Ed Fernandez
Board Director at BigML
Ed Fernandez
Board Director at BigML
Madrid, Community of Madrid
Overview
Work Experience
Non Executive Director, Board Director, Chair Audit & Risk
2018 - Current
· Chair Audit, Risk & Compliance committee · Member Remuneration & Nominations committee About Arowana International Arowana International Limited is a public corporation with Investment Management, Assets, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Impact Capital, and Fund management operations. ($1,5Bn AUM) The Company operates through three divisions: Enterprise Office, Operating Companies (Private Equity & Venture Capital) and Funds Management. The Enterprise Office segment provides strategic, operational, financial, and human resources support to the operating entities and portfolio companies. The Operating Companies division comprises business units and underlying subsidiaries and incorporates assets in technology, renewable energy, EVs, critical energy supply, education, and industrial testing among other sectors. The Operating Companies division owns and operates VivoPower International (NASDAQ:VVPR), EdventureCo Education Group (Lumify), and Thermoscan Inspection Services Pty Ltd. The Funds and Assets Management division manages listed and unlisted funds that have either permanent or semi-permanent capital.
Board Advisor & Member of the Investment Committee - Alicorn Venture Fund
2018 - 2023
Alicorn invests in a portfolio of leading growth/late stage and pre-IPO, venture-backed, private companies. Leveraging its global, proprietary network, Alicorn is in an unique position to access securities in companies at attractive discounts to last funding rounds through secondaries as well as hard-to-get primary securities issuance. Alicorn has experienced, well-networked investment and advisory committees with global reach, supported by the services of a specialist asset manager, Arowana, from its London office in UK. Selected Investments: Anodot : AI and Data Analytics, Anomaly detection platform for business and IT Enterprise processes ((US, Silicon Valley, Forbes 25 AI startups)) Glassbox Digital (IPO exit TASE:GLBX) : CX Data Analytics SaaS platform (UK, Israel) Lemonade (IPO exit NYSE:LMND) : Behavioral economics and AI insurance company for homeowners (USA) Codefresh : Kubernetes cloud native CI/CD DevOps automation platform (USA) Pliops : Data storage processing and Hardware acceleration for data intensive workloads (Israel) Trieye : First low cost, high resolution short wave infrared SWIR sensor technology for automotive, biometric, medical and consumer electronics applications (Israel, CES innovation awardee) Sternum : Autonomous real time protection against IoT devices cyberattacks (Israel) Axis Security : Zero trust cloud security platform providing secure access to business applications (USA)
Board Director, Observer - VivoPower [ NASDAQ:VVPR ]
2019 - 2020
VivoPower International PLC, a NASDAQ listed corporation with 1,8 GW solar assets, is an international solar energy and critical power services supplier and producer that develops, owns and operates photovoltaic (PV) solar projects in a capital efficient manner. VivoPower partners with long-term investors, suppliers and developers to accelerate the growth of its portfolio of solar projects. In addition, the Company provides critical energy infrastructure solutions to commercial and industrial customers throughout Australia.
Board Director
2016
BigML was founded with the mission of making Machine Learning easy and beautiful for everyone. With BigML, enterprise customers have been able to build sophisticated Machine Learning-based solutions affordably by distilling the predictive patterns from their data into real-life intelligent applications usable by anyone. In the near future, all applications will be predictive. To stay relevant in a faster, complex, connected, and uncertain world, predictive applications will have to take advantage of Machine Learning and other Artificial Intelligence techniques. BigML's platform, private deployments, MLaaS cloud solutions, and rich toolset will continue to help our customers create, rapidly experiment, fully automate (AutoML) and manage Machine Learning workflows that power best-in-class intelligent applications. Who we Are: Passion brings our team together—a passion for building systems that learn from data. Our international team has deep expertise in the fields of Large-scale Machine Learning, Distributed Systems and Data Visualization. BigML is headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon (one of the top cities in America for innovation) and, recently, opened its European headquarters in Valencia, Spain (one of the most beautiful cities in Europe) to harness innovation, but we never shy away from hiring wherever the talent is.
Member Board Of Trustees
2021
The objective of the Board of Trustees as a participatory body of the social institutions in the University, is to foster collaboration with the scientific, professional, commercial, business and financial communities. The main task of the Board is to open up and link the University to the aforementioned sectors and society as a whole whilst at the same time contributing to excellence in University's governance processes. BOE nomination: http://www.bocm.es/boletin/CM_Orden_BOCM/2021/02/19/BOCM-20210219-6.PDF
Advisory Board Member - Investment Committee Member
2018 - 2023
Alicorn is a global venture capital group established by Arowana that undertakes proprietary primary and secondary investments in best-in-class, fast-growing technology companies in the enterprise software, cybersecurity and machine learning/data analytics sectors. Selected Investments: Anodot : AI and Data Analytics, Anomaly detection platform for business and IT Enterprise processes ((US, Silicon Valley, Forbes 25 AI startups)) Glassbox Digital (IPO exit TASE:GLBX) : CX Data Analytics SaaS platform (UK, Israel) Lemonade (IPO exit NYSE:LMND) : Behavioral economics and AI insurance company for homeowners (USA) Codefresh : Kubernetes cloud native CI/CD DevOps automation platform (USA) Pliops : Data storage processing and Hardware acceleration for data intensive workloads (Israel) Trieye : First low cost, high resolution short wave infrared SWIR sensor technology for automotive, biometric, medical and consumer electronics applications (Israel, CES innovation awardee) Sternum : Autonomous real time protection against IoT devices cyberattacks (Israel) Axis Security : Zero trust cloud security platform providing secure access to business applications (USA)
Faculty Member, Northeastern University - Silicon Valley
2019 - 2023
Faculty Professor, Master's Degree - Machine Learning - Silicon Valley Instructed and designed Master's Degree Courses: ALY6080 - Applied Machine Learning & Analytics - Integrated Experiential Learning EAI6020 - Enterprise Artificial Intelligence: AI systems & Technologies ALY6983 - Intro to Machine Learning The Master degree of Professional Studies in Analytics teaches the competencies that define an analyst's ability to demonstrate the application of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions through behavior that is directly related to performance goals: Statistics/Mathematics, Analytics Systems Technology, Business Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, Business Process/ Management, Business Analytics Agility, Communicating with Data, and Leadership/Data Governance, Policy and Ethics. ALY 6080 - Integrated Experiential Learning Offers a practicum in the development and delivery of predictive data analysis for strategic decision making in organizations. Offers students an opportunity to apply the principles and tools of analytics to real-world problems in business organizations and to develop and present analytical insights and recommendations for successful implementation of their capstone project.
Adjunct Faculty
2018 - 2022
Associate Professor and lecturer on AI, Machine Learning and Venture Capital & Corporate Innovation.
Faculty Member
2017 - 2022
FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance was formed in 2015 in response to calls for more flexible, practical, relevant and timely corporate learning. Companies increasingly realise that to survive and prosper in a period of unprecedented global change they must be prepared to adapt, and even undergo major strategic transformation—a process that requires their executives to develop new skills, knowledge, competencies and behaviour. This means that corporate learning programmes must fully understand—and then closely align with—a company’s strategic goals, its internal challenges, and the external operating environment in which it operates. We believe that this can only be achieved through a disruptive approach to corporate learning, based on the following four principles: True partnerships. Co-creation with the client allows us jointly to define a company’s challenges and strategic goals and then determine which competencies would best support them. This collaboration starts with the programme design and continues through its execution and impact measurement, while retaining maximum flexibility throughout to ensure that the corporate goals are always being met. Journalistic acumen. This is a unique and vital contribution to corporate learning. We deploy the investigatory and analytical skills of Financial Times award-winning business journalists to help identify a company’s true challenges; analyse how global news and trends might affect their business; and offer rare insights from the FT’s data and unrivalled access to global decision-makers. Selection of ‘best-fit’ assets from a wide range of learning technologies, expertise and innovative methodology from IE Business School and other partners, allows us to tailor programmes around the specific learning needs of each company Cultural sensitivity. Through our worldwide alliance of academics, practitioners and journalists, we ensure that programmes not only have universal relevance but also resonate with local executives
Partner & Co-Founder
2015 - 2022
Naiss is a Silicon Valley - Advisory, Innovation & Venture Capital boutique - with a mission driven - hands on approach, helping outliers in corporations as well as early stage companies We define and implement growth strategies for startups, early stage companies, and new corporate ventures willing to embrace data-driven strategies We nurture new initiatives intra-corporation or as external start-ups all the way up to IPO in a secondary stock market [to which our methodology is fully optimized] or prepare them for value realization and an M&A event We believe the 4th sector will take over the economy. We think we're near or past the singularity and we are certain Timeless physics & Dissipation driven adaptation (a.k.a LIFE) will take over as prominent theories
EIR - Visiting Lecturer
2015 - 2022
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT At IE Business School We believe in the power of innovation and enterprise. We encourage our students to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions, whatever they may be. In 1973, our school was founded by a group of ambitious entrepreneurs. These individuals set the tone for what IE Business School would become—a dynamic institution committed to innovation, disruption, and above all, entrepreneurship. It’s part of our DNA and we’re proud of the entrepreneurial spirit that defines us. Our mission is to promote the development and consolidation of startups founded and led by IE students and alumni. Area 31 is the hub of entrepreneurial activity at IE and the home of its Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Teams who have been accepted into IE’s startup accelerator, the Venture Lab, work in Area 31, while receiving training, mentoring and resources to validate their ideas and launch.
Advisor - Strategy and M&A
2007 - 2022
Created in 2007, Upify is a Spanish headquartered digital services and technology provider, specialized in the design, commercialization and monetization of mobile content, applications and services. Focused on Long Tail and niche markets, Upify offers end-to-end services: content curation, digital marketing, advertising with optimal target audience selection, customer acquisition and engagement, subscriber monetization and business intelligence services & solutions, all delivered through a comprehensive MCMS proprietary SaaS platform infrastructure. Upify offers premium-only services and content driven experiences, allowing full, free-ad access through convenient carrier-billed subscription services. The Company leverages its unique proprietary technology, developed in-house, offering a 360-degrees service: from content and services delivery to end user billing, including state of the art carrier billing’s mechanisms. Upify’s revenue sharing agreements, allows publishers, content developers and carriers, to increase and maximize revenues at no risk, without incurring in any fixed cost, nor Capex or Opex.
Education
Executive - Engineering Leadership Program
2012 - 2013
Executive-Global Senior Management Program
2011 - 2012