TED Conferences, LLC is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in February 1984 as a tech conference, in which Mickey Schulhof gave a demo of the compact disc that was invented in October 1982. It has been held annually since 1990. TED covers almost all topics – from science to business to global issues – in more than 100 languages. Till date, more than 13000 TEDx events have been held in at least 150 countries.
Adora Svitak is an American writer, public speaker, former child prodigy, and activist. She did work for the Wikimedia Foundation as a communications associate.
Anand Gandhi is an Indian filmmaker, entrepreneur, media producer, innovator and systems researcher. He is also the founder/CEO of the Mumbai-based new media studio and systems think tank Memesys Culture Lab. His debut feature film Ship of Theseus (2013), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival won the National Film Award for Best Picture.
Jack Sim is the founder of the Restroom Association of Singapore, the World Toilet Organization, the World Toilet Day initiative and Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Hub. Formerly from the construction industry, he decided to devote the rest of his life to social work after attaining financial independence at the age of 40.
Natasha Tsakos is a conceptual director, interactive designer, and performance artist from Geneva, Switzerland, living in Florida. Her work explores the symbiosis of technology and live performance. She is the president and founder of NTiD inc.
June Cohen is an American producer and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of WaitWhat, a media company she co-founded with Deron Triff. WaitWhat creates the podcasts Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman, Should This Exist?, Meditative Story, and Spark & Fire. Cohen was also host of the podcast Sincerely X in its first season. Until December 2015, she was the Executive Producer of TED Media for TED. She led the effort to bring the conference online, launching the podcast series TEDTalks in 2006, the redesigned TED.com in 2007, the TED Open Translation Project in 2009, the TED Open TV Project in 2010 and TED Conversations in 2011. Cohen joined the TED staff in 2005. She also produced TED's year-round salons, edited the TED Blog, and co-curated and co-hosted the annual conference in Long Beach, with TED curator Chris Anderson. She lives in New York City.
Jim Stolze is a tech-entrepreneur located at Amsterdam Science Park, mostly known for his work in the world wide TEDx Community and the European Startup scene.
Sunitha Krishnan is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016.
Aditi Shankardass is a British neuroscientist.
Lara Stein Lara Stein is the founder and CEO of Boma Global. She is also the executive director (ED) of Women’s March Global, managing the Women's March movement and Chapters outside of the United States. Stein also acted as the interim executive director of MIT ReACT, a new institute-wide organization at MIT dedicated to developing a global educational platform for displaced populations and refugees. Ms. Stein was also the managing director (MD) of Singularity University’s global expansion and implementation strategy. Stein currently sits on the board of Equality Now and Lalela, a non-profit dedicated to education through the arts in South Africa.
Mikko Hermanni Hyppönen is a Finnish computer security expert, speaker and author. He is known for the Hyppönen Law about IoT security, which states that whenever an appliance is described as being "smart", it is vulnerable. He works as the Chief Research Officer at WithSecure and as the Principal Research Advisor at F-Secure.
Digital Life Design (DLD) is a global conference network, organized by Munich-based DLD Media, a company of Hubert Burda Media.
Arunachalam Muruganantham (Padman) is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and is credited for innovating grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. His mini-machines, which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads, have been installed in 23 of the 29 states of India in rural areas. He is currently planning to expand the production of these machines to 106 nations. The movie Period. End of Sentence. won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the year 2018. The 2018 Hindi film Pad Man was made on his invention, where he was portrayed by Akshay Kumar.
Aisha Chaudhary was an Indian author and motivational speaker. She is the author of the book My Little Epiphanies, published one day before her death. The 2019 Hindi film The Sky Is Pink is based on her life.
Adhik Kadam is an Indian social entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is on a peacebuilding and peacekeeping mission, working in the conflict zones of Jammu and Kashmir. Kadam has completed a master's degree in political science. He is a co-founder and the chairman of Borderless World Foundation, which is an NGO that works for the deprived and victimized people of the border areas of India. The NGO runs four orphanage homes for girls in four districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dhairya Dand is an Indian-born, American inventor and artist based in New York City.
Shobhana S. Kumar, an Indian female entrepreneur, who started India's first online queer (LGBT) bookstore, Queer-ink.com.
Subodh Kerkar is an Indian painter, sculptor and installation artist, and founder of the private art gallery Museum of Goa. He is known for his artworks and installations.
Anisha Singh is an Indian businesswoman and founder of She Capital, a female focused venture capital. She is also the founder and former CEO of Mydala.
