How We Got There: Deep Tech Leaders
Deep Tech companies are quickly helping technologies like 3D Printers and wearable health devices, once merely figments of our imaginations, advance from research labs to fixtures of everyday life and even key solutions to solve global problems.
Meet the women leaders who are changing the (Deep) Tech game! They will share insights into how they got to where they are today, the unique opportunities and challenges of being a women Deep Tech leader, the successful projects and initiatives under their leadership and what’s next in Deep Tech.
This event series is of course open to all genders — anyone who supports the careers of women in business and tech is welcome to attend.
Date: 29 March 2022, Tuesday
Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm (Singapore Time / UTC +8)
Programme:
12:30pm - 12:35pm: Welcome Remarks
12:35pm - 1:30pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A on How We Got There: Deep Tech Leaders with:
- Anansa Ahmed, Managing Director, QuikPath Pte Ltd
- Peiru Teo, CEO, KeyReply
- Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO, Coviu Global
- Jessica Koh, Chief Product & Data Engineer, WhiteCoat Global
- Moderator: Maggie Liuzzi, Machine Learning Engineer, Q-CTRL
Speakers' Profiles:
Anansa Ahmed, Managing Director, QuikPath Ptd Ltd
Anansa Ahmed founded the MedTech company QuikPath at the start of the pandemic to provide alternative testing solutions for Covid19. During the circuit breaker in March 2020, and working from her kitchen, she developed the technology that became the first indigenously developed diagnostic solution of its class to be registered in Singapore.
She has since grown the company from an idea to seed stage and now heads strategy and operations at QuikPath.
A PhD graduate from Nanyang Technological University, Anansa has worked in a number of deep tech areas, including biotech, robotics and materials science. A firm believer in the value of scientists and engineers stepping out of the lab to lead successful companies, she actively encourages and mentors women in STEM to to take the entrepreneurial plunge.
Peiru Teo, CEO, KeyReply
Peiru is the CEO of KeyReply, which utilises AI in natural language processing to build smart virtual agents to help healthcare organizations in patient engagement. KeyReply works with Parkway Hospitals, National Healthcare Group, Ministry of Health Transformation Office (Singapore), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and AIA.
The global pandemic has only hastened the world’s need for more remote access to healthcare, keeping updated with rapid medical developments and requires healthcare institutions to do more with less.
All these needs only add to the manpower crunch and pressure on clinicians and patient support staff. At the same time, customers and patients are also demanding more than before, in terms of speed and quality of customer support and care.
These are what KeyReply is focused on solving. Peiru hopes to impact millions of people daily with KeyReply’s work by making knowledge and information accessible to all through natural language.
Peiru started her career as a management associate with Citi, and subsequently joined a private equity firm, managing investments over S$4 billion. As a seasoned entrepreneur, she has been featured in The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, radio and media like Channel News Asia for entrepreneurship and business digital transformation. She is a valedictorian with a BEng from NTU.
Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO, Coviu Global
Dr Silvia Pfeiffer is the CEO of Coviu, a cloud application that enables healthcare providers to set up video consultation services for patients and to collaborate on patient cases with peers. Coviu has achieved over 6.5m telehealth consultations and continues to grow.
Silvia has more than 20 years of experience with Web video technology. She has previously worked for Google, Mozilla, NICTA, and CSIRO and has been a co-editor on several specifications at the W3C that define Web video standards. She has also authored two textbooks on HTML5 video.
Silvia has a double degree in computer science and business management and a PhD in Computer Science. She is a unique combination of researcher, software engineer, standards author and technology founder with Coviu being her second startup.
Jessica Koh, Chief Product & Data Engineer, WhiteCoat Global 
As WhiteCoat's Chief Product & Data Officer, Jessica designs and oversees the product and data roadmap across WhiteCoat's suite of service offerings, and is also responsible for implementing new features in alignment with company objectives. Additionally, she leads the rigorous enhancement of WhiteCoat's platform products using data-driven insights, to drive continuous improvements in user experience and further WhiteCoat's vision of providing an innovative healthcare experience. As a true champion of self-development, Jessica currently devotes her weekends to school, as she is also currently reading her Master's degree of Technology in Enterprise Business Analytics at NUS ISS.
Moderator: Maggie Liuzzi, Machine Learning Engineer, Q-CTRL
Maggie has always been passionate about trying new things and constantly challenging herself. She has a growth mindset and is an optimiser by nature. As a flexible and highly resourceful individual, she loves turning ideas into successful projects.
She has dipped her toes in various industries, from business development and digital marketing at Google to not-for-profit, banking, LiDAR, autonomous vehicles, and more recently quantum technology.
During her Bachelors in Economics in Argentina, Maggie learned to see the world from the lens of mathematics, statistics and business. She then started teaching herself how to code out of curiosity and went on to do a Masters in Software Development in Australia to further develop her skills. She completed her Masters degree with a research project involving some cute Pepper robots at UTS’ Social Robotics Lab - which won RoboCup’s Home category in 2019. Last year she published a paper using Deep Reinforcement Learning to optimize quantum gates, and is now delving into the world of Product Management as a way of leveraging her diverse and unique skill set.
As a product-focused Machine Learning Engineer, she uses novel algorithms to solve interesting R&D problems and then leads efforts to turn her findings into engaging products for users to enjoy at scale.
Maggie is involved with various nonprofits that teach coding to kids and teenagers, with a focus on women. She suspects that if she had had that level of exposure to computer science during high school, it would have captivated her right away. That’s her wish for future generations.
