Max Song

Being the most qualified person in any room is a familiar experience for Max Song. Not only has the data scientist and entrepreneur studied at Brown University, worked in Silicon Valley and gained acceptance in the esteemed Schwarzman Scholars programme, but he’s also co-published a book on data science, taught at Singularity University and been nominated as a World Economic Forum contributor.

Raised between China and the US, Song long nurtured an ambition to start a business in Asia, believing that as the region makes the largest contribution to global carbon emissions it’s where he can make the biggest impact. In 2020, he founded Asia’s first carbon registry, Carbonbase, which he views “as the cornerstone of a decarbonisation economy. Through the tools of green finance, we aspire to incentivise and reward major companies across the Asia-Pacific region for investing in climate-change initiatives,” he says.

Song’s aim is for Carbonbase to be recognised within the next five years as Asia Pacific’s leading carbon registry and one of the top three in the world. He envisages his company as being responsible for processing 20 percent of the world’s carbon-credit registrations and empowering people in 30 countries to lead efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

When he isn’t working to avert climate disaster, you might find Song embracing his hedonistic side at the Burning Man Festival, an event he’s attended five times. “It’s such a powerful experience to see people build a city in the desert; I want to continue going back as much as I can,” he says.

Looking forward, Song aspires to take a low-Earth orbit ride to the edge of space, and to be able to say he contributed towards the reduction of 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions. But beyond such grand ambitions, he’s just as human as the rest of us, simply hoping to get married, start a family and learn to play the guitar.