FP Tech Forum

Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen is Denmark’s Tech Ambassador, representing the Danish Government to the global tech industry and leading Danish efforts in global technology governance.

Prior to her appointment as Tech Ambassador, Anne Marie led the World Economic Forum’s work on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, advocating for responsible global development of new technology.

Anne Marie holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Business and Politics from Copenhagen Business School and a M.A. degree in International Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has also served on several boards.

Kent Walker is the President of Global Affairs at Google and Alphabet, where he oversees the teams responsible for legal matters, government affairs, content policy, and philanthropy.

For thirty years, Kent has focused on the intersection of technology, law, and policy. Since joining Google in 2006, he has led the company’s advocacy on competition, content, copyright, and privacy. He has worked with government leaders and regulators around the world and served as the first chair of the Global Internet Forum to Combat Terrorism. After overseeing the creation of Google’s AI Principles in 2018, he became chair of the company’s Advanced Technology Review Council.

Kent was born in Silicon Valley when it was still called “the Valley of Heart's Delight” and known more for its fruit orchards than its tech startups. The son of a Navy officer and a public health nurse, he grew up next to Stanford’s campus and learned to code using mainframe punch cards before going on to graduate with honors from Harvard College.

Kent’s interest in technology deepened at Stanford Law School, where he earned his JD degree in 1987 and co-founded Stanford’s Law & Technology Association. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco and Washington D.C., starting one of the first “computer crime” units in the country and later advising the U.S. Attorney General on technology policy issues.

He went on to hold executive positions at Netscape, AOL, and eBay, as they navigated the rise of the web, online communities, and e-commerce.

Over the years, Kent has been involved with several nonprofits, community organizations, and industry associations. Currently, he serves on Harvard’s Board of Overseers and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Kent and his wife Diana, a former journalist, have three grown children.

Susan M. Armstrong started at Qualcomm working on Globalstar and then early CDMA base station projects. She was a pioneer in bringing internet protocols to the cellular industry, resulting in the first web surfing on a cellular phone in 1997, Qualcomm’s commercialization of internet access in 1998 and enabling what we now know as the smartphone. Since then she has held various leadership positions, first responsible for the development and commercialization of the software that drives
Qualcomm's chipsets, and then as the head of worldwide Customer Engineering, the group who integrates and commercializes the company’s products in phones and other wireless devices. In addition to her work on Qualcomm's inventions and new technologies, she has worked extensively with base station makers, carriers, phone and device makers in the US, Asia and Europe to bring those technologies to market.

In 2015, Armstrong joined Qualcomm’s Government Affairs group, where she brings the engineering and product background to Qualcomm’s worldwide public policies, including 5G leadership, intellectual property protection, cyber security and STEM education.

Prior to joining Qualcomm in 1994, Armstrong worked for 10 years at the Xerox Systems Development Department and the Xerox Webster Research Center, holding a variety of software engineering positions implementing data protocols (including Ethernet, XNS and TCP/IP), contributing to IEEE standards and doing advanced development in high-speed data networking.

Armstrong holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

As IBM Vice President and head of the company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, Justina Nixon-Saintil drives strategic, socially responsible programmatic investments that enable IBM’s technology and talent to address some of society's biggest challenges worldwide.

The CSR programs Justina manages enable IBM and its employees to transform their altruism into reality. Some of these resources, such as IBM Service Corps, rely on skilled employee volunteerism to foster community success and well-being; they demonstrate the power of technology when combined with humanity. Other initiatives she leads, such as P-TECH, SkillsBuild, Academic Initiatives, and Skills Academy use multi-sector partnerships to help create more inclusive and innovative schools and workforce. She also leads the IBM Sustainability Accelerator which leverages IBM technologies and expertise to mitigate the effects of climate change in vulnerable communities.

As IBM's Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) focal point, she spearheads corporate practices that underpin the company's tradition of uncompromising ethics and transparency in its operations and environmental footprint. Justina communicates these ideals by spearheading the company's annual ESG report as well as articulating the company's "Good Tech" narrative to stakeholders, including investors.

Previously, as director of CSR at Verizon, Justina created and led programs to make education more inclusive. She brokered partnerships with community organizations to help bring innovative resources and experiences to under-resourced students in hundreds of schools. Justina was also the liaison to President Obama's White House Office of Science and Technology, U.S. Departments of the Interior and US Department of Education in support of Verizon's ConnectEd commitment. Earlier in her career, she was an Engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Justina, who is an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Sir Nick Clegg is President, Global Affairs at Meta. He joined the company, then called Facebook, in 2018 after almost two decades in British and European public life. Prior to being elected to the UK Parliament in 2005, he worked in the European Commission and served for five years as a member of the European Parliament. He became leader of the Liberal Democrat party in 2007 and served as Deputy Prime Minister in the UK’s first coalition government since the war, from 2010 to 2015. He has written two best-selling books, Politics: Between the Extremes and How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again).

Phil Febbo, MD was appointed as Chief Medical Officer in March 2018. In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing the Company’s medical strate gy to drive genomic testing into healthcare practice. Dr. Febbo has a successful track record of translational research, clinical excellence, and for embedding molecular insights into clinical care.

Stephen Ezell is Vice President, Global Innovation Policy with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington-DC based science, technology, and economic policy think tank as well as Director of ITIF’s Center for Life-sciences Innovation. He also leads the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance. His areas of expertise include science and technology policy, international competitiveness, trade, manufacturing, and bioeconomy issues.

He is the co-author with Dr. Robert Atkinson of Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, September 2012) and a co-author of Innovating in a Service-Driven Economy: Insights, Application, and Practice (Palgrave McMillan, November 2015).

Mr. Ezell came to ITIF from Peer Insight, an innovation research and consulting firm he co-founded in 2003. He previously worked in the new product development group at the NASDAQ Stock Market and at the technology startup Brivo Systems. Mr. Ezell holds a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, with an Honors Certificate from Georgetown’s Landegger International Business Diplomacy program.

Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and CEO of Credly, the largest platform for verified skills and credentials. Credly was recently acquired by Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries. Previously, Finkelstein co-founded HorizonLive (acquired by Blackboard) and LearningTimes, where he helped mission-driven organizations produce and launch innovative online programs, products and platforms that impacted the lives of millions of learners. He is author of Learning in Real Time (Wiley), and is a frequent author and speaker on learning, HR tech, and the future of work.

Yolanda Jinxin Ma is Head of Digital Policy & Global Partnerships at the United Nations Development Programme, where she focuses on transforming the development space with digital technologies, by supporting countries on their digital transformation journeys, and engaging the digital ecosystem globally and locally.

Chris Miller is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip, which will be published October 4 by Scribner. He is also Associate Professor of International History at The Fletcher School and the author of three other books on history and international affairs. He has previously served as the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Academy. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University.

In nearly 30 years at Microsoft Paul held diverse roles spanning numerous products and technologies: digital programing tools including Microsoft’s first C++ development system, the launch of MSN, Microsoft’s digital television platforms including Mediaroom, numerous media standards, digital rights management systems for content protection, and wireless technologies.

He has strong skills in strategy, planning, policy development and diplomacy, and people management. He has led successful marketing, program management, and engineering teams – including global teams with staff spanning multiple time zones - in the UK, China, France, Finland, Singapore, and Switzerland. Paul is a co-inventor on nineteen issued US patents related to wireless communications. He led the team that developed Microsoft’s TV White Space trial programs with the goal of making Internet access possible for those that remain unconnected today.

Paul has led Microsoft’s work on Internet Governance, including working with the International Telecommunication Union, the Internet Governance Forum, the Internet and Jurisdiction Project, and ICANN on Internet policy issues since 2012, participating in numerous international conferences and associated preparatory work across all three sectors, and he served as a Commissioner on the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development for many years.

As Director of Technology Strategy and Partnerships, Michael Phillips lead’s AARP Digital Inclusion efforts, and supports the association’s social mission to empower older adults to connect and thrive throughout their longer, healthier lifespans. Michael has led internal and external technology initiatives at AARP for 20 years, including tech industry partnerships, community education programs, strategic planning, and AARP’s innovation prototyping lab. He is passionate about addressing the growing societal issues related to technology inclusion, ensuring that everyone has digital access, and advocating for inclusive design for all generations.

Viktor Prokopenya is a Minsk-born, London-based, global investor and entrepreneur in the fintech industry. An influential voice on internet regulation Mr. Prokopenya actively participated in the development of the Belarusian IT industry regulation, ultimately helping form the country’s Decree on the Development of a Digital Economy.

Mr. Prokopenya has been leading digital technology companies for over two decades and is a passionate advocate for fintech as a force for good, delivering financial democracy that transcends borders. From 2001 to 2011, he founded and led Viaden Media, one of the largest producers of iOS apps in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2012, he started Exp(Capital), a data analysis fintech able to predict market fluctuations. That same year, Mr. Prokopenya founded VP Capital, investing in AI, augmented reality, computer vision, FinTech, and blockchain. Some of his major investments include Capital.com, an award-winning fintech start-up focused on developing mobile applications for retail investors; Currency.com, the world’s first regulated tokenized securities exchange; and FaceMetrics, a start-up specializing in artificial intelligence apps for children’s education.

Mr. Prokopenya holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the SBS Swiss Business School, as well as master’s degrees in Finance, Internet Marketing, and Business Administration from Northeastern University, Full Sail University, and Minsk IPM Business School, respectively.

Mr. Prokopenya has been a vocal critic of the Lukashenko regime for many years, including after the contested results of the Belarusian 2020 general elections, and led Mr. Prokopenya to abscond with his family to the United Kingdom to live in exile. Mr. Prokopenya has been a public supporter of Ukraine, halting his business operations in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and providing humanitarian relief to Ukrainian citizens.

Rob Seidner is edX’s Director for Government Partnerships where he works with governments and nonprofits to provide access to the edX platform for adult learning, which is currently used by more than 44 million registered learners. Rob had a nearly 20 year career in the US Federal Government, the last 8 years in the Executive Office of the President of the United States’ Office of Management and Budget as the Performance Manager for Federal Human Capital Policy. In that role he was responsible for working with all agencies, the White House, and Congress on designing the architecture of the Civil Service. He was the primary author and analyst of the human capital-related portfolio for issues that required Presidential input and direction. Rob continues to be engaged with governments to modernize training and standards. As an acknowledged expert on the future of work in government, Rob continues to build awareness for game-changing microcredentials and learning solutions from the world's top universities and corporations that help businesses and individuals achieve their personal and economic potential.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She is a seasoned diplomat, having served as ambassador to Liberia and in several other diplomatic postings around the globe. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017 after a 35-year career, and then returned to serve in her current role in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration. She served as the assistant secretary of state for African affairs under the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. 

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces who defeated Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Belarus’s longstanding autocratic leader, in a presidential election on August 9, 2020. Tsikhanouskaya’s win has been corroborated and championed by both the international and impartial observers that were present for the elections, and many international democratic leaders and institutions.  Her husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, was ultimately arrested for his pro-democracy presidential aspirations. Lukashenka has publicly dismissed Tsikhanouskaya as a “housewife,” claiming that a woman couldn’t become president. Instead, Tsikhanouskaya united Belarusian democratic forces together with two other leaders – Maria Kalesnikava and Veranika Tsapkala.

After her forced exile to Lithuania, Tsikhanouskaya inspired an unprecedented number of peaceful protests, some numbering in the hundreds of thousands, across Belarus. Tsikhanouskaya visited more than 20 countries gathering support for free Belarus, advocating for the release of 500+ political prisoners and peaceful changes through Belarus’ first free and fair election process. In her meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Council Charles Michel, and other world leaders, she emphasized the need for a braver response to the actions of the Belarusian dictatorship and Russian malign influence in the post-Soviet space.

Tsikhanouskaya became a symbol of peaceful struggle for democracy and women’s leadership.  Among dozens of other distinctions, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a recipient of the Sakharov Prize, the EU’s most prestigious human rights award. In 2020, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Norwegian MPs nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is included in Bloomberg's TOP-50 Most Influential People, Financial Times' Top 12 Most Influential Women, and POLITICO's Top 28 Most Influential Europeans.

In the six months since Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, Tsikhanouskaya has expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people and their struggle against Russian attempts to delegitimize their sovereignty and eliminate dissent. She has spoken consistently about the interwoven links between Ukraine’s and Belarus’s fight for freedom, and the need for resolute global action to ensure future peace and prosperity across Europe. She has continued to give voice to the Belarusian people and condemned Lukashenka’s significant role in the invasion and how further crackdowns on democratic principles within Belarus continue to present a systemic threat to Europe’s democratic principles.

Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy. Before joining FP, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade, including his most recent position as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. Previously, he served as a senior producer in CNN’s New York and London bureaus, receiving a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work. Agrawal is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

Allison Carlson is the Managing Director of FP Analytics, Foreign Policy’s independent research and advisory division, and FP Events. She oversees FPA’s cross-cutting research at the intersection of policy, technology, and global markets, as well as Foreign Policy’s global dialogues and convenings. Prior to these roles, Ms. Carlson led FP Analytics' energy and technology team for over a decade, evaluating evolving climate and emissions policies and identifying opportunities for advanced technology deployment internationally. She received her Master's Degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in International Relations and International Economics. She has presented her work at a range of international conferences and before the United States Senate.

Maggie Lake is a veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering business, technology, politics, and international affairs. She started her career at Reuters, where she worked in both the New York and London bureaus covering economics and global finance. In 2001, she joined CNN International, where she served as a correspondent and anchor for the network’s flagship business shows. Over the course of her career, she has interviewed the world’s top CEOs, celebrities, and politicians and has been a consistent champion of economic inclusion and sustainable development. She has served as a weekly contributor for NPR and moderated events for the United Nations, World Bank, Council on Foreign Relations, and Global Citizen. She now runs the communications consultancy Maggie Lake Media and is a founding board member of the newly created Rutgers University Center for Women in Business.