Future of work & Sustainable Economic Development pitching competition

Speakers

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  Carman Chan Founder and Managing Partner, Click Ventures
  

  Carman Chan

  Founder and Managing Partner, Click Ventures

  As one of the top 5 Women to watch in Asia Tech (Nikkei Asian Review), Carman Chan is a veteran in the technology industry with decades of experience as an entrepreneur with multiple exits, a tech columnist and a globally recognized venture capitalist.
  Carman began her entrepreneurship journey when she was at university. In order to pursue her passion for the newly emerging Internet, she passed up a fully sponsored Ph.D. from Imperial College to become a serial internet entrepreneur. Carman’s first company, English Street was acquired by HKET(0423.HK), a Hong Kong listed newspaper group. Her second company was merged with Hiiir in Taiwan and later acquired by FarEasTone (4904.TW).
  Carman is also a best-selling book author for several accelerated learning books. Spending eight years as a tech columnist for IT magazines, she wrote about internet business models and internet marketing.
  After several successful exits Carman started Click Ventures, her angel fund. With a focus on providing seed to series A financing to technology startups, Click Ventures is differentiated by offering mentorship from entrepreneurs with over twenty years of first-hand experience.
  Click Ventures has grown into a leading investment manager, and named as the Most Consistently Top Performing Venture Capital Fund Managers by Preqin in 2019 with all three funds in the top quartile!
  Click’s current portfolio includes 50+ investments including Spotify.com, Docusign, Palantir.com, Memebox.com, Youappi.com…etc. Due to her deep experience, Carman is frequently invited to speak or serve as a panel member for prestigious events around the world.

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  Charles Graham Brown CIO & Co-Founder @ Seedstars
  

  Charles Graham Brown

  CIO & Co-Founder @ Seedstars

  Charlie started out as a mechanical engineer working on projects such as A380 at Airbus. Seeking a faster paced career, he switched tracks through an MBA at the Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris, and subsequently moved to Geneva and into investment management. Charlie spent four year with BlueOrchard Finance, investing in high impact financial institutions in 20+ countries across Africa, Asia and MENA and became a CFA charterholder.

  The entrepreneurial bug struck in 2013 when Charlie started his own venture before joining the founding team of Seedstars in early 2014. He has been instrumental in the growth of Seedstars from a team of just 6 people operating in 20 countries to a team of over 100 operating in more than 100 markets. Responsible for investments, he has accumulated deep knowledge of technology trends in emerging markets with a portfolio of over 67 startups in 31 countries.

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  Dr. Axel Klaphake Director Economic and Social Development, Digitalisation, GIZ
  

  Dr. Axel Klaphake

  Director Economic and Social Development, Digitalisation, GIZ

  Dr. Axel Klaphake is an economist and political scientist by training (University of Cologne, Université de Clermont-Ferrand) and holds a PhD in Environmental Management and Planning from the Technical University Berlin. In his further career, he worked mainly on issues linked to economic development and the sustainable management of natural resources holding jobs with several research institutes, think tanks and consulting companies in Germany, USA, and Brazil. He joined GIZ in 2007 as an adviser to the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development on G8 issue and water and infrastructure development in Africa. From 2009-2017 he worked as a head of regional and bilateral programmes in Uganda and as the GIZ Country Director in Uganda and Ethiopia. He is currently heading the Division Economic and Social Development, Digitalisation in the global department at GIZ HQs. In his career, he has been closely involved with efforts to strengthen synergies between private sector development and development cooperation.

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  Maxime Bayen BFA Global, Senior Venture Builder
  

  Maxime Bayen

  BFA Global, Senior Venture Builder

  Maxime is a Senior Venture Builder for the Catalyst Fund programme run by the firm BFA Global. He is also the co-founder of the Africa-watching publication and deals tracking platform Africa: The Big Deal. Maxime has been working in a venture building, investing or consulting capacity with startups in Africa for the past 7 years. He is a French ESSEC MBA graduate with 9 Years experience in the Tech and Mobile space in emerging markets of the African, Middle-East and South Asian regions.