be done on Nov. 17, a day ahead of the main APEC. The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) is partnering with Go Negosyo and Asia Society Philippines in hosting the APEC SME Summit 2015.

The summit aims to challenge the traditional SME framework and mindset in order to motivate APEC entrepreneurs to re-think and re-create the way they do business, as well as to look at their products, services and business operations through the lens of innovation to successfully meet the demands of the 21st century global market.

We have a good line-up of speakers from different countries who are founders and leaders in innovation. They will share how they utilized creativity and innovation to make transformative changes in addressing old and emerging market needs. Their inspiring stories will be the spotlight of each session – highlighting the elements that motivated them to create and introduce a new product and/or service in the market, the factors that helped overcome challenges encountered, and the key lessons learned to succeed. 

Here are the confirmed speakers:

1. Juraj Vaculik – In 2010, Juraj co-founded AeroMobil and manages the company as its CEO. He also acts as an Angel investor with investments into successful start-up projects in the media content, IT and alternative transport sectors throughout Europe and the US. Aeromobil is a Slovak company that is developing prototype roadable aircraft, a vehicle that can be converted from an automobile to an aircraft. 

2. Scott Anthony – He is the managing partner of Innosight, a consulting and investment company that focus on strategic transformation, disruptive change, and business model innovation. Based in Innosight’s Singapore office since 2010, he also leads its Asian consulting operations and its venture-capital investment activities.

3. Karen Reddington – She is president of the Asia Pacific division of FedEx Express, the world’s largest express transportation company. She heads up Asia Pacific from its headquarters in Hong Kong. Dr. Reddington is responsible for leading the FedEx business across the region, including overall planning and implementation of corporate strategies and operations across 30 countries and territories.

4. Jonathan Swanson – He is the co-founder of Thumbtack, Inc. and serves as its president. Mr. Swanson served as director of operations at Thumbtack, Inc. Jonathan built and manages Thumbtack’s global team of 500+ based in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and the Philippines. Thumbtack is an online marketplace for local services. It matches service providers and consumers through an online directory. 

5. Diosdado Banatao – He is the managing partner of Tallwood Venture Capital. With his past experience as an entrepreneur, Dado provides Tallwood with a unique perspective in technology investments. Tallwood invests in unique and hard-to-do semiconductor technology solutions for computing, communication, and consumer platforms. He is credited with developing several key semiconductor technologies and is regarded as a Silicon Valley visionary.

6. Wendy Kopp – She is CEO and co-founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that are cultivating their nations’ promising future leaders to ensure their most marginalized children have the chance to fulfil their true potential. Wendy founded Teach For America in 1989 to marshal the energy of her generation against educational inequity in the United States. 

7. Shiela Marcelo – Inspired by challenges finding care for her children and ailing parents, Sheila founded Care.com in 2006. Today, the public company is the world’s largest online care destination with 15.2 million members in 16 countries. 

8. Angelo Umali – He is a technical and business strategist with a decade of broad international experience in marketing, business development and product management for both hardware and software products. He founded Simple Wearables, a healthcare tech startup based in Hong Kong focusing on wearable technology that provides peace of mind.

9. Dexter Ligot-Gordon – He is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Kalibrr. Working together with another co-founder, Paul Rivera, he helped grow Kalibrr to have more than 30 people handling front- and back-end, content, sales, and marketing. Kalibrr is the Philippines’ hottest tech startup which delivers a faster, smarter, and more sophisticated way of job matching.

10. Melissa Guzy – She is the founder and the managing partner of Arbor Ventures, has more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and as a venture investor. Arbor Ventures is focused on investing in FinTech, Big Data and Digital Commerce. Arbor invests in companies that have a regional or global reach. 

11. Alok Shetty – Alok Shetty is principal of Bhumiputra Architecture, an internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm based in Bangalore City. Operating across many scales, Shetty’s firm consistently works towards new built environments that improve the quality of life in emerging economies.

12. Josette Sheeran – Josette has been president and CEO of the Asia Society since May 2013. Previously Sheeran was vice chairman of the World Economic Forum. Sheeran believes that hunger and poverty must and can be solved through both immediate actions and long-term policies.

13. David Plouffe  – He is an American political strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In September 2014, he became the senior vice president of policy and strategy for transportation network company startup Uber. In May 2015, he left that role to become a full-time strategic adviser for the company. 

14. Nix Nolledo – He is the president and chairman of the Board of Xurpas, a technology company that creates digital products for the mobile consumer. He is also the chairman of Fluxion, a subsidiary of XurpaConsidered as a pioneer in the Philippine Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, Nolledo first started in the consumer technology sector.

We invite all interested entrepreneurs to visit the official website: www.apecsmesummit2015.com and register. You may also call the APEC Secretariat at 6315024 /6332838/6345604.