Technology for Purpose and Innovation

By Young Sohn, Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer for Samsung Electronics, and Chairman of the Board for HARMAN.

At Samsung, we believe technology and partnership can help solve the world’s biggest challenges. That philosophy is true especially when tackling global threats, like inequities in health care, education, and the dangers of climate change. It’s about more than tech – it’s about tech for good.

That’s why I was proud to join the 20th annual World Knowledge Forum this year in Seoul, on behalf of Samsung Electronics.

There, I discussed how to ensure a future powered by data could empower people to tackle global challenges. For instance, by leveraging data and AI, we can use technology to build a better, more secure, and more equitable world in areas from education to agriculture.

Samsung was also proud to share the stage and talk about strategies to scale up purposeful innovation with like-minded leaders, including Eric Yuan, Founder & CEO of Zoom Video Communications, Eric Benhamou, Founder & General Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures, Han Kim, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Altos Ventures, and Jerry Yang, Co-Founder of Yahoo! & Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures, and more.

Each speaker offered their insights into how South Korea’s innovation ecosystem can help the nation’s entrepreneurs go global. We also all believe that our industry has a responsibility to reshape our world for the better and to help accelerate the most promising innovations.

I reaffirmed that message later in the week alongside Chang Dae-Whan, Chairman of the Maekyung Media Group and Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, to discuss how innovators and global leaders can jointly address humankind’s greatest challenges.

To that end, Samsung and our partners launched the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), an international start-up competition giving entrepreneurs the ability to accelerate their solutions to critical issues and showcase them on an international stage. At this year’s Forum, we announced new partners including Ford Motors, Evercore, Morgan Lewis, NXP and the Maekyung Media Group. Together, we will support efforts to offer innovators resources, mentorship, and industry expertise to scale their enterprises.

Through our partnership with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, our corporate citizenship initiatives, and XTC, Samsung can help problem-solvers around the world lead the charge towards impactful, purposeful innovation.

For more information about participating in XTC visit: www.extremetechchallenge.org.