Speakers

Conrad Kunadu is a Biosecurity Research Fellow at the Existential Risk Alliance and an incoming graduate student in International Relations at the University of Oxford intending to specialise in global biodefense. Formerly, Conrad was a Special Projects Associate at Longview Philanthropy. He led the project management of a large London-based longtermist coworking space, which saw him travel to EA coworking spaces across the globe where he spent months thinking about how to make EA coworking spaces impactful. Whilst the project did not come to fruition due to a sudden collapse in funding, he remains excited about the potential value-add of high-quality EA coworking spaces.

Jonathan works on the operations team at the Effective Ventures Foundation UK as the Head of Property and interim Head of Staff Support. The property team at EV currently manages office projects in Boston and Oxford. Before working as the Head of Property, Jonathan worked for 6 months as the office manager of Trajan House, an EA office in Oxford. 

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He studied Philosophy and Economics in Bayreuth, Germany and was one of the core organisers of the local Uni EA group for four years. In his free time, he likes to cook, play beach volleyball, and go bouldering.
 

Kaleem is the outgoing Project Manager for US Property at Effective Ventures Operations. He has a background in public health and philosophy, and has experience in community building, event planning (EAGxBoston and EAGxNYC) and biosecurity. He spent the past year overseeing stakeholder input, design, and construction of EA coworking spaces in Boston, New York City, and Oxford. He’s learnt a fair amount about HVAC, Far UV-C, ergonomics, lighting, health-impacts of materials used in interior design, hidden costs and likely failure points in design and construction, and applying for grants for property projects.

In her previous life, Irena was an astrophysicist and an international champion debater. She worked for Google, the Czech government, Stanford University, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. She lived in the USA for 5 years and after returning to her home country, the Czech Republic, she focused on building the Effective Altruism movement through community organizing, creating projects, and producing events. Most recently she was the lead organizer for the EAGxPrague 2022 conference and shortly after piloted the Prague Fall Season - a new model for international movement building which is coming back in the fall of 2023. She leads Epistea - a new organization that focuses on creating projects and providing infrastructure to the ecosystem of existential security, epistemics, rationality, and effective altruism.

Rebca van de Ven is an Operations Associate at Open Philanthropy. As part of her role, she manages Open Philanthropy's shared DC coworking space, and has been instrumental in launching and shaping the policy for the space. Rebca is a passionate advocate for driving positive change and creating spaces where others also feel empowered to do so. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Rebca worked in project management consulting, where she focused on planning and running large-scale business transformations at different organizations and government institutions.

Erin Robertson is the co-director of London EA Hub, which has a hot-desking space with 26 desks for professionals doing EA related work and also helps with 5 university societies in London. Her background is in student community building and she founded and was president of EA Bristol during her undergrad. She’s particularly interested in creating spaces which are cost effective, and thinking about good practices for monitoring and evaluation.

I am a firm believer that every individual has the potential to lead a happy, meaningful life. My mission is to guide personal transformations that inspire positive change in the world. With a deep passion for human development, I am dedicated to helping people better understand themselves and forge authentic connections with others. Specifically:

1. I've designed over 100 events that facilitate human development and collaboration using mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

2. I help remote teams run projects smoothly by designing roadmaps, optimizing internal processes and improving team communication.

I'm a Genomic Biotechnologist, currently pursuing a Master in Management and Strategic Planning. I've dedicated most of my professional career to science outreach, teaching and research, now I seek to collaborate in the creation of platforms that could potentially lead to the construction of high-impact projects while increasing the chances of people from LMIC to pursue a high-impact career. Most recently, I supported the organization of some of the first EA-aligned interventions in México (EA Mexico Residency Fellowship and EAGxLATAM).

Jia Li Leonard is a Business Operations Assistant at Open Philanthropy. She is part of the office management team for the organization's San Francisco office space. In addition to office operations, Jia Li works on strategic operations projects, addresses a wide variety of staff requests, and lends capacity to other teams and individuals. Jia Li is newer to using physical design to build communities but is happy to share what she can and eager to explore this approach.

An aspiring global citizen, Moritz von Knebel lived, worked, and studied in over 20 countries, was a scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Adjunct Faculty at Philipps-University Marburg, and a Research Fellow at the Cambridge Existential Risk Initiative. More recently, his work for Open Philanthropy, the Existential Risk Alliance in Cambridge and the Center for AI Safety in San Francisco has evolved to focus on AI Governance. Moritz has worked as a community builder for the German EA community and the Virtual Programs, and has organised and participated in Fellowships and Residencies around the globe. 

I am a Community Builder for Effective Altruism in Latin America, and I am especially interested in how to expand effective altruism ideas in different contexts. I was the main organizer of the EA Mexico Fellowship in 2022, a groundbreaking pilot program exploring Mexico's potential as a hub for effective altruism. Currently, I focus on developing talent scouting initiatives and nurturing EA-aligned communities across Latin America.

Nick Fitz is the Founder/CEO of Momentum, an innovative AI and behavioral science company, and an advisor to multiple evidence-based startups and nonprofits. He has served as a Senior Behavioral Researcher at Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsight and Startup Lab at Duke University and as a researcher at the University of British Columbia. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. Nick holds a Master's degree in psychology and society from UBC, along with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and policy from Grinnell College. He enjoys sitting on porches with friends.

Josie Inaldo is the Office Manager at Trajan House, an EA office in Oxford and part of the Effective Ventures Foundation UK operations team. Previously she was an executive assistant as well as the Health & Safety Officer in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. In a past life, she worked at quirky US liberal arts schools as an international student advisor. When she’s not thinking about wellness both at work and outside of it, she’s thinking about Beyonce or her next coffee fix (but probably both). She holds a BA from Marist College in Communications and Psychology and an MA from the School of International Training.

Jordan is a community-building and operations professional originally from South Africa. He previously worked as a local and regional Effective Altruism community builder, running and supporting various groups in Africa. He has also organised several EA community conferences and events.

Elmer finished BS Materials Engineering from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Since then he has always tried to go into roles that added value to organizations and industries he was part of, namely Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (Coca-Cola FEMSA), Social Enterprises (Human Nature Philippines), Fintech (Maya), Transportation and Delivery StartUps (Uber and Grab).

Elmer was also Founder and CEO of Diligence Cafe, one of the first coworking cafe chains in Manila back in 2016-2018 while being a consultant at the Center for Excellence for Public Sector Productivity at the Development Academy of the Philippines, a local government think tank. His first exposure to EA was via a Facebook Ad on a rationality bootcamp being organized by EA Philippines back in 2019. Since then he has actively volunteered for the community, facilitating Intro to EA fellowships, hosting events, also speaking at conferences such as EA Global DC 2022 and EAGxLatam 2023. He is also the project manager for EAGxPhilippines this October, among other projects.

Peter led an innovation lab at the University of Texas for 9 years, and the lab became a tight-knit community within the university. He has a strong interest in in-person community building, especially in urban settings, and has researched a variety of in-person community models. Peter aspires to open a physical space that incubates mission-driven leaders at scale, and is currently working to establish a community space called Workshop House in Washington DC.

Aqeel, a native of the California Bay Area (SF), began his career in finance. Early in the pandemic, he underwent training at an ML bootcamp named Galvanize, which paved the way for his full-time operations role at Redwood Research, a nonprofit tech startup focused on safer AI research. Nostalgic for the startup environment's dynamism, Aqeel returned to SF and immersed himself in community building. He is the co-founder of Cerebral Valley, a community dedicated to AI that has been spotlighted in Forbes. They've collaborated with renowned entities like OpenAI, and their major San Francisco events draw in crowds of 300+ attendees, securing significant sponsorships from AI companies and VC firms.


Recently, Aqeel shifted his primary attention to Doppler, a startup in the creator economy niche, while still passionately organizing community events in SF. His tenure at Redwood Research saw him successfully manage cross-functional operational infrastructures for AI researchers, with achievements like an average cost reduction of 12.7% for recurrent expenses.