Press Conferences for Annual Meeting of the New Champions
2014
Tianjin, People's Republic of China 8-13 September
Programme
As of 8 September 2014 – for an updated schedule please check https://mtkiosk.weforum.org/apps
Wednesday 10 September
09.00 - 09.30
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
European Research Council- creating value through science
ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and ERC Scientific Council member Sierd
Cloetingh will speak about how investing in curiosity-driven frontier research sparks
new breakthroughs. They will also discuss how the ERC is contributing to the global
brain circulation by supporting scientists from anywhere in the world, including China.
Speakers
 Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President, European Research Council, Belgium;
Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014
 Sierd Cloetingh, Member of the Scientific Council, European Research Council,
Belgium
 Aikaterini Fotopoulou, Associate Professor, Division of Psychology and
Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London (UCL),
United Kingdom; Young Scientist
10.00 - 10.30
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Mentors Press Conference
Mentors
 Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Tata
Consultancy Services, India; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions
2014
 Paul E. Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm, USA; Mentor of the Annual
Meeting of the New Champions 2014
 Subra Suresh, President, Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Mentor of the Annual
Meeting of the New Champions 2014
Moderated by
 Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Head of Public Engagement, World Economic
Forum
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11.30 - 12.00
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Using Data to Big Decisions
At the press conference PwC will share with you their key findings from a new report
on what 1,135 senior executives worldwide discovered about fine tuning decision
making as the next evolution of competitive advantage. Discover why intuition is not
enough in today’s decision making and how data and analytics can play a critical role.
Speakers
 Paul Blase, Principal, PwC, USA
 Daniel DiFilippo, Global and US Data and Analytics Leader, PwC, USA
12.30 - 13.00
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Global Competitiveness Report launch
This year's Global Competitiveness Report assesses the competitiveness landscape
of 144 countries, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and future
prosperity. This year's report looks at the growing importance of structural reforms,
smart investments and public-private collaboration in helping to ensure sustainable
economic growth.
Speakers
 Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, Director and Lead Economist, Global
Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum
 Espen Barth Eide, Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board, World
Economic Forum
14.00 - 14.30
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Mentors Press Conference 2
Mentors
 Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President, European Research Council, Belgium;
Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014
 Dong Mingzhu, Chairperson and President, Gree Electric Appliances of Zhuhai,
People's Republic of China; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions
2014
 Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Gilt Groupe, USA; Mentor of the Annual
Meeting of the New Champions 2014
Moderated by
 Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Head of Public Engagement, World Economic
Forum
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Thursday 11 September
09.00 - 09.30
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Scenarios for the South Caucasus and Central Asia
The Forum’s Scenarios for the South Caucasus and Central Asia explore whether
regional economic collaboration could help countries in the region best attain their
goals for sustainable prosperity, and tests the region’s aspirations against plausible
future worlds.
Speakers
 Ali Abbasov, Minister of Communication and High Technologies of Azerbaijan
 George Kvirikashvili, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and
Sustainable Development of Georgia
From the World Economic Forum
 Kristel Van der Elst, Senior Director, Head of Strategic Foresight, World
Economic Forum
10.00 - 10.45
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Redefining Global Competitive Dynamics: 2014 BCG Global Challengers
New, from the Boston Consulting Group, the sixth edition of the BCG 100 global
challengers —a list of 100 fast-growing and fast-globalizing companies from emerging
markets. These companies are growing up, just like their home markets. We’ll
highlight how they are acquiring sustainable advantages, what new categories are
emerging and why more companies “graduated” from the list to become global leaders
in their industries. The work of global challengers is not yet done. BCG will describe
how they need to develop deeper benches of talent, strengthen their people practices
and develop advantages built around innovation.
Speakers
 Rich Lesser, Global Chief Executive Officer and President, The Boston
Consulting Group, USA
 Carol Liao, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group,
Hong Kong SAR
 Christoph Nettesheim, Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston
Consulting Group (BCG), Singapore
12.15 - 12.45
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Advances in Brain research
The advances in brain research will be discussed.
Speakers
 Thomas R. Insel, Director, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
 Li Wu, Director, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning,
IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University (BNU),
People's Republic of China
 Feng Zhang, Core Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA
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Thursday 11 September
13.00 - 13.30
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Climate Shape
The World Economic Forum launched a challenge to Global Shapers to help combat
climate change, with 100,000 CHF in grants to be awarded. The Grand Prize Winner
of the Climate Shape Initiative will be announced in this press conference.
Speakers
 Murray Nicol, Senior Media Manager, Global Leadership fellow, World Economic
Forum, Switzerland
 Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Statkraft,
Norway
15.30 - 16.00
Meijiang
Convention and
Exhibition Center Press Conference
Room
Press Conference
Responding to the Ebola outbreak
Pardis Sabeti will update the press on the latest insights from her experience
responding to the Ebola outbreak.
Speakers
 Jeffrey M. Drazen, Editor-in-Chief, The New England Journal of Medicine, USA
 Pardis Sabeti, Associate Professor, Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology,
USA; Young Global Leader
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