Keynote Speakers

Speaker: Shawna Pandya

In this talk, Canadian physician, scientist-astronaut program graduate with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, aquanaut, exploree, skydiver, pilot-in-training, martial artist and IB Program graduate Dr. Shawna Pandya talks about her lessons with success, failure, and pushing the limits.

Message from the speaker

Speaker: Sarah Tan

Sarah is a Product Policy Manager at TikTok's Trust and Safety team, developing TikTok's content policies and processes. Prior to joining the tech sector, Sarah was a diplomat in the Singapore foreign service overseeing Singapore's foreign policy interests in South-East Asia, including a stint at the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta. Sarah graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto and completed the IB programme at Shanghai American School.

Message from the speaker

Panelist: Hugh Hsu

Hugh, defines himself as a half Taiwanese and half Thai, but was born and raised in Canada. From there, he went to Shanghai for High School, where he completed the IB Diploma Program. Eventually he moved to Hong Kong for university studies in Business Management. Currently, he is a Management Trainee at Swire, a global conglomerate where he work in Digital Strategy at Swire Coca-Cola and currently managing office tenants at Swire Properties.

Panelist: Ganesh Annan

Ganesh Annan is a graduate of Virginia Tech where he studied Computational Modeling & Data Analytics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. At age 19, he created a website named Anaanu.com that quickly became the top website used to pick classes at his university. The website has expanded to 7 universities and continues to grow. Currently, Ganesh is a Senior Technologist at a startup named Digital Bazaar. He works with governments, banks, universities, and private companies to turn their ideas into real products. His work experience has taken him everywhere from Paris to Silicon Valley California. Outside of work, he is a photographer, travels to cities around the world, and continues to learn Salsa and Bachata in each new city he is in. Since a young age, his passion was to uplift those around him to be the best version of themselves. He continues to do this today.

Panelist: Tyler Lynch

Tyler Lynch is an IB Diploma graduate of Harriton High School in Pennsylvania.  She received her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Currently, she is a first year graduate student in the University of California, Los Angeles’ Masters in Screenwriting program with an Emphasis in Producing. Most recently, she served as a producer on the short film Leftovers (2022) and is a Script Reader for Slated, Inc. Tyler served as a contributor for IBO’s Graduate Voices series in 2021.

Panelist: Luisa Mandacaru

Luisa Mandacaru was born and raised in Portugal and spent most of her childhood playing and surfing in the Atlantic ocean. She loved going to an IB school and being part of sports teams, drama clubs, doing CAS and everything that comes with it. She went on to study Biology at the University of Lisbon and co-founded an environmental NGO called Movimento Claro that works with students, businesses and the community to understand and reduce plastic pollution. She also did a Master's in Sustainable Business and Innovation in Utrecht, Netherlands and she works now as analyst for a sustainability consultancy called Carbon Trust in Amsterdam.

Panelist: Ayodele Odutayo

Dr. Ayodele Odutayo is a General Internist and Nephrologist. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree at UofT in 2013 and completed his Masters of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Epidemiology from 2013-2017, both at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. His research focuses on clinical trials examining cardiovascular and renal disease.