Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, the executive Director of National Innovation Agency Thailand

With a comprehensive education background in Physics, Economics, Innovation Management and Technology Foresight, Dr Chairatana engaged with various strategic projects in multi areas, ranging from academia to national policy development. With decades of experience, he has been involved in several international and national research projects from both private and public sectors, for example managing “Trendnovation Southeast”, the horizon scanning project under the Searchlight Network of the Rockefeller Foundation, and designing “social innovation system” and policy for the Thai social economy. Dr Chairatana is program leader of STARTUP THAILAND, a national startup promotion platform by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Dr Chairatana has brought national awareness on startup to the public and established a national level policy to make Thailand as an open area for startup not only in Asia region, but also for worldwide.

Dr. Chanapol Tantakosol, CEO, Muu

Dr. Chanapol graduated 1st class honours in B.S. Chemical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He has worked for 3 years as a process engineer at Chevron Thailand. He has founded a startup that currently has $800k in annual revenue. He believes that our cutting-edge dairy production process will be the key to solve these issues. It will lead to mass adoption, which in turn fosters the sustainable dairy production that is better for people, kind to animals, and environmentally friendly to the planet.

Mr. Narin Tuntartisthan, On the Go

Mr. Narin graduated from KMITL B.Eng, Thailand and continued to M.Sc.(Mech Eng), Columbia University, USA. After graduating, he worked at Procter & Gamble for 8 years before moving to Process Innovation, Ketstone Food Thailand. He then became the R&D Manager for Mars Petcare, Thailand and now founded Innovis Food to bring fresh Thai fruits to you with convenience.

Moderator: Dr. Kihoko Tokue Managing Director Leave a Nest Singapore Pte., Ltd.

Dr. Tokue is Managing Director of Leave a Nest Singapore, and Founder of Leave a Nest Malaysia. She was born in Tokyo but raised in Southeast Asia, studied bachelor degree in America and then moved to Australia for Master and PhD degree carrying out field work. Currently she is creating platform in ASEAN to nurture the next generation innovators, startups involving business development partners from industry. Her dream is to one day bring a change to a world with advancement of science and technology with true understanding and appreciation for nature.

Mr. Takashi Tanaka, CTO, Sagri Co. Ltd.

Dr. Takashi Tanaka received his PhD in Agriculture at Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, and started to work as Assistant Professor at Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University in 2017. He is studying data analytical approach for agronomy and crop science using precision agriculture technologies such as satellite/UAV-based remote sensing and yield monitoring system. In order to implement data-driven agriculture, he joined Sagri Co., Ltd as CTO in 2021. He has a great experience in developing machine learning models that contributes to decision support system in farm management. His ultimate goal of R&D is to enhance farmers’ income and agricultural productivity while reducing environmental impacts. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022.

Dr Kunn Kangvansaichol, CEO/Founder, Algaeba Co. Ltd.

Graduated from Chulalongkorn University with degree in Master of Engineering specialised in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Then he continued to pursue PhD from the University of Manchester and Queen’s University of Belfast. Worked as researchers at PTT, Dr. Kunn has 11 years experience in renewable and bioenergy R&D project manager. Has filed 6 patents and now leads Algaeba to solve issues of aquaculture industry focusing on shrimp.

Mr. Matas Danielevicius, CEO, Gaorai Co., Ltd.

Mr. Matas is  a co-founder of Whatnot Startup Studio, an agri-tech platform – Gaorai and a theatre/film actor. I have artistic, business development and startup backgrounds, and interests across industries and geographies. I am proud to say that I was a part of some exciting and groundbreaking projects. I had a chance to see the creative and product-building process from many different angles, as an entrepreneur, lecturer, workshop leader, actor, director, and producer.

Dr. Noppadon Nuntawong, Director of Spectroscopic and sensing devices research group, NECTEC

Noppadon Nuntawong received Ph.D.in Optical Sciences and Engineering and joined National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Thailand in 2008. He is currently the Director of Spectroscopic and Sensing Devices Research Group (SSDRG), which is one of the key research units under NECTEC. His main research activities include spectroscopies, opto-electrochemical sensing, and machine learning; those can be used for applications in agricultures, forensics, and medical diagnostics. One of his highlighted research innovations is ONSPEC, which can be readily used for detections of the trace amount of many substances and can be utilized in a wide range of agricultural applications.

Moderator: Dr. Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul (Jeab), Head of Corporate Innovation University, RISE.

Dr. Wanwipa (Jeab) received a chemical engineering degree from MIT, and PhD from Princeton University, USA. She received a prestigious King Scholarship from Royal Thai Government. She has more than 10 years of teaching experience at Thammasat University, and she has advised private corporations and public offices about research and technology development. Dr. Wanwipa participated in TechPlanter Thailand Demo Day 2019, and won the Mitsui Chemicals Awards. She is expertise in Bioconversion of waste water to high value products and Bio-Process development and intrapreneurship and innovation ecosystem development.

Dr. Yuko Ueno, General Manager, Leave a Nest Co., Ltd.

Dr. Yuko Ueno received her Ph.D in Ocean microbiology-biochemistry and joined Leave a Nest in 2013. She have experience in producing new project by encouraging collaboration between academia and industry as a Science Bridge Communicator. Currently she leads Leave a Nest Group’s Group development as a general manager.
Experienced in Human Resources specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Strong community and social services professional with a Ph.D focused in Microbiology, Biochemistry from Rikkyo University and University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology.

Dr. Tarit Nimmanwudipong, General Manager, True Digital Park

All-rounded GM equipped with experience managing different business units simultaneously. Skilled in strategic planning with management consulting background. Result-and data-driven. Always put priority on new business development and partnership/community building for sustainable business performance. Highly capable of stakeholder management. Constantly acquire good grasp of latest social and economic developments in order to keep operating business(es) relevant to current trends.

Zip Infrastructure, Inc. (Japan)

Zip Infrastructure is a startup from Japan working on new style of urban mobility using self drive motor ropeway “Zippar”. They aim to create a society without traffic congestions.

Naturanix Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Naturanix is a startup from Japan that uses the semiconductor “GaN” used in blue LEDs for high-efficiency fast charging stations and GaN module technology.

Melody International Ltd. (Japan)
Using “Melody i“, a health management platform for pregnant women and their babies, they will realize remote medical care (online hospital visits) for obstetrics and gynecology.

Liberaware Co.,Ltd. (Japan)

Development of small industrial drones and image analysis technology to support more efficient operations in indoor space survey, inspection and security.

ReadRing Company Limited (Thailand)

ReadRing is a startup from Thailand established in 2017 to deliver a solution for people who are blind. ReadRing has developed their device with a unique rotary braille display mechanism that is linked to the text and character recognition system for digital device.

Petaneer Co.,Ltd. (Thailand)

Petaneer is startup from Thailand focusing on tech to support the life of pets. They have been working on creating medical device such as wheel chair as well as underwater treadmill for pets.

Nabsolute Co., Ltd. (Thailand)

Their platform boosts medicines to provide better treatment with less side effects. It helps to efficiently deliver medicine into the body to where the disease is located. We aim toe make give patients better lives, therefore making them happier.

Ms. Kanwra Tanachotevorapong, CEO/Founder More Foods Innotech Co., Ltd.

Kanwra Tanachotevorapong (Minnie), a dedicated and enthusiastic entrepreneur with deep passion for food innovation and sustainability. With a dream to create a purposeful business, Kanwra co-founded More Foods Innotech, a company that specializes in creating plant-based proteins using Thai plants and fungi, to deliver a healthier and more sustainable food source for the people and the planet.

Dr. Sakamon Devahastin, Professor, Department of Food Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi

Main research interests are in both thermal and non-thermal processing of foods and biomaterials, in particular the development and study of novel drying technologies for heat- and oxygen-sensitive materials, and also in particulate systems and computational fluid dynamics and heat/mass transfer. He has so far published more than 130 papers in referred international journals and given some 80 presentations at various international conferences. He is an author/co-author of 13 book chapters, author/editor of four books and co-inventor of 4 patents. He is the recipient of the 2012 National Outstanding Researcher Award (Engineering and Industrial Research Category) from the National Research Council of Thailand.

Dr. Akeanong Jangbua, Division Director FoodInopolis, NSTDA

Akeanong Jangbua is currently Director at Food Innopolis, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). She is a member of team squad for policy and strategic planning who set up and run Food Innopolis since the beginning. She has over 20+ years of experience working in area of science and technology innovation management. Her main area of practice involves development of innovation ecosystem such as science parks, business incubator and accelerator, areas of innovation, as well as strategic development of tools and mechanisms to facilitate and support technological innovation.

Moderator: Mr. Shohei Michael Maekawa, Director, Leave a Nest Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Mr. Maekawa is also the President of Leave a Nest UK. He was born in USA and raised in Europe. He studied Zoology for his undergraduate degree and Evolutionary Anthropology for his postgraduate degree, both at University College London. With experience aboard and passion towards advancement of science and technology, he joined Leave a Nest in 2013. He now works in Singapore on developing startup platform and helping to connect ecosystem between Singapore and other countries.