A decade on innovation: the next chapter

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Revisit our events from the past decade

UBS is excited to host the upcoming 10th edition of the UBS Disruptive Technology CEO Summit 2024, on Wednesday, 20 November. In today’s rapidly evolving world, disruption is the key to progress. The theme of this year’s summit is A decade on innovation: the next chapter. It marks the 10^th^ year in which we explore the forefront of technology and groundbreaking innovations.

This year, we will be bringing together industry pioneers and visionary thought leaders to speak on disruptive innovations and the next cutting-edge advancements.

Event host

Ms. Amy Lo

Amy Lo, JP

Chairman, UBS Global Wealth Management Asia, Co-Head Wealth Management Asia Pacific, UBS Global Wealth Management, Head and Chief Executive, UBS Hong Kong, Managing Director

Amy Lo is Chairman, Global Wealth Management Asia, Co-Head of Wealth Management Asia Pacific, Head and Chief Executive of UBS Hong Kong, and a Managing Director at UBS. Amy has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry. Since joining UBS in 1995, she has held a number of senior management positions including Regional Head of Ultra High Net Worth and Global Family Office in Asia. Today, the ultra-high net worth business is the leading wealth manager for ultra-high net worth individuals in the region.

Actively involved in the development of the private banking industry in Hong Kong, Amy chairs the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Private Wealth Management Association (PWMA), and is a Board Member of the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) and the Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy. She is also a member of the Banking Industry Training Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Education Bureau and an advisor of Our Hong Kong Foundation.

A passionate supporter of youth education and technological innovation in Greater China, Amy is a member of The Court and the MBA Advisory Board at The University of Hong Kong, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Department of Social Work at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a Board Member of the UBS Optimus Foundation, the independent grant-making foundation that helps UBS clients improve the education and welfare of children globally.

In recognition of her contribution to the wealth management industry, Amy was named Private Banker of the Year in the Asian Private Banker Awards for Distinction 2020 and 2023. She also received the Executive Award at the DHL/SCMP Business Awards 2018 for her efforts in building UBS as a corporate citizen in Hong Kong. She was also named by a top-tier Chinese media, China Business News, as one of the "Hong Kong Top 20 in the next 20 years" for her contribution to innovation developments in 2017.

Keynote Speaker

Prof A. Michael Spence

Prof A. Michael Spence

Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences 2001

Michael Spence’s work profoundly changed the paradigm of microeconomics by teaching that markets are not always equipped with perfect information. He has shown how signalling and screening, major themes of his work, are part of modern people’s daily routine. “Airbnb does two things: they create a market using a network structure and they solve an informational problem. Because I as a host of an apartment am not in the market all that much, and you as a guest may not be in the market that much, but you’re in it often enough for the central player, who keeps very big databases, to be able to evaluate you. And so the crucial part of these platforms is the two-way evaluation system, closing informational gaps.”

After receiving the Nobel Prize for his contributions in microeconomics, Spence dedicated himself to global matters. For example, he became chairman of the independent Commission on Growth and Development. Spence has argued that the way to achieve sustained economic growth is actually pretty simple: being open to the global economy, the acquisition of knowledge, developing technology, and smart investments. In his opinion, rising inequality, economic waste and failures of political and social cohesion pose the biggest threats to economic growth.

With respect to Europe, Spence shows himself worried that countries like Spain and Greece are sailing “into oblivion.” He says there’s need for more unity, a centralized banking, regulatory structures under the ECB, a system-wide attempt to overcome obstacles to growth, and fiscal transfers.

As a Canadian-born US citizen living in the US, Asia and Europe, he is a true globetrotter. “For a lot of people, reading about life in Peru is like reading about people on Mars, and it doesn’t have to be like that,” Spence knows.

Areas of research: macroeconomics, economics of information, information asymmetries, trade theory, development economics, emerging markets Year of the Nobel Prize: 2001, prize shared with George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz Prize-winning work: Analyses of markets with asymmetric information Affiliation: Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University, Visiting Professor at SDA Bocconi

Selected publications：

  • The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World
  • Understanding big data: Data calculus in the digital era
  • The pandemic public-debt dilemma
  • The global economy’s next winners: What it takes to thrive in the automation age

Discover our full lineup

Leon Farrant

Leon Farrant

Co-Founder & CEO
Green Li-ion

Leon Farrant is the CEO and co-founder of Green Li-ion, a battery recycling and remanufacturing technology provider at the forefront of the industry. With over 15 years of strategic leadership in the energy and service sectors, creating and scaling businesses across diverse regions, Leon is known for his consensus-building prowess, vision, and rigor for global business. He drives Green Li-ion's mission to make battery recycling commercially viable with scalable, on-site solutions. Leon's expertise in innovation and technology application and his active involvement in assessing the financial feasibility of recycling lithium battery circularity, propel Green Li-ion’s efforts to efficiently close the loop on recycling critical battery materials around the globe.

Dr Darko Matovski

Dr Darko Matovski

Co-Founder & CEO
causaLens

Dr Darko Matovski is a research scientist turned technology entrepreneur known for his pioneering work in Causal AI - a new category of intelligent machines that reason like humans. He is the co-founder and CEO of causaLens, a USD50M venture-backed scaleup headquartered in London.

Darko draws on over a decade of experience across respected institutions such as the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, where he made transformative contributions as an AI researcher. Darko also has experience applying artificial intelligence quantitatively within the financial sector – previously working as a researcher at hedge funds, including a global investment firm managing over USD160 billion in assets.

In addition to leading causaLens’ rapid growth, Darko contributes to the development of ethical AI through his role as a Global Innovator at the World Economic Forum – an international organization that engages world leaders to drive impactful change. Darko is also a member of the Milken Institute's Young Leaders Circle, a network of intellectually curious, motivated, and philanthropic young professionals supporting the Institute's mission and collaborating on global challenges.

Dr Min Han Tan

Dr Min Han Tan

Founder & CEO
Lucence

Dr Min-Han Tan is the Founder, CEO and Medical Director of Lucence. The Company develops advanced liquid biopsy blood tests that achieve earlier cancer detection for better outcomes, when cure is possible. Lucence is the first and only Asian-headquartered company to receive US government Medicare insurance coverage. Its clinical services are delivered by twin labs in Palo Alto and Singapore across the US and Asia.

Dr Tan is a medical oncologist and clinical cancer geneticist by background, trained in the Cleveland Clinic and National Cancer Center Singapore, and has received many scientific awards for research over 25 years of experience.

Taras Elie Wankewycz

Taras Elie Wankewycz

Founder & CEO
H3 Dynamics

Taras Wankewycz has been working on the commercialisation of hydrogen solutions across several sectors over the past 20 years, having founded 3 companies so far since 2003, including Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, a global green hydrogen leader and now one of the largest vertically integrated producers of PEM fuel cells and AEM electrolyzers in China. This first company has since branched out into several product lines addressing different industry sectors forming several spin-offs around the world. As part of this market diversification, in 2015 Taras created H3 Dynamics to take on the global aviation industry, further specialising technologies to extend the range of electric flight, decarbonize ground operations, and help produce low-carbon synthetic jet fuels.