12th European Innovation Summit

Bernd Schäfer

CEO, EIT RawMaterials

Bernd Schäfer has extensive business experience. Prior to his recent role as CEO/Managing Director at apt Group, leading European supplier of extruded, anodised and processed aluminium products, he was the VP Commercial, Global Commercial Transportation and Industrial in Alcoa. His area of accountability included global market responsibility as well as execution of the innovation and technology roadmap in close cooperation with R&D. Mr Schäfer was a Board Member with the Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie (the trade association of the aluminium industry) and the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Metalle (the umbrella of metal producing companies in Germany) until 2020.

Maria da Graça Carvalho

MEP, EPP, Portugal

Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

Mariya Gabriel

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

Mariya Ivanova Gabriel is a Bulgarian politician and a member of the GERB party serving as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth since 2019. She was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2017. In the European Parliament, she served as Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP) group, Vice-President of EPP Women, and head of the Bulgarian EPP delegation. She was first appointed to the European Commission in 2017 as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society to fill a spot left vacant by the departure of Kristalina Georgieva.

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.

Roland Strauss

Managing Director, Knowledge4Innovation

Stef Denayer

Stakeholder Relations Manager for Pilots4U at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant

Is stakeholder relations manager for the European Pilots4U platform at BBEPP. Holds a master degree in industrial engineering chemistry (Leuven University Faculty of Engineering Technology Groep T 1992), specialised studies environmental management & technologies (KU Leuven 1993) and business to business marketing (Ehsal Brussels 1998). He has extensive knowledge about material upcycling, cradle to cradle and industrial symbiosis. Past experiences include triple helix cleantech cluster management and European collaboration projects with sustainability as focus area.

Stefan Drüssler

Chief Operating Officer, UnternehmerTUM

Stefan Drüssler is Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of UnternehmerTUM. He supports the whole organization with ~250 employees to thrive for operational excellence, dedication to its strategy and determined cooperation of all departments. Besides others, he is responsible for UnternehmerTUM's education programs, the XPRENEURS Incubation Program and the Initiative for Industrial Innovators. Before joining UnternehmerTUM early in 2017, Stefan Drüssler has gained experience in strategy consulting at The Boston Consulting Group.

Tina Kleingarn

Founder, Westend Corporate Finance

Partner at Westend Corporate Finance (Frankfurt, Germany), an advisory boutique dedicated to exit readiness for IPOs and sell sides Studied business administration and Japanese studies at Mannheim University (Germany) and Hitotsubashi University (Japan) Master degree (Dipl.-Kauffrau) with the main focus on banking/finance, organizational management and Japanese studies 12 years track record in Investment banking working for Goldmans Sachs and Barclays NED (non-executive directorships) in publicly listed corporations

Ulrich Schuh

President, Eureka

Ulrich Schuh is President of Eureka, the world largest public network for international cooperation in Research, Development and Innovation. Ulrich Schuh is also Director for Economic Policy at WPZ-Research in Vienna, he is member of the Austrian Fiscal Council and of the Austrian Financial Market Stability Board. Ulrich Schuh has been Head of the Department for Economics at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna between 2004-2011. From 2011 to 2016 he has been Scientific Manager at EcoAustria an economic research Institute in Vienna. From 2016-2018 Ulrich Schuh was Director General for Innovation and Economy at the Ministry for Economic Affairs. From July 1st 2017 to December 31st 2018 he was Chairman of the High Level Group for Competitiveness and Growth at the European Council in Brussels. Ulrich Schuh holds a PhD. in Economics from University of Vienna. His research areas are econometrics, labour economics, public finances, pensions systems, innovation and model building in economics.

Willem Jonker

CEO , EIT Digital

Prof. Willem Jonker (1962) has a broad background in ICT, both in industry as well as in academia. He studied mathematics and computer science at Groningen University, worked at Delft University of Technology, received his PhD from the University of Utrecht, and is a part-time full professor in computer science at Twente University. Willem Jonker's industrial experience covers telecommunications (KPN), IT (European Computer industry Research Centre, Munich) and consumer electronics (Philips). He held several positions as researcher, international project leader, department head, sector head, and account manager. In 2006 he was appointed Vice President Philips Research. Prof. Dr. Jonker has served European ICT research in various ways amongst others as project leader, reviewer, and advisor.

Barbara Kauffmann

Director, DG Employment, European Commission

Barbara Kauffmann is Director for employment and social governance at the European Commission (DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) since 2015. Her current responsibilities include the coordination of EU country surveillance in employment, skills and social matters (European Semester, European Pillar of Social Rights), analysis (Joint Employment Report, Employment and Social Developments in Europe, etc.), Social Dialogue as well as the EU legislative initiative on minimum wages. Barbara Kauffmann is member of the Employment Committee, chairs the Social Dialogue Committee, and is deputy governor of the EU Agency Eurofound. She is also in charge of the support of Greece and Cyprus notably through the European Social Fund. Previously she worked at DG for Economic and Financial Affairs notably on macro-economic programmes for countries outside and inside the EU, and the coordination of EU economic and fiscal policy surveillance. Barbara Kauffmann studied economics at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Florida (Ph.D.). After her studies she worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics and the German Ministry of Finance before joining the Commission.

Catholijn Jonker

Full Professor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Department of Intelligent Systems, TU Delft

Prof. dr. Catholijn Jonker is head of the Interactive Intelligence group of the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, TU Delft. Jonker is also full professor of Explainable Artificial Intelligence at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science of Leiden University. She is president of IFAAMAS, board member and a Fellow of EurAI, member of the Academia Europaea, president of ICT Platform of the Netherlands, member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, member of the CLAIRE National Advisory Board for The Netherlands. Current projects: EU HumaneAINet, EU TAILOR, NL Gravtiation project Hybrid Intelligence, Gravitation project Ethics of Disruptive Technologies.In the past she was chair of the Dutch Network of Female Full Professors and of De Jonge Akademie of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is co-PI of the 20 million Euro ten-year research programme on Hybrid Intelligence (starting 1.1.2020).

David Abbink

Full Professor Human-Robot Interaction, TUDelft

Prof. dr. ir. David A. Abbink received his MSc. degree (2002) and PhD degree (2006) in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology. He is a full Professor there, leading the section of Human-Robot Interaction in the department of Cognitive Robotics. Research His PhD thesis on haptic assistance for car-following was awarded the best Dutch dissertation in movement sciences (2006), and contributed to the market release of Nissan’s Distance Control Assist system. David received two prestigious personal grants - VENI (2010) and VIDI (2015) and led large interdisciplinary research programmes on human-centered robotics. His research has received funding from major industry partners such as Nissan, Renault, Boeing. He currently leads an interdisciplinary community of ethnographers, psychologists, designers, philosophers and engineers to study and shape the interactions between humans and robots at work. Education David was voted best teacher of his department for seven consecutive years, best teacher of his faculty twice, and received an international open courseware award for his course “The Human Controller”. Private Life David has always worked 4 days a week, to ensure enough time for the other pleasures in life, such as drumming in rock bands, cooking, traveling and being present as a dad, husband and friend. His PhD thesis (2006) on haptic support for car-following was awarded the best Ph.D. dissertation in the Netherlands, and contributed to the market release of Nissan’s Distance Control Assist system. David’s research on human control over intelligent vehicles and other robots has been funded by personal grants - VENI (2010) and VIDI (2015) – as well as by industry (e.g., Boeing, Nissan, Renault). David was awarded best teacher of his department for seven years in a row, and best teacher of his Faculty twice.

Filippo Santoni de Sio

Assistant Professor, Policy and Management, Department of Values, Technologies and Innovation, TU Delft

I have a PhD in Moral Philosophy from the University of Torino (Italy). IN 2012 I joined TU Delft (NL), where I am currently Associate Professor in Ethics of Technology at the Section Ethics/Philosophy of Technology. Since 2017, I am also an adjunct professor in Ethics of Transportation at the Politecnico di Milano. I am Associate Editor at the Journal of Ethics, co-coordinator of the TU Delft Vision Team Robotics and in the Management Team of Tu Delft TBM AI Lab and 4TU.Ethics. From June 2019-2020 I have been Rapporteur of the EU Commission Independent Expert Group to advise on ethical issues raised by driverless mobility (E03659) and from 2017-2020 co-director of the NWO-funded interdisciplinary project Meaningful Human Control over Automated Driving Systems. I passionately teach moral philosophy to engineering students.

Jens Kober

Assistant Professor, Cognitive Robotics department, TU Delft

Jens Kober is an associate professor at the TU Delft, Netherlands. He worked as a postdoctoral scholar jointly at the CoR-Lab, Bielefeld University, Germany and at the Honda Research Institute Europe, Germany. He graduated in 2012 with a PhD Degree in Engineering from TU Darmstadt and the MPI for Intelligent Systems. For his research he received the annually awarded Georges Giralt PhD Award for the best PhD thesis in robotics in Europe, the 2018 IEEE RAS Early Academic Career Award, and has received an ERC Starting grant. He is chair of the IEEE-RAS TC Robot Learning and program chair of the Conference on Robot Learning 2020. His research interests include motor skill learning, (deep) reinforcement learning, imitation learning, interactive learning, and machine learning for control.

Juha Heikkilä

Head of Unit Robotics and Artificial Intelligencem DG CONNECT

Since 2014 Juha Heikkilä has been the Head of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence unit in the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, which develops the Commission policy and activities in Artificial Intelligence. The Commission has been funding a multidisciplinary programme on Cognitive Systems, Robotics and AI since 2004, focusing on smart robots and artificial systems, and in 2014 it set up a Public-Private Partnership in Robotics. Previously, Juha Heikkilä was involved in computational and corpus linguistic research at the University of Helsinki, and he has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge.

Lina Gálvez Muñoz

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Spain

Lina Gálvez Muñoz is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019. In the EP, she is Vice-chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and member of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). She also belongs to the committees on Employment and Social Affairs and Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Lina Gálvez Muñoz PhD, European University Institute (Florence) is Economic History and Institutions Full Professor at the Economics Department at Pablo Olavide University (Seville). She has also been professor at the Universities of Reading (Reading), Carlos III (Madrid), and as a visiting professor at Centre for time use research at Oxford University (Oxford). She has more than hundred scientific publications and she has also been Vice-Rector of her university from 2007 to 2012 and served as Regional Minister of Knowledge, Research and University of the Government of Andalusia from 2018 to 2019.

Tim van der Hagen

Rector Magnificus / President Executive Board, TU Delft

Tim van der Hagen (born 1959) has been President of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) since May 2016 and also Rector Magnificus since January 2018. He studied Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. After taking his doctorate in 1989 at TU Delft, he stayed on at the Reactor Institute Delft, which conducts radiation-related research into energy, materials and health. He was director of the Institute between 2005 and 2012. In 1999 he was appointed professor of Reactor Physics. Between September 2010 and May 2016 he was Dean of the Applied Sciences faculty at TU Delft. During this latter period Tim was one of the instigators of the Delft Plan, published in 2015, which set out TU Delft’s vision on how the Netherlands could play a leading role in the European energy market. In 2015, he was also the co-author of an advisory report ‘A prosperous nation without CO2: Towards a sustainable energy supply by 2050’ produced by the Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli). Van der Hagen has broad managerial experience in the field of energy, including as a former member of the Dutch Energy Council and the Top team of the Top Sector Energy in the Netherlands. Both bodies advise the government on the implementation of energy policy. In addition to this he is a member of the national Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) which was established by the Dutch government to advise the government and parliament on policy in the areas of scientific research, technological development and innovation. Furthermore, Tim is a Board member of the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers (KIvI), a member of the Board of the Netherlands Energy Research Alliance (NERA) and of GROW (Growth through Research, Development and Demonstration in Offshore Wind), member of the Supervisory Board of Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste (COVRA) and Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Strategic Advisory Board on Energy and the Supervisory Board of Advanced Dutch Energy Materials (ADEM). He also holds a chair in the General board of the 4TU Federation, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Steering Committee of Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Alliance (LDE). Between May 2014 and May 2016 he was Chair of the Supervisory Board of HollandPTC (Holland Particle Therapy Centre) jointly built on the Delft campus by the Erasmus and Leiden University Medical Centres and the TU Delft . In May 2016, Tim van der Hagen was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In his free time, he plays in a pop cover band and he enjoys going to jazz concerts, the theatre and museums.

Victor Negrescu

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Romania

Victor Negrescu is the vice-chair of the Culture and Education Committee and rapporteur on the shaping of an European digital education policy. He is an emerging leader, active in the field of education, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, European financing, citizens' rights, and institutional affairs. His latest success was to promote in the European Parliament a resolution on education and to introduce in the Recovery and Resilience Facility a recommendation to Member States to allocate 10% for education and 2% for the culture and creative sector. Former Romanian Minister for EU Affairs in charge with the preparation of the EU Council Presidency, he was in the past a digital innovator and a professor before holding the position of MEP. Victor Negrescu is an active promoter of EU values, chairing the PES activists Romania and European Movement Romania organizations. He won in 2015 the MEP of the Year Award for the digital agenda and got recently an award from the Romanian digital industry for his efforts in promoting digital skills and education. As a civic activist, he managed to promote several European petitions calling for citizens and social rights at EU level. MEP Victor Negrescu is a strong advocate for a fair social Europe, based on common policies in the field of education, innovation & digital sector, protection of the environment, healthcare and infrastructure.

Alessia Centioni

EWA Co-founder and president, European Women Alliance EWA

Italian, mother of two children, co-founder and president of European Women Alliance, she has ten years of experience in European affairs in the field of industry, internal market, trade and foreign policy. She is graduated in Political Sciences at university of Rome La Sapienza and holds a M.A in European studies at the ULB of Brussels. Alessia is a pro-European and feminist activist trusting in EU’s integration and women empowerment. In 2018 she established the Women's European Council, WEUCO, the pre-summit ahead to the European Council gathering Heads of State and Government, Ministers, European Commissioners and MEPs to provide a gender perspective to all EU public policies. She regularly contributes on Huffington Post blog with comments on Italian and European politics.

Corinne Vigreux

Co-Founder, TomTom

Corinne Vigreux is a Co-founder and currently CMO of TomTom, the location technology specialist shaping mobility with digital maps, navigation software, real-time traffic and services for consumers, the automotive industry and leading tech companies. Voted as one of the world’s top fifty women in tech (Forbes) and as one of the most inspirational women in European tech (Inspiringfifty), Corinne champions women in the workforce and passionately advocates for improved social mobility through education. Corinne founded Codam, a not for profit coding college, member of the Ecole 42 network. Codam opened its doors in September 2018 in the heart of Amsterdam and offers a three year software engineering course to more than 300 Students. Corinne is the vice chairwoman of the supervisory board of Takeaway.com NV , chairwoman of TechLeap, supervisory board member of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, advisory board member of the University of Amsterdam and of SNCF Mass Transit, and international advisory board member to the Amsterdam Economic Board. She is chair on the trustee board of the Sofronie foundation. Corinne was made Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 2012 and Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau in 2016.

Hadewych Cels

Owner, Karmijn Kapitaal

Hadewych Cels is one of the three female founders of Karmijn Kapitaal, a private equity firm investing in Dutch SMEs that are led by a gender-diverse management team. Karmijn started in 2010 and closed its second fund (EUR 90M) in 2016. Currently, Karmijn has 11 companies in portfolio in a variety of sectors. Recently, Hadewych was named one of the 40 future Diversity & Inclusion leaders in private equity (RealDeals/PER). Before Karmijn, Hadewych was partner at Plain Vanilla, a turnaround investment firm. She has a background in hands-on private equity, consulting and entrepreneurship. Hadewych studied economics at Erasmus University, applied mathematics at Southampton University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jara Pascual

Founder and CEO, knowco by collabwith

Jean-David Malo

EIC Task Force Director of DG Research and Innovation, European Commission

Jean-David and his team are currently designing the European Innovation Council (EIC) for top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale up internationally. It currently brings together the parts of Horizon 2020 that provide funding, advice and networking opportunities for those at the cutting edge of innovation. In 2011, Jean-David Malo created a new team in DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission to increase private finance and close market gaps for investing in innovation. The team did this mainly by expanding the scope and scale of existing EU innovative financial instruments and by developing new ones in the fields of debt and equity financing, notably in the context of Horizon 2020, the EU funding programme for research and innovation. Jean-David and his team also covered the SME dimension of Horizon 2020. On February 2017, Jean-David was appointed Director of the Directorate in charge of "Open Innovation and Open Science".

Kanira Shah

Antwerp Satellite Manager, EIT Digital

Kanira joined EIT Digital in 2020 as the Antwerp Satellite Manager for EIT Digital focusing on building out the vibrant Antwerp ecosystem. Previously, she worked as Investment Manager at SPDG, an investment firm focused on investments in India as well as early stage investments into the mobility, IoT and industry 4.0 verticals in Europe and USA. Prior to joining SPDG, Kanira worked at DN Capital in London as an Investor Relations Manager/Associate, successfully helping DN Capital raise its fourth fund of €200 million and looking at investments in the mobile app, marketplace and SaaS space. Before that, she worked as an Associate at Praefinium Partners, focused on Clean Technology in emerging markets and was also an active entrepreneur for a few years in the creative industry in India and the UK. Kanira holds a Masters in Information Systems Engineering and a Master of Science in Environmental Technology, both from Imperial College London and an MBA from INSEAD. She has also published her MSc thesis via NHH, Norway.

Kinga Stanislawska

Founder, European Women in VC

Kinga has nearly 20 years of experience in investments and finance. She is founder of Experior VC, investing in scale ups and growth, pure software with strong ML/AI in SaaS, including software deep tech, ecommerce, big data driven companies across all verticals. She is active in supporting women-led companies as mentor and investor. She established the European Women in VC platform with the aim of increasing the number of female partners at venture funds across Europe from the current low single digit percentage number it is today. Kinga is advisor to European Innovation Council and IC member of EIC Fund. She was Vice President of the Polish PE/VC Funds Association (PSIK) for 5 years. She is named one of the TOP 50 of Europe’s most influential women in the start-up and venture capital spaceby EU Startups and top 50 women in tech in Europe by Forbes.

Laura Rodríguez Gallego

Principal, Invivo Capital

Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology (UAB), PhD in Biotechnology (UB) and a Postgraduate course in Innovation Management (UAB). Her research in gene therapy applications in the cancer field have led to publications in scientific journals and collaborations with biotech companies. She has been Project Manager in the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Unit at the Research Institute of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital (VHIR) in Barcelona. She is an active member in the EIT Health Alumni Network, after her participation in the EIT Health Innovation & Business Creation Summer School (2016) organized by the Trinity College in Dublin and IESE business school. She usually collaborates with different entities of the health innovation ecosystem as a start-up mentor, jury and evaluator (COMB, EIT Health, Ship2b, Imagine IF!, FIPSE and CIMTI, among others). Since January 2018, she works as investment analyst in Healthequity, and since 2019 at Invivo Ventures, the first fund of Invivo Capital Partners. Currently she is Principal at Invivo Capital Partners.

Lina Gálvez Muñoz

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Spain

Lina Gálvez Muñoz is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019. In the EP, she is Vice-chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and member of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). She also belongs to the committees on Employment and Social Affairs and Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Lina Gálvez Muñoz PhD, European University Institute (Florence) is Economic History and Institutions Full Professor at the Economics Department at Pablo Olavide University (Seville). She has also been professor at the Universities of Reading (Reading), Carlos III (Madrid), and as a visiting professor at Centre for time use research at Oxford University (Oxford). She has more than hundred scientific publications and she has also been Vice-Rector of her university from 2007 to 2012 and served as Regional Minister of Knowledge, Research and University of the Government of Andalusia from 2018 to 2019.

Nakeema Stefflbauer

CEO, FrauenLoop, Included VC Fellow

Dr. Nakeema Stefflbauer is a Harvard University MA/PhD, an MBA and a Venture Fellow at Included.VC. A tech digitalisation executive, Dr. Stefflbauer founded the FrauenLoop.org women’s programming NGO in Berlin and the Techincolor.eu network of racially diverse tech leaders in Europe. Dr. Stefflbauer writes and speaks about mitigating bias in AI and VC and has presented on AI topics at the European Parliament.

Pilar Manchón

Senior Director of Research Strategy, GoogleAI at Google

Pilar has been a leading voice within the AI industry for more than 20 years: as an entrepreneur, driving her AI startup through a successful exit, and as an executive at companies such as Roku, Amazon, Intel and now Google. After building high-performance teams, launching full product lines, raising millions in venture capital and developing leading-edge AI, Pilar believes that having an inspiring mission and a hard-working, determined and diverse team are the key to a successful venture. Pilar’s main areas of expertise range from Natural Language Understanding and Multimodal Conversational Systems to Speech Recognition & Synthesis, Machine Translation and Language Technologies and AI in general. Pilar is particularly interested in Intelligent Conversational Agents, Cognitive Science, Machine Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing, Ambient Computing & Robotics. Pilar is originally from Spain and holds an MSc. in Cognitive Science and Natural Language and a PhD in Intelligent Dialog Systems. She is also an advisor to several Al companies, academic institutions, NGOs, an investor, a lecturer and a public speaker.

Shiva Dustdar

Head of Division Innovation Finance Advisory, EIB

Shiva Dustdar has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry working for large private and public institutions in New York, London and Luxembourg. Since joining EIB in 2003, she has worked in risk management, lending and investing in innovative companies and currently heads the Innovation Finance Advisory (IFA) Division in the EIB which she was tasked to set up in 2013. IFA has 2 units covering project advisory and thematic finance providing access to finance advice to public and private entities, performing market studies and developing new financial products to meet the financing needs across the innovation spectrum to support smart, green and healthy growth. (https://www.eib.org/en/products/advising/innovfin-advisory) Shiva started her career in 1993 at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking in New York working in M&A, Project Finance and Emerging Markets before joining Fitch Rating Agency in 1999 to set up its European High Yield rating business. Shiva holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an Executive MBA from London Business School (LBS). Shiva co-founded the European High Yield Association (EHYA), which is now part of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and was nominated to Top 50 Women in Credit by Credit Magazine in 2006. She is a regular speaker on innovation and impact financing, gender smart investing, digital and green financing and actively engaged in networks that promote sustainable and mission oriented financing. (https://www.eib.org/en/products/advising/innovfin-advisory) Shiva started her career in 1993 at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking in New York working in M&A, Project Finance and Emerging Markets before joining Fitch Rating Agency in 1999 to set up its European High Yield rating business. Shiva holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an Executive MBA from London Business School (LBS). Shiva co-founded the European High Yield Association (EHYA), which is now part of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and was nominated to Top 50 Women in Credit by Credit Magazine in 2006. She is a regular speaker on innovation and impact financing, gender smart investing, digital and green financing and actively engaged in networks that promote sustainable and mission oriented financing.

Silvia Manca

Head of Social Impact Programmes, European Investment Fund (EIF)

Tamara Obradov

Partner VC Tablomonto and Co-initiation #fundrigth mission in the Netherlands

Tamara Obradov is a partner and fund manager of Tablomonto Ventures. Tablomonto is a female-led venture capital firm investing in category-creating tech businesses in health-, consumer-, education- and fintech. In the last year, Tamara was one of the founding partners of the #Fundright initiative. #Fundright is a VC industry initiative which aims to equalize the gender funding gap for startup founders. She has made tremendous effort in diversifying their own portfolio. Thorugh #fundright the goal is to create equal funding opportunities for founders regardless of their gender of background. She is a Harvard Business School and Rotterdam School of Management alumna. She lives in Amsterdam with her partner and 3 kids.

Carol Tarr

Fellow Included VC and Professor at Nyenrode Business Universiteit

Carol was born on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois, USA. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies. She has a master’s degree in theological studies (MTS) from Harvard University, where she specialized in World Religions and was a researcher for the Pluralism Project. She is currently a.b.d. (all but dissertation) from a PhD program at the University of Chicago. She has been a lecturer in business schools and worked at The Next Women where she was the architect behind the Fempower Your Growth training, working alongside the major Dutch banks and policy institutions to offer an intense program to train female entrepreneurs on growth strategies while addressing the biases of bankers and investors. Combining these interests, Carol is shifting her focus onto impact investing. As president of The Wominvest Observatory, she wants to highlight awareness of intersectionality and the need to ensure equal access to financial and network capital for all women and their businesses as we shift towards gender-smart funding practices. Carol is an Included VC Fellow (inaugural class), mom to 3 sons and founder of Atomic Spices. She’s President of the Harvard Alumni Club of The Netherlands and an avid amateur soprano and rower. Carol lectures in Sociology, Organizational Management, Research Methods and Entrepreneurship at numerous universities in the Netherlands. She worked in partnerships at The Next Women, developed the “Fempower Your Growth” Program and recently received an Included VC Fellowship through which she is actively pursuing venture capital opportunities. A frequent speaker on the subject of gender, diversity and inequitable investment practices, she is currently conducting research on the business effect of women’s competing for investment via pitch competitions.

Christina Calje

Co-Founder, Autheos

Christina is a seasoned Executive with 15+ years of diverse professional experience in start-up and multinational corporations across New York, London and Amsterdam. Christina has been profiled in such national publications as Emerce, Business Insider, Sprout, Financieel Telegraaf, Silicon Canals, RTL-Z, international magazines FEED TV and Netokracija, and by tech giants Google and T-Mobile. Her company, Autheos, has garnered distinction as a top ‘Startup Disrupting Media’ by EU-Startups and ‘Deep Tech Disrupting Industry’ by EIG Digital. Most recently, Christina was the sole Netherlands participant for the highly competitive Google for Startups Immersion program. The inaugural European cohort consisted of 11 black / brown founders driving change in their industries. Named in 2019 by Inspiring Fifty as one of the Netherlands\’ most inspiring women in tech and by VIVA 400 as an ‘inspiring, ambitious woman who excels in the tech field’, Christina is often invited to speak at international conferences on topics such as marketing innovation, social responsibility within AI and media personalization. Alongside Autheos, Christina has served as a Non-Executive Board Member for multiple artificial intelligence startups, guiding leadership to grow their propositions to increase shareholder value.

Elianne Oei

Co-Founder, Epic Hub

Since being little I've always said I'd help make the world a better place - I love helping people increase their impact in the world, developing creative solutions and getting stuff done – no matter what the odds are. I started my career in strategy consulting at Deloitte in the Netherlands. Since then, I have worked across countries, cultures, continents and industries on complex (think big and hairy) problems and major turnarounds, requiring organisational insight, strong analytical skills and stakeholder engagement. An adventurer at heart I live to explore and travel, both through work and play. The latest exploration has been in the investment space, where as a nascent investor 6 years ago I learned the dynamics at play and the skewed playing field. The many issues with investment practices and perceptions currently are audacious enough to focus my attention here; where my wish is to create a world where there is enough for all. Therefore we started EPIC - Exponential Positive Impact Capital/ EPIC is on a mission to democratize investment and thereby accelerating impact. We at EPIC bring impact driven startups and investors together for long term and sustainable impact-funding and development, in a collaborative, constructive way, leveraging the revenue based financing instrument, much better suited for more start ups than just the 1% which gets venture capital funding currently. Let's make an exponential positive impact together!

Galit Bauer

Co-Founder & COO, Holiday Sitters BV

Galit Bauer has over 15 years of experience caring to carefully select and place the right people in each right organization. Prior to co-founding Holiday-Sitters, Galit served as a Global Human Resource Manager in different multinational corporates where she gained extensive business experience focused on a range of human resource-related disciplines. Galit is a "people person" passionate about understanding people, connecting people and couching whoever is in need for guidance. In addition, Galit is a dedicated long distance running, kickboxing and Pilates savvy one of the initiators of 'Pilates to the People' providing Pilates classes to people with special needs. Galit moved to Amsterdam from Tel Aviv 15 years ago together with her husband, and they became parents 7 years later. Galit worked at Israeli technology start-up Camelot under the niche of HR, Recruitment and more.

Ilse Bakker

Investor Relations Manager, Nordic Secondary Fund

Ilse Bakker studied both Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management as well as Law at the Rotterdam School of Law (Erasmus University Rotterdam), obtaining 2 bachelor degrees at the age of 20. She is the Investor Relations Manager for the Nordic Secondary Fund, the first fund in the Nordics that exclusively invests in secondaries, where she is also part of the investment team.

Kelly Keenan

Private investor

Kelly Keenan is an active angel investor, venture capitalist, and producer based in the United States. She funds women-led startups and films through her portfolio company, See Jane Invest. In addition to See Jane Invest, Kelly has served as a founding venture partner at NextGen Ventures, a board member of the Baltimore Angels, and mentor to over 50 companies. She is also a recurring panelist on CNBC’s Power Pitch. As a speaker, she has presented at President Obama’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative, the Japan American Society, Dubai Internet City, Crowdfundx, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and UC Berkely. Prior to See Jane Invest, Kelly helped women run for public office through the nonprofit Running Start and the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, St. John’s College, and the University of Detroit Mercy, Kelly holds a Masters in Business Administration, J.D., Masters in Liberal Arts, and a B.A. in English Writing and History.

Khaleelah Jones

Founder and CEO, Careful Feet Digital

Khaleelah Jones is the owner and founder of Careful Feet Digital Agency, the digital marketing agency that created Dime Digital, a SaaS tool that automates social media posting and brand creation for small businesses and solopreneurs. A 2020 WomenInTech 100 winner, finalist for the NatWest everywoman awards and winner of the 2018 Next Women Pitch Competition, Khaleelah has a PhD in emerging media, an MBA and has worked in the marketing industry for over a decade. Before starting CFD and building Dime, she was the head of marketing at WellTok Inc, where she was part of a team that doubled the user base in six months and closed $18m in Series B funding. She is the host of the podcast Dark Feminine, where she discusses subjects important to women of color entrepreneurs and business owners, and lives in London with her husband where she practices yoga, reads and, in her spare time, studies Russian history.

Marina Aandieu

Co-founder and Director, WIDE (Women in Digital Empowerment)

Marina Andrieu

Co-founder & Director, WIDE (Women in Digital Empowerment)

Marina is the Co-founder and Director of WIDE (Women in Digital Empowerment), a non-profit based in Luxembourg supporting girls and women to get into tech. Her organisation focuses on education, coding and entrepreneurship. Marina was also EU Code Week Ambassador for Luxembourg (2013-2017) and is currently the coordinator for the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Luxembourg. She is also an ambassador for the OECD Better entrepreneurship tool. WIDE is also involved in many European projects and collaborations, mainly thanks to the Erasmus + programme of the EC.

Melissa Romero

Tech Entrepreneur, Co-Founder & Chair at Lean In

Colombian by birth, Dutch by coincidence, citizen of the world At the age of 17, Melissa's family was forced out of Colombia due to the violence, which taught her the meaning of taking responsibility of her own destiny. After graduating in Industrial Engineering at the age of 21, she set on an adventure that took her to living in 7 countries, learning 5 languages fluently, leading a 250 million dollar business in a Fortune 500 company and founding Lean In | Netherlands. Melissa is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence within the Dutch Startup ecosystem, at incubator Antler, where she is developing a #MenopauseTech solution that will help retain more women talent at companies while helping improve these women’s lives.

Patrizia Luchetta

Co-founder, Another Level Creative Group

Patrizia Luchetta has a 20yr+ international career across industries and economic sectors; in both the private and public sector. After having had the privilege to develop and implement Luxembourg’s national strategy in the field of biomedical life sciences, Patrizia decided to venture back into the private sector and use her international expertise to help start-ups and individuals to refine their strategic goals, especially regarding communication and marketing; but also to pursue her passion for music and create bridges between the entrepreneurial and the musical hemisphere. Currently Patrizia sits on several boards and advisory committees and she has recently by co-founded Another Level Creative Group, a music production and artist management company.

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.

Solvita Kostjukova

Co-Founder, CEO, ALINA LLC

Solvita Kostjukova is co-founder and CEO of venture ALINA. ALINA uses innovative zero waste technology to manufacture ALINA LIFE products, available for interior and exterior architectural paint and coating producers to reduce and substitute hazardous chemicals and heavy metals in readymade products. ALINA company is supported by EIT RawMaterials and is finalist of INNOVEIT 2017, awarded as Start-up of the Year of the German-Latvian Business Award 2018 and ranked among the Top 25 Cleantech Companies in Europe. Solvita's core competencies are deep-science commercialization and product development, 10+ years of science management experience, PhD cand. in mathematical modelling, and 4 years of social entrepreneurship under the LUDE brand.

Barend Verachtert

Head of Unit “Materials for Tomorrow”, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission

Barend Verachtert is the Head of the Materials for Tomorrow Unit in the Research and Innovation Directorate-General (DG RTD) of the European Commission. The unit is in charge of the development and implementation of research and innovation policies for advanced materials. He has held various positions within DG RTD in the field of SMEs, the bioeconomy and agri-food. During its start-up phase, he was the interim Executive Director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership. Before joining the European Commission in 1998, he was a technology acquisition manager for Plant Genetic Systems NV, a Belgian plant biotechnology company. He obtained a PhD in biology from the University of Leuven (1988).

Esther Thole

Science journalist and writer

Author of Creators of Life (original NL: Makers van Leven), Maven Publishing (2018). In her book, editor Esther Thole describes how scientists build structures on the nano-scale towards hierarchically ordered materials or building blocks for life.

Jean-Christophe Baret

Professor and Research Group Leader, Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS & IUF

Jean-Christophe Baret obtained his PhD from the University of Twente (NL) in 2005. After a post-doc at ISIS, Strasbourg (F), the institute of J.M. Lehn, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Goettingen (D) as an independent group leader. In 2013 he obtained an ERC Starting Grant to develop new microfluidic tools for micro-compartmentalization. He joined the University of Bordeaux (F) as a full professor in 2014 and was appointed Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 2016. He is the laureate of an ERC Proof of Concept grant which led to the creation of the company Emulseo launched in 2018. Emulseo develops formulations for industrial applications of the droplet-based microfluidics technology. He is a recognized expert in microfluidics, serving as Editor of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (Springer-Nature) and as Advisory Board Member of Lab on a Chip (RSC). His research activities now focus on microfluidics for bottom-up synthetic biology and he currently coordinates the build-up of the new Research Program Frontiers of Life at the Univ. Bordeaux which regroups local activities in the fields related to synthetic biology from molecules to regenerative medicine.

Maria da Graça Carvalho

MEP, EPP, Portugal

Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

Marileen Dogterom

Chair, Department of Bionanoscience, Delft University of Technology

Marileen Dogterom was trained as a theoretical physicist at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She was a PhD student in Paris and Princeton until 1994 and then a postdoc at Bell Labs. In 1997 she started her own independent research group in experimental biophysics at the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, where she was a group leader and later department head until 2014. Since then she has been professor and chair of the department of Bionanoscience at the TU Delft. She is a board member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of an ERC Synergy Grant (2013). In 2018 she received the prestigious Dutch Spinoza price for her scientific work. Her main interest is in the reconstitution of cellular machineries in artificial confinement, with the ultimate goal to build a synthetic cell. Since 2017, she is leading a Dutch research consortium this topic.

Tim van der Hagen

Rector Magnificus / President Executive Board, TU Delft

Tim van der Hagen (born 1959) has been President of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) since May 2016 and also Rector Magnificus since January 2018. He studied Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. After taking his doctorate in 1989 at TU Delft, he stayed on at the Reactor Institute Delft, which conducts radiation-related research into energy, materials and health. He was director of the Institute between 2005 and 2012. In 1999 he was appointed professor of Reactor Physics. Between September 2010 and May 2016 he was Dean of the Applied Sciences faculty at TU Delft. During this latter period Tim was one of the instigators of the Delft Plan, published in 2015, which set out TU Delft’s vision on how the Netherlands could play a leading role in the European energy market. In 2015, he was also the co-author of an advisory report ‘A prosperous nation without CO2: Towards a sustainable energy supply by 2050’ produced by the Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli). Van der Hagen has broad managerial experience in the field of energy, including as a former member of the Dutch Energy Council and the Top team of the Top Sector Energy in the Netherlands. Both bodies advise the government on the implementation of energy policy. In addition to this he is a member of the national Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) which was established by the Dutch government to advise the government and parliament on policy in the areas of scientific research, technological development and innovation. Furthermore, Tim is a Board member of the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers (KIvI), a member of the Board of the Netherlands Energy Research Alliance (NERA) and of GROW (Growth through Research, Development and Demonstration in Offshore Wind), member of the Supervisory Board of Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste (COVRA) and Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Strategic Advisory Board on Energy and the Supervisory Board of Advanced Dutch Energy Materials (ADEM). He also holds a chair in the General board of the 4TU Federation, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Steering Committee of Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Alliance (LDE). Between May 2014 and May 2016 he was Chair of the Supervisory Board of HollandPTC (Holland Particle Therapy Centre) jointly built on the Delft campus by the Erasmus and Leiden University Medical Centres and the TU Delft . In May 2016, Tim van der Hagen was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In his free time, he plays in a pop cover band and he enjoys going to jazz concerts, the theatre and museums.

Tobias Erb

Director and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology –ERC grant recipient

Tobias J. Erb is a synthetic biologist and Director at the Max-Planck-Institute for terrestrial Micro­biology in Marburg (D). Tobias Erb’s research centers on developing an artificial photosynthesis for the sustainable conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) with natural and synthetic cells. Resaerch activities in the Erb lab focus on the discovery and engineering of novel CO2 converting enzymes and their use in the bottom-up design of artificial chloroplasts and synthetic cells. Tobias Erb studied Chemistry and Biology at the University of Freiburg (D) and the Ohio State University (US). After obtaining his PhD in 2009, Erb was a postdoc at the University of Illinois (US), before heading a junior group at the ETH Zürich (CH) from 2011-2014. In 2014 he became an independent Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, where he was promoted to director in 2017. For his work, Erb received several awards, among them the Otto Bayer Award (2018), Germany’s most prestigious award for innovation in chemistry & biochemistry, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation, and the Research awards of the German and Swiss Societies for Microbiology. He was named one of twelve outstanding scientific talents by Chemical and Engineering News of the American Chemical Society and elected to the European Academy of Microbiology, as well as the Young Academy at the National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina. Erb serves as expert on the working group “Artificial Photosynthesis” and “Life Sciences” at the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina.

Viorel Peca

Head of Unit, European Commission

Viorel Peca is Head of the Future and Emerging Technologies Unit with the European Commission, DG Connect. His unit’s mission is to lead the exploration of future technologies that matter for our future by identifying and seizing opportunities of long-term benefit for citizens, the economy and society and by ensuring that Europe is best positioned to capitalise on related emerging industrial opportunities. He joined the European Commission in 2008 and DG Connect in 2011 as Head of Unit for Networked Media followed by 4 exciting years leading the Innovation unit between 2012 and 2016; previously he was Project Manager and Chief Business Analyst for the eFP7 team of DG DIGIT. Viorel started his career in R&D at Alcatel Romania in 1996, and then moved to Belgium in 2000 where he worked for several Alcatel products spanning all the layers of the network. Later he worked as feature development team leader, then as IPTV project manager. Viorel holds an MSc in electronics and communications from University ‘Politehnica’ from Timisoara, Romania and has a Master in Industrial Management from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), a postgraduate diploma in Applied Informatics from Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and a Certificate in Leadership and Management, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

Ana Suarez

Co-funder, WA4STEAM

Co-funder of WA4STEAM. Member of the Executive Committee and treasurer of the Association. Degree in Business Administration, Master in Financial Markets from the University of Barcelona. PDD by IESE Business School. Expert in Finance, 20 years of banking experience in different executive positions. Currently Structured Finance Risk Director at Banco Sabadell. Involved in diversity, sustainability and inclusive finance policies. Especially engaged in promoting a more relevant role for women in finance and investment. Business Angel.

Bram Wijlands

Managing Director Company NameRWTH Innovation GmbH

Helena Torras

Managing Partner at PaoCapital

Helena Torras, Managing Partner at PaoCapital, raising an impact investment fund with focus on Blue Economy, promotes the tech startup mindset to society, and ensures that women are no left behind (she has cofounded WERockCapital to invest on women entrepreneurs). Helena is a serial entrepreneur and investor, connecting the dots between the ecosystem, startup-corporate-investor. She belongs to the Governing Board of BarcelonaTechCity, to the Ambassadors Council of The Collider (TechTransf initiative from the Mobile World Capital) and she serves as independent board director on several Boards. Among others recognitions, se has been considered one of the 30 people to follow on twitter on the tech ecosystem and Top100 leaders in Spain.

Laura Núñez

CEO, Plan Reforma & STIMAT

I’m a technologist passionate architect and I’ve always thought that everything is possible. I’m curious, empathetic, tenacious and I try to learn of each situation. I’ve inherit from my first profession the capacity of catch problems, simplify them to find a solution and, most important, make solutions come true in the most efficient way. I always try to work with people and learn from them but also to offer all the knowledge I have

Maria da Graça Carvalho

MEP, EPP, Portugal

Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

Martijn Leinweber

COO of Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk

COO of Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk, where space based startups are supported in their entrepreneurial journey to become a sustainable business. In my 10+ years at SBIC Noordwijk, I have gained extensive experience in incubation management, designing and implementing development programs, (international) community management and organising events and competitions within the space industry and beyond. I have a passion for startups, hospitality and sports. Always looking for new opportunities for the community. Have a positive and problem-solving attitude with a focus on service and quality

Siwan Smith

Manager Knowledge Transfer Diversity & Inclusion at KTN, UK

Siwan delivers the KTN’s Diversity and Inclusion programme, including providing business support for Innovate UK's Young Innovators and Women in Innovation programmes. She ensures that her communities get the support and funding they need and builds strong networks to connect people. Siwan is an experienced Member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing and has a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of sector areas, to deliver r eal growth.

Susana Solís Pérez

Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe, Spain

Born in Avilés, Spain, 1971. Susana Solís is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo, Machine Engineer from the Fachhochschule de Osnabrück (Germany), and holds an MBA from the Business Institute and a Master's Degree in Marketing Management from the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid). She has over 18 years of professional experience in several multinationals in Germany (Mercedes Benz, Robert Bosch) and in Spain (Rexel, Essilor and Johnson & Johnson). In May 2015, she was elected Deputy in the Parliament of Madrid, being the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment. Since May 2019 she is MEP in the European Parliament in the Renew Europe Group and a member of the ITRE, REGI, ENVI, and FEMM Committees.

Tina Kleingarn

Founder, Westend Corporate Finance

Partner at Westend Corporate Finance (Frankfurt, Germany), an advisory boutique dedicated to exit readiness for IPOs and sell sides Studied business administration and Japanese studies at Mannheim University (Germany) and Hitotsubashi University (Japan) Master degree (Dipl.-Kauffrau) with the main focus on banking/finance, organizational management and Japanese studies 12 years track record in Investment banking working for Goldmans Sachs and Barclays NED (non-executive directorships) in publicly listed corporations

Jara Pascual

Founder and CEO, knowco by collabwith

Karen Melchior

Member of the European Parliamne, Renew Europe, Denmark

Lina Gálvez Muñoz

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Spain

Lina Gálvez Muñoz is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019. In the EP, she is Vice-chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and member of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). She also belongs to the committees on Employment and Social Affairs and Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Lina Gálvez Muñoz PhD, European University Institute (Florence) is Economic History and Institutions Full Professor at the Economics Department at Pablo Olavide University (Seville). She has also been professor at the Universities of Reading (Reading), Carlos III (Madrid), and as a visiting professor at Centre for time use research at Oxford University (Oxford). She has more than hundred scientific publications and she has also been Vice-Rector of her university from 2007 to 2012 and served as Regional Minister of Knowledge, Research and University of the Government of Andalusia from 2018 to 2019.

Maria da Graça Carvalho

MEP, EPP, Portugal

Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

Mariya Gabriel

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

Mariya Ivanova Gabriel is a Bulgarian politician and a member of the GERB party serving as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth since 2019. She was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2017. In the European Parliament, she served as Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP) group, Vice-President of EPP Women, and head of the Bulgarian EPP delegation. She was first appointed to the European Commission in 2017 as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society to fill a spot left vacant by the departure of Kristalina Georgieva.

Roland Strauss

Managing Director, Knowledge4Innovation

Susana Solís Pérez

Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe, Spain

Born in Avilés, Spain, 1971. Susana Solís is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo, Machine Engineer from the Fachhochschule de Osnabrück (Germany), and holds an MBA from the Business Institute and a Master's Degree in Marketing Management from the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid). She has over 18 years of professional experience in several multinationals in Germany (Mercedes Benz, Robert Bosch) and in Spain (Rexel, Essilor and Johnson & Johnson). In May 2015, she was elected Deputy in the Parliament of Madrid, being the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment. Since May 2019 she is MEP in the European Parliament in the Renew Europe Group and a member of the ITRE, REGI, ENVI, and FEMM Committees.

Marco Boccarusso

R&D manager, Probionova SA

Industrial biotechnologist, whose professional training has deep European roots, first participating as an Erasmus student at the engineering school of the autonomous university of Barcelona, then as a researcher involved in a project funded by H2020 in Milano university. Today, Marco leads the research and development program at Probionova SA. The mission is to bridge the gap between research and application. With the ambition to create social impacts and benefit to human health, we are committed to designing new products based on live microorganisms from the latest research on the human microbiome.

Maria da Graça Carvalho

MEP, EPP, Portugal

Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

Michela Bianco

Prevot Microbiome & AI Programme, ARCHES

After having worked for an Italian Company worlwide leader in the dairy field as Key Account and Export manager for 13 years, in 2004 started the consulting activity valuing the experience in the field of lactic acid bacteria. Today, after more than 25 years experience in this specific area, mainly focused on probiotics, but also including food supplements and innovative formulations, the main skills refer to the following key activities and competences: • Well established networking activity with KOLs at global level, both in the scientific and clinical world (added value); • Implemented connections and interactions with Regulatory Bodies & Entities (facilitator factor); • Consolidated relationships ranging from local to regional to international markets (global vision and access); • Management & coordination for Projects development; • Consulting and tutoring services for leading companies in the food, supplements and pharmaceutical areas. Since 2019 Member of the International Society of Female Professionals

Sean Kelly

MEP, Member of the K4I Forum, EPP, Ireland

Seán Kelly has been a member of the European Parliament for Ireland South since 2009. He is the current leader of Fine Gael in the European Parliament, and part of the European People's Party (EPP) Group. Mr. Kelly sits on the European Parliament's Committees on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), International Trade (INTA) and Constitutional Affairs (AFCO). He is a member of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the South Africa, and the Delegation for relations with countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Seán has been heavily involved in the digital economy, with priorities including the establishment of high-speed networks, bolstering the digital single market, bridging the digital divide and providing better targeted support for ICT research and innovation. Seán served as Rapporteur for the ITRE Committee on the proposal for the General Data Protection Regulation, which represented the largest reform of data privacy law in the last two decades. As a result of his work in the area of data protection, cyberbullying and as Ambassador for CoderDojo, Seán was voted 2014 MEP of the Year for Digital Agenda and 2020 MEP of the Year for Industry, Research & Innovation Award for his continued work Seán in this area.

Vassilios Fanos

Director NICU, University of Cagliari, Italy

Full Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the School of Specialty in Pediatrics, University of Cagliari, Italy. Director since 2003 of the NICU, University of Cagliari (Italy). Immediate Past-President of the Union of the Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean Pediatric Societies (UMEMPS), President of SI-DOHaD (Italian Society of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease), Treasurer of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine (EAPM). Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pediatric and Neonatal Individualized Medicine, peer-reviewed, open access (www.jpnim.com) official journal of many International Societies including the Union of European Neonatal and Perinatal Societies (UENPS) and UMEMPS, indexed on SCOPUS and Web of Science. Consultant referee in >50 International Journals. Referee for several International Agencies for funding. In the last 6 years he won 3 European Projects: 1 FP7, 1 Marie Curie, 1 LIFE ; 2 CCM Italian projects. Author of more than 410 papers on PubMed (460 on Scopus), of 30 books (8 in English), 70 chapters of books (30 in English). Speaker in more than 160 International Congresses worldwide (in more than 40 Nations). According to Expertscape (world ranking of research), in the last 2 summers, 2019 and 2020, Prof. Fanos resulted 1st in Europe and 2nd in the world in Neonatology

Charlotte Stix

PhD Researcher, Fellow, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Cambridge

Charlotte Stix is an experienced technology policy expert with a specialization in AI governance. Her PhD research at the Eindhoven University of Technology critically examines ethical, governance and regulatory considerations around artificial intelligence In that context, she serves as Fellow to the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge and as Expert to the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Neurotechnologies. Most recently, Charlotte was the Coordinator of the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. Formerly, she was a Researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, a Fellow to the World Economic Forum's AI Council, a Policy Officer at the European Commission's Robotics and AI Unit, consulted international start-up Element AI as an Advisor on their European AI engagement and worked as a Policy Officer at the World Future Council where she advocated for rights for future generations. Charlotte is awarded for her work as a 2020 Forbes' 30 under 30 (Europe). In her spare time, Charlotte runs the bi-monthly EuropeanAI newsletter with >1900 subscribers, widely seen as the definitive resource for insights into developments in AI policy across the European Union.

Fredrik Heintz

Associate Professor of Computer Science; Coordinator, Linköping University; TAILOR

Dr. Fredrik Heintz is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Linköping University, Sweden. He leads the Reasoning and Learning group within the Division of Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Systems (AIICS) in the Department of Computer Science. His research focus is artificial intelligence especially autonomous systems, stream reasoning, and the intersection between knowledge representation and machine learning. He is the Director of the Graduate School for the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), the coordinator of the TAILOR ICT-48 network of AI research excellence centers, the President of the Swedish AI Society, a member of the CLAIRE extended core team, a member of the EurAI board, a researcher at the AI Sustainability Center, and a member of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI. He is also very active in education activities both at the university level and in promoting AI, computer science and computational thinking in primary, secondary and professional education. Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).

Holger Hoos

Chair of the Board of Directors; Professor of Machine Learning, CLAIRE; Leiden University

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 the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), chairman of the board of the Confederation of Laboratories of Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE), vice-president of EurAI, past president of the Canadian Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAIAC), Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) and leader of the VISION coordination mandate for the recently launched European networks of centres of excellence in AI. 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).

Iarla Kilbane-Dawe

UK Government Office for Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Iarla Kilbane-Dawe is the Deputy Head of the UK Government Office for AI, with responsibility for International AI Policy, the AI Council and Engagement. Previously in the private sector, UK civil service and head of the European Space Agency's AI lab in Frascati, his goal is to accelerate development of the UK's AI research and industry ecosystem to ensure UK collaboration and leadership in AI, with a focus on responsible AI and its application to major societal and industrial challenges.

Maria Manuel Leitão Marques

MEP, S&D, Portugal

Maria Manuel Leitão Marques is a full professor of the faculty of economics at the University of Coimbra and was elected MEP in the last European elections of 2019 for the Portuguese Socialist Party. She is currently vice-chair of the International Market and Consumer Protection committee and a member of the delegations to both the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. She is also a substitute MEP in the ITRE and FEMM committees, as well as in the delegation to EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee. She previously served as Minister of the presidency and administrative modernisation between 2015-2019 and as a secretary of state for administrative modernisation between 2007-2011.

Morten Irgens

Dean, CDO, Oslo Metropolitan University Kristiania University College, CLAIRE

Dr. Morten Irgens is Dean of School of Economics, Innovation and Technology and Chief Development Officer at Kristiania University College, Advisor to the Rector at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), and Vice Chair if the Board of Directors of the Confederation og Laboratories of Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE). He also serves a board member of Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet) and the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium (NORA), both which he initiated and cofounded. He has previously participated in establishing Actenum Corp., Center for Cyber and Information Security, the Housing Laboratory and the Competence Center for Work Inclusion. His background in Artificial Intelligence includes the areas of Constraint Reasoning, and Modern Heuristics.

Tsvetelina Marinova Penkova

MEP, S&D, Bulgaria

Ms Penkova is from Bulgaria and a Member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. She is also a Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).

Yiannis Kompatsiaris

Research Director, Co-ordinator, Certh-ITI / AI4Media

Dr. Ioannis (Yiannis) Kompatsiaris is a Research Director at CERTH-ITI, the Head of Multimedia Knowledge and Social Media Analytics Laboratory and Deputy Director of the Institute. His research interests include machine learning and AI, multimedia, big data and social media analytics, semantics, human computer interfaces (AR and BCI), eHealth, security and culture applications. He is the co-author of 171 papers in refereed journals, 63 book chapters, 8 patents and more than 500 papers in international conferences. Since 2001, Dr. Kompatsiaris has participated in 89 National and European research programs, in 18 of which he has been the Project Coordinator. He has also been the PI in 14 research collaborations with industry including Motorola US and UK. He has been the co-chair of various international conferences and workshops including the 13th IEEE Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing (IVMSP 2018) Workshop and has served as a regular reviewer, associate and guest editor for a number of journals and conferences currently being an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and of the Big Data Journal. He has served as proposals and programs evaluator for many National Research Agencies including the French Research Agency (“Chaires AI” and “PhD contracts in AI”). He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the CHIST-ERA funding programme, an elected member of the IEEE Image, Video and Multidimensional Signal Processing - Technical Committee (IVMSP - TC), a Senior Member of IEEE and member of ACM. Since January 2014, he is a co-founder of the Infalia private company, a high-tech SME focusing on data intensive web services and applications.

Alexandr Iscenco

Co-founder, CEO, and Research & Development Coordinator, Moldovan Environmental Governance Agency (MEGA)

Co-founder, CEO, and Research & Development Coordinator at the Moldovan Environmental Governance Agency (MEGA), Strategic Coordinator of the start-up pre-acceleration program GreenTech Rangers, Trainer on Integrating Ecosystem Services into Development Planning, Green Talents Awardee, and Independent Expert at the European Commission.

Irina Reyes

Policy Assistant to the Director for Prosperity, European Commission Director General for Research and Innovation

Irina Reyes is the policy assistant to the Director for Prosperity at the European Commission Director General for Research and Innovation. Her areas of expertise are green tech, industrial policy and digital education and skills with a consistent human centred approach. She was also part of the transition team preparing the briefing for Commissioner Gabriel. Prior to assuming this position in April 2017, she worked on data driven science and foresight. She has also worked in the Directorate General for Home Affairs in the areas of prevention and protection and at the Swedish Red Cross as Programme Manager for Migration and Humanitarian law. Irina holds an International Master’s in Political Science from the Linnaeus University, Sweden and speaks five languages. She is currently involved in the programming of Horizon Europe focusing AI and algorithmic bias, lifelong learning in industrial sectors and the launch of a new transitions performance index to measure countries progress towards the four dimensions of sustainability: economy, inclusiveness, governance and environment

Javier García-Martínez

President-Elect, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Professor and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Alicante

President-Elect (president for the 2022–2023) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Professor and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory of the University of Alicante in Spain, Founder of the technology-based company Rive Technology, Member of the Council of Emerging Technologies and Global Young Academy Leader at the WEF.

Karel Van De Velde

Senior Sustainability Manager, BASF

Karel Van De Velde is a Senior Sustainability Manager at BASF, responsible for the EMEA region. He is a molecular biologist by training with a PhD in Biology and his research is focused on understanding the molecular basis of the ‘Green Revolution’, which led to improving the climate-resilience of wheat. He is also the Committee Chair Sustainable Agriculture at the European Technology Platform Plants for the Future.

Karen Van De Velde

Senior Sustainability Manager, BASF

Karen Van De Velde is a Senior Sustainability Manager at BASF, responsible for the EMEA region. He is a molecular biologist by training with a PhD in Biology and his research is focused on understanding the molecular basis of the ‘Green Revolution’, which led to improving the climate-resilience of wheat. He is also the Committee Chair Sustainable Agriculture at the European Technology Platform Plants for the Future.

María Escudero-Escribano

Assistant Professor and Director of the Nano-Electrocatalysis group, University of Copenhagen

Assistant Professor and Director of the Nano-Electrocatalysis group at the University of Copenhagen, with research focused on materials for renewable energy conversion and synthesis of green fuels and chemicals. She is Chair of the Danish Electrochemical Society, a Villum Young Investigator and a PI of the Center for High Entropy Alloy Catalysis.

Victor Negrescu

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Romania

Victor Negrescu is the vice-chair of the Culture and Education Committee and rapporteur on the shaping of an European digital education policy. He is an emerging leader, active in the field of education, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, European financing, citizens' rights, and institutional affairs. His latest success was to promote in the European Parliament a resolution on education and to introduce in the Recovery and Resilience Facility a recommendation to Member States to allocate 10% for education and 2% for the culture and creative sector. Former Romanian Minister for EU Affairs in charge with the preparation of the EU Council Presidency, he was in the past a digital innovator and a professor before holding the position of MEP. Victor Negrescu is an active promoter of EU values, chairing the PES activists Romania and European Movement Romania organizations. He won in 2015 the MEP of the Year Award for the digital agenda and got recently an award from the Romanian digital industry for his efforts in promoting digital skills and education. As a civic activist, he managed to promote several European petitions calling for citizens and social rights at EU level. MEP Victor Negrescu is a strong advocate for a fair social Europe, based on common policies in the field of education, innovation & digital sector, protection of the environment, healthcare and infrastructure.

Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou

Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Greece

Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou has studied economics and law in the USA and in the UK and worked for several years as a lawyer in New York, specializing in financial transactions and international banking law. She worked as director of an NGO in Greece, focusing on ICT deployment and regional development. She also worked as an evaluator of projects funded by the European Commission and as a consultant in the private sector in Brussels and Luxembourg. She served as Deputy-Mayor of the City of Ioannina (2010-2012) and an elected member of the Hellenic Parliament (2012-2019). She was appointed Spokesperson of the New Democracy Party in 2013. She was Head of Fiscal Policy Sector (2015), Head of the Development and Competition Sector (2016) and Head of the Digital Policy, Telecommunications & Media Sector for New Democracy (2016-2019). She is currently a Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chair of the Committee on International Trade.

Brando Benifei

Member of the European Parliament

Brando Benifei, European Federalist, is from La Spezia, Italy, and is the Head of Delegation of the Italian S&D MEPs. His main areas of work are Internal Market and Consumers Protection, Employment and Social Affairs, and Constitutional Affairs. He is rapporteur for the Single Market Program and shadow rapporteur for the European Social Fund Plus. He is active on youth policies, digitalisation and rights of persons with disabilities. In the previous term, he was responsible for the European Solidarity Corps, for the Post-Arab Spring in the MENA region and for key reports on the social inclusion and integration of refugees into the EU labour market, as well as youth employment policy such as the Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative. He was also co-chair of the Youth Intergroup and vice-chair of the Disability Intergroup. In 2018, he received the MEP Award for his work on Employment and Social Affairs issues, for his work on youth unemployment. In 2016, Forbes included him in its annual 30 under-30 most influential in EU Politics list.

Carl Mörch

Co-manager AI Institute for Common Good, ULB-VUB

Carl Mörch, M.Psy., Ph.D., is co-manager of the Brussels AI Institute for Common Good (ULB-VUB). He was in 2020-2021 a researcher at the Université de Montréal and Mila – Québec artificial Intelligence Institute (Algora Lab) in AI Ethics. He was awarded a fellowship by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies (OBVIA) in 2020. He is also a lecturer and adjunct professor at UQÀM (Montréal, Canada). His is interested in the concrete application of high-level ethical principles into applied domains, and in the responsible development of technologies in society. He recently published the Canada Protocol (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0933365719312436), an ethical checklist for AI developers working on Mental Health.

Frederic Pivetta

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Dalberg Data Insights

Frédéric Pivetta is the Founder and Managing Partner at Dalberg Data Insights (DDI). Frederic is active over the last 8 years in the context of data for development where he has collaborated with major funders and local end-users and stakeholders. DDI is part of the Dalberg Group, which has offices in 25 countries. DDI focuses on developing data ecosystems aiming at social impact, Big Data approaches, tools, platforms and capacity building. Ultimately, the goal is to create economic value and social impact. For instance, DDI has developed a Big Data platform sourcing data from both the public and private sectors to help the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others on topics such as public health (Ebola, malaria, zika), gender gap, financial inclusion, agritech, poverty etc. Before that, Frédéric was a co-founder of Real Impact Analytics (now Riaktr), which develops Big Data tools for telecom operators. He founded the Data-for-Good entity from RIA. Frédéric is on the Board of Accountable (fintech) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (Big Data for SDGs, as part of the UN). Frédéric has been working 8 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was senior Engagement Manager. Frederic holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and has graduated in Business Economics and in Econometrics from Brussels University (ULB and Solvay Business School).

Hans De Canck

Manager - AI Experience Centre / AI for the Common Good

Hans De Canck has a solid background in digital research and innovation management, working at universities and RTO’s (iMinds, imec, VITO). He manages and directs the development of the AI Experience Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) as well as the Brussels AI for the Common Good initiative. The AI Experience Center is a state of the art Digital Innovation Hub and is host of the Belgian CLAIRE offices in Brussels. Several research centers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have joined forces to develop a multi-disciplinary research and Innovation offering on AI, Data and Robotics towards Academia, Industry, Policy makers including the broader public. The AI Experience Centre accelerates this offering. Hans works with the research teams across the university and acts as coordinating manager for the AI for the Common Good initiative, launched by rector Caroline Pauwels in 2019.

Stefaan Verhulst

Co-Founder, Chief of Research and Development, TheGovLab – NYU - New York

Stefaan G. Verhulst is Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab) at New York University (NYU) - an action research center focused on improving governance using advances in science and technology - including data and collective intelligence. He is also, among other positions and affiliation, the Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, an open access journal by Cambridge University Press; the research director of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance; Chair of the Data for Children Collaborative with Unicef; and a member of the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Yale University, Central European University and serves on numerous (advisory) boards, including Sparks and Honey, Center for Media, Data and Society, among others. He is also Founder and Curator in Chief of The Living Library. In 2018 he was recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally (as part of the Top 100 in Digital Government) by the global policy platform Apolitical. At The GovLab, Stefaan Verhulst has developed and leads a range of impactful research initiatives that contribute to an enhanced understanding and improved practice of using data, science, and technology for decision and policymaking.

Victor Negrescu

Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Romania

Victor Negrescu is the vice-chair of the Culture and Education Committee and rapporteur on the shaping of an European digital education policy. He is an emerging leader, active in the field of education, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, European financing, citizens' rights, and institutional affairs. His latest success was to promote in the European Parliament a resolution on education and to introduce in the Recovery and Resilience Facility a recommendation to Member States to allocate 10% for education and 2% for the culture and creative sector. Former Romanian Minister for EU Affairs in charge with the preparation of the EU Council Presidency, he was in the past a digital innovator and a professor before holding the position of MEP. Victor Negrescu is an active promoter of EU values, chairing the PES activists Romania and European Movement Romania organizations. He won in 2015 the MEP of the Year Award for the digital agenda and got recently an award from the Romanian digital industry for his efforts in promoting digital skills and education. As a civic activist, he managed to promote several European petitions calling for citizens and social rights at EU level. MEP Victor Negrescu is a strong advocate for a fair social Europe, based on common policies in the field of education, innovation & digital sector, protection of the environment, healthcare and infrastructure.