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David 高德威
Founding Partner of SDGx, Director of Yunus Near Future Lab - deep technology research, corporate acceleration (EIR) and Impact #VC
Professional Background
David 高德威 is a Canadian professional boasting a remarkable 35-year career that aptly combines a wealth of experience in business commercialization, development, and technological innovation. David's journey has traversed across three major regions, including Canada, Europe, and Asia. Working in various capacities from a corporate executive to a dotcom entrepreneur and a social business innovator, David has significantly impacted multiple sectors including finance, publishing, and digital technology.
David's entrepreneurial spirit shone brightly during his tenure in Europe, where he successfully executed two Internet start-up exits, laying the groundwork for a career that would eventually lead him to the United Nations in Geneva in 2005. His extensive knowledge and experience enabled him to contribute effectively to critical initiatives within the UN system, particularly at UNAIDS and UNCTAD.
Recognizing David's capabilities, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) invited him to the Asia-Pacific region in 2010. It was here that he founded the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship programs, demonstrating a keen insight into the needs for innovative solutions in diverse communities. More recently, he led the establishment of the UN Social Impact Finance initiative (UNSIF), creating a pivotal platform that unites venture philanthropists, family trusts, foundations, and private sector growth investors to enhance blended financing strategies and capacity-building efforts.
In July 2019, after an impactful tenure with the united nations, David transitioned to a new venture by becoming a Co-founding and Managing Partner of the SDGx Group based in Singapore. Under his leadership, SDGx Group has embarked on a mission to research, accelerate, and invest in pioneering technology startups aimed at positive disruption. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), ClimateTech, Automation, Robotics, and new materials sciences like Nanotechnology and Biomimicry, David continues to foster innovation that aligns with sustainable development goals.
Beyond corporate exploits, David serves as a Faculty member at the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) and acts as the Director of the SDGx Yunus Near Future Lab. This non-profit research facility operates in collaboration with Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ Social Business Centers and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), focusing on deep technology research that spans multiple fields and applications.
Education and Achievements
David's educational background is both diverse and impressive. He has pursued extensive studies in business and management, equipping himself with the skills necessary to excel in the modern business landscape. David obtained a Certification from GPM - Gesellschaft für Projekt Management, which highlights his commitment to project management excellence.
Additionally, he completed an MBA at the esteemed Clemson University in South Carolina, USA, and also holds a BA from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. Furthering his academic pursuits, David acquired a Master of Business degree at Munich Business School (IIBS), demonstrating a continued interest in expanding his leadership capacity.
David also completed two Executive Leadership Degrees from Harvard Business School, which underscores his dedication to achieving best practices in leadership and management within any organizational context. Through these rigorous programs, David honed his ability to navigate complex business challenges and strategically lead innovative initiatives.
Notable Achievements
Throughout his career, David has accumulated numerous accolades and has been associated with various prestigious organizations as a leader and mentor. His influence is also evident in his teaching roles, which include being a former lecturer at the Chulalongkorn School of Integrated Innovation and the United Nations System Staff College. His contributions to academic discourse and mentorship have empowered many future leaders in technology and social business.
In previous capacities, he served as an Advisory Board Member and Expert Advisor at the AI Impact Alliance, where his insights helped guide impactful projects leveraging artificial intelligence. Additionally, David took on roles such as Director at the Yunus Center Near Future Lab, Expert Mentor with the Hult Prize Foundation, and served on significant projects within the UNDP, including leading the Frontier Technology for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
David's career also includes leadership positions such as Chief Impact Officer for the UNSIF initiative at UNDP and Head of Innovation and Knowledge for the Asia Pacific Region at UNDP. His diverse experience is further enriched by roles in digital strategy at organizations like UNAIDS and Novartis International AG, where he contributed his expertise in digital business development and knowledge management.
As someone who has initiated impactful programs, led innovative projects, and nurtured technology startups dedicated to creating a ripple effect of positive social change, David 高德威 stands as a testament to the impact that one individual can have when they combine experience, knowledge, and a passion for making the world a better place.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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