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SparkLabs Saudi Arabia Launch

NOV 2

12:00 pm-14:00 pm

Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC,

Saudi Arabia

The Speakers

FEATURED INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Entertainment Executive

Ted Kim

Global Media & Entertainment Executive

Ted is a veteran of building businesses in technology, entertainment, media and lifestyle, leveraging and monetizing brands, platforms and IP globally as an international corporate executive and entrepreneur.

Ted most recently served on the Board of Directors at KAPE Technologies (LON: KAPE) and was Head of North America for Private Internet Access (PIA) from January 2020 until January 2022. Ted served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer before becoming the Chief Executive Officer of PIA in March of 2016, helping to set vision and mission while overseeing all operations, ultimately leading PIA to a nine figure acquisition by KAPE in December of 2019.

Ted was concurrently the CEO of PIA’s parent company, London Trust Media (LTM) whose portfolio of media and entertainment companies grew to include the Legacy Fighting Alliance, the largest MMA developmental league for the UFC with a broadcast and streaming deal at UFC’s Fight Pass, Character Media, the leading Asian American lifestyle publication and events company, and Linux Journal.

Previously, Ted started and led the US business of CJ ENM, a Korea based conglomerate and its globalization efforts for over a decade overseeing theatrical exhibition, distribution, film production, concerts, esports, live events and television, including managing CJ’s long term relationships as an investor, producer and distributor or Korean content. Ted spearheaded CJ’s efforts to produce and distribute Korean films, television shows and music in the US as well as leading cross-border transactions with global media companies, lifestyle brands and celebrities worldwide.

Ted last served CJ as the CEO and President of MNET America, setting vision, mission and strategy as well as overseeing all aspects of operations. As primarily a Korean music and lifestyle cable network, MNET America identified and aggregated the then nascent KPOP audience which culminating in the inaugural launch of KCON, the world’s leading KPOP music festival and K-lifestyle convention. KCON ushered in and planted the flag for CJ, cementing its position as the global leader in KPOP and all Korean content.

Akash Nigam

Co-founder & CEO at Genies

Akash Nigam is the CEO & founder of Genies, an avatar technology company empowering developers to create an interoperable “mini games” avatar social network using the genies AR Developer Kit. A tech visionary with a knack for innovation, Akash has successfully positioned Genies as the go-to for global celebrities, developers, and creators fueled by a 2D model early on, followed by 3D, and now AI-infused smart avatar offering.

Under Nigam’s leadership, Genies has raised $250M from investors such as Silver Lake, BOND, NEA, and Bob Iger, bringing its value to $1 billion. SparkLabs Global Ventures invested in Genie's seed round. Recently, Genies has built meaningful opportunities for fans and developers to build, engage and monetize on emerging ecosystems. This reflects his vision of a world where digital identities are as important and expressive as our physical ones. Akash is also the Founder and GP of Humans, an early stage venture fund investing at the intersection of AI and AR for culture.

Startup Founder

Rawan Albutairi

Executive Director of International Affairs at the Saudi Esports Federation

In Sik Rhee

General Partner at Vertex Ventures U.S.

Serial Entrepreneur

Hanjoo Lee

Co-founder & Chairman at Bespin Global

Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Group

HanJoo Lee is a serial entrepreneur and a startup investor. He is passionate about Cloud, Startups and Global Entrepreneurship.

He co-founded Hostway with his college friends in 1998. HanJoo played active role in Hostway’s growth both in the US as well as internationally. He successfully exited the Hostway US business by selling the majority stake to a private equity firm for approximately $500 million.

In 2013, he co-founded SparkLabs Group, which has now invested in almost 500 startups across the globe. His latest venture is Bespin Global co-founded in 2015 and where he was the founding CEO. The company is a cloud managed service provider (MSP) operating in Korea, China, U.S., Singapore, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Japan. The company has grown to over 3,000 customers. Bespin Global has been recognized as a Visionary in 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Public Cloud IT Transformation Services for 2 years running. HanJoo is currently the Chairman of Bespin Global's rapidly growing global footprint and has raised over $285 million for the company.

HanJoo was born and raised in Korea and he is married with three children. He graduated with a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago.

Ivan Grlic

Co-founder & Managing Partner at SparkLabs Saudi Arabia

Ivan Grlic is a serial entrepreneur and problem solver. Ivan started his first business, CMT Group Balkan, in 2005, built and then sold it in 2009. He then became a partner and regional director of Naton HR for several years before starting his second business, Primus Group, in 2014. It is now one of the fastest-growing HR agencies in Eastern Europe. While he still owns it, it is under professional management.

Sun Data World was his third business in only his third decade. The goal of the company is to tap into Ethiopia’s vast renewable resources and build Data Center infrastructure and deploy the latest cloud services that will allow the country to become one of the digital hubs in Africa and the world in the years to come. He is an active seeker of opportunities in emerging and frontier markets, especially in energy and technology.

Serial Entrepreneur

In Sik brings almost 20 years of experience as an accomplished entrepreneur, advisor, and investor across a broad spectrum of technology-enabled markets. In Sik focuses his investments primarily on enterprise-enabling software platforms and services, as well as mobile, gaming, and digital media sectors.

Prior to starting VVUS in 2015, Insik served as General Partner at Rembrandt Venture Partners where he led investments in A Bit Lucky (acquired by Zynga), CloudOn (acquired by Dropbox), and Ooyala (acquired by Telstra). He was also a Venture Partner at Accel Partners, where he advised early-stage investments in Cloudera, Couchbase, and Facebook.

As a young entrepreneur, In Sik co-founded two market-defining venture-backed companies. He co-founded Kiva Software, a pioneer of the Application Server middleware market. There, he architected and developed one of industry's first Java application servers, deployed by customers such as E-Trade and Bank of America. Kiva was acquired by Netscape Communications in 1997 for US$180 million.

With his second startup Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), Insik helped usher in the cloud computing era and jumpstarted the data center automation software category. Loudcloud IPO’ed in 2001 and was acquired by HP for $1.6 billion in 2007.

He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and serves on the Executive Advisory Board for the College of Engineering.

Rawan Albutairi is an Executive Director of International Affairs at the Saudi Esports Federation. In her role, she manages relationships between the federation and entities abroad, including international governing bodies, ensuring that the vision for Saudi Arabia to become a global esports hub is achieved through collaborations and tournaments. Prior to this she worked in various sectors such as Telecom. & IT regulation focusing on digital media, Saudi Aramco secondment at the Ministry of Finance for G20 execution, Saudi Aramco in different financial accounting departments such as internal financial consulting, planning & performance management and capital budgeting. At the start of her career she was in the financial sector at the Saudi Hollandi Bank managing a range of clients from diverse sectors to ensure their lending requirements are fulfilled.

Rawan received the distinguished honor of being chosen as part of the first cohort of the Misk (Mohammed Bin Salman Foundation) Leaders 2030 Program, a delegate of Mosaic leadership program founded by HRH Prince of Wales, and founded few social initiatives with WEF and locally to elevate Saudi youth and prepare them to join the professional world. Rawan has an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, and a Bachelor of Science, Finance degree (with Honors) from the University of Maine.

Speakers

Agenda

NOV 2, 2023