Facilitators

Ms. Relena graduated from New York University and completed her Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School. Relena served as the Interim Chief Operating Officer of New York Silent Models LLC prior to joining Latham and Watkins, one of the world's leading law firms. Relena is experienced in mergers and acquisition, initial public offerings and debt offerings. She is also experienced in real estate, and is a partner at Lionpride, a real estate developer in the Philippines focused on mixed-use high-rise residential projects. Relena is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Jumpstart Media Limited, which is a major startup-ecosystem builder in Hong Kong. Jumpstart's mission is to "Make Innovation Matter".

Rebecca A. Fannin is the founder of news and events group Silicon Dragon Ventures, which she established in 2010 to cover global tech innovation trends. She is the author of three forward-looking books, Silicon Dragon, Startup Asia and her latest title, Tech Titans of China. As a journalist, Rebecca was one of the first to write about China’s entrepreneurial boom, interviewing such leaders as Jack Ma of Alibaba and Robin Li of Baidu, among others. She is a correspondent to CNBC and 10-year columnist at Forbes, and her articles also have appeared in Harvard Business Review, CEO, Inc. and Red Herring magazine, where she was an editor during the dotcom boom. A regular media commentator and public speaker represented by Leading Authorities, she has appeared on CNN, CNBC, BBC, CNA and Bloomberg, and has spoken at the Brookings Institute, Davos China, the Harvard Club, the Asia Society and China Institute. She also has lectured at several leading universities internationally. Originally from Ohio, Rebecca today has home bases in New York City and San Francisco.

Dr Jennifer Chang Wathall has over 25 years’ experience in the education field and her research areas include online and blended learning methodologies and teaching for deep conceptual understanding.

In the international arena, she has presented numerous keynote addresses and workshops about effective eLearning practices, concept-based mathematics, and concept-based curriculum and instruction to Pre-K-12 educators. In her role as an independent consultant, she supports the development of curriculum and instruction that integrates effective eLearning practices and is based on teaching for deep conceptual understanding.

She is currently supporting schools with professional development and engaging in long-term partnerships to co-create and design an eLearning integration strategy as well as developing curriculum and instruction for deep conceptual understanding.

Richard Culatta brings vast experience in education policy, teacher preparation, educational technology and innovation to his role with ISTE.

Culatta began his career in the classroom as a high school teacher and, across his career, has coached educators and national leaders around the world on using technology as a tool to reimagine learning.
Prior to joining ISTE, Culatta served as the chief innovation officer for the state of Rhode Island. In this role, he focused on developing partnerships to improve opportunities for students, including launching a program to make Rhode Island the first state to offer computer science in every K-12 school and creating a state vision for personalised learning.

As the director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, Culatta was at the helm of numerous efforts to expand connectivity to schools across the country, promote personalised learning and develop the National Education Technology Plan. He also pioneered new ways for the department to engage with educators and tech developers.
Culatta holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish teaching and a master’s in educational psychology and technology, both from Brigham Young University.

Kamran is Founder and Chairman, Global Innovation Catalyst, LLC and advises various governments on the needed transition from fossil-based economies to sustainable innovation economies. In the past, as a global high-tech entrepreneur, he co- founded ten companies, had 6 exits, 3 of them were Unicorn IPOs with a total market cap of over $8B. For 15 yrs., he was Chairman of Global Catalyst Partners, a global VC firm ($350M under management) with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, India, Israel and Singapore. Underlying his vision for global philanthropy is the conviction that modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations and bridging the social and political differences among people. This vision was reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he co-founded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries were provided with computers and access to the Internet) and merged with Relief International in 2003; Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through effective education and empowerment of the youth (with special emphasis on young women) using the leverage of ICT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where he served as Co-Chairman (2009-2011).

Julian is cofounder of Venture Education. Venture Education empowers UK education in China through research, projects and partnerships; including edtech market entry and M&A. He has fifteen years’ experience working in education in China including time with Harrow Beijing and the British Council. Julian is also Vice Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China and chair of the Education Forum.

Julian is heavily involved in the entrepreneurship world and the former president of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization China North. He is currently one of only sixty global mentors for the Entrepreneurship World Cup 2020 which has had nearly 200,000 companies enter this year. He also led the China Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards. He is an associate for UCL Discentia Capital: investing in the future of learning.

Julian has a joint honours undergraduate degree from UCL and SOAS universities in History of Art and an MA from UCLAN in Antiques; receiving a distinction for his dissertation on rare and antiquarian books published in the UK about China.

Matt Greenfield is Managing Partner of Rethink Education, a venture capital firm focused on education technology. He currently serves on the boards of AllHere, Allovue, BrightBytes, Care Academy, Kenzie Academy, and NoRedInk. He previously helped start three technology businesses: Rethink Autism (acquired by a PE firm), DB Software (acquired by Cadre Software), and Synernetics (acquired by 3Com), and worked as an associate at ABS Ventures. His non-profit affiliations include the board of Southern New Hampshire University.

Dr. Leung joined the Company in March 2015. He is responsible for the planning, consolidation and operation of the education business of the Company in the People’s Republic of China and the development of the online education business overseas. He had over 30 years of experience in both information technology and telecommunications industries. In 2005, he was appointed as the president of Motorola Asia-Pacific. From 2008 -2012, he was the chief executive officer of Microsoft Greater China region. Dr. Leung also held management roles at various educational institutions or corporations engaging in the education business. From 2009 to 2010, he was the governor of the Upper Canada College. In 2012, he was the chief executive officer of Harrow International Management Services Limited.

Dr. Leung received his bachelor of arts degree and an honorary doctorate in laws from the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 1978 and 2005 respectively and a doctorate in business administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. He currently serves as a member of the Ivey Asia Advisory Board of the Richard Ivey School of Business of the University of Western Ontario. He is also a governor of Tung Wah College. From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Leung was a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. From 2015 to 2017, he was appointed as a member of the Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology of HKSAR.
 

Dr. Li Gang is currently the Chief Analyst and director of Industrial Economics Research Center of Tencent Research Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the National University of Singapore Business School in 2008. Before joining Tencent, he served as principal researcher and leader of Industry & Strategy Research Team in Samsung Economic Research Institute (China Office).

Elliott Masie is a leading innovator in the world of workplace learning and technology. Elliott is credited as one of the first analysts to coin the term “e-Learning” in the 1990’s and has been on the edge of digital learning innovations for the past 30 years. Learning via technology has soared and evolved – touching over 1.8 billion workers and students during this Pandemic!

Elliott is the Chair of The Learning CONSORTIUM, a coalition of over 125 global corporations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies, including Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Ericsson, GE, McDonald’s, and Travelers. Elliott has collaborated on a wide range of educational and business projects in Asia. He has keynoted in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan on EdTech and learning innovation topics.

He is also an advisor on EdTech directions in the corporate learning space and teaches learning innovation at the UPenn/Wharton graduate programs. He is the editor of Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie, an Internet newsletter read by over 60,000 business executives worldwide, and a regular columnist in professional publications. He is the author of 12 books, including Big Data and the soon to be released Learning Pivots eBook.

He lives in Saratoga Springs, owns thoroughbred horses, and is a producer/investor in Broadway shows, including the TONY Award Winning Kinky Boots, An American in Paris, and SpongeBob The Broadway Musical.

Bill Boyu Ning started his education investment career in 2014 at the strategic investment department of TAL. So far he has participated in more than 100 education investments. Bill has 17+ years of experience in the operation and management of education companies. He founded Mobby and Xueersi English at TAL. He was also the first batch of teacher trainers at New Oriental. In addition to his experience in product innovation, branding, distribution channel and strategy, Bill is also expert in the localization of international education resources.
 
Bill is an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a bachelor degree of Peking University. He is now a board member of the Peking University Youth CEO Club.

TSANG CHUN WAH JOHN Born and raised in Hong Kong, John emigrated to the United States when he was a Form II student at La Salle College. He continued his education at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to complete master degrees in Bilingual Education at Boston State College and in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He worked in the Boston Public Schools as a teacher and in curriculum development.

John returned to work as an Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong Government in 1982. He took up a number of posts relating to commerce and finance. After reunification, he was appointed as Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Secretary for Planning and Lands, Secretary for Commerce, Innovation and Technology, Director of the Chief Executive’s Office and in 2007, Financial Secretary where he served until 2017. He ran for the post of Chief Executive and lost.

Mr Peter Yan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited. As the CEO of Cyberport, Mr Yan leads the digital technology flagship to focus on fostering industry development, enterprise transformation and talent cultivation to realise Cyberport’s vision to create new impetus for Hong Kong’s new economy through digital technology.

Mr Yan has 34 years of experience in the information technology industry and is a fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society. Prior to joining Cyberport, Mr Yan was the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of SUNeVision Holdings Limited; and had held various senior management positions in large consulting and information technology services companies including Accenture, Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited, and Computer and Technologies Holdings Limited. Mr Yan has been active in public services especially in the areas of talent development and digital technology industry development, serving as advisors to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong, as well as the Board of Cyberport from 2011 to 2017.

Mr Yan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and received Executive Education from the Harvard Business School.