Announcing 21 SingularityU Chapter Licenses — and 10 New Chapters
Each quarter our team is faced with the choice: what Singularity University Chapter applicants meet the selection criteria, that can become Chapters bringing hope for an abundant future to local areas around the world.
We’re looking for qualified, diverse teams that are collaborative and community-driven. We seek well-made plans, that are also realistic, and actionable.
Today, we’re announcing the most Chapters we’ve ever announced in one press release: 21 licenses, including 10 new Chapters in 3 new countries, bringing our grand total to 83 Chapters in 48 countries. Find one near you at singularityuglobal.org.
The new SingularityU Chapters are in: Uberlandia, Brazil; Vancouver and Montreal, Canada; San Salvador, El Salvador; Douglas, Isle of Man; Kyoto, Japan; Nassau, The Bahamas; Austin, Boston and Minneapolis-St Paul, USA. Chapter Renewals include: Sofia, Bulgaria; Victoria and Toronto, Canada; Santiago, Chile; Quito, Ecuador; Milan, Italy; Panama City, Panama; Lima, Peru; Geneva, Switzerland; Taipei, Taiwan; Istanbul, Turkey.
One of the most interesting parts of the interview process is asking each individual team member, “Why do you want to have a Chapter license?” The answers provide a wide range of insights into the local cultures, personal motivations, and skill-sets of each leadership team member.
Additionally, our Chapter application is open today, October 4th through November 1st for the Q4 selection process. Learn more about starting a Chapter in your city, or start your application here:
New SingularityU Chapters and Leadership Teams: In their own words
SingularityU Austin🇺🇸
SingularityU Austin: Daniel Marcos, Juan Gonzalez
SingularityU Boston🇺🇸
SingularityU Boston: Lori Keenan, Raghav Chawla
“When I first heard about Singularity University, its mission of leveraging exponential technologies to solve global grand challenges really resonated with me. After spending a couple of weeks on campus as part of the executive program I felt like I had found my tribe. As home to world leading academic and research institutions as well as a healthy startup ecosystem, Boston is full of people working towards building an abundant future and solving global problems.
By creating a SingularityU Chapter in Boston, I hope to bring these like-minded people together to support each other locally, and plug them into the broader SU community around the world in order to help accelerate the development of their projects and ideas.”—Raghav Chawla, leadership team member
SingularityU Douglas, Isle of Man🇮🇲
Andrew Gleave, Kurt Roosen, Owen Cutajar
“My goal for the Chapter is to start the discussion about where as a country we are headed, and how we can meet the opportunities and threats going forward. What is going to impact the Island in the next decade? How can we meet those challenges? Can these solutions be applied elsewhere?
The type of business and social entrepreneurship required for the future will be different from today, and getting people to think big and leverage new technology to make a positive change will make a huge difference both individually and for the Island as a whole.”
— Andrew Gleave, leadership team member
“I’m delighted that we’ve managed to bring the ideals behind Singularity University to the Isle of Man. We’re a small island with huge potential and directing local thinking to addressing global issues will be of tremendous benefit to all. The SingularityU Chapter will serve to stimulate ideas, enthusiasm and innovation across the Manx scene and we are excited to offer our unique local capabilities, particularly the fact that we are a thriving micro-ecosystem on which more ambitious projects may be modeled.”
—Owen Cutajar, leadership team member
SingularityU Kyoto🇯🇵
Atticus Sims, Jun Suto, Toshiko Asai
“We are very excited to open the SingularityU Chapter in Kyoto where we have an eccentric blend of long history of traditions — art, history, & craftsmanship, progressive science, innovative businesses, and deep-roots in Japanese governance. With infusion of abundance thought and exponential technology global community, we are looking forward to blossoming a one-of-the-kind exponential & mindful community here in Kyoto.”
—Jun Suto, leadership team member
“The Kyoto SingularityU Chapter will help to bring together a community of innovators in tech and sustainability focused around the massive potential of exponential technologies to tackle the world’s greatest challenges. I am very excited to be a part of this chapter and looking forward helping build the exponential community!”
—Atticus Sims, leadership team member
SingularityU Minneapolis-St. Paul🇺🇸
Annie Nelson, Joseph Barisonzi, Maria Lynne Dayton, Mark Ritchie, Marshall Lichty
“As an Impact Fellow at Singularity University, I have seen how exponential technology can be used to address societal grand challenges. I’m excited to see how the SingularityU Minneapolis-St Paul Chapter catalyzes our community to push for more solution focused innovation.”
—Maria Dayton, leadership team member
“There are so many great innovations in Minnesota that can be part of global collaborations to solve the world’s big problems, through the Chapter we look forward to introducing these solutions to the world of SingularityU.”
—Mark Ritchie, leadership team member
“Minnesota’s has many great leaders, leaders whose voices are needed in the global conversation about how technology can help to address issues of underemployment, education and equity gaps, and meeting the health needs of our communities.”
—Annie Nelson, leadership team member
“Throughout the world, there are great conversations about how technology can address big issues — like SMB access to private capital and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, through our Chapter events we hope to bring these conversations to Minnesota.”
—Joseph Barisonzi, leadership team member.
SingularityU Montreal🇨🇦
Mathieu Drouin, Youssef Gaboune
SingularityU Nassau🇧🇸
Charles Diggiss, Dr. Desiree Cox, Felicity Humblestone, Jonathan Rodgers, Llewellyn Boyer-Cartwright, Mark Palmer, Michael Fountain, Travis Miller
“I believe that we can use exponential technologies to drive innovation in health, close the equity gap and address health and social inequality; that is what inspired me to reach out to establish a formal partnership with SingularityU in The Bahamas. Creating an abundant future for the % 100 is a life-long passion of mine. I am excited and inspired by the possibility of the SingularityU Nassau Chapter as a leader in closing the equity gap in The Caribbean and Latin America.”
—Dr. Desiree Cox, leadership team member
“Personally I have desire to create or assist in creating a community of like minded souls who come together to share their best ideas, to display their given talent, to discover their purpose and follow their most passionate dreams. I would like for each event to be a call to action, to not only join the community and actively participate, but for everyone to connect at a soulular level, in order to create AHA moments and make life changing quantum leaps in our own development and development of the country.”
—Michael Fountain, leadership team member
SingularityU San Salvador🇸🇻
Edwin Rivas, Federico Rivas, Nahomy Hernandez
“Engaging in conversations and welcoming fresh ideas of where our nation and the world is heading is for me, not only extremely important, but an imperative and a responsibility.”
— Nahomy Hernández, leadership team member
“This is a most exciting time for troubled nations like ours, where opening an SU chapter means deepening the responsibility to discover solutions to complex challenges and address them with hope and excitement for the future.”
— Federico J. Rivas, leadership team member
SingularityU Uberlândia🇧🇷
Anna Paula Graboski, Gustavo Maierá
“Creating a Chapter is all about establishing a great connection with the future. I want to take action and spread the innovation change!”
—Gustavo Maierá, leadership team member
SingularityU Vancouver🇨🇦
Aranka Anema, Cameron MacLeod, Eesmyal Santos-Brault, Gordon Casey, Greg FitzGerald, Philip Edgcumbe, Tamara Etmannski
“Vancouver is unique in its depth of activity in both social impact and STEM innovation. The SingularityU Chapter offers the opportunity to provide a convening force and greater cross-pollination around these two flourishing sectors.”
—Greg Fitzgerald, leadership team member
“Vancouver’s international status and diverse population will allow us to have truly global conversations and better understand how Vancouver can have a positive impact on the world. I would like to share the amazing learning experience I had at SU with my fellow Vancouverites.”
— Philip Edgcumbe, leadership team member
Renewing SingularityU Chapters and Leadership Teams: In their own words
SingularityU Geneva🇨🇭
SingularityU Geneva: Antonio Gambardella, Giacomo Biondi Morra, Luigi Matrone, Nicoletta Iacobacci, Silvia Taurozzi, Vedran Horvat
“Geneva is known for its concentration of high-level human capital. This is the region where Voltaire used to host his famous enlightenment salons, hence the Geneva Chapter aims to be the facilitator of a form of new enlightenment; a place where a proactive community can re-ignite an international human-centered collective focused on solving our global challenges.”
—Nicoletta Iacobacci, leadership team member
“Singularity University has given me the possibility to expand my horizon on the impact that technology can have on our society. Ever since I attended the executive program I have looked at technology differently and through the Chapter, I’d like to bring this view of the world to more people in Geneva.”
—Luigi Matrone, leadership team member
SingularityU Istanbul🇹🇷
SingularityU Istanbul: Ebru Debbag, Gulay Ozkan, Şahin Çağlayan
SingularityU Lima🇵🇪
SingularityU Lima: Gary Urteaga, Irina Rymshina
“The SingularityU Lima Chapter is a community open to all innovators, leaders and game changers, who want to think big in tackling all the grand challenges in Peru with tech solutions that can allow us to mitigate these problems not only locally, but to scale them globally and positively impacting millions of people around the world. Our goal is to be an active participant in our local innovation ecosystem empowering our SU Alumni and members, organizing events and activities, and become a natural access point to the network of SingularityU Chapters and innovators around the world.”
— Gary Urteaga, leadership team member
“Currently, I am a Professor of Innovation at ESAN University Graduate School of Business in Peru, and I have a strong motivation to give back to my community through the SingularityU Lima Chapter, helping to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to make a positive impact in the world through the use of exponential technologies. We want to continue strengthening our community of SU Alumni and liked-minded people with moonshot thinking.”
—Irina Rymshina, leadership team member
SingularityU Milan🇮🇹
SingularityU Milan: Eric Ezechieli, Emil Olaru, Marta Ghiglioni, Mauro Blanco
“Based on our direct experience at Singularity University, we strongly believe that a much wider dissemination of knowledge, and an informed dialogue about exponential technology acceleration, can help Italy, and Milan in particular, become a role model in leveraging technology as a force for good.”
—Eric Ezechieli, leadership team member
“After being at Singularity University for 5 months last year, I feel strongly the need and excitement of giving back to Milan the sense of empowerment and community that SU gave me. Our Chapter is going to be an open place for thinking bold and share points of view on Global Grand Challenges and exponential technologies.”
—Marta Ghiglioni, leadership team member
“I would like to spread the knowledge about new exponential technologies. If more young people would come to know them and understand how to use them, they will be ready to face the Global Challenges, and eventually impact the world with their ideas.”
—Mauro Blanco, leadership team member
SingularityU Panama City🇵🇦
SingularityU Panama City: Michal Monit, Luciana Ledesma
“SingularityU Panama Chapter community is envisioned as a platform for dialogue and a knowledge exchange hub for accelerating Spanish-speaking communities in exponential mind-set, technologies and insights.”
—Luciana Ledesma, leadership team member
“Panama has all the prerequisites to address local challenges using exponential technologies and transform those into global solutions.”
—Michal Monit, leadership team member
SingularityU Quito🇪🇨
SingularityU Quito: Andrés Zurita, Jorge Perez, Xavier Torres
“The purpose of having a SingularityU Chapter in Quito is to create a community that will share their knowledge and understand how to incorporate new exponential technologies to problem solving.”
—Jorge Perez, leadership team member
“SingularityU Quito Chapter is the beginning of a new mindset in our community. Understanding the impact of exponential technologies give us the opportunity to create a better future for our city, the country and even the globe.”
—Xavier Torres, leadership team member
“The role models that SU can provide us could change the way that we think. Here in Quito there are a lot of people who are looking for innovation in their new or established business, they represent a really good group of people who can take advantage of this exponential tech and global grand challenges.”
—Andrés Zurita, leadership team member
SingularityU Santiago🇨🇱
SingularityU Santiago: Antonia Tapia, Eduardo Labarca, Loreto Acevedo
I hope we can create a strong community that helps the Chilean economy to understand and take advantage of the exponential technologies and opportunities.”
—Eduardo Labarca, leadership team member
I want to expand the exponential thinking to all the Chilean persons in order to enable them to impact in a positive way companies, persons and the world.”
—Antonia Tapia, leadership team member
SingularityU Sofia🇧🇬
SingularityU Sofia: Teodor Panayotov, Adriana Panayotova, Ekaterina Dimitrova
“I would like to make an impact on a local level in the field of exponential technologies, believing it will be beneficial for our community, as well as for the whole region.”
—Teodor Panayotov, leadership team member
“Singularity University’s mission to find solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges inspires me to be part of the SingularityU Sofia Chapter.”
—Ekaterina Dimitrova SingularityU Sofia leadership team member
SingularityU Taipei🇹🇼
SingularityU Taipei: Ju Chun Ko, Chun-Hao Huang, Yeh Wu
“As the first Taiwanese to participate SU community, I’m glad to have more and more alumni from Taiwan and the world through these years. It’s my pleasure to unite more resources and like-minded people, to spread out the seeds of exponential thinking in my beloved country, to change people’s mind also transform local corps/orgs from linear to exponential. I’m proud of being one of SU community member, as so as Taipei Chapter to be the first local chapter in East Asia.”
—Ju Chun Ko, leadership team member
“Participating in Singularity University was the best experience in my life. Being exposed to multiple state-of-the-art technologies and future-thinking people transformed me entirely and broadened my scope. As now part of the SingularityU Taipei Chapter, I wish to invite more people from Taiwan to experience this themselves, and hopefully transform Taiwan as a whole.”
— Yeh Wu, leadership team member
“Singularity University changed my mindset from scientist to entrepreneur, built my vision and broadened my horizons within 3 months. I am thrilled to bring this experience and spirit back to Taiwan for our community.”
— Chun-Hao Huang, leadership team member
SingularityU Toronto🇨🇦
SingularityU Toronto: Adrian Choo, Carey Kurtin, Daniel Araya, Farnaz Ghadaki, Nabeel Kassam
“We’re delighted to continue the SingularityU Toronto Chapter in serving our community of passionate people interested in building a better future. We look forward to holding more events and activities to stimulate exponential thinking, foster connections, and leverage disruptive technologies to address local, national, and global grand challenges.”
—Farnaz Ghadaki, leadership team member
“Our global talent is moving back home, diversity is our strength and we have a vast network of support from government, world class incubators, accelerators and a thriving tech community. SingularityU Toronto is looking forward to support our innovative community as we eagerly address the global grand challenges.”
—Nabeel Kassam, leadership team member
SingularityU Victoria🇨🇦
SingularityU Victoria: Derek Jacoby, Dylan Lidster, Nico Preston, Sandy Beaman, Yvonne Coad
Singularity University does a great job of educating the world on the exponential changes in technology that are underway. Victoria, BC is a provincial capital and it is essential that our political leaders understand these changes, but it is also a technology hub and the Victoria chapter is a place for technologists to come together. The benefits of sharing skills and experiences and outlooks make all of us more effective.”
—Derek Jacoby, leadership team member
More information about SingularityU Chapters can be found at su.org/chapters
