NEW YORK—Experts in wearable technology, futuristic contact lenses, and cutting edge retail concepts make up this year’s roster of speakers at Vision Monday’s 9th Global Leadership Summit. In total, the program will feature 15 speakers from outside and within the industry who will discuss technology’s latest wave, “Connectivity and the Internet of Things,” its implications for business leaders’ decision-making and other major trends impacting the optical industry.
The day-long event, held March 18 at The Times Center here, is geared to senior-level executives and influential thought leaders in the optical industry and vision care space. It is designed to provoke discussion, illustrate new developments and provide unique, face-to-face networking opportunities for attendees.
For a detailed look at the background and expertise of this high-level panel of presenters, read the bios below.
Ashish Ahuja
Product Manager
Meta
Ashish K. Ahuja received his B.S and M.S. degrees in applied physics and electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York, NY, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He worked in the Condensed Matter Physics Department and Optical Fiber Devices Department at Bell Laboratories for two years. He then received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering-electrophysics from the University of Southern California in 2007.
He worked in the scientific research department at Second Sight Medical Products for three years on the development of a retinal prosthesis for those blinded by outer retinal dystrophies. Dr. Ahuja then served as Executive Director of Operations of The California Project to Cure Blindness at USC's Keck School of Medicine, and was Research Assistant Professor of Cell and Neurobiology at USC. He recently became Product Manager at Meta, where his team is developing next generation augmented reality glasses. Dr. Ahuja has more than 25 peer-reviewed papers and 10 issued and filed patents in the areas of retinal prostheses, regenerative medicine, optical devices and augmented reality systems.
Antoine Amiel
Vice Chairman of the Board
New Look Eyewear Inc.
New Look Eyewear, Inc. (TSX: BCI) is a leader in the eyecare industry in Eastern Canada with a network of 190 corporate stores mainly under the New Look, Vogue Optical and Greiche & Scaff banners and lens manufacturing facilities using state-of-the-art technologies.
Antoine Amiel joined New Look as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective May 2012. He is an experienced international executive from the optical lens industry. Between 2009 and 2012, Mr. Amiel held executive positions within Nikon-Essilor Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based joint venture between Nikon Corporation and Essilor International which manufactures and distributes Nikon ophthalmic lenses worldwide.
From 2005 to 2012, he was Executive Officer, Vice President – International Subsidiaries and CEO of Nikon Optical USA, Canada and United Kingdom. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Amiel was Managing Director (CEO) of Nikon Optical UK Ltd. From 1999 to 2002, he was Nikon-Essilor's Chief Financial Officer. Prior to his time with the joint venture he held several finance and marketing positions in Asia-Pacific and North America. Amiel has a masters in Corporate Finance from the Université de Paris IX Dauphine.
Edward Beiner
President
Edward Beiner Group
Casual but elegant, undeniably obsessive, irresistibly funny, design-driven...there simply are not enough words to describe Miami's own Edward Beiner, the retailer whose product selections along with his own creations enable his clients to acheive consummate aesthetic appearance.
Edward opened his first store in South Miami and with his ability to spot and set trends, the savvy optician quickly developed a reputation as an influential industry leader. As his career progressed, Edward has become a true force in shaping the high end customer segment characterized by fashionable, state-of-the-art eyewear. Edward Beiner, Purveyor of Fine Eyewear is a brand that offers today's aspiring lifestyle-oriented customer the most unique collections of superior eyewear coupled with an unparalleled customer experience. Driven by a tireless passion for originality, authenticity, innovation and quality, Edward Beiner is on a quest to provide its customer a truly superior offering. Today there are over 12 Edward Beiner locations throughout Florida's most fashionable areas, with a New York opening scheduled for Fall of 2015.
Edward Beiner Purveyor of Fine Eyewear's commitment to creativity and excellence will ensure that brand remains at the forefront of the eyewear market.
Michael A. Bell
Vice President
General Manager, New Devices Group
Intel
Michael A. Bell is Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the New Devices Group for Intel Corporation. In his role, Bell leads a global team chartered with developing products and technologies that will enhance and extend Intel's product portfolio into new areas of computing, including wearable technology. Previously, Bell co-lead the Mobile and Communications Group with Hermann Eul, a worldwide organization focused on the development of hardware, software and connectivity ingredients for phones, tablets, Ultrabook and other mobile devices, and complete system solutions.
Prior to joining Intel in 2010, Bell was part of the executive management team at Palm Inc. From 2007 to 2010 he served as Senior Vice President of product development. He was responsible for all aspects of product strategy, development and deployment, bringing the Palm PRE, the Palm PIXI and many more products to market. Prior to his time at Palm, Bell was Vice President, CPU Software, Macintosh Hardware Division, at Apple Inc. Over the course of his career at Apple, spanning 1991 to 2007, he made significant contributions to the iMac, Apple TV and iPhone programs.
Bell earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.
Michael Devlyn
EVP Retail
Devlyn Optical Group
Michael Devlyn joined Devlyn in 1997 as Corporate and New Business Director in charge of the planning and implementation of the group's strategy, as well as of the wholesale, franchise and manufacturing business. Michael is currently EVP-Retail for the Group, and a member of Devlyn's Board.
Prior to joining Devlyn, he worked for a year in Skadden, Arps, a law firm in New York, and for three years at Sepúlveda y Mijares, S.C., a corporate law firm in Mexico City where he advised clients in franchise operations, IPOs, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and foreign investments.
He also founded InfoLatina, S.A. de C.V., an internet information service provider, later acquired by Internet Securities Inc, a Euromoney Publications Company, and Protelum, Inc. a B2B electronic commerce company, where he served as Chairman of the Board. Michael is a lawyer from the Escuela Libre de Derecho and holds an MBA from IMD, one of the most prestigious graduate business schools in Europe.
The Devlyn Group is the largest eyewear retailer in Latin America with 1,200 points of sale. Based in Mexico, Devlyn has also a presence in Central America and the U.S., and benefits from a unique multi-format platform covering diverse retail channels (stand-alone and store-in-store formats) and socio-economic target markets with integrated capabilities, including a state-of-the-art laboratory and a network of ophthalmology clinics. Devlyn is the best-known brand in Mexico with top of mind brand awareness four times as large as its closest competitor.
Paul Karpecki, OD
Chief Clinical Editor
Review of Optometry
Paul M. Karpecki, OD, works in clinical services and heads the clinical research department at the Koffler Vision Group in Lexington, Ky. He is also Review of Optometry's Chief Clinical Editor and Vice President of Clinical Content.
David Kepron
Creative Director of the Brand Experience Studio
As Creative Director of Little's Brand Experience Studio, David draws on 25 years of work as an architect, artist and educator. His multidisciplinary approach to the creation of shopping places focuses on understanding consumer behavior and the creation of relevant shopping experiences at the intersection of architecture, sociology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies.
David has been recognized as an industry leader by being listed in Display and Design Ideas Magazine's "40 Under 40" and "30 of the Industry's Most Influential People." He is currently a member of VM+SD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board and the Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E.) Dream Team. David also serves as an Emeritus Member of the Board of Directors of The Planning and Visual Education Partnership (P.A.V.E.).
His first book: "Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World," was published by STMedia Group International in October 2014. www.retail-r-evolution.com.
James Ledbetter
Editor
Inc. Magazine and Inc.com
James Ledbetter is the editor of Inc. magazine and Inc.com. Prior to that position he was the founder and editor of The Big Money, Slate's business and finance site, and the Opinion Editor for Reuters. He has also been deputy Managing Editor of CNN Money and Senior Editor at TIME.
Ledbetter is the author or editor of five books, most recently "Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex" (Yale University Press). He is currently writing a book about monetary debates and American politics, for W.W. Norton. His writing on business, media and politics has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, Mother Jones, VIBE and dozens of other publications. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
Jerome A. Legerton, OD, MS, MBA, FAAO
Co-Founder, Director
Innovega, Inc.
Dr. Legerton is an accomplished author, lecturer, and vision scientist. He is a founder of SynergEyes, Inc. and co-inventor of Paragon CRT and NormalEyes mini-scleral lenses. He is a founder of Innovega Inc., the developer of wide-field, light-weight and stylish contact lens enabled wearable display systems. He is an inventor on 48 U.S. issued patents and more than 60 patents pending for multifocal, aberration blocking, hybrid, composite and scleral contact lenses, laser refractive surgery, corneal refractive therapy, refractive error regulation, contact lens enabled wearable displays, protective lighting, humanitarian eyewear and diagnostic devices.
During his 26 years in the private practice of optometry he specialized in low vision and contact lenses and served as the managing partner of a seven doctor multi-specialty practice in San Diego. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Optometric Association for his contribution to the field of Contact Lens and Corneal Care.
Brian Markwalter
Senior Vice President of Research & Standards
Consumer Electronics Association
Brian Markwalter is senior vice president of research and standards for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $223 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry and owner of the International CES. Markwalter is responsible for CEA's extensive consumer research, market data and forecasting capability in addition to CEA's accredited standards development program used by industry in millions of products every year.
Michael McAlpine, PhD
Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Princeton University
Michael C. McAlpine is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. He received a B.S. in Chemistry with honors from Brown University in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2006. His research has focused on 3D printed bionic nanomaterials and has been featured in major media outlets, including Time Magazine and The New York Times.
He has received a number of awards, most prominently an NIH Director's New Innovator Award, a TR35 Young Innovator Award, an Air Force Young Investigator Award, an Intelligence Community Young Investigator Award, a DuPont Young Investigator Award, a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an American Asthma Foundation Early Excellence Award, a Graduate Student Mentoring Award and the NAE Frontiers in Engineering.
Steven Prawer, PhD
Professor of Physics at University of Melbourne
Head of Materials Development at Bionic Vision Australia
Steven Prawer is Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne, and the inaugural head of the Melbourne Materials Institute (MMI), a multidisciplinary research initiative dedicated to using advanced materials science and technology to address problems of global importance. He has published more than 300 papers and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Lady Davis Visiting Professorship, The David Syme Research Prize, a Fulbright Senior visiting fellowship, visiting fellowship at Woolfson College in Oxford, and the Royal Society of Victoria Research medal and in 2010 he was elected to the Australian Academy of Science.
In 2010, he joined the team of Bionic Vision Australia, one of Australia's most prestigious national projects dedicated to the development of a bionic eye. Using his knowledge of advanced materials and processing, he leads the team to develop the high density electrode array plus encapsulation strategy capable of delivering a high acuity device which will enable profoundly blind people to once again be able to recognize the faces of loved ones and read large print.
Andrew Ranson
International Business & Technology Strategist
Future Point of View
Andrew Ranson is an international business & technology strategist, consultant, speaker, and coach with Future Point of View (fpov.com). Dubbed Renaissance Man in high school, and Polymath at a recent TEDx conference, Ranson has crafted a career at the intersection of organizational strategy and implementation. He helps clients move toward digital maturity by achieving the right balance between "man and machine" to truly optimize their technology investments.
Ranson is a consultant with Future Point of View (www.FPOV.com ), a technology strategy, education and revenue engineering firm. He also leads two leadership-intensive tracks in FPOV's Technology Mastery Institute held in Oklahoma City. The firm's specialty is helping leaders navigate the significant challenges of digital disruption, and develop a two-year lead on their competitors. With a unique combination of business savvy and decades of experience applying technology to win in the market, FPOV helps transform their clients into digitally mature organizations who use technology profitably. FPOV helps its clients to manage decision making in the face of digital changes by assessing the gaps that prevent them from becoming digitally mature, providing ongoing technology strategy direction and guidance at a board level, and engineering particular solutions and integrations that enable an organization to use its technology more profitably (to drive revenue and reduce costs).
Ranson has been engaged in international, strategy and marketing businesses for nearly 20 years. He served as Senior Strategist with GiANT Partners and then as President of GiANT Capital Fund I, a private international investment subsidiary of GiANT Capital. He worked with multi-national clients during his tenure at Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied Chinese language and culture and received a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies in 1991, and a summa cum laude graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he received his MBA in international business in 2008. Ranson is also an accomplished professional speaker and operatic tenor.
@AndrewRanson @FuturePOV
Michael Rogers
Columnist, MSNBC's The Practical Futurist
Futurist-in-Residence, The New York Times
Michael Rogers is a different kind of futurist: one who combines real business experience with a deep technology background. Add to that the keen eye of an award-winning journalist, the storytelling skills of a novelist, plus 30 years of professional speaking experience—and you have The Practical Futurist.
A dynamic speaker who delivers an entertaining and common-sense vision of change for business and individuals, Michael blends technology, economics, demographics, culture and human nature. In addition to authoring five books about the future, he recently completed two years as futurist-in-residence for The New York Times and is a columnist for MSNBC.com.
He has worked with companies ranging from FedEx, Boeing and GE to Microsoft, Pfizer and American Express, as well as both NASA and the Department of Defense. He addresses groups ranging from venture capitalists and corporate executives to educators, students and the general public and is also a regular guest on radio and television, including Good Morning America, the Today Show, PBS, CNN and the History Channel.
Michael began his career as a writer for Rolling Stone and went on to co-found Outside magazine. He then launched Newsweek's technology column, winning numerous journalism awards, including a National Headliner Award for coverage of the Chernobyl meltdown.
For 10 years he was vice president of The Washington Post Company's new media division, guiding both the newspaper and its sister publication Newsweek into the new century, as well as serving as editor and general manager of Newsweek.com where he won the Distinguished Online Service award from the National Press Club for coverage of 9/11.
His work in interactive media ranges from the first Lucasfilm computer game and interactive CD-ROMs to Prodigy, America Online and finally the Internet. He has received several patents for multimedia storytelling techniques, and is listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering. In 2007, he was named to the MIN Digital Hall of Fame, and in 2009 he received the World Technology Network Award for Lifetime Achievement in Media and Journalism.
Michael studied physics and creative writing at Stanford University with additional training in finance and management at the Stanford Business School Executive Program. He is also a best-selling novelist whose fiction explores the human impact of technology. He lives in New York City where he works on book and television projects.
Yaopeng Zhou
CEO
Smart Vision Labs
Yaopeng Zhou is the co-founder and CEO of Smart Vision Labs. He earned his PhD in optical engineering from Boston University, and worked in Abbott Labs and GE Healthcare before co-founding Smart Vision Labs.
Yaopeng invented the smartphone based autorefraction technology to measure the refraction errors by simply taking a picture of the eye. The technology could potentially solve the global vision problem, where 750 million people suffer uncorrected refractive errors. Yaopeng is the winner of Verizon Powerful Answers Award, a $1 million prize.