Asha Saxena is a strategic and innovative leader with a track record of building successful technology companies over the past 30 years.
She is the author of the bestselling book “The AI Factor – How to Apply Artificial Intelligence and Use Big Data to Grow Your Business Exponentially” and the Founder and CEO of Women Leaders in Data and AI, a global leadership organization brining world leaders together to create a fair digital world with parity and equity.
Asha is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, teaching graduate classes on Entrepreneurship and served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Columbia Business School. She also served as a partner at CEO Coaching International, a management services company focused on building, turning around, and selling successful businesses.
In the past, Asha served as the CEO of a healthcare data analytics company, built an e-commerce platform, and was the President and CEO of Future Technologies. This company provided data analytics solutions to Fortune 1000 companies and was recognized at the World Economic Forum as a “Global Growth Company for 2007”.
Asha earned her BS in Computer Science from Bangalore University in India, an MS in Data Science from Southern Methodist University, and underwent management training at MIT and the London Business School.
Dhiraj is an international keynote speaker on leadership, AI, and adapting to emerging technology. He helped grow Shazam from the original idea to over 100 billion uses, and was named one of Europe’s Top 50 technology entrepreneurs by the Financial Times. Since Shazam’s sale to Apple, he has invested in over 250 leading AI and technology startups, including OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT).
Previously he held senior roles in Financial Services, Technology, and media and entertainment, and has an MBA from Stanford Business School. Dhiraj’s expertise is helping leaders build adaptable organisations, combining practical experience building an iconic company with first-hand foresight of a technology-driven future.
Expertise
Dhiraj advises corporate leaders to build organisations that embrace adaptability as a core competency. He guides executives to systematically create companies that learn, evolve, and reinvent themselves, rather than reacting to disruption after it occurs.
His advisory work with major corporations including UBS, Eli Lilly, Unilever and PWC gives him a deep understanding of how large organizations approach innovation and transformation across diverse industries. His portfolio of 250+ investments across AI and emerging technologies provides a comprehensive source of innovation trends, business models, and success factors. Dhiraj draws on learnings from 35 years of company building, enabling audiences to understand both long-term strategic thinking and actions they can implement immediately.
