A signature series designed to bring together bold ideas, lived experience, and future-shaping perspectives from across the global SEP community. More than traditional presentations, SEP Talks are curated, high-impact conversations where founders, CEOs, investors, innovators, academics, and changemakers share the ideas, failures, breakthroughs, and tensions shaping the next decade.
Each session is designed to challenge assumptions, spark meaningful dialogue, and deliver actionable insight into the forces redefining business, technology, leadership, and society, all within a dynamic, short-format experience designed to maximize impact and engagement.
Human × Machine
What happens when intelligence is no longer exclusively human?
How Long Can Your AI Work Without You?
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Most of us use AI as an advisor—but the bigger opportunity may be turning it into an operator. Felix explores what needs to change before AI agents can safely work independently for hours or even days, and how their autonomy horizon can expand from minutes to 24 hours and beyond.
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Coming soon.
The Missing Foundation for Physical AI: Building the Social Brain for Robots
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As AI moves beyond screens and into the physical world, intelligence alone may no longer be enough. Sharon explores the rise of socially autonomous robots and why the ability to understand, interact and respond to people could become a defining layer of the next generation of Physical AI.
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Dr. Sharon Yang is the co-founder and CTO of IntBot, a Silicon Valley robotics startup developing a Social Intelligence Platform for robots. Previously a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel, she led global engineering teams and technology initiatives deployed across Intel platforms and partner ecosystems. She holds 161 patents worldwide, has published 37 peer-reviewed papers, earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.
Migration of consciousness to digital substrate
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Markets × Behavior
Are we still building for the customer we used to know?
Chinese Investment and Equities Major Market Cycles
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Drawing on more than 35 years investing in China, Andy looks back at the major cycles that have shaped the country’s investment and equities markets since the early 1990s. He explores what those periods can teach today’s investors—and why understanding China’s past investment environment is essential to thinking about its future.
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Andy Mantel is a longtime China investor who spent more than 35 years living and investing across Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei, managing China-focused assets for global and government-linked investors. After selling his China investment business in 2024, he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and founded Ten Events Ventures, a multi-family office focused on early- to mid-stage sports, lifestyle, and health & wellness ventures globally.
Where AI Meets the Physical World: Responsible AI in Travel
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Travel may be AI’s largest experiment in the physical world. Liz explores what happens when AI moves beyond software to guide travelers, deploy service robots, shape crisis response and influence destinations—and what other industries can learn from travel about deploying AI responsibly when technology begins to affect real people in real places.
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Capital × Opportunity
Are we still building for the customer we used to know?
Building an AI Factory is an strategic path to accelerate AI Adoption within Large Corporations
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How do you turn AI from isolated experiments into a true corporate capability? Aitor shares the experience of building an AI Factory inside a large global technology company—from identifying opportunities and deploying AI agents to creating the governance, teams and skills needed to scale. More than a collection of use cases, the model shows how AI can become an engine for broader business transformation.
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Implementing large scale technologies to improve human's lives
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Coming soon.
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Kairat Akhmetov is CEO of Freedom Telecom, where he leads the expansion of wireless broadband across Kazakhstan. He also co-founded Sergek, an AI and computer-vision company developing technology for road safety, and runs the Akhmetov Family Office with his wife Aliya, investing across AI, energy, transport and real estate. He is a Stanford SEP 2024 alumnus and YPO member.
The new geography of innovation
Are we still looking for the future in yesterday’s places?
Unlocking Central Asia venture capital. Why is it time to invest in the region: talent, growth, strategic positions
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Central Asia may be emerging as one of the world’s next technology and investment frontiers. Drawing on his work with founders, banks and governments across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Victor explores why the region’s young population, rapidly evolving regulation, available energy and proximity to China could create a structural opportunity—particularly as AI reshapes infrastructure and capital needs.
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Victor Orlovski is the founder and General Partner of R136 Ventures, a $400M venture fund investing in AI, fintech and B2B software. Before becoming an investor, he spent 18 years building and scaling banking technology, including leading a 15,000-person engineering organization and developing digital banking platforms serving tens of millions of users. Today, he focuses on helping founders scale companies and technology globally.
Global Infrastructure x AI
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As AI reshapes global infrastructure, the challenge is not only what we build, but how we build it. Ojonimi explores a vision for supply chain infrastructure designed to advance technology while remaining in harmony with people and the planet.
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Ojonimi Bako is co-founder and CEO of Kaya AI, with more than 15 years of experience driving technology innovation and strategy. Previously, he led innovation and partnerships at Shiseido Group and served as Head of Innovation at Walmart Labs in San Francisco. He is also an active angel investor in early-stage AI and eCommerce startups and a limited partner in two venture capital firms.
Two SEPers in the Family - Building in China for 20+ Years
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What does it take to build across borders for more than two decades? Rachel shares how a Chinese–South African partnership built five businesses in China, using trust, complementary strengths, local knowledge and global networks to identify opportunities and adapt as China and the world around it changed. It is a story of entrepreneurship, timing, resilience and long-term value creation.
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Rachel Wu is Co-Founder and Managing Director of ANDAMAN PARTNERS, with more than 20 years of experience building and leading businesses across China, Asia, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. Her expertise spans international strategy, procurement, supply chain and business operations, including previous global and regional leadership roles at Axis Group International, a DP World company.
leadership × life
As everything around us changes, what shouldn’t?
Unlocking Central Asia venture capital. Why is it time to invest in the region: talent, growth, strategic positions
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High performance and wellbeing don’t have to compete. Merja explores how brain fitness—through recovery, attention, agency and the way we respond to stress—can create better conditions for thinking and performing. For leaders, the question becomes not simply how much people can handle, but what conditions we build for them to do their best work sustainably.
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Merja Ranta-aho is an organisational psychologist, executive advisor and Head of Organisational Performance at Mental Race Oy. With more than two decades of experience in people, culture and organisational development, she previously served as Executive Vice President of HR at Elisa. A Stanford Executive Program 2019 alumna and doctoral researcher at Aalto University, her work connects organisational psychology, leadership and human performance.
How to successfully transition from C-Level into a Board Role
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Moving from leading an organization to serving on a board requires a different kind of preparation. Markus explores how executives can strategically structure that transition, position their experience and prepare themselves to be selected for attractive board opportunities.
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Fondazione Telethon and its model: How to nurture the dream of a society where no one is left behind.
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What happens when a charity takes on a role traditionally reserved for pharmaceutical companies? Ilaria shares the Fondazione Telethon model and its work bringing therapies for ultra-rare conditions toward regulatory approval, exploring how a nonprofit approach can help address diseases that might otherwise be left behind—and advance the vision of a society where no one is forgotten.
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Coming soon.
Share Your Ideas at SEP Talks
If you have an idea worth sharing, we invite you to be part of this session
Watch the SEP Talks
from SEP Reunion 2025
Share Your Ideas at SEP Talks
If you have an idea worth sharing, we invite you to be part of this session.