INTERVIEWS

Podcast/Video Interviews by Stephen Ibaraki

A Chat with Jeanne Lim: Innovator; Co-founder and CEO, beingAI Limited; about bringing humanness into digital experiences to promote positivity and social good

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Jeanne Lim.

Jeanne Lim is the Co-founder and CEO of beingAI, the world's first transmedia AI company creating AI beings™ that build long-term engagement and trust with digital-native consumers anywhere, anytime, across devices and media platforms. The company aims to bring humanness into digital experiences to promote positivity and social good—to help us thrive.

Jeanne has over 25 years of experience in business management and technology marketing. She is the former CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of Hanson Robotics, the creator of Sophia the Robot--the first robot citizen and the world's most celebrated robot. At Hanson Robotics, she was responsible for sales, marketing, robot operations, and creative development and execution in collaboration with the founder of the company. She built a team of character developers, robot operators, and marketing professionals to craft Sophia's character and public persona, as well as built a media and event business that generated millions in revenue for the company within a short period of time. In addition, she also worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to establish Sophia as their first Innovation Champion in Asia Pacific to promote technology and social innovation in addressing many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She initiated the first virtual character projects at Hanson Robotics, where she developed a custom avatar as an in-car companion and brand ambassador for the Volkswagen China Group, and led a team of developers to create a software platform to drive the avatar’s verbal and nonverbal interactivity and augmented reality presence as part a proof-of-concept.

Prior to Hanson Robotics, Jeanne served as the Asia Pacific head of marketing for several leading enterprise technology companies including 3Com, Cisco-Tandberg, Dell, and Danaher, where she built marketing teams, launched new businesses, and championed innovative projects. She also worked at Apple for over seven years, starting as business analyst and later moving up to product management, product marketing, marketing management, and business management roles. She led the launch of many of Apple's groundbreaking products in Asia Pacific, including the Newton, PowerBook, and iMac product lines, and worked with local teams to build new retail and consumer channels. In addition, she managed the product development and led the launch of Apple's first custom desktop publishing solution for the China market with Fuji-Xerox as OEM.

Jeanne's career includes startup and consulting roles. She was the corporate head of marketing at an internet startup funded by Intel Capital, Greylock, and H&Q Asia Pacific, which was later sold to a Nasdaq-listed company. She also founded a consulting company that provided marketing strategy and services to multinational corporations and technology startups looking to commercialize new products or enhance the results of their marketing efforts in Asia Pacific. Jeanne began her career as a general management trainee in the Swire Group, and worked on rotational assignments within the group’s shipping, trading, and aviation (Cathay Pacific Airways) businesses.

In addition to her business roles, Jeanne is a Founder and Director of Nama Institute, a not-for-profit organization creating solutions to gamify the learning of wisdom. She is also a Volunteer and Director of Himalayan Consensus Institute, an NGO involved in social enterprise development and climate protection. She is also an angel investor and advisor of several startups.

Jeanne has spoken at a number of events on technology, business, women in business, marketing, education, NGO, including AI Summit in Hong Kong, American Chamber of Commerce in China, Women's Forum Asia, Milken Institute Asia Summit, CEO Summit, Business and Philanthropy Forum in Singapore, University of California, Berkeley Annual Conference in Hong Kong, StartmeupHK Festival, South China Morning Post Women of Our Time Conference, etc. She is especially passionate about engaging with the young generation and has spoken at United Nations Summer Academy and conducted seminars at several universities and middle schools, as well as served as a judge to promote youth entrepreneurship events including Enactus China National Champion and Cyberport X Jumpstart Youth Entrepreneur.

Jeanne has a Ph.D. degree in integrated and holistic health from the Energy Medicine University in the United States, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a certified yoga instructor and a life-long student of Buddhist and yoga philosophy, having completed Georg Feuerstein's five-year Traditional Yoga Studies course.

TO WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW, CLICK ON THIS MP4 file link