Colin is the Chief Architect at OpenAI, where he pushes the bounds of what OpenAI’s models can do with their strategic customers using both ChatGPT and the API. He has a product and data engineering background, and worked at top-tier machine learning consultancies prior to OpenAI. Colin lives in Glasgow.
Chief Architect
OpenAI
Christina Janzer is the Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics at Slack, and is responsible for leading global research and product analytics efforts that provide insights about how to make working lives better and more productive. She also leads Workforce Lab, which studies how to make work better for people, focusing on what drives productivity and great employee experiences. Prior to Slack, Christina founded the user research team at Facebook after helping to grow the customer support team. Christina studied Product Design at Stanford University.
Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics
Slack
Dr. Regine Grienberger is the Director for Cyber Foreign and Security Policy at the Federal Foreign Office. Her previous professional experience was chiefly in the field of EU foreign policy as well as EU financial and economic policy. Dr Grienberger was Deputy Head of the Minister’s Office (Gabriel, Maas), Deputy Head of Division for European economic and financial policy and desk officer for EU Agricultural Policy, with responsibility for crisis management in pandemics, among other areas. Dr Grienberger studied agriculture in Bonn, Munich, Vienna and Michigan State University. She obtained her doctorate in Bonn.
Cyber Ambassador
Federal Foreign Office
Slav Petrov is Vice President, Research at Google DeepMind. He is a co-lead on Gemini, Google's large models effort. His work has been recognized with multiple Best Paper Awards (ACL'11, NAACL'12, ACL'16, 10-year Test-of-Time Award at ACL'23) and provides better language capabilities to billions of users in a variety of Google products spanning Web Search, Assistant, Ads, Translate & Cloud. Slav is the recipient of the 2014 John Atanasoff Award by the President of Bulgaria and a World Champion at RoboCup 2004. For many years, Slav taught Statistical Natural Language Processing at New York University. He holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
Vice President, Research
Google DeepMind
Ismael Khoffi is the co-founder and CTO of Celestia Labs. Khoffi has a background in research and hands-on engineering and has worked in a range of areas including the higher education industry and small to large enterprises. In a subsequent role as a Senior Software Engineer at Informal Systems on a freelance basis from January 2020 to January 2021, Khoffi contributed to the development of the Tendermint light client in Rust. In the public sector, he served as an External Evaluation Expert for the European Commission from April 2019 to December 2019. His academic contributions include a role as an Independent Researcher (Fellowship) at Technische Universität Berlin from July 2019 to November 2019, where he collaborated on a Stellar-related research project.
Co-founder and CTO
Celestia Labs
Chema Alonso is Chief Digital Officer of Telefónica, CEO of Telefónica Innovación Digital and member of Telefonica S.A. Executive Committee since 2016. He oversees Innovation, Data, Platforms and Digital Product & Services leading the strategy for the digitalisation of sales processes and customer communication channels of the company. He holds a PhD in Computer Security and a Technical Engineering degree in Computer Systems from Universidad Politécnica Madrid. The latter institution named him Honorary Ambassador of the University School of Information Technology in 2012. Chema was also recognized during 14 years as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
Chief Digital Officer
Telefónica
Dr. Ijad Madisch is the co-founder and CEO of ResearchGate, a professional network that connects the world of science. Frustrated by his own experiences as an isolated researcher, Ijad founded ResearchGate in 2008 with two friends. Since then, ResearchGate has grown to include more than 26 million scientists worldwide, becoming the largest network of its kind. Madisch’s network has secured over $100 million in funding from renowned investors such as Benchmark Capital, Founders Fund, and Bill Gates.
Co-Founder & CEO
ResearchGate
Qasar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, currently valued at $6B after its Series E. Before that, Younis was a Partner and COO of Y Combinator. Younis founded a technology firm, which was later acquired by Google, and worked as an automotive engineer at General Motors and Bosch.
CEO
Applied Intuition
Herman is the co-founder and CEO of Improbable. Herman holds a computer science degree from Cambridge. He has been working for the past 10 years as an entrepreneur on how to resolve technical challenges and better understand the unprecedented impacts that powerful, virtual worlds and the metaverse will have on how we think, make decisions, and form society. Herman is the author of Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience published by Penguin Random House in October 2022.
Co-Founder & CEO
Improbable
Sébastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, a virtual platform where players can create, play, own, govern and monetize their experiences using NFTs & SAND, the main utility token of the platform. Sebastien also became the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization of 500 key members of the industry. He was recently named #4 in the Top #100 2022 most influential people in crypto by CoinTelegraph.
Co-Founder & COO
The Sandbox
Joanna Bryson is expert in intelligence — both natural and artificial. With degrees in Social and Computer Sciences from Chicago, Edinburgh and MIT, her scientific research appears in venues from reddit to Science, and her policy voice is heard in the UN, EU, CoE, OSCE, OECD and GPAI. Since February 2020, Bryson has been Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin.
Professor of Ethics and Technology
Hertie School
Helene is Co-Founder & CEO at The Exploration Company, a space tech startup whose mission is to democratize space exploration, making it affordable, sustainable, and open. The Exploration Company develops, manufactures, and operates spaceships that serve the logistic needs of the space stations around the Earth and the Moon, a market forecasted to grow by 400% in the next 8 years. The startup was co-founded in July 2021 by an experienced team coming from Airbus and ArianeGroup who worked already together on major programs (Orion-ESM, ATV, etc.). Today, The Exploration Company gathers 50 people, +500 years of space experience, has raised 50 million USD and mixes space veterans’ and young aerospace engineers’ profiles. The first capsule vehicle flight is planned for 2023.
CEO
The Exploration Company
Brett is managing partner of Initialized Capital, a seed stage VC firm with $3.2B assets under management, a portfolio with 175+ companies including Coinbase, Flexport, Instacart, and Rippling, and 25 companies valued at $1B or more. Brett is a software engineer, a 4x founder, and investor. Previously he co-founded blog platforms Posthaven and Posterous (acquired by Twitter) and later joined Y Combinator where he wrote their internal software systems.
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Managing Partner
Initialized Capital
João Graça is the Co-Founder & CTO of Unbabel, an AI human translation platform that has raised close to $100 million to date. João has a Ph.D. in Natural Language Processing and was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also one of the co-founders of the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS) and has authored several papers in machine learning with side information, unsupervised learning and machine translation.
Co-Founder & CTO
Unbabel
Joyce holds the distinguished role of Group Head of Corporate Affairs at Springer Nature, a leading global science communications company, where she not only contributes to the Executive Team but also spearheads sustainability initiatives. Beyond her corporate endeavors, she has chaired the esteemed London-based business alliance, Urban Partners, and serves as a trustee for the esteemed Marine Conservation Society. Before her tenure at Springer Nature, Joyce amassed extensive experience in senior communications and marketing positions with renowned global brands. Her professional journey uniquely weaves together corporate leadership with entrepreneurial ventures, including a foray into travel technology and the establishment of her own communications consultancy startup.
Group Head of Corporate Affairs
Springer Nature
Mali is the CEO of WLOUNGE and MAGDA GROUP, and Board Member at the European Innovation Council (EIC) at the European Commission. Mali brings over 20 years of entrepreneurial expertise, having founded multiple successful ventures. As a seasoned serial entrepreneur, Mali launched her first venture in 2007, specializing in global educational toys. On 2024 Mali was elected as a Board Member of the European innovation Council, EIC, European Commission and the EIC fund. Since 2019 she has been an active expert and Jury member at the European Commission EIC fund, involved in the EIC Green-Dealas a Jury. In addition, she is also an ambassador for the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises for StartUp Asia Berlin (SUAB) and Asia-Pacific Week Berlin (APW).
Founder & CEO | Board member
WLOUNGE | MAGDA GROUP | European Innovation Council, European Commission
Saruul Krause-Jentsch is the Head of Podcasts at Spotify for the DACH region since 2020. She joined Spotify in 2019 as Strategy and Operations Manager. With a market cap of $59.44B, she oversees Spotify Original and Exclusive podcasts, creator relations, partnerships, and audience development. Before Spotify, she worked as a Digital Business Strategist at Condé Nast and as a Director at Bertelsmann Corporate Network. Saruul has also provided audio strategy and podcasting consulting for several companies.
Head of Podcast, Central Europe
Spotify
Lasse is the founding partner of 1kx, an early-stage token fund with a mission to be the most founder-friendly and helpful source of early-stage capital for tokenised projects. He started out as a software entrepreneur and through exploring, curiosity and making an early leap from Bitcoin to Ethereum, he’s a key player in the crypto industry. 1kx has made multiple investments in soon-to-be key players, for instance, Kiln ($17M) or Modulus ($6.3M).
Founding Partner
1kx Capital
Deborah is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Founderland, Europe's fastest-growing community dedicated to supporting women of color entrepreneurs. Deborah has successfully founded six ventures, collectively raising over €2M in funding. She earned her spot on BusinessWeek's ‘Top 25 under 25’ with her first startup, and was recently named in BGA's 'Women of the Year' list for 2024.
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Founderland
Nicole Büttner is the founder of the AI solution firm Merantix Momentum and a member of the management board of Merantix, an AI venture studio based in Berlin. She was nominated as a Young Leader by the Aspen Institute and sits on the supervisory board of Quinfos, a Dumont company, and Bauer Gruppe. She was part of the founding committee of the German Data Institute, serves on the Board of Alumni of the University of St.Gallen, and is Vice President of the German Startup Association. She was nominated in the Digital Leaders for Europe Community by WorldEconomic Forum. Previously, she worked as a hedge fund portfolio manager at OFI AM in Paris and led the global business development for Auctionomics, Nobel Prize winner Paul Milgrom’s auction design and tech firm. Nicole was trained as an economist and econometrician at the University of St.Gallen, Stockholm School of Economics, and Stanford University and holds an MA in Quantitative Economics and Finance.
Founder & CEO
Merantix Momentum
Amanda is the Founder and CEO of Serotonin, previously she was CMO at ConsenSys (2016-19), and played a pivotal role in Ethereum's narrative. She led ConsenSys' marketing, contributing to its global reach and the success of products like MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, and Gitcoin. Recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, Amanda is the author of the first Web3 marketing book.
Founder & CEO
Serotonin
Peter is a Senior Software Engineer on Bard, where he focuses on infrastructure development and quality enhancement for Gemini Extensions. Before joining Bard, his endeavors included pioneering work on neural semantic models for Assistant, refining Translate models, and contributing to advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Analytics.
Senior Software Engineer
Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss is Founder & CEO at Dance, an e-bike subscription service founded with the purpose of having a positive impact on health, sustainability and livable cities. Prior Eric founded SoundCloud in 2007 and served as CPO for 12 years.
Founder
SoundCloud / Dance
Nevşah Fidan Karamehmet is a multifaceted coach expert, renowned as a teacher, speaker, best-selling author, investor, philanthropist, and serial entrepreneur. With over two decades of expertise as a behavior expert, she has earned global recognition as the foremost authority on self-mastery formulas for women. Her impactful work has transcended borders, engaging with prestigious clients such as HSBC, ING Bank, Pfizer, and Vodafone, alongside notable celebrities and athletes. Nevsah's overarching mission is to empower women to lead masterful lives through accessible products and courses, delivered via workshops, seminars, online platforms, and personalized coaching. Her profound impact extends to having positively influenced over 40,000 individuals and certifying over 2000 coaches worldwide.
Founder & CEO
Breath Hub and Nevsah Institute
Avi is a distinguished Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author. Since 2007, Loeb has served as the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is also the Head of the Galileo Project.
Professor, Director Institute for Theory & Computation
Harvard University
William is a general partner of SOSV, a venture capital fund of over $1B, and founder of the SOSV Momentum Pre-accelerator program. Bill’s current focus is Health & Longevity as Chair of the SENS board and Chair to the Te Tiroroa Fund. Co-founder of the CoderDojo movement and of Weforest, his career in tech and business encompasses two unicorn companies and launching the world’s first bio-tech accelerator.
General Partner
SOSV
Stéphanie is a Partner in Bootstrap Europe. Prior to co-founding the Swiss venture debt firm that successfully closed a €130 million fund in 2023 to empower groundbreaking tech enterprises, Stéphanie cultivated a distinguished career marked by founding, developing, and serving on the boards of numerous thriving technology and financial firms in Zurich and London. Notable among these ventures is the award-winning fintech startup Fractal Labs. Leveraging her firsthand experiences as a founder, Stéphanie offers pragmatic and compassionate guidance to Bootstrap Europe's portfolio founders.
Partner
Bootstrap Europe
Jess is the CEO of WalletConnect, the Web3 communications protocol enabling interoperability between wallets and dapps across chains. Having been integrated by over 500 wallets and 6,000 apps, it facilitates millions of end-user connections each month. Today, it is also empowering developers to build engaging web3 experiences with a suite of SDKs: Web3Modal, Web3Wallet, and the recently launched Web3Inbox app that facilitates human-readable message delivery between apps and users.
CEO
WalletConnect
Alina Bassi is an Impact Investor at Ananda Impact Ventures, managing a portfolio of €187.6M aimed at supporting global change through investments in climate technology, health, equality, and education. She co-founded Kleiderly, where she developed textile recycling into sustainable plastic alternatives. Alina is actively involved in supporting Women of Colour in entrepreneurship through Founderland and was recognized as an Obama Foundation Europe Leader in 2023.
Impact Investor
Ananda Impact Ventures
Andras Orban is an Engineering Director at Google Switzerland, leading the Safety, Factuality, Multimodality, and RLHF teams on the Gemini App. Prior to Gemini, he spent six years as an engineering lead on the Google Assistant NLP team. Before that, he was a core engineer on the Google Search Ranking team. He holds a PhD in Computer Science and Mathematics, which he received in 2004 from the Budapest University of Technology. He has been awarded the Pro Scientia Gold Medal and the Fellowship of the Republic.
Engineering Director
Google Gemini
Michael Gao is Founder and CEO at Fabric Cryptography, a deep tech startup building a new kind of processor for next-gen cryptography – the Verifiable Processing Unit (VPU). Team of 50+ AI engineers + cryptographers from Nvidia, Google, Amazon, etc; $39m in funding; $60m in VPU pre-orders, shipping later this year. Michael previously founded and served as Chief Architect at Luminous Computing, a photonic AI startup backed by Bill Gates with $100m+ raised, studied Applied Math at MIT and won the USA Math and Computing Olympiads.
Founder & CEO
Fabric Cryptography
Laura Fernandez Gimenez is the CEO of allWomen, a global platform dedicated to empowering women in tech through transformative training, she has cultivated a thriving community exceeding 50K members. As a visionary Impact Founder, staunch advocate for Gender Diversity, and dedicated Community Builder over the span of five years, Laura has personally mentored over +1K women, fostered collaborations with more than 100 corporate partners, and established a robust network comprising over 100 female industry experts. Notably, all of her endeavors have been self-funded, reflecting her unwavering commitment to bootstrap startups and drive meaningful change in the tech industry.
CEO
allWomen
Bobby is the CEO of Manna Drone Delivery, a business whose mission is to improve the world by making lightning-fast suburban deliveries affordable, green and safe. He began his career building video games for Nintendo, founded Eland which he sold to SITA, built CarTrawler and led two successful LBOs for the business.
CEO
Manna Drone Delivery
As Founder of Thought For Food, Christine has built the largest and most diverse innovator community in food and agriculture, reaching 30,000 next-gen talents in 180+ countries. She has incubated 100+ science-and-technology-based startups which have gone on to raise over $300mm in venture capital and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies and international organizations.
Founder
Thought for Food
Joe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Isomer Capital, a prestigious private investment firm headquartered in the UK who in 2023 revealed the inaugural closing of its groundbreaking €250 million III fund, marking a significant milestone in the firm's trajectory. Joe has 25 years’ experience working as an LP, GP and technology operations executive. Prior to Isomer he was MD for Business Development at Pomona Capital, a leading global secondaries firm, and earlier at Cambridge Associates responsible for advising institutional investors on venture capital and private equity investments.
Managing Partner
Isomer Capital
Sabine Wiesmüller, PhD, currently serves as the Director of the AI Competence Center Europe at Start2Group (formerly German Entrepreneurship), a premier startup ecosystem platform serving as the ultimate destination for growth-oriented startups, corporations, investors, and governments to shape and scale ventures with growth potential. In addition, she continues as Managing Director of the Bodensee Innovation Cluster, which she has co-founded in 2018. Sabine is also an associated senior researcher and lecturer at Zeppelin University, teaching and conducting research about digital entrepreneurship, responsible innovation, AI governance & AI ethics.
Director AI Europe
Start2 Group
Inka Mero stands as the visionary Founder and Managing Partner of Voima Ventures, a trailblazing venture capital firm that, in 2023, unveiled its third fund, securing an initial closing of €90 million with a final target of €120 million, focusing on nurturing early-stage startups spanning the breadth of scientific innovation. Inka Mero's indomitable presence in entrepreneurship and deeptech venture capital is exemplified by her stewardship of investments in Nordic and Baltic deep tech startups, catalyzing innovation and global impact. With a distinguished career spanning 25 years, she brings a profound reservoir of expertise cultivated through founding companies and stewarding established corporations as a seasoned board member.
Founder & Managing Partner
Voima Ventures
Francielly, an Oceanographer & Data Scientist from Rio, is the founder of Benthos.ai, the AI startup leveraging technology for ocean conservation. Backed by the Berlin Startup Scholarship and enriched through the ClimateX program at the Berlin Innovation Agency, her startup empowers communities with essential tools to protect marine ecosystems. She also heads the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Germany, advocating globally for our oceans’ health and sustainability.
Founder
Benthos.ai
Ivana Bartoletti is Global Chief Privacy and AI Governance officer at Wipro. A leader in the field of privacy, data protection and responsible technology, Ivana is an expert on AI and gender rights at the Council of Europe, and is a Cybersecurity and Privacy Executive Fellow at Virginia Tech. She has extensive experience in shaping privacy policies, strategies and programmes for large organizations undergoing digital transformation, cloud and automation. She received the Privacy Leader of the Year Award in London in 2022, is the Director of the influential Women Leading in AI network and co-founder of the Alliance for Universal Digital Rights.
Global Chief Privacy & AI Governance Officer
Wipro
Sutian Dong is a partner at Multitudes, a venture capital fund that supports early-stage companies focusing on crypto, care, climate, and culture. Sutian also co-founded the Global Women in VC Community, the largest and most powerful network of female VCs in the world comprised of almost 4,000 women from 200+ cities, 60+ countries, and 40+ US states as members who share deal flow, job opportunities, industry data, and more. Most recently, Sutian was a partner at Female Founders Fund, investing in the exponential power of of exceptional female founders where they invested in companies like Billie (acq. Edgewell), Maven Clinic, Rent The Runway (NASDAQ:RENT), Zola, Tala, Thrive Global, and Co--Star Astrology.
Co-Founder & Partner
Global Women in VC | Multitudes
Connor is the CEO of Bridge Your Network and has an interdisciplinary background in Computer Science, Startups, Venture Capital, and Management Consulting, as he has invested in 30 pre-seed technology ventures that have an enterprise value > $1B. He was previously CEO and Founder of Datahug which exited to Nasdaq listed Callidus Cloud (Nasdaq:CALD) and is now part of SAP. Prior to Datahug, Connor worked with PA Consulting Group in London, New York and Washington DC. Connor was previously MD of the Techstars SAP.iO program in Berlin.
CEO
Bridge Your Network
Sebastian Pollok is Founding Partner of Visionaries Club, an early stage VC which has raised nearly $600M to date and is a fund backed by leading European digital founders and family business entrepreneurs. Prior, Sebastian co-founded and ran AMORELIE, which he successfully grew to > USD 60m revenue, >20% EBITDA and a team of 100 employees. AMORELIE was sold to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in2018 at a valuation > USD 100m. Prior to AMORELIE, Sebastian worked as a VC for e.ventures in San Francisco and studied at WHU, St. Gallen, HKUST and Kellogg School of Management. Sebastian is a business angel in startups such as Ree Technology, Choco, Sunshine Smile and Lillydoo and a limited partner in funds such as Cherry Ventures, Project A and La Famiglia. He also sits on the board of Cherry Ventures and Founders Pledge.
Founding Partner
Visionaries Club
David Bennett, the mastermind behind Mimic Productions, boasts a rich tapestry of over three decades immersed in VFX, performance capture, gaming, and VR. Renowned for his groundbreaking advancements in facial motion capture, his innovative contributions have left an indelible mark on iconic blockbusters like Avatar and numerous other cinematic marvels. In 2012, David founded Mimic Productions, an industry-leading studio celebrated for crafting the most lifelike digital characters showcased in over 500 projects spanning multiple sectors. Presently, his visionary focus lies in pioneering AI-empowered avatars under his latest venture, Mimic Minds.
CEO
MP Mimic Productions GmbH
Jared Ficklin is a designer and technologist with two decades of experience creating products and visions for major companies. An innovator by nature, he is always exploring new means for technological interaction and has a passion for unique interaction models—especially those involving interesting inputs and outputs like touch, multi-touch, voice, gesture, sensing, and projection. His philosophy is "Think by Making, Deliver by Demo", and he employs user experience simulation as a method for quickly bringing products to life.
Founding Partner & Chief Creative Technologist
argodesign
Isabella is the CEO of Bosque Foods, the startup on the mission to create the next generation of meat alternatives, starting with whole-cut products grown naturally from Mycelium. With an academic background in sustainability and agriculture, Isabella has spent her career building startups in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has a proven track record in leading tech startups to scale internationally, in particular for ag-tech scale-up Infarm.
CEO
Bosque Foods
Dr. Wolfgang Gründinger serves as the Chief Evangelist at Enpal, the solar-market leader and first greentech unicorn in Germany. Prior to this role, he held positions at the Cyber Innovation Hub of the German Armed Forces and the German Federal Association for Digital Economy. The magazine "Capital" has twice named him among the "Top 40 under 40." He is involved with organizations such as the German chapter of the Club of Rome, the World Economic Forum, and Scientists For Future.
Chief Evangelist
Enpal
As an Associate Partner at Philipps & Byrne, a tech due diligence (TechDD) advisory firm that has facilitated over €16 billion in funding from VCs, PEs, and scale-ups through more than 600 audits in 25+ countries, David focuses on innovation and driving the firm's deep-tech DD capabilities. David studied electrical engineering with a focus on embedded systems. Over the past 12+ years, he has built tech teams and developed software for megawatt-scale clean energy solutions, machine learning problems, IoT devices, robotics systems, and numerous mobile and web solutions.
Associate Partner
Philipps & Byrne GmbH
Jessica Farda is the Co-Founder & CEO of the tech start-up Noriware, which raised 1M from known Business Angels in Switzerland and received 1.7 M in grants from the Federation of Switzerland. Noriware is dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems through the production of plastic alternatives from algae.
Co-Founder & CEO
Noriware
Uli Schmitz is MD and co-founder of Axel Springer Digital Ventures. He has guided investments in well over 300 companies, including N26, Airbnb, Anzu, and Hy, as well as many funds like Project A, FJ Labs, Heartfelt, and AIX Ventures. Uli’s fascination with emerging technologies led him to roles as a developer, entrepreneur, and leader. Knowing how crucial functioning teams are, he has worked closely with CEOs and founders on their growth and achieving their goals for several years.
Managing Director
Axel Springer Ventures
Ang Li is the CEO of Simular, an AI technology company, whose mission is to build lifelong autonomous agents that understand and react to our digital world. Ang has conducted a wide range of AI research over a decade at industry-leading institutions such as Google DeepMind, Facebook AI research, Apple, Baidu, etc. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Maryland.
CEO
Simular
Ira Winkler, CISSP is the CISO at CYE Security, which raised $120M from EQT Ventures. Previously, Ira was the Chief Security Architect at Walmart and Chief Security Strategist at HP. He is a prolific author with a distinguished record of penning 8 books, garnering acclaim as both a bestselling author and an award-winning literary figure. Renowned for his captivating insights, Ira has graced the stages of premier events across 6 continents, headlining prestigious gatherings such as Black Hat and RSA. Moreover, Ira boasts a storied entrepreneurial journey, having successfully founded and navigated the strategic exit of two cybersecurity enterprises.
CISO
CYE Security
As Head of Knowledge at Theta Capital, Olga leads content research on web3 and blockchain technology, curating top-tier insights for partners and investors. With 20 years of experience and a multidisciplinary background in urban planning, investment due diligence, economic policy and communication, she integrates a unique perspective on crypto-native VC with her role as mentor and educator.
Head of Knowledge
Theta Capital
As VP of Brand Innovation at Web3 creative agency Hype, Ipshita Kumar is streamlining the adoption of Web3 and the metaverse by making the technology more accessible to brands and consumers. Drawing from her experience as a South Asian entrepreneur, Ipshita strikes the perfect balance between EQ and IQ to help brands triumph in Web3 with powerful community-led activations and go-to-market strategies.
Vice President Brand Innovation
Hype
Zoe, a Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures, brings over 25 years of operating and board experience in technology companies. With a fund totaling €187.6M, she focuses on identifying and investing in Europe's leading software and science entrepreneurs, supporting their growth from pre-seed to Series A stages.
Partner
Ananda Impact Ventures
Maximilian Harms leads the Business Transformation Advisory Team at Dataiku. His team supports Dataiku's most strategic clients and advises them on how to scale data and analytics beyond their technical challenges (e.g. target operating model). Prior to Dataiku, he worked for Roland Berger in Germany, supporting clients in the life science, transportation, public sector and software industries. The company raised a total fund of $846.8M.
Business Transformation Advisory
Dataiku
Sasan Hashemi is the Co-Founder of Tset, a pioneering software firm specializing in SaaS enterprise solutions for product cost and CO2 emission estimation, having secured approximately €13 million in funding. With a distinguished career marked by proficiency in data analysis, entrepreneurship, and technology, he spearheads research and development initiatives in digitized production systems. Sasan's multifaceted expertise encompasses data analysis, strategic business planning, and proficient programming skills.
Co-Founder
Tset
Alessa is the founding partner and CEO of Top Tier Impact (TTI), the global ecosystem of impact & climate leaders across 50 countries. TTI hosts gatherings in its 30+ city chapters and during events such as the WEF and COP. TTI’s investment unit facilitates investments into growth-stage companies across emerging markets, like the €90m debt investment into Wave Mobile Money. As a public voice of the impact movement, Alessa was approached to host the first global TV series about impact entrepreneurship. It will premiere in Q4 2024 on Gaia TV, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Founding Partner & CEO
Top Tier Impact
Niko is the Founder & CEO of TOA, Europe’s leading Frontier Tech Festival. More than 100,000 people have attended TOA events in IRL. He is also the co-founder of Ahoy! Berlin and Openers. Before becoming a founder Niko worked as a Business Development Manager EMEA at Amazon Web Services and in educational publishing.
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CEO & Founder
TOA
Pietro Schirano is the co-founder of EverArt, who raised $13.7M in its latest round of funding. Originally from Italy, Pietro first started his career in nuclear engineering and decided to explore more creative endeavors. This journey led him to hold design lead roles across household names like OpenTable, Meta, Uber, and Brex, and eventually, to launch his own startup.
Co-Founder
EverArt
Daria Stepanova, a visionary aerospace engineer, stands at the helm as the founder and CEO of AIRMO GmbH, an innovative startup headquartered in Munich. Her passion project focuses on the development of a revolutionary constellation of small satellites designed specifically for tracking greenhouse gas emissions. With nearly a decade entrenched in the space sector, Daria's illustrious career boasts leadership roles in overseeing 12 missions spanning Earth Observation, IoT applications, and groundbreaking tech demonstrations. Her profound expertise extends across all facets of the satellite lifecycle, exemplifying her prowess in this dynamic field. Under her guidance, AIRMO fosters a culture of rapid aerospace innovation, driving the industry forward with unwavering commitment.
Founder & CEO
AIRMO
Laura Lacarra is Head of Devrel at Telefonica Open Gateway. Open Gateway is the worldwide initiative multi-telco to open network capabilities via APIs. Laura is Computers Engineer. She has always been involved in software development, design infrastructure and DATA/IA engineering in projects like the platform of Movistar+ and the Big Data network analysis. Recently se has been recognized as an exemplary citizen of Zaragoza for divulging science, creating local communities, and empowering women, girls and kids in science.She has been recognized as one of the 100 people creative business by Forbes.
Head of Devrel
Telefónica Innovación Digital
Claudius Senst is the CEO of BILD Group. In 2013, Senst joined Axel Springer as a junior executive. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Business Development before moving to Springer's Insider in New York where he held varius positions. In 2021, he became CEO of the BILD Group at Springer.
CEO
BILD Group
As the Founder and Managing Partner of Future Energy Ventures, Jan leads a team of passionate and experienced investors who support ready-to-scale, world-class start-ups that accelerate the energy transition and decarbonize society. With many years of experience in this field, he has developed a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges of climate tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Future Energy Ventures has raised a total of €360M across 2 funds.
Managing Director & Managing Partner
Future Energy Ventures
Khurram Masood is the Co-Founder of Smalt and is on a mission to revolutionize talent supply and productivity in the blue collar workforce while empowering the clean energy transition across Europe. Prior to Smalt, Khurram was the Chief Product Officer at Sharpist, a personalized, impact-driven ed-tech platform that grew from less than 1 million to 5-10 million EUR in annual recurring revenue under my direction. He also co-founded and served as the COO of ALU, a Fast Company Top 50 most innovative company that reimagined higher education in Africa. He is a Stanford Alum, an Ex McKinsey Associate Partner, a Forbes Contributor, and a Techstars Mentor, with a passion for lifelong learning and social impact.
Co-Founder & MD
smalt.eu
Philipp Peitsch is a distinguished leadership and growth advisor, helping founders and CEOs navigate the challenges of fast-scaling companies. Philipp developed his expertise in structured organizational development, during his tenure as Co-CEO of idealo, where he grew the company from 200 to 1,200 employees and established it as a multiple award-winning employer and leading European eCommerce brand. He has previously held senior management positions at Axel Springer and Sony Europe. Philipp holds a doctorate in law. He shares his insights on organizational development on his blog, https://www.ambidexterity.io
Founder
UP
Nicole Nehaus-Laug has been curating the Berlin BASECAMP program since 2018. The BASECAMP is o2 Telefónica's platform for digital thought and innovation, as a debate room, café and location for unique events, it is also the platform for the digital community in the heart of Berlin. She brings people from a wide variety of areas together to find solutions to the complexities of our time and to create the stage for inspiring personalities with fascinating topics in the digital world. At the beginning of 2000 Nicole founded a B2B online portal in Johannesburg, which worked closely with the South African government (Brain ThinkTank Program) and she was already able to provide impulses for digital transformation in an emerging country. Back in Germany, she worked for Bitkom and later for Deutsche Messe for many years. Among other things, she set up a new technology conference for CeBIT, which became CeBIT's flagship conference - the CeBIT Global Conferences.
BASECAMP Representative
o2 Telefónica
Martina, the President of CroAI and Head of Partnerships at Mindsmiths, has a distinguished track record of developing impactful tech communities and initiatives. While at CroAI, she launched the Heroes project and established specialized communities across Croatia, significantly boosting AI knowledge and accessibility. Now at Mindsmiths, she continues to drive innovation by connecting companies and startups with MIndsmiths AI technologies, nurturing the growth of future tech leaders.
Head of Partnerships
Mindsmiths
Nick Johnson is the visionary behind ENS Lab Limited, a Singapore-based non-profit organization driving the core software development of ENS. With an engineering journey that commenced in New Zealand in 2001, Nick honed his skills during a distinguished tenure at Google spanning over seven years across two periods. In 2016, he transitioned to a pivotal role within Ethereum, where he continues to make significant contributions. Notably, Nick is the mastermind behind Ethereum Name Service, a groundbreaking platform facilitating decentralized naming for wallets and addresses in the Web3 ecosystem. ENS boasts a myriad of applications, including streamlining user experiences in cryptocurrency transactions and serving as a repository for avatars and profile information.
Founder
ENS Labs Limited
Christian, a distinguished General Partner affiliated with Paris-based Ventech and stationed in Berlin, brings an unparalleled depth of experience to the realm of innovation financing. With a rich legacy spanning 25 years, he has been instrumental in steering VC investments into 27 start-ups, collectively amounting to over €150 million in funding. Notably, Christian has overseen the profitable exit of 15 ventures, while nurturing the growth trajectories of 6 companies as they continue to thrive. His astute stewardship extends beyond individual investments, as he has played a pivotal role in the establishment and management of 5 Venture Capital funds, amassing an impressive AUM of €800 million. Through his tenure, Christian has cultivated a profound understanding of the intricacies involved in orchestrating and managing Venture Capital Management organizations, solidifying his reputation as a luminary in the field. Currently, he represents Ventech on the boards of esteemed portfolio companies including Picanova, Speexx, Codasip, TrustYou, and Microoled, embodying his unwavering commitment to fostering innovation and driving success.
General Partner
Ventech
Fabian J. G. Westerheide, a leading AI expert in Germany, aims to make Europe a major player in the global AI arena. As an investor and entrepreneur, he has influenced numerous companies and institutions. He is the CEO of AI for Humans GmbH, advising governments and major companies, and hosts the "Rise of AI" conference. A founding partner of the AI Fund and investor through Asgard Capital since 2014, he also authored "The AI Nation," exploring AI's future societal impacts. Fabian holds a Master's from the University of St. Gallen and a Bachelor's from the University of Münster.
CEO | Partner
Rise of AI | AI.Fund
Ivo heads the Good Food Institute (GFI) in Germany and the DACH region. GFI is a global non-profit focused on promoting plant-based and cultivated meat, as well as other alternative proteins, to create a more sustainable and secure food system. Ivo has a background in strategic communication and political science and formerly worked for the German Aviation Association as Head of Strategy and Communications.
Senior Public Affairs Manager
The Good Food Institute Europe
Jeffrey Brian "Jeff" Garner is an American fashion designer and visual artist. His designs are sold online and in luxury boutiques throughout America, Canada, the UK and China. His designs have been worn to the Academy Awards and on stage, by artists like Kings of Leon and Taylor Swift. He is best known as being the founder of sustainable label, Prophetik. Jeff was named one of the top 40 artists in the US and his works were placed permanently into the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery for the 40 under 40 Exhibition.
Fashion Designer & Founder
Prophetik
Caitlin Begg is a distinguished sociological researcher, acclaimed for her role as the founder of Authentic Social, where she specializes in sociotechnical systems strategy. Additionally, she hosts the insightful "Progression to Analog" podcast. Leveraging her groundbreaking 2016 Harvard thesis on digital communication, Caitlin is a sought-after speaker and presenter across the U.S. and Europe, with recent engagements including the Responsible AI Forum at TUM. Her impactful work has been prominently featured in notable publications such as Forbes, Mashable, Yahoo! News, and others.
Founder and Sociological Researcher
Authentic Social
Paula Wehmeyer is an investment partner at General Catalyst's European office in Berlin. She joined GC from her previous role as an early-stage investor at La Famiglia, one of Europe’s most distinguished early-stage Venture Capital platforms backing companies like Deel, Personio, and Applied Intuition, after the two funds joined forces in 2023. Her primary focus lies in the modernization of critical sectors, such as manufacturing, robotics, supply chain & procurement, and national security. They have raised a total fund of $8.6B.
Partner
General Catalyst
Magnus leads as the Founder and CEO of CEEZER, an esteemed enterprise platform pioneering the screening, procurement, and management of negative emissions. Driven by a passion for innovation at the crossroads of technology, sustainability, and business, Magnus is committed to crafting novel solutions to address global challenges. His academic foundation in chemistry and business from TU Munich, coupled with advanced studies in Business and Sustainable Development from HEC Paris, underpins his strategic approach. Prior engagements at prestigious entities such as Boston Consulting Group and the digital services joint venture YOUR NOW by Daimler and BMW attest to his versatile expertise and leadership prowess.
Founder & CEO
Ceezer
Mats Kuuskemaa started as a diplomat for Estonia, focusing on trade and investment policy (2011-14), and served in New Delhi and Beijing. In 2018, he joined Estonia’s e-Residency programme, now serving as Country Director for Germany in Berlin. He co-founded Attained.ai, an AI/cardiology venture, and occasionally writes as a journalist.
Country Director Germany, Austria and Switzerland
e-Residency
As Head of P&L Financial & Enabling Services at Telefonica Germany, Martin Schurig enables third-party business with the customer base of Telefonica Germany. His portfolio includes A2P messaging (SMS, RCS), carrier billing, and app distribution. He drives network API monetization and leads the Open Gateway initiative at Telefonica Germany.
Head of Financial and Enabling Services
Telefonica Germany GmbH & Co OHG
Marius Bierdel is the CTO and Co-founder of constellr, a German startup revolutionizing agricultural water management through space technology. Since its 2020 inception, Bierdel has helped raise €32 million and expanded the team to 80+. constelr aims to save 60 billion tons of water and significantly reduce CO2 emissions by launching their own satellite constellation.
Co-Founder & CTO
constellr
Saki, the co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer, lives in Tokyo and is raising her 4-year-old son. Her life has been marked by international experiences from her childhood to her university years, having lived in cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Chicago, and Dresden. An accomplished essayist with a previously published book, Saki also excels as a web and Python programmer. Viewing life in Japan through an international lens, she harbors a deep commitment to progress while preserving the essence of the Japanese spirit. This passion has propelled her to establish a startup and launch a DAO platform, pioneering innovative ways of working.
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Co-Founder & Chief Visionary Officer
B2B Makers Co.,Ltd
Aarish Shah is founder of EmergeOne, a consultancy that provides fractional CFO support to VC backed tech businesses from seed to series B, past and current clients have realised value or raised in excess of $500m. Aarish also hosts Nothing Ventured, a podcast exploring the people behind the stories that make the venture ecosystem go round, with well over 100 guests over 3 years, he has interviewed emerging and established VCs, founders and angels from across the globe.
EmergeOne
Founder
Maria-Liisa Bruckert is the founder and CPO of the AI start-up IQONIC.AI. The company offers AI-based skin and hair analyses as SaaS solutions for brands and retailers in beauty and health. Prior to founding the company, Maria-Liisa had a successful career at Siemens, where she also contributed to the company's global digitalization strategy. For her technological expertise and her work with IQONIC.AI, she was named one of the "Top 20 Women in AI Germany" by RE•WORK 2022.
Founder and CPO
IQONIC.AI
Jackson is the Regional Director for the Singapore Economic Development Board, managing client relationships in Germany across the Semiconductors, Digital, and Mobility sectors, with additional engagements in Austria, Finland, and Sweden. He assists companies in understanding business opportunities in Asia and using Singapore as a launchpad into the region.
Regional Director (Europe)
Singapore Economic Development Board
Jeffrey Koury has been deeply involved in the Web3 space since 2017, joining ResearchHub Foundation in early 2022, where he now operates as a Director of the ResearchHub Foundation. Koury acquired his bachelor's degree in physiology and neuroscience from UC San Diego before moving to biotech for two years where he worked in product development of antibodies and immunology based reagents. Koury later completed his PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on Neuroinflammation and Virology at UC Riverside having published multiple papers and received various awards including the NIH F31 Predoctoral Training Fellowship.
Director of ResearchHub Foundation
ResearchHub Foundation
Julian Mental Sixpack, born and raised in Munich, Germany, is the founder of urbntiger.com, a thriving Mental Fitness Community. Joining Estonia's innovative e-Residency program, he successfully launched his company online. He's an advocate for the freedom to work and live from anywhere. As a dedicated Mental Fitness Coach and Motivational Speaker, Julian's mission is to inspire people to discover and pursue their true purpose with inner peace, power, and courage.
e-Resident founder
URBNTIGER
Annu Nieminen is the founder of The Upright Project, a Helsinki-based data company building a new type of a quantification to measure the net impact of companies. Upright hosts the world's largest open-access database on company impact, openly distributing science-based impact data on 10,000+ companies and 50,000+ funds. Upright's proprietary data model identifies causal product/impact relations in 200M+ scientific publications and summarises the findings into common sense net impact profiles.
Founder
Upright
Patrick Joyce is the Co-founder and COO of ResearchHub. He is a double dropout who left a PhD program in molecular biology to attend medical school, and then subsequently dropped out of medical school to build ResearchHub. During his time in academia he came to understand the true extent of how broken incentives in academic publishing hold back human knowledge creation. He co-founded ResearchHub to help accelerate science by aligning incentives within the academic marketplace.
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Co-founder & COO
ResearchHub
Andreas is a venture investor and former entrepreneur with a background in immunology from Berkeley. He founded AYOXXA and Proteona, the latter now part of Singleron Biotechnologies where he leads global business development. He also co-founded Springboard Health Angels in Berlin and serves on various biotech and venture capital boards.
SVP
Singleron Biotechnologies
Florian excels at identifying business opportunities and motivating teams. His journey began with founding a marketing agency in school and advanced with significant roles at Lear Corporation, Accenture, and Kloeckner. As a co-founder of Qualifyze, he scaled the company to over 100 employees and 500 clients, raising €20 million in VC funding. Currently, as CEO of Greenlyte, he focuses on fundraising, hiring, culture, and strategy, leading the company to grow significantly since its inception in September 2022.
CEO
Greenlyte Carbon Technologies
Joe Fitzsimons is the founder and CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing, a company developing a new generation of programming tools to simplify and expedite the process of developing software for quantum computers. Before founding Horizon Quantum Computing in 2018, Joe was an associate professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he led the Quantum Information and Theory group. He was also a principal investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, contributing to both theoretical computer science and physics through his research.
Founder & CEO
Horizon Quantum Computing
Yair Levy is the Co-founder & CEO of brain.space, the startup pioneering the integration of Human Intelligence & Machine Learning. With $12M in total funding, brain.space is creating proprietary Brain-Data-as-a-Service AI models, revolutionizing neuroscience and digital health systems for personalized mental well-being.
Founder & CEO
brain.space
Max Weiss is the Chief Strategy Officer of OpenWeb. Max has worked closely with OpenWeb's founder for the better part of a decade, and is passionate about building a more trustworthy web. He has forged transformative partnerships, launched dozens of products and features, and intimately overseen the acquisition and operational integration of several businesses.
Chief Strategy Officer
OpenWeb
Florian Merkel is a Director in Tax at KPMG and Head of Venture Services, focusing on tax advisory for startups and venture capitalists and guiding growth companies through complex tax challenges in national and international spheres. He was one of the founders of KPMG Venture Services more than ten years ago.
Head Of Venture Services
KPMG AG
Tom Hoy, a distinguished Partner at Stripe Partners, boasts a rich 15-year tenure dedicated to advising global titans on matters of strategy and innovation. Renowned for his adept application of social science theory, Tom adeptly tackles complex business and product conundrums, leaving an indelible mark on esteemed clients such as Apple, Google, and Spotify. His groundbreaking frameworks and concepts, lauded in esteemed publications like the Financial Times and The Guardian, serve as guiding beacons for industry innovation. Prior to co-founding Stripe Partners, Tom led the charge in the realm of social innovation, orchestrating the expansion of a South London hackathon network into a formidable force, rallying hundreds to champion local causes.
Co-founder and Partner
Stripe Partner
James Hirst is the co-founder and COO of Tyk, a leading API Gateway that supports a significant portion of global internet traffic and enhances digital product delivery worldwide. His remote team operates across 23 countries with offices in Singapore, Atlanta, London, and Toronto. Tyk has raised $40M in funding.
COO
Tyk
Barthélémy Kiss is the CEO and Co-founder of Powder, which builds best-in-class AI clipping technology for gaming streamers to grow faster and smarter. Since 2013, Barthélémy has co-led three startups, which went on to raise $28M, including creating Europe’s most impactful Deep Tech conference (Hello Tomorrow) and the world’s first Creative AI automating 3D content creation -Artomatix, acquired by Unity.
Co-Founder & CEO
Powder
Thomas, a second-time founder in the carbon removal space, has successfully raised USD 1.3 million for Cotierra’s pre-seed round. As Cotierra’s CEO, he’s steering the company towards its goal of reducing and removing 10 million tons of CO2 emissions from agricultural supply chains while improving the livelihoods of 1 million smallholder farmers. Cotierra focuses on transforming coffee plantation waste into biochar, a valuable soil improver that permanently captures carbon in the soil.
Co-Founder & CEO
Cotierra AG
Oliver is the CEO and Co-Founder of BE LIGHT, a Berlin-based company enhancing mental health through Audiovisual Brainwave Entrainment Technology, integrating applications, metaverse experiences, and workshops. Previously an international management consultant, Oliver shifted focus following a near burnout, leading to a seven-year exploration of holistic practices and science. BE LIGHT, with a mission to make mental health and meditation widely accessible, leverages science-based techniques to support mental and emotional well-being.
Founder & CEO
BE LIGHT Now GmbH
