[WEBCAST] Business as (Un)usual: Scientific and Business Perspectives on COVID-19 [Day 1]

Over 5.6 million people have been infected with COVID-19 globally and the disease has had profound implications for the corporate world, for innovation, and for global cooperation. In the face of this, how will businesses look in the era of COVID-19 and how can scientific and business leaders collaborate to foster innovative solutions to the challenges caused by the pandemic.  How might scientific insights guide the reshaping of business models around the world? Join the Asia Society Business Council for a dynamic, two-part webinar series on these questions where scientists and business leaders will share their insights to help us navigate a new future. 

This webinar is part of the Asia Society Business Council program series focused on COVID-19’s long-term impact on business. For this special two-day event, Asia Society teamed up with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), the OIST Foundation, and the International House of Japan to present scientific innovations that will shed light on how the business environment will adapt as we enter the post COVID-19 era.

These virtual discussions are designed to build on each other – from the day 1 webcast from Tokyo and Okinawa to the day 2 from New York City. Both discussions will be strategically steered and moderated by Bloomberg's Senior Asia Economy Reporter Michelle Jamrisko.

Moderator:

Michelle Jamrisko is Bloomberg's Senior Asia Economy Reporter, tracking regional developments across trade, monetary policy, economic growth and development, infrastructure and innovation. Now based in Singapore, she spent seven years in the Washington, D.C. bureau, covering the U.S. economy, Congress, and government procurement. Prior to Bloomberg, she was a White House correspondent for Kyodo News. Jamrisko holds an MA in Global Policy from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Government and English from the University of Virginia.

Day 1: June 23 7:30 a.m. JST (June 22 6:30 p.m. EDT)

COVID-19 has spread across the globe with unprecedented speed, reaching six continents in less than three months. Scientists are working to not only discover a long-term vaccination, but also to find short-term mitigation methods to hamper the spread. The ability to accomplish this is challenged by the fact that much scientific research cannot happen using remote communication tools. Many requirements of  scientific research, such as international travel and long periods spent sharing laboratory spaces, are the very things that help the spread of the virus. How are scientists from different fields utilizing their skills to add to the local and global short-term and long-term response and understanding of COVID-19? Join Asia Society and OIST’s Day 1 event with a panel of scientists doing cutting edge COVID-19 related research.

Speakers:

Prof. Mahesh Bandi grew up in India where he received his Bachelors' in Computer Engineering from the University of Madras in 1998. Following a two year stint in the Indian software industry, he earned his MS Electrical Engineering (2002), MS Physics (2004) and PhD Physics (2006), from the University of Pittsburgh. Following postdoctoral terms at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2006 - 2009) and Harvard University (2009 - 2011), he commenced appointment as Assistant Professor at OIST in 2012 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. Since 2018, he holds an adjunct appointment with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics and advises two governments on renewable energy policy.

Dr. Faisal Mahmood in an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Imaging from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and was a postdoctoral fellow at the department of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Mahmood is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, a member of the Harvard Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics (BIG) faculty and a full member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Cancer Center. His laboratory aims to utilize machine learning, data fusion, and medical image analysis to develop streamlined workflows for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic response prediction. His lab has been working on developing computational methods for analysis of pathology samples from COVID19 patients. 

Dr. Amy Shen is a Professor heading the Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Technology Graduate University. She earned her Ph.D in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a postdoc fellow at Harvard University, and held faculty positions at Washington University in St. Louis, and University of Washington in Seattle before moving to Okinawa, Japan in August 2014. Dr. Shen’s research program is focused on microfluidics, rheology, and self-assembly, with applications in biotechnology and nanotechnology. She has overseen the production of 2150 face shields that the Okinawan Prefectural Government has distributed to local hospitals, clinics, and airports.

Dr. Matthias Wolf is an Associate Professor, leading the Molecular Cryo-Electron Microscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. He holds a Master's degree in Pharmacy from Austria, received his Ph.D in Biophysics at Brandeis University in 2005 and was a Post-Doctoral Scholar at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston from 2005 to 2011. Dr. Wolf has set up serological testing for COVID-19 at OIST. His lab is focused on molecular virology and microbiology.

Day 2: June 23 8 a.m. EST (June 23 9 p.m. JST)

It is clear that COVID-19 hit the global economy hard. The IMF expects GDP per capita of over 170 nations to shrink along with a 3% contraction of the global GDP. Given all of this, how is the pandemic’s impact on the international economy going to affect business models and operations going forward?

COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of supply chains, business models, and growth plans. Short-term business models designed to meet Wall Street's expectations can have long-term consequences on a company’s stability, the environment, and society. The longer a business’ horizon is, the more it takes into account the well being of future generations.  How can businesses be persuaded to favor long-term ethical planning? Undoubtedly, COVID-19 will force businesses to rethink their resources, strategies, inventories and reinvent ways to analyze consumer patterns and supply chains.

The Asia Society Policy Institute and many other organizations are expecting countries to place more scrutiny on foreign investments. Will companies shift from having an international focus to a domestic one, and is that even possible in an interconnected global economy? Join Asia Society and OIST’s Day 2 event with a panel of business experts discussing how Day 1 Scientific research will guide the long term business models.

Speakers:

Helen Brown has more than 25 years’ experience in writing, speaking and analysing complex subjects and issues. She regularly travels to Asia and lived and worked in Indonesia for four years as the Indonesia Correspondent for the ABC.  She left her career as a journalist and created the Bisnis Asia start-up which trains executives to understand culture when going into a new market in Asia.  For three years she was the Fellow for Digital Economy with The Australia Indonesia Centre. She now leads its communications and outreach team to explain the Centre's work in multi-disciplinary research with Universities in both countries.

Jesper Koll is CEO of WisdomTree Japan. Over the past two decades Koll has been consistently ranked as one of the top Japan strategist and economists, working as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for major U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government advisory committees and Jesper is also one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. He has written two books in Japanese, Towards a New Japanese Golden Age and The End of Heisei Deflation. After arriving in Japan in 1986 Jesper initially worked as an aide to a Member of Parliament. Koll has a Master’s degree from the School of Advanced and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and was a research fellow at both Tokyo University and Kyoto University. He is a graduate of the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific. He is a Founding Member of Asia Society Japan.

Ashwini Kumar Tewari is the Country Head of the US Operations of State Bank of India since April 2017, which includes its offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Sao Paulo (Brazil). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Electrical), is a CFPCM certificant, and ACAMS certified. He is a career banker with over 27 years’ experience with State Bank of India in India and outside. Having joined as a directly recruited officer in 1991, Tewari has expertise in driving business, administration and HR. He has handled assignments in diverse areas of Credit, International Banking and Retail Banking, including Business Process Re-engineering. Tewari was involved in the Bank technology upgrades in Core Banking and Internet Banking platforms and acquisitions of a new Trade platform. Prior to his current assignment, he was Regional Head and General Manager, East Asia of State Bank of India, Hong Kong and oversaw the business development and control of State Bank of India in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea and the neighboring region. 

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