MEET THE FIRST SPEAKERS

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  Michael Leander

  Marketing Innovation Global speaker

  Michael Leander is an accomplished digital marketing entrepreneur and an award-winning marketing speaker with a global footprint. A recognized thought-leader in "martech" and marketing innovation for growth, he has delivered great experiences to audiences in 51 countries on 6 continents. This has earned him a reputation as a “great marketing speaker and marketing trainer”. He currently heads up Markedu - an innovative marketing training institute headquartered in Portugal with local operations in Europe, East Africa and Iran. Michael Leander is also the principal data-driven marketing consultant at GIDMA - a boutique data-driven marketing consulting firm helping companies grow.

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  Dale Howarth

  Business Mentor, Professional Speaker & Writer delivering ‘Practical Lessons for Better Business’

  For over 20 years he has mentored leaders and teams from new start businesses to some of today’s most successful SME’s. From new start businesses, entrepreneurial spirits and SME’s to well-known corporate clients, across a broad range of industries and sectors. He is an officer and board member to several companies.

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  Louise McDonnell

  Social Media Speaker

  Louise has been working with SMEs and business startups for 20 years now. She has helped over 8000 businesses use social media as a marketing tool. She knows and understands the issues small businesses and startups face. As the Author of Facebook Marketing: The Essential Guide for Businesses and Community Groups Louise has international credibility. She is an excellent, engaging speaker. She has been voted one of the top worldwide 50 Facebook Marketing Bloggers by Feedspot and Springboard.com listed her as one of the top 108 digital marketing experts worth following. BloggerLocal listed hee as one of the top 10 worldwide Facebook experts and more recently Designwizard listed her number 16 on a list of Ireland`s top 50 marketers. Louise has been working in the area of Digital Marketing since 2009 and has trained and coached in excess of 8000 people. She has been a keynote speaker at the Social Media Summit Ireland, The Digital West Summit, The Wedding Band Association Annual Conference, the Women Inspire Conference Galway and Irish Wedding Association Conference. She works with Irish Government Agencies including Failte Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Offices in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Roscommon. She also provides corporate training to businesses all over Ireland and online coaching to business owners all over the world.

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  Fahim R. Kibria

  CMO at Kotler Impact Inc. and Executive Director of the World Marketing Summit Group

  Dr. Fahim R. Kibria is also working as exclusive Business Director worldwide for Professor Philip Kotler, the one & only re-known Guru of marketing whose books are taught in all the business colleges & universities around the globe. Lately, they together launched Kotler Business Program in collaboration with Pearson Education UK, in 35 + countries (to-date) around the world. Prior to joining Kotler Impact Inc., he worked as marketing management consultant with Prof. Philip Kotler. As Director on the Pan-American desk, his primary role in providing consultancy to both private and public sectors. Prior to that, he worked as Director Strategy & Business Development at Philip Morris, spearheaded the firm`s Global Products Development strategy firstly out of Albany-NY, and then in Toronto, where he moved to redefine the Canadian business. Fahim is also involved in marketing consultations to companies worldwide, while assisting for corporate governance assessments and improvement plans in NAFTA, SAARC, SAFTA & ASEAN.

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  DRAYTON BIRD

  Specialist in Direct Marketing [UK]

  Drayton Bird is one of the most important figures in the field of direct marketing and advertising for the last 25 years, with 52 years experience in the field of online and offline marketing. In 2003, “Chartered Institute of Marketing” designates Drayton Bird as one of the 50 specialists in the world who have shaped the development of today`s marketing. He has worked for some of the biggest brands worldwide – Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, P & G, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen. In various capacities – mostly as a writer, Drayton has helped sell a variety of products – from Airbus aircraft to the Peppa Pig animation. He has written 6 books, out in 17 languages, one of them “Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing” has been a bestseller for all years since 1982. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards numerous times.

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  Sarah Hodkinson

  the General Manager of SmarterTravel, a TripAdvisor company

  She joined the company in 2016 as VP of Marketing and was promoted to General Manager last year. SmarterTravel operates a network of 8 travel websites that includes Jetsetter.com, Airfarewatchdog.com and Oyster.com. In this role Sarah oversees a team of over 100 employees across Product, Editorial, Marketing, Sales and Engineering. SmarterTravel is headquartered in Boston with satellite offices in New York and LA. Previously, Sarah spent 5 years as Senior Director, Marketing at PayPal, overseeing marketing operations and strategic partnerships. A passionate advocate for diversity in tech, Sarah is the executive sponsor for TripPride, TripAdvisor’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group. She formerly served on the board of StartOut, a non-profit that cultivates entrepreneurship within the LGBTQ community and she has spoken at events including Lesbians Who Tech in New York, MITX’s InfluenceHer summit and the Be Bold Boston Business Women’s conference. In October Sarah was named a finalist for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s Emerging Executive of the Year and in 2015, she was honored by Boston-based venture capital firm, Accomplice, as one of Boston’s Top 20 Women in Tech. Originally from the UK, Sarah graduated from Lancaster University. She is also an active angel investor, advisor to start-ups and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Radius Bank.

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  Alexander Lozhechkin

  Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture, Amazon Web Services, Central & Eastern Europe

  Alexander Lozhechkin leads the Solutions Architects team across 30+ countries of Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Solution Architects at AWS help customers to get the most of cloud technologies. This team works across various customer segments, from startups and cloud native companies to large enterprises. Solution Architects also focus a lot on building technical communities around cloud. Before joining AWS, Alexander lead a Developer Experience team in Central & Eastern Europe at Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft in 2004, he was leading a software development in a startup. Alexander is passionate about the opportunities for individuals and organizations that building software on cloud platform presents. Many of his team activities are to stimulate local software economies in both emerging and developed countries in our region by helping CEE companies to succeed globally.

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  Elena Sokolova, PhD

  Senior Machine learning Data Scientist and Team Lead at Booking.com since January 2019

  Data scientist and a public speaker with 8 years of diverse experience in real world projects in machine learning, recommender systems, NLP, causality, Bayesian networks, statistical analysis and process optimization. Working with Big data, using Spark, Hive, SQL, H2O, and Python. Before accepting the position of a Senior Machine Learning Data Scientist and Team lead of Machine Learning team in the beginning of 2019, Elena was Team Lead of the Machine Learning Team. She manages successfully a team of data scientists and backend developers that worked on developing machine learning models to automate customer service department workload by personalising content that users see and autoreplying text messages with chat bot. Her job included also applying advanced NLP algorithms to automate the work in customer service department. Before that she started working for Booking.com in 2016 as a Machine Learning Data Scientist. As a student at Radboud University, Netherlands (2012 - 2016) she developed new machine learning methods and applied them to analyze real-world data sets in medical domain and e-commerce. Implemented these methods in Matlab, R and Python.

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  Kris Beyens

  C-Level Executive: GM, COO and CFO across e-commerce, healthcare and manufacturing businesses. Investor, Board Member & Advisor

  A dynamic leader with over 20 years of operational and finance experience working in industries covering oil & gas, electrical components, medical devices and e-commerce. Proven leader able to balance long term goals with short term operational decision making. Passionate, reliable, trustworthy and driven with a strong track record in general management, operational and finance positions. Extensive global experience developing long range plans & strategy frameworks. Proven ability to implement and execute multi-year operational plans while managing short term expectations and commitments. Experience leading M&A, BD and integrations. Finance business partner with the ability to achieve operational efficiency, drive business growth and maximize shareholder value through achievements in finance management, planning, centralization, outsourcing while overseeing internal controls. Execution enabled through a high focus on driving insight, analytics and tool implementation Experienced people leader with demonstrated experience motivating and leading cross-functional teams with high culture and employee feedback scores. Known for a high say-do ratio and maintaining focus on the bigger picture. Regulatory, data privacy and payments in e-commerce experience as leader and board member of the payments & customer billing institution in. Instrumental in setting up KYC and anti-corruption practices processes across eBay and StubHub. Exposure to leading an e-commerce advertising business managing 3P and 1P advertising buyers with industry leading technology and enabling 1P advertising

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  Gina London

  CEO at Language of Leadership, Ltd.

  She has worked with tens of thousands of executives, political leaders and business professionals who understand that connecting leaders and communicators are not just born, they learn, train and practice to develop their abilities to motivate and inspire others to positive action. Gina has proved global success with Fortune 500 companies including SAP, Deloitte, McKesson, Pernod Ricard, Merck, Daimler, JP Morgan and more. Her humanitarian efforts include training the first women who ran for parliament in Iraq, facilitating UNICEF`s International Council at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as well as in Florence, Italy, moderating the 2018 International Children`s Peace Prize ceremony in Cape Town, speaking before thousands of college students in Lagos, and managing an immunization awareness campaign in Cambodia. She has also provided strategy for democracy building campaigns in Indonesia, Tunisia, Egypt, Macedonia, Romania and other countries. She has worked or lived in dozens of countries across six continents. She is proud that her speaking, training and coaching transforms lives.

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  MARIYA GABRIEL

  European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society

  Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society since July 2017. The overall objective of her overarching portfolio aims at the full realization of the Digital Single Market. Her strategic vision has consistently placed European citizens at the center of the policies, helping them acquire digital skills to succeed in the digital transformation process. She has focused her efforts on putting forward an ambitious digital programme in the context of the next MFF, investing in HPC, AI, cyber security, but also the creative, audio-visual industries and media, bringing benefits to all European citizens. She has extensively engaged with external EU partners to enhance digital cooperation, in particular with the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region. Mariya Gabriel served as Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to July 2017. Being the EPP Group Vice-President, she tackled issues related to EU enlargement, Mediterranean region, Middle East and Africa and focused on priorities, e.g. security, migration, women issues. Mariya Gabriel also has considerable achievements in the area of the EU visa policy - she is the EP rapporteur on 1/3 of all EU visa liberalisation agreements. She was awarded twice the prestigious prize "MEP of the year" - in 2016 for the Development category, and in 2013 for the Gender equality category. She is the 2018 winner of the prize "Tecnovisionarie" awarding excellence in research, technology, innovation, and business. In 2017 she was honored with the Royal Spanish Order of Civil Merit for her contribution to the foreign relations of the country and 2016 - with the Columbian Order of San Carlos for merits to the country in international relations and diplomacy.

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  Dinis Guarda

  CEO and Founder @Lifesdna. Serial entrepreneur and Fintech influencer

  Dinis Guarda is an author, serial entrepreneur, advisor and experienced CEO. He creates and helps build ventures focused on global growth, 360 digital strategies, sustainable innovation, Blockchain, Fintech, AI and new emerging business models such as ICOs / tokenomics. Dinis is the founder/CEO of Lifesdna - one AI P2P, blockchain, search engine and PaaS in consumer wellness healthcare and life sciences with a global team of experts and universities. Dinis is the author of various books. His upcoming books “Blockchain, AI and Crypto Economics - The Next Tsunami” and “Tokenomics and ICOs - How to be good at the new digital world of finance / Crypto” will be launched in 2018. Dinis has advised and was responsible for some top financial organizations, 100 cryptocurrencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies. Dinis is involved as a strategist, board member and advisor with the blockchain reward community app Glance technologies, where he leads its white label blockchain division Blockimpact, the seminal Hyperloop Transportations project, Kora and Token Communities. He is listed in various global Fintech, Blockchain, AI, social media industry top lists as an influencer in position top 10/20 within 100 rankings

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  Mark Turrell

  Expert in Science of spread

  Mark is an expert in Science of spread - how do you spread ideas, behavioral change, products and services. Method incorporates neuroscience, behavioral science, networks, emergence, sync, complex systems, fractal patterns, collective intelligence - with innovation and creative problem solving thrown in. Client use - go-to-market strategy development, and solving “extreme problems”. He is also interested in Collective Intelligence / crowdsourcing - how to tap into the brainpower of the masses to solve problems, capture ideas, develop business plans, generate engagement. And in Work using human psychology - plus software (software as a service - ideas in the cloud). He is also inspired by the idea that he could work for Changing the World (for Better) – by appling the techniques above to help NGOs, non-profits, and people doing good in the world to solve problems and scale and spread the good things. This includes developing methods for crowdsourced election monitoring for fraudulent elections, and supporting the Arab Spring revolutionary movements as a strategist. Start-ups and growing companies - work with start-ups as a friend / advisor / consultant to address various issues. He speaks on topics including spread, how the world is changing, innovation, and other things he finds interesting. His ambitious goal is to change the entire world for better, all of it, at the same time so that people can be happier, be less sad, and be free to choose. As a pragmatist (not an idealist), he develops and has developed plans and tactics to achieve this.

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  Jordi Gili

  Social Selling author, speaker, trainer.

  The company that he currently works for as a Country Managing Director and Chief Product Officer (Execus) helps B2B sales teams design and execute their strategies to develop more business using social networks. Throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia they help with Social Selling Consulting and Training, Linkedin presence and Marketing campaigns outsourcing and Sales systems integration. He is really interested in the evolution that Social Selling is continuously experiencing in Professional Social networks and new tools have radically changed the traditional establishment. He considers that today we are living the third revolution in Selling in modern history. Now we have the tools to connect and target a single person within our universe. And every sales professional and organization should be using these tools to boost sales. Partner at Social Health, the Revolution of Social in Health Care Senior Start-up Advisor at Lead To Win.

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  Javier Ortiz-Sanchez

  CEO & Cofounder of Sextaplanta

  He has seen the travel industry from many points of view throughout his professional career. He has played roles in tour operators and online travel agents. He has also worked for the public sector as Area Manager for the G2B Department at the Innovation Area of the Andalusia Tourist Board. He took part in the launch of the Fuerte Hoteles start-up, ResponsibleHotels.travel where he was responsible for the development of the online platform as well as the marketing plan. Javier also played a major role in the Account Management Team at Booking.com in Andalusia. He currently collaborates with the University of Málaga and runs the web project, Habitacion61.com. Currently he also leads a team of experienced professionals in Sextaplanta aimed to work closely with hotels and other travel companies to enter the digital era. Specialties: Revenue Management, E-Commerce, Hotel representation, revenue management & yield management. Sales, pricing & negociation techniques. E-Marketing, Social Media Marketing & ORM. Team building, group meetings & people management. Work forecast & deadlines.

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  ROD BANNER

  MADtech lifer – Marketing Advertising and Technology [UK]

  Rod is a MADtech lifer – Marketing Advertising and Technology. He founded the technology marketing group, „Banner Corporation”. It had grown to become the largest Business to Business agency in Europe. In 2014 Rod made it into the TechCity Insider 100 list and the 2014/15 Fresh Business Thinking Power 100. In 2015 he was chosen as one of The Maserati 100 – A list of UK-based entrepreneurs who are giving back to the next generation. Rod is also an angel investor – specialising in MADtech Specialties: Architecting and building brands. Discovering and telling corporate ‘stories’. Monetising social media, mobile and marketing automation. 25 plus years in creating tangible, marketing-driven success for technology companies located in EMEA.

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  MARC WESSELINK

  Managing Director Startupbootcamp

  Serial Entrepreneur, started 12 companies in FMCG, Home Electronics, Healthcare, E-Commerce, HR and Finance. Because of this, he has an in depth knowledge on many fields which can help entrepreneurs to maintain a 360 degree view on their business. He is a motivator, business coach, critical optimist. With his skills and experience, he is currently in charge of selecting Startups for the Accelerator programs in Amsterdam and helping the alumni from Startupbootcamp Amsterdam with the execution of their business. He is also co-founder of Startupbootcamp Africa with programs in Johannesburg & Cape Town.With his entrepreneurial experience, Mark advises managers and entrepreneurs to let their company grow faster and helps them establish a solid infrastructure. After founding and having bootstrapped 12 companies and failed 4 times, he is definitely an experienced entrepreneur with an international focus. After interviewing hundreds of startups as Selection & Alumni Manager at Startupbootcamp, he went on to co-found Startupbootcamp Africa.

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  Robert Neivert

  Venture Partner at 500 Startups

  Robert is a venture partner at 500 startups focusing on B2B enterprise software and a veteran of nine companies. Twice as CEO, and multiple times as CFO, COO, and heads of sales and marketing organizations. Рreviously held the position of Executive in Residence at Quest Venture Partners. Robert is also mentor and advisor for Cardinal Ventures, Stanford iFarm, and Stanford`s Treehacks program as well as an executive advisor for over 15 funded startups.

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  Marius Ghenea

  Partner, 3TS Capital

  Marius is serial entrepreneur and business-angel with successful investments in many CEE countries, ranks in Forbes fortune Romanian survey. He is Co-Founder at VentureConnect and SchoolforStartups Romania, president of the Romanian Association of Online Stores. Also he is the author of “Entrepreneurship”, first Romanian entrepreneurship book, one of the Romanian Dragons from the TV show Dragons’ Den; Co-organizer of the BusinessDrive mini-MBA program, professor of Entrepreneurship. Marius is awarded with “Investor of the Year Romania 2016” by Central European Startup Awards.

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  Jonathan Bixby

  Active angel investor, Executive Director at Growlab [CA]

  Jonathan currently invests out of both Stanley Park Ventures and Oak Mason Investments. Jonathan is a founder and on the Board of Advisors of HIGHLINE.VC a VC backed Co-Venture Platform with programming in four cities (Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, New York) and powered by some of Canada’s best entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem partners. HIGHLINE is a merger of GrowLab and Extreme Startups. Jonathan was the Executive Director of GrowLab before merging with Extreme Startups. Jonathan Bixby was the CEO and a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, creator of the first network appliance and cloud service for accelerating dynamic web applications. The Strangeloop Site Optimizer dramatically increases the performance of revenue generating websites, allowing for faster page loads, higher conversion and revenue. Under Jonathan’s leadership, Strangeloop raised over $21M in financing, including a Series A round of $11.5 million, one of the largest rounds of private Series A financing for a technology start-up in Canadian history. Strangeloop was selected the Best Employer in British Columbia for a record five straight years (2008 to 2013).

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  Nancy Nemes

  Founder Ms. AI, former Sales & Marketing leader at Google and Microsoft.

  Nancy Nemes is a tech trendsetter with 20 years of global experience in high tech across Europe, USA, Canada and South America. Nancy is the founder of Ms.AI - Artificial Intelligence for and with women. Until recently, she was heading up Google's Hardware business in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at Microsoft leading up IOT in its early days, Digital & Consumer Marketing, Business Development and Sales for various products and services. In recent years, Nancy has pioneered, implemented and optimized the impact of mobile, digital, and social aiming at enriching people lives through smart connected devices and services.

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