MARIYA GABRIEL

European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

Mariya Gabriel is the 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 "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.

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.

DRAYTON BIRD

Top Marketing expert, known as the "father of the direct marketing"

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 & 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.”

Apostolos Tzitzikostas

President of the European Committee of the Regions

In 2007, he was elected Member of the Greek Parliament with the Nea Demokratia Party (EPP) in the First District of Thessaloniki. In the Regional Elections of November 2010 he was elected Vice-Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia and Head of the Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki. On the Regional Elections of May 2014 he was elected Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia, and on the Regional Elections of May 2019 was re-elected Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia. On November 2019 he was elected President of the Association of Greek Regions.
Since 2015 he is a Member of the European Committee of the Regions. In July 2017, he was elected Head of the Greek Delegation and Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions. He fluently speaks English and French and his articles are regularly being published in Greek and foreign newspapers and magazines.

Dubravka Šuica

Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography

Dubravka Šuica is a Croatian politician of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union who has been Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography since 2019. She previously served as a member of the European Parliament from 2013 to 2019. She served two consecutive terms as mayor of Dubrovnik between 2001 and 2009. She was the first female mayor of Dubrovnik and one of the first female mayors of major Croatian cities in modern Croatia. She served as a member of the Croatian Parliament in three terms from 2001 to 2011. Since 2004, she has been elected five times in a row as Vice-President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. In October 2012, she was elected Vice-President of the EPP Women's association and in June 2019 Vice-President of the EPP's EU parliament group.

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&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.

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.

Cüneyt Erpolat

Country Manager of Alibaba.com Turkey

Аppointed as Country Manager of Alibaba.com, one of the largest e-commerce portals in the world, Cüneyt is responsible for all business processes and stakeholder relationship management of Alibaba.com in Turkey since May 2013. Cüneyt Erpolat graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University and started his career as Product Manager at Xerox. He then worked as Channel Manager at Microsoft between 2000 and 2002, as Head of SME Department at Avea between 2002 and 2007, and as one of Anadolu Yatırım`s founding partners in 2007 serving as investment consultant. Erpolat, who served as Sales Director in Datamarket for one year in 2010, became Sales Director of Grenke Turkey between 2011-2013.

Gina London

CEO of Language of Leadership Ltd. and former CNN anchor.

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.

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.

Michael Leander

Marketing Innovation Global speaker

Anabela Luca

Managing Director & Online Marketing Consultant/One of the top 5 Google certified trainers in Romania

Anabela Luca is Managing Director & Online Marketing Consultant/Google Trainer at adLemonade.com, award-winning Google Premier Partner agency in Romania. Anabela loves digital, especially Pay Per Click marketing that she masters for over 10 years now. She is dedicated to tailoring custom PPC strategies that dramatically improve the revenue and profits for her agency's clients. Her experience with both large-scale clients seeking international success and SMBs eager to get the most out of their advertising budget, she gladly solved challenges by providing strategies that simply work.

As one of the 5 Google certified trainers in Romania, Anabela delivered over 150 trainings on Google Ads & Analytics in Google programs like Online Marketing Academy & Google Partners in Romania&internationally. Through her webinars as well as her offline classes, she trained over 3.000 students and professionals in growing their skills as online marketers.

Michael Roberts

Lead Solution Engineer @ Salesforce

Michael started his career as a digital marketer and quickly became a thought leader on B2B Marketing trends in Australia. He is passionate thinking about how data and artificial intelligence is helping brands to deliver more personalised messages across every channel. He is an energetic communicator, speaking at Salesforce World Tour, Dreamforce and the B2B Marketing Leadership Forum in Australia. Michael is also passionate about #EqualityForAll, founding Salesforce`s interfaith group, Faithforce globally.

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.

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.

Pavel Šafařík

Head of Product at ROI Hunter (e-commerce product marketing platform)

Pavel’s fast, innovative thinking in Product Management from ROI Hunter’s infancy and
leadership as Product Development Leader are one of the things what has moved ROI
Hunter from a small Facebook marketing platform to one of the premier tools of its kind.
His main focus is in new product development, business evaluation and creative growth that
will help to shape the future of digital advertising.

Nancy Nemes

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

Ian Moyse

Chief Revenue Officer - OneUp Sales, Technology Sales Leader, Cloud Social Influencer ☁ Blogger, Speaker

Emilia Botezan

Head of International Affairs and Foreign Investment Department, Cluj-Napoca City Hall

Emilia Botezan is the head of the Foreign Affairs and Investments Department in the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca.Holding a master degree with the Babes Bolyai University and the Michingan State University, she has been witn the City for almost 20 years, having the chance to see Cluj growing. In this period of time she came into contact with many foreign delegates and investors interested in Cluj-Napoca and developed different tools for promoting the city as an interesting destination for investments.
Emilia Botezan is the person who is offering the investors the first glimpse of the city’s economic potential. However, she says, "it’s not the numbers and the charts that convinced investors to come to Cluj, but the feeling of trust and the quality of people that make Cluj a destination for business". The latest way to ensure a big picture for those interested to know why should they invest in Cluj-Napoca is the first business online platform owned by a municipality, www.clujbusiness.ro.

Björn Weigel

Business strategist and investor

Björn Weigel has worked with business development and economic growth for over twenty years. He co-authored The Innovation Illusion, Yale University Press, recognized as one of the Financial Times Best Business Books of 2016. He’s an independent investor, board member, strategic advisor and manager.

Larry Biehl

Founder of Interculture and founder of 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.

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

Louise McDonnell

Social Media Speaker, Facebook Author, Trainer & Coach

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.

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.

MARC WESSELINK

Founder of Venturerock

Marc is a serial entrepreneur who started 12 companies between 1994 and 2008 and invested in over 150 between 2004 and 2018. His purpose in life is to help as many entrepreneurs become successful founders of companies which can create an impact. He is active in Europe & Africa.

As one of the founding partners of Startupbootcamp, he was part of the global roll out and recruited over 160 companies for the Amsterdam & Cape Town programs and have helped them raised over 150 MIO EUR funding. He was responsible of managing the portfolio of Startupbootcamp with a value of over 500 MIO EUR.

Since October 2018 he started his next challenge since the investment landscape in Europe & Africa is still in need of one: How to improve investment in Pre-Seed, Seed & Early Stage companies. He has created an entire digital way of investing in early stage companies at large scale and de-risk it at the same time. The platform will be capable in investing > 150 companies a year by using automated processes and follow on investment based on real time data. The fund will also offer execution power with a network of experienced professionals who will help single founders, founder teams & corporates to start & scale a company.

Ivan Brezak Brkan

CEO of Netokracija | Employer branding, content marketing and tech community consultant, writer and speaker

Ivan is the founder and editor of Netokracija who started his tech-journalistic career writing for TechCrunch and various Croatian tech/business magazines but also advising companies like Microsoft and Kolektiva on their internet presence. Forbes has called him “The internet aristocrat” in its special “Generation 2013” issue. Ivan has also been a startup mentor and advisor at Hubraum, Seedcamp, Eleven, Shift Split, How to Web and others, as well as being the director of Netokracija’s own RockPaperStartups and OMGcommerce conferences. As a speaker, Ivan has talked in front of audiences of 500+ people; at both tech and business conferences. Ivan is a member of the new media commission of the Croatian Olympic Committee.

Andy Szekely

founder of Bootcamp University

Andy Szekely is the founder of Bootcamp University and has over 21 years on Romanian training & coaching market, as an innovative writer, speaker and business coach.
He delivered speeches in Romania, on the same stages with ones of the top world speakers (John Maxwell, Robin Sharma, Martin Lindstrom, Bob Proctor, Dr. John Gray, Brian Tracy, Dr. Oz, s.o), but also in most European countries, China, USA and Canada.
As a pioneer on Romanian market for open seminars for personal development and leadership, he had more that 3,000 live sessions and trained over 40 Romanian speakers that now have entrepreneurial businesses, and had more that 1,400 graduated participants in Bootcamp University.

Mike Doherty

Founder of Doherty & Associates

Mike Doherty, the founder of Doherty & Associates, has a long history of business development, strategy, and planning. Mike has launched and managed several ventures personally, so he understands the challenges of managing day-to-day operations while remaining focused on growth opportunities and the bottom line. He has also worked as an investor and a lender and therefore recognizes the demands and expectations these parties bring to the mix. Mike’s clients benefit from both perspectives.

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.

Valentin Radu

Tech entrepreneur, data-driven marketer, eCommerce expert

Valentin Radu is a successful tech entrepreneur, data-driven marketer, eCommerce expert, international speaker, father, husband, and pet owner.

Nowadays he is the CEO and founder at Omniconvert, an awarded personalization software used by global players such as Whirlpool, ING, Orange, Avon, and Wordstream and backed by European Investment Fund, 3TS, and European Union.

He has spoken at over 100 International events over the last 6 years, including DMEXCO, Mobile Web Congress, SMXL, Growth Marketing Conference, Conversion World, Webit, WebSummit, SemDays, Tech in Asia, Ecommerce Brazil, Iceefest, HowToWeb, etc.