He will leave in several months to become the chief executive of the business incubator and innovation consultancy firm founded by inventor Ray Kurzweil and engineer Peter Diamandis.
After more than 25 years living and working in Asia and Europe, Steve Leonard, founding CEO of SGInnovate, a Singapore government agency that helps entrepreneurial scientists build deep tech startups, will return to the United States to lead Singularity University (SU), based in Silicon Valley.
«Seven years working for Singapore Government has been an honour. Too much to share in a single post,» Leonard said on LinkedIn on Tuesday.
Leonard also co-led the Fintech Office, established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the National Research Foundation to promote the country as a fintech hub.
Deep Tech in Finance
SGInnovate has played a significant role in building deep tech – defined as technology based on substantial scientific advances and high tech engineering innovation – in Singapore by investing in startups built on Singapore-based IP, from pre-seed through series A in a range of sectors including financial services and blockchain.
Among its portfolio companies are Aida, which uses machine learning for insurance smart claims and digital smart lending and risk compliance; Taiger, which makes sense of contracts and other data for financial institutions; and Quantiply, which uses AI to solve anti-money laundering/know-your-customer (AML/KYC) problems.
