Jehan Ara is the Founder & CEO of Katalyst Labs which is a Startup Accelerator Program and Women’s Leadership Fellows program.

She is the former President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) where she spearheaded efforts for over 20 years and was responsible for developing the P@SHA brand and creating linkages between P@SHA and local and international partners.

In January 2015 Jehan founded and set up The Nest I/O – a technology incubator, accelerator and innovation community hub in Karachi with the support of Google for Entrepreneurs to help provide a platform for aspiring technology businesses in the buzzing city of Karachi. The Nest IO incubated 217+ startup businesses and created a strong community of young people in a period of six years.

Under her leadership The Nest I/O also organized the flagship innovation and entrepreneurship conference 021Disrupt which over a four year period became the go-to premier event that brought together startups, innovators professionals, investors and students on a platform to engage, learn and collaborate.

Jehan has vast experience in Marketing, Communications and interactive New media in Hong Kong, the Far East, the UAE and Pakistan. She is a motivator, an entrepreneur, a social activist and a strong propagator of extending the power and use of Information and Communication Technologies beyond pure traditional business, to empower and enable communities.

Currently, Jehan serves as a Member of the PM's Advisory Council on IT & the Digital Economy, Independent Director on the board of the Central Depository Company, a Member of the APAC Content Advisory Board for TikTok and A Board Member of the Punjab IT Board. She is also on the World Bank Advisory Group on Gender Diversity and Board Member of the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) which is a nonprofit research organization established to promote, assist, support, simulates, undertake and manage policy research and advocacy.

Jehan also serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Coeus Solutions GmbH which is based in Berlin with development and head office in Lahore. They provide web, mobile and social media technology solutions to startups and agencies around the world - primarily in Europe. Soon to be listed on the PSX.

She recently received an Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to the Digital Industry at the Pakistan Digital Awards 2021.

Tae Hea co-founded Storm Ventures, a VC firm investing in B2B start-ups. He also co-authored Survival to Thrival, which demystifies how to build enterprise startups. He is an adjunct professor at KAIST. He is a frequent speaker on Building Enterprise Leaders.

At Storm Ventures, he was founding CEO and investor in Airespace which was later sold to Cisco for $450m. Storm exits include Berkana (Qualcomm), Com2uS (Korean IPO), EchoSign (Adobe), Marketo (IPO/Vista), MetaCloud (Cisco), RallyTeam (Workday), Sandforce (LSI Logic), Sierra Monolithics (Semtech) and Silego (Dialog). Current Storm investments include Algolia, BlueShift, Haegin, MobileIron (IPO), Pipedrive, Salesloft, Sendoso, solarisBank, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Team Blind, Tekion and Workato.

Prior to Storm, Tae Hea was an attorney specializing in startups as a founding partner of Venture Law Group and partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Tae Hea majored in applied math at Harvard and likes building models and playing simulation games. He also has a JD from University of Chicago Law School. He was born in Seoul, Korea.

Johanna Weaver is Director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University. The Design Centre is reimagining how to use governance as a tool to shape technology.

Ms Weaver is a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Global Advisory Board on digital threats during conflict. She is also a regular guest lecturer at the Australian National Security College.

In June 2021, Ms Weaver completed her term as Australia’s independent expert and lead cyber negotiator at the United Nations. Earlier, Ms Weaver led the Cyber Affairs Branch at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, working closely with Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for Cyber Affairs.

Ms Weaver is a reformed commercial litigator, and an unapologetic international law nerd.

Seasoned Product Management leader with over 15 years’ experience in Product Management, Product Development and Business Development of novel, innovative and best in class products.

Dr. Rupa Rao is passionate about building and creating game changing solutions that significantly enhance life and the way we live it. With an eye on big picture and while maintaining laser sharp focus on the details, she conceptualizes product ideas and convert that vision to reality.

Dr. Rao innovates to serve the customers’ ever changing needs with the promise of a fulfilling and differentiated experience. Collaboration comes naturally to her as she has successfully led cross functional teams ranging from deeply technical R&D scientists to marketing, operations, quality and sales.

For over a decade, Dr. Rao has been a successful leader of high functioning teams in areas such as consumer electronics, smart home experiences, tablets, smartphones, medical devices and drug testing. Now as a product leader in Meta’s VR Devices, she focuses on next generation, new to the world VR experiences and services.

Dr. Lafifa Jamal is a Professor of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka. She is the former Chairperson of the same department. reviously, she was a faculty member of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka.

Dr. Jamal is a Senior Member of IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology, and a Fellow of the Bangladesh Computer ociety. She received her Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Dhaka. Her research interests include Robotics and Intelligent Systems, VLSI Design and Reversible Logic Synthesis, Gender and Diversity, STEM Education. She attended various seminars, conferences and workshops internationally. She delivered invited talks in Spain, the USA, South Korea, China, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Dr. Jamal is currently serving as the President of Bangladesh Women in Technology (BWIT), which is dedicated to facilitating women involved in different technology industry levels and creating a wide range of professional development and networking opportunities and making meaningful contributions to the growth of Bangladesh. She is the Founding Director of Bangladesh Flying Labs which is a hub to connect robotics and tech researchers and enthusiasts from home and abroad for social justice, equality, and development. She is also serving as the Vice-President Bangladesh Open Source Network Foundation (BdOSN) which aims to create a youth community empowered with technology, innovation and knowledge and bring more girls into STEM education and the ICT profession. She has had a significant role in raising the awareness of computer programming among female students of Bangladesh.She participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) titled “#HiddenNoMore: Empowering International Women Leaders in STEM” which was funded by the U.S. Department of State and held in Washington DC, Greensboro, Chicago and Los Angeles. 50 Women STEM Leaders from 50 different countries participated in this prestigious program.

Dr. Jamal sits on various international advisory boards and review panels, and serves in many program committee roles for various international conferences. Some of her recent involvements include Workshop Organizer in ICSE 2022 (USA), Women in Engineering Chair of iSES 2021 (India), Special Session Organizer of ICIPRoB 2020 (Sri Lanka), TPC Chair of ICIET 2019 (Bangladesh), Regional Program Chair of RIIT 2018 (Thailand), General Co-Chair of ICIET 2018 (Bangladesh), International Advisory Board Member of ICOM 2017 (Malaysia). She is a TPC Member of ICRAI 2022 (Singapore), ICIPRoB 2022 (Srilanka), ICRAI 2021 (China), HCII 2021 (USA), STI 2020 (Bangladesh), TENCON 2019 (India), ICIET 2019 (Bangladesh), ISVLSI 2017 (Germany), R10-HTC 2017 (Bangladesh), ISCAS 2016 (Canada), CECNet 2015 (China). She is the International Partner Country Representative from angladesh for the action “European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics” under European Cooperation in Science and Technology. She is a member of the National Task Force committee for Broadband Policy 2021.

Dr. Jamal is the Founding Advisor of IEEE University of Dhaka Women in Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group and IEEE Robotics & Automation Society University of Dhaka Student Branch Chapter; and Founding Moderator of Dhaka University Science Society. She is the former Treasurer of the Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS).

Under her leadership, Bangladesh got the first Gold Medal in the 20th International Robot Olympiad 2018 held in Manila, Philippines. She is the Founder President of the Bangladesh Robot Olympiad Committee and a Member of the International Robot Olympiad Central Committee. Dr. Jamal received “Ananya Shirsha Dosh Shommanona 2020” for her contribution in the Technology field in Bangladesh. She also received the award “Person of the Year” for her contribution in the ICT field in Bangladesh.

Dr. Choi is a lecturer of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are in the area of visual computing, in particular computer graphics, visualization and XR technologies. Her current work includes projects on 3D live avatar, XR analytics, virtual classroom and medical AI.

Haksoo Ko is a Professor of Law at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. He teaches areas in Law and Economics, Data Privacy Law, and Artificial Intelligence Law. His research focuses on legal, ethical, and policy aspects related to data privacy, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse. He regularly sits on various advisory committees for the Korean government as well as for various other public and private entities around the world. For his work for the Korean government, he was awarded a Service Merit Medal as well as a Presidential Citation.

Prior to joining academia, he practiced law with law firms in New York and in Seoul. He currently serves as President of Asian Law and Economics Association; President of Korean Association for AI and Law; Co-director of SNU AI Policy Initiative; and Associate Director of SNU AI Institute. He had visitor appointments at UC Berkeley, University of Hamburg, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Freiburg, and National University of Singapore. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University and received both J.D. and Ph.D. (Economics) degrees from Columbia University in New York, USA.