How to empower women via investment to increase innovation finance opportunities in Europe

Speakers for this event

• Fackelman, Surya

  Fackelman, Surya

  Advisor EIB

  Surya Fackelmann joined the EIB and the Innovation Finance Advisory (IFA) team in 2016. She has worked on IFA’s various work streams across diverse sectors, co-authoring market studies (e.g. studies on gender gap in access to risk capital and on How finance can boost innovation in agri-food) as well as helping innovative companies gain easier access to finance (e.g. agri-tech company Devenish, B2B provider of novel biomanufacturing platforms Univercells). Prior to joining the EIB, Surya worked at World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, supporting deal origination in the Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services sectors. Surya has an international study background in economics and finance; she holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris, Columbia University and attended Bocconi.

  Advisor EIB

• Houser, Kimberly

  Houser, Kimberly

  Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University

  Kimberly A. Houser is an Assistant Professor of Business Law and the Law of Emerging Technologies at Oklahoma State University and a long-time tech attorney. Her primary stream of research explores privacy, big data, artificial intelligence, and unconscious bias/gender diversity issues. She speaks often on these issues at events including TNW in Amsterdam on the GDPR, University of Oxford on comparative privacy law, 5th Congress of the French Association of Law and Management in Paris on the efficacy of board gender quota laws and initiatives, and Sage-London on the data mining activities of the taxing authorities in the U.S. and UK, she is the sole and co-author of numerous articles.

  Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University

• Rusling, Marie-Elisabeth

  Rusling, Marie-Elisabeth

  CEO, Business Angels Europe

  CEO, Business Angels Europe

• Scappatura, Rosa

  Scappatura, Rosa

  Relationship Executive BNY Mellon

  With over twenty years of industry experience, Rosa is responsible for managing and enhancing existing client relationships within the Issuer Services, Corporate Trust Division, and for implementing key strategic initiatives to grow business revenue. Rosa is also in charge of the relationship with the ICSDs and of the company’s Common Depository business. In this capacity she also serves as a member of the Management Committee of ICMSA, the International Capital Market Services Association. She is a member of BNY Mellon’s EMEA Operating Committee and of the Corporate Trust Global Relationship Management Leadership Team. Prior to joining Corporate Trust, Rosa was a Client Executive within Global Client Management, in charge of the relationship with key strategic enterprise-wide clients. Other previous roles include Business Development Lead, a role that involved driving the Company's commercial efforts in the Benelux region across all business lines, and Asset Servicing Relationship Manager based in Italy and later in France. Rosa earned an Executive MBA from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and an MA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Pisa. Rosa was nominated by EIGE (the European Union Institute for Gender Equality) as part of its Women and Men inspiring Europe pool. She is a founding member and member of the Steering Committee of Women in Finance Belgium, a gender equality industry association representing 80% of the workforce in the Belgian financial industry

  Relationship Executive BNY Mellon

• Sforcina, Kathryn

  Sforcina, Kathryn

  Serial Entrepreneur

  Kathryn balances a portfolio style career as the Chief Advisor on Strategy for SingularityU Australia, an Advisor to a number of technology companies, impact funds, summits and initiatives and as the Commercial Director for a global technology firm, PALO IT. Kathryn has also been a serial entrepreneur having founded, scaled and globalised 5 of her own ventures, she has accumulated 20 years of senior management, c-suite and board level experience in more than seven unrelated industries. Kathryn is known for being a divergent thinker who challenges boundaries and embraces technologies that seek to solve the wicked problems of this world, moving organisations into breakthrough periods of transformation, innovation, social impact and global opportunity.

  Serial Entrepreneur