From digitalizing the Wall Street trading floor to helping companies like Amazon and eBay, Murat Sönmez has been a pioneer his entire career.
In 2014, he joined the World Economic Forum as a member of the Managing Board. Murat is currently the Head of the Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the Presidio in San Francisco, California.
In this episode, we discuss Artificial Intelligence, Universal Basic Income and some of the work the World Economic Forum is spearheading alongside governments and the private sector.
Governance vs Government
Murat Sönmez started his professional career in 1989 as a silicon valley based software engineer focusing on automating the leading semiconductor chip manufacturing factories globally. In 1994 he joined Teknekron Software Systems in Palo Alto, a company that digitized the Wall Street using by creating an integrated real-time trader workstation based on the early internet protocols (IP). Strengthened with the intellectual capacity of Stanford engineering graduate students, the company rapidly captured more than 55% of the global trading floor market and was the first to implement IP in a mission critical setting.
Role model
In 1997, Murat was among the founding team of TIBCO Software, a real-time predictive data analytics software company based in Palo Alto where he was responsible for TIBCO’s customer and partner facing global field operations which by 2014 had crossed the billion dollar revenue mark with operations across 32 countries with a team of 1,700 employees looking after 4,000 customers. He was also a director and board member of TIBCO Software Federal Inc., servicing the US Federal Government. In October 2014, he joined the World Economic Forum as a Member of the Managing Board in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition he is currently the Head of the Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the Presidio in San Francisco, California
Learn these skills
TIBCO has been a pioneer in several industries and Murat has personally been involved in many of industry firsts: digitizing the Wall Street trading floors; helping companies such as eBay, Amazon and Yahoo! build their portal and e-commerce platforms; helping leading semiconductor companies to create the world’s first fully automated fab; laying the foundation for real-time track & trace operations for logistics companies; working with national intelligence agencies to help identify and respond to cyber-attacks; working with manufacturing companies to identify supply chain issues before they happen to take proactive action; working with leading retailers to match customers’ references to available inventory in real-time; working with leading banks for predictive customer management; creating the smart grid and cyber security infrastructure for utilities in the US and Australia, and in one case doubling the electricity capacity of a grid without adding a single watt of extra generation leading to $2 billion savings annually. In his executive sponsor role in several of these engagements, Murat worked directly with the CEOs and boards to help transform their organizations and gave keynote speeches globally at customers’ and partners’ gatherings.
Universal Basic Income
Murat has a B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from Bosphorus University, Istanbul, Turkey, and M.S., Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Virginia Tech.
MINDED is an outlet for people who want to learn from industry and creative leaders that have an innate drive for excellence. Our guests set themselves apart by challenging the norm and pushing ideas forward. In a never-ending pursuit to succeed, we thrive to have an in-depth conversation about life, business and the world we live in. Hosted by Yuri Xavier.
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