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ILARIA CHAN
Chairperson of Tech For Good Institute (founded by Grab). Group Advisor at Grab. Global Keynote Speaker. Board Director of Humanitarian NGOs. Executive Coach. Venture Capital Investor & Advisor. Former Goldman Sachs
ILARIA CHAN is the Chairperson of the Board at the Tech For Good Institute, a non-profit think tank founded by Grab, aimed at fostering dialogue on social, economic, and policy trends influenced by the digital economy in Southeast Asia. She has held this position since September 2021 and also serves as the Group Advisor on Tech & Social Impact at Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia valued at approximately $12 billion.123
Professional Background
Ilaria has an extensive background in finance and technology. Before her current roles, she was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs from 2007 to 2011, where she worked in the Asia Equities division. Her career also includes various advisory and board positions, such as being a member of the Board of Advisors for Kinrise Real Estate and an Operating Advisor at Owl Ventures, the largest venture capital fund focused on education technology globally.123
Education and Personal Interests
Ilaria holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University (2001-2005). Beyond her professional commitments, she is a global keynote speaker, private investor, and involved in humanitarian efforts, serving on the Board of Trustees for organizations like CareForChildren and Emancipaction. Additionally, she has diverse interests, including music, culinary arts, and scuba diving.23
Ilaria Chan's work emphasizes the intersection of technology and social impact, aiming to bridge gaps between business and humanitarian efforts while promoting sustainable development in the region.
Highlights
Every “Empowerment” movement requires Empowerees & Empowerers. Most headlines usually focus on the Empowerees (women, racial minority, low income groups etc) because it’s more sensational, yet, I feel not enough credit is being given to those who actively stand in the gap for those in need.
Many wonderful themes were covered during JP Morgan’s inspiring Women’s Forum, with keynote speaker Condoleezza Rice and many other industry-changing trailblazers sharing their wisdom. But I do want to shine a special spotlight on these often overlooked “Empowerers”.
For instance, there’s Condoleezza Rice's champion, George H.W. Bush, who changed the course of her career by declaring in front of Gorbachev & his White House staff that he deferred to Condoleezza for wisdom on Soviet Union foreign policy so that she could earn instantaneously public respect as a young woman of color.
Then, there’s my co-panelist John Wood, who wrote the international best seller “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” and founded Room To Read & now U-Go, 2 global charities that have helped low income children and low income young women find higher education that can transform the course of their destinies, impacting lives by the millions.
Finally, I was admitted to the hospital for an emergency surgery just 2 days before this conference, which I had committed to be a speaker at. If my gem of a husband did not drop everything in front of him and flew 17 hours from USA to Singapore to care for me (literally picked up every bag for me because my wounds were too delicate for me to carry anything), I would not have been able to show up and speak at this conference.
Being an Empowerer is not exclusive to men, but anyone who has the ability to stand in the gap for those who may be (at that moment) weaker, more in need, lack luck in being dealt the right resources. It is moving and inspiring when I meet these real life everyday heroes.
When our moderator asked me what I’d say to our next generation, these are my thoughts:
“There's nothing more important than to understand other human beings in this age of AI. To our next generation: go do the difficult things. Try to broker peace between neighbors who are fighting, travel to a 3rd world country that's struggling and find solutions for them, make choices that are inconvenient but worthwhile. That way, you will always be able to add value to society.”
Thank you J.P. Morgan Private Bank for your kind invitation & feature.
J.P. Morgan Private Bank Harshika Patel Amy Tan Jennifer Ting
Thanks to Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) & The Asia Foundation for your invitation last month to be a speaker at my alma mater Stanford University alongside leaders from Microsoft & the African Union Development Agency.
Sitting in an intentionally curated room with fellow Tech executives from OpenAI, TikTok, NVIDIA etc, we discussed how AI can truly impact the Global South (developing countries) & more importantly the current limitations.
The best part of the event - knowing some people in the world truly care about the welfare of the have-nots. One delegate even flew all the way from Nepal (over 30 hrs in transit) to stay only for a matter of hours and self-funds his research on this topic.
Our sharing was under Chatham House Rules, but here are some personal reflections:
1. Whilst in developed countries we debate about whether generative AI technology such as chatGPT will replace white collar jobs, the developing world is looking to AI for solving basic everyday needs such as safety and obtaining a first time loan from a bank
2. In the Global South, countries still struggle with instability of power grids (which prohibits their ability to benefit from AI innovation via online apps), the high costs of high bandwidth networking equipment, data gaps for local languages, lack of high quality digitized text for LLM training, and the environmental impact of climate change caused by manufacturing of more hardware & maintenance of data centers that are crucial to AI innovation
3. For instance, in Malaysia’s affluent capital city Kuala Lumpur citizens can enjoy up to 800MB/second connection whereas in Sarawak broadband speed is only ~1-4MB/second. In Myanmar women are 39% less likely to use the internet due to affordability & literacy. Whereas in Singapore (which is only several hrs away by flight) > 99% of its population have access to high speed internet
4. In order to bridge inequality, the Global South must fine tune their local data and develop astute methods for the application of LLM models to their proprietary data with a goal to improve the standard of living for the poorest in society
5. AI can be used to upgrade standards of living by access to applications such as real time translation of languages, creation of credit proxies and democratizing education. Countries & organizations that can bridge the gaps to provide necessary infrastructure can make significant impact on these societies
6. Like everything else in life, without deliberation the gaps between the haves & have-nots will only widen, we must intervene to provide equitable access for the Global South
#techforgood Tech For Good Institute For more research by Tech For Good Institute, visit: https://lnkd.in/gAZkMibG
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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