People Behind the Future
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
Maya Angelou
A celebration of strength in diversity. Level39’s People Behind the Future shines a light on the community members responsible for building the businesses shaping and driving our economy.
People Behind the Future focuses on unity, not division. On inclusion, not separation. It draws on the best of tradition, and combines it with the promise of tomorrow. Find out more about each member below.
“I must confess I’m not kept awake at night. But I don’t sleep a lot because we have a lot to do. We have an amazing opportunity and I’d hate to look back and think we missed that.
Since launching Plinth in 2017, Priyanka Lilaramani has taken on the challenge to digitise a multi-trillion-dollar industry to make it more transparent, accessible and liquid.
A PhD in cancer research, a fertility clinic in the US, forensic DNA profiling, international trade adviser, fintech start-up – there is
not much that Allan Syms hasn’t done.
“At the moment we’re very white and male for a start-up and we want to change that,” explains Ali. “There are lots of barriers to break down, but London is very multicultural, and I want that reflected in my start-up as well.”
Transylvania may be better known for its vampires than ventures, but it was in her homeland of Romania that BlockDox operations whizz Ramona Nan cut her teeth in the real-estate industry, working for a Canadian entrepreneur.
Before Paul Bilikon founded The Thalesians – a think tank dedicated to quantitative finance, economics, mathematics, physics and computer science, he was pursuing two very different careers.
A love for problem solving is essential for any leading innovator. Tomo Nakamura, head of innovation at Fintech Labs is no different – he left his big banking job hell-bent on tackling tech issues in hope of positively affecting the community.
“Music teaches you a different way of thinking – to see beauty in what is hidden, to draw parallels, break down complexity, and derive inspiration from detail.”
How did a young female designer from Madeira find herself in the midst of London’s thriving, and male-dominated, AI scene? It’s a question Nadia Siddiqui, UX designer at DigitalGenius, used to ask herself every day.
“What keeps me awake are the endless opportunities and the other side of the coin; challenges. For most entrepreneurs, there’s always huge opportunity alongside a number of challenges.”