MIAMI (PRWEB)
June 15, 2022

The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the most prestigious conference on the $4.4 trillion business of wellness, today announced its first round of keynote speakers for its 16th-annual gathering, being held at the Hilton Tel Aviv from October 31 to November 3.

Every Summit has a packed, three-day agenda, featuring dozens of experts from around the world focused on exploring the future of wellness. The lineup of high-profile speakers announced today underscores the diversity of sectors and brilliant minds within the ever-expanding wellness economy.

Delegates will hear from founders of pioneering digital health and wellness companies, global leaders in travel and hospitality, academics from the world’s top universities, and the startups and scientists reinventing everything from the future of food to new longevity approaches. Among the keynote speakers announced today: Levi Shapiro, founder of mHealth, Israel’s largest community of health-tech innovators; Aradhana Khowala, chairwoman of the Advisory Board for Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Project, the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism project ever; Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Rick Stollmeyer, founder of the nearly $2 billion wellness experience platform, Mindbody.

More speakers that represent the unprecedented innovation happening in wellness–both in Israel and globally–will be announced in coming weeks. Topics will include the future of women’s health and femtech, wellness travel and spa, and wellness real estate–as well as new intersections between the entertainment industry and wellness and the rising role of spirituality and faith.

“Since the GWS launched 16 years ago, many conferences on targeted wellness markets have appeared: in digital health, food, fitness, spa and travel. But the Summit is the only conference that brings together the most creative entrepreneurs and serious thinkers from across the wide world of wellness and preventative health,” said Nancy Davis, GWS chief creative officer and executive director. “We want to open people’s minds beyond their industry ‘bubble’–to create new, unexpected collisions, conversations and collaborations–between extraordinary people working in so many wellness arenas. Wellness will look radically different post-pandemic, and will be all about new intersections between healthcare, tech, and once-siloed markets. The 2022 agenda is a giant global puzzle featuring international delegates, world-renowned speakers, the Start-Up Nation of Israel, our esteemed co-chairs, and the magic we make together. This Summit will most certainly deliver on the theme: Open Minds. Open Hearts. Open for Business.”

Registration for the 2022 Summit is now open.

Keynotes announced today:

Aradhana Khowala is CEO and founder of Aptamind Partners, a consultancy focused on regenerative tourism. She is a strategy expert in travel and hospitality, diversity and inclusion, and women’s health. Khowala has a successful entrepreneurial career spanning 75+ countries; is a trusted advisor to governments and private UHNW investors; and was named an “Inspirational Game Changer” by the 21st Century Icon Awards from CNBC and the London School of Economics. She is chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Red Sea Project in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest regenerative tourism project (with $5 billion in signed contracts, and that will include 50 resorts). Khowala will keynote on the future of femtech and women’s health and will also participate in a panel on the future of wellness travel.

Varda Shalev, MD, MPH, is a powerhouse in preventative and digital healthcare. She is professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at Tel Aviv University School of Public Health; founded the first medical informatics in Israel; has authored over 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals; is director of BATM, a provider of disruptive medical technologies; and is founder and CEO of the Maccabi Health Data Science Institute, the first innovation institute of its kind among Israel’s HMOs. She recently co-founded Alike.Health, a startup that uses the power of artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing and big data to reimagine a preventative healthcare. She will present on harnessing technology to empower people in their own health and wellness.

Levi Shapiro is a leading Israeli entrepreneur, investor and thinker in digital health. He is founder of mHealth, Israel’s largest community of health and wellness tech innovators with 8,000 members. He also heads up the Digital Health Program at Hebrew University’s BioMED MBA program; holds board positions at numerous health-tech startups; and his articles appear in leading industry publications. He will map the newest directions in digital health and wellness.

Rick Stollmeyer is an entrepreneur and investor who founded Mindbody–the leading experience technology platform for the wellness industry–in his garage in 2001, which he sold in 2020 for nearly $2 billion. He now serves as Mindbody’s executive chair, and is the author of “Building a Wellness Business That Lasts,” which distills over two decades of his entrepreneurial experience in wellness. He will keynote on the future of wellness and his brand-new venture.

Tzipora Strauss, MD, MSc, is director of neonatology and a pediatric physician at Israel’s “City of Health,” Sheba Medical Center, which Newsweek has ranked as among the World’s Top Ten Hospitals for the past three years. Recently, Strauss has expanded her focus to longevity (a hot topic at the Summit) and is now co-leading a center for longevity medicine at Sheba University. Her topic: the radical reimagining of lifespan in healthcare and wellness.

Racheli Vizman is CEO and co-founder of Savor Eat, an Israeli startup that takes the plant-based food revolution a big step further. Using a revolutionary chef robot; 3D printing technology; and unique, non-GMO plant-based ingredients, Savor Eat makes meatless products, exactly the way you want them, at the touch of a button. Racheli will keynote on the future of precision, personalized nutrition in plant-based food and be part of a panel on the disruptions ahead in healthy eating.

Michelle A. Williams, SM, ScD, is dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She’s an internationally renowned epidemiologist and public health scientist and expert who has published 500+ peer-reviewed research papers. The growing role of wellness in public policy will be a crucial topic at the GWS, as it’s clear that the private sector cannot bring wellness to all, with the Global Wellness Institute releasing the world’s first research report on this growing area. Dean Williams will keynote on the future that wellness has in government policy.

Photos of the speakers can be found here.

About the Global Wellness Summit —The Global Wellness Summit is the premier organization that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy. Its future-focused conference is held at a different global location each year and has traveled to the United States, Switzerland, Turkey, Bali, India, Morocco, Mexico, Austria, Italy and Singapore. GWS also hosts other virtual and in-person gatherings, including Wellness Master Classes, Wellness Sector Spotlights, Investor “Reverse Pitch” events and Global Wellness Symposiums. The organization’s annual Global Wellness Trends Report offers expert-based predictions on the future of wellness. The 2022 Summit will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel from October 31 to November 3.