Topic: Innovation & Creativity

Omer Arbel

Omer Arbel is the co-founder and creative director of lightning company Bocci and one of the world’s leading designers. Omer was born in Jerusalem in 1976, but grew up in Vancouver. He trained and worked as an architect. His first design pieces were characterised by technical intelligence and by pushing the limits of materials. Omer co-founded Bocci in 2005, which has since grown into an internationally recognised and renowned design label specialising in sculptural lighting and large light installations.

Omer's work has received some of the highest honors of contemporary industrial design and has been exhibited by the world’s most important museums, including the Barbican and V&A in London.

Steve Chen

Steve Chen is a Internet entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders and former chief technology officer of YouTube.

In 2005, while an employee at PayPal, Steve and his co-founders came up with a simple, efficient way to share videos online. Less than a year after launching the site, the two had built it into a global phenomenon. Soon after, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, and Chen continued to lead the platform’s growth.

With Google, Chen oversaw all areas of YouTube’s development, from engineering to product design and site operations. As an engineer, he designed the massive data centers that make the service possible. He also developed features that turned YouTube into a full- fledged social media platform and entertainment hub.

Chen’s personal story is as riveting as his list of professional accomplishments. Born in Taiwan, he moved with his family to suburban Chicago when he was eight years old. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in computer science, he became one of PayPal’s first employees. There he met Hurley and Karim before becoming one of Facebook’s early employees. Having participated in the rise of two internet giants, Chen founded one himself just a few months after joining Facebook, and the rest is history. Recently, in 2019, Chen won an Emmy award for lifetime achievement.

For years, Chen worked with Google Ventures, helping start-ups hone their business models and scale up. Today, Chen lives in Taiwan, where he is focusing on developing the Taiwanese start-up ecosystem.