About Us.

ANA is Japan’s largest airline, and winner of multiple airline industry customer satisfaction awards. “Offering dreams and experiences to people around the world” is one of ANA’s most powerful corporate mission statements. As ANA expands its global reach, literally connecting billions more people around the world, the employees and management of ANA are excited to pursue innovation and exploration that provides humanity a wider view of the world.

For over 30 years, Tony Robbins’ passion has been helping people break through and take their lives to new levels — no matter how successful they already are — in the areas that matter most: their businesses, personal finance, intimate relationships, families, careers and health.

Tony has received honors from the United Nations, Forbes, Accenture, American Express and Harvard Business School. As a peak performance strategist, Tony has helped over 50 million people from more than 100 countries transform their lives through his live events, books, audio programs, health products and personal coaching. What began as Tony's individual effort to feed families in need has grown into the nonprofit Anthony Robbins Foundation, which provides assistance to underserved youth, low-income families, senior citizens and the homeless. The foundation's International Basket Brigade provides baskets of food and household items for an estimated two million people annually in countries all over the world.

In 2015, the innovationXchange (iXc) at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was launched as part of the Australian Aid Program to address the growing need for innovative and transformative solutions for intractable problems facing people living in developing countries. The iXc aims to foster a culture of innovation in our aid program by harnessing new technologies, methodologies, and partnerships. It understands collaboration is pivotal, partnering with other government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, and academics to source new ideas for piloting and experimentation.

Each of the iXc’s development portfolios – health and water, economic growth and humanitarian – challenge convention, seeking new ways to multiply the impact of Australian aid in the Indo-Pacific. The iXc has led a variety of open innovation processes to help improve humanitarian responses in the Pacific, aquaculture in the Indian Ocean, and food choices to reduce worsening malnutrition levels in our region. It is also initiating an ambitious social entrepreneurship and financing agenda to equip local innovators and entrepreneurs with the skills, networks, capital, and access to markets required to make their businesses viable, attractive to investment, and scalable.

With global partners the iXc supports an online platform to allow hundreds of organisations across the world to share information on innovations and seek finance for them where necessary. It will seek to invest in a range of debt, equity and grant funding initiatives that enable new technologies, behavioural science approaches, and business models to be explored. The iXc believes it is crucial for all contributors to share lessons learned on development innovations being trialled and will continue to seek opportunities to scale successful pilots.

For more information, you can visit: to https://innovationxchange.dfat.gov.au/

The Barbara Bush Foundation is the nation’s leading advocate for family literacy. Founded by former First Lady Barbara Bush, the mission of the Foundation is to advocate for and establish literacy as a value in every home.

The goals of the Foundation are simple: We want children to start school ready to excel and help parents improve their literacy skills. Mrs. Bush’s guiding belief was simple – if you helped a person learn to read, their opportunities in life were endless.

To learn more about the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy’s commitment to promote family literacy in homes across America, please visit www.BarbaraBush.org.

COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance) is an alliance of Canada’s largest oil sands producers, collaborating on innovations to accelerate the pace of environmental performance improvement in Canada’s oil sands. Since its formation in 2012, COSIA has shared 936 distinct environmental technologies and innovations that cost over $1.3 billion to develop. COSIA has some of the best minds on the planet working on technologies to enable the responsible and sustainable development of oil sands in the areas of water, land, tailings and greenhouse gases. For more information, please visit www.cosia.ca.

Betsy and Dick DeVos are, respectively, chairman and president of the Windquest Group, an enterprise and investment management firm based in Michigan with diversified projects in technology, manufacturing, clean technology, and nonprofit solutions. Betsy is a national leader of school choice education reform. She was a presidential appointee to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and currently serves as a member of a number of local and national boards, including the American Federation for Children, ArtPrize, Kids Hope USA and the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Dick is the former president of Amway Corporation and the NBA’s Orlando Magic. In addition to business roles, he is an active leader in a wide range of initiatives in his local community of West Michigan, including Grand Action Foundation and West Michigan Aviation Academy. Dick and Betsy have been married for over 30 years and have seven children and two granddaughters. The Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation serves as a catalyst for partner organizations that position communities for growth and viability.

Founded in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation (DGLF) has helped advance the literacy skills of over 6 million individuals and donated more than $100 million to nonprofit, library and school-based literacy programs. The Foundation’s funding focuses on helping programs deliver quality literacy instruction and increasing access to literacy services. The DGLF believes learning to read is an investment that opens doorways for personal, professional and economic success. It is a gift that no one can take away – a gift that lasts a lifetime.

Econet Wireless is a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific.

Express Scripts is a healthcare opportunity company. Empowered by our legacy as an industry innovator, we dare to imagine – and deliver – a better healthcare system with improved health outcomes and lower costs. From pharmacy and medical benefits management, to specialty pharmacy care and everything in between – we uncover opportunities to make healthcare work better.

Our home base is St. Louis, but our reach extends to millions of Americans across the nation. We stand alongside our clients and partners, collaborating to develop personalized solutions that make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve.

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit the Google website.

HeroX exists at the intersection of crowdsourcing, competition and collaboration, using each to drive positive change. HeroX is a platform where you can support a cause you believe in, help fund a prize, or post challenges to inspire others. We offer the tools to help spark brilliant new solutions and we spread the word to people passionate about change. For more information, visit HeroX.com.

Watson represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where systems understand the world the way humans do: through senses, learning, and experience. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. With the help of Watson, organizations are leveraging cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.

To advance Watson, IBM has three dedicated business units: Watson, established for the development of cloud-delivered cognitive computing technologies that represent the commercialization of "artificial intelligence" or "AI" across a variety of industries; Watson Health, dedicated to improving the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers and other related health organizations to surface new insights from datato deliver personalized healthcare; and Watson IoT, focused on making sense of data embedded in more than 9 billion connected devices operating in the world today, which generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily.

For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/Watson and ibm.com/press/Watson.

NRG is the leading integrated power company in the U.S., built on the strength of the nation’s largest and most diverse competitive electric generation portfolio and leading retail electricity platform. A Fortune 200 company, NRG creates value through best in class operations, reliable and efficient electric generation, and a retail platform serving residential and commercial businesses. Working with electricity customers, large and small, we continually innovate, embrace and implement sustainable solutions for producing and managing energy. We aim to be pioneers in developing smarter energy choices and delivering exceptional service as our retail electricity providers serve almost 3 million residential and commercial customers throughout the country. More information is available at www.nrg.com. Connect with NRG Energy on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @nrgenergy and @NRGMedia.

BONUS PRIZE SPONSOR: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a science-based federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce with regulatory, operational, and information service responsibilities with a presence in every state and our territories. NOAA’s mission is to protect life and property and conserve and protect natural resources.

Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia's technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world. For more information, visit the Nokia website.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions to government and commercial customers worldwide, offering an extraordinary portfolio of capabilities and technologies for applications from undersea to outer space and into cyberspace.

Established in 2010 by Qualcomm Incorporated, the Qualcomm Foundation is dedicated to developing and strengthening communities worldwide. Specifically, the Qualcomm Foundation focuses it philanthropic efforts on helping create and sustain educated, healthy, culturally vibrant communities in regions around the globe. As sponsor of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition, the Qualcomm Foundation is proud to support the discovery of innovative mobile solutions that will contribute to the advancement of healthcare and diagnostics. For more information about the Qualcomm Foundation and Qualcomm Incorporated’s global social responsibility programs, visit the Qualcomm website.

Shell has been a technology pioneer for more than 100 years, and has come up with many industry-transforming “firsts” to deliver energy its customers and partners need. Since 2007, Shell has spent more than $1 billion annually on research and development. In 2014, our research and development expenditures were $1.2 billion. Shell’s technical and engineering staff amount to more than 43,000.

Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. For further information, visit www.shell.com.

Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100 independent operating companies. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission ‘To improve the quality of life of the communities they serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’.

There are 29 publicly-listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of about $116 billion (as of March 31, 2016). Tata companies with significant scale include Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communication and Indian Hotels.

In tandem with the increasing international footprint of Tata companies, the Tata brand is also gaining international recognition. Tata companies bring to their customers worldwide a whole host of reputed brands which touch their lives every day. Brand finance, a UK- based consultancy firm, has valued Tata’s multi-brand portfolio at over $23 billion in 2016.

Tata companies are building multinational businesses that seek to differentiate themselves through customer-centric, innovation, entrepreneurship, trustworthiness and value-driven business operations, while balancing the interests of diverse stakeholders including shareholders, employees and civil society.

Ratan Tata, former Group Chairman, Tata group, is a true believer in India’s potential to solve global problems at an exponential scale, with its abundance of intellectual prowess and tech-savvy minds. He has made a string of personal investments in new ventures which embody the creativity and innovation of young India.