The future of digital platforms
AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
18th November 2025
18th November 2025
An initiative by Launchworks & Co
Platforms and their ecosystems are now part of our daily lives. They are redefining the way we work, the way we learn, how we innovate and how we collaborate. As a community of platform leaders, how do we ensure that the full potential of these digital ecosystems is realised for all?
What is Platform Leaders?
Platform Leaders brings together entrepreneurs, policy makers, academics, investors and practitioners to exchange insights and best practices on the future of digital platforms and ecosystems. These communities don’t always talk to each other, yet are collectively building the platform economy. Platform Leaders provides strategic insights into key topics and allow experts to share complementary perspectives to shape the debate so that the potential of digital markets can be unlocked for all.
Agenda
This will be out 10th event and we’ll touch upon a range of hot topics including new emerging digital trends for 2026, how to prepare individuals, organisations and institutions for transformative AI, how to be visible online in the age of AI, the interplay between policy and product development. And we’ll also award the 2025 Platform Leaders Academic Prize!
Below are confirmed speakers for 18 November as well as jury members for the academic prize.
Laure Claire Reillier
Laure Claire Reillier
Laure Claire Reillier is Co-founder and COO of Launchworks & Co, the leading experts for designing and scaling marketplaces & platforms. Formerly a senior exec at eBay Europe, she has 20 years’ experience in developing, managing and marketing products and services for digital, e-commerce, and platform companies.
Laure Claire was appointed in 2019 as one of the 8 experts on digital platforms at the World Economic Forum. She is also the co-author of Platform Strategy: How to unlock the power of communities and networks to grow your business and Mission BlaBlaCar.
Oliver Bethell
Oliver Bethell
Oliver is Head of Competition, Regulatory Engagement & Advisory at Google where he leads a large multidisciplinary and cross functional team covering Policy, Legal, Economists, Product, Eng, Comms.
He was previously in private practice at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels before moving to Google’s in-house team in London in 2008.
Oliver is a graduate of Oxford University, BPP Law School and King's College. He is a member of the Bar of England and Wales.
Oliver was named Competition Individual of the Year, 2018 (Global Counsel Awards); Competition Individual of the Year, 2018 (European Counsel Awards); and Corporate Counsel of the Year, 2012 (Global Competition Review).
Benoit Reillier
Benoit Reillier
Benoit Reillier specialises in strategy and corporate development for innovative high growth companies and platform businesses/ecosystems. He has been advising the boards and top management teams of many blue chip companies as well as regulators and Governments for more than 20 years.
Prior to founding Launchworks Benoit was Director of Economics and Regulation at KPMG where he focused on Telecommunications, Media and Technology clients globally. Benoit is a guest lecturer in a number of top business and engineering schools and is in charge of the executive Platform Strategy module of the HEC Paris MBA. He is a graduate from IMT Business School in Paris and holds Master degrees in Management, Economics and Law. Benoit is also a graduate from Columbia University in New York and London Business School (MBA).
He is the co-author of Platform Strategy: How to unlock the power of communities and networks to grow your business and Mission BlaBlaCar.
Sandrine Zhang Ferron
Sandrine Zhang Ferron
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Sandrine Zhang Ferron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Vinterior. Born in China, Sandrine emigrated to France as a child in the 90s. Her family home was focused on utility and function, a consequence of her parent’s upbringing in Communist China. It wasn’t until later in life that Sandrine’s love and exploration into design developed. As she travelled, her exposure to different cultures and design viewpoints led her to develop a love of vintage due to its ability to transform a space, bringing character to a room.
Sandrine majored in finance and graduated from ESSEC Business School in France before embarking on a career in London focusing on structured products sales covering institutional investors in Benelux and Switzerland. Her next role was in the investment team of a family office.
Sandrine left finance to start Vinterior in 2015 following an extensive search for a yellow Poul Volther chair. Endless weekends were spent scouring vintage dealers around London and though eventually successful, Sandrine realised there was a need for an online marketplace where people could easily search and buy quality pre-owned and vintage furniture.
In early 2016 Sandrine learnt to code and launched the initial iteration of Vinterior. The first sale was a pair of Belgian mid-century armchairs. By 2017 the vintage marketplace was booming and Vinterior hit a humbling milestone, £1 million in sales, securing a venture capital injection and creating a marketplace of 500 sellers. The next key marker was reached in 2021, following a series A funding round of £8 million.
Sameer Singh
Sameer Singh
Sameer, a Partner with Speedinvest's Marketplaces & Consumer team, specializes in products with network effects. He is also an instructor at Reforge and authors a widely read blog about network effects at breadcrumb.vc. Previously, he was part of the Atomico Angel Program.
Before switching to the investor side of the table, he spent 5 years at App Annie (now called data.ai) – a company backed by Sequoia, IVP, and Greycroft. He had a front row seat to App Annie’s hypergrowth journey as the company grew from $20M to $140M in ARR during this time. During this journey, he led the global value consulting team, translating the value of App Annie’s data to new and existing customers, advising customers like Spotify, Shpock, and Trainline.
Originally from Hyderabad in India, Sameer is an engineer with an MBA. He started his career in investment banking, but his interest in technology took him in a different direction. This interest led him to write a widely read blog about mobile and technology businesses, which has been referenced in Philip Tetlock's seminal book, Superforecasting. This eventually brought him to London and to the startup world. During this time, he became deeply interested in understanding the patterns of successful startups – leading to his love for network effects.
Prof. Nicos Savva
Nicos Savva
Professor Nicos Savva is an expert in data science, using it to solve operational problems and help large organisations develop data-science capabilities. His research focuses on healthcare management, including hospital operations, regional organization of care, assessing performance, measuring health inequity, and innovation. His work has appeared in leading journals such as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production & Operations Management, and Nature Biotechnology. He is a Department Editor of Management Science.
Nicos has acted as an external advisor to NHS England/NHS Improvement, and a consultant to hospitals, biotech companies, high-tech start-ups, retail firms, and a hedge fund. He also advises on the policy implications of algorithms. Besides LBS, he has also taught at The Wharton School, Columbia GSB, and at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Professor Savva has a MA MPhil PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Laura McCracken
Laura McCracken
Laura McCracken is a FinTech and platform veteran with over 25 years of commerce and payments industry experience. She held senior positions at Facebook (Meta), Amazon, Citi, and American Express. Most recently, she was an MD at Accenture, leading the Social Commerce & Payments industry vertical globally.
She currently advises leadership teams of Fintech companies at Launchworks & Co on a wide range of strategic topics including social commerce, marketplace, payment and mobile wallet. She also serves on the board of The Payments Association (TPA) and is an Independent Non-Executive Director at Guavapay.
Having lived in London, Luxembourg, Singapore, New York and Los Angeles and worked across over 30 markets in North America, EMEA, Russia/CIS and Asia Pacific, Laura has a unique international network and views the world through a global lens.
She holds a BS in Accounting from Auburn University and MBA degrees from Columbia and London Business School.
Alexander Waksman
Alexander Waksman
Alexander acts for companies in antitrust proceedings before courts, competition authorities and sectoral regulators in the UK, the European Union, and other jurisdictions. He has extensive experience in behavioural cases, merger control reviews, market studies and investigations, competition litigation, and complex compliance matters.
His practice is unusually versatile. He acts for complainants, defendants, and interested parties; his clients range from the largest companies in the world through to SMEs and professional associations; and, alongside traditional antitrust work, he assists clients on law reform and policy advocacy. He has particular expertise in emerging regulatory regimes for digital platforms.
Alexander is recognised as an authority in the field. He co-authored a comprehensive textbook on UK competition law (‘UK Competition Regime: A Practitioner’s Guide’, published by Sweet & Maxwell in September 2021). He was named a ‘future leader’ in Who’s Who Legal 2021 and was shortlisted as a ‘rising star’ of private practice at the British Legal Awards 2019. Since 2019, he has been a board member and editorial writer for the European Competition Law Review.
He holds a BA in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree in Law and Economics from the universities of Hamburg, Bologna, and Haifa. Alexander has published more than a dozen articles in leading law journals and has delivered talks at trade association meetings, competition law conferences and university seminars.
Limvirak Chea
Limvirak Chea
Limvirak Chea is the co-founder and CEO of Fixter, the online platform offering comprehensive car maintenance services across the UK. Launched in Manchester in 2017, Fixter rapidly expanded from a UK tech startup to an international garage network within five years. Supported by a small, skilled team — including certified mechanics and professionals — Fixter attracted investment from AXA and was eventually acquired by Renault.
Limvirak is a graduate from CentraleSupélec and Cornell University (MS, Electrical Engineering).
Jon Earnshaw
Jon Earnshaw
Jon is co-founder and CTO of Pi Datametrics and has worked in search for 20+ years. Previously an academic and still a Visiting Lecturer, Jon works on Global SEO Strategy and specialises in voice and conversational search.
2:00PM – 2:30PM
GUEST REGISTRATION
In-person guest registration and networking at Digital Catapult.
2:30PM – 2:35PM
WELCOME TALK
Start of the online webinar and the in-person conference.
Platform Leaders introduction by the master of ceremony.
2:35PM – 3:10PM
KEYNOTE: DIGITAL TRENDS 2026
Platform Leaders co-chair and Launchworks & Co CEO Benoit Reillier will present his key digital trends for 2026 and discuss how to prepare individuals, organisations and institutions for transformative AI.
3:10PM – 3:30PM
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR AI
Platform Leaders co-chair and Launchworks & Co COO Laure Claire Reillier will present the new collective intelligence for AI initiative.
