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.

Apostolos Tzitzikostas

President of the European Committee of the Regions

Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia, and President of the Association of Greek Regions, studied Government and International Relations at Georgetown University, in Washington DC, and has a Master's Degree on European Public Policy and Economics from the University College of London.
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. In February 2020 he was elected President of the European Committee of the Regions.
He speaks fluently English and French and his articles are regularly being published in Greek and foreign newspapers and magazines.

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.

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.”

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.

MARIA METZ

CEO at NTT DATA Romania

Maria Metz has been working in the IT&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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Nancy Nemes

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

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.

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.

Ian Moyse

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

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.

ROD BANNER

Investor, Entrepreneur, Marketer, Brand and Proposition Architect [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.

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

Javier is co-founder and CEO of digital agency specialized in tourism, Sextaplanta. Javier has seen the travel industry from many points of view throughout his professional career. He has played mayor roles in tour operators as well as online travel agents such as lastminute.com or Booking.com. He has also worked for the public sector in Spain as Area Manager for the G2B Department at the Innovation Area of the Andalusia Tourist Board. Javier is a high recognized advisor and mentor for start-ups, exceptional speaker with a deep knowledge of digital tourism and lecturer in the University of Malaga

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.

MARKUS VENZIN

Dean of Innovation at Bocconi University, Co-Founder & Managing partner of Corporate Hangar

Prof. Markus Venzin is an expert on growth strategies with a focus on innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. He has supported CEOs and senior executives from a variety of industries to design and execute corporate as well as business strategy. Born and raised in Switzerland, but living for over 20 years in Italy, Markus combines the structure and process competence needed to manage complex business development programs with the creativity and flexibility needed to create new ideas. Markus Venzin is Professor of Global Strategy at Università Bocconi, Dean of Innovation and Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at SDA Bocconi.
In his long experience as management consultant, speaker and entrepreneur, Markus has learned to apply research results to business issues.

Andrew Wrobel

Founding Partner of Emerging Europe

Andrew Wrobel is the Founding Partner of Emerging Europe, a London-based intelligence, news and community platform, and the leader of the Tech Emerging Europe Advocates initiative, a part of the Global Tech Advocates network. Trained as a journalist, he focuses on political economy, technology and innovation, foreign direct investment, nation branding and soft powers, and cross-cultural communications. Andrew regularly interviews political and business leaders and speaks at or moderates international political, economic and technology events, where he promotes discussion about emerging Europe. He is also a juror at various international business-related competitions, a media coach, a location promotion trainer and a media commentator. He has authored and contributed to a number of international business, investment and trade-related publications.

Matteo Sala

Innovation Project Manager

Dott. Matteo Sala graduated in Materials and Nanotechnology engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2018. Since 2020 Matteo holds a Master of Business Administration at the Còllegé of Ingeniéurs, an international excellence Business school. He has an international working and studying experience developed between Italy, Belgium, France and Germany.
Matteo has a broad professional background and experience developed both in the corporate environment, where he’s worked as an Engineer in the semiconductor industry, and in the start-ups one, where he supported universities, research centers and multinational corporate clients, as a consultant, in technology scouting and analysis, technology transfer projects and pilot projects management. In Corporate Hangar he supports clients with the management of innovative projects.

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