Category: 2021 Speaker

Born on July 28, 1965, Amb. Sanjay Kumar Verma graduated from Patna University and then pursued a Post-Graduate degree in Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Amb. Sanjay Kumar Verma is an officer of the 1988 batch of Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He was stationed at the Consulate General of India, Hong Kong and at the Embassy of India in China, Vietnam and Turkey, before serving as the Consul General of India in Milan, Italy. Amb. Verma was also the Indian Ambassador to the Republic of Sudan. Following his tenure in Sudan, Amb. Verma served as Joint Secretary (Global Estate Management) in MEA, New Delhi. Prior to his arrival in Japan as the Ambassador of India, Amb. Verma was posted in MEA, New Delhi as Additional Secretary (Administration) and was also in charge of the Cyber Diplomacy Division.

Amb.Verma is deeply passionate about Information Technology, Artificial intelligence, Cyber Diplomacy, delivery of people-centric services using interactive technologies, guiding and facilitating small businesses and investors, etc.

He reads, writes and speaks Hindi, English and Chinese (Mandarin). He has conversational skills in Bengali as well.

Amb. Verma is married with a son and a daughter.

Professor at Metrópole Digital Institute at UFRN and coordinator of Internacionaliza RN Network by UFRN, he participated in creating the Business Incubator Inova Metrópole and the Tech Park Metrópole Digital, where he was director from 2014 to 2017 and from 2017 to 2020, respectively. He was President of the Potiguar Network of Incubators and Parks (REPIN) from 2017 to 2020. He holds a Doctorate (2012) and a Master’s (2008) from the Systems and Computing program at UFRN. His main areas of activity and interest are Technological Innovation and Fuzzy Theory.

Sankar Sivarajah is a Professor of Technology Management and Circular Economy and the Dean and Head of School of Management at University of Bradford.

He holds a PhD in Management Studies from Brunel University London, a MSc with Distinction in Management specialising in Entrepreneurship from Bayes Business School (previously known as Cass), City University London and a first-class BSc (Hons) in Business and Management specialising in Computer Sciences from Brunel University London.

His passion for research and teaching is interdisciplinary in nature focusing on the use of emerging digital technology for the betterment of society, be it in a business or government context. He has published over 50 scientific articles in leading peer-reviewed journals and conferences. His research has featured in reputable media/trade publications such as The World Economic Forum, BBC Yorkshire, Computer Weekly and The Conversation.

To date, he has a successful track record as Principal and Co-investigator in over £3 million worth of Research and Innovation and consultancy projects funded by reputable funding bodies and commercial organisations. Some of the notable funders have been the European Commission (FP7, H2020, Marie Curie), Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Innovate UK/DEFRA and British Council focusing on projects addressing business and societal challenges surrounding themes such as AI Innovation Strategy Development, Smart Cities and Sustainable Sociteties.

He is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a member of the British Academy of Management (BAM).

Gayaneh Issayan studied technical Physics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Since 2018, she is affiliated with the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in Energy Research Group ASiC in thermochemical energy storage field. And currently, she is working on her PHD-thesis.

Simon is an ecological economist. His work focuses on understanding the current economy in order to build a better one. He is currently working on questions of productivity, energy, value and work in sustainable economies. At Bradford, Simon is Lecturer in Circular Economy and is program lead for the Master in Business Administration in Innovation, Enterprise and Circular Economy.

Before Bradford, Simon worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey. Here he was researcher with the ESRC funded Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, and co-investigator on the ESRC funded “Powering Productivity”. He was also a teaching fellow at the University of Salford.

Simon is currently co-investigator on “Pedagogy Without Growth: An exploratory study of post-growth teaching in UK Business Schools”. Funded by the UK and Ireland Chapter of The UN Principles for Responsible Management Education, this project uses action research to explore teaching of degrowth and post-growth ideas in a management education context. He is also co-investigator on the NERC funded project ““Marine Spatial Planning Addressing Climate Effects (MSPACE)”. He leads a work package using input-output models to explore links between marine resources, climate change, and regional supply chains.

Simon’s academic work has been published in Ecological Economics, The Lancet Planetary Health, and The Journal of Cleaner Production, amongst others. In addition to his academic publications he has been published in outlets including BBC Future, New Socialist, and Current Affairs. He is currently UK country contact for the European Society of Ecological Economics.

Dr. Wipawee Usaha currently serves as the Director of the Center for International Affairs at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), Thailand. She is also the co-founder and R&D Advisor of an innovative health tech startup—a university research spin-off that developed wireless sensor insoles for fall prediction in the elderly. This is among SUT’s innovation which has been selected for display at the Thailand Pavilion during World Expo Osaka 2025.

Her work is dedicated to advancing affordable healthcare and wellness technologies for vulnerable populations, with a particular focus on the elderly and individuals with chronic health conditions.

Dr. Usaha’s research interests include wearable sensor technology, wireless sensor networks, signal processing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the Artificial Internet of Things (AIoT), and resource allocation in communication networks. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Communications and Signal Processing Group, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, U.K.