Tech Centers opening in India

FinTech is popping up everywhere, in America and other countries India, with new technologies being introduced daily. Dean Hopkins, head of OneEleven, says he is the PhD of Global Scaleups and he is opening Canadian tech incubators around the world. He was in London last week opening the newest OneEleven tech incubator.

Dean Hopkins, OneEleven, Toronto, Canada

As Dean says, "Keeping ahead of FinTechs and how they could potentially disrupt bank business practices is critical. It is becoming a critical skill to be able to assess technologies and bring them on board to mix or replace legacy systems."

Not easy to do.

Some banks are increasing their strategy to develop their own tech centers to access the best new FinTechs and their hot shot founders. These centers are springing up in developed  cities such as Toronto and London, but also emerging countries are benefitting:

"UBS has opened a second tech center in the Indian city of Pune, reports Verdict. It is the fourth in the country, with a further two located in Mumbai. The new UBS tech center will focus on the development of Neo, UBS's cross-asset platform, while also monitoring applications and data for the bank. "We want to benefit from the huge demographic dividend which India has. When we started our journey with risk management in 2015, the first product from the Pune site gave us a lot of confidence to grow our footprint In India," comments Harald Egger, Head Group Sourcing UBS. "

"The Times of India quotes Egger as further explaining that UBS is looking to hire computer scientists in India, but is facing tough competition. "The Indian talent landscape puts us in direct competition with our vendors," he points out.."

In China, female billionaires are growing in number.

Billionaires Report

According to the UBS PwC Billionaires Report, the total wealth controlled by the world's billionaires rose by more than 19 percent year-on-year in 2017, to USD 8.9 trillion, reports CNBC. The driving force behind the trend is Chinese wealth creation, the report says, with the country creating two new billionaires every week last year. The number of female billionaires is also growing strongly, particularly in China, where their number grew by 13 percent last year, outstripping global growth in female billionaires, which stood at 11 percent. One key difference, explains Josef Stadler, Head of UHNW UBS Global Wealth Management, is that "we see in China entrepreneurial female billionaires, whereas in Europe and the United States there are more females who inherit, but then get into entrepreneurial activities as a result."

The UBS PwC Billionaires Report 2018 shows that the combined wealth of China's billionaires surged 39 percent to USD 1.12 trillion last year, which is more than double the gains reaped by their peers in the US and Europe, whose collective fortunes increased 12 percent and 19 percent, respectively. John Mathews, Head of UHNW Americas UBS Global Wealth Management, says that "we're in a new gilded age," with "unbelievable and unprecedented wealth" in China. Some of the wealth gains may be illusory, however, cautions Bloomberg. The report showed that roughly half of China's new billionaires saw their wealth dip below 10 digits by the end of the year in 2017, a trend that is continuing in 2018.

The US remains the largest concentration of wealth worldwide, and is still the home of innovation, John Mathews, Head of UHNW Americas UBS Global Wealth Management, says on Monocle24's The Bulletin With UBS. According to Mike Ryan, UBS Chief Investment Officer Americas, the major takeaway from the Billionaires Report is that the figures represent the rise of China. Josef Stadler, Head of UHNW UBS Global Wealth Management, points out that China no longer copies innovations from elsewhere, but exports its own innovations out into the world. Judy Spalthoff, Head of Family and Philanthropy Advisory Americas at UBS Financial Services, discusses the importance of the growing number of women billionaires, and the importance of succession planning.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag writes that Chinese authorities are increasingly scrutinizing the country's ultra-wealthy, and cracking down where they suspect wrongdoing. They cite the example of high-profile actress Fan Bingbing, who disappeared for months before making a tearful public confession, admitting to tax evasion and promising to repay CHF 130 million. Banks can easily get caught up in the mix, the paper says, citing the current example of a UBS employee asked to remain in Beijing and assist investigators in matters unknown. UBS Group CEO Sergio Ermotti has assured that this has nothing to do with either the bank or the employee, but several other banks quickly issued China travel bans to their staff, the paper notes.


If you would like a copy of the report, please contact me at jacoline.loewen  at  ubs dot com

contact me on Twitter @jacolineloewen

See my books on Amazon: Jacoline Loewen, Amazon Author's page.

How prepared you are to live well in retirement?

MIT AgeLab has identified three questions you should ask yourself to assess how prepared you are to live well in retirement:

1. Who will change my light bulbs?2. How will I get an ice cream cone?3. Who will I have lunch with?

What do these questions have to do with retirement planning? 

A lot more than you might think. They actually uncover important factors about aging in place, staying mobile, and maintaining a strong social network in retirement. These factors can serve as a starting point for planning a satisfying retirement.

See my books on Amazon: Jacoline Loewen, Amazon Author's page

Bloom Burton Award honours Dr. Clarissa Desjardins, Clementia Pharmaceuticals

Bloom Burton Gala 2018, Jacoline Loewen

Recognizing entrepreneurs stirs up the economy in many ways. The reason the Bloom Burton Awards Gala 2018 worked so well is the spirit of the two leaders of the firm. - Brian Bloom and Jolyon Burton. They not only stirred up the health and pharma industry, but also put on a spectacular gala. The duo were inspiring as they talked about the nominees and their journey to success.  They also lifted the spirits of everyone with Brian's story about his choice of tuxedo for the evening, a great choice, I must add.

Getting serious, the winner was Dr. Clarissa Desjardins, Founder and CEO of Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc., which specializes in bone disorders.

Bestowed annually, the Bloom Burton Award honours an individual scientist, inventor, executive, entrepreneur, industry leader, or policy maker who made the greatest contribution to Canada’s innovative healthcare industry in the previous year. 

Nominees are accepted from any of the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic/imaging, research instrumentation, consumer health, services or healthcare IT sectors, and equal consideration was given to contributions across any stage of development – from discovery to commercial end markets.

There were good wishes sent from the Prime Minister of Canada, as well as the leader of Ontario and our City of Toronto. Well done, Bloom Burton, for a tremendous event.
 

See my books on Amazon: Jacoline Loewen, Amazon Author's page

Jolyon Burton, Dr Desjardins and Brian Bloom, 2018

Craig Loewen and his UWaterloo team win James Dyson Engineering Award for Canada

Craig Loewen with /university of Waterloo tea, winners of James Dyson Award

Very proud of my son and his award by Dyson. He was interviewed by the University of Waterloo: 

A blog post, written by a visually impaired person about the challenges she faced trying to use the office’s new touch screen coffee maker, was the inspiration behind a recent Waterloo Engineering Capstone Design project. WatVision took home top honours in the national leg at this year’s James Dyson Award for its clever, yet simple engineering principles.

Developed by six mechatronics engineering students, WatVision is a system that reads out words or numbers on a device allowing visually impaired individuals to make a cup of java, select an elevator floor or perform other functions most people take for granted.

“We looked at creating braille readers at first, but decided that would be way too hard,” says Craig Loewen, a WatVision member. “When [a team member] read a blog post about an individual not being able to make coffee because she couldn’t use the touch screen, we all said that we could solve that problem.”

“In about 30 minutes, the person who was blind was able to go through a few screens on a touch screen. Another individual with low vision was able to use it instantly and really liked it,” says Loewen.

In March, WatVision captured a GM Innovation Award as well as second place in the People’s Choice Award during TronCon, an annual mechatronics engineering event that connects alumni with current students.

Read full article.