BIAN 'B' LI

Bian is an entrepreneur, global speaker, futurist and former investment banker at the intersection of finance, operations, technology and social innovation. With 15+ years of experience working with hundreds of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers of all sizes across 30 countries, she is now the founder of The Hungry Lab, the ReSchool for the Future™ - where she future-proofs and incubates the next generation of problem solvers, from students, startups and corporates, by pioneering a global Regenerative Economy - the Reconomy™.

By building Regenerative Human Capital, she specializes in unlocking and unleashing the potential of individuals, teams and organizations for greater innovation, collaboration and impact to solve critical global challenges related to the UN SDGs. She also advises large scale organizations and governments on designing the collaborative value networks and "glocal" ecosystems needed to grow them.

She is a multiple time TEDx speaker, appeared in Inc. Magazine and speaks and presents frequently around the world, including Asian Development Bank - Convening for Social Impact (Manila 2019), UN FAO- IFPRI Summit (Bangkok 2018), IFAMA Global Leadership Forum (Cape Town 2014), and the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation African Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (Nairobi 2015) on the occasion of President Obama's visit to Kenya. Most recently, she was a keynote speaker on accelerating youth for the Future of Industry 4.0 at Asia's largest student entrepreneurship summit with over 4000 delegates in Kochi, India, organized by the Government of Kerala's Kerala Startup Mission.

She is a board member and advisor to a diverse array of startups and social enterprises. She is a member of Women in Blockchain and a mentor for Blockchain for Social Impact's Decentralized Hackathon and Incubator. She is also Chair of the 100 Initiative, a public-private partnership with Father of India's Green Revolution, Dr. MS Swaminathan, and his MS Swaminathan Research Foundation to source, incubate and unleash 100 of the next generation of problem solvers to solve 100 critical challenges of India for the next 100 years of India.

Bian is known as a passionate advocate of changing the world through "technology + humanity" and as someone who makes big ideas happen through expert strategy and teamwork. As a recognized thought leader on the transformative power of youth entrepreneurship in building a regenerative economy for all, she’s had the privilege of working with and bringing together presidents, prime ministers, farmers, Fortune 500 CEOs, scientists, journalists, technologists, and students to the cause.

She has a Master of Engineering in Global Supply Chain Management & Logistics from the MIT Global SCALE Program.

For her work, Bian has been recognized in a variety of countries. Most recently in 2019, she was recognized as a 40 Under 40 leader for Southern California, as well as a REX Karmaveer Global Fellow in India, a National People's Awards for Citizen Social Justice and Action instituted by the citizens and people of India in partnership with the UN and the International Confederation of NGOs.

For her work in grassroots financial empowerment and community development in Ghana, she has been officially enstooled as a Queen Mother of Taviefe village in Ghana, with the title Queen Mother Mama Asinor II.

Bian is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.