Tasked with selecting the student developer teams with the best innovations to make a difference in the world, being an Imagine Cup Regional Final judge is no small undertaking.
But our panel of experts this year are up to the challenge, coming from a range of backgrounds in startups, enterprise, technological ecosystems, and leadership. Their combined professional expertise will allow them to evaluate if a team’s project incorporates diversity and inclusion in its design in order to be accessible to the widest user base, presents a unique and marketable solution to a problem, and is innovative in its use of Azure technology.
Each of the ten student teams at the Asia Regional Final will pitch their solution live, answer questions from the judges, and showcase their tech during hands-on demo time. Judges will then select five teams to win prizes totaling USD20,000 and Azure credits, plus the top two will advance to the 2020 World Championship.
We’re excited to introduce our panel of Asia Regional Final judges!
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Leanne Robers Co-Founder and Co-CEO – She Loves Tech |
Leanne Robers is an investor, advisor to startups, entrepreneur and community builder. She is the co-founder and co-CEO of She Loves Tech, the world’s largest startup competition and accelerator program focused on women and technology. She is a lead mentor at the Singapore Tourism Board accelerator and is an Obama Leader (Asia Pacific). Leanne has founded a diverse portfolio of businesses, including Comish (an art x technology platform), a fintech service platform in New York and a lifestyle company that built and managed boutique hotels and F&B outlets in SEA. |
 Jennifer Ritzinger General Manager, Audience Evangelism – Microsoft |
Jennifer leads a team responsible for Microsoft’s technical events for IT Professionals and Developers, including leading the global strategy for student developer evangelism at Microsoft headquarters, helping to guide the world’s students to learn valuable programming concepts and skills for their futures. She is also a co-host of the Women in Technology and Countdown Shows, showcasing stories of diversity in IT and behind the scenes of some of Microsoft’s largest conferences. |
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Co-Founder, Entrepreneur in Residence and Program Director – Accelerating Asia |
Craig Dixon is the Co-Founder, Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) and Program Director for Accelerating Asia, which provides innovation consulting for organizations looking to engage with startups. He also runs Singapore’s only independent startup accelerator program and manages the associated venture capital firm Accelerating Asia Ventures. |
 Vanessa Ching Founder – XR Alliance, Brand Engineer – GeoWorks |
As a founder at industry not-for-profit XR Alliance, Vanessa is focused on ecosystem building and developing the industry in the virtual and augmented reality space. Vanessa is also part of the industry development team at GeoWorks, which focuses on building and promoting a vibrant geospatial industry and community via helping startups and scale-ups to grow in the space, as well as fostering regional partnerships and collaborations. She is also a founder of the XR Women in Asia and the global Women in Immersive Media communities. |
 Andrea Della Mattea President, Asia Pacific – Microsoft |
Andrea leads Microsoft’s commercial and public sector business across nine markets in Asia Pacific. She has more than 25 years of experience in the technology sector. She is committed to encouraging women and girls to take up STEM education and build careers as entrepreneurs and developers, and believes that when we are inclusive, everyone wins. |
Follow the competition journey on Instagram and Twitter to find out which two teams judges will select to move forward. They will head to the Imagine Cup World Championship in Seattle to compete for USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella!