The Irish Tech News Podcast

Is our education system ready for the AI revolution in finance? Join Theodora Lau as she explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, financial innovation, and educational transformation with special guest Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld, CEO & Founder of the marthaverse.

In this eye-opening episode of One Vision — The FinTech Fuse, we dive deep into:

• How technological advancement is reshaping our daily lives

• Why the digital divide threatens inclusive innovation

• The crucial role of education in fostering innovation and equality

• Essential frameworks for global AI regulation in finance

• Strategies for becoming AI-ready

Dr. Boeckenfeld shares invaluable insights on bridging the gap between rapid technological advancement and human adaptation through education. From critical thinking development to regulatory considerations, this episode offers a comprehensive look at preparing for an AI-led future.

#Fintech #AI #FutureOfWork #FinancialServices #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #LifeLongLearning

Related Episode:
- The future (of money and finance) is a blur

Setting up a business for the first time is not easy and setting up a tech business with no tech experience for the first time is even harder. One person who has done this is Jerome Forde the CEO and founder of HR Duo. I recently spoke to Jerome Forde.

Jerome talks about his background, what HR Duo does, Covid, AI and more.

More about HR Duo:

HR Duo was established by Jerome Forde, their CEO, who has over 30 years of experience in human resources. Jerome was motivated by a desire to advance HR practices through technology, which he felt were not keeping pace with other workplace advancements.

At HR Duo, Jerome has simplified the complexities of workforce management, including staff scheduling and payroll, HR compliance, and managing the employment lifecycle. Their approach features a unique 'once and done' method, focusing on people-first policies and procedures deployed smartly through their Content Hub.

Jump into the latest episode of One Vision with Theodora Lau, featuring Noelle Russell, Chief AI Officer of the AI Leadership Institute. They chat about responsible AI, education, and the future of work — plus the thrills and spills of AI regulation.

With all the excitement around AI, it is easy to get distracted and run straight for the shiny new toy. Noelle’s golden advice? Know your tool’s true purpose. From the boardroom to the whiteboard and keyboard, it is crucial for everyone to grasp AI’s business potential and best practices. And leaders need to create an internal environment that encourages open use of AI and fosters responsible innovation.

The future of AI is bright and agentic. Tune in for a fun and insightful ride!

Since Oracle changed the licensing for Java in January 2023, there has been growing demand from customers looking to switch away due to extra costs being imposed. Last summer Azul conducted a study of Oracle Java customers with 86% saying they are migrating all or some of their use and 47% expressed a desire to use an open-source distribution like OpenJDK. 

Despite this appetite for change there are still somewhat cliched perceptions about moving to an open source-based JDK, even though the OpenJDK is based on the same source code as Oracle Java.

There are some concerns about “better the devil you know” and a preconception that migration is difficult, but as the study showed 75% completed their migration to the OpenJDK within 12 months. To learn more about this I spoke to Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul.

Scott talks about his background, what Azul does, Azul’s benchmarking tests, Azul’s new Java Performance Engineering Lab and more. 

More about Scott Sellers:

With more than 30 years of successful leadership in building high technology companies and delivering advanced products to market, Scott provides the overall strategic leadership and visionary direction for Azul Systems. 

Scott has a consistent proven track record of vision, leadership, and success in enterprise, consumer and scientific markets. Prior to co-founding Azul Systems, Scott founded 3dfx Interactive, a graphics processor company that pioneered the 3D graphics market for personal computers and game consoles.

Scott served at 3dfx as Vice President of Engineering, CTO and as a member of the board of directors and delivered 7 award-winning products and developed 14 different graphics processors. After a successful initial public offering, 3dfx was later acquired by NVIDIA Corporation. 

Prior to 3dfx, Scott was a CPU systems architect at Pellucid, later acquired by MediaVision. Before Pellucid, Scott was a member of the technical staff at Silicon Graphics where he designed high-performance workstations.

Scott graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor of science, earning magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. Scott has been granted 8 patents in high performance graphics and computing and is a regularly invited keynote speaker at industry conferences.

Join Theodora Lau and Stephanie Foster in this week’s One Vision — FinTech Fuse! as they dive into Georgia's booming fintech scene, where 80% of US payment transactions are processed. Atlanta, nicknamed "Transaction Alley," is the hub of this fintech revolution, handling more than half of the nation’s credit card processing.

In this episode, we feature Laura Gibson Lamothe, Executive Director of the Georgia Fintech Academy. Discover the evolution of fintech education and the Academy's focus on experiential learning, supported by partnerships with industry giants like BlackRock and U.S. Bank Elavon. Since its inception, the Academy has influenced over 8,000 students and sparked increased interest in the finance-tech intersection.

Learn about Laura’s global upbringing and its impact on her innovative perspective. Tune in for an insightful discussion that’s shaping the future of fintech!

As we often say, look East for fintech innovation. Luckily, you don’t have to get on a plane this time. In this week’s One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Join Sanjeev Kumar — CEO at WhiteSight, and Theodora Lau, as they chat about the growing fintech ecosystem in Brazil, Asia, and the Middle East, challenges and opportunities in fintech globalization, and the importance of customer trust. Can we build global fintechs or will they stay local and specialized? How will the fintech ecosystem evolve for small and medium-sized businesses? Are fintechs delivering on customer trust? Tune in and find out!

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About Whitesight Fintech Research: https://whitesight.net/ 

About Sanjeef Kumar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjeev-fintech/

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About One Vision: One Vision podcast, hosted by Theodora Lau, brings purposeful innovation to the spotlight. It is where impact meets innovation. One Vision is a convergence of minds that dream of a sustainable world for future generations galvanized by innovation. The new season, Fintech Fuse! features the powerful trio of women in fintech: Barb McLean, Stephanie Foster, and Theodora Lau. 

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Last week Bo an English electric scooter company launched in Ireland. Before testing out the scooter which I loved and had fun riding, I met up with Oscar Morgan Co-Founder and CEO of Bo.

Oscar spoke to me about what Bo does, how Bo rides so well, how the name Bo was chosen, their launch in Dublin and more. 

More about Bo:

Bo [Bomobility], an award-winning pioneer in the global mobility industry, is dedicated to achieving a better future through development of the best light electric vehicles on earth. First unveiled in 2022, this year sees the start of production of their highly-anticipated Bo M: The Electric Scooter for adults.

Cato Networks⁠, a Climb Channel Solutions vendor, is the leading Secure Access Service Edge provider in the world, having pioneered the cloud-native architecture which is improving online speeds and security while moving away from a reliance on data centres.

The company recently announced that it had surpassed $200 million in ARR —doubling ARR in under two years. 

This means they are the fastest company to reach this milestone since LinkedIn. Cato Networks recently attended a Climb Channel Solutions event in Dublin and I spoke to Mark Draper, EMEA Channel Cato Networks. 

Mark talks about his background, SASE, the Cato cloud, Gartner and more.

More about Mark Draper:

Mark Draper is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in channel management across the EMEA and UK&I regions.

Currently serving as Vice President of EMEA Channel at Cato Networks, previous positions include Director of EMEA Channel at Cato Networks, Sr Manager of EMEA Channel at Gigamon, and Sr Manager of UK&I Channel at Juniper Networks.
Mark also held the role of Channel Lead for UK&I at FireEye, Inc. and was a Partner Account Manager at Juniper Networks, showcasing a strong background in channel strategy and partnership development.

It is no longer a question of whether financial institutions need AI, but more a question of what use cases we should focus on first, and how we can best scale the technology. In this special episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chats with John Duigenan, General Manager, Global Financial Services Industry withIBM Technology, andShanker Ramamurthy, Global Managing Partner Banking & Financial Markets withIBM Consulting, on what to expect at the upcoming Money 20/20 USA conference in Las Vegas. From scaling generative AI across the financial services enterprise, to trustworthy AI best practices and top use cases for GenAI, the agenda is packed with insights from IBM experts with deep knowledge in modernization, digital transformation, and emerging technologies. Join us where fintech meets responsible AI, and let’s shape the future of banking together.

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To learn more about IBM’s insights, expectations, and recommendations for the banking industry when it comes to the most significant development in technology in decades, check out these sessions and stop at IBM's conference space in Meeting Room MR 2202.

October 27 at 10:20 AM PT — Generative AI: The New Accelerator for SME Banking with Shanker Ramamurthy, IBM Consulting & Steve Van Wyk and Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN)

October 28 at 10:00 AM PM — Technology & the Future of Financial Services with Gary Cohn, Chairman IBM

October 29 at 10:00 AM PT — Reimagining Treasury & Cash Management  with Matthew Angelstad, IBM Consulting & Kartik Kaushik, RBC Capital Markets

October 29 at 1:55 PM PT — Consumer Complaints: Reduce Risk and Improve Compliance through AI-Based Analysis with Maya Wilson, IBM Promontory

You can find all the details here! 

https://www.ibm.com/events/money2020 

#AI #FinTech #FinancialServices #IBMPartner #Money2020USA 

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Cato Networks, a Climb Channel Solutions vendor, is the leading Secure Access Service Edge provider in the world, having pioneered the cloud-native architecture which is improving online speeds and security while moving away from a reliance on data centres. The company recently announced that it had surpassed $200 million in ARR —doubling ARR in under two years. 

This means they are the fastest company to reach this milestone since LinkedIn. Cato Networks recently attended a Climb Channel Solutions event in Dublin and I spoke to Kanwar Loyal, Cato Networks  VP N Europe & EMEA.

Kanwar talks about his background, what Cato does, smart policies, remote working and more.

More about  Kanwar Loyal:

Kanwar Loyal is Vice President for Cato Networks Northern Europe and Middle East & Africa (MEA) regions. Kanwar joined Cato from CrowdStrike, where he spent the past six years in various customer-facing leadership roles. Kanwar has over two decades of experience in the technology sector.

In addition to CrowdStrike, he also held key positions at cyber companies Imperva, and Fortinet where he led high-performing sales teams.  

Credit unions and smaller financial institutions rely heavily on 3rd party providers for AI solutions. But lack of clarity on regulations is one of the factors hindering the adoption of AI in the industry.

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with Elizabeth Osborne, COO of Great Lakes Credit Union, on the strategies and challenges for adopting AI in the financial services industry. Pro tip from Elizabeth: Start with a focused used case and keep it simple; avoid unnecessary and overcomplicated layers of requirements and dependencies. And don’t forget to listen to your members’ feedback!

Right now when it comes to tech, everyone is taking about AI, but another area of tech that is not mentioned enough is the Immersive Technology sector.

I decided to find out more about it and how the immersive technology sector is doing in Ireland, so I spoke with Camille Donegan, interm CEO of Eirmersive to talk about all things immersive technology

Camille spoke to me about her background what immersive technology is, what Eirmersive does, the recent Eirmersive network launch event and more.

More about Camile Donegal:

Camille is a natural connector and creator of communities. She fosters strategic partnerships within the Immersive Technology sector to elevate the Irish ecosystem both nationally and internationally. Her industry acumen, passion for the sector, and hands-on approach to collaboration make her a key player in positioning Eirmersive as the go-to body for industry, academic and government stakeholders.

Eirmersive is the voice of the Irish Immersive sector and represents solution providers to spotlight their work nationally and internationally. Our vision is for Ireland to be a go to destination for immersive solutions by 2030.

Apply for Eirmersive membership or subscribe to their newsletter here:https://www.eirmersive.com/

Everyone has likely been breached and will continue to be breached at some point. Unfortunately, current practices for protecting against identity theft and fraud are equivalent to "dark ages medicine" and do not effectively guide individuals on protective actions. When customers don’t take action, is it because they are not motivated, or is it because the process is simply too complex? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! We chat with Jim Van Dyke, Senior Principal of Innovation for TransUnion on identity safety and how financial institutions can become better guardians for their customers by leveraging data in a smart and thoughtful way. 

In the past decade, we have seen significant progress in data democratization and the rise of consumer-centric financial services — thanks to disruption brought on by increased mobility. As we continue the journey, who will lead the next revolution? Who will be the key players and where will financial advice come from?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with Efi Pylarinou on the future of money and finance. While many companies are focusing on low-hanging fruit improvements, there is still plenty of room for innovation in the infrastructure of financial services that can bring significant business value. Where will we go as a society, against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and regulatory uncertainties? The future belongs to the crazy — who dare to try. 

The 2024 National Ploughing Championships starts today, and from its humble beginnings in 1931, it has expanded and grown year on year. The first National Ploughing Championships used a small field of 26 acres, and today’s National Ploughing Championships uses over 700 acres of land.
The National Championships is now no longer just for ploughing or machinery enthusiasts, the modern event now features something for just about every member of the community. These include a Tented Trade Village, a Food Fair, Craft Village, Livestock, Forestry, Education, Lifestyle, Motor Show, Financial Services, Bio Energy and Agri Service. Along with this, there are many entertainment and special events taking place and lots of exhibitors too.

One of the exhibitors is Engineers Ireland, and I recently spoke to Engineers Ireland Director General, Damien Owens about their stand and what we can expect to see.

Damien spoke about his background, some of the tech Engineers Ireland will be showcasing, AI, and more.

More about Engineers Ireland:

Engineers Ireland is the voice of the engineering profession in Ireland. Their 25,000+ members make up a community of creative professionals delivering sustainable solutions for society.

They have been representing the engineering profession since 1835, making Engineers Ireland one of the oldest and largest professional bodies in Ireland. Their members come from every discipline of engineering, and range from students to fellows of the profession. 

Traditional views on financial milestones and pathways to financial security are changing, and we need different solutions to address our changing needs at various stages of life. In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with April Clobes, President/CEO of MSU Federal Credit Union, on the impact of technology in the credit union industry. There is an immense interest in deploying AI to create personalized solutions for members and drive efficiencies for credit unions; how we can best leverage the technology in a responsible and fair manner is an on-going exercise. Financial services industry is at an interesting and exciting crossroad. Much work to be done, there is. 

John Mulhall, is a cloud engineer and a regular contributor to Irish Tech News. Tomorrow his first novel, From Terror to Valor: Echoes and Shadows. I caught up with John to talk about his debut novel.

John talks about his background, his debut novel, how his military and tech background helped him write his novel and more

More about John Mulhall:

John is a versatile author known for his gripping fiction narratives in the thriller, action, and suspense genres. With a background as a Journalist, and expertise in cloud technologies as an engineer; John brings a unique blend of storytelling prowess and technical acumen to his work. 

His professional journey began in theIrish Defence Forces, honing his skills in security before transitioning to financial operations and management for over 12 years. 

Fall is kicking off with a big BANG, with a series of fintech conferences for us to connect with founders and funders. It is also the recruiting season for our friends at the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator and the Center for Accelerating Financial Equity (CAFE). In this new episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo, Barb, and Stephanie reunite to reminisce about the past, present, and future of our industry. Looking back, we have seen plenty of innovative ideas. But what do the activities amount to? Are we working on and measuring what matters? Looking ahead, what is the new battleground in the age of AI and data? Is it still fintech versus banks? Or will it be incumbent platforms versus tech players, aka Magnificent Seven? Perhaps it’s time for some honest conversations and a bit of soul searching. 

Tech is now being used daily by businesses, as it is an important tool in their arsenal. However SME’s are overlooked and under serviced when it comes to tech.

But thankfully Cozmotec is one company helping, by focusing exclusively on SME’s that are trying to grow, improve their operations or efficiencies, or just need help increasing profits. Ronan recently spoke to City Gupta the founder and CEO of Cozmotec.

Cuty talks about her background, what Cozmotec does, how to make tech less scary and more.

More about Cozmotec:

Cozmotec is a tech company focusing on robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. Cozmotec is all about making advanced technology and automation affordable and easy to use for every business.

Their goal is to help businesses of all sizes benefit from these tools without straining their budgets, making sure that all businesses can succeed in today’s tech-driven world.

Are you curious about the future of decentralized finance? Here’s a little secret: The future is already here, but the change is not equally distributed. In our back-to-back episode featuring women in web3, we chat withRita Martins, author of the brand new book titled “Web3 in Financial Services”, on the past, present, and future of blockchain technology, how the ecosystem can adapt to regulatory changes, and how traditional finance and DeFi can play nice together. While the progress may feel slow, change is definitely coming.

Check out Rita’s new bookhere:https://a.co/d/93ClFuP 

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Our last conversation with Cleve Mesidor, The path to a more financially inclusive future, can be foundhere.https://shows.acast.com/one-vision/episodes/the-path-to-a-more-financially-inclusive-future 

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Earlier this year I attended the National Enterprise Awards in the Mansion House. This was the 24th year of the Local Enterprise Office initiative, which was won last year by Advanced Cosmetics.

The Finalists competed for a prize fund of €50,000 and along with an overall National Enterprise of the Year winner there are categories for Best Start-Up, Best Export Business, an Innovation Award, a One-to-Watch Award, and a Sustainability Award.

There is also an Outstanding Achievement award for a business that started with their Local Enterprise Office and has gone on to achieve international growth with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland. 

I caught up with Matt Conlon the Co-Founder and CEO of one of the winners Cytidel.

Matt talks about his background, what Cytidel does, AI, winning at the Local Enterprise Awards and more.

More about Cytidel:

Innovation Award winners, Cytidel, is a vulnerability intelligence platform that enables organisations to adopt an intelligence led approach to risk prioritisation that’s up to 95% more efficient than traditional methods.

With a focus on actionable vulnerability intelligence, Cytidel is already trusted by leading global financial service providers to save analysts 10+ hours a week.

With five generations of customers using the banking system, whose needs are we truly serving and how can we best fill the gaps? In our first episode back from a short summer break, we welcome Cleve Mesidor, Executive Director of the Blockchain Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit leading an industry-wide crypto education campaign. Credit unions and community banks play a critical role in serving the diverse demographics of our society. How best can we support these institutions in a decentralized finance future? What policy changes do we need to support the workforce of the future, and ensure small business owners can thrive? And what is the story behind Butterscotch Media? Tune in to find out more!

Four years ago I interviewed John Clancy for the Irish Tech News podcast. John was the Founder and CEO of the AI startup Chatspace. Since I last spoke with John AI has changed so much, and Chatspace has rebranded as Galvia. I recently caught up with John to see what’s happened since we last spoke and how their AI product has changed.

John spoke about what’s happened since we last spoke, Covid, AI, future plans, Apple AI, AI regulation and more.

More about Galvia:

Galvia began as a response to a client request to draw insights from various data sources to help organisations learn fast, detect problems early and deploy solutions before issues become widespread.

Their clients have played an instrumental role in Galvia’s journey and they continue to shape who they are and what they do. Their clients trust Galvia with their data, and their platform empowers enterprises and higher level educational institutions to turn what is a hugely valuable asset into something that generates revenues, drives engagement and safeguards sustainable growth. Based in Galway, Ireland, Galvia is proud to be a High Performance Start Up (HPSU) with Enterprise Ireland.

Dogpatch Labs and The Fidelity Center for Applied Technology FCAT have selected three breakthrough startups to participate in “The FCAT Fellowship” programme, which will take place in Dogpatch Labs, Ireland’s leading innovation hub based in Dublin.

The FCAT Fellowship programme, kicked off last month with Lip, DevA11y and gClinics taking part. David Atkinson the founder of Lip, Cormac Chisholm and Patrick Guiney the co-founders of DevA11y, recently met up to speak to Ronan.

David, Cormac and Patrick, spoke about their backgrounds, what their startups do, the FCAT Fellowship and more.

More about the FCAT Fellowship:

Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) scans the future horizons to look for emerging technologies that will change our world. To advance and strengthen the innovation ecosystem, along with Dogpatch Labs, FCAT is sponsoring a new and exciting programme, The FCAT Fellowship programme which will strengthen the innovation ecosystem. By leveraging FCAT’s collective expertise, resources and global network, giving the opportunity to drive significant advancements for the startups involved. 

There is an inactivity epidemic which affects the health of 1.8B adults around the world and WeWard an app that has recently launched in Ireland aims to tackle it.

WeWard will do this through gamifying and socialising the step count, allowing users to redeem their steps for rewards like cash, retail gifts, or charity donations. Ronan recently spoke to Yves Benchimol the CEO and founder of WeWard.

Yves talks about his background, what WeWard does, their expansion into Ireland and 19 other countries, and their recent partnership with the French government to launch a global walking competition to get users excited for the Olympic Games. 

More about WeWard:

WeWard rewards users for their daily walking habits through allowing them to earn ‘Wards’, which can then be converted into cash, charity donations, or gift purchases. Users on the app have been shown to increase their walking time by nearly 25%.

To date, WeWard has already distributed over $10M in cash to users, $1M in donations to charity partners, and boasts a network of over 1,500 brands, including household names like Netflix, L’Oreal, Nike, Converse, American Cancer Society, United Nations, and more. 

To kick-off their expansion, the company has partnered up with the French government to launch a global walking competition to get users excited for the Olympic Games period. Registration for the competition is live, and the contest will begin on July 26.   

In this episode of One Vision, Theo chat with Alice Korngold, C-Suite and board advisor, speaker, and published author, on the value of collaboration between companies and nonprofits in finding innovative solutions to social challenges. Purpose and profits do and should co-exist; when we work together, we thrive — together. From hiring intentionally and creating inclusive social cohorts, to developing responsibly and ethically, let’s commit to staying motivated and changing the status quo for a better and brighter future. Take actions and make meaningful contributions to positive progress, not just for our sake, but for the sake of future generations. As Alice said, we each find our own path. And there is tremendous opportunity for every sector and every job to advance the world towards a more sustainable and inclusive path. Keep asking ‘why?’ and ‘what can I do?”. Don’t forget to check out Alice’s latest edition of A Better World, Inc.

From acting as a silent back office partner to being an enabler of banking services and new business models, technology has transformed not only the partnership between the CIO, CTO, and lines of business, but also the customer experience. What is the next big opportunity when it comes to the future of banking? What role will technology such as artificial intelligence play?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with Vanja Tokic, expert retail strategy transformation manager at Raiffeisen Bank International AG on digitalizing the financial world and preserving the human touch. How will banking services being a commodity impact the future of financial services and banking business models? What role should banks play in society and an increasingly connected world, and how can we meet customers where they are? Tune in to find out! 

The NIS 2 Directive is due to come into effect later this year, and while we await full clarity on what the Directive will entail, what can we do to prepare for it?

Two people who can answer that are Paul Casey, and Fergal Meehan from the cybersecurity service provider Paradyn. Paul is Paradyn’s Chief Operations Officer  and Fergal is Paradyn’s Chief Commercial Officer and Ronan recently caught up with them. 

Paul and Fergal talk about their backgrounds, what Paradyn does, the NIS 2 Directive, attack surface areas, AI and more.

More about Paradyn:

Paradyn provide their customers with managed connectivity right through to desktop support. They build, pro-actively monitor, support and maintain their entire infrastructure.

They also build, monitor and support their internet connectivity and wide area network; as well as supplying, supporting and maintain their firewalls, network switches, servers and desktops. All of this under one managed service contract with one single supplier, something they can’t get from any other Managed Service Provider in Ireland.

Just as the pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of digital payments in retail for consumers, it has sped up similar changes in the financial operations of organizations, enabling improved compliance and spending controls while reducing complexities.

In this episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Chris Juneau, SVP, Head of SAP Concur Product Marketing, on the future of payments and expense reporting, powered by AI and mobile connectivity. We cannot create more time, but we can streamline processes so that we can spend more time focusing on what matters — at moments that matter. 

Ireland is a tech hub because it is an English-speaking beacon in the EU. But others are not so fortunate: only one billionth of the content created worldwide gets translated  leaving millions of people out in the linguistic cold. With 87% of site visitors preferring their own language when surfing the web, companies should prioritise localised contentor face disastrous consequences.

One person who knows this all too well is Bryan Murphy, the CEO of Smartling, a cloud-based translation technology and language services company headquartered in New York. Ronan recently caught up with Bryan Murphy.

Bryan talks about his background, what Smartling does, Gen AI, translation localisation, existing and new tech stacks, quantum computing and more.

More about Bryan Murphy:

As the CEO of Smartling, Bryan leads a team of passionate and innovative professionals who are transforming the way content is created, managed, and delivered across the world. With over 20 years of experience in e-commerce and SaaS, he has a proven track record of building and scaling successful businesses that leverage cutting-edge technology and customer-centric solutions.

Prior to joining Smartling, Bryan held various leadership roles at eBay, where he was responsible for driving growth and profitability for key verticals in North America. He also co-founded and led WHI Solutions, the largest automotive e-commerce platform in North America, which was acquired by eBay in 2012. Bryan has received several awards and recognitions, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Technology Fast 500 Award, and the a16z Marketplace 100. His mission is to empower businesses to reach new markets and audiences with Smartling's LanguageAI Platform, the #1 rated translation management system by users on G2.

While AI is not new, the excitement has skyrocketed in the past 2 years. As organizations embark on the AI journey, what do they need to keep in mind? What does responsible AI really mean? Are we being overly critical when we are biased and imperfect human beings? And how do we even stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of AI and risk management?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with the brilliant Nicole Königstein, Chief AI Officer and Head of AI & Quant Research at Quantmate, on the current AI hype cycle and what the future holds. And don’t forget to check out Nicole’s latest book: Transformers: The Definitive Guide.

As AI gets more advanced, one of the AI startups to watch out for is Qlindex, the company behind jarvic.ai. 

Ronan talks to Iman Zolanvari, the CEO and founder of Qlindex.

Iman talks about his background, Gen AI and the concerns around it, where it’s going, mitigating risks in AI, AI Cold War, small language models, RAG systems, Jarvic and more.

More about Jarvic:

Jarvic are considered one the Ireland's top AI companies and are part of a Microsoft incubator programme. Jarvic functions as an AI-powered assistant helping to conquer complex business challenges such as managing and analysing vast text data.
Connected mag recently identified Jarvic as "ones you need to keep an eye on in the coming years.

Homeownership is normally looked upon as a part of the American Dream. Unfortunately, reality often squeezes out many of those who don’t have access.

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chats with Brendan Kennealey, Founder/CEO at NESTER, and part of the first cohort for CAFE (Center for Accelerating Financial Equity), on his quest to take some of the guesswork and stress out of the home buying and selling experience. Imagine a world where technology can be used to create a positive impact for the LMI communities and uplift those who are underserved. 

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About One Vision: One Vision podcast, hosted by Theodora Lau, brings purposeful innovation to spotlight. It is where impact meets innovation. One Vision is a convergence of minds that dream of a sustainable world for future generations galvanized by innovation. The new season, Fintech Fuse! features the powerful trio of women in fintech: Barb McLean, Stephanie Foster, and Theodora Lau. 

*** 

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NUVIEW is a cutting-edge space tech start-up that offers a captivating perspective on the intersection of science and innovation in our rapidly evolving world. Ronan recently spoke to Clint Graumann, the Co-Founder and CEO of NUVIEW

Clint talks about his background, what NUVIEW does, space tech, getting Leonardo DiCaprio the Oscar winning actor and environmentalist on board and more.

More about NUVIEW:

NUVIEW is revolutionising Earth observation and geospatial technology with its groundbreaking work on the world’s first commercial LiDAR satellite constellation.

This achievement recently earned the company the prestigious Geospatial Innovator Award at the Geospatial World Leadership Award 2024. This accolade underscores their unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration and technological innovation. 

Generative AI in 2023 was a bit of an enterprise parlor trick: something that fascinated and amused workers-maybe helped them create an image or revise a blog post — but didn't provide substantial value to the broader organization. That's changing. In 2024, adoption is ramping up, and we're starting to see how generative AI will actually reshape the future of work.

In this episode of One Vision — The FinTech Fuse! Theo chats with Chris Juneau, SVP, Head of SAP Concur Product Marketing, on how we can adapt to a changing world of finance with AI.

AI is everywhere these days and the Intersection of AI and Crypto is one of the latest topical AI issues. One person who knows all about this is John Randles the CEO of Siren, and he recently attended a Chainalysis panel session in New York discussing the role Siren can play in this topical issue. Ronan recently spoke to John.

John talks about his background, what Siren does, his thoughts on the intersection of AI and Crypto and more.

More about Siren:

Siren is an all-in-one investigation platform used by organisations to safeguard people, assets and networks. Using AI, automation and advanced search, Siren links data from open source, vendors and classified sources allowing investigators to analyze risks, threats and crimes for the national security, public safety, fraud and compliance, and cyber threat communities. Siren’s patented technology is uniquely search based providing the analyst with easy-to-use search, analytics, visualization and reporting capabilities for investigations at enterprise scale and volume.

In November 2023, Siren achieved 9th position in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and won the award in the "Scale-Up" category. Siren received €12 million in funding in 2023 and was named as a Gartner Cool Vendor. For more information, visit www.siren.io

It is an exciting time to be in tech. With nine out of ten CFOs projecting higher AI budgets in 2024, how will the integration of AI in business impact the skill sets required for the CFOs? How can AI bring benefits to the day-to-day financial processes including working capital management? And what are some of the things that we need to keep in mind to ensure relevant, reliable, and responsible business AI?

In this episode of One Vision, Theo chat with Christian Hecker, SVP and Chief Revenue Officer, Office of the CFO at SAP, and Thomas Mehlkopf, GM and Head of Working Capital Management Center of Excellence at SAP, on how AI can transform the future of work and the collaboration between CFOs and CIOs in driving digital transformation.

For more insights, download second edition of the exclusive eBook — CFO Perspectives: Unlocking Insights Through Conversations

#OneVision #AI #DigitalTransformation #FinancialServices #FinTech #Sponsored

Rapid7 recently announced a new security research partnership with CSIT at Queen’s University Belfast. The new partnership will be with CSIT’s AI hub and will research into threats facing the cloud by utilising AI and machine learning techniques. The partnership will be another avenue for CSIT students into the cybersecurity industry and Rapid7.

With NCSC recently reporting that any cybercriminal will be able to leverage AI and access cloud services, the partnership comes at a critical time. It will also continue the strong relationship seen between the cybersecurity industry and academia in Belfast. After the partnership announcement Ronan spoke to Dr Stuart Millar, Principal AI Engineer at Rapid7. 

Dr Miller talks about his background, AI and music, the new partnership between Rapid7 and CSIT, the Cyber AI hub and more.

More about the Cyber AI hub:

The Cyber-AI Hub, hosted by CSIT, presents an exciting opportunity to develop exceptional research, skills and innovation across a range of cyber related themes and develop a talent pipeline of cyber security professionals with strong industry links.

This new initiative, funded by the UK Government from the New Deal for Northern Ireland, will see a new Doctoral Training Programme, a hub for industry collaboration and skills development, bursaries for students to join Queen's MSc in Applied Cyber Security or Artificial Intelligence, as well as a report mapping the growth and development of the cyber industry in the region. 

Unit4 is launching Smart Automation Services, which talks to the broader discussion around the role of AI and automation in ERP. Claus Jepsen their Chief Product and Technology Officer, recommends a more pragmatic approach and launching this initiative, it is identifying specific opportunities to integrate AI and automation into the various functions within its ERPx suite.

In the course of the next year during its regular release cycle it will add specific functionality across areas like payroll, expenses, procurement, finance, and its virtual assistant.  Ronan recently spoke to Clause.

Clause talks about his background, what Unit4 does, AI and more.

More about Claus Jepsen:

Claus Jepsen is a technology expert who has been fascinated by the micro-computer revolution ever since he received a Tandy TRS model 1 at the age of 14. Since then, Claus has spent the last few decades developing and architecting software solutions, most recently at Unit4, where he is the Chief Product and Technology Officer leading the ERP vendor’s focus on enabling the post-modern enterprise.

At Unit4, Claus is building cloud-based, super-scalable solutions and bringing innovative technologies such as AI, chatbots, and predictive analytics to ERP. Claus is a strong believer that having access to vast amounts of data allows us to construct better, non-invasive and pervasive solutions to improve our experiences, relieve us from tedious chores, and allow us focus on what we as individuals really love doing.

Integrity360's conference series Security First was recently held in Dublin this year. Bringing together the cybersecurity industry to discuss the latest threat landscape developments and industry insights, and offer actionable advice on how to protect your organisation from the most prevalent cyber threats in 2024.  One of the speakers at Security First was Patrick Wragg, Head of Incident Response at Integrity360 and Ronan recently spoke to Patrick.  

Patrick talks about his background, state sponsored attacks, the good and bad points of AI, deep fakes and more.

More about Integrity360:

Integrity360 is an industry-leading cyber security specialist operating in Ireland and the U.K. Since 2005 they have earned the status of trusted security advisor for over 1,500 clients across UK and Ireland.

Their security first approach positions security as an enabler and empowers their clients to do business securely.

The 2024 Dublin Tech Summit is taking place today in the RDS and on the first day of the conference I caught up with Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures and one of the Dublin Tech Summit speakers. Nicolas spoke to me about his background, what TDK ventures does, what they invest in and more.

More about Nicolas Sauvage:

Nicolas Sauvage is the President of TDK Ventures. Nicolas Sauvage is committed to invest and serve entrepreneurs – the ultimate Impact Scalers – to build innovative and meaningful solutions in Digital, Energy & Environmental Transformations that will bring positive impact to society and the planet. 

Nicolas believes in the value of focusing on what really matters in one’s life and removing the noise around us as much as possible; he created the concept of the “8 words” to capture in just 8 words what matters the most to someone, and prioritise their life’s choices and activities, every day. His 8 words starts with his wife: “Sheila first. Scaling Impact Scalers. Patience and Impatience.” and are engraved on his iPad. 

Nicolas is an alumnus of the Stanford GSB, INSEAD, London Business School, and microelectronics ISEN school.

The 2024 Dublin Tech Summit takes place tomorrow and Ronan spoke to Siobhan Human, Head of Programming and Marketing at Dublin Tech Summit to find out what we can expect this year.

Siobhan talks about some of the speakers appearing at Dublin Tech Summit, space tech, AI and more.

More about Dublin Tech Summit:

Dublin Tech Summit is the most exciting tech festival in Europe. DTS brings together global leaders in innovation, technology and business to shape the future of trends and technologies.

Taking place at the RDS on the 29th and 30th of May, this event brings together over 8,000 attendees and more than 200 influential speakers from all over the globe.   

What has changed and hasn’t changed in payments and marketing in the past two decades? What can we do to help more women become visible? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! We chat with Kathryn Vazquez Kmiotek — Top 30 Influential Fintech Marketer — on the future of payments and true inclusion. Kathy’s advice? Own your voice and be the driver of your career; time is never given back.

Five years ago I interviewed Professor Horacio Gonzalez-Velez for the Irish Tech News podcast and of things we talked about was Ireland's First Cloud Competency Centre (CCC) in NCI. A dozen years after the founding of Ireland's First Cloud Competency Centre, the CCC hosted PDP24 https://pdp2024.org. Winning this prestigious conference and its international attendees for Ireland as well as contributing to/leading many pan-European research projects, including another First - for Ireland, and indeed for Europe - a master's programme in Open Data.

I caught up with Professor Horacio González-Vélez the head of the cloud competency centre in NCI, to catch up on what has happened since we last spoke. Dr González-Vélez talks about how the CCC has changed over 12 years, crypto, Ai and more.

More about Professor Horacio Gonzalez-Velez:

Horacio González-Vélez is a Professor of Computer Systems and Founding Head of The Cloud Competency Centre at National College of Ireland. Under his guidance, the Centre has grown exponentially, from some 20 students and a single EU-funded project in 2012 to hundreds of students and multiple EU-funded research projects underpinned by a capable team of professionals by 2023. 

His research has consistently sought to bridge the gap between data-intensive computational problems and their discrete patterns of computation and communication. He has harnessed his diverse background to engage with stakeholders of all backgrounds, skills, and genders, as he actively contributes to institutional committees, European working groups, and research strategy development.

From connecting businesses to helping consumers manage their everyday spending, open banking has been in action for a while now. In this episode of One Vision — Fintech Fuse! Theo chats with Meaghan Johnson, Fintech and Bank Advisor, on the next iteration of finance and how it can deliver more value to the data-driven ecosystem. If our payments data can tell a story, how can we create a narrative that is more impactful and more relevant to our everyday lives? To anyone who thinks PFM is old news … hold your horses.

In this special edition of the Futurists, media expert Peter Csathy debates with Rob about copyright and generative AI. It’s a preview of their upcoming live debate at the Streaming Media summit in New York. Peter and Rob discuss the major issues in copyright, the most contentious lawsuits, and the most relevant precedents. If you are interested in the future of genAI for storytelling and entertainment, this episode is essential. Topics include: copyright lawsuits brought by the New York Times, Getty Images and artists; how recent rulings on fair use may affect these cases; the evolving definition of “copying” in the digital domain; why some precedents will matter more than others; why Big Tech is in hot water; and how copyright is a tax on future innovation. 

For decades, philosopher Nick Bostrom (director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford) has led the conversation around technology and human experience (and grabbed the attention of the tech titans who are developing AI - Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman).

Now, a decade after his NY Times bestseller Superintelligence warned us of what could go wrong with AI development, he flips the script in his new book Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (March 27), asking us to instead consider “What could go well?”

Ronan recently spoke to Professor Nick Bostrom.

Professor Bostrom talks about his background, his new book Deep Utopia Life and Meaning in a Solved World, why he thinks advanced AI systems could automate most human jobs and more.

More about Nick Bostrom:

Swedish-born philosopher Nick Bostrom was founder and director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. He is the most-cited professional philosopher in the world aged 50 or under and is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias (2002), Global Catastrophic Risks (2008), Human Enhancement (2009), and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014), a New York Times bestseller. 

With a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence, his work has pioneered some of the ideas that frame current thinking about humanity’s future (such as the concept of an existential risk, the simulation argument, the vulnerable world hypothesis, the unilateralist’s curse, etc.), while some of his recent work concerns the moral status of digital minds.His writings have been translated into more than 30 languages; he is a repeat main-stage TED speaker; and he has been interviewed more than 1,000 times by media outlets around the world. He has been on Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list twice and was included in Prospect’s World Thinkers list, the youngest person in the top 15. As a graduate student he dabbled in stand-up comedy on the London circuit.

Have you ever looked back at your career path, and wondered out loud, what if? And if you could pursue anything, what would it be?  In this episode of One Vision podcast, Theo chats with Bhuva Shakti, fractional COO and board director, on her roles as angel investor, advisor, and digital transformation strategist. From economic inclusion and entrepreneurship to responsible innovation, the next chapter is still yet to be written. And as it turns out, in the age of AI where opportunities abound, sky is indeed the limit. It’s time to choose your own adventure. Remember the old adage: “You can be anything you want to be.” 

In this week's show returning guest Shelly Palmer (CNBC, CNN, Fox5) dives with Rob and Brett into what it will take for corporations to stay relevant in the AI-age. This is a wide ranging discussion on the way AI-based commerce, agency and automation will disrupt many of our current industries and institutions. Not one to be missed!

Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, and is a regular commentator on CNN and CNBC.

Shelly is a prolific author. Along with his daily newsletter, his books include, the Amazon #1 Bestseller, Blockchain – Cryptocurrency, NFTs & Smart Contracts: An executive guide to the world of decentralized finance and Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV, the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that have changing everything about the the business of television, Overcoming the Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career, and Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World.

Irish specialty coffee group, Coffeeangel, recently agreed a landmark deal with the Dunsany Estate in Co. Meath and Irish clean-tech company Bionua which will see it commit 5% of its profits over the next 5 years to buy biodiversity credits.

This is the first time such a deal has been completed in Ireland and only the second time across Europe after Swedbank’s purchase of biodiversity credits in 2023. Ronan spoke to Karl Purdy, CEO of Coffeeangel & William Butterly, founder of Bionua.

Karl and William talk about their backgrounds, how coffeangel and Bionua started, their landmark deal with the Dunsany Estate and more.

More about the Coffeangel, Bionua and Dunsany estate landmark deal: 

The first year of this deal with Coffeeangel will represent the removal and storage of a minimum of 80,000 kgs of harmful carbon from the atmosphere at Dunsany Nature Reserve, and the direct involvement in the protection and enhancement of its unique biodiversity habitat above and below ground which include some of Ireland’s most important flora and fauna.

In every work environment, from factories, hospitals, retail shops to elder care homes, the future workforce will include robots. Dr Harry Kloor, the founder and CEO of Beyond Imagination has blazed a trail toward building reliable, strong robots that can operate safely alongside human workers. Harry tells the Futurists how to design a robot for a variety of workplaces at an affordable price, and what type of artificial intelligence is best for autonomous robot workers. Harry also answers key questions: why insurability for robot co-workers is a challenge; how to create a friendly-looking robot;  the best places to put robots to work; why legless robots are superior;  robots for elder care; how hydraulic robots compare to electronic systems; and why it’s so difficult for a robot to open a bottle of soda. 

Where incumbents come together with fintechs, Fintech Week London is a city-to-city event spanning some of the most current themes in financial services. From artificial intelligence, ESG, and insurtech, to embedded finance, payments, and digital assets, what’s in store for this year’s festivities?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chats with Raf De Kimpe, CEO of Fintech Week London on the past, present, and future of fintech events. Join us as we pave the way for a brighter future for the fintech industry. Change is a constant.

*** 

About Fintech Week London: https://www.fintechweek.london 

Founded in 2016, ZOMA specialises in cutting edge web design, content creation and digital marketing solutions; working across a range of industries including corporate, health and wellness, fashion, food and hospitality, tourism, sport and events, construction, property, agriculture, medical, and manufacturing. It is one of the leading Shopify partners and largest Wix partner in Ireland & UK; official Google Partner.

ZOMA recently launched Munchd a new online food platform. Ronan recently spoke to David Kieran the Managing Director of ZOMA.

David talks about his background, ZOMA, Covid, Munchd and more.

Munchd is a new online food ordering platform, developed by Dundalk based ZOMA, that was built specifically to empower local restaurants and takeaways to maximise their profits, and ultimately offer more competitive prices to their customers. t is set to shake up the food industry with its game-changing 0% commission model and minimal 1.4% transaction rate on orders.

Yes, ESG is both complex and complicated, as Matthew Sekol wrote in his new book, ESG Mindset. But at the heart of it, it should not be difficult to explain — nor should it be controversial — why a business needs to go beyond pure financials, to build resilience — to better understand the risks and capture the opportunities — so that they can better adapt to a changing world. After all, it should be in the inherent interests of companies to build to last. Though the term might be nuanced, the intention and the result should not be. 

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! We chat with our wonderful friend Matthew Sekol about his new book, ESG Mindset, and how leaders can learn how to think critically about ESG to ensure their organizations remain resilient.

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ESG Mindset: https://www.esg-mindset.com/

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About One Vision: One Vision podcast, hosted by Theodora Lau, brings purposeful innovation to spotlight. It is where impact meets innovation. One Vision is a convergence of minds that dream of a sustainable world for future generations galvanized by innovation. The new season, Fintech Fuse! features the powerful trio of women in fintech: Barb McLean, Stephanie Foster, and Theodora Lau.

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Unconventional Ventures:https://www.unconventionalventures.com/

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AI safety pioneer Roman Yampolskiy believes that artificial intelligence presents a challenge unlike anything humanity has ever faced. He says we have just one chance to get it right. A single AI model can cause an existential crisis, and there are already more than 500,000 open source AI models available. In his view, the AI arms race is creating an infinite range of possibilities for catastrophe. Roman returns to The Futurists to share perspectives from his new book, Unpredictable, Unexplainable, Uncontrollable, delivering a devastating critique of the current state of safety in AI and an urgent call to action. 

Roman Vladimirovich Yampolskiy is a Russian computer scientist at the University of Louisville, known for his work on behavioral biometrics, security of cyberworlds, and artificial intelligence safety. He holds a PhD from the University at Buffalo.

When this podcast first started in 2016 one of my first guests was Rory O’Connor the CEO & Founder Scurri. Four years later Rory appeared on the Podcast again, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then the e-commerce sector has grown and Scurri moved into new offices in Wexford town earlier this year. 

I caught up with Rory to find out how COVID-19 impacted Scurri and their clients, the growth of e-commerce, Scurri’s new offices and more.

More about Scurri:

Scurri, officially launched its new state of the art European headquarters based in the heart of Wexford Town, last January. The Wexford born multi-million euro platform has opened a brand new operational base for over 100 workers with plans to recruit for 40 new roles across Sales, Marketing, Support and Engineering over the next 24 months. 

Scurri is an innovative delivery management platform that connects and optimises the entire online ordering, shipping and delivery process for retailers. 

Following the company’s launch in 2010, hugely successful enterprise Scurri has grown its global footprint, processing over €10.5 billion worth of shipments worldwide in 2023 alone. 

As one of the first flowers that bloom in spring, daffodils symbolize new beginnings, resilience, and prosperity. But what do the flowers have in common with fintech and rugby? In this new episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Sarah Kocianki, CEO of Fintech Wales, on her top priorities in growing the world-class collaborative FinTech ecosystem in Wales as she embarks on her new journey as the CEO of FinTech Wales. We explored the secret behind the prominence of female angel investors in Wales, as well as the impact of technology on work, talent, and culture of learning. Bonus question for our audience: What was the one term that we successfully navigated around in our conversation? Tune in to find out!

***

About One Vision: One Vision podcast, hosted by Theodora Lau, brings purposeful innovation to spotlight. It is where impact meets innovation. One Vision is a convergence of minds that dream of a sustainable world for future generations galvanized by innovation. The new season, Fintech Fuse! features the powerful trio of women in fintech: Barb McLean, Stephanie Foster, and Theodora Lau.

***

Unconventional Ventures: https://www.unconventionalventures.com/

Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6598548173482967040       

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Energy storage is one of the fastest growing segments within the power sector. This growth is mainly driven by battery storage, but other forms of energy storage such as green hydrogen are also becoming prominent, all of which will prove crucial to unlocking Ireland’s full renewable potential.

By developing more energy storage capacity, Ireland can reduce dependence on fossil fuels more rapidly, ensure lights stay on and help reduce energy costs. Although battery storage is an established and proven technology, the potential of energy storage is not yet well known in Ireland.

Last September, a KPMG report commissioned by ESI and Greentech Skillnet outlined that the energy storage sector has a key role to play in helping Ireland reduce carbon emissions and provide cleaner, cheaper energy to Irish consumers. It also stated that the sector could create thousands of new jobs by 2035. One person who can provide insights into this is Bobby Smith, Head of Energy Storage Ireland and Ronan recently spoke to him.

Bobby talks about his background, what Energy Storage Ireland does, the KPMG report commissioned by ESI and Greentech Skillnet and more.

More about Energy Storage Ireland:

Energy Storage Ireland represents over 50 organisations from across the energy storage supply chain, and their members include both private sector enterprises and state-owned companies such as Coillte and the ESB.

What’s next for retail shops and shopping malls? The previous decade was excruciating for national retail chains. Steve Dennis, the author of Remarkable Retail and Leaders Leap, explains how shopping will evolve in the aftermath of pandemic, e-commerce and the "collapse of the middle”. Why Amazon gets too much blame and the real reason why differentiation is the key to success. 

VC investment in startups is crucial for the industry. Yet, the funding into underrepresented founders is dismal and seems to be getting worse by the year. Could bringing more women into investment communities and helping them secure board roles be the answer we are looking for?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! We chat with Millicent Tracey on her impactful journey from banking and beyond. Millicent is an independent public company Board Director and Audit Committee member, FinTech Board Advisor, and former Fortune 50 senior executive. Tune in to hear her perspectives on what gets her excited in financial services and how we can own our power.

This week we get into AI in health care, generative and personalized medicine, the cure for cancer and why CoVID helped supercharge that and how AI is helping us live longer, healthier lives. Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder of AI-MedTech player Insilico joins us on TF to talk how health care is going to radically change over the next decade or two. An amazing deep dive. Don’t miss it!

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine (insilico.com), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation artificial intelligence and robotics platforms for drug discovery. He is also the founder and Chief Longevity Officer of Deep Longevity, Inc, a spin-off of Insilico Medicine developing a broad range of artificial intelligence-based biomarkers of aging and longevity servicing healthcare providers and life insurance industry. In 2020 Deep Longevity was acquired by Endurance Longevity (HK: 0575).Since 2014 he has invented critical technologies in the field of generative artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning (RL) for the generation of novel molecular structures with the desired properties and generation of synthetic biological and patient data. He also pioneered the applications of deep learning technologies for the prediction of human biological age using multiple data types, transfer learning from aging into disease, target identification, and signaling pathway modeling. Under his leadership, Insilico raised over $415 million in multiple rounds from expert investors, opened R&D centers in six countries or regions, partnered with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic institutions, nominated 11 preclinical candidates, and entered human clinical trials with AI-discovered novel target and AI-designed novel molecule.Prior to founding Insilico, he worked in senior roles at ATI Technologies (GPU company acquired by AMD in 2006), NeuroG Neuroinformatics, Biogerontology Research Foundation. Since 2012 he published over 160 peer-reviewed research papers, and 2 books including "The Ageless Generation: How Biomedical Advances Will Transform the Global Economy" (Macmillan, 2013). He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, Aging, Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery and AI Forum (9th annual in 2022), the world's largest event on aging in the pharmaceutical industry. He did his two bachelor degrees at Queen's University in Canada, masters in biotechnology at Johns Hopkins, and PhD in biophysics at MSU. He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Following a sellout inaugural event in 2023, TechFoundHer Boot Camp returns on April 16th in a new venue, Dublin City Hall, with a limited number of tickets now on sale.

TechFoundHer is on a mission to empower women to start and lead tech companies. The one-day highly interactive event brings together women tech leaders, founders and supporters as speakers, panellists and champions to share insights and practical guidance on how to create successful technology products and services. Ronan spoke to Vicky Twomey-Lee, the TechFoundHer Boot Camp Co-Founder.

Vicky talks about her background, bias in tech, women trailblazers in tech and more.

More about the TechFoundHer Boot Camp:

The TechFoundHer Boot Camp, backed by Dublin City Council, is seeking to champion more founders from non-tech backgrounds who are involved in creating a tech product or platform.

The high-energy event will facilitate an inclusive, interactive, social space with a mix of participative workshops, Q&A panels and speakers to support female founders to become more tech-savvy and equip them with industry know-how to move forward with their tech product or service idea.

Following the growth of the TechFoundHer Community to over 500, Boot Camp organisers are urging those who are interested in attending to purchase their place without hesitation.

General tickets are available for €90 and can be purchased here.

Against the backdrop of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, how can we make the supply chain more resilient? 

In this episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Rene Ho — CFO at Taulia, and Thomas Mehlkopf — GM and Head of Working Capital Management CoE at SAP, on realizing the synergies from the power duo of SAP-Taulia, building the future of finance with working capital optimization and liquidity. Change is inevitable, but we can put measures in place and be ready for surprises in this interconnected world.

For more insights, click here to download the CFO Perspectives: Unlocking Insights Through Conversation. #Sponsored

According to The European Commission, for the first nine months of 2023, HICP inflation in Ireland remained high, reaching 5 percent in September. In addition, figures from Eurostatshow Ireland's price level for consumer goods and services was a whopping 46% above the EU average in 2022 alone. With prices set to continue to rise across the country in the months ahead, how do you get  the best value? One person who can help with this is Fiachra Comhrai, the CEO  and Co-founder of Bill Winner.

Ronan recently spoke to Fiachra about his background, what Vill Winner does, crowd sourcing the best price the Battle of the Bills campaign and more

More about Bill Winner:

The concept for Bill Winner was first developed in 2017 by entrepreneurs Fiachra Ó Comhraí and Cormac Horan who had both previously worked together to build a gamification layer for Salesforce which wasn’t as successful as they had hoped.

Seeking a change of direction career wise and battling bills, the pair decided to develop a company based around renewal management. They sought to produce one that would enable individuals to better manage bills and compare prices - an idea that would become Bill Winner.

With investors responding quickly and positively, the ambitious pair launched the company two years ago. Their goal is to become the world’s most trusted and independent platform powered by consumers for making decisions on bills and contract renewals.

In many rural communities, credit unions are the financial institutions of choice. But these credit unions facilitate more than just money movement. As financial cooperatives, they are owned by their members and embedded within the communities that they serve.

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! We chat with Carrie Forbes, CEO of League Data and Technicost on the changing technology landscape, the challenges and opportunities of transforming while preserving the human touch, and the future of consumer-driven banking.

Bank with purpose, we can. Tune in and feel the love.

This week The Futurists hosts Brett, Rob and Katie host a guest that NY Times calls "one of the world's most acclaimed living science fiction writers" - Kim Stanley Robinson. We dive into the Mars Trilogy and interplanetary colonization and exploration, we tackle climate shift and the economics of the world of the future. We get some background on his early career in sci-fi, we delve into KSR's world building and how real world places influenced story settings, his interest in fields like terraforming, geology and even genetics. This is part 1 of a two part special episode. You're going to love it, we did!

Irish banks offer significantly poor digital services in comparison to our EU counterparts. Undertaking a significant digital transformation project, with potential costs exceeding millions of euro, becomes a discretionary decision for Irish banks due to the lack of competition for banks to revamp their digital services. These are the thoughts of Roisin Levine, the Head of Partnerships, UK & Europe at Wise, and Ronan recently spoke to Roisin. 

Roisin talks about her background, what Wise does, Irish Banks, and more

More about Roisin:

Roisin Levine, is the Head of Partnerships, UK & Europe at Wise and is the powerhouse behind Wise Platform’s partnerships with major banks like Monzo, N26 and fintech giants GoCardless, Brex, GooglePay, and many more.

She specialises in providing comprehensive solutions to partners, encompassing cross-border payments and Correspondent Services. Her contributions have helped to establish Wise as a key industry player and have grown Wise Platform, Wise’s global payment infrastructure for banks and major enterprises.

Prior to joining Wise, Roisin was Head of Banks at Flux, and Head of Partnerships at Funding Options.

She was recognised as a ‘Rising Star’ in previous Women in Fintech Power lists and was nominated for the Women in Finance Young Leader of the Year award. 

In this special episode of One Vision, we collaborate with Sonya Dreizler, Co-Founder of Choir, to introduce four special guests to our community: Valerie Escobar, Mohna Shah, Anthony Williams, and Yohance Harrison. Tune in to find out more about them, what drives them, and what they would put in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years. 

In this special episode of One Vision, we collaborate with Sonya Dreizler, Co-Founder of Choir, to introduce four special guests to our community: Valerie Escobar, Mohna Shah, Anthony Williams, and Yohance Harrison. Tune in to find out more about them, what drives them, and what they would put in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years. 

Did you know that there are over 7,100 spoken and signed languages in the world, and that there are 75 countries under the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) umbrella alone?

With such rich diversity, it is beyond time to change who we listen to. Join us.

TCS is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 50 years. TCS has over 1200 employees in Ireland, in Athlone, Cork, Dublin, Galway and, Letterkenny.

TCS Letterkenny's focus is on providing world class technology products, consulting, and support services to its clients across the globe; leveraging TCS's scale to deliver services from a regional location uniquely positioned both in terms of time zone, talent and market access to accelerate our customer's technology journey. Ronan recently spoke with Gerard Grant, Director, Strategic Initiatives at TCS Ireland in Letterkenny.

Gerard talks about his background, AI, Cyber Security, remote working, hybrid working and more.

More about Gerard Grant:

A native of Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Gerard Grant is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at TCS Ireland.

Gerard Joined TCS through the acquisition of Pramerica Systems Ireland in December 2020 where for over 20 years he was Vice President of Information Systems. During his tenure he led several technology teams and initiatives including technology support, cyber security, infrastructure services and cloud computing. 

Gerard is responsible for growing the operations at the TCS Letterkenny GDC through the acquisition and onboarding of new customers alongside building out new horizontal capabilities around data, digital, cloud, cybersecurity and salesforce.

Gerard has over 25 years’ experience in the information technology business starting his career in IT Support in Dublin and growing his career supporting larger and more complex IT projects until his return to Letterkenny in 2000 as one of the founding management team of Pramerica Systems Ireland.

What is the difference between open banking, open finance, and open data? And how can technology enable a true 360 degree view of a consumer, beyond just finance? In this episode of One Vision Podcast — FinTech Fuse! We chat withMichelle Beyo, founder of Finavator, about her career journey, what inspires her, and how she changes the ecosystem around her. As a fearless advocate, Michelle leads by example by being an active participant, and challenging the status quo to make the world more just.

We are all part of something bigger and each of us bear the responsibility to make the world a better place. Fight for love and a more inclusive future. Because every voice matters. 

Nick Butler is an industry expert in sales, business and e-commerce, as well as, the amazing technologies behind them. By making technology more useful, usable and desirable, Nick helps companies reinvent significant aspects of their business – from the tools they use to streamline operations, to the experience they provide to their customers, to the products they bring to market. Nick recently spoke to Ronan about his latest venture.

Nick talks about his background, pivoting to e-commerce, building a SaaS LMS platform, spinning out a new business, AI and more

More about LearnRight:

LearnRight is a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) designed to cater to various training and educational needs with cutting edge technology support such as inbuilt AI, instructor led training, community features and gamification.

Is inequality the inevitable byproduct of accelerating change?  Can we reverse the winner-take-all dynamic? Common Future is a “think and do tank" dedicated to closing the racial wealth gap by empowering individuals to take ownership of their futures. The three co-CEOs of Common Future tell the Futurists about their strategies and action labs to build economic power and build real estate ownership amid black, brown and indigenous communities across the USA. Because everyone deserves a stake in a fairer future. 

Web site:  https://www.commonfuture.co/

Generations of Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of color are intentionally locked out of wealth and power. We collaborate with leaders who have the imagination and courage to rethink our economy, and model new ways for excluded communities to thrive.

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo and Barb chat with Simon Taylor, Head of Strategy & Content at Sardine, and the brain behind the Fintech Brainfood, on being infinitely curious. One of Simon’s passion topics and mission at Sardine is to eradicate scams from the Internet. According to Simon, not only is fraud a massively underrepresented trillion-dollar problem, it is also getting exponentially worse, with so much of it being underreported. It is, as Simon calls it, the biggest issue that impacts human misery. 

What does the future hold for the financial services industry and its workforce, against the backdrop of credit quality concerns, the rapid development of advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, and with big techs advancing? What are the top things on Simon’s list and what does he think is overhyped? Tune in and find out!

Last year Ronan spoke to Paul Conaty, Principal Consultant at mobile and cloud security specialistCWSI about hybrid working which was one of the biggest predicted trends on the tech industry in 2023. Ronan caught up with Paul who is now Client Solutions Director - Security & Compliance at CWSI.

Paul spoke about his background, the coffee shop security model, hybrid working, device as a service, AI and more 

MORE ABOUT CWSI:

CWSI are one of Europe’s most experienced mobile and cloud security specialists, providing flexibility, security and productivity solutions to the private and public sectors in the UK and Europe. Theirr purpose is to help organisations thrive, and stay secure, in a mobile world.

CWSI was founded in Ireland in 2010 by Conor Headon, Philip Harrison and Ronan Murphy. The idea for the business was sparked by the launch of the very first iPad and the realisation that few IT teams had the knowledge or skills to get the best from these devices in an enterprise environment.

CWSI originally partnered with MobileIron, one of the first solutions on the market to leverage Apple’s device management APIs to enable enterprise users to maximise the benefits of the smartphone while giving IT teams visibility, control and management of the device.

From this simple initial idea, and a single desk in the corner of the living room, the business has expanded to provide a full suite of enterprise mobility, security and productivity solutions to some of Ireland and the UK’s leading organisations and supported by some of the industries most talented technologists.

Against the backdrop of elevated interest rates and lingering economic uncertainty brought about by layoffs and geopolitical conflicts, it is perhaps not surprising to see consumers seeking alternative ways to consume and pay. At the same time, they are also demanding more.

In this episode of One Vision, Theo and Barb chat with Julie Muhn, Senior Research Analyst, and the heart and soul of Finovate, on the state of consumer fintech. What challenges will PFM tools face? And how can financial services providers leverage data and technology to help consumers navigate their financial lives?

Ireland’s first sustainability hackathon is coming to Wexford’s GreenTechHQ, Ireland’s premier sustainability innovation hub. in partnership with NDRC and the 2050 Accelerator. Earlier this week Ronan spoke to Ed Murphy, CEO Greentech HQ & Joe Gorman NDRC Programme Manager about the hackathon.   

Ed and Joe talk about their backgrounds, the hackathon, and more.

More about Ireland’s first sustainability hackathon at GreenTechHQ 

The one-day hackathon will welcome up to 80 budding entrepreneurs, who want to o start, grow, and power up a startup with sustainability at its core. Participants will get the chance to tackle themes including biodiversity management and applications of AI in building a circular economy, the carbon credits market, upend social economies, or promote more diverse and equitable perspectives in the professional world.

Aspiring founders, developers, and curious minds are encouraged to sign up to join or build a team, develop an idea from scratch, and benefit from expert mentorship before pitching their business at the evening showcase. 

BlackBerry recently got together several of Ireland’s emergency services and public sector organisations to a private event in Dublin. They discussed the state of major emergency management in Ireland and across the EU, sharing lessons learned and best practice. Insights drawn from BlackBerry AtHoc’s work with aid and emergency services organisations; from the UK’s Greater Manchester Police and Civil Nuclear Constabulary, to the United States Senate and International Red Cross. Keiron Holyome, VP UKI & Emerging Markets, BlackBerry Cybersecurity was one of the speakers at the event and Ronan sat down to speak with him after the event.

Kieron talks about his background, how Blackberry pivoted, the four pillars of what blackberry does and more 

More about Keiron Holyome:

In his role as Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Emerging Markets, Keiron applies his depth of knowledge in cybersecurity threats and AI-powered solutions to work with BlackBerry customers and prospects across a broad range of industries including public sector, manufacturing, finance and health. Keiron joined BlackBerry in 2021 from McAfee, prior to which he built his career with global IT organisations including Dell, Lenovo and Computacenter. 

Cloud Capitalism with Yanis Varoufakis

GUEST:

Yanis Varoufakis

DESCRIPTION:

Capitalism is dead, according to Yanis Varoufakis, the author of Technofeudalism. This week on The Futurists you’ll learn about the dramatic reconfiguration of the global economy, whereby profit has been replaced by rents and a flood of central bank money, leading to bigger bubbles and worse crises than ever before. Yanis calls this new system Cloud Capitalism. 

Find Yanis Varoufakis on the Web:

Yanis Varoufakis home page: https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/

Follow Yanis on X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis?lang=en

Read Yanis’s Articles on The Guardian:  https://www.theguardian.com/profile/yanis-varoufakis

“If you get the chance to wake up tomorrow, what will you do with your day?” In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chats with Natasha Harper-Madison, a city council member for Austin, an entrepreneur, and a champion for the local community and racial equity, on civic engagement and cultivating economic opportunity and mobility. 

It is often said, talent is everywhere, opportunities are not. If small businesses are the backbone of our society, what more can we do to enable them to thrive? How can we collectively partner across sectors to create a more vibrant startup economy?  More can be done — more needs to be done. And there is a cost of inaction. 

As Gandalf said to Frodo in Lord of the Rings: “All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” We hope Natasha’s story will inspire you to reflect and act. Because each day is a gift. Let’s fight the good fight. 

The Startup World Cup, the world’s largest startup pitch competition, will make its debut in Ireland, with the semi-final taking place at Dublin Tech Summit 2024.

Powered by Pegasus Tech Ventures, the tournament consists of over 50 regional startup competitions across over 20 countries, providing an unmatched opportunity to access Ireland’s startup ecosystem and global tech companies. Ronan spoke to Brian Ó hOisín who is one of the Dublin Tech Summit team and a Director of Innovation at Catalyst Media.

Brian talks about the Startup World Cup, emerging tech, AI Tribes, Dublin Tech Summit and more.

More about Brian Ó hOisín :

Brian is a well known business and tech entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Career Zoo. He is also the CEO of Tech Tribes, the head of innovation at Catalyst Media, the founder of Tech Nomads and is also involved with Dublin Tech Summit and AI Tribeswhich is taking place this Friday the 23rd of February.

Biohacking Longevity

In this weeks TF, Brett King interviews Swedish Biohacker and Futurist, Hannes Sjoblad. The two futurists get into the evolution of biohacking and longevity treatments, the merging of man and machine through implants, neural/brain control interfaces and advanced robotic prosthetics. This is advanced application of technology for the future of health and life span
Brett King
Bestselling Author, Founder, Radio Host
www.thefuturists.com
www.brettking.com

How can we best invest in the ecosystem to help empower those who have been left behind by our mainstream financial services ecosystem, and enable them to build long term equity? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo and Stephanie chat with Kristen Castell, Managing Director of Fintech CAFE (Center for Accelerating Financial Equity), a non-profit committed to driving positive change in the financial industry, on building for everyday people. From advancing financial literacy to enabling sustainable financial growth and security, there is much that can be done. And when you invest in someone and help them become their best selves, something beautiful happens. We all shine — brighter and together. 

As we near two years since the Russian Invasion of  Ukraine, the resilience and adaptability of the nation's tech entrepreneurs have become more relevant than ever. This period has not only tested but also showcased the strength and potential of Ukraine's technological and capital infrastructure. One person who knows this all too well is Oleg Panchenko a serial Ukranian  entrepreneur and tech visionary. Ronan recently had a chat with Oleg.

Oleg spoke to Ronan about his background, how the  Russian Ukrainian conflict has sparked innovation within Ukraine's tech sector, how Ukrainian tech businesses adapted and thrived amongst the ongoing conflict, and more.

More about Oleg Panchenko:

Oleg Panchenko is a dynamic serial entrepreneur and a visionary in the tech industry, hailing from Kyiv, Ukraine. He founded and owns FreySoft, a custom software development and consulting firm recognised for its proficiency in various programming languages and technologies, catering to a global client base with bespoke IT solutions. 

Additionally, he established MakeDeal, a state-of-the-art recruitment automation tool aimed at optimising the recruitment process for job seekers and recruiters. Oleg's deep understanding of the tech industry enables him to not only meet market demands but also pioneer new trends.

CENTR recently announced its vision for the future of the internetin the form of a set of guiding principlesfor the next EU legislative mandate across Interoperability, Competition, Access & Cybersecurity, Fundamental rights, Online content, and Governance. To learn more about this Ronan recently spoke to David Curtin CEO of .ie  and Polina Malaja, Policy Director at CENTR.

David and Polina spoke to Ronan about their background, what CENTR does, CENTR’s vision for the future of the internet and more.

More about CENTR:

CENTR is the association of European country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries, such as .de for Germany or .ie for Ireland CENTR currently counts 50 full and 8 associate members – together, they are responsible for over 80% of all registered domain names worldwide.

The objectives of CENTR are to promote and participate in the development of high standards and best practices among ccTLD registries. Full membership is open to organisations, corporate bodies or individuals that operate a country code top level domain registry.

Beyond the sensational conversations, what is the real story behind decentralized finance? If programmable money is indeed our future, what questions should we be asking now and what should we be concerned with? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with Ian Horne, author of “Why DeFi Matters” and head of content at Money20/20 Europe, on the sociology of money, the role of technology, and the future of finance. Whilst the view is very much dependent on your background and lived experience, Ian encourages us to park our bias and examine how the new paradigm of money can transform the future of financial services.

How do you build a customer-centric financial institution? Being hyper-focused on your customers’ needs definitely tops the list. Especially in an environment where financial uncertainty is keeping many consumers up at night, banks are in the best position to act as an empathetic and trusted partner for those in need. 

In this episode of One Vision — Fintech Fuse! Barb and Theo chat with Rochelle Gorey, co-founder and CEO of SpringFour, a social impact financial wellness fintech company. By connecting consumers to vetted financial resources, this B-Crop enables consumers to meet their financial objectives, reduce household expenses, and avoid payment delinquencies. It’s a win-win solution, and one that is much needed.

Everywhere you look these days, all of the discussion is about machine learning and artificial intelligence. If you’re graduating with a computer science degree, the assumption is that you only want to work with “cool” developer tools and languages like Python.

Well, there is another alternative that is nearly 30 years old and still going strong. I am of course talking about Java and one person who wants to argue the case for considering a career in Java-based programming is Simon Ritter, deputy CTO, Azul.

Simon thinks if graduates remove their “AI blinkers” the more entrepreneurial will see huge opportunity to build a long-lasting career. Ronan recently had a chat with Simon.

Simon talks about his background, why he thinks IT graduates should consider a degree in Java-based programming, Azul’s State of Java Report and more.

About Simon Ritter:

Simon Ritter is the Deputy CTO of Azul. Simon joined Sun Microsystems in 1996 and spent time working in both Java development and consultancy. He has been presenting Java technologies to developers since 1999, focusing on the core Java platform as well as client and embedded applications.

At Azul, he continues to help people understand Java and Azul’s JVM products. Simon is a Java Champion and two-time recipient of the JavaOne Rockstar award. In addition, he represents Azul on the JCP Executive Committee, the OpenJDK Vulnerability Group, and the JSR Expert Group since Java SE 9.

An exciting fireside chat with serial crypto entrepreneur Anton Golub, discussing the implications of the recent approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs.

We touch upon topics like the institutionalizing of Bitcoin, the role of Coinbase as the primary custodian, decentralization, liquidity concerns, and potential impact on the cryptomarket's infrastructure growth.

We also share our 'outrageous predictions' for 2024. Anton Golub https://www.linkedin.com/in/antongolub/ is currently the founder & Chairman, SwissAssetDAO.Anton founded & served as CEO of Flovtec, a Swiss market-maker providing liquidity solutions to digital asset exchanges, token issuers & protocols and offering investment products for professional & institutional investors. He also co-founded Trust Square AG, a pre-eminent blockchain technology hub in Zurich's financial district. Anton Golub co-founded Lykke Corp, a blockchain-powered exchange to trade all assets with zero fees, where he served as a Chief Science Officer.Prior to Lykke, he worked as a quantitative researcher at Olsen Ltd (successor to Olsen & Associates, founded in 1985), a hedge fund that pioneered the field of high-frequency trading. As a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Alliance Manchester Business School, Anton worked on high-frequency trading, market microstructure and flash crashes. In 2011, he was invited to participate in the Foresight Project - The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets, an international project on algorithmic trading funded by HM Treasury in the UK.Anton has also been involved in several research projects backed by the European Union (EU) and was on the Supervisory Board for the Big Data Finance project funded through Horizon 2020. He has co-authored 13 academic papers and two books.

Dr. Efi Pylarinou is the No.1 Global Woman Influencer in Finance & the Data conversation by Refinitiv, a Top Thought Leader by Onalytica, and a Top Digital Futurist, Linkedin and Twitter Voice, by Engatica.A seasoned Wall Street professional & a recognized technology thought leader on innovation topics. Founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory servicing Big Tech, Financial Services and Fintech clients.

She strongly believes in building bridges between the old and the new economy. She shares her passion of content creation with her 190,000+ followers on Linkedin and 18,000+ on Twitter.  Join her on the social platforms https://linktr.ee/Efiglobal

Thomas Frey is who you will undoubtedly find when you do a Google search on “futurist speaker”. Having shared the stage with many A-listers, Frey has earned that moniker. But his true skill demonstrated repeatedly in this week’s episode is taking an event or innovation and the extrapolating the future. In this episode we see him do that in real time. It’s a unique glimpse into the futurist process.

Future Imperfect
This week hosts Brett King and Katie “Miss Metaverse” Schultz join a returning guest Thomas Frey to talk about the state of the future. In our last session Thomas gave an excellent demonstration of futurist thinking in real time. But in this week’s show we get Thomas talks about how AI, climate and conflict are already impacting us.  He also opines on the likelihood that if you are not working with AI you’ll likely be replaced by someone who is. Once again he shows us why he’s Google’s highest rated futurist speaker.
Brett King
Bestselling Author, Founder, Radio Host
www.thefuturists.com
www.brettking.com

As we reflect on our work and personal lives, what are we most proud of? What are the memories that we treasure the most? And would we do differently, if given the chance? Whether as VCs, innovators, or entrepreneurs, are we clear about our end goals and what drives us? And ultimately, what does success mean to us — as individuals?

In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo caught up with Gregg Schoenberg, the founding editor and co-founder behind the much read and beloved Financial Revolutionist. We talked about his career journey as a prolific writer, investor, and advisor turned executive coach. For those of you who miss Gregg’s prolific writing in the FR (myself included), this is a must-listen episode for you. And check out his YouTube videos, you will.

Sustainability has become very important as we combat the climate crisis, so how do we help start-ups that want to solve various sustainability challenges? Well, Dogpatch Labs has set up The 2050 Accelerator Programme, Ireland’s national accelerator, set up in partnership with Kerry Group, ESB and Coillte. It aims to support 12 start-ups from Ireland and abroad to solve a number of sustainability challenges, working towards proof of concept. Ronan talks to Ashley Shak, Head of Sustainability and Programmes at Dogpatch Labs.

Ashley talks about her background, what she does at Dogpatch Labs, the 2050 Accelerator Programme and more.

More about the 2050 Accelerator Programme:

The accelerator programme gives top Irish and international startups the opportunity to work with companies leading Ireland’s transition to Net Zero. Together they will work towards practical pilot projects that will help them to rapidly scale their impact. Startups have unprecedented access to Ireland’s national sustainability infrastructure assets, including dairy farms, wind farms 

The programme is playing a crucial role in combating the climate crisis by enabling start-ups to collaborate on climate-focused initiatives and positioning Ireland as a global testbed for innovation.  

Mark Pesce returns to The Futurists with a report about weird and wonderful discoveries at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show. Every year, 200,000 people converge at CES in Las Vegas to get a glimpse of the near future. Mark pushes far beyond mainstream press coverage to tell us about bleeding-edge progress in memristor chips, brain-computer interfaces, long-range drones, olfactory sensors, and the emerging category of “age-tech”. If you are interested in knowing where the puck is going next, this episode is for you!

Books by Mark

Brett King Co-Host, Founder, Speaker

Brett King is a futurist, an Amazon bestselling author, an award-winning speaker, hosts a globally recognized radio show, is the Founder of the first mobile, neo-bank globally Moven, and in his spare time enjoys flying as an IFR pilot, scuba diving, motor racing, gaming and Sci-Fi. He advised the Obama administration on the Future of Banking, President Xi had his book on his bookshelf, and he has spoken on the future in 50 countries in just the last few years.

See more podcasts here.

Feels like India owns a collection of success stories in Digitalization. From the Indian Digital identity - Aadhaar, a unique 12-digit number that associates each individual with their bank account, to UPI - a public digital payments infrastructure from which the Indian Fintech ecosystem has benefited and offered fintech services, to Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) which enables small businesses and retailers access to digitalization tools to launch marketplaces and platforms businesses processes.

With Sharat we discuss all this and the pilots of the Indian CBDC - Digital ruppee - the why and the how, it is being promoted and supported. Nobody can ignore India`s economic power, anymore. Sharat Chandra   / sharatchandratechevangelist   is a Blockchain and Emerging Tech Evangelist, educator, and startup enabler. He is passionate about driving innovation and fostering collaboration in the digital landscape. With a deep understanding of blockchain's transformative potential, Sharat empowers organizations to leverage this disruptive technology for growth. Additionally, he actively support startups, providing mentorship and guidance to help them thrive in the competitive market.

2023 was the hottest year on record in terms of temperature. ESG, sustainability, clean tech / green tech and corporate responsibility have been hot topics. Are we at war with climate?

This week we feature Brett King’s recent sit down in Bangkok, Thailand with former banker, fintech investor and now venture capitalist, Paul Ark, with The Radical Fund, an early-stage VC fund investing in founders who are delivering climate resilience for Southeast Asia. Where are investment dollars going? Climate mitigation (how to prevent the world from getting warmer) and climate adaptation (dealing with a warmer world) and what it means for infrastructure resilience and food insecurity, to name some areas of concern, are top of mind. Climate is a complex systemic issue and requires a buffet of technologies to address, improve and help us reclaim our environment. It’s an enlightening conversation with The Futurists!

The Radical Fund

We are an early-stage VC fund investing in founders who are delivering climate resilience for Southeast Asia.
Our portfolio of adaptation and mitigation ventures enables an inclusive climate transition to a sustainable future.

Paul Ark / Polapat Arkkrapridi

Finance, strategy, technology, and business development professional with over 25 years of on-the-ground management and deal experience across Asia, with tenures in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. Active venture capitalist and angel investor with a strong focus on ESG, climate, gender diversity, impact and sustainability. Passionate advocate for girls education and female empowerment. Conducting doctoral research on the root causes of gender funding gaps in startup and venture capital ecosystems in Southeast Asia, with a focus on human cognitive biases and systemic barriers from within the VC industry.

Bank of Ireland has reported a 50 percent rise in ‘smishing’ fraud cases where fraudsters send fake text messages appearing to be from delivery services including An Post or Government agencies including the HSE and Revenue. With the rise of SMS and phone scams, Donal McGuinness CEO at Prommt, believes consumers are becoming more savvy when it comes to identifying fraudulent texts, however, many still fall for scams from time to time, especially older generations. Donal thinks knowing how to identify fraud attempts now may be helpful going forward, as the scams evolve and become even more sophisticated.  

Ronan talks to Donal about his background, SMS scams, two factor authentication and more.

More about Donal McGuinness:

Serial entrepreneur Donal McGuinness is CEO of Prommt. He studied Computer Science at DCU and Telecommunications Engineering at DIT and spent the early years of his career in the telecommunications industry. His experience in mobile payments dates to 1999 when he founded his first mobile payments company, ItsMobile. Donal was also a Non-Executive Director of the Irish Internet Association from 2009 to 2011 and a movie distribution business from 2002 to 2020.

In 2016 Donal joined a silicon valley startup in the identity verification space called Danal inc, where he set up and grew the global business outside of the USA as General Manager of EMEA until 2019 when the business was acquired by Boku Inc for $112 million USD. Donal joined Prommt as CEO in 2019. He is an innovator and is passionate about payment innovation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been rapidly evolving in the past decade. Interests in AI, along with adoption and investment in AI, have witnessed a substantial increase. While tech stories are fun and exciting, our collective future is not just about bits and bytes. Rather, it’s about our shared prosperity: What will you do with the immense power available at your fingertips? As providers, how do we earn and maintain trust with customers, and how do we ensure transparency, fairness, and explainability — the cornerstone for responsible innovation?

In this new episode of One Vision — Fintech Fuse! Theo welcomed Dr. Nashlie Sephus, Principal AI/ML Tech Evangelist from AWS. Curious about life as a tech evangelist? Passionate about responsible AI and using technology to create a better world? This episode is a must-listen for you.

Carl Bogan

Are you certain that every attendee in your Zoom meeting is the person they claim to be? Deep fakes have improved. VFX expert Carl Bogan demonstrates to The Futurists how easy it is to fabricate a persuasive fake persona. Politics and remote work will never be the same again.

I am Carl Bogan, Visual Effects Supervisor & Innovation Consultant

With over two decades of experience leading in visual effects, with the last several focused on AI, my mission is all about going beyond traditional storytelling. I weave creativity, technology, and leadership seamlessly to reshape experiences.

ABOUT SHOW Subscribe and listen to TheFuturists.com Podcast where hosts Brett King and Robert TerceK interview the worlds foremost super-forecasters, thought leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs and futurists building the world of tomorrow. Together we will explore how our world will radically change as AI, bioscience, energy, food and agriculture, computing, the metaverse, the space industry, crypto, resource management, supply chain and climate will reshape our world over the next 100 years. Join us on The Futurists and we will see you in the future!

Just before Christmas I met up with fellow tech journalist Emmet Ryan to talk about the tech trends of 2024. A lot has happened in the past 12 months in the tech world and a lot more will happen this year. 

Emmet talks about AI, improved connectivity, ESG, social media, hybrid working, the Metaverse and more.

More about Emmet Ryan:

Emmet is a freelance tech journalist and is currently working with the team behind The Elio Business Podcast. He has been the editor of Connected magazine, a beer columnist, a betting columnist, and podcast host with the Sunday Business Post. He is the editor of BallinEurope.com, Europe's largest English language basketball site.

Author of I Like it Loud: A basketball tour through Europe, and the Gaelic football books Tactics not Passion and Victory loves Preparation

It should be noted that since I recorded the podcast with Emmet, Threads has launched in the EU 

We are kicking off 2024 with a big BANG! In this episode of One Vision — Fintech Fuse! Theo and Barb welcome our first futurist on the show: Katie Schultz, aka Miss Metaverse, a well-known professional futurist and content creator.

While fear and uncertainty dominate much of our newscycle, Katie reminds us that we do have a chance and the power to turn things around — that we can still find hope through challenging times and go after our dreams. Our ability to empathize and connect with each other is our superpower and what makes us uniquely humans. As we embark on another new year, let’s acknowledge and celebrate how far we have come. 

Here’s to new beginnings, fresh starts, and the courage to live our lives with purpose — and passion.