AI – The Big Picture | Part II: AI Initiatives, Strategies and Digital Innovations Hubs

Speakers for this event

• Engelmann, Ulla

  Engelmann, Ulla

  Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Clusters, and Social Economy, within DG GROW, European Commission

  Ulla Engelmann is the Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Clusters, and Social Economy within DG GROW, the Directorate General being responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, at the European Commission. Since the beginning of 2017 she covered European Cluster Policy, Social Economy as well as Women Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship education. From 1.10.2018 onwards Advanced Technologies including Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation for industry have been added to her responsibilities. Previously, she worked at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the in-house science service of European Commission, for many years in different functions. She started in the JRC in Ispra (Italy) in 1993 as a post-doc in fusion research, and moved on to manage various units (communication, international relations, and others) in Ispra and Brussels. Dr. Engelmann holds a PhD in analytical and radiochemistry completed at the National Research Centre in Karlsruhe.

  Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Clusters, and Social Economy, within DG GROW, European Commission

• Kutvonen, Markku

  Kutvonen, Markku

  Co-Creation Manager, VTT (FCAI)

  Markku Kutvonen has joined VTT from industrial background where he has led R&D for 15 years. His background is strongly in software, data security , embedded systems and medical industry. He has experience in European activities, such as Trusted Cloud High Impact Initiative at EIT Digital. In that context he has also coached startups.

  Co-Creation Manager, VTT (FCAI)

• Liebl, Andreas

  Liebl, Andreas

  Managing Director at UnternehmerTUM Projekt GmbH and Head of appliedAI Initiative

  Dr. Andreas Liebl, Managing Director of UnternehmerTUM GmbH, is responsible, among other things, for setting up the appliedAI initiative with partners such as Google and NVIDIA. With 50 partners, the initiative is already one of the largest initiatives in Europe in the field of applied artificial intelligence and answers the organisational, technological and strategic questions of companies with regards to the application of AI. Before joining UnternehmerTUM, he worked for McKinsey for five years and did his PhD at the Entrepreneurship Research Institute at the Technical University of Munich. In his doctoral thesis, he accompanied 120 start-ups for one year and examined their corporate culture and identity.

  Managing Director at UnternehmerTUM Projekt GmbH and Head of appliedAI Initiative

• Nilsson, Jeanette

  Nilsson, Jeanette

  AI Ecosystem Driver, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

  After graduating from Luleå University of Technology, Jeanette Nilsson first started working with building bridges and planning infrastructure investment in the north of Sweden and when Sweden became a member of the European Union. Jeanette was recruited to North Sweden European Office in Brussels mostly working with infrastructure and regional policy matters. She set up an office to handle the structural fonds in the north of Sweden. From February she has a new position as AI Ecosystem Driver at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden). With a background as a MSc in civil engineering and working with developing companies and the surrounding ecosystem both national and regional she makes use of the network and experience to coordinate different ecosystems, so more companies and society see the possibilities with AI and work together. Jeanette is the project leader of the AI Agenda for Sweden.

  AI Ecosystem Driver, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

• Sassen, Anne-Marie

  Sassen, Anne-Marie

  Deputy Head of the Technologies and Systems for Digitising Industry unit, DG GROW, European Commission

  Anne-Marie is Deputy Head of the "Technologies and Systems for Digitising Industry" unit in DG CONNECT, European Commission. She coordinates the work of the European Commission, the Member States and Regions in setting up a network of Digital Innovation Hubs in Europe to enable all companies to benefit from digital technologies to improve their production, business processes and products. Before joining the European Commission Anne-Marie worked as project manager for Atos in Spain and researcher for TNO in the Netherlands. She studied Computer Science at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands and received her PhD from the Technical University in Delft in the field of Human-Machine interaction.

  Deputy Head of the Technologies and Systems for Digitising Industry unit, DG GROW, European Commission

• 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