Serena is an edtech passionate whose mission is to create a global partnership network for educational innovators and university leaders. She is currently working as Product Marketing Manager at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insight to the global higher education sector. Since 2015 Serena is also the community liason officer for the Reimagine Education Awards & Conference: The Oscars of Education, in cooperation with The Wharton Business School. Reimagine Education rewards the world’s most innovative approaches enhancing student learning outcomes and employability.
In 2019 Serena has also joined Holistec – a London-based academy teaching STEAM, mindfulness and entrepreneurship – as business growth consultant, OpenUK's Learning Committee, and the Organizing Committee of the quadrennial United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Motto: Never Stop Innovating!

Dr. Barbara (Bobbi) Kurshan has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting education companies and developing innovative products. She currently serves as a Senior Innovation Advisor at the Graduate School of Education at Penn where she builds and advises education innovation ecosystems. As the President of ECC, she provides strategic consulting in the areas of investment, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As the past Executive Director of Curriki, Bobbi helped to build one of the most innovative global open-source education communities. Dr. Kurshan has previously served as the Co-CEO of Core Learning, an education investment fund, and the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk. She currently serves on the board of American Public Education and invests and advises several edtech companies. She is the author of several books, articles and regularly blogs for Forbes.com. Her new book InnovateHERs – Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top is now available on Amazon.

Carla is an international transdiscplinary thought leader and innovator in LearnTech/EdTech, informed by Learning Sciences. She was Director of Futures at UCL - Institute of Education, Global Digital Director Education at Cambridge University Press. She instigated and ran an interdisciplinary EdTech Think Tank, the Tmrw Institute, engaging with politicians, policy makers, academia, educators, EdTech and practitioners tackling international challenges and digital trends in education and learning. She ran the Next Billion EdTech Prize. She is a member of the advisory board of ErasmusX, Erasmus University Rotterdam, DEFI Steering Committee at Cambridge University, WEF’s Expert Network for AI and the working group on AI and Youngsters. Sh

Dr. Christiane Mueck has been following her passion at the intersection of strategy consulting, entrepreneurship and human empowerment for the last 15 years in Europe and the Middle East. She has advised Ministries and MNC with BCG, built a medical college at Qatar University and currently supports Misk Foundation in growing its portfolio of youth-focused programs. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Zayed University. She has co-founded several companies, including INTO Financial Coaching and Ghaya LLC which both focus on using group coaching formats for enabling individuals during critical transitions. She is an avid coach, mentor and angel investor who likes to work closely with emerging leaders and impact-driven founders. After living abroad for more than 10 years, she recently relocated to Berlin with frequent international travels.

Dana Hanna holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University and is a Senior Lecturer in the Research School of Economics and ANU. She currently serves as the Associate Dean (Education) in the College of Business and Economics, ANU.

Dana has taught a wide range of courses in the Research School of Economics, including microeconomic theory courses in the Research School of Economics – microeconomics 1, microeconomies 2 and Economics 1 Honours – and especially enjoys the challenge of large class teaching. She has been the recipient for the College of Business and Economics Teaching Awards in 2009, 2014, 2017 and 2020 and has been Nominated for the ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Awards in 2010, 2015, 2018 and 2021. She now works alongside academics in Economics and Business to improve the quality of student outcomes and experience in academic courses offered at ANU.

With a focus on applied microeconomics, Dr Hanna’s research encompasses a wide range of topics, including gender literacy in education, education design, the costs and impacts of domestic violence, wage impacts of parental leave and family economics. Her expertise also extends to experimental design.

Dirk Mulder is the Principal of MulderPR, a strategy and marketing communications consultancy that specialises in International Education and the Founder of The Koala News, a dedicated Australian-focused international education news outlet.

With over 20 years of experience in International Education in both the public and private sectors, Dirk has over 10 years of experience as a Director in international Offices with Australian Universities and worked with Allianz Insurance across the Asia Pacific region. His views are regularly published in the media and can be seen in Campus Morning Mail, the Australian Financial Review and the ABC in both TV and online settings.

Dirk is a past member of the boards of Perth Education City (now Study Perth) and Education Adelaide, he has chaired the Universities of Perth International Directors Forum and has been a past board member of the Hawkesbury Alumni Chapter, his alma mater. He has also chaired the Perth Education City South Asia Focus Group, leading two state delegations to India.

Dirk holds the earned degrees of Bachelor of Applied Science (Social Ecology) and Bachelor of Applied Science (Systems Agriculture)(Hons) from the University of Western Sydney and a Masters of International Relations from Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) as well as completing Leadership studies at NYU Stern School of Business.

Dirk is active in his local community of Port Kennedy, Western Australia – he currently chairs the boards of the Port Kennedy Progress Association and Endeavour Schools, he is a past board member of the Bendigo Community Bank (Rockingham) and the Global Friendship Committee of Rockingham City Council and a former board member of St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School.

As a director of Zanichelli Venture, I’m looking for nascent companies who are tilling daring ideas about education and technology and searching for pre-seed or seed funding to grow these ideas into products empowering anyone – from children and parents to adult, professional lifelong learners and their mentors and coaches – to learn and teach better. Previously, along with a most awesome team of three, I sustained senior management at Zanichelli Editore in working out our digital strategy and I led the creation of a modern software house in the middle of our 160-year-old textbook publishing business, as a sort of in-house startup.

Frank Longo's career, spanning over 25 years, showcases a distinctive blend of expertise in psychology, business, and international education. With an academic background in psychology from Temple University and advanced degrees focusing on child and adolescent psychology and forensic psychology, he contributed valuable insights to legal cases and organizational dynamics. In the corporate sector at Eli Lilly & Company, Frank excelled in sales and played a pivotal role in promoting diversity and inclusion, earning the distinguished Global Diversity and Inclusion Award. His academic journey saw significant roles at EAE Business School in Barcelona, where as Associate Dean for Global Programs and later as Director of International Research, he expanded the school's global reach and led cutting-edge research initiatives. At United Business Institute (UBI) in Brussels, he led the 'living culture' initiative and a faculty development program, transitioning the BSc program to hybrid teaching, thus enriching the educational experience. His commitment to personalized student mentoring and fostering industry interactions prepared students for global challenges. Frank’s involvement with the PRME Global Students network and a pilot mentoring project further exemplifies his dedication to global education and mentorship, underlining his vast expertise and significant contributions across diverse fields.

Gabriel B. Rossi has worked as an instructional designer and innovation consultant in K-12 and at Columbia (Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning) and Yale (Yale Center for Instructional Innovation) Universities.  His work has been seen in school districts, classrooms, museums, and hospitals, and he has been recognized by conferences and awards.  Gabriel is presently Assistant Dean for Faculty & Curriculum at the Yale School of Management, where he manages a broad scope of work related to teaching and learning; he has served on numerous educational boards, committees, and commissions.

Gordon Scott is Managing Director of student preparation skills training provider www.successfulgraduate.com.

Successful Graduate supports clients around the world, and has a 98% student approval rating. Gordon also launched Study Brisbane in 2008 at a time when the industry required a collective approach to international student recruitment and engagement in the wake of the global financial crisis, negative publicity concerning Australia’s international education offering, the high value of the Australian dollar and poor social inclusion of students in Australia.

Gordon is a Senior Fellow of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) and served for two years as a Board member of the association. He is a past member of the Queensland International Education and Training Advisory Council. 

Johnny Wu is currently the Head of Global Relations of the Office of International Affairs, National Taiwan University, Working Group Leader of Industry-Academia Cooperation, European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan Low Carbon Initiative (ECCT LCI), and the President for North-East Asia and Taiwan, Rennes School of Business Alumni Association, France. 

A proven Senior Executive with almost 10-year experience in the fields of industrial, official, and academic relations, agile management, and corporate strategy. He was elected as among 100 MVP Managers from Managers' Monthly Magazine in 2022 and was awarded the "Alumni de l'annee 2022" from Bureau Français de Taipei.

Formerly he was the Member of Youth Advisory Committee, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, CEO of the Center for Global Affairs and Science Engagement, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST GASE), Taiwan and the Director of the International Affairs Office and the Chinese Language Center in Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Jon Foster-Pedley. Jon is dean and director of Henley Business School in Africa, part of the Henley Business School UK, a leading global business school with campuses in Europe, Asia and Africa. With Henley Africa being the first school to be accredited by The Association of Africa Business schools (AABS), Henley now holds international quadruple accreditation, AABS, AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. Henley’s purpose is ‘We build the people who build the businesses that build Africa.’ Jon’s career includes roles as educator, dean, corporate executive, airline pilot, aerobatic competitor, writer and speaker. He has 45 years of international working experience. He has been a professor of innovation, MBA director, director of executive education, designer and director of numerous executive education programmes and lecturer in strategy, innovation and executive learning. His interests are economic and educational transformation, sustainability and business evolution. Henley Africa has been an entrepreneurial success, with a strong reputation for progressive learning design and care for students and clients. Jon has driven a number of initiatives such as #CorporateActivism, #NoMoreBribes, #InformedDemocracy and #FamilyFriendlyMBA. He is the founder of Henley EARTH – Environmental Activism thru Research & Training @ Henley. Jon is chairman of the British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa, chairman of the Association of Africa Business Schools, board member of the Alliance of Management Development Associations in Rising Economies, and former vice-chair of the South African Business Schools Association. He is chair and founder of MBAid, an NPO that seeks to turn the energies of business schools to social good, which has worked with over 350 NGOs. Jon is also a Distinguished Professor at Woxsen University, India and a life Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

As SVP Partnerships, Kathy leads a team dedicated to developing long term partner relationships, delivering exceptional service and growth within her portfolio. Prior to becoming a part of 2U, Kathy was the founding executive who built edX’s partnership, education content and support strategies and operations . Prior to joining edX, Kathy held leadership positions at Core Security, Charles River Development and Advent Software where she was responsible for account management, growth, global services and customer success. When she is not at edX, Kathy enjoys time with her family, any and all racquet sports and spending time outdoors. She holds a B.A. in economics from The College of the Holy Cross.

Levent Yarar was previously the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships for Wharton Interactive, the EdTech arm of the Wharton Business School. Before Wharton Interactive, he was Wharton Executive Education’s Regional Business Development Director for four years. He created partnerships for impactful learning journeys for corporations and executive learners.

Levent spent from 2011-2017 in Turkey working for executive education centers in Turkey and the MENA region. As a certified consultant for the International Trade Center (UNCTAD-WTO), he has worked with SMEs throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, providing competitive analysis using Business Management System.

He was born in Ankara, Turkey, but has lived in the United States for 40 years. He has an undergraduate degree in Management from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and an MBA from Ohio University. He is a certified Pearson BTEC trainer and qualified Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) assessor.

His passion is to transform and democratize education globally, where anyone has access to high-quality knowledge to upskill for better job opportunities and living standards. 

Maria has worked in public and private higher education for over 20 years specializing in transforming education through technology. She has built and led global teams, driving innovation in curriculum, teaching and the student experience in over 50 countries. In her capacity as Co-CEO of HolonIQ, Maria leads the Education Intelligence Unit in delivering data rich insights about the global education sector and oversees HolonIQ’s tools and frameworks such as the Global Learning Landscape and HE Digital Transformation Framework. She advises institutions, policy makers, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs on key education issues. Maria holds both Masters and Doctorate degrees in Higher Education and is Adjunct Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Matt Kefford is Careers & News Editor at BusinessBecause, leading on news coverage within business education as well as editorial strategy for content covering careers after business school.  

In particular, Matt focuses on the key jobs available to graduates across several industries and provides advice on how students can boost their employability. 

With three years in the business education industry, Matt is also a contributing writer for mba.com and the GMAC Connect Advisor Blog. He has previously written for national news organisations including The Sunday Times and iNews. 

Matt has a BA in History from the University of Leeds and an MA in Journalism from the University of Sheffield. He is a gold standard accredited journalist with the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Nadia El-Gowely, currently Executive Director of Al-Fanar Media, is a seasoned Egyptian journalist who spent 35 years with the Cairo-based Reuters Arabic News Service. She joined the international news agency in 1984 as a fresh graduate and was the first woman on the then all-men team of the Arabic desk. She moved all the way up from a sub-editor/translator to financial news editor and finally head of the whole service from February 2018 to June 2021. She also taught media translation, writing for radio and TV, and news documentary at two Egyptian universities. Between 2006 and 2007 she was the editor of the English service of the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq, a Reuters Foundation/UNDP project. She also trained scores of journalists in Cairo and several Arab capitals on news reporting and writing and media ethics.

Independent advisor to several European universities. Previously spent 22 years in business schools (ESMT Berlin, INSEAD, UCD Smurfit) with responsibility for graduate programs, marketing/communications and EdTech. Also involved in scaling bridge to industry programs for STEM graduates in Africa using EdTech solutions.

Petra Molthan-Hill, PhD, is Professor of Sustainable Management and Education for Sustainable Development at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK and co-Chair of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Working Group on climate change and environment. Molthan-Hill is an international multi-award-winning expert for Climate Change Mitigation Tools and Education and leads the ‘Carbon Literacy Training for Educators, Communities, Organisations and Students’ (CLT-ECOS) distributed worldwide. She is the editor of ‘The Business Student’s Guide to Sustainable Management’ published by Routledge and led the Green Academy at NTU from 2013-2021 embedding the SDGs with her team in all disciplines.

Simon McIntyre is the Director, Educational Innovation at UNSW Sydney, and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Simon adopts a design led and human-centric approach to improving the student and staff experience by working towards the development of a simpler and interconnected digital learning ecosystem that puts the needs of the individual at the center. His current focus is on transforming the university student and staff experience through driving positive, large scale institutional transformation of education based on data informed personalisation of learning, integration of appropriate digital technologies, and artificial intelligence. 

Stefano Caselli is the Dean of SDA Bocconi School of Management and he is Full Professor of Banking & Finance at the Department of Finance and Algebris Chair in “Long-Term Investment and Absolute Return” at Bocconi University. He was Vice-Rector for International Affairs of Bocconi University from 2012 to 2022. He is member of the International Advisory Board of some Academic Institutions: STG – the School of Transnational Governance of EUI, the European University Institute in Florence; SSE – the Stockholm School of Economics; SGH - the Warsaw School of Economics. His research activities devotes to the interaction between banks, investment and the corporates system, with a specific focus on strategy and governance of banks, private equity and finance for growth. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subject. He acts as columnist on “L’Economia del Corriere della Sera” since 2005. He has also a very long experience as independent director of leading corporates and financial institutions.

Dr Vincent Wong is an international expert on leadership in educational administration, education law, innovation, employability, human capital, vocational education, Qualification Framework, talent development & K-12 education. Vincent is also an international-renowned specialist in Inter-disciplinary Research & Professional Practices in Education and Law.

In Oxford

Dr Wong is Visiting Research Fellow in Department of Education (University of Oxford), Academic Visitor in Faculty of Law (CFC)(University of Oxford) and the Founder of Inter-disciplinary Discussion Group (IDG) "Leading Education with Legal Lens (LELL)"(University of Oxford) which aims to explore the intersection between education and law in relation to educational leadership, school issues, advices to governments and policy-makers. In addition, Vincent is also the Founder of IDG "Leading Education with Edu-preneurial Leadership (LEEL)" (University of Oxford) which explores the intersection between education and entrepreneurial leadership in relation to educational leadership, school development and advice to governments and policy makers. In Oxford STEM Departments and MLDS Division, Vincent is the BIPOC STEM Mentor for DPhil student(s).

In International Government Settings
Apart from LELL & LEEL in Oxford, internationally, Vincent is also the Chairman (RC), Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (UN-Public Admin Network affiliated). In addition, Vincent has served as a Special Researcher in Finnish Government, Chinese PRC Government as well as Expert in other Asian countries (such as South Korea) for relevant policy advice.

In UK, Vincent is in the International Advisory Board for Durham University Evidence Center for Education.

In US, Vincent is the only Grand Jury (VIP Judge) from Asia in the QS Re-imagine Education (also known as Oscar in Education) in 2022.

In Japan, Vincent is Visiting Professor in School of Business Administration, Meiji University, Japan.

In HKSAR Government

In Hong Kong, as appointed by Secretary for Education (SED), Dr Vincent Wong is serving in the Steering Committee on Promotion of Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) and Qualifications Framework in the HKSAR Government, whose role is to provide valuable advice to the HKSAR Government on further promoting the development of VPET in Hong Kong through a more innovative and coordinated approach.

Furthermore, Vincent is also appointed by SED to serve in the Appeal Board, Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualification Ordinance (Cap. 592) [also as the member of the Rules Committee established under section 17 of the Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualification Ordinance.] Tapping on his professional knowledge in education, training and law, Vincent, together with other members of the Appeal Board, serve as an independent Board for aggrieved parties to review the decision of the Accreditation Authority or Qualifications Register Authority on accreditation or qualifications registration matters.

Besides, as appointed by the Government, Vincent has been serving in the Vetting Committee on the Sabbatical Leave for Professional Development of Principals and Teachers in the HKSAR Government. Besides, He is also the Fellow (the highest membership grade by assessment) of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors [a leading director and entrepreneurial institute in HK with Chief Executive HKSARG as its Patron], and the Vice-President (IC) of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association.

Moreover, Vincent has been a mentor for “Cyberport Incubation Program” under “Cyberport Entrepreneurs” of Cyberport (wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government--Hong Kong’s digital technology flagship and incubator for entrepreneurship with over 1,900 members including over 800 onsite and close to 1,100 offsite start-ups and technology companies).--Hong Kong’s digital technology flagship and incubator for entrepreneurship with over 1,900 members including over 800 onsite and close to 1,100 offsite start-ups and technology companies).

In HKU

Currently, Dr Vincent Wong is the Senior Lecturer & Master of Education Specialism Coordinator in Educational, Administration & Management. 

Viggo Stacey is the editor of B2B international education publication The PIE News. He has been with the independently-owned publication since 2017 and covers everything from international student recruitment, to ELT, to transnational education, to student mobility and more.