Theme: Go Beyond

In this edition of TEDxHSG we will travel to the world of people who go beyond: people who dare, who dream, who fight, who question and challenge. They do it for pure rebellion and for necessity, for the past and for the future, for no reason and for vital ones, for themselves and for a greater good. TEDxHSG intends to make you question your limits, broaden your horizons and inspire you to challenge yourself. We believe that sharing groundbreaking ideas can make a big difference and spark the next great breakthrough. By going beyond, you will face the unexpecTED.

University of St. Gallen
Dufourstrasse 50
St. Gallen, Sankt Gallen (de), 9000
Switzerland

Eric LeVine

An entrepreneur and small business owner, Eric LeVine has had a distinguished career as a leader at Microsoft, as founder/CEO of CellarTracker.com, and, more recently, as a stay-at-home dad. He grew up in Boston and then, after graduating from Harvard University with an A.B. in History, pursued a technology career that took him from Lotus to Microsoft, where he ultimately led a team pioneering the use of crowd-sourced big data for software reliability. He applied the knowledge and experience he gained from this data project to his passion for wine and then turned his hobby into his work by creating CellarTracker.com, the world’s leading cellar management software and the pioneer in crowd-sourced wine reviews. He enjoys spending his time with his family – including his dog – especially when they can be outdoors hiking, biking, or playing in the snow.

Fabian Westerheide

We are living in times of accelerating progress. Machine intelligence is increasingly integrated in vital parts of human life. Narrow Artificial Intelligence is driving cars, flying drones, playing chess, winning Go and answering emails. More and more machines are doing physical and cognitive work; create music and art. Machines are replacing human work and human thinking. Fabian is CEO of Asgard, a family- owned Venture Capital firm based in Berlin. His passion lies in Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. He has worked with, started and invested in over 30 companies such as DeliveryHero, Team Europe, Point Nine Capital, Soundbrenner or Wunsch-Brautkleid.de in the European digital ecosystem.

Federico Augugliaro

Federico received his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2015. During his research he investigated algorithms that allow flying machines to cooperatively assembly rope bridges, and worked on the Flight Assembled Architecture installation, a 6-meter tall tower built by quadrocopters out of 1500 foam modules. He also developed tools to coordinate the motion of multiple vehicles, allowing for example the generation of choreographies featuring multiple flying machines. Federico received the Willi Studer Award 2012 for the best master degree in Robotics, Systems and Control and the Hans-Eggenberger-Prize 2012 for his Master Thesis. He was among the finalists of the Georges Giralt PhD award 2016.

Gustav Borgefalk

Gustav is the Cofounder and Head of Business Development of Sqore, a company that organizes large scale, global innovation, and recruitment competitions to identify talented people and match them with employers and scholarships. Gustav grew Sqore to thirty-five employees, with four million dollars in venture capital funding and 400,000 members worldwide. He advises global, corporate, university, and government clients on competition program design and has fostered relationships with clients such as The Economist and Google. Prior to founding Sqore, Gustav cofounded Filehill Media AB, Scandinavia’s largest marketplace for digital products, and various other startups such as EasyPR and Logotypia. Earlier, he also worked for the public relations agency Hill & Knowlton and with private equity firm Aronsson Group.

Hila Azadzoy

Hila Azadzoy is part of Kiron Open Higher Education founding team, which is an innovative social start up, with the mission to remove the barriers for refugees to higher education through a unique blended learning approach. As the Head of Academics Hila is responsible for the continuous development of Kiron’s academic program, strategic partnerships and fundraising activities. Having a family history of migration from Afghanistan, Hila has developed a strong sense for the inequalities in access to education and the challenges of addressing these within education systems. Hila holds a M.Sc. in Politics, Economics and Philosophy from the University of Hamburg. Previously, Hila has launched her career at Human Rights Watch and has a profound experience as a professional translator, working extensively with refugees. Hila is a motivated, enthusiastic professional with broad based proven experience in higher education and digitalization.

Kilian Wagner

Kilian Wagner, rethinks retail by holistically engaging with customers across online and offline worlds and bringing fashion to the optical industry. CEO of VIU, a Swiss eyewear startup shaking up the optical industry with a premium eyewear concept that breaks with norms through vertical integration and omnichannel retail. Seamlessly combining online and offline channels VIU is building holistic customer experiences, while offering premium and sustainable products at revolutionary prices. Founded in Switzerland in 2013 VIU is active in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, operating 17 own flagshipstores, proprietary online channels and more than 20 partnerstores. Prior to VIU, Kilian worked 5 years as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company, leading projects in different industries (Telecoms, Banking, Media, Consumer Goods) with focus on growth strategy and market entry. He holds a M.A. in Business Administration from the University of St.Gallen (HSG).

Laura Penn

Laura Penn, PhD has had enough of watching good people deliver bad presentations. She lives to disrupt what she considers to be the broken and dysfunctional status quo for public speaking. Deeply alarmed by how her conservation biologist peers (she was a scientist before becoming a public speaking expert) were ineffectively delivering their messages, Laura decided to do something about it. Seven years ago, she founded ThePublicSpeakingSchool.com to provide state-of-the-art training in public speaking for clients in the not-for-profit, academic and private sectors. Today, Laura uses her eclectic background as a scientist and as a performing artist to transform the way that we speak in public.

Marcelo Bertorelli

Marcelo Bertorelli was born and raised in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela. He was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at a very young age, but trough his interest in communication and determination alongside with his family's support he is now able to live an unassisted life. In 2014 he participated actively in the Venezuelan student uprising against the government and military police in the position of safe-house runner and minor organization. Afterwards he was selected to go to UWC Adriatic and now is on his second year of the program.

Mary McCarthy

After studying History of Art at Bristol University, Mary has enjoyed working with Getty, Christies Images, Bloomsbury and Dreweatts Auctions and set up her own art consultancy service, MM Contemporary Arts Ltd in 2013. She partnered with Digard Auctions to collate and assist in the sale of Urban Contemporary Art. Hosting two auctions a year in Paris, they are now the forerunners and have achieved record sales in this sector of the market. For Mary, her passion in the arts was nurtured by her grandfather who as an artist and a collector, instilled in Mary a love of the arts that drives her to recognise creative work that inspires us each and every day. She is an urban art specialist, spending the last twenty years following Street Art and forging contacts with artists, buyers, writers and followers within this cutting edge counter culture urban contemporary art movement.

Mischa Janiec

Mischa Janiec is an Entrepreneur, Social Media Influencer, Personal Coach and Pro Natural Bodybuilder from Switzerland. He became the Swiss Natural Bodybuilding Federation Teen Class Champion in 2011 and won the Overall Title at the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation Muscle Mayhem 2016. Apart from being a Pro Athlete, Mischa has become a famous European Social Media Influencer. He has thousands of followers on Facebook and Instagram and millions of views on his youtube channel. He is also the Co-founder of Profuel, a vegan supplement company, Chief Marketing Officer of a clothing company named ProBroWear and helps people get in shape with his Online Training Course “Lean Bulk System”. He also likes to travel around the world and giving his Internet Community insights of beautiful places like South America or Thailand.

Pete Blackshaw

Pete Blackshaw is the Vice President of Digital and Social Media at Nestlé, S.A. based in Switzerland. In addition to helping shape digital strategy for Nescafe, Kit Kat, Purina, and hundreds of other Nestle brands, Pete oversees Nestle’s industry-recognized Digital Acceleration Team (DAT) as well as the Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost (SVIO). He is author of a book by Doubleday entitled “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World,” and periodically authors columns in Advertising Age centered around the book’s themes. Pete founded PlanetFeedback.com, one of the web’s first consumer-feedback portals, and co-founded the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). He’s a 2015 Mediapost “Online All Star” Winner, a 2014 inductee of the World of Mouth Marketing Hall of Fame, and a 2010 Grand Prize winner of the “Great Minds” award from the Advertising Research Foundation.

Phil Anthony M

Phil Anthony M is an award winning consultant and performance coach. His path has seen him go from collecting litter in London’s Hyde Park to engineering London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium, volunteering in rural Nigeria and consulting in Saudi Arabia. He left the security of corporate life after being recognized as ‘Young Consultant of The Year’ and one of the ‘Top 10 Consultants of The Decade’. This was the Launchpad for Phil’s journey of self-discovery that saw him assume the role of director at one of Thailand’s leading health and fitness retreats. Today, Phil consults businesses, entrepreneurs, CEOs, Olympians and anyone seeking to upgrade their performance and unleash their potential.

Shaun Attwood

Shaun Attwood is a former stock-market millionaire and Ecstasy supplier turned public speaker, author and activist, who is banned from America for life. Shaun’s writing – smuggled out of the jail with the highest death rate in America run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio – attracted international media attention to the human rights violations: murders by guards and gang members, dead rats in the food, cockroach infestations… While incarcerated, Shaun was forced to reappraise his life. He read over 1,000 books in just under six years. By studying original texts in psychology and philosophy, he sought to better understand himself and his past behaviour. He credits books as being the lifeblood of his rehabilitation. Shaun now tells his story to schools to put young people off drugs and crime. He campaigns against injustice via his books and blog, Jon’s Jail Journal. He has appeared on the BBC, Sky News and TV worldwide to talk about issues affecting prisoners’ rights.

Suzi LeVine

Suzan “Suzi” LeVine took up her position as the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein in June 2014. What prepared Suzi for her role as Ambassador was her diverse and non-linear career focusing on education, technology, community, innovation, travel, social responsibility, and youth outreach. In a professional capacity, she worked at Microsoft as a Director and at Expedia as a Vice President. Twice during her career, she was a stay-at-home mom, during which time she co-founded two non-profit organizations – an innovative Jewish community model, The Kavana Cooperative, and an advisory board for an early learning research institute at the University of Washington, ILABS – the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.