Manolis Perrakis - Innovation Director Resume

Manolis Perrakis - Innovation Director Resume

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  Manolis Perrakis Innovation Director​ AI, Community & Communications (APAC) Designing AI experiences, workshops and narratives across Asia-Pacific ​ Phone Number: +65 82832707 ​ Web: artand.tech E-mail: manolis@artand.tech PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY I am an innovation and community leader with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of AI, creativity and communications. Based in Singapore, I help students, creators and enterprises across APAC understand and apply AI in practical, responsible ways. My work spans co-founding Hong Kong’s first hackerspace, designing hands-on AI workshops and labs, building and shipping multimodal AI experiences such as Luna for Skechers, and leading AI transformation and storytelling for a global agency network.​ COMMUNITY, EDUCATION & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AI workshops and labs (selected, APAC)​ Designed and ran immersive, gamified AI workshops for students and non-technical professionals, focused on making unfamiliar technology approachable and actionable.​ - “Gameathon: Build an 80s game with GPT” - global workshop and competition where first-time AI users generated code with GPT to build simple games. - From Prompt to Pipeline: AI Automations with GPT - participants build AI-powered automations with GPTs for reusable behaviours, and explore vibe coding for building applications.​ - Ongoing internal labs at We Are Social to help creatives, strategists and producers use ChatGPT and other tools for research, ideation, prototyping and content creation. University teaching and mentoring​ Singapore Institute of Technology - mentor under Professor Cesar Jung-Harada, advising students on applied AI projects, impact measurement and responsible use.​ LASALLE College of the Arts - invited reviewer and guest lecturer, helping students integrate AI into their creative process (research to production), and guiding them on portfolio-ready AI skills and employability.​ ​ SCAD Hong Kong - lectures and workshops on creative technology and AI.​ City University of Hong Kong - sessions on digital arts, interactive media and emerging tools. Talks, panels and events​
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  Speaker and panelliston AI in creativity and marketing, including:​ - AI: UNPLUGGED Project Panel: "Behind the Idea" - Runway & HAGIA panel on AI video in advertising - The Marketing Society: Changemakers Ignite (panel discussion on genAI) - Campaign 360 (Interactive AI showcase) - Ars Electronica (AI artwork showcase) - Sonar Hong Kong (hacking workshop) - MakerFaire Shenzhen, City University of Hong Kong, SCAD University Hong Kong and others.​ Publications & media (selection)​ Futureweek - A Deep Dive Into Skechers’ AI-Powered In-Store Stylist Luna​ ​ Campaign Asia - Articles on AI agents, text-to-video and AI chatbot advertising, focusing on how to turn frontier models into safe, effective campaigns. Little Black Book - 2025 predictions on AI’s impact on advertising and how creatives can adapt their workflows. MARKETECH APAC - Feature on AI agents and near-term AI marketing trends for 2025. STYLUS - Contributor to an “agentic AI for brands” guide for retailers, outlining adoption playbooks and guardrails. The CEO Magazine - Interview on how generative AI is reshaping organisations and talent needs. Commonwealth Magazine - Perspective on AI search optimisation and its implications for media and content strategy. Co-founder and director of Hong Kong’s first hackerspace​ Built a grassroots community of makers, artists and technologists, hosting regular talks, demos and workshops on emerging tools and creative technology. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE We Are Social 2021 - present - Innovation Director​ Lead APAC AI and innovation strategy across offices in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, acting as senior advisor on AI for regional leadership and clients. ​ Core team behind Vector, We Are Social’s innovation creator community and release club, curating global artists and technologists working in new expression mediums to support experimental client projects.​ Design and run AI education programmes (workshops, labs, internal competitions) for students, creatives and non-technical professionals, enabling them to use tools like ChatGPT for research, ideation, prototyping and content creation. Architect and ship applied AI pilots such as Luna, a multimodal retail AI agent for Skechers that turned in-store conversations into measurable business results and
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  generated global presscoverage.​ Establish AI governance standards that shape how AI is used across the agency. Manage and mentor creatives and technologists, and co-lead APAC’s contribution to We Are Social’s global AI vision and upskilling strategy. ATO 2020 - 2022 - Founder Architected and launched a cloud-native social platform leveraging AR and blockchain. Responsible for all aspects of product strategy, technical development, and infrastructure management. ​ Ogilvy 2017 - 2021 - Head of Creative Technology​ Led innovation and creative technology for key regional clients (including Huawei, Melco Resorts, Pizza Hut, KFC, HSBC and Coca-Cola). Translated client business challenges into prototype experiences and campaigns that used emerging technologies (including early AI and interactive media). Partnered with strategy, creative and production teams to bring concepts from idea to pilot across multiple APAC markets. ​ DDB 2012 - 2017 - Creative Technologist / Creative Director Combined creative leadership and technical execution for integrated campaigns. Led the team behind work that earned a Cannes Lions Silver and additional regional awards. Worked closely with clients to explore new interactive formats, including early social and experiential activations. ​ ​ BBDO Proximity 2011 - Creative Direction Leo Burnett ARC 2010 - Technology Consultant & Developer BP Ltd., London 2005-2008 - Web Development & Design​ ​ KEY AI & INNOVATION PROJECTS (selection) Luna AI - AI-Powered Retail Agent - SKECHERS​ Architected and led the development of Luna, a 3D, voice-and-vision AI retail assistant utilising OpenAI APIs. ​ ​ Luna acts as a personal stylist, using live conversation and vision to suggest complementary garments and assemble looks, driving conversion and capturing real-world usage patterns.​ https://artand.tech/luna/ Vector – Creator community & release club - We Are Social Co-led Vector, a creator community and release club that connects worldbuilders, visual artists and emerging-tech practitioners working with AI, XR and new digital mediums. Launched DROP001, a multi-creator zine and showcase at Mandala
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  Club in Singapore,and use Vector as an extended team, matching members’ niche skills to client briefs that need experimental, tech-driven storytelling. QCS (Quality Control System) - SAMSUNG​ Built a locally hosted, asset-agnostic AI QA platform to automate pre-flight checks for high-volume, multi-format social content. Uses video and image analysis alongside LLMs trained on prior campaigns and tone of voice to flag issues and propose fixes, improving efficiency and reducing late-stage corrections. SETI – Sentiment Evaluation and Thematic Insights - SAMSUNG​ Designed an AI-driven system that analyses YouTube comments for sentiment and themes, then generates on-brand replies at scale. Simplifies community management and surfaces real audience insights while maintaining tone-of-voice guidelines. PlusConnect - Blockchain Networking Platform - PLUS COMPANY​ Led the design and development of a decentralized networking platform, gaining experience with distributed systems and secure data architecture. https://artand.tech/plusconnect/ SKILLS AI & ML​ GPT, OpenAI APIs, Vertex AI, Runway, Stable Diffusion, Llama, Gemini, OpenCV, basic ML pipelines Content & Design​ Figma, Sora 2, Nano Banana, Veo 3.1, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Blender, Unity, Unreal Engine Community & Comms​ Workshop design and facilitation, programme design, public speaking, case study development, editorial collaboration Product & Strategy​ Product discovery, zero-to-one builds, user research, measurement frameworks, AI governance and safety Languages​ English (fluent), German (fluent), Greek (native) EDUCATION United Kingdom - July 2019 MA Visual Arts: University of the Arts London: Camberwell College of Arts​ Specialized in the intersection of artificial intelligence and art, culminating in a research paper on AI as a creative tool for artists.​ United Kingdom - July 2005 Qualification in Web Technologies
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  East London AdvancedTechnology (ELATT) ​ CIT Module III – Computer Art and Design CIT Module 124 – Global Communication​ CLAIT plus unit 15 – Web Animation Solution​ Germany- September 2004 Degree in Art & Design Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Under Professor Tony Cragg (winner of the 1988 Turner Prize) 1998 - 2000 and Professor George Herold 2000 - 2004 Training in the Fast Silver Video Editing System ​ Greece - September 1998 Foundation in Art & Design "Plakas" Art Foundation School