Programme

Industrial revolutions have always been based on individual technologies: steam engine, electricity, transistor, or the Internet. But in the past years we have witnessed an essentially new paradigm, both daunting and mesmerizing: an exponential rise of technologies across all the industries. Economic modalities shift, human relations evolve, the boundary between the real and the virtual disappears. This is an inflection point that obviously will not last forever. We live in a transitional world. We are moving towards a reality where AI will take up the routine jobs, renewables will replace oil, biotech will resolve the shortage of drugs. Keeping up with the pace of change is difficult. Since 2000, the disruption of conventional business models caused the extinction of a half of the Fortune 500 companies. In the transitional world, the trailing countries are quickly turning into donors of capital for disruptive industries of the leaders. How can states, companies and people not lose themselves on the digital map of the world? How can they adapt to the new realities?

Moderator
Herman Gref, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank

Herman Gref

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank

Herman Gref was born on February 8, 1964, in the village of Panfilovo, Irtysh District, in the Pavlodar Region of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
1990: graduated from the Law Faculty at Omsk State University, specializing in Jurisprudence. He also holds a PhD in Economics.
1991–1992: legal counsel, category 1, for the Committee for Economic Development and Property of the Administration for Petrodvorets and St. Petersburg.
1992: appointed head of the Petrodvorets District Agency of the Committee for the Management of Municipal Property, St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office.
1992–1994: Chairman of the Property Management Committee, Deputy Head of Petrodvorets Administration.
1994: became Vice-Chairman and then Senior Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Management of Municipal Property, St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office.
1997–1998: Deputy Governor, Chairman of the Committee for the Management of Municipal Property, St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office.
1998–2000: Senior Deputy Minister for State Property of the Russian Federation.
2000–2007: Minister for Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation.
Since November 2007: CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of OAO Sberbank of Russia.
Awarded orders “For Merit to the Fatherland”, 3rd and 4th degrees, Order of Honour, order of Alexander Nevsky, the P.A. Stolypin medal, 2nd degree, the order of Faithful Saint Prince Daniil Moskovsky, 1st degree, the Certificate of Merit and Gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation.
He was awarded the highest French distinction, and was made an Officer of the Légion d'honneur.
For special achievements in the banking sector and his personal contribution to the development of Sberbank, he was awarded the Golden Sign of Sberbank of Russia.

Panellists
Sadhguru ., Yogi and Mystic; Founder, Isha Foundation
Maxim Akimov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
Meir Brand, Vice-President, Google Inc.
Peter Diamandis, Founder, Executive Chairman, XPRIZE Foundation Inc.
Guo Ping, Rotating Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering, Polytechnic Faculty of New York University

Sadhguru .

Yogi and Mystic; Founder, Isha Foundation

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the "Padma Vibhushan" by the Government of India in 2017, one of the highest annual civilian awards, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.
Probing and passionate, insightful, logical and unfailingly witty, Sadhguru's talks have earned him the reputation of a speaker and opinion-maker of renown. With his astute and incisive grasp of current issues and world affairs, as well as his unerringly scientific approach to the question of human well-being, he has been a primary speaker at the United Nations World Headquarters, a regular at the World Economic Forum, and a special invitee at the Australian Leadership Retreat, Indian Economic Summit and TED. He has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and MIT among others.
Three decades ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Foundation, a non-profit human-service organization, with human well-being as its core commitment, supported by over nine million volunteers in over 250 centers worldwide. Sadhguru has initiated powerful yoga programs for human transformation and wellbeing, as well as various outreach projects for uplifting rural India. Sadhguru has initiated powerful yoga programs for human transformation and wellbeing, as well as various outreach projects for uplifting rural India.

Maxim Akimov

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Born March 1, 1970 in Maloyaroslavets, Kaluzhskaya oblast. Graduated history department of Kaluiga State Pedagogical University. Worked two years as a history teacher. Served in the military. 1994 – 1996 – headed Fineart-Audit. 1996 – 1997 – chairman of a regional commission on securities. 1997 – 2001 – deputy director of economy and industry department of Kaluzhsky regional government. 2001 – 2004 – first deputy of a state property committee of Kaluzhskaya oblast. 2004 – minister of economic development of Kaluzhsky region. 2004 – 2007 – first deputy of Kaluga mayor, then mayor of Kaluga. 2007 – May 2012 – deputy governor of Kaluzhskaya oblast. May 22, 2012 appointed deputy chief of staff of the Government of the Russian Federation. May 24, 2013 appointed first deputy chief of staff of the Government of the Russian Federation. Married, has two sons.

Meir Brand

Vice-President, Google Inc.

Graduated with honours from Tel Aviv University with a Degree in Economics.
1998 – received MBA from Harvard University
1999-2001 – Director for Business Development, excite@home (one of leading search systems of the time)
2001-2002 – Vice President for Marketing and Sales, ICQ
2002-2005 – Head of Division for SMB Development, Microsoft Israel
2005-present – CEO, Google Israel; was the first employee
2009-present – Member of the Board of Directors, Google Europe
2009-present – Regional Director, Google in Greece and Africa
2015-present – Regional Director, Google in the Middle East, Russia, and Turkey
2016-present – Vice President, Google
Meir Brand speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Guo Ping

Rotating Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Mr. Guo Ping was born in 1966. He graduated from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree. Mr. Guo Ping has been with Huawei since 1988. He occupied the positions of an R&D project manager, supply chain director, Huawei Executive Committee Director, and the Legal Department Director. Then he moved on to become the president of the Business Processes Management and IT Department, the Corporate Development Department president, the chairman and president of the Consumer Devices Division, the deputy chairman of the Board, the General Director, and the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Active participant of Task Force B20 for Digital Economy and Industry 4.0 under the Argentina's G20 presidency in 2018.