Conference Session ‘Digital Transformation: Economics, Sovereignty, Security’

Speakers for this event

• Benifei, Brando

  Benifei, Brando

  Member of the European Parliament

  Brando Benifei, 31, European Federalist, is one of the youngest MEPs and is from La Spezia, Italy. He has been chair of European affairs for the Young Democrats and Vice-President of ECOSY (youth organization of PES) for 4 years and was part of the PES working group which originally drafted the European Youth Guarantee. His main fields of legislative work in the EP are Employment and social affairs and Foreign affairs. He is co-chair of the Youth Intergroup and vice-chair of the Disability Intergroup. Among his parliamentary activities in the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs, he was responsible for key legislative and non-legislative reports on the social inclusion and integration of refugees into the EU labour market; youth employment policy such as the Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative; digitalisation and rights of persons with disability.

  Member of the European Parliament

• Beylat, Jean-Luc

  Beylat, Jean-Luc

  Vice President Global Innovation Ecosystem Partnership at Nokia Bell Labs President of Nokia Bell Labs France

  Jean-Luc Beylat is Vice President Global Innovation Ecosystem Partnership at Nokia Bell Labs, President of Nokia Bell Labs France, he is member of the Senior Leadership Team of Bell Labs. He is also Chairman of the Business Cluster “Systematic Paris–Region” which boasts +900 members and more than €3.6 billion invested in research and development. Jean-Luc Beylat was also elected as president of the French Association for Competitiveness Clusters (AFPC) and Chairman of the Association Bernard Gregory (ABG), an association devoted to PhDs in France. Jean-Luc first joined Alcatel in 1984, working on semiconductor lasers for seven years at Alcatel’s research Centre in Marcoussis (France). In 1992 he launched various projects concerning WDM transmission which led to an increase in Internet speed by a factor 100, and in 1996 he was appointed Director of the Department of Systems and Optical Networking Research Center, responsible globally for research in terrestrial and submarine transmission. In 2000, he rejoined Alcatel Optic as Program Director then as Vice President for Network Solutions, before finally in 2003 being named as VP in Charge of Partnership Programs at the Alcatel corporate CTO office. Jean-Luc holds a doctorate in physics on semi-conductor lasers and their applications, awarded by the University of Pierre Marie Curie (France), now named Sorbonne University. He is a member of the Board of IRT SystemX, the Board of Administrators of the Paris-Region Enterprise, the board of the PPP Photonic 21. Finally, he co-founded and chaired the organizing committee of Prix Jean Jerphagnon. He co-chaired, with Pierre Tambourin, the report "L‘innovation, un enjeu majeur pour la France" delivered to the French government in April 2013 and 2 other reports for the French government delivered in 2017, one about IP done by public research and the other one about proposals for the Revision of the Allègre law (proposals were introduced in the PACTE law in 2019).

  Vice President Global Innovation Ecosystem Partnership at Nokia Bell Labs President of Nokia Bell Labs France

• Crean, Gabriel

  Crean, Gabriel

  Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on Innovation and Industrial Policy

  Prof. Dr. Crean is an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of Luxembourg on research, innovation and the data economy. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Lux Consulting Group, a boutique firm providing advisory and management consulting services on issues at the intersection of deep technology, innovation management, the digital economy and geopolitics. Prof. Crean is deeply involved in the European digital transformation policy agenda and participates on several high level European strategic bodies. He is a board member of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking, an EU-driven, €5billion public-private partnership, funding innovation in electronic components and systems. He is a member of the joint European Commission and Member States High Level Group on Digitising European Industry and Artificial Intelligence. He actively participated in the recent creation of the new €2.3 Billion EuroHPC High Performance Computing (HPC) Joint Undertaking, with its headquarters located in Luxembourg. Prof. Crean has a unique deep technology management experience, previously holding Chief Scientist and Vice-President for Technology executive positions, in CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), one of the world’s leading technological research organisations. He has led national research technology organisations in France, Ireland and Luxembourg. He has co-founded and chaired three deep technology venture capital backed companies. Prof. Crean is an internationally recognized thought leader and influencer, reflected in his election as a President of the International Union of Materials Research Societies, an Academician of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Academic Fellow of the European Political Centre. Prof. Crean holds a doctorate in Materials Sciences from the Université Grenoble Alpes and, received an honorary doctorate from the Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland for his contribution to promoting European research and innovation initiatives.

  Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on Innovation and Industrial Policy

• Haschke, Michael

  Haschke, Michael

  DMT Manager R&D, EurGeol

  Michael is the Research & Innovation Manager at DMT Group with 25 years of experience in innovation, mineral resource management and business development in the mining industry. He holds a doctoral degree with distinction from the FU Berlin (Germany) and an MSc degree from University of Albany, NY (USA). Michael has previously worked as Mining Consultant for the General Atomics Group Europe, and as Associate and Guest Professor at Universities in USA, UK, South Africa, Israel and Germany with more than 50 publications.

  DMT Manager R&D, EurGeol

• Hoos, Holger

  Hoos, Holger

  Professor of Machine Learning, Leiden University, lead author of the European Vision on AI, CLAIRE initiative

  Holger H. Hoos is Professor of Machine Learning at Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands) and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (Canada), where he also holds an appointment as Faculty Associate at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. He is a Fellow of AAAI and past president of the Canadian Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAIAC). Holger's research interests span artificial intelligence, empirical algorithmics, bioinformatics and computer music. Known for his work on machine learning and optimisation methods for the automated design of high-performance algorithms and on stochastic local search, he has developed - and vigorously pursues - the paradigm of programming by optimisation (PbO); he is also one of the originators of the concept of automated machine learning (AutoML). Holger has a penchant for work at the boundaries between computing science and other disciplines, and much of his work is inspired by real-world applications. In 2018, together with Morten Irgens (OsloMet) and Philipp Slusallek (DFKI), Holger launched CLAIRE, an initiative by the European AI community that seeks to strengthen European excellence in AI research and innovation. CLAIRE promotes excellence across all of AI, for all of Europe, with a human-centred focus (for details, see claire-ai.org).

  Professor of Machine Learning, Leiden University, lead author of the European Vision on AI, CLAIRE initiative

• Karapiperis, Theodoros

  Karapiperis, Theodoros

  Head of Scientific Foresight Unit, STOA

  Theo Karapiperis read Mathematical Physics at the University of Sussex, UK, and went on to earn a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982. He worked in fundamental and applied research until 1995. He has been working at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels since 1995, where he held posts as administrator in the Press Service, the Secretariat of STOA (Science and Technology Options Assessment, now Panel for the Future of Science and Technology) and the Secretariat of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), where he dealt mostly with EU research policy. From 2005 to 2010 he was head of unit in charge of the Policy Department for Economic and Scientific Policy in the Directorate-General for Internal Policies (DG IPOL). In 2010 he became head of the unit responsible for the STOA Secretariat, which has been part of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) since 2013. His unit comprises, in addition to the STOA Secretariat, the Scientific Foresight Service created in 2014 and, since 2018, the team supporting the work of the European Science-Media Hub, which promotes networking, training and knowledge dissemination at the interface of the EP, the scientific community and the media Job title & department: Head of Unit, Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA), Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), European Parliament

  Head of Scientific Foresight Unit, STOA

• Nomine, Jean-Philippe

  Nomine, Jean-Philippe

  Member of ETP4HPC Steering Board

  Jean-Philippe Nominé joined CEA HPC division in 1992, where he held different managing positions in HPC software development. Dr. Nominé has been involved in PRACE since its preparation in 2007. He was a Member of PRACE AISBL Board of Directors in 2010-2011. He was then ETP4HPC Association Office Manager between 2012 and 2019, actively involved in particular in the monitoring of the HPC contractual Public Private Partnership with the European Commission between 2014 and 2018. He is now a member of ETP4HPC Steering Board, and ETP4HPC Vice-chair for Research. At CEA he manages HPC strategic collaborations (EU and international), in particular in relationship with EuroHPC. J.P. Nominé graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (engineer degree) and holds a PhD from Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris).

  Member of ETP4HPC Steering Board

• Robbert Fisher

  Robbert Fisher

  President, Knowledge4Innovation

  Robbert Fisher specializes in strategy and policy in the fields of R&D, technology transfer and innovation in general. His key focus is on ICT policy. Since 1st January 2020 he is principal associate investigator at the University de las Campinas in Sao Paolo Brazil, where he focuses on the further development of Big Data and AI for policy analysis, development and monitoring. Robbert is on the board of several start up companies, a trusted expert for the European Commission in the field of big data and AI, and since 2017 the president of K4I. From 2011 to 2019 Robbert was the managing director of the Joint Institute for Innovation Policy, a Brussels based think tank of four renowned RTO’s (TNO, VTT, Tecanalia and Joanneum Research). Prior to that he has founded two companies, from 1989 until 2000 he was a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers. From 1991-1995 Robbert was seconded as an expert to the European Commission DG XIII (now DG CONNECT) in Luxembourg. Robbert received a Master’s degree Law, Leiden University, the Netherlands with special subjects Intellectual property, Information Systems and Business economics. He holds degrees in marketing and public relations. In addition, he is an alumnus of the PwC International Management Development Programme, and has followed executive courses at Darden Business School and Oxford Said Business School.

  President, Knowledge4Innovation

• Sivonen, Pekka

  Sivonen, Pekka

  Executive Director, Digital Transformation

  After joining Finnish Innovation Funding Agency Tekes in Feb 2016 responsible for the digitalization strategy and related programs; 5G, Industrial Internet, Artificial Intelligence, Platform Economy and Smart Mobility. Starting from June 2018, Executive Director of BUSINESS FINLAND, responsible for the Digital Transformation of Finnish Industries. Mr. Sivonen has acted as chairman and international expert in many roles. In 2011 he was the chair of Finland 2030 Future Committee for Corporate renewal. In 2017 he chaired the national strategy and roadmap on Digital Platform Economy. He is a member of Finnish national AI-workgroup. He is a member of High Level Advisory Group on Artificial Intelligence HLGAI to the European Commission and Digital transformation expert for World Bank and World Economic Forum (WEF). Lately he was invited as a member of 6G Flagship Steering Group by Oulu University. As a 3rd generation entrepreneur, Mr. Sivonen is the Founder of Digia, a publicly NASDAQ OMX -listed mobile sw-company. He took the company from 1 person to 1.600 employees. He has 20 years of experience in mobile software and 35 years as entrepreneur. He has been ranked as the Entrepreneur of the Year in Finland in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by E&Y. As a Founder of 4 international accelerator companies, he also has an extensive knowledge on boosting open innovation and early-stage start-ups internationally.

  Executive Director, Digital Transformation