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Singular University’s Ismail to Tackle the Smart Machine Age at ‘Industry 4.0’ Event

Salim Ismail, founding executive director of Silicon Valley business incubator institution Singularity University, will take the stage April 2 at the “Industry 4.0: The Future of Humanity in the Smart Machine Age” event, hosted by the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, in Los Angeles, to offer his thoughts on what the future of work will look like in today’s machine-driven environment.

Ismail — a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and technology strategist, and author of “Exponential Organizations” — is sought-after by institutions for his strategy advice, and has co-founded a number of tech companies, including Confabb, PubSub Concepts and Ångströ, the last of which was acquired in 2010 by Google.

His April 2 discussion, along with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, will offer insights into how companies can leverage both technology and strategy to grow beyond their peers. The “Industry 4.0” event is being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, with a full-day academic conference, featuring Wozniak, Alison Lewis, CMO of Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Alex Grimwad, SVP and CIO of Twentieth Century Fox Television, Dalana Brand, VP of people, rewards and experience for Twitter, and more.

“When you think about purpose-driven leadership, and this massive, transformative purpose of the MTP, we talk about how do you solve and attack the world’s biggest problems? What’s really interesting, where the confluence comes together with Pepperdine Graziadio’s thinking, is the world’s biggest problems are also the world’s biggest markets,” Ismail said.

“Energy, education, clean water, healthcare. This is a magical opportunity today to really apply purpose-driven thinking into the biggest markets in the world.”

His book, “Exponential Organizations,” reached No. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list for business management and during his seven years with Singularity University, he’s helped the organization empower businesspeople from more than 85 countries to apply disruptive technologies to more than 100 startups. Before Singularity, Ismail was a VP at Yahoo, where he build and ran Brickhouse, the company’s internal incubator.

MESA newsletter readers can receive a discounted rate for the event of $99 ($155 value), which includes complimentary admission to a special networking event following the conference. Select the “Pepperdine Partner” ticket type and use the code PEPPFRIENDS.