💯 Chapters in 55 Countries: 17 New and 1 Renewal Chapters
As someone who spends a lot of time at social events in Silicon Valley, people often ask me what my role is at work. There are a number of ways to explain it — I lead part of a global licensing team, I work on the community team, I work with volunteers around the world—but the main focus of my answer is always about elevating others in local areas around the world who are interested in doing good in the world through technology.
I spend my days on 8am phone calls, which is 5pm in Central European Time (CET), or 8:30 PM to accommodate 10:00 AM in Indian Standard Time (IST). Our team used to onboard every Chapter personally, one-by-one — for an hour each. As we’ve reached scale, this is no longer possible. Now we review, select and onboard Chapters on a quarterly basis.
One thing that’s consistent is the human-centered design process that furthers everything we do.
As we work within local communities, we are especially interested in facilitating local networks and learning that will resonate in a local area — for example, hosting events in local language, and bringing in experts on exponential technologies that reside in the city where a Chapter is based.
I’m thrilled to announce that we’re adding 17 more Chapters, and renewing 1 license, for a total of 💯 Chapters in 55 countries.
The new SingularityU Chapters are in: Bangalore, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Brussels, Belgium; Cairo, Egypt; Caracas, Venezuela; Chicago, Illinois, U.S.; Chihuahua, Mexico; Islamabad, Pakistan; Leon, Mexico; Munich, Germany; Okinawa, Japan; Oslo, Norway; Paris and Toulouse, France; and Tallinn, Estonia. Additionally, the SingularityU Barcelona Chapter in Spain is renewing its license.
Additionally, our Chapter application will open again in the new year. Learn more about starting a Chapter in your city, and sign up to get notified when the application opens here: su.org/chapters/apply
Below, we have some specific comments from members of the Chapter Leadership Teams in each of our new and renewing Chapters.
New SingularityU Leadership Teams: In their own words
SingularityU Bangalore 🇮🇳
Alexander Mathew, Patrick Martinent
“The world of A” and the “Foundation” series seeded my young brain with a future that most of my friends called ‘crazy’; leading the Singularity Bangalore Chapter enables me to prove them wrong.With, 6000+ startups and 23+ active incubators, Bangalore is ready to take disruption to the next level. A firm knowledge of exponential tech will enable this vibrant ecosystem to direct their energy towards solving many of the grand challenges on the ground.”
— Patrick Martinent, leadership team member
SingularityU Bangkok 🇹🇭
“I personally think Bangkok is a city full of diversity and talented individuals. We the SingularityU Bangkok Team are looking forward to connecting empowering our city to embrace exponential technology and ‘put a dent in the Universe!’”
— Nattaphol Vimolchalao, leadership team member
SingularityU Barcelona (renewal) 🇪🇸
Alicia Bosch, Alex Raventos, Cecilia Tham, Enric Segarra, Inmaculada Ranera, Jordi Mañé, Jordi Serrano, Mar Consul, Rubén Agote, https://singularityuglobal.org/profile/alicia-bosch
“I believe the power of the collective, especially when it is connected to a larger purpose driven community, could really address the global challenges that we have at hand.”
— Cecilia Tham, leadership team member
“The Chapter will create the ‘center-place’ of Barcelona for Disruptive technologies ecosystem in the benefit of humanity — the ‘place-to-go’ to discuss about it, to bring ideas, to present new initiatives, startups, etc., and the Chapter provides a way for me to contribute to Barcelona development, the city I love.”
— Jordi Mañé, leadership team member
SingularityU Beijing 🇨🇳
“As one of the fastest growing centers for innovation, Beijing finally has its own Singularity Chapter!”
— Si Shen, leadership team member
“Beijing represents perpetual motion and constant change.”
— Javier Fernández, leadership team member
SingularityU Brussels 🇧🇪
Jacques Colle, Johan Cattersel, John Breidenstine, Mercy Njima, Younis Hijazi
“Brussels is the EU capital where so many decisions are made each day for innovation and business. I look forward to the exponential Brussels & EU!”
— Younis Hijazi, leadership team member
“Through contacts with many executives my conviction grow that there is a necessity to increase the awareness about the possibilities of innovation, but also about the needed capabilities to make it happen. The SingularityU Brussels Chapter is a unique instrument to contribute to this.”
— Johan Cattersel, leadership team member
SingularityU Cairo 🇪🇬
Maie ElZeiny, Haider Ghaleb, Roxane Jurkovskaja, Jean-Christophe Quillet,
“Being a serial tech entrepreneur and a GSP 16 graduate myself, I understand the impact that exponential technology will bring to us and the importance of Singularity University. I believe strongly in the potential of Egypt, and would like to give others the opportunity to learn more about the future ahead of us, and hopefully inspire others to believe that Egypt can achieve great things!”
— Haider Ghaleb, leadership team member
“Across Egypt, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ventures have experienced an increase in popularity, this coupled by the new global possibilities in exponential technologies. We hope launching SU community in Cairo ignites entrepreneurs to know more about the possibilities of applying exponential technologies to develop solutions to improve people's life and pave the way to a better future in the region.”
— Maie ElZeiny, leadership team member
“Having been working with the United Nations in emerging economies and co-founded tech startups myself, I know that this region has a massive potential to apply exponential tech as a catalyst for positive change. It has the people, the talent, & the heart at the right place. I wish that the Cairo SingularityU Chapter will educate and inspire others, and also, hopefully, just be the beginning of a much bigger journey towards a greater future. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself - and this is what we intend to do ;) !”
— Roxane Jurkovskaja, leadership team member
“Last year I had the great opportunity to participate in GSP 16 where I learned and had hands-on experience with bio-engineering, space-mining, robotics and A.I. Being an engineer and having been working with machine learning for the past years, I truly believe that artificial intelligence will help us to overcome some of the many challenges that humanity is facing. It is really exciting to be part of kick-starting this incredible journey with the SingularityU Chapter in Egypt - and I can’t wait to see the chain reaction and the positive impact that this will bring!"
— Jean-Christophe Quillet, leadership team member
SingularityU Caracas 🇻🇪
Albermar Domínguez, Carlos Aguiló, Daniel Knobelsdorf
“An essential step to development, is to create an ecosystem of change-makers, able to use technology as an accelerator to progress. SingularityU Caracas Chapter is such a space.”
— Albermar Domínguez, leadership team member
“Kickstarting the SingularityU Caracas Chapter it’s the first step in building a local community that can once again bring the future closer to all levels of Venezuelan society, making it a key part of its narrative.”
— Daniel Knobelsdorf, leadership team member
“In one of our most turbulent times of Venezuela’s history, embracing the Singularity Chapter will open the conversation to embrace exponential technologies for the empowerment of societies creative forces.”
— Carlos Aguiló, leadership team member
SingularityU Chicago 🇺🇸
Alexandra Goodwin, Cierra Luckett, Darryl Palmer, Maryam Palmer, Perrin Reed
“Our team truly believes that answers to many socio-economic challenges can be found through the use of exponential technologies. We decided to form a team in Chicago, a robust innovative community in the Midwest, with its highly supportive academic, industrial, and business communities, because we see a huge number of socio-minded people, that would benefit from Singularity University network and programming. We would like to help Singularity University be more known in the Midwest and be an inspiration to young innovators.”
— Alexandra Goodwin, leadership team member
“Before I was invited to become part of the Chicago Leadership Team, I knew absolutely nothing about Singularity University. Since then I’ve had a chance to really look into the program and I’m seriously impressed by both the goals of Singularity, and more importantly by the “Theory of Change” that defines the processes to actually try to achieve these goals.”
— Maryam Palmer, leadership team member
“I’m thrilled to be part of the SingularityU Chapter in Chicago. My hope is that our events provide a forum for discussion of the world’s greatest challenges and of how exponential technologies can be applied as a force for good. I look forward to engaging fledgling innovators in these topics as much as I look forward to learning from the expertise of the innovation community already tackling these issues.” quotes go here from this quarter.”
— Perrin Reed, leadership team member
SingularityU Chihuahua 🇲🇽
“One of the main reasons for bringing a SingularityU Chapter to our city is to use it as a platform for change, where we will connect, inspire, challenge and guide our citizens and our innovation ecosystem. To build a city of exponential thinkers and doers for a POSITIVE IMPACT.”
— Eduardo Trevino, leadership team member
SingularityU Islamabad 🇵🇰
Amir Jahangir, Azfar Jahangir, Hasan Saeed, Parisey Tariq, Puruesh Chaudhary, Dr. Saad Liaquat, Dr. Shahid Mahmud, Yusuf Hussain
“Connecting communities of interest, entrepreneurs and legislators is one of the reason’s for creating SingularityU Islamabad Chapter; this is where the leadership feels it can enable exponential thinking to solve global grand challenges around learning and prosperity.”
— Puruesh Chaudhary, leadership team member
“We hope the community becomes more aware of the implications of the fourth industrial wave and is therefore in a better position to benefit from it.”
— Yusuf Hussain, leadership team member
“The Islamabad Chapter will connect the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem in Pakistan with the world.”
— Amir Jahangir, leadership team member
SingularityU León 🇲🇽
Enrique Marumoto, Fran Durán, Misraim Macías
“Creating this Chapter represents an opportunity to unify a group of people in our Municipality that are worried about how can we face the global challenges from the local perspective. Having this Chapter will increase the possibility to match the hidden talent of the City with the exponential technologies that are being developed all around the world to address the majors challenges of our Community.”
— Enrique Marumoto, leadership team member
“Being Part of the SU global network is a great challenge and a big responsibility because we can provoke great changes within our community, everything we do must be oriented to create a better place to live. Personally, I am excited to start this journey and being part of the SU community to share knowledge and create a more connected world.”
— Misraim Macias, leadership team member
SingularityU Munich 🇩🇪
Marc Frey, Oliver Hellriegel, Thorsten Linz
““As a Singularity University EP Alumni, I have learned how exponential technology can help to solve global grand challenges. I am looking forward how we can build and mobilize our SingularityU Munich community to foster innovation and impact in our part of the world.”
— Thorsten Linz, leadership team member
“To make meaningful solutions to the daunting challenges of the future, it is critical to attract companies and leaders of all kind. With the chapter we have the tool to bring together the stakeholders to make an impact for the better.”
— Marc Frey, leadership team member
“The SingularityU Munich Chapter is a community-driven group working collaboratively with Singularity University to bring together science, society and businesses. The chapter is focused on emerging technologies and global trends, encouraging the community to discuss the resulting challenges on science, the workplace and the society.”
— Oliver Hellriegel, leadership team member
SingularityU Okinawa 🇯🇵
Hikari Nonaka, Jovan Rebolledo
“I was born in Okinawa and I want to contribute to this city for making Okinawa as a hub of destructive innovation by having this chapter connecting communities in SingularityU network.”
— Hikari Nonaka, leadership team member
“The Chapter is meaningful, to make a positive impact to a billion people in the world from Okinawa in next 10 years, based on the concepts that we want to share/ talk in the meetings we eventually will hold.”
— Jovan Rebolledo, leadership team member
SingularityU Oslo 🇳🇴
Alexander Hagerup, Anders Haakon Lier, Anita Brede, Fredrik Winther, Isabelle Ringnes, Kristoffer Røil, Tharald Nustad
“I was fortunate to attend Singularity University’s global solutions program in 2016. It was the best learning experience of my life. I’ve felt incredibly privileged and fortunate to have had this experience and feel an urge to extend the essence and insight of the SU community to my home city. I am very excited to make the SU spirit more accessible to Norway. I am hoping the SingularityU Chapter in Oslo will provide an innovative space for like-minded people to connect, learn and collaborate on new ideas. I hope the SU-vision will stimulate global thinking and exponential mindsets.”
— Isabelle Ringnes, leadership team member
“”We want to be an important driving force in changing finance, business and culture so that impact and purpose becomes the standard. We want to change the culture and mindset of humanity to go into the next level: the collaborative society”
— Anders H. Lier, leadership team member
“Norway is the world’s happiest country and is becoming a startup mecca. We want to build on our high trust and build the world we want to live in. We believe in making a positive impact. We believe in technology as the key driver for change and we believe in the untapped talent of the world”
— Kristoffer Roil, leadership team member
SingularityU Paris 🇫🇷
Christophe Pechoux, Delia Perez-Paya, Frédéric Krebs, Helga Stegmann, Isabel Gomez Garcia di Sori, Olivier Soufflot
“”No doubt technology can help make the world a better place. But it is not all about technology. It is also about the people who want to make a difference, people who are ready to tackle Global Grand Challenges. Creating a SingularityU Chapter in Paris is an opportunity to extend and join forces with the fast-growing communities around the world who are already building this paradigm shift.”
— Olivier Soufflot, leadership team member
“Within the SingularityU Paris Chapter Leadership Team, we have different backgrounds with complementary skills and experiences. This, together with the collaborative principles we have set and the active openness to collaborate with other Chapters, we aim at creating a platform of exchanges and idea creation, exporting the SU experience and building an exponential network motivate to address the Global Challenges.”
— Delia Perez-Paya, leadership team member
“” Over the last couple of years, Paris has demonstrated it is now a hotbed of talents working for a better future. In this context, it is particularly a good time for SU to begin a Chapter in the City of Light.”
— Frédéric Krebs, leadership team member
SingularityU Shanghai 🇨🇳
Dora Ke, Giuseppe Baldini, Jiarong Dong, Olga Yanovskaya, Patrik Sandin, Richard Hsu, Sapphire Tang
“The Shanghai SU Chapter will be able to culturally translate SU’s exponential content for China, making it accessible to a plurality of agents and communities.”
— Richard Hsu 徐宗漢, leadership team member
“I am part of the SingularityU Shanghai Chapter to continue the exponential learning journey I started at SU and to surround myself with a group of people passionate about technology and its role in solving world’s biggest problems.”
— Jiarong (Tonya) Dong, leadership team member
“China is set to become a technological superpower in several areas that will be crucial in the development of humankind, such as AI, genetic engineering and renewable energy. We want this Chapter to be a catalyst of actions for technology as a means for a better future.”— Giuseppe Baldini, leadership team member
SingularityU Tallinn 🇪🇪
“SingularityU Tallinn is based in Estonia — the birthplace of Skype and a country that has emerged as one of the most advanced digital nations in the last 20 years. During the next 20 years we will see an even greater disruption thanks to the convergence of exponential technologies that will affect every aspect of our society. I believe Estonia can have a positive impact globally by being at the forefront of this transformation through relentless innovation and bold implementation of new ideas.
The goal of SingularityU Tallinn is to bring together the brightest minds in our region to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges and inspire the next generation of exponential leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers. We want to be the catalyst for moving our society into the abundant future.” quotes go here from this quarter.”
— Siim Saare, leadership team member
SingularityU Toulouse 🇫🇷
Capucine Ortoli, Marie Robin, Matthieu Besozzi, Max Bailey, Vicky Nikolov
“I attended the Exponential Strategy Program last year and I felt very at home, doing the right thing with the right creative, fast-forward thinking, yet at the same time so humble… people motivated for designing a better world. I would like to contribute to this by building a local community: by imagining our future, we are building it. I want to be part of this and I want to share this positive vision of the future. I want people understand they can contribute to that bright future. It is our world, our technologies, our humanity: let’s make it more conscious and abundant.”
— Capucine Ortoli, leadership team member
“Why did we want to create a SingularityU chapter for Toulouse France? For me the purpose is clear: to create space for the humanistic, creative, innovative, and future thinking people in the area to come together, to discover what emerges. I believe that by creating this space we will unleash something that may be unpredictable, but very exciting!”
— Max Bailey, leadership team member
“I’m living in a world that doesn’t fit my expectations in terms of humanity, environment, food, business integrity… creating a SingularityU Chapter is a step, amongst the little steps I can make, to make it change. I strongly believe that collective intelligence in action is key to creating the world we believe in. quotes go here from this quarter.”
— Marie Robin, leadership team member
