Tom Yoritaka is a London-based venture capital investor & a former corporate executive at global technology companies. He is a Founding Partner of UCL EDUCATE Ventures, an early-stage EdTech venture capital fund supported by University College London. He sits on boards of a number of European startups & advises several technology industry organizations in the UK. He is also a Governor on the Board of the University of Plymouth in the UK.

Tom was the former Global Managing Director of Corporate Venturing at Cisco Systems in Silicon Valley & in London, investing in/acquiring/partnering with early-stage companies.

Prior to joining Cisco, Tom held various executive & leadership positions at Yahoo! & Microsoft. He also worked as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group & McKenna Group.

#PRESEED #SEED #SERIESA #EARLYSTAGE #INTERNATIONAL #EDTECHCOMPANIES
#CORPORATE #PUBLICFUNDS #FAMILYOFFICE #INVESTORS #COLLABORATION

Chris is the Senior Development Manager within the PwC New Ventures & Blockchain team located in Belfast. Chris has more than 20 years experience in developing, testing and leading engineering and QA teams in the product engineering space. Previously the QA Director and Head of QA in companies such as Cybersource/Visa and blockchain start-up Bitnet, Chris has in depth knowledge and insights into delivering highly performant product platforms.

Currently the Senior Development Manager, Chris has been the driving force behind Smart Credentials, a PwC offering, powered by blockchain which allows credentials to be issued, carried and shared globally in real time.

Chris has overseen the ideation, incubation and current acceleration stage taking Smart Credentials to production and advanced discussion stages with various institutions.

#COLLABORATION #LIFELONGLEARNING #BLOCKCHAIN #SMARTCREDENTIALS #HIGERED

20 years plus of collective experience as a Business Consultant, Start up mentor (in a Big 4, Tier 1 Consulting firm and a FTSE 100 organization) , Founder and Partner of my own Digital start up Firm an Armed Forces Officer with Proven successes in unstructured growth/start-up situations.

#COLLABORATION #HIGHERED #SMARTCREDENTIALS #BLOCKCHAIN

Litzie Maarek is the cofounder of Educapital, the first european VC fund dedicated to Edtech. She has 13 years of experience in finance and investment.

She began her career as a manager in Crédit Agricole CIB’s Leverage Finance team focusing on mid and large cap operations. She then joined Strategic Investment Fund (later integrated into Bpifrance), where she led several mid cap LBO and growth capital transactions.

Within Bpifrance, Litzie later took part in the creation and development of the “Large Venture” fund, dedicated to late-stage venture capital investments.

Litzie has two sons. Co-founding Educapital was the natural next step, allowing her to combine her passion for entrepreneurship and innovation with a deep interest for the new technologies and transformative models impacting the way we all learn and teach.

Litzie holds a degree in Engineering and Finance from Ecole Centrale Paris.

#K12 #E-LEARNING #HYBRIDLEARNING #PRESENCELEARNING #TEACHINGDELIVERY #LEARNINGASSESSMENT #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #SCIENCEOFLEARNING #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #CREATIVELEARNING #ICTTOOLSFORTEACHING #LEARNINGANDSUPPORT #VIRTUALREALITY #AUGMENTEDREALITY #BESTEMPLOYERUNIVERSITYPARTNERSHIP #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Enrico is looking for nascent companies who are tilling daring ideas about education and technology and searching for pre-seed or seed funding to grow these ideas into products that can empower anyone – from children and parents to adult, professional lifelong learners and their mentors and coaches – to learn and teach better.

Enrico seeks to support and finance ideas with the potential to have a positive impact on our future through education at every stage of our life. He cares deeply that each startup in his portfolio receives the full value a hundred-years-old education company like Zanichelli can offer, wherever their expertise can be a lodestar.

He is adept at prioritizing financial returns and self-sustainability and fostering collaboration opportunities, insights, innovative thinking and entrepreneurial energy back to our company’s digital product designers, editorial staff and IT, searching for mutual advantages. Only in the long term, as they and the founders build trust through intense collaboration and shared stakes, and after a startup fully spreads out its potential as a maturing company, do they believe in searching together for possible paths to a deeper partnership.

##COLLABORATION #LIFELONGLEARNING #EDTECH #EARLYSTAGE #K12 #INTERNATIONAL #E-LEARNING #HYBRIDLEARNING #LEARNINGASSESSMENT #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #SCIENCEOFLEARNING #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #CREATIVELEARNING #VIRTUALREALITY #AUGMENTEDREALITY #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Mary Curnock Cook is an independent education expert serving in a non-executive capacity on a number of Boards. From 2010-2017, Mary was Chief Executive of UCAS. Earlier in her career she held executive and non-executive positions in the education, hospitality, food and biotech sectors.

She is a Council member at the Open University, a non-exec Director at the Student Loans Company, chairs the Council of the Dyson Institute and is on the Board of the London Interdisciplinary School. She is also a Trustee at multi-academy trust, United Learning and chairs the Access Project which helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds progress to top-tier universities. She is an Education Adviser to Emerge Education and on the advisory boards of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Cairneagle Associates.

Mary has an MSc from London Business School and was awarded an OBE in 2000. She is an honorary Fellow of the Birkbeck and Goldsmiths and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire.

#NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #BESTEMPLOYERUNIVERSITYPARTNERSHIP #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP

Investing in and building startups for 20+ years, the last 10 investing in edtech and media startups in Europe and US. Currently partner with a fund investing in learning technology startups that have a market in Europe.

#TEACHINGDELIVERY #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #CREATIVELEARNING #VIRTUALREALITY #AUGMENTEDREALITY #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE

A forward thinking edu-preneur, education evangelist and merger and acquisitions specialist, passionate about technology and digital transformation in the education space.

I am an investment specialist, building and advising start-ups on digital transformation and the smart utilisation of technology as the enabler of broad reach access, quality and ultimately success in education outcomes. I believe excellence in education can be delivered through our development of scalable technology platforms.

As Investment Principle at A1 Capital, I facilitate Mergers and Acquisitions across the globe, with a specific focus on emerging markets and Higher Education (TNE), particularly across Africa.

#E-LEARNING #HYBRIDLEARNING #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #BESTEMPLOYERUNIVERSITYPARTNERSHIP #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Tim taught mathematics in London and worked in the private sector where he was responsible for multi-million pound sales. He has also worked for Central and Regional Government, for startups at the very beginning of their journey and as an edtech investor, with a brief to discover early stage companies that could achieve success before they have even attracted seed funding. In 2005 Tim wrote an article about the adoption of ‘learning platforms’. With little editing, advice he gave then still holds true today.

Tim has been involved with the success of many multiple award-winning companies and over 30 years has seen every fad AND every useful application of technology for education. An edtech enthusiast, he is also an edtech sceptic but above all, he likes helping build profitable, effective educational businesses.

His motto? ‘We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard’.

#LEARNINGASSESSMENT #SCIENCEOFLEARNING #ICTTOOLSFORTEACHING #LEARNINGANDSUPPORT #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #K12 #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Jessica is an EdTech Researcher and Consultant at Eduvation. Formerly she was a Research Mentor at UCL for Educate, the 4.5 million EU backed initiative with Nesta, Besa and F6S, that supports EdTech Startups in efficacy led improved services and products by combining research expertise with innovation. In addition to her wealth of experience as an EdTech Consultant, in this capacity she identified renewed strategies and improved AI and adaptive learning products & services at McGraw Hill Education. She spear-headed beta testing, education strategies and media exposure with EdTech startups in Germany as well as founding Thinc, a charity in Austria, managing several EU projects reforming education with technology and creativity. With her charity she collaborated with Google Arts and Cultural Institute empowering women in India through Arts, Education and Technology. In Germany she founded Te(a)chology, a series of events that are facilitating discussions on Education, Technology and society. She speaks publicly on how EdTech, creativity and AI impacts learning environments and society.

#K12 #E-LEARNING #HYBRIDLEARNING #TEACHINGDELIVERY #LEARNINGASSESSMENT #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #SCIENCEOFLEARNING #SUSTAINABILITY #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #CREATIVELEARNING #ICTTOOLSFORTEACHING #LEARNINGANDSUPPORT #VIRTUALREALITY #AUGMENTEDREALITY #BESTEMPLOYERUNIVERSITYPARTNERSHIP #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Nic Newman is a Partner at Emerge Education. Emerge are an Edtech seed VC that invests in future of learning and work companies that address education challenges at global scale. They invest at the seed stage tickets of £250k to £1.0m and want to meet ambitious founders who are making a difference in this world.

Nic is also a member of the DfE’s Edtech Leadership group, a NED and an ex-school governor of 3 schools (special needs, primary and secondary), Mentor on the Mayor’s International Business Program. He is ‘the product guy’ – a technologist with a deep understanding of how to use design to build trust and engagement around digital experience. This experience was built leading fast-growth tech startups and in large multinationals. He has 2 young children and believes in the fundamental right of access to a great education at any age (all through life) for all of humankind.

#EDTECH #HIGHERED #FURTHEREDUCATION #STUDENTEXPERIENCE #BRIDGETOWORK #LIFELONGLEARNING #HRTECH #EUROPE #GLOBAL #E-LEARNING #HYBRIDLEARNING #PRESENCELEARNING #LEARNINGASSESSMENT #NURTURINGEMPLOYABILITY #SCIENCEOFLEARNING #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #CREATIVELEARNING #ICTTOOLSFORTEACHING #LEARNINGANDSUPPORT #VIRTUALREALITY #AUGMENTEDREALITY #BESTEMPLOYERUNIVERSITYPARTNERSHIP #BESTEDUCATIONALAPP #ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE #ONLINELEARNING #DISTRIBUTEDLEARNING

Carla Aerts recently drew two years as Director of Futures at UCL’s Institute of Education to a close, where she also served as Deputy Director for the EDUCATE project. Her international digital career pioneering in the digital media landscape has spanned thirty years, and she is currently an advisor for e-Learning Africa.

She advises e-learning start-ups including Gojimo in the UK and AhadooTec in Ethiopia and is a mentor for Wedu Rising Star.

She has worked for international publishers, digital agencies, had her own consultancy, developed digital strategies, directed programmes & partnered on digital initiatives with Blue Chip Clients in Retail, Finance, Telecomms, Healthcare and Life Sciences. She has also worked with a number of start-ups in Healthcare, Technology and Lifestyle.

Having developed e-learning programmes for Healthcare and being asked by an international education publisher to manage their transition from the printed textbook to online and blended learning, she became totally absorbed by e-Learning & blended education. She worked on learning innovation for and with a number of education publishers, before going to Cambridge University Press, where she developed digital learning strategies and product concepts as Global Digital Director.

At Reimagine 2018, she’ll join a truly-expert led session alongside Sonia Ilie of the University of Cambridge and Jenny Bergeron of Harvard’s University’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning to examine ways in which innovation can prove, and enhance, its efficacy.

#INTERNATIONAL #K12 #CULTIVATINGCURIOSITY #HIGHEREDUCATION #AFRICA

Ben Sowter has since 2003, led one of higher education’s most prominent projects: the QS World University Rankings. Part of the core team that pioneered the world’s most-consulted university evaluation portfolio, Ben has acquired nearly two decades of expertise on university performance, educational evaluation, and the global higher education landscape.

Ben’s expertise is regularly sought by universities and leading media globally. He frequently keynotes on the higher education conference circuit. He leads the QS Intelligence Unit, which compiles all major QS research projects and provides invaluable insight to students, faculty, university leaders, policymakers, and employers.

#GLOBAL #HIGHEREDUCATION #CONSULTANCY #UNIVERSITYSTRATEGY #RANKINGS

Meet Microsoft, Cambridge, Huawei, Columbia, Intel & pedagogical innovators from all over the world.