Aliya Grig
CEO & Founder, Kosmos Foundation & Evolwe AI
A tech entrepreneur and AGI researcher, building artificial consciousness. With 15 years in tech and collaborations with Boeing and NASA, she runs a company creating robots for manufacturing and space exploration, and a quantum computing lab. Aliya is building The Cosmos City innovation cluster with a lab and production facility for future tech. She is among the Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in AI and the top 30 young entrepreneurs by Forbes Europe. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Arizona Astrobiology Center.
Dr. Hamed Sadeghian
Co-Founder, President and CEO of Nearfield Instruments
Fellow at Netherlands Academy of Engineering
Dr. Sadeghian invented and developed the first high throughput, multi-head AFM system for metrology and inspection of high-end semiconductor manufacturing process control. He also invented and developed the Sub-Surface AFM, for non-destructive, high-resolution imaging of deep buried nano-structures through opaque layers.
In 2016, Dr. Sadeghian co-founded Nearfield Instruments, a semiconductor equipment company, offering highly innovative metrology and inspection solutions for semiconductor manufacturing industry. He is currently CTO/CEO at this scale-up company.
Dr. Sadeghian received his PhD (Cum Laude) in 2010 from Delft University of Technology. Four years later he received an MBA degree from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium. He is the founder (2001) of Jahesh Poulad Co., a manufacturer of mechanical equipment, where he sold the company in 2006.
Previously, he was scientific director of NOMI (Nano-Optomechatronics Instrumentation) at TNO in The Netherlands from 2011 to 2018
Dr. Sadeghian is a part time associate Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven. He holds more than 80 patents and published over 100 peer-reviewed technical papers.
Gary Shapiro
CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®
Gary Shapiro is an acclaimed author, lobbyist, and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®️ which represents over 1300 consumer technology companies and owns and produces CES®️, the world’s most powerful tech event. He has authored more than 1200 opinion pieces highlighting the importance of innovation in the U.S. economy. Gary Shapiro holds a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center and a BA in economics and psychology from Binghamton University. He is happily married and lives with his family in Michigan.
Victoria Slivkoff, Executive Managing Director, Extreme Tech Challenge Head of Ecosystem
Walden Catalyst Ventures
Victoria Slivkoff is the Executive Managing Director of Extreme Tech Challenge, the world’s largest innovation ecosystem and startup competition for founders building tech innovations to improve the world, as inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She also serves as the Head of Ecosystem at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a VC firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech, with a focus on semiconductors & ecosystem, AI and data infrastructure, and select applications.
Young Sohn, Chairman of the Samsung Semiconductor Advisory Board and Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst
Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley business executive and investor. Young is currently a Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, an over $550M early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to deep-tech investments focused on data & AI across North America, Europe, and Israel.
Previously Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer for Samsung Electronics, as well as CEO of two successful Silicon Valley public companies (Inphi, Oak) and board member of Arm, Cadence, Cymer (ASML), and others, he now serves as Chairman of the Board of HARMAN International. Young was also an important seed investor for various innovative companies, such as Berkeley Lights, AI21 Labs, Zoom Video, Graphcore, and TTTech Auto.
Young is Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a global start-up ecosystem inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Saskia van den Ende
Associate Partner, Antler
Saskia is an Associate Partner at early stage VC Antler in Amsterdam. She holds a MSc in Psychology from the University of Groningen. She has 10+ years of working experience in Tech and Executive Search at companies like BCG, Uber and Egon Zehnder.
Eliott Wertheimer
Co-CEO, VanMoof
Born in Paris, raised in Mauritius, educated in the UK and Australia: Eliott Wertheimer is a global citizen on a mission. The aerospace engineer saw opportunities to improve the micro-mobility sector and decided to dedicate his career to changing the way people move around cities. His previous e-bike startup was acquired by McLaren Applied where he helmed the development of a category-defining e-scooter. Eliott, and his co-CEO Albert Nassar, also led McLaren Applied's acquisition of VanMoof in late '23, and were tasked with restarting the iconic Dutch e-bike brand and paving the way to create a global urban mobility powerhouse.
Jason Silva
Artist/Presenter
Jason Silva is an Emmy-nominated TV presenter, storyteller and keynote speaker. Jason is known for hosting 5 seasons of the Emmy-nominated, global TV series Brain Games, on the National Geographic Channel. His popular short form videos, Shots of Awe, have received over 100 million views across social platforms. The videos explore topics such as digital transformation, innovation and technology, creativity, and mental health. Jason also hosted the global miniseries ORIGINS: The Journey Of Humankind, on the National Geographic Channel, seen in 171 countries. In 2024 Jason hosted The Blue Lizard Effect, a four part documentary about the search for happiness, seen on Max Platforms worldwide. A global keynote speaker, Jason has given talks for Microsoft, Google, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, PepsiCo, Accenture, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Tribeca Film Festival, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Bose, 20th Century Fox, Cosmopolitan, TED Global, The Economist, and more.