21 Dec December 21, 2020 – Serial Ted Yang, ViaBill Kristian Thøgersen and IBM Watson Works w Kendra DeKeyrel
Ted Yang – Co-Founder and CEO of 4-CT COVID-19 Charity Connection
For me, its not just absolute score card that matters, its
also the ride. In fact its only the ride!
Ted Yang
Ted Yang is a 13-time serial entrepreneur who has founded eleven startups and non-profits with total current revenues over $50MM, and several exits including Daily Voice, MediaCrossing, Highclere Spirits, the Stamford Innovation Center, and Social Venture Partners, CT. His career portfolio includes CTO and leadership positions at leading banks and funds including Ultra Capital, Citigroup, Tudor, Citadel, and Bridgewater. Ted is an angel investor, advisor to companies and VC / PE firms, Chairman of Connex International, and sits on several boards including ChemPacific Corporation and non-profits such as the Wiki Education Foundation. Ted and his wife Christine, a fashion-industry executive turned full-time mom, have a surviving son with autism and a daughter with physical disabilities, both aged 12. Ted is the author of Table for Five: A Father’s Story of Life, Love and Loss, a memoir about the birth of his premature triplets at 24 weeks, and how the experience of fatherhood redefined him, personally and professionally.
Kristian Thøgersen – President, North America at ViaBill
ViaBill’s customers have the ability to pay over time or pay later, but also helps the businesses by enabling them to let their customers pay later, so the customer can pay over time.
Kristian Thøgersen
Kristian Niedoborski Thøgersen is the North American President for ViaBill, a fintech service provider that has empowered merchants and members with its buy now, pay later payment solutions. ViaBill’s payments solution allows consumers to spread payments over time, showing a level of confidence in taking on new payment terms. The global scaleup handles half of the buy now, pay later transactions in Denmark, is rapidly expanding in Spain, and already has thousands of U.S. retailers who rely on ViaBill. According to ViaBill’s most recent data through Q2 2020, they have observed more purchases in certain categories this year: with an 84% increase in computer and accessories, a 41% increase in toys, a 39% increase in adult items, a 39% increase in food and drink, and a 34% increase in sports.
Kendra DeKeyrel – Director, Offering Management at IBM Internet of Things
We are going to see more of the hybrid working environment
where office space is used more for a destination for collaboration
and socialization. Its going to be more hospitality inspired.
Kendra DeKeyrel
Kendra DeKeyrel is an expert at understanding how technology helps organizations solve critical business problems. In Kendra’s more than 20 years with IBM, she has held various job roles spanning enterprise technology and system integration, strategic planning, business process optimization, management, offering management, and implementation. Most recently, Kendra was named Director of Offering Management for the new Watson Assistant for IoT product, where she will be responsible for the overall management and direction of the product. In her current role for the TRIRIGA portfolio at IBM, she focuses on bringing AI and IoT technologies together with core offerings to deliver greater value and insights to her customers. Recently, IBM announced Watson Works, a curated set of products that embeds Watson’s AI models and applications to help companies navigate many aspects of the return-to-workplace challenge following lockdowns put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.