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Shafiq is the President and Founding Partner of Teach the World Foundation, a non-profit that seeks to enhance global literacy using digital technology. Prior founding Teach the World, Shafiq was the Senior Vice President of Chanel Strategy and Distribution at Marriott International, where he was responsible for leading all of Marriott’s distribution channels, growing them from $150MM in revenue to in excess of $15 billion.

Shafiq received his MBA from Harvard Business School and an economics degree from Punjab University in Pakistan.

In this interview, Shafiq shares how he’s leveraging his experience as a digital pioneer to establish and deploy models of literacy and learning effectively and at scale through the power of digital technology. Globally, two of every seven people are functionally illiterate, and Shafiq argues that traditional models of education cannot effectively close this gap, especially in the developing world. Shafiq’s believes digital technology can democratize education to benefit not just the individuals receiving it, but the global economy as a whole.

 

 

Albert is the Chief Operating and Technology Officer at Pearson, the 174-year-old, £4.5B British education and publishing company. In this role, Albert has been responsible for overseeing the company’s multi-step digital transformation, as well as procurement, supply chain, customer service, and real estate.

Prior to joining Pearson, Albert was the Group Chief Information Officer at Vodafone. Before Vodafone, Albert was the Chief Information Officer at Nortel Networks.

Albert received his Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering at South Devon College of Arts and Technology and his MBA from Exeter University.

 

Dan is the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Product Development at Elsevier, the 138 year old, $3.3 billion publisher which is now the science, technology, and healthcare division of RELX Group. As CTO, Dan is responsible for traditional IT, as well as evolving the company’s products in support of its transformation from a traditional print-based business to a digital solutions provider.

Before joining Elsevier, Dan was the Chief Technology Officer of Reed Business Information (formerly Reed Elsevier), a sister company within RELX Group. Dan joined Reed Business Information as the United Kingdom Chief Technology Officer and later became Global Chief Information Officer. Prior to joining RELX Group, Dan held technology and product development leadership roles with GM Financial, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and IBM, as well as a number  of UK and international software organizations.

Dan was one of TechRepublic’s ‘The top 50 CIOs”, and was inducted into the CIO hall of fame in 2017.

Among other topics, Larry and Theador discussed the following issues with Metis Strategy:

Everipedia is a wiki-based online encyclopedia that is the largest in the English language. Everipedia leverages blockchain technology to incentivize content generation and ensure democratized access to information.

Theodor co-founded Everipedia in 2014. Prior to that, he was the creator of social gaming networks Hello and Mobafy, and was a web developer at Swedish advertising agency NOGA.

Larry is the CIO of Everipedia and has been focused on developing Everipedia’s blockchain network since joining in December 2016. Larry co-founded Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales in 2001. Larry also taught philosophy at Ohio State University as a visiting professor. Larry received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Ohio State University.

I recently caught up with Theodor and Larry by phone from their office in Los Angeles, California, and our conversation the genesis of and vision for Everipedia, the company’s unique use of blockchain and the value it provides, the key differences between Everipedia and Wikipedia, among a variety of other topics.

 

Among other topics, Yoshua discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

 

Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer of deep learning, is a Full Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the University of Montreal. Yoshua is also the Director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) and a Senior Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), where he co-directs its program on deep learning.

Yoshua serves as an adviser to a number of enterprises and is a co-founder of Element AI, a startup that helps organizations embrace AI.

Yoshua is a co-author of the book “Deep Learning” and more than 300 other publications. He currently serves as action editor for the Journal of Machine Learning Research, as an associate editor for the Neural Computation journal, and as an editor for the journal Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning.

Yoshua earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering, a master’s degree in Computer Science, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science, all from McGill University.

Among other topics, Andrew discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

 

Andrew W. Moore has served as the Dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science since 2014. He was a professor of computer science and robotics at CMU before taking a leave of absence, in 2006, to become founding director of Google’s Pittsburgh engineering office.

Andrew received an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University.

Andrew is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Among other topics, Bill & Dave discuss the following issues with Metis Strategy:

 

Bill Burnett is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford. He directs the undergraduate and graduate programs in innovative design and is a Consulting Assistant Professor. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Bill advises several internet startup companies. He has worked professionally on a variety of projects and holds both mechanical and design patents.

Bill has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Product Design from Stanford University.

Dave Evans is a Lecturer in the Product Design Program at Stanford and has served as an Executive Leadership and Management Consultant for high technology companies for over 25 years. He has also worked in alternative energy, led product marketing teams at Apple, and is a co-founder of Electronic Arts.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a graduate diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Among other topics, Andrew discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

Most recently, Andrew served as Corporate VP and Chief Scientist of Baidu. During his tenure at Baidu, Andrew spearheaded AI projects and developed new lines of business. Prior to joining Baidu, Andrew co-founded Coursera, a Massive Open Online Course platform. Andrew also founded and led the “Google Brain” deep learning project. Through his work with Chinese and American companies, he has made significant contributions to the growth of machine and deep learning in both countries.

Andrew has written or co-authored over 100 research papers and is an adjunct professor at Stanford University. Andrew continues to guide Coursera as Co-Chair of the board

Andrew holds a bachelor of science degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in Electrical and Chemical Engineering from MIT. He also earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California Berkeley

Among other topics, Rob discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:
Rob Nail’s Biography
Rob is the Chief Executive Officer and Associate founder ofSingularity University. Since assuming that role in 2011, Rob has overseen the growth of theorganization’s individual and organization-focused programs, its conference series, and itsglobal community, as well as championed SU Labs, a creative space that is part startupaccelerator, part corporate innovation lab, and part think tank.Prior to leading at Singularity University, Rob co-founded Velocity11, a robotics company forcancer research and drug discovery, which he led until its acquisition by Agilent Technologies.After its acquisition, Rob worked as a General Manager at Agilent. He is a Director at Harmanand Light & Motion, and co-founder and Director at Alite Design. He is also an active angelinvestor and advisor.

Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical & Materials Sciences from the University of California, Davis and a master’s degree inManufacturing Systems from Stanford University. I recently caught up with Rob over the phone from his office in Silicon Valley, and ourconversation covered World Class IT Principle One, People, as we discussed the role of intrapreneurs and the importance of creative and forward thinkers in developing innovativecompanies and products, Principle Four, IT & Business Partnerships, as we discussedinnovation processes and strategy setting, Principle Five, External Partnerships, as wediscussed the challenges and rewards of partnering with startups and of developing innovationecosystems, as well as a variety of other topics.