Ikuo Hiraishi is a serial entrepreneur and a startup accelerator based in Tokyo. He has reactivated DreamVision in July 2017 after 6 years of experiences in cross boarder venture investments with SunBridge Global Ventures (then as CEO), which is one of the major seed focused investment firms in Japan. His investment portfolio stretches out to USA and Europe, in addition to Japan. The Berlin startup INFARM is among his global portfolio. He's now working on a large scale project called Global Startup Village, and is one of the most important bridge builders between the ecosystems in Tokyo, Berlin and other cities.

Takeshi Ebihara has 20 years of experience as venture capitalist, and also as serial entrepreneur in the internet industry.

He started his investment carrier in 1994 with JAFCO, which is one of the largest venture capital firms in Japan.

Takeshi also founded and managed several internet companies that includes a stock-exchange listed company.

He is Founding Partner of Rebright Partners, mentor at Founder Institute and some other accelerators, as well as board member of many startup companies in Southeast Asia and Japan.

Naomi Kurahara is the co-founder and CEO of Infostellar, a so-called Newspace Communications Technology Company in Tokyo. The company manages a satellite antenna sharing platform called the StellarStation, which makes it possible to share the unused time of its own antenna to gain access to international satellite operations worldwide. Known beyond Japan, some call her company the Airb&b of satellites operators. 

In March 2011, a giant tsunami has hit the Fukushima Daichi Plant and it was the aftermath that made Ken Isono realise a change is needed in the energy sector in Japan. He quickly realised a lot of people were waiting for others to take initiative - and did nothing. So he decided to take the initiative in his own hands and started a 100% renewables company in Japan. The operation and maintenance business of Shizen Energy boasts a capacity of 2 GW and has a joint venture with juwi in Germany. 

Mikko is a creative serial entrepreneur based in Berlin (among others), focusing with his current startup Inbot Ambassador on the utilisation of emotional & artificial intelligence for b2b growth. Inbot Ambassador is an AI-powered platform for trusted introductions, and it's "intoken" is now under preparation for ICO. 

Bastian is a berlin based entrepreneur with love for sake. He is combining premium sake with a portable 180 ml bottle format that is for once "democratizing" the aristocrat under Japanese beverage à la Berlin style and helping to push the recent sake boom throughout Europe.

He’s also Founder and Managing Director of Berlin Food Tour, awarded 2015, 2016 and 2017 with the Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence. Berlin Food Tour is a Food Business Company with the Focus on Food & Beverage Innovations, Events, Tours, Trendscouting and Consulting. Founded in 2013 Berlin Food Tour has conceptualized and realized over 600 Tours, Tastings & Events.

Sayaka is social entrepreneur and master course student/researcher in Japan who has freshly been chosen as winner of the award "Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2018" by Impact²/INCO for her engagement in refugee issues and tackling one of the most challenging policy dialogues in the world: to persuade the policy makers and the government of Japan to open the country for migration. But her ambitions go beyond humanitarian goals - she wants to help Japan shift towards a more diverse, colourful society. 

Daniel, known as the creator of basslet, has built a truly high tech company that is pioneering innovative industry solutions in the area of haptics, a field that has been - till recently - rather neglected behind visual and audio. Not so any longer. The technology of Lofelt has the potential to revolutionise user experience through integrating haptics into a more natural sensory interaction with users in the fields of AR, VR, gaming and beyond. 

Anne has built a highly acclaimed, revolutionary school in Berlin and Munich that empowers refugees through the acquisition of top digital skills - skills that are in dire shortage these days in many developed countries. In this way, ReDI school is solving a concrete issue around the integration of refugees in European societies in a creative way. Anne has been nominated among the 50 most influential women in business in Germany by Edition F - in the run up to the top 25. 

Since a very young age, Jeff was interested in electronics and computers. When he grew up, Jeff became a serial entrepreneur, founding companies in a wide variety of industries, including security, finance, and IT. With his background in engineering, computer science, and business, Jeff is at once a forward-thinking technologist and a practical engineer. He is currently in charge of technology for Telefonica NEXT, a daughter of the Telefonica Group focusing on privacy, big data, and internet of things.

Andrea is a Berlin based tech entrepreneur who believes in turning ideas into reality. He is founder and CEO at Skysense, which is building the fast charge infrastructure for drones, and is thus supporting the integration and the rapid evolution of the commercial drone industry. He's a hands-on executive leader with a passion for building successful teams driven by a vision. Prior experience in SEO, web development, online marketing, sales, mountaineering and surfing large waves.

Gen Sadakane is co-founder and Creative Director of EyeEm. He is the Eye of EyeEm, leading all things design and creative. Born and raised in Germany, Düsseldorf. Studied after spraying more than 1000 grafitties legal and illegal on trains (today its called streetart), visual communication and philosophy. He’s worked as a Designer and Creative Director at TBWA, McCann, Jung von Matt, DDB and Leo Burnett, and won more than 100 international awards, including Cannes Gold for Volkswagen and Bosch. He was named 30 most creative people in advertising by Gunn Report.

Prior to KIWI Claudia worked for nine years as consultant and project manager with McKinsey. Her focus was within the Travel, Transport and Logistics sector and she has wide-ranging expertise in the design and optimization of production networks. She served international clients in the IT, high-tech and security industries. In February 2018, she founded the PropTech Company Builder High Rise Ventures, which aims to advance the adoption of new technologies in the real estate industry.

Astrid is an Indonesian who has been calling Berlin her home for the past 9 years. With her multi-disciplinary background in computer science, artificial intelligence, and digital media, combined with her passion for beauty and diversity, she co-founded twindly, a beauty recommendation platform geared for diverse skin tones and backgrounds. She had worked in wearable tech interface for Airbus maintenance, automated movie trailer generator, and product recommendation algorithm for e-commerce. She also loves to discover spicy food and excellent coffees in Berlin (and other cities!).

Gianfranco Chicco is the European Marketing Director of The Webby Awards & The Lovie Awards. 

Gian is passionate about innovative technology that bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Over the last 18 years, he has been involved in building human-centered experiences including conferences such as the World Business Forum, Social Media Week, the Picnic Festival and Frontiers of Interaction. An Industrial Engineer by training, Gian acts as a cultural translator between different worlds.

Originally from Argentina, Gian is also Italian and has lived in Buenos Aires, Milan, Rome, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Madrid and now London. He curates The Craftsman Newsletter, enjoys making pasta for his friends, practicing yoga to stay flexible and collecting LEGO minifigures.

Julian Vogels is a music technology engineer, IoT developer and co-founder of Hong Kong / Berlin startup Soundbrenner. Here's what Julian has to say about his startup:

"At Soundbrenner we’re looking to solve universal problems of musicians, by applying design, technology and human ingenuity. We combine hardware and software into integrated solutions that offer a beautiful user experience. Solutions that are not gadgets or toys, but music tools designed for all musicians who are serious about improving.

Our first product is the Soundbrenner Pulse, a smart vibrating metronome that allows you to literally feel the beat. It works hand in hand with our metronome mobile app, that is already loved by thousands of musicians around the world.

We firmly believe success is earned and not given, so we celebrate those musicians who are on the journey to musical greatness, and we inspire musicians to reach for it.

We're Soundbrenner and we bring technology, great design and inspiration to every musician on the planet, to help them master their craft."

Christian is the German Country Manager for Wantedly Inc, Japans leading social recruiting platform that matches talents and companies based on cultural fit. He spent most of his 20ths in South-East Asia, particularly Thailand, where he worked as a researcher and lecturer for innovation management and entrepreneurship. During this time he ran the side project BangkokStartup, a community blog on the emerging Thai startup ecosystem, and founded EdTech Asia, a consultancy and community driven conference provider, that addresses the convergence of technology and education particularly within organisational settings.

Liwen is a journalist turned entrepreneur, specializing in content production, media consultancy and digitalization consultancy, doing consultancy for big German companies as well as Berlin startups.

Before founding Trends Eurasia GmbH 4 years ago, she worked as News Director for Sohu.com and Modern Media Group, and as Senior Analyst for International Crisis Group and later Researcher of Mercator Institute of China Studies, and Senior Reporter and Chief Editor of English Website of The Economic Observer. She is also the Co-Founder of One Way Space, a cultural landmark of Beijing.

She is now a dedicated Berliner.

Yuki is a Berlin-based Japanese tech journalist and translator, working with Japanese publications including WIRED Japan and the Japanese startup online media The Bridge.

Miho is currently living and breathing EU digital rights and legislation, helping companies with compliance for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as the co-founder of Enobyte GmbH. For its work with international businesses, Enobyte was invited to speak in the Japanese Parliament building, at the first German-Japanese Cyber Security Forum. Prior to this Miho founded AirMarkr, a mobile app that lets you draw in the air. It was named one of the hottest startups in Germany by LeWeb, and The Next Web.

Wenhai is a serial entrepreneur based in Berlin for 26 years. After working for Nishen Press and Q-Bus (Deutsche Telecom AG) respectively at management level, he founded Yee Tak Group Hong Kong Ltd., Westhaven Industrie GmbH, and Goras Investment. In 2013, Wenhai founded REXI Chinese-German Business Service GmbH. Wenhai also served as the authorized representative for China in BVMW, The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses.

In 2017, he founded German Chinese Cultural Foundation and he is serving as its president.

Mitsuhiro is a scholar of media aesthetics and Director of QON (Quality of Network) in Berlin. His professional experiences include Associate Professor of Kyoto University of Art and Design, Information Design; Founding Director of Research Center for Media Aesthetics of Kyoto University of Art and Design; Associate Professor, Institute of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at The University of Tokyo (Media Environment Studies); and Professor, Sapporo City University (School of Media Design). His research includes the prize-winning book “The Future of Memory, Cultural Economy of Digital Archives” (published by University of Tokyo Press).On the WIRED.jp online, "GDPR: the future of data and the Internet" is being serialized.

Boris leads the Berlin Studio of the UX/UI design firm Goodpatch. As one of the early members of Goodpatch in Tokyo, he helped grow the team to a size of 130 designers and developers. In May 2015, he moved back to Germany after 3 years in Tokyo to open the Berlin Studio. Before joining Goodpatch, Boris helped run Stanford University’s joint Master’s program ME310 with University of St.Gallen. Boris holds a Master’s degree in Media Design from Keio University, Japan and a CEMS Master’s degree in International Management from University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Already during his university time, Boris has once co-founded a small design company which developed a patented snowboard binding and was sold to Head Snowboards. His expertise lies in building products and teams.

Ludolf is a serial entrepreneur and angel-investor. He has just launched his third startup Bankenscore, a major big-data B2B fintech in Berlin.

Ludolf has only built market-leaders across various technology industries in Berlin, Seoul and Tokyo and was previously a consultant with McKinsey in Germany. He built Deliveryhero´s local business in Korea from scratch, which today drives the biggest online-food ordering platform in Korea and also within the Deliveryhero Group, which itself went IPO. He also built online ordering platform "naldo", which became the biggest online B2B express delivery in Korea.

Mario is the Founder and CEO of GLOBALS. He thinks in German, speaks in English, feels Spanish and works in brightly colored glasses that represent a GLOBALS milestone (his current pair is bright blue, representing the birth of the world’s first city registration assistant, AiRelo). He founded the company five years ago and is ambassador of the world's largest expat community in Berlin. He started GLOBALS after becoming inspired by living abroad in numerous countries but became tired of the many difficult processes that come with adjusting. He has always been a strong believer in the power of connecting people and services across the globe through social technologies, events, and opportunities. He is also a founding member of multiple organizations like socialmedia-academy.com, rotary-berlin-international.de and develops Rotary International's social business strategies. 

Jan is an multi-entrepreneur and runs divers accelerator progams such as the women-first ada-accelerator, leAD sports accelerator and 49 foodpreneurs. He has also founded the innovation camp/company transformer Ignore Gravity.  Jan is deeply interested in innovative approaches to exploring the highest future potential of leaders and their organizations. People know him well as organizational hacker, creative space explorer and cross-border experience designer.

For diverse clients Jan creates mindful leadership programs, organizational development for new ventures, cultural transformation, accelerator programs & executive coaching. The doors of his company are always wide open for people who want and need to ignore gravity in various contexts. With his network & colleagues he has done organization hacking in numerous ways: designing innovation strategies, accelerator programs, (un)conferences, third places, merger processes, learning journeys and innovation camps. Here’s Jan’s motto for his friends and clients: Let´s ignore gravity together!

Daniel Lachmann is an entrepreneur and consultant who has already founded a startup in China and who never stopped exploring the depths of the Chinese tech scene. In his last project, he has built a venture for a Fortune 500 company in collaboration with well-known Berlin startup executives. Knowing both sides, the western as well as the Asian one, he advises western entrepreneurs on the subject of digital transformation, innovation and internationalization also and especially with regard to the hectoring rise of China as a technological and political world power.

Florian Plenge is the Co-Founder and CEO of Berlin-based start-up, Skoove, a piano-learning platform that analyses, through a computer’s microphone, whether music students are hitting the right notes. Since its launch in November 2015, Skoove (a product of Microsoft Ventures Berlin accelerator), has provided over 1,000,000 lessons to consumers learning piano, from beginners to players with existing experience, in 187 countries.

With over 10 years of experience in the music industry, including multiple roles at Native Instruments (a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for music production and DJing), Florian co-founded Skoove with his colleague Stephan Schulz in 2014. The pair identified the need for Skoove by noticing a clear gap in the music education market, which was not being met by existing online tuition methods. As CEO, Florian’s personal passion for making things entertaining and easy plays a key role in bringing Skoove’s goal to life – making music education fun, effective and accessible to everyone.

Asuka Mita is Project Manager / Marketing at Native Instruments - a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based audio production and DJing. Growing up in the Japanese Alps, Asuka sold souvenirs at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics before moving to China to study business and international trade. She advised Japanese companies at Dentsu advertising agency Beijing Office – serving as an intercultural bridge. Fluent in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and English, Asuka moved to Germany in 2006 to work on her German and to manage the logistics of Isuzu Automotive Europe GmbH. She was part of a Berlin-based start-up targeting second-hand markets of luxury goods before joining NI in 2012. One of her first tasks there was to help found NI’s new Tokyo office.
 

Ricardo is a Principal at Cherry Ventures. Previously, he spent several years gaining experience as an operator as well as working closely with founders in the roles he held at Faber Ventures, Seedrs and Seedcamp. Born in Lisbon, he speaks five languages and has lived in Portugal, Argentina, Spain, the UK and now Germany. He studied Economics in Lisbon and holds an MSc. in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from ESADE Business School. Ricardo is especially passionate about businesses building competitive advantages through data and addictive products able to change people’s habits.

Vincent moved from New York to Berlin 3 years ago as a Head of Product in Zalando and tried to bring digital to fashion merchandising/manufacturing industries. He started his career with his first startup in Chicago, a vintage fashion ecommerce, until the financial crisis happened, which he also enjoyed studying. He has a hobby of consulting on growth strategies, with littlebits, clue, and spike art magazine; as well as serving on the Board of schools in New York. He sometimes mentors at Founder Institute and is currently experimenting as a guinea pig in EntrepreneurFirst’s first Berlin cohort.

Rainer, strong on 25 years’ experience in international cooperation and projects, is heading the unit for International Cooperation (European affairs, foreign trade policy and development cooperation) in Berlin´s Ministry for Economic Affairs. He initiated the Asia-Pacific Weeks (APW) as a platform for dialogue with partners in Asia-Pacific in 1997 and the StartUp Asia Berlin network with Bangalore, Manila and Jakarta during the APW 2016. He has special experience in the cooperation with partners in France, Russia, Turkey and various Asian countries. He is an international networker for Berlin with a focus on startups.

Alexander Jansen is a serial entrepreneur, a mentor and a professional consultant for startups who aims to bring the agile spirit to Asia. Trained as a pianist and a film score composer and an experienced Agile Coach, Alex applies his out-of-the-box thinking on coaching and mentoring startups across Asia as well as leading agile innovation among international corporations in the region. Equipped with a cross-cultural mindset, he champions the adaptation of agile to different cultural needs while working with Asia’s growing startup scenes in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, China and the Philippines. Alex is currently setting up an incubation programme for sustainable development in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a local non-profit organisation. Alex is a regular speaker at Citizen Circle Conferences. His next ambition is to revolutionise the art world with the startup spirit and master Cantonese swear words.

Michael Tam is the UX Design & Creative Lead, at IBM iX. With years of advertising agencies experience in both New Zealand and Hong Kong, he specializes in bringing creative concepts, digital transformation strategies, and omnichannel experience design into a multicultural context.

As a senior creative consultant at IBM, Michael brings strong business storytelling ability and innovative thinking to the technology world. He is also a certified IBM Design Thinking coach who is experienced in leading human-centric, outcome-focused workshops with commercial enterprises and non-profit organizations. Michael has spoken publicly at design conferences and tech hackathons on topics of UX, Design Thinking, and the impact of Human-Centered Creativity.

Ruo-Mei Chua is Founder and Chief Impact Officer of SUTW Impact Consulting, a training consultancy that works closely with universities and corporations to develop millennial professional from 20 to 40. Key topics include Brand Storytelling, Startup & Corporate Pitching, and Values-Driven Vision Design.
A linguistic dork by nature, Ruo Mei has lived and worked in five countries, and speaks four main languages- English, Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish. She has been featured on Singapore and Japan’s largest news networks Channel NewsAsia and NHK World, moderated events for global conglomerates such as NatGeo and interviewed guests from ministers, to presidents and CEOs. A mentor by disposition, Ruo Mei has a heart particularly for coaching millennial professionals to discover and achieve their fullest potential- and has personally trained/spoken to more than 10,000 people worldwide.
Ruo Mei graduated from Brown University and is delighted to be back speaking at CSC 2018.

Athena is a project-starter and content marketing consultant for technology companies, specializing in East Asian startups. Her experience includes impact investing, event organising, content strategy and creation, and business development for social and tech startups. She has helped set up social accelerators, startup programs, and makerspaces in Hong Kong, Myanmar, China, and Japan.
Her latest project, Business 3.0 showcases the ways Asian entrepreneurs tackle various challenges in the startup lifecycle.

Bernard Moon is Co-founder & partner at SparkLabs Group, a network of accelerators and venture capital funds. SparkLabs IoT & Smart City accelerator is the exclusive startup innovation partner with Songdo, which is South Korea’s US$35 billion smart city built from the ground up. Bernard was a Managing Director at the Lunsford Group, which is a private investment firm with holdings in real estate, healthcare and other industries.

H.Kelly currently works at Root Impact to support social entrepreneurs’ sustainable growth in the global market. Previously, she helped young social entrepreneurs’ leadership development at The Global Good Fund in Washington D.C on Asan Frontier Fellowship. Before she decided to transition to social sector, she had richly experienced in marketing and brand management at CJ Cheiljedang and Double A Korea. Also she taught Marketing and Business communication at Halla University as an adjunct professor. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature and a Global MBA from Korea University.

Eva Xiao is a tech journalist based in Shanghai, China. For several years, she has covered a diverse range of topics across China’s fast-paced tech industry, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, and live streaming. Her reporting has taken her all over the country, from bitcoin mines in Inner Mongolia to maker spaces in Shenzhen. Currently, she writes for Tech in Asia, an online publication about Asia Pacific’s tech scene.

Cao Yin is the Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of the Energy Blockchain Labs, the world first company focused on blockchain technology energy and green finance application. He also is the Principal Expert of Blockchain as well as the Principal Energy Analyst of China Cinda Securities, the investment bank of China Cinda Group providing the biggest financial asset management company in China. Mr. Cao performs as strategic advisor for several famous energy and finance companies.
Cao is a very active evangelist and Token economist in the blockchain community of China, working as a key advisor of some famous blockchain projects. He is one of the earliest Estonia E-residency members in China, now assisting the E-residency team to promote the ecosystem in Chinese speaking communities. Apart from that, Cao works as a guest lecturer of Beijing National Accounting Institute and Guest Speaker of Shanghai National Accounting Institute.

Dr. Sophie Chung is the founder and CEO of Qunomedical. Prior to founding Qunomedical in 2015, she worked as the Director of Healthcare Strategy at Zocdoc, a healthcare technology startup focused on locating doctors and booking appointments. Sophie also previously worked as a project manager for McKinsey&Company’s Healthcare Practice in Germany where she worked with government, hospital, health insurance and pharmaceutical industry clients. After earning her MD degree from Medical University of Vienna in 2008, Sophie gained first-hand experience in treating patients as a doctor in Australia, and tackling the complex issues involved in providing people with access to healthcare whilst working at an NGO in Cambodia. She has completed and presented academic stem cell research, as well as given keynote presentations on academic research and consumerism in healthcare. 

Oz Ben David, 37, is Israeli marketing & PR advisor and entrepreneur. He’s Co-founder and Co-Owner of Kanaan, an Israeli-Palestinian vegan-vegetarian Restaurant in Berlin and culinary brand, along with his partner Jalil Dabit, Palestinian chef and culinary expert.
Oz philosophy comes from his life change. He was an active marketing and public relations agent in his previous life in Israel and having lost everything, he came to Berlin with nothing but connections, talent, and a crushed spirit. He began to rebuild his life, this time focusing on something with more social benefit and a sense of good karma to it.
Since its establishment in 2015 in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, Kanaan has become a media sensation, gaining enthusiastic press coverage in Germany and all over the world, as well a crowd-favourite, adored by local and international foodies and praised by food bloggers. Most recently, Kanaan’s Israeli-Palestinian Brunch was chosen by Tagesspiegel as one of Berlin’s best Brunch locations.

Tim is co-founder and producer of the independent studio for children's learning entertainment. With a background in filmmaking, shooting ads for the good, the bad and the ugly, he decided to use the expertise in a new field. Inspired by his own children in the target group age, Tim's studio is driven by the desire to shape and improve the digital aspects of modern childhood through combining play, inspiration and learning. Their Studio has created the app Lucy and Pogo which has won a renowned children’s book prize in Japan last year.