Terminus Group Founder & CEO among winners of Fortune’s ‘40 Under 40’ award in recognition of entrepreneurship and innovation in AIoT

Gathering together some of the most dynamic and elite young company founders, CEOs, and leaders from across Asia, Fortune Magazine’s Top ‘40 under 40’ awards ceremony was recently held, in Shanghai, with Terminus Group’s Founder and CEO, Victor Ai, among the winners and recognized for a second time by the award, The Fortune ‘40 Under 40’ award recognizes pioneering young business leaders and their impact through innovative tech and leading companies that are making great strides across the Asia region and the world. The event was also host to a series of panel discussions, highlighting enterprise and technology trends facing international entrepreneurs.

Other key leaders in attendance and recognized at the awards ceremony included: Carl Wu, Co-Founder and CEO of New Frontier Group; Haoqian Zhang, CEO and co-founder of Bluepha; and Liu Gongrun, Deputy President and Researcher of Lujiazui Institute of International Finance.

In contrast to traditional award ceremonies held over an evening dinner, the ’40 Under 40’ awards format resembled more of an international platform and forum for an exchange of ideas. Alongside Ai, other awardees were invited to participate in panel discussions where these corporate leaders discussed topics ranging from enterprise management, the impact of business in the smart new economy, and how technology is creating and reshaping new business models and entrepreneurship.

Speaking at the awards event, Victor Ai, Founder and CEO of Terminus Group, outlined his take on how the new generation of entrepreneurs need to react to a new business dynamic and detailed some of the opportunities – as well as challenges – ahead. AI’s belief is that the priority of enterprise development is to lend focus to business efficiency with equal emphasis and importance given, by companies, to being both flexible and resilient.

Victor Ai stresses the need for resilience and flexibility in enterprise management, at the Fortune Magazine Top ‘40 under 40’ event

AIoT as a driver for smart future living

With the ’40 Under 40’ award recognizing leaders who bring expertise in new innovations Terminus Group’s Founder and CEO was acknowledged for his company’s focus on artificial intelligence and the Internet of things – or AIoT.

Ai said: “From its infancy as an industry through to the present, Terminus Group’s focus on AIoT has always been about how to reshape, improve, and adapt to the world’s urban living requirements. Primarily, the company approaches this from the standpoint of developing and managing the dynamic of digitized urban and city-living environments. For Terminus Group, this is as business strategy and commitment that is envisaged to be a key driver of R&D, product development and real time application, over the next 20 years."

The ’40 Under 40’ award also acknowledged that it under Ai’s stewardship of Terminus Group – from its entrepreneurial founding, in 2015, into an international company that is already a world-leader in smart city AIoT – he is overseeing the development of not one but four smart or ‘AI’ cities. Clearly, Ai’s leadership in this sector is second to none and his impact on the industry, as a whole, is part of the many reasons he was recognized by the awards committee for a second time.

Addressing the attendees of a panel discussion at the ’40 Under 40’ event, Ai stated that the development of AIoT technology will bring improvements, safety, and convenience to the future way of life. This includes everything from retail transactions to smart traffic management, all the way up to city-wide, energy efficient resource management and planning. According to Ai, through the efficient application of innovative technology across key digitized urban scenarios “this presents great opportunities for existing and new scientific and technological-based enterprises.”

Emphasizing the need for resilience within a company, in light of rapid changes in technology, and particularly in the AIoT sector, Ai said: "It is important to find certainty in the uncertainty. Although the external environment has proven to be extremely challenging, leaders – young and old – must certainly recognize the need to rise to these challenges, if they aspire to continue to grow and develop. There is no room for complacency. Time and technology wait for no one to get comfortable."

Terminus Group

As a company, Terminus Group has spent the last year focusing on a combination of upskilling its workforce and investing in R&D. By setting a team structure based on scientific, technological research, and application, Terminus Group has brought on board a raft of international experts, including three top IEEE fellows and a further 100 doctoral talents.

In terms of R&D and product development, Terminus Group has invested in developing its proprietary TacOS (Terminus AI CITY Operating System) so as to support and manage full scene applications in urban spaces, as well as constantly improving the AIoT technical architecture of the product. Naturally, all such investments incur costs, but Ai underlined that these are minimal investments in comparison to the long-term gains.

Participants, including Victor Ai (2^nd from right), shared their insights on the event

Launched in 2011 and often referred to as the "cradle of business superstars", Fortune Magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ annual award aims to discover and highlight outstanding young innovators, value creators, and change makers.