London Tech Showcase 2019
Guests at the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list launch on 4th June 2019, hosted by Diversity UK and KPMG in London, heard from serial biotech entrepreneur Dr Farid Khan and innovator Puneet Chhabra, Co-Founder & CTO of Headlight.AI during the fifth tech showcase. Dr Khan, CEO & Chairman – Protein Technologies Ltd: Pharmakure Ltd; eLucid mHealth Ltd and Co-Founder of Chief.AI, spoke about his new venture in combining AI and human intelligence for drug discovery and Puneet Chhabra, CO-Founder & CTO of Headlight.AI showcased the use of AI powered software solutions for autonomous vehicles and underground sewage repairs! Dr Khan and Mr Chhabra were both listed the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list which celebrates diversity in the digital sector with a focus on disruptive technologies and marked its fifth anniversary last night.
Guests also heard about the capital’s tech ecosytem and London Tech Week 2019 from Russ Shaw, Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates who spoke with Bina Mehta, Partner, KPMG during a fireside chat.
About Russ Shaw
Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates
Russ Shaw is the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates. He originally founded Tech London Advocates in 2013 to ensure an independent voice of technology sector was heard, but with a focus on the private sector. Since then he has been championing London as a global tech hub and campaigning to address some of the biggest challenges facing tech companies in the UK – diversity, digital skills, immigration, infrastructure and access to funding. Key achievements for Tech London Advocates (TLA) include successfully campaigning for the introduction of a Chief Digital Officer for London and placing digital jobs on the Shortage Occupation List for the first time.
Russ is a founding partner of London Tech Week, a London Tech Ambassador for the Mayor of London and Advisory Board member for Founders4Schools and the Government’s Digital Skills Partnership. He is a Trustee for Modern Muse Charity, which supports young women and girls who want to study STEM subjects.
He is one of the world’s leading experts on the success of London’s tech ecosystem and has been invited to tech hubs around the world to share his experience. In 2016, Russ created Global Tech Advocates, which now licenses the TLA operating model to countries around the world, including Scandinavia, Belfast, the Bay Area, the North of England, Singapore, Shanghai, Spain and Bogotá.
Russ was previously the Chairman of The Marketing Group of Great Britain following senior positions at Skype, Telefónica, O2 and CEO of a later stage startup called Mobileway. In his role as Marketing Director for O2, Russ brokered the relationship with The O2, the most successful indoor venue in the world.
He is an angel and venture investor and has been non-executive director of a number of high growth businesses, including Dialog Semiconductor and Unwire.
He has a BS from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Farid Khan
CEO & Chairman – Protein Technologies Ltd: Pharmakure Ltd; eLucid mHealth Ltd
Dr. Farid Khan is a remarkable biotech serial entrepreneur and innovator, who obtained his PhD in protein folding from the University of Cambridge and previously worked for GlaxoSmithKline in drug discovery. He has developed technologies and therapies for diseases in the developed and the developing world. In 2011, he founded Protein Technologies Ltd, a multi-million state of the art contract research organization working in industrial biotechnology and genetic engineering to produce recombinant therapies for a number of diseases. In 2012, Dr. Khan founded Pharmakure Ltd, a spin out from The University of Manchester, which has developed drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease. More recently, he founded eLucid mHealth Ltd, which measures medication adherence using a wireless pill dispensers- which is being trialed by the NHS.
He has published on the discovery of new repurposed drugs for malaria and rare diseases such as alkaptonuria (or ‘black bone disease’) and Multiple Systems Atrophy (a neurological disease). He has secured £multi-million funds from private and government sources (such as InnovateUK), formed key interdisciplinary collaborations with industry, academic institutions and charities (such as the Wellcome Trust). In 2013 Dr. Khan was awarded an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Salford, in recognition of his work in science and engineering and 2014, he was awarded by the Muslim News the Fazlur Rahman Khan award for excellence in engineering, science and technology which was presented by Prime Minister David Cameron.
About Puneet Chhabra
Co-Founder & CTO – Headlight.AI
Puneet Chhabra is the Co-Founder and CTO at Headlight AI, a London based start-up developing next generation AI powered software solutions for the CUAV, autonomous vehicles (AV) and the autonomous rail (AR) market. Their multi-modal cross-learning technology enables autonomous systems to operate safely in harsh environmental conditions, e.g. heavy fog or rain and snow. Puneet holds a joint PhD in Electrical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Computer Vision & Robotics from the Université de Bourgogne, Universitat de Girona and Heriot-Watt University. He has previously been a research scientist for BAE Systems and Carbomap, developing software tools to process multi-spectral full-waveform Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data. He specialises in solid-state LiDAR, signal processing, compressive sensing, software development and deep learning for autonomous systems.
Photos from the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2019 launch
About the Tech Showcases
Manchester Tech Showcase 2019
Click here to read about the Manchester Tech Showcase 2019
London Tech Showcase 2018
Click here to read about the London Tech Showcase 2018
About Asians in Tech
The Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech is the definitive list of Asians working in the digital and technology sectors in Britain. The aim of the list is to showcase diverse talent; from startup founders, technologists, venture capitalists and investors; to the game changers and digital influencers in business and social enterprise.
https://asiansintech.com | @asiansintech
About Diversity UK
Diversity UK is a think tank to research, advocate and promote ideas for improving diversity and inclusion in Britain. Diversity UK delivers its objectives by undertaking research and consultations, facilitating debates, hosting roundtable meetings and by publishing a monthly newsletter focusing on contemporary equality issues. In November, it also hosts the annual Paul Stephenson lecture, named after the pioneering British civil rights campaigner, on race and equality. Diversity UK is a registered charity (No: 1155189) in England & Wales.
https://diversityuk.org | @diversityuk
About KPMG’s Innovative Startups Practice
KPMG’s Innovative Startups practice works with early stage and high-growth companies through all stages of their lifecycle. Their teams offer support and advice to innovative businesses around key areas such as how to successfully scale a business; corporate structuring; entering new markets overseas; accessing finance and transactions advice. Furthermore they host a range of industry and networking events for the startup community and support a number of programmes, including mentoring and coaching, which are aimed at helping scaleup companies with their growth ambitions.
For further information visit www.kpmgenterprise.co.uk
KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 22 offices across the UK with approximately 16,300 partners and staff. The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.338 billion in the year ended 30 September 2018. KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services. It operates in 154 countries and has 200,000 professionals working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.
For further information visit https://www.kpmg.com | @kpmguk
About NewAsianPost.com
NewAsianPost.com is a news, business and entertainment website for the South Asian diaspora. With an ambition to usher in a new era of high quality citizen journalism, NewAsianPost.com focuses on the ‘untold stories and unheard voices’ of the community. It publishes the ‘Asian Power Couples Hot 100’ and ‘Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech’ lists.
www.newasianpost.com | @newasianpost
