 Good morning. My name is John Dutton. I'm the head of uplink at the World Economic Forum And I'm pleased to welcome you to the press conference trailblazing entrepreneurs tackling the world's biggest problems Now uplink is the open innovation platform of the world economic forum And we're pleased to have you here with this session like to introduce quickly our panelists that we have with us To my left we have Olivier Schwab managing director of the world economic forum who will making opening remarks for this press conference Just to his left is Joe Uguzoglu the global CEO of Deloitte welcome and Suzanne de Bianca the chief impact officer of sales force our two founding partners for uplink To Suzanne's left is Tatiana Malvasio an entrepreneur from Argentina Who is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Killumo, which you'll hear all about To her left is his Excellency Minister Faisal Ali Ibrahim the minister for economy and planning of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia Lindy Lindy way, but Lali the CEO of Africa team geeks just to his left and finally Roy Gory the CEO of Manu life Welcome and thank you for being here I'd like to also thank our journalists in the room and those online who are streaming to very quick house keeping announcements We're thrilled to have all of you here we would ask that you keep any questions on topic for this press conference about uplink and Invite you to engage with this audience as we go through and introduce yourself if you make a question Please Olivier could you provide us with some some opening remarks? Sure. Thank you, John Thank you. Now. We all know we need four five six seven trillion dollars per year to reach the UN STG's goals by 2030 and what if What if some of that investment? went to the thousands of entrepreneurs around the world who are working on the ground on Tackling ocean degradation education deforestation Various levels of pollution What if we could make that happen? But these entrepreneurs do not only need investment They also need connections. They need commercial opportunities. They need support so that they can scale their solutions for their communities and that's what uplink is about and I'm really pleased we launched the platform three years ago together with our partners our founding partners Salesforce and Deloitte Today we have 15,000 entrepreneurs active on the platform We already ran 45 challenges over the past three years where the entrepreneurs are able to Present their solutions and through the 5,000 solutions, which were submitted about 300 on per entrepreneurs were selected and brought into our ecosystem to get support from the form from our network of experts and investors and we obviously want to scale that and Today you're going to hear I think from some of the exciting concrete solutions and challenges which we ran on the platform. Thank you Thank you very much Olivier Let me turn now to Joe the global CEO of Deloitte. You've been a partner with us from the very beginning Support across the world from all your offices. Can you talk to us a little bit about your vision? Why did you get involved? Sustainability has been such an important part of your agenda But why startups and what are your ambitions for uplink in the year ahead? Well, thank you for the kind invitation. It's a privilege to be a part of this conversation and All of us at Deloitte are so proud to be a founding partner on uplink with the weft as well as Salesforce the world is facing some pretty daunting challenges and the UN SDGs represent Significant aspirations Relative to actually tackling those challenges But the answers are not all going to come from a few people here in Davos If we're really going to make headway We have to be able to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit across all areas of the globe the creativity of Billions of people on this planet and that's what uplink is about. It's about creating that ecosystem allowing for the connection of those who have passions and creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit with providers of capital with experts to help actually facilitate the launching of these platforms and like you shared this is not just an aspiration or an idea this is Actually scaling we have over a billion dollars That's already flowed through the platform with some Incredibly tangible examples and I'm not going to steal the thunder You're going to hear it directly from some of the entrepreneurs themselves and we're just getting started when we look at the path forward We're about to launch a challenge relative to sustainable aviation fuel through the first movers coalition We're going to be really leaning in relative to goal 11 of the SDGs around urban transformation Cities are wonderful. They're an incredibly important element of humanity achieving its full potential But cities represent 70% of emissions. This is all about creating a sustainable path Toward the cities of the future So we're just getting started here and we are really excited about the growing partnership in the ecosystem that we're creating Thank you so much Joe for for being a part of this and and your leadership Suzanne you personally have been involved supporting us working with uplink And Salesforce has been a leader in thinking about this eco printer revolution You've also been a founding partner of one t.org And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about why is this so important for Salesforce for you? How are we how are we going to be scaling even further going forward? Yeah, thank you John and and Joe and To all of our partners in this effort as John knows. This is generally my favorite group in Davos To be with it's just incredible to and humbling to see the innovation that is happening on a global scale And I'm incredibly proud of what you've created What we've all created but largely you John over the last three years and For us, you know this eco printer revolution is a core part of our strategy at Salesforce and I'm so excited to Celebrate the innovation and the success here this week and all the entrepreneurs and and all that you're creating Technology and rapid innovation in my view helped in some level to create Some of the challenges that we're facing today as it relates to the climate crisis And I also believe that technology and innovation is the way out also For some of the challenges that we're facing around climate Companies Entrepreneurs like restore which is a platform that connects people and projects to scientific data and monitoring tools and provides funding At scale around conservation efforts is a great example of one of these entrepreneurs also Silvara, which is a carbon intelligence platform and They're like the Moody's rating system for carbon projects using satellite and LiDAR technology Incredible uplink entrepreneur that we've been able to get behind We really want to empower these passionate climate-minded entrepreneurs All around the world that are working on some of these biggest problems and you know 56,000 entrepreneurs really of what you have sourced through looking at all around the globe quite frankly for incredible innovative solutions and You know, we are excited Joe mentioned about this new challenge With the first movers coalition and the State Department to source entrepreneurs that are working on sustainable aviation fuel We're incredibly excited to start in my home city of San Francisco with the urban transformation challenge to Really exciting new challenges that we'll be working on over the next couple of months and I'm just really grateful for the innovation and all that I've learned through being part of uplink and for all the other Corporations and governments around the world who have joined us in this effort. So my call to action is get involved Provide support to these entrepreneurs in the area of which you have expertise You know, please join us on this effort of which we're just starting But it's beginning to scale in a really beautiful way. So thank you. Thank you very much Suzanne and and both to you and Joe. It's wonderful to be able to announce these two new initiatives in urban transformation And with the first movers coalition We've been able to source already as you heard from Olivier over 300 entrepreneurs. One of them is here with us on this panel There's 10 of them that we've invited to come to Davos from across all the STG's But Tatiana and Tati as you're known It's a really special story Of how you started Kilimo to shapers to global shapers who met in the hub in Cordova and It's just such a pleasure to have you now share your story. Tell us about Kilimo It is really at this intersection and you were announced as one of the 10 aquapreneurs Collaboration we have with HCL technologies the 10 aquapreneurs were announced yesterday Who are receiving support funding and aid to scale their operations? But you're really at this nexus between food water climate change Can you tell us about Kilimo and and what's your vision? Well, thanks John. It's it's a real pleasure to be here telling our story Um Kilimo we have been sailing and developing an artificial intelligence solution for irrigation management For the last seven years But while we were trying to grow our business Meanwhile, we were trying to scale We find it a bit difficult for us and it demands a lot of effort And when we see a agriculture technology adoption Numbers we find them very poor also if we come we take in and the the information about the billions of dollars that the Agriculture sector Received from private capital in the last ten years. This know these numbers are very low And the problem is to be we knew that we couldn't solve it alone So we start conversations with a lot of stakeholders in the water topic and we we Worked having this conversation for months and almost more more than a year till we decided to try a new approach and By the hand of Microsoft and Google along with the Bonneville environmental foundation We decided to pay farmers for safe water So this way we could grow seven times In a in a few months in one of the most stressed basing on the world that is the my po basing in Chile We believe that we could grow this way because we find the right incentive and we also could align the dots We could connect farmers with the need and corporation with another need of water net zero commitments, so We could grow also this model today We have more than 12 million of cubic meter of water saving committed in Latin America By the hand of these companies, but also Intel Coca-Cola and other companies that we are also going to announce in the following weeks But we also believe that the water market it's happening, so it's very important to start designing the infrastructure to Became that market transparent Also, we are very hopeful that in the UN conference in March The net zero the water net zero topic will be on the table and we can achieve all these objectives we have Thank you so much for your work Tati. It's an inspiration I think for all of us and you shared yesterday in one of your presentations that you've already saved to date 50 billion Cubic leaders of water. I know that's just a drop in the trillions that need to be saved across the agricultural space But it is it's inspiring for others to be able to join you on that on that journey And I think what's what's so fascinating about this example Minister is that it bridges this technology. It's thinking about water. It's thinking about food and agriculture And this is one of the things that you're really passionate about Introducing would you mind minister talking a little bit about your ambitions in collaborating with with uplink for the food Ecosystem innovation. Why is this important for the kingdom? And what are your ambitions? Sure? Thank you John, and I'd like to just comment on what? Joe said we are facing a lot of daunting challenges, but they're also Evolving very fast co vid We worry that co vid which we are not fully out of yet is Two-dimensional compared to the challenges that are coming about yesterday. We heard the word poly crises, so It's very important for us to to really continue our legacy of Helping address global challenges, and we're doing that because of this But also because we believe in innovation. We believe in bold innovation And and if you look at the transformation in Saudi Arabia under vision 2030, you'll see that it is underpinned by bold innovation We also believe in technology and we believe in the youth and that the intersection of all of these in uplink an uplink I think is a prime example We believe not only capital and policies enough to address these challenges SDG to zero hunger and others I think need some direct intervention some support some paving the way and learning from These innovators that address these challenges on these Platforms we're very excited about this specific topic We've played a big role in energy security and the just energy transition Fighting climate change without having to go back to coal for even a little bit And also the global debt issue. I think the kingdom is continuing to play that role But the third thing that we're really focusing on is is food security food security will enable people to have The the energy to learn the energy to get the education the energy to contribute It's a very very basic need and right now three billion people are Don't have access to a healthy diet 2.3 billion are very Or moderately food insecure and 828 million are affected materially by hunger So this is something that makes sense and and again, we believe in the in the power of the youth We're also doing this because Saudi is a young Population 60% is below the age of 30 41 below the age of 25. We're hoping that from this there will be that access to innovation Lifelong partnerships and and a force for good innovation and solving challenges We believe there's a lot of talent Saudi they can contribute on this platform and the small example during the World Cup eight Players from our soccer team are under the age of 23 and they happen to beat Argentina. Congratulations on the World Cup But that shows the power of the youth when you give them the opportunity Thank you very much minister I think it's it's so important when you think about that the young people being able to provide them inspiration the the ability to make a difference and I think that's something that you share with our next speaker Lindy way met valley the CEO of African team geeks You have a vision also of supporting young people And I wonder if you'd talk for us a little bit about our collaboration that we're launching here and Why is it that you believe so much in the power of? Of STEM education to help some of those young people in marginalized communities be uplifted and potentially Become entrepreneurs like like Tati here No, thank you so much for having me and I'm really honored Also to have the opportunity also for you to believe in what I'm you know what I'm what I'm doing Especially everywhere go because I deal with children who are so small people. I think that's a long-term investment So most people they're not that interested, but African team geeks. We we started as a coding Organization and we but my vision was to really look at how do we? You know get young people from Disadvantaged communities who don't have the infrastructure who don't have anything really and and help them to really raise their aspirations And and my vision was also it's not just about the touch and go approach that I came and I spoke to you for half a Day and I'm assuming that your life is gonna instantly change because you know I brought somebody who's innovative and powerful to come and talk to you investment in young people It is a long-term strategy and it needs people who are willing and coming from Africa. I remember the first time I gave my my tether talks at MIT and I was talking about an invention I did where we were teaching kids how to code through knitting because obviously we struck in Africa There's a lot of issues in terms of access to electricity, you know, it goes the the infrastructure is just not there I mean even with South Africa right now. We are in that crisis. That's why our president is not here You know, so it's one of those credit but for me it was how do you then teach kids how to code through knitting and Understanding that we also have the issue of the skills that we don't have so in some areas depending on where you leave If you don't live in the city, you probably have never even met somebody who studied computer science So you can't say you're gonna depend on on the volunteer community So we had to then look at how can you get grandmothers all of us if you grab we we had our grandmother making us Jesus and sewing things for us So what's just to get them to understand to see that knitting and coding is literally the same They use the same kind of loops. The concept is exactly the same Now when you explain to the grandmother and say, you know what as you need you teach the girls And then we explain to you how that relates to to computer science But it's also because we were able to tell it exactly for them to learn how to write a Python code by by hand And when we're able to take them to a computer lab and we get them to type that Python code Then what happens is what they've seen you they can see you know if it's a scarf They can see the scarf there with all the colors and now they can see how the computers themselves can and the grandmothers when they See that we then able to then deal with the issue of the lack of girls and stem Now getting the grandmothers who could not be able to tell them Or there's no somebody who can be that role model or that they can relate to now We have the grandmothers now encouraging the kids to learn to go and and pursue stem and pursue Computer science are telling them the importance of the kids to doing math and doing well in math And why they should do well in math because most of the time in in the developing countries The people who stopped the kids from going after this stem carriers other parents because like you know You can't go there is too much of a male dominated industry. So for us it was really important So coming and working with uplink now wise. Yes, we've been doing this and how do we then teach a child? That it comes from such a disadvantage community you teach them Then what do they do after that and we know that talent alone is not enough So most of us are here because we had talent and the social capital We had people that who are who were in front of people who saw your talent and they were able to support you I am one of those people, you know grow up as an orphan I was just lucky that there were so many people I will run into some by chance Who are able to open doors and open opportunities for me and even being part of the where for us because Dr. Precious Mutzipa saw me and and I was like it was also that chance encounter and believed in me and nominated me for the shop Foundation I became a shop our D and now I'm able to work with uplink So the the social capital is so important and there's nothing more powerful than where like in the world globally And you know we talk a lot about Creating a just and equitable well There's a lot of criticism about wealth that is too elitist that is a talk job But I mean being working with them I've seen how the the the willingness to be able to allow people like me to come and present ideas and be willing Even though they can't see whether it can fit in but to say we want to find a way of making it work So that we can take that child who is brilliant like Palma lucky I mean he started Oculus the first when he was around 16 years old But he was in San Francisco. So he could reach out to the people who could help him now Think about another Palma lucky who happens to live in a candle like mine Maybe somewhere not even Johannesburg somewhere in Boomalanga in a tiny village where there's not even a robot and come up with something like that How on earth can he be be built a Oculus? So this is about bringing them through this community creating a community of teenage in Innovators that can then Hopefully become the global shippers young global leaders and one day be partners of West and CTS. So I'm I'm really grateful for this And thank you for giving me that I think you can see why we were so excited about her vision and Support and we believe certainly in your your ability to to work with us work with young people In alongside ABB you're running a hackathon to support young African STEM As students and from that we're going to be able to source potential ideas and solutions for uplink So thank you, Lindy way for for that the collaboration that we have Roy, it's a pleasure to welcome you as well the CEO of manual life Roy glory We're so excited to be able to look And collaborate with you around the forest economy. You have in the last six months I believe also made a pledge to one t.org the forums trillion tree Initiative and I wonder if you'd talk a little bit about why you think this is so important and and how you'd like to inspire Young ecopreneurs to be taking action in this space. Excellent. Thank you John Good morning everyone. I got to start by saying that I feel like a huge underachiever right now Sitting on this panel with some incredible leaders and very impressive track record of phenomenal passion and performance And and it does talk to the to the honor that I have in being here talking about the new partnership Opportunity for manual life to really make a difference and I think I would say that you know climate change is the single largest Existential threat that is facing the planet and quite frankly humanity And I think we all know that the solution to that problem is not something that we can deal with in isolation We have to work in partnership and in collaborations And that's why I'm so excited to be working with a coalition of incredibly like-minded Organizations and individuals who are really passionate about driving change manual life has a really proud history of its work again in terms of tackling climate change We are actually net negative in terms of our Carbon emissions for scope one and scope two. We are the largest Institutional owner of timberland in the world With 1.6 billion trees. In fact, we've planted 1.25 billion ourselves But we also know that there's so much more that needs to be done The sad truth is that deforestation and forest degradation accounts for 15% of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases Each and every year and and again, that's why this partnership with we're with uplink and with these Incredible ecopreneurs is so exciting for us because we know that Solutions to this problem Haven't yet been found and we need to create a platform and the right incentives to motivate these ecopreneurs To come up with the incredible solutions that can then be scaled and and again It's with great pride and humility that we enter this partnership And we feel that this is just a tremendous opportunity to make a difference and to really start to tackle this climate change agenda With a greater sense of urgency and passion. So Delighted to be involved. Thank you so much Arroy now Uplink was launched as you heard three years ago today in this room We're incredibly proud of the achievements that we've had in that time to be able to bring a concept through to reality You heard some of the facts and figures before about its about its impact and reach But I think you hear on the panel today Our ambition for the future two of the the initiatives are launched and live today Both with Minister Ali Ibrahim on food ecosystem innovation in arid climates It's live on our uplink website uplink.weform.org as is our forest ecosystem challenge as well Sustainable forestry and we're pleased to invite you Everybody that's online. Please come join us It's free and open and public and would invite any entrepreneur out there to join us on this journey We also heard from about three additional initiatives that we're gonna be opening over the course of the year with Deloitte sales force and African team geeks Around sustainable cities to join up on the decarbonization movement around first movers coalition and around STEM education inspiring African entrepreneurs from marginalized communities Please join me in thanking this group for that. We do have a couple of minutes for questions I would just remind that we would ask you to keep questions on topic for this press conference and We would like to invite any questions first for Roy for manual life He will be stepping out after this for a panel discussion that he has so any questions first on our collaboration with manual life for Roy oh We see One of the and we see one in the front here, and is there another question? Maybe we can take at the same time Anybody else? All right. Thank you. It's iron health Copenhagen post You are in the tree and tree initiative how many trees you already ready planted or saved and What's your goal within the next three to five years? How many yes, thank you so much for the question and we do think that nature-based solutions Have such a big role to helping deal with this climate change our problem And that's why being part of the one trillion trees dot org initiative is something we're proud of and again as a large timberland owner You know, we're proud to say that a we have 1.6 billion trees in our portfolio But we have to your question directly planted 1.25 billion And that is over over more than a decade But beyond the number of trees that we're planting We think that another key to success is the sustainable forestation process that we actually are running through and we know that there is significant exchangeability in relation to the properties that are used for construction. So for example, if you're using Timber beams instead of steel beams Not only is the carbon Continue to be sequestered in the property itself But the significant Differential between steel plastics and other materials that are used in construction today Also make for a significant difference in terms of dealing with the decarbonisation of the planet So we are going to continue to continue to invest in growing our forest land and continuing to plant trees And we'll continue to do that at a rapid pace. Thank you Well with that let me invite Roy Please I know you need to make your way across to the Congress Center. So thank you Roy. Thank you And let's see if any other questions for the panel before we wrap up We have just One last one. Okay, I'm getting the signal in the back that we're running out of time Let me join join me. I should say and in thanking Olivier Joe Suzanne Tati minister and Lindy way for Your remarks today and and most importantly for it for your leadership in helping us bring up links vision of Inspiring entrepreneur revolution for people to plan it and people and plan it to life. We couldn't do it without you Thank you for your partnership