InspiredMinds announces new board advisors

PRESS RELEASE 2nd February 2021

Announcement: Appointment of advisors to InspiredMinds Media and the AI omnichannel Mothership (tm).

Ex Apple Chief Chris Broad joins Global AI and Health Technology media company alongside three appointments as advisors to the board of directors

InspiredMinds the London based AI and Health Technology scaleup with a community of 200,000 users world wide has announced it is strengthening its board with a powerhouse addition of four new advisors as the media company announces the launch of an AI omnichannel for its community called Mothership (tm).

Chris Broad, former Apple Chief of Staff joins with immediate effect to assist on the transition to an ‘always on community’. Chris participated alongside Steve Jobs in the meteoric rise of technology giant Apple in three decades of captivating work since study-ing electronics in Southampton and an MBA from INSEAD. As Director of Sales Development and Support team he managed 80 staff as the tech giant introduced its product lines into the major retail chains and played a key role in the launch of its online store, Apple’s multi-channel sales strategy and geo-expansion.

Commenting on his appointment Chris said “Inspired Minds has always had the “multi-channel" vision of blending a passionate online community with physical events. Paradoxically the global pandemic has strengthened the business as we see a business based on “large scale physical summits” move towards a truly-global, always-on community. Enabled by some brilliant innovation from the team we have seen more passion, more regular engagement and much more appreciation of the clear value delivered.”

Chris continued: “The global pandemic is a year old and Inspired Minds is a year stronger having successfully transformed into a world first AI omnichannel - a business based on “bricks and mortar physical presence” alongside a truly-global, always-on community”. We have seen more engagement and vibrancy as the launch of mothership the online platform allows us to reach far more people, far more regularly with fantastic content delivered by the incredible team"

Also joining the board as advisors are three further appointments:

Paul Thandi CBE is CEO of the NEC Group in Birmingham, where he has overseen the growth and recent sale to Blackstone Group. He joins InspiredMInds as advisor on investor relations and commercial growth.

Paul commented “The global AI market is forecast to grow rapidly reaching around 126 billion US dollars by 2025. The overall market is a wide array of emerging technologies from natural language processing, machine learning and robotics - it will be ubiquitous in its impact to the world in which we live. InspiredMinds is leading the charge of this growth and is at the heart of the global ecosystem with established and respected partnerships with the stakeholders globally.” Paul continued “Inspired has truly embraced the power of its global and inter disciplinary community in AI and emerging technology by creating digital first products.”

Renee Cummings Criminologist and AI Ethicist joins the board as advisor on Diversityand Inclusion. Renee is an internationally renowned criminologist and AI ethicist. Advocating for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive AI, she is on the frontline of ethical AI, generating real time responses to many of the unintentional consequences of AI.

Commenting on her appointment Renee said “The beauty of AI is its power to radically re-code, in real time, our concept of “a seat at the table” and who’s invited to the table to have a seat. With AI, we can create a table with as many seats possible to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are well placed, well positioned, and given priority space, at every table, wherever, AI is being designed and deployed. I am thrilled to join InspiredMinds and their global community where we can use AI to stretch our imagination and co-design a more equitable future for all.”

Huguette Diakabana, WHO Digital health Technical advisor, joins the board as advisor on new and emerging communities, and youth generation.

Huguette is an experienced system-level change agent with a demonstrated history of working with international organizations and governments. She is passionate about fostering collaboration and expanding access to valuable and impactful knowledge to help achieve meaningful progress, in sub-Saharan Africa.

Huguette commented "InspiredMinds' commitment to elevating diverse voices in its plat-forms captured my attention several years ago, and it's been a privilege to see the organization maintain that pledge through its growth. The team has managed to foster a global community of technologists, academics, practitioners, industry leaders, and learners, and contributors to share their knowledge, collaborate, and address pressing issues we must address. I'm delighted to join their efforts to spotlight Ai's potential and those working to leverage it in different sectors."

Commenting on the appointments, Sarah Porter CEO and Founder of Inspired-Minds, said: “We are at a pivotal moment in InspiredMinds growth, our digital community has exploded in the last twelve months and we welcome Chris, Renee, Huguette and Paul to assist us in navigating that growth. Their combined global experience will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen the InspiredMinds cause to include everyone in the creation, usage and deployment of emerging technologies.” Porter continued “We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us as we launch our Mothership AI omnichannel including an online platform to sit alongside existing international events portfolio that attracts in excess of 45,000 attendees around the world.”

Vidya Gunapala, Chief Content Officer commented “A core driver of the InspiredMinds ethos is to ensure that AI, emerging technology and healthcare is available to all, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of what we do and we are excited to be joined by likeminded advisors with such impressive experience of building collaborations with governments, the technology industry and academia to expand access to construct sustainable and inclusive solutions.”

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Note to editors

About InspiredMinds Media Group www.inspired-minds.co.uk

With over 200,000 community members in AI and emerging technology globally Inspired Minds is the worlds first AI omnichannel of digital meet-ups, online content and the largest AI technology summits globally.

Launched in 2016 by Sarah Porter InspiredMinds aims to make emerging technology more inclusive, diverse and available to all.

Organisers of the world leading World Summit AI www.worldsummit.ai and Intelligent health www.intelligenthealth.ai the worlds largest community of clinicians in AI and medicine, InspiredMinds includes a portfolio attracting in excess of 45,000 attendees from 167 countries every year. Guided by our values, we aim to deliver excellence in every area in which we operate, with a diverse and inclusive community being our number one priority.

InspiredMinds is the leading AI and Health technology community globally with a presence in Amsterdam, Montreal and New York, the InspiredMinds Foundation and Tminus30 are not for profit initiatives that work to ensure that the development of technology is diverse, inclusive and benefits all. The groups campaigned against Trump in 2017 to overturn the travel ban that restricted the all girl Afghan Robotics team from attending the Washington DC robotics championships, and formed ADA-AI a counsel of world leaders in AI including Prof Gary Marcus, Prof Joanna Bryson, Luciano Floridi, Virginia Dignum and many more world leaders in AI.

About the Board

Sarah Porter is CEO and Founder InspiredMinds. With over 20 years experience in tech and media startups and acquisitions she is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience of launching large scale tech summits including technology for marketing, world re-tail congress and she led the acquisition and geoclone of Money 2020 to Europe in 2015.

Vidya Gunapala is COO InspiredMinds and has over 18 years experience in research, editorial and market analysis in the health care and pharmaceuticals.

Bios

Huguette Diakabana is an experienced system-level change agent with a demonstrated history of working with international organizations and governments. She is passionate about fostering collaboration and expanding access to valuable and impactful knowledge to help achieve meaningful progress, in sub-Saharan Africa. Her experiences to date have involved developing and implementing context-appropriate technology-based solutions in education, mining, environment, agriculture, and in recent years in digital health in over 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Huguette also mentors students and young professionals who are interested in collaboration and in leveraging appropriate, sustainable, and cost-effective technologies to make a difference in their communities. She currently lives in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and frequently travels to countries in Central and West Africa to facilitate Digital Health policy and strategy development sessions, and conduct workshops on available technologies and data-driven decision-making. She is fluent in English, French, Lingala and proficient in six other languages. She received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree focused on International Economics and International Business from Suffolk University, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Renee Cummings is an internationally renowned criminologist and AI ethicist. She is also a community scholar at Columbia University. Advocating for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive AI, she is on the frontline of ethical AI, generating real time responses to many of the unintentional consequences of AI. Renée also specialises in AI for social good, justice-oriented AI design, social justice in AI policy and governance, and using AI to save lives. She is committed to using AI to empower and transform communities by helping governments and organisations navigate the AI landscape and develop future AI leaders.

Paul Thandi An experienced CEO, Chair and Non-Executive Director with diverse international media and service-led experience with an emphasis on people, innovation, data and culture. Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the media industry, including as executive director at CMP Information (‘CMPi’). He is Deputy Lieutenant of West Midlands Lieutenancy, representing the Queen in the region, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (‘CBE’) in the New Year’s Honours in January 2020 for his services to the economy through his 13-year leadership of the NEC. “

For enquiries please contact hello@worldsummit.ai or call Sarah on +44 7765 213 725