Matthew K. Cross

World's Top Priority Strategist, Peak Performance Authority and Author, Fortune 100 consultant and leadership coach.

Matthew K. Cross is the world’s top priority strategist, an internationally renowned speaker, author, and CEO of LeadershipAlliance.com, working with Fortune 100 organizations and elite institutions including Stanford University, Bank of America, BlackRock, UBS, Allianz, Merrill Lynch, Early Warning, WebHelp, Wells Fargo, Netscout, Home Depot & Qlik.

A Deming Quality Scholar and Hoshin NorthStar author and expert, he facilitates transformational learning, innovation and strategic execution. A prolific author, Cross' next books include: The Greatest Business Success Story Never Told (applying the master principle behind every successful organization on Earth) and Peak Performance on Demand in Sports, Fitness & Life.

Matthew has partnered with innovative thought leaders such as Marshall Thurber, a key mentor to Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) and Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within). Graduates of his acclaimed masterclasses include thousands of executives across multiple industries, along with names like Barbara Dalio, wife of legendary Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. As a Golden Ratio Biomimicry authority, Matthew’s expertise includes identifying and simplifying the key drivers of peak health, performance, abundance; longevity. These are shared in his Nature’s Secret Nutrient books, TEDx talks, and MicroMasterClassesTM. Matthew is committed to sharing his diverse life experiences in ancient history, priority strategy, competitive athletics, and genius activation in support of optimal leadership, life success, and happiness.

Innowave 2023 Keynote Topic Innovation Trinity: AI2 Leadership, Quality; Biomimicry Matthew shares the principles, practices, and vast performance potentials at the intersection of AI2, Quality. Leaders receive a transformative upgrade in how they think, plan, and act to achieve and enjoy desired results personally and professionally.

Andrew Weld-Moore

Head of Sales, CEE, Global Business Group @ Meta | UNICEF Ireland Board Member

A mission-driven leader with 20+ years of experience building teams, businesses and strong industry and customer relationships. 11+ years in Facebook running Sales and Operations at various levels and managing several markets (Nordics, Benelux, UK/Ire and CEE).

He is a Board Member of UNICEF Ireland where together with his board colleagues help guide the direction of the organisation.

Andrew Weld-Moore is Head of Sales for Central Eastern Europe - Global Business Group at Meta.
He joined Facebook after a number of years at UTV Radio, where he was responsible for strategic sales & marketing policies, driving revenue across the company’s portfolio of radio stations. In that role he helped build UTV’s radio network into one of the largest in the UK/IRE marketplace. He also sits on the board of UNICEF Ireland.

Todor Petkov

General Manager @ KBC Global Services

Todor Petkov has a university degree in Finance and is certified SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) methodology expert with more than 20 years of international experience in the financial services sector gained at different levels in leading Bulgarian and foreign companies. Since 2019, he has been the General Manager of the Bulgarian branch of KBC Global Services. Todor played a key role in the establishment in Varna of the first-ever Shared Services Center in the banking and insurance sector of KBC in Bulgaria, and later led the foundation of the company's IT Hub.

Petar Ivanov

Sales Program Manager @ Google Cloud CEE

A director-level professional with wide experience in the ICT industry in CEE and Emerging Markets. An entrepreneurial and innovative driver, having more than 24 years of visionary leadership, business development expertise, established at CEE and Emerging operations of four global corporations. An experienced professional in industries such as Telco & Media, Government and Defense.

In Aug 2022, Petar joined the Google Cloud team in CEE, where he is responsible for the GTM Strategy for Public Sector and key accounts.

Before joining the Google Cloud team, Petar was CEO of AmCham Bulgaria, where he was a public speaker on the last two 3 Seas conferences in Riga and Sofia, where he was moderator of the Digital Panel and participated in the 5G panel during the Riga’s Forum.

Between June 2013 - December 2016, Petar was General Manager of Microsoft Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Kosovo.

Between August 2000 - Sep 2012 Petar served for 12 years at Cisco Systems as GM for CEE6 countries and was Director Strategy and Planning based in London.

Between 1996-1999, Peter worked for 3Com/US Robotics and established their business from scratch in Bulgaria and CIS.

In 2010 Peter graduated from the International Management Development Institute (IMD) General Management Program, Lausanne, Switzerland. He also holds a Master Degree in Business Administration from the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria and has a Masters Degree in Military Cybernetics from the Military Artillery College.

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 <a href="https://www.nemesventures.com/" target="_blank">Ms.AI</a> - 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.

Drayton Bird

Оne of the world's best marketing experts

In 2003, The Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton Bird one of the 50 people in the world who have shaped today`s marketing. David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world”. Former Worldwide Vice Chairman and Creative Director of the agency now Ogilvy One he has had 60 years’ experience in 55 countries.

He has worked for some of the world’s biggest brands including Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, P &amp;amp; G, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

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 “Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing” has been a bestseller since 1982. David Ogilvy also said his speeches are “Instructive and hilariously funny.”

Kasim Aslam

CEO @ Solutions 8 | In Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders (USA)

Kasim Aslam is the founder and CEO of Solutions 8, one of the world’s top-ranked Google Ads agencies. Recipient of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association’s 2017 TIM Award for Person of the Year, Kasim was also named one of the Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders in the United States by The University of Missouri in 2020.

Recently, he is co-founded Driven Mastermind, an exclusive, invite-only community for high-performing entrepreneurs. He has been honored to be the WarRoom's 5X Wicked Smart Winner three years in a row– an award given to a War Room member who has presented their best proven and tested strategies to grow their business rapidly. With over a decade of experience in Digital Marketing, he is passionate about helping businesses grow and scale through Google Ads––whether that’s providing knowledge and resources they need or through Solutions 8, the best Google Ads Agency in the US.

Vlad Stoica

Enterprise Account Executive / Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Order Management - Central & Eastern Europe @ Salesforce

He is passionate about technology with a focus on digital transformation in the e-commerce space.
Vlad brings an analytical approach to projects and he follows the numbers to make the right decisions.
His goal is to explore relevant solutions for creating a long-standing foundation for digitalization. He is passionate about technology with a focus on digital transformation in the e-commerce space.

Vlad brings an analytical approach to projects and he follows the numbers to make the right decisions. His goal is to explore relevant solutions for creating a long-standing foundation for digitalization.

Zdravko Peshakov

Managing Director SAP Bulgaria

Zdravko Peshakov manages SAP's operations in Bulgaria, focusing on accelerating the migration of organizations of different sizes and spheres of activity to cloud software. His priority is to deliver customized solutions for current and future clients of the global leader in software development to help them on their way to become intelligent sustainable enterprises ready for the business challenges of tomorrow. Zdravko Peshakov is a dynamic leader with extensive experience and ranks among the youngest managing directors of the company in the region.
He began his career with the company in 2017. Soon after, he was selected for the prestigious SAP Academy in Palo Alto, California. After its completion, he held the position of Sales Manager for SAP's Cloud Digital Supply Chain portfolio for Southeast Europe, and later accepted the position of Sales Director for the private sector in Bulgaria.
His vision, passion for technology, innovation and digitalization, as well as flexibility strengthen SAP's position as the preferred provider of cloud technologies for the Bulgarian market.

Lukasz Zelezny

Top 10 UK social media influencer | UK search awards judge | SEO Expert | Head of organic acquisition @ uSwitch.com

Lukasz Zelezny, top 10 UK social media influencer, UK search awards judge and former director of organic performance at ZPG. Previously leading his team he is responsible for the uSwitch.com, Zoopla.co.uk and PrimeLocation organic visibility, conversion rate, traffic and engagement. Lukasz is a hands-on person; he spends lots of his time keeping up to date with the changes in the technology of online marketing. Lukasz started his career in 2005 and has since been responsible for the organic performance of a number of companies including HomeAway, Thomson Reuters, The Digital Property Group and Fleetway Travel.

He is a graduate from the Silesian University of Technology with a BA in Marketing.

He travels up to 75,000 km a year speaking at many SEO and social media conferences including ClickZ Shanghai China, ClickZ Jakarta Indonesia, SiMGA Malta, SES London in the United Kingdom as well as conferences held in Europe; Marketing Festival in Brno, Brighton SEO in Brighton, UnGagged in London. Every year he is actively participating in 10 to 20 events as an SEO/Social Media keynote speaker. Additionally, he organizes workshops and meetups where he is sharing tips around SEO, Social Media and Analytics.

Dale Howarth

Business Mentor | CPD Trainer and CPD Speaker

Dale helps those in business achieve their goals. As a business mentor he gives them valuable advice and explains what needs to be done, when and importantly how. His approach is practical, proven and responsible for the growth and success of many leading and award-winning companies.

In addition, his expertise and unique insights make him a frequent lecturer at conferences, leading universities and as a contributor to a number of publications.

At Innowave Summit 2023, Dale delivered a unique perspective on how to organise sales and marketing for business competition, with an approach that is a breath of fresh air, eye-opening and a must for any business looking to make the most of its market potential.

Claus Raasted

Director @ The College of Extraordinary Experiences | External Advisor @ McKinsey & Company

Director of The College of Extraordinary Experiences. External Advisor at McKinsey. Former Ruby Hunter. Marketing Wizard. Innovation Strategist. Playfulness Preacher. Experience Design Pioneer. Keynote Speaker. Event Designer. Author of 37 books. With more than a thousand talks, workshops, etc. to his name, Claus Raasted has been called “a cross between Thor, Mick Jagger and Lady Gaga”. He also has a past in reality TV, but these days, who hasn't?

Marius Ghenea

Managing Partner @ Catalyst Romania

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.

Larry Biehl

Founder @ Interculture | Founder @ Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center (BEC)

Larry Biehl graduated Stanford University. After developing his own business in Silicon Valley, he starts helping young entrepreneurs to do the same. For over 50 years, he is a financial advisor and investment manager for different startups all over the world. He is the founder of Interculture foundation which finances the project Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center.

Mariya Gabriel

Minister of Foreign Affairs Republic of Bulgaria

Mariya Gabriel is former European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth since 2019 and former European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society (2017 - 2019). 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 &amp;amp;amp;quot;MEP of the year&amp;amp;amp;quot; - in 2016 for the Development category, and in 2013 for the Gender equality category. She is the 2018 winner of the prize &amp;amp;amp;quot;Tecnovisionarie&amp;amp;amp;quot; 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.

Gina London

CEO @ Language of Leadership Ltd. | former anchor @ CNN

She has worked and lived in dozens of countries across six continents and she is proud that her speaking, training and coaching transform and positively influence lives. An Emmy-winning former CNN correspondent and anchor, Gina brings her passion for people and helping leaders tell their stories better to whatever event she is privileged to be a part of. She is an internationally recognized high energy speaker, facilitator and premier strategic communications expert based in Ireland.

Lazar Malakov

Leader of the Meta ASP team in Aleph – Meta's Authorized Sales Partner in Bulgaria

Lazar Malakov is leading the Meta ASP team in Aleph – Meta's Authorized Sales Partner in Bulgaria.

Along with his team they are an illustration of the "lifetime learning concept" (even if you are at the right path, but are just standing on it... you will be run over). He's 6 times Meta certified: Media Buying Professional, Media Planning Professional, Digital Marketing Associate, Discovery Commerce Specialist, Marketing Science Professional & Meta Certified Lead Trainer.

He realized the first SMS proof of purchase consumer promotion in Bulgaria (back in 1999, for Nestle Classic tablets), and also the second such promotion in Bulgaria (12 months later no one had managed to copy the mechanics).

He has extensive brand management experience with brands like Nestle, Mura, Samsung, Panasonic, Kamenitza, Becks, Stella Artois...

Lazar claims that Mathematics is strongly related to Marketing. Not only because of his professional life as Head of CRM, pricing manager, director of trade, or customer success director, but rather for the facts that machines ("the Mathematics" and the so called artificial intelligence) are 1) much faster than humans; 2) much more efficient than humans; 3) can monitor much more parameters than humans; 4) can be managed and directed by humans; and 5) can bring profit and success to the human customers.

Denis Rothman

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning

BOJIDAR KRAPCHEV

Lead CEE @ Amazon Web services

He Leads Amazon’s partner team in 50 countries in Central Europe to grow and develop the most customer centric Partner Ecosystem in order to help customers in their Cloud journey. The Central region spans from Switzerland to Turkey, South East Europe, Russia and CIS. He was also a Senior Business Development Manager Dynamics Ax at Microsoft from 2015 to 2016, Member of the board of LLP Group from 2000 to 2013 and Managing Partner at LLP Dynamics SEE from 2011 to 2014. Leading Microsoft Dynamics (NAV, AX) partner in Central and Eastern Europe. LLP Dynamics is part of LLP Group.

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.

Lulcho Petrishky

Head of Cyber Security @ Eviden Global Delivery Center for Bulgaria

Lulcho Petrishky is an accomplished finance and business management professional. He has been a vital part of Atos/Eviden Bulgaria, a global technology company, since February 2015.


His notable roles include:

Head of Cyber Security Global Delivery Center Bulgaria (May 2023 - Present): Leading the Service Delivery team, orchestrating BPO and local operations, and ensuring service excellence and SLA/OLA compliance.

Head of Financial Planning & Analysis, Global Big Data & Security (May 2020 – May 2023): Responsible for financial management, budgeting, and cross-functional performance analysis in the Global Big Data and Cybersecurity division.

Head of Controlling (Jan 2018 - May 2020): Overseeing department activities, leading a team of 50+ employees, contributing to strategic planning, and fostering process standardization.

Team lead UCC Opex; Finance Business Partner for HR & Legal (Feb 2015 – Dec 2017): Managing global controlling activities, supervising a team of 10 Finance Controllers, and handling cost control and budget variance analysis.


Lulcho holds a Master's degree in Banks and Finance from Otto-von-Guericke University, completed a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) program, and is well-versed in International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). He also earned a "Leading in the Digital Age" (LIDA) certificate from Harvard Business Publishing in 2020.

Norman Winarsky

Co-founder and board member of Siri (Apple) Entrepreneurial Mentor & Technology Pioneer

Norman is past President of SRI Ventures at SRI International, a world-leading research institute founded by Stanford University in 1946. He has been a founder and leader of SRI’s venture strategy and process, which has resulted in more than sixty ventures worth over $20 billion. Norman helped create and build companies ranging from artificial intelligence, natural language, and computer vision, to medical devices, robotics, and nanotechnology. He was a co-founder and board member of Siri, which was spun out from SRI in January 2008 and acquired by Apple in April 2010. Siri has become a worldwide phenomenon, establishing the breakthrough market category of virtual personal assistant.

Vasil S. Denchev

Chief Quantum Software Architect at Quantum AI Lab, Google [USA]

Dr. Vasil S. Denchev is the Chief Quantum Software Architect of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at Google. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University. Vasil`s PhD research gave impetus to the founding in 2013 of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab by pioneering important techniques allowing for the successful application of quantum annealing to statistical machine learning and computer vision problems. Currently Vasil is studying the computational effects of quantum tunneling and many-body delocalization via experimentation with existing quantum processors as well as distributed large-scale numerical simulations of various quantum and classical computational models. Most recently, in recognition of his overall contributions to the computing sciences, Vasil received the prestigious John Atanasoff Award from the President of Bulgaria.

Monica Miteva

Marketing & Sales Director

Monica runs the Marketing and Sales Department at DHL Express Bulgaria. She has been working hard to position the company as a strategic partner for corporate, small and medium-sized businesses, particularly start-ups and online retailers.

FLORIN FILOTE

Marketplace Director at eMAG

Mr. Florin Filote is the head of eMAG Marketplace for more than two years. His former experience in companies such as Selgros (major cash&carry retailer) and Ecopack undoubtedly helps him to overachieve the eMAG Marketplace growth agenda. During his supervision the platform is about to develop to an impressive 10000+ participating sellers in the region till the end of the year. Now Florin Filote is ready to share what does it take to attract so many partners and how to scale a platform to such level. eMAG was founded in 2001 by Romanian entrepreneurs and is the local e-commerce market leader. The company has a strong presence in Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland which makes it one of the top e-tailers in the CEE region. For all these 16 years eMAG focuses and invests in constantly improving customer shopping experience. Clients benefit from added value services, such as 30-days return policy, opening the parcel at delivery, 24/7 call center, Pick Up and Return Service, loan financing through eCredit, or mobile app access. At eMAG customers can find a wide range of products, from IT, mobile phones, domestic appliances, electronics, books to children articles, auto parts and accessories, home and garden or sport equipment.

Shed Simove

Entrepreneur and must-see keynote motivational speaker, CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, SALES & GUERRILLA MARKETING

Shed Simove is an entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker. His core areas of expertise are creativity, innovation, guerrilla marketing and generating ideas which lead to increased sales and opportunities. Following a degree in Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and two years working in Disney World, Shed worked in TV Production, heading up programmes including The Big Breakfast and Big Brother. He then went on to forge a highly innovative merchandising empire – creating conceptual gifts, executive toys, best-selling adult sweets, books, greetings cards, and even his own currency. To date, Shed has sold over 1.5 million novelty gifts worldwide and has won Gift Of The Year twice. He is also the creator of Deets - an innovative app (and official sponsor of this conference), that allows people to swap and import their contact details, eliminating the need for business cards!
Shed performs highly memorable, entertaining, instructive and inspiring talks that showcase his business insights, methods for sales growth, tips for creative thinking and his amazing adventures. He uses his own entrepreneurial journeys to deliver concrete techniques that give any company, organisation or audience practical methods for creative thinking and ways to come up with new ideas, and his talks help people to think differently in order to obtain huge success.

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.

BAS LANSDORP

CEO and co-founder of Mars One

Bas is CEO and co-founder of Mars One, a not for profit foundation with the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. To prepare for this settlement the first unmanned mission is scheduled to depart in 2020. As CEO of Mars One, Bas is responsible, among other things, for investor relations, public outreach and for the initial contacts with potential suppliers, sponsors and partners. He is a persuasive and enthusiastic public speaker, presenting about Mars One about once per week at all sorts of events. Bas is an entrepreneur with an engineering background, interested in visionary technological business cases. Bas Lansdorp speaks at events and conferences on all continents. He is a born entrepreneur with a passion for ambitious projects. He speaks about his experience as co-founder and CEO of Mars One: making the impossible possible.

Voicu Oprean

CEO AROBS Romania

Voicu Oprean founded AROBS 24 years ago, and today, the AROBS team has 950+ specialists in its
offices in Romania and around the world. AROBS is the largest IT company listed, to date, on the AeRO
market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
As Founder & CEO, Voicu’s vision is to continuously grow AROBS by creating innovative software
products, delivering state-of-the-art software development services, and conducting strategic acquisitions
of IT companies that synergize with the AROBS Group business strategy. At the same time, AROBS
focuses on creating a space of continuous development and growth for its people, being one of the very
few listed companies that implements a Stock Option Plan.
Voicu is a serial entrepreneur and investor in many startups. He also offers mentorship and business
coaching for many startups and generations of entrepreneurs.
Voicu graduated from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca with a bachelor’s degree in Computer
Automation and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Babeș-Bolyai University. He also
graduated EMBA from Wu Wien in 2008, London Executive Business School in 2018, and President’s
Program in Leadership YPO at Harvard Business School in 2021.

Harald Gruber

Head of Digital Infrastructure at the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank

Harald Gruber is head of Digital Infrastructure at the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank based in Luxembourg. His team oversees project appraisal and advises on the Bank’s business strategy with respect to financing of broadband infrastructure, digitalisation, nanoelectronics, photonics space policy, cybersecurity and high performance computing. The large size of the EIB activities in these domains provides a good overview of the conditions of access to finance of the different companies in the sector.
Harald is currently representing the EIB on the Steering Committee for the IPCEI on High Performance Computing/Big Data. He was also EIB Sherpa on the first KET Steering Committee.
Harald has a research track record in the field of innovation and competition policy. He has published a monograph on the semiconductor industry and a book on the Economics of Mobile Telecommunications.
Harald holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics, specialising on innovation in the semiconductor industry.

MARIA METZ

CEO at NTT DATA Romania

Maria Metz has been working in the IT&amp;C industry for over 20 years, ever since the company was established. Throughout her career at NTT DATA Romania, she has actively contributed to building relevant structures and shaping the specific business processes by developing and integrating markets and portfolios to meet the constantly changing requirements. Maria has a collaborative leadership style, is a proponent of the constant transformation defining an agile organization, and upholds the importance of people in a digital world.

Jamie Williams

NFL & Super Bowl Veteran, Holllywood Actor, Entrepreneur

After becoming an All-American Football and Basketball player at Nebraska University, Dr. Williams played professional football and earned a NFL XXIV Super Bowl ring with the San Francisco 49ers. Following football, Dr. Williams embarked on a career that included work in the film industry as a writer, director, screenwriter and actor. Jamie is most known for his role as a writer, technical director and actor in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday. Along the way, he achieved both a Master Degree in Mass Communication and a Doctorate Degree in Education and Leadership. Jamie’s startup, Ymotion, creates everything from commercials, graphic design, music videos, web development, illustration/animation and social media presence. All of its “creatives” have degrees in Fine Art, and its clients mostly represent Fortune 500 hundred companies.

Martin Olczyk

Managing Director at Techstars

Martin is a Managing Director at Techstars. He has +10 years experience in investment banking, especially in internet and technology M&amp;A and online business development. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded a successful software business and acted as its CFO/COO, a technology-focused investment banking boutique in Southeast Asia and an online marketplace in Europe. He has been working with dozens of companies as a founder, advisor, mentor, and early-stage investor.

Paolo Ruggeri

CEO & Co-founder Open Source Management

Paolo A. Ruggeri is a founding partner of OSM International Group www.osmconsultgroup.com, a USA based management consulting company with existing offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia, offering unique analyzing tools and business development methods with proven results for over 25 years. OSM International Group can sustainably improve any kind of business operations, no matter the market, economic conditions, or business cycles. Paolo`s TED speaker. Paolo is an expert in leadership and people development. His books on the subject have been translated into several languages and have become best sellers in Europe and the Americas

Frank Quante

CEO Fraport Twin Star Airport Management AD Operator of Varna Airport and Burgas Airport

Frank Quante is an internationally experienced General Manager, starting his professional career as a Business Lawyer and Tax Advisor at KPMG Germany in the areas of M&amp;A and Sports Law. In 2003, he joined the German multiutility company EWE with a focus on M&amp;A projects before taking the role as CFO in the international active IT group of EWE in 2007. Since 2012, he was responsible for the investment of EWE in Turkey as CFO and starting 2017 CEO of EWE Turkey Holding, responsible for operational business in asset investments, energy trading, telecommunication and services.
Frank Quante joined Fraport AG in July 2020 and starting from September, he has taken over the role as CEO of Fraport Twin Star Airport Management AD.

Matthew Baldwin

Manager of the Commission’s Horizon Europe Mission for 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030

Matthew Baldwin has served in the European Commission for over 20 years, and has been Deputy Director-General at DG MOVE, the transport department, since July 2016.

His main current focus is as Manager of the Commission’s Horizon Europe Mission for 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. He is also the EU coordinator for road safety and sustainable urban mobility.

He is of Italian and British nationality, has two sons, speaks English, French and Italian and lives in Brussels. He is passionate about the potential for cities to take the lead in acting against climate change, and is a keen but increasingly slow cyclist.

Emil Boc

Mayor of Cluj-Napoca

Emil Boc is the Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the most important city of Romania, outside the capital, in terms of size and economic development. Major in Law and also in History and Philosophy, Emil Boc has a PhD in Political Science and Political Philosophy.

Mr Boc was also the president of the Democratic Liberal Party, which proposed and supported him as Prime Minister in late 2008, from December 2004 until June 2012.

He served as Prime Minister of Romania from December 2008 to February 2012, during one the most difficult economic times in post-communist Romania, managing to avoid the global crisis in risks for the country.

Ricardo Rio

Mayor of Braga

Mayor of Braga

Jag Singh

Managing Director at Techstars, investing in high-growth potential founders and their companies

Jag is one of Europe's most active angel investors, and is currently the Managing Director of Techstars Berlin. Previously, he was the Managing Director for the METRO Accelerator for Retail, powered by Techstars. He's founded several companies (including two exits and a spectacular failure), and invested in over 70 startups over the last six years, including three that went through Techstars accelerators. He’s an ad-man at heart, and spent over a decade as a political strategist advising high-profile politicians, campaigns and corporations across the US and Europe. Jag is fluent in six languages

Dan Olthen

CEO – Black Sail Games, Warsaw, PL

Dan founded his own game development studio, early 2018 in Warsaw Poland, with the mission to not only create video games, but also to develop new technologies in the sector of game development based on neural networks.

Dan is a part of the gaming industry since early 2007, being in production positions at companies like Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Bigpoint, Ci Games and others.

His experience covers all aspects of video game development on all relevant platforms, as well as being a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Kajaani, Finland. He is an advocate for breaking the boundaries in technology and modern game design and continuously strives for cross industrial collaborations in order to broaden the horizons and capabilities of today’s and tomorrow’s technology and the way people interact with the world around them.