Arne is a Creative Leadership coach, innovation facilitator, keynote speaker and lecturer at universities around the world. He works with startups and companies like Under Armour, Coca Cola, Volkswagen, BOSCH, Philips, SAP, ING Bank, Estée Lauder, Cartier and L’Oréal. The last 15 years he has founded, build and managed a global innovation consultancy and Academy with teams in over 25 countries.Arne is the founder of Blue Sky Republic, DesignThinkers Academy, DesignThinkers Group. He organises events and courses to share his 20+ years of experience working as a creative leader with Design Thinking, Service Design and Strategic Design.

Ismail Akbani is currently associated with Symbiosis Centre for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (SCEI), a TBI supported by DST, Govt. of India, as Head - Innovation & Linkages. He is also a Mentor of Change for Atal Innovation Missson, Govt of India & Design Innovation Centre, under NITI Aayog at GTU.An alumnus of VNIT Nagpur and EDII Ahmedabad, Ismail has also been a Visiting Research Fellow in Strategy & Innovation at IIT Delhi. He is also a doctoral research scholar in Design Thinking & Rural Entrepreneurship at IIT Delhi. He is also a certified Design Thinking Master Practitioner & an Accredited Entrepreneurial Motivation Master Trainer. For his contribution towards promotion of entrepreneurial spirit, Ismail was recently honored with Most Influential Person of India 2020 Award by HUM Foundation. He has also been awarded multiple grants by DST, Govt. of India, for initiatives related to promotion of entrepreneurship among women & students.He is also leading the Startup Grind SIT (University Chapter) as the Founding Chapter Director.