1st speaker announcement
We’re stoked to bring you our 1st speaker announcement for Iceland Innovation Week 2024. Let’s take a look at our amazing speakers!
Anna Lee
Anna, previously a mechanical engineer at Amazon, launched the Amazon Dash Button’s original concept and the Kindle Voyage Page Press Technology. She has been named one of Newsweek’s 10 Innovators Disrupting Healthcare and a Forbes 30 Under 30.
Anna has made it her mission to expand and research sexual health and destigmatize female sexuality with her company Lioness, the startup that built the world’s first and only smart vibrator that improves sexual pleasure through biofeedback orgasm data and research.
Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir
Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir was appointed Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in Iceland November 2021. She was previously the Minister of Justice between 2019 and 2021. Born in 1990, she is the youngest woman in the history of the Icelandic Republic to be appointed minister and the youngest minister of Justice ever appointed in world history.
Henri Schulte
Henri is working with Microsoft's partners of all sizes to build innovative AI solutions in the cloud. Henri has been developing OpenAI’s Large Language Models since 2021, making him one of the pioneers of applied Generative AI in the Nordics.
Chisom Udeze
Chisom is a seasoned Economist and three-time founder, bringing over 14 years of leadership experience, driving organizational change and sustainable impact. As the founder of Diversify and Diversify Consult, she spearheads the development of sustainable Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) strategies for companies, goverments and civil society.
Andreas Hansen
Andreas Hansen has been the Director of the WFP Global Office for the Nordics and Baltics based in the UN City in Copenhagen since August 2023. In this role, Andreas leads WFP’s strategic engagement with the Nordic and Baltic governments, political stakeholders, foundations, private sector, civil society, academia and other partners.
Chris O’Connor
Chris leads the NIF’s technology adoption for their companies who see government as a customer, collaborator or competitor. He invests in and supports founders who accept the mission to build solutions for today’s most critical challenges. Prior to joining the NIF, Chris was a Partner at Harpoon Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in enterprise and deep Technology. Earlier, Chris served as an officer in the US Air Force.
Bodil Sidén
Bodil is a future optimist and has a passion for backing companies that can solve our most burning issues and improve people's lives. Before Kost Capital, Bodil was a partner at a early-stage VC blq invest. Bodil started off her carreer in tech at Uber and has supported several Nordic tech companies in their company building. Before entering the world of tech Bodil spent her years in the Swedish politics.
Sigurður Árnason
Sigurdur graduated from the University of Iceland with an MA in Applied Studies of Culture & Communication, and an MS in Innovation & Business Development. He is now leading the democratisation of social media music in the same way that YouTube democratised video. As a pioneer and disruptor within the app-space, Sigurdur is at the forefront of revolutionising the creative process behind content creation enabling users from all backgrounds to create content for their own social media moments.