José María Álvarez-Pallete

Chairman & CEO

Telefónica S.A

Mr. Álvarez-Pallete has a degree in Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid. He also studied Economics at the Université Libre of Brussels (Belgium), holds an International Management Programme (IMP) from IPADE Business School and an Advance Research Degree from the Complutense University of Madrid. In February 1999 he joined the Telefónica Group as Chief Financial Officer of Telefónica Internacional S.A.U., and in September of the same year he became Chief Financial Officer of Telefónica S.A. In July 2002, he was appointed Executive Chairman of Telefónica Internacional S.A.; in July 2006, General Manager of Telefónica Latinoamérica, and in March 2009 Chairman of Telefónica Latinoamérica. In September 2011 he was named Executive Chairman of Telefónica Europe. And in September 2012 he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Telefónica S.A. Since April 8th 2016 he is Chairman & CEO of Telefónica S.A. and Member of the Board of Telefónica S.A., position he holds since July 2006.

Carlos Torres Vila

Group Executive Chairman

BBVA

Carlos graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he later also earned a M.S. at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also graduated in Law from UNED (Spain). He worked at McKinsey & Company for 12 years, and became a partner of the Firm in 1997. He joined Endesa in 2002 as Corporate Director of Strategy and member of its Executive Committee, and became company CFO in 2007. In September 2008 Carlos joined BBVA as Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, and member of the bank's Management Committee. In March 2014 he was appointed Head of Digital Banking, until May 2015 when he became Chief Executive Officer of the bank. Carlos was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the BBVA Foundation in December 2018.

Nadia Calviño Santamaría

Minister of Economy and Enterprise

Spain

Jörn Leogrande

Executive Vice President Wirecard Innovation Labs

Wirecard AG

Bundeep Singh Rangar

Chairman

PremFina

Bundeep Singh Rangar is a recognized fintech entrepreneur, investor and deal-maker. He has raised half a billion dollars in equity and debt funding in the UK, Europe, Canada and India. He celebrated a recent $36 million raise for his latest venture www.premfina.com via a pilgrimage to Burning Man. Bundeep provides commentary on blockchain, insurance and fintech for the BBC, CNBC,CNN and Sky, available at www.rangar.tv, while also producing his first feature film.

Carolina Marçalo

Head of Partnerships

AppCoins

Carolina Marçalo has + 10 years experience in Business Analysis and Strategy, leading Aptoide’s strategic partnerships for the last +5 years. Co-author for AppCoins cryptocurrency Whitepaper and involved in the strategy and partnerships of its successfull ICO. Currently working in the launch of the App Store Foundation, the structure that will govern the Open Protocol. Carolina holds a Masters Degree in International Economics, and a BA in Economics from UMass Dartmouth and just concluded University of Oxford’s Blockchain Strategy Programme.

Eneko Knörr

Founder

Onyze

Eneko Knorr is the co-founder of Onyze (crypto custodian) and founder of AngelClub (seed fund for startups), Ludei, and the Spanish top 5 hosting company Hostalia, which was acquired by Telefonica in 2007. He is also an angel investor (angel.co/eneko-knorr) in companies such as Cabify, Petcoach (acquired by Petco) Habitissimo (acquired by Homeserve), Ticketbis (acquired by eBay). Named best angel investor of the year in Spain in 2018 after having 3 exits within a year. Professor at IE Business School, teaching cryptocurrencies, blockchain and Entrepreneurship.

Adrian Niculescu

CMO EMEA

CloudCoin Consortium

Adrian is the CMO EMEA at CloudCoin Consortium, and the Regional Director for the UK & Romania at Faster Capital Dubai. Adrian has 20 years of experience in building and developing companies, and 10’000 students in his online and offline marketing and business courses since 2013. He mentored 30 tech start-ups since 2014, spoke at 500 gig events, and has been coaching, consulting, and mentoring on all continents since 2010. He completed 250 real estate transactions since 2008. He also possesses copywriting skills, notably in sales pages, e-mails, funnels, facebook ads, and ads on other platforms. His tech skills include Blockchain, RAIDA, Marketing automation expert, Clickfunnels, Sales Manago, Infusionsoft, Leadpages, and Facebook. His marketing skills include marketing, product, and startup launch strategies. He is addicted to personal development and continuous improvement, loves to speak at events about subjects he has practical experience, while keeping as primary focus to add value to the audience.

Shmuel Chafets

General Partner & Vice Chairman

Target Global

Prior to joining Target Global Shmuel was a partner at the Berlin based Hasso Plattner Ventures where he invested in companies such as iZettle and Hansoft and served as a board member in DreamLines and reBuy. Before that Shmuel was a partner at Giza Venture Capital in Tel Aviv where he invested in companies such as Soluto (sold to Asurion), Vishal.ly and other early stage internet ventures. Together with Giza, Shmuel founded GPV, a pioneering Warsaw based venture fund where he also lead virus internet and software investment. Shmuel was also co-founder of LocaLoco (sold to Say Media Group ) a social gaming start up targeting emerging markets.

Berta Barrero

Managing Director

Transportation business in Indra

Education: Civil Engineer, specialization in Transportation, awarded by the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM). Master’s Degree in Railway Systems, by the ICAI School of Engineering at Comillas Pontifical University and Program for Management Development (PMD) by ESADE Business & Law School. Experience: She has developed her professional career focused on the railway sector and transportation consultancy. She has held top management positions in some of the main companies of the transportation sector: Chief Operating Officer of the railway company Renfe – Operadora and Corporate Managing Director of the transportation engineering company INECO. She joined Indra in February 2017 and she has been appointed as the Head of the Transportation business.

Bruno Gutierres

Head of Airbus BizLab 

Airbus BizLab 

Bruno Gutierres is the founder and managing director of the Airbus BizLab. The BizLab is the premier aerospace accelerator, with campuses in Toulouse, Hamburg, Bangalore and Madrid. A graduate of Toulouse Business School, Bruno started his career as an entrepreneur and successfully founded and sold two companies. He then joined Air France Cargo in Toulouse. His extensive knowledge of the air cargo market led him to Airbus where he initially created a cargo service for the Beluga, a wide-body transport aircraft, before moving on to other innovation projects within the company. A true rugby enthusiast, Bruno is a member of the Stade Toulousain supervisory board.

Timo Buetefisch

Co-Founder

Cooltra

Timo Beutefisch, born in Germany 43 years ago, is an ex-consultant and MBA from IESE, who has been living in the Catalan Capital for about 14 years. Before settling in Barcelona he lived in his native Germany, Paris, Buenos Aires, Greece and Switzerland giving him cosmopolitan character. Timo has a strong entrepreneur personality. Passionate about the world of motorcycling, Timo found the opportunity to start his own business when his bike damaged one day while he was driving around Barcelona and found difficult to rent a scooter. From this need was born Cooltra, a great project that he managed to create what would be today the European leader in sustainable mobility solutions on two wheels.

Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago-Concha

General Manager for Spain & Portugal

BlaBlaCar

Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago-Concha is General Manager for Spain and Portugal at BlaBlaCar, the leading European ridesharing community. Fascinated with technology since his childhood, he has developed his career around it. He is a Telco engineer and has been linked to the technological entrepreneurial field from the beginning of his career. Jaime is a regular speaker at conferences, media and masters on the themes of Collaborative Economy, entrepreneurship and Marketing.

Andy Batty

Chief Operating Officer

MyTaxi

Bosco Gutierrez Gomez

Digital Business Development

Wondo

Bosco Gutiérrez, Digital Business Development Manager as part of the team that designed, built and deployed Wondo, a digital platform for mobility as a service.

Seth Elliott

CMO

GTMHub

Juan Garrigosa

Enel e-Solutions Innovation Iberia

Endesa

Juan Garrigosa holds a degree in Physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid and Executive MBA from the Instituto Empresa. He currently works at ENEL X (Enel Group) as Head of Innovation and Product Lab Iberia as well as Head of Electric Mobility Innovation Projects at Global level. His entire career has been associated with Innovation, Technology, Energy and Telecommunications, not only at ENEL Group /Endesa but also in some other companies such as Lucent Technologies and Telefonica. Participates and has participated in various international and national research consortiums. Currently, in addition it works with startups in different initiatives mentoring and coaching. He also has lectured at various events and professor at various university /Master programs.

Juan Beneytez

Business Development Manager B2B

ZITY

Juan Beneytez is an experienced International Business Development professional with Operational and Project Management experience in a variety of sectors ranging from complex aviation services, travel, rail, retail and finance to global infrastructure. Prior to joining Ferrovial, Juan has worked at DaimlerChrysler and General Electric. At Ferrovial, Juan has held a number of roles working at Heathrow Airport ground transportation as well as UK Services Division “Amey”. Currently, Juan is the Business Development Manager for Private Sector as well as new B2C Bussines. The main focus at Zity for Juan is to develop new partnerships and to grow the business in the corporate carhsaring space.

Emilio Galán

CTO and Co-founder

BEONPRICE

Emilio Galán is the CTO and Co-founder of BEONPRICE, responsible for the development and innovation of the product and service. Graduated as a Software Engineer and with a MBA with experience working with data technologies in business entities such as the Astrophisics of Canary Island, Telefónica I+D, Telefónica and Santander Bank. He is passionate about identifying opportunities, developing strategies, building teams and continuous innovation.

Alex Gisbert

CEO

FastPayHotels

Alex is founder and CEO of Fastpayhotels. Based in Mallorca, Fastpayhotels represents the evolution of the B2B Hotel distribution model bringing much needed innovation to this space. Fastpayhotels has been winner of Start Up the Year by Travolution UK 2016, Start Nominee in Spain by Segitur 2017, and New Business of Year by Desarollo in Spain as well as finalist at Phocuswright Summit in 2016 in Los Angeles. Alex left Lowcosttravel Group in 2015 where we have COO and member of the board of the leading the B2C and B2B sales, product, revenue management and marketing teams. Previously Alex was Online Partner Marketing Director at Expedia leading the marketing efforts across branded affiliates, display, metasearch and various other online Expedia partnerships.

Josep Miquel Torregrosa

Business Creation Officer

KIC InnoEnergy

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND - Business Creation Officer at InnoEnergy. - Member of ESADE Business Angel Network. - Member of the board in several start-ups in the cleantech sector. - 10 years experience in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business Development & Venture Capital. - Over 50 start-up investments last 8 years and over 15M€ raised funding. ACADEMIC BACKGROUND - Industrial Engineer. - Master in Project Management at La Salle Business School. - Executive MBA at ESADE Business School 2010. - Venture Capital Program at IESE Business School 2016. - B2B Sales Management, Angel Investment & Board Management Programs @Esade. - Entrepreneurship Coach and Lecturer @Esade since 2012.

Matt Prescott

Director of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainability

Heathrow

Matt is leading the development of a new sustainable innovation programme at Heathrow called the Centre of Excellence for Sustainability. It was announced as part of Heathrow’s sustainability plan - Heathrow 2.0 – of which Matt was one of the main authors. In his early career Matt focused on sustainable built environments, particularly in the housing and construction sectors. He also directed a climate change policy programme at a leading UK think tank. For the past decade, Matt has led the development of sustainability strategies in sectors as diverse as healthcare, education, transport and infrastructure. Matt is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment

John Chamberlain

Corporate Innovation

Naturgy

John has a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in Chemistry from the Bristol University in the United Kingdom and professionally has worked for more than 30 years in various Research & Development and Engineering departments of Energy Utilities, both in the United Kingdom and in Spain. Currently John works in the area of Corporate Innovation within Naturgy and in this role is responsible for the development of the Research and Development activities in the areas of Renewable Natural Gas and in Power to Gas. John also participates in the development of Research and Development activities in Renewable Generation and in Sustainable Mobility solutions. During his time in Naturgy, John has participated in the development of the Research and Development route maps and has been instrumental in the identification, construction and execution of the R&D projects to fulfil the objectives of the company.

Luis Manuel Santos Moro

Head of Innovation

EDP

Luis Manuel Santos Moro has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oviedo, Spain (1991) and a Master in Business Administration from the Instituto Universitario de la Empresa (University of Oviedo) (1994). He joined HC Energía in 1996 were he was responsible for the Engineering Office of Distribution. Since 2007 he is in charge of Innovation at EDP in Spain. He has been the spanish representative at the Eurelectric WG Innovation. He is coordinator of the Spanish Interplatforms Working Group for Energy Storage Technologies.

Vincent Bryant

president

Deepki

Olivia Infantes Morales

Head of Innovation and Regulatory Affairs

Engie

Alex Barrera

Co-Founder & Editor

Tech.Eu

Alex is a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in the field. He's currently Founder & Chief Editor at The Aleph (thealeph.com) where he writes about disruptive technology and its consequences for business. He's also co-founder and editor at Tech.eu, the most important technology publication in Europe. Previously he's co-founded two startup accelerators in Europe, consult with many others like Seedcamp or Techstars and is actively involved in some of the largest tech conferences in Europe. He's a professor of innovation at IE Business School and at the UC3M as well as guest lecturer at UCLA Anderson and UC Berkeley and a former member of Global Shapers by World Economic Forum. He never goes on stage without his hat!

Andy Stalman

Co-founder and Managing Director

TOTEM Branding

Andy Stalman is one of the world´s top Branding experts. He has talent and charisma, and has been regarded as “Mr. Branding” in several countries. With a magnetic personality he has placed himself in leadership positions since his youth. As an expert in identity with over 20 years experience, he has developed projects in more than 25 countries. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Marketing Director for Lacoste, based in Buenos Aires. From 1998 to 2002 he was Marketing Director at Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, in charge of marketing and business development of the 35 largest airports in the country. For 16 years he was Managing Director of Cato Partners Europe & Latam. He is currently a co-founder and Managing Director of TOTEM Branding

Matt Prescott

Director of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainability

Heathrow

Matt is leading the development of a new sustainable innovation programme at Heathrow called the Centre of Excellence for Sustainability. It was announced as part of Heathrow’s sustainability plan - Heathrow 2.0 – of which Matt was one of the main authors. In his early career Matt focused on sustainable built environments, particularly in the housing and construction sectors. He also directed a climate change policy programme at a leading UK think tank. For the past decade, Matt has led the development of sustainability strategies in sectors as diverse as healthcare, education, transport and infrastructure. Matt is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment

Yoko Takagi

Partner

White&Case

Salvador Medina

CEO

Valhalla: Innovating in Education

He began his professional career in the technology sector, first in HP and later in Sun Microsystems, where he contributed directly to the creation of the IBU (Internet Business Unit) and the launch of the Java platform at a European level. In 2000 he joined Banco Santander as head of vertical projects on the Internet. In May 2017, and after 17 years with Banco Santander, he founded Mycom Interactive, a venture builder formed by a team with solid experience in the launch and implementation of innovative projects in education, retail, innovation and entrepreneurship. In July 2017, he founded The Valhalla, the first educational innovation consultancy in Higher Education, and became one of the reference shareholders of the Digital Innovation Center. Salvador is an active member of several Boards of Directors, such as YALE PCIA, WISE Accelerator Fund of the World Innovation Summit for Education or the international advisory board of the Institute for Global Law and Policy of Harvard University, and more

Tommaso Canonici

General Director

Opinno

Tommaso es Licenciado en Economía de Internet por la Universidad de Bologna; MBA Executive por la Escuela Europea de Negocios. Titulado como Gestor de la Innovación por FEDIT (Federación Española de Centros Tecnológicos), certificado en “Estrategia Disruptiva” por HBX (Harvard Business School) y en “Inteligencia Artificial para el Negocio” por MIT. Empezó su carrera profesional en el mundo de la consultoría estratégica en innovación y fue director del departamento de innovación abierta Campus Party (Powered by Telefonica), coordinando proyectos de Open Innovation para el desarrollo territorial en España, Brasil, México, Colombia, Alemania y con la Comisión Europea. Como Managing Director at Opinno Europe coordina la actividad europea de las cuatro unidades de negocio: Opinno People (Open Innovation), Ideas (Consultoría Estratégica), Solutions (Desarrollos tecnológicos avanzados) y Academy (Transformación Corporativa). Desde las oficinas de Madrid, Barcelona, París y Milán, dirige una red de más de 150 consult

Francisco Cortés

CEO y Fundador

Sensia Solutions

Pierre Dubuc

Co-founder and CEO

OpenClassrooms

"Pierre is the cofounder of OpenClassrooms. Together with Mathieu Nebra, Pierre created the precursor of OpenClassrooms in 1999, at age 11. He is now the CEO of the company, one of the first online campuses in Europe and among the largest EdTechs in the world. In 2016, Pierre appeared among Forbes’ “30 under 30” for social entrepreneurship.

Gonzalo Manrique

Co-founder and CEO

Ironhack

Gonzalo Manrique is the co-founder and CEO of Ironhack, a tech school ranked in the world's top 2 in the market, with presence in Europe, US, Latin America and more than 2,000 alumni. Ironhack is changing the educational model, reducing the tech skill gap through bootcamps based on learn-by-doing and focused on the latest technological trends. With Gonzalo as CEO, Ironhack has achieved a growth of 95% YoY from 2014 until now, expanding to 10 cities and forming partnerships with companies such as Uber, Facebook and McKinsey. Prior to Ironhack, he completed an MBA at Wharton (UPenn) after completing his studies in Road Engineering and has been part of the Sacyr Board of Directors for more than 7 years.

Miguel Gonzalez-Gallarza

Country Manager

Ornikar

Born in Madrid and educated in the French system, Miguel González-Gallarza holds a MSc in Management from HEC Paris. After initial experiences in Marketing and Finance during his studies, he joined the German mobile bank N26 to help expand the business in Spain. He is now Country Manager in Spain of Ornikar, a French online driving school that aims to shape the future of driving education by making it more accessible to learners while offering more flexibility to instructors

José Luis Núñez

Telefónica & Wayra

Hillel Zidel

Kennet

Mario Rondán Fernández

Co-founder and Head of Strategy and Innovation

EPC Tracker

He has developed his professional career in the field of business and marketing consulting, in entities linked to the R+D ecosystem, such as FIDETIA (Foundation for Research and Development of IT) or MOVEX (Technological Center for the Leather Industry). His areas of expertise are linked to innovation, communication and business management. He has a Degree in Market and Technical Research and in Business and Economy, with complementary training in Innovation, Marketing and Business Management. Back in 2013 started his career as a technological entrepreneur, as co-founder of EPC Tracker, a company awarded by Sacyr as the Best Startup for Infrastructures and Services in 2015, which introduces advanced mobility in the industrial projects. He is currently responsible for Strategy and Corporate Development at EPC Tracker.

Kamran Elahian

Founder and Chairman

Global Innovation Catalyst, LLC

As an Innovation Catalyst, Kamran advises various governments on the needed transition from fossil based economies to sustainable innovation economies. In the past, as a global high-tech entrepreneur, he cofounded ten companies, produced 6 exits, 3 of them Unicorn IPOs with a total market cap of over $8B. For 15 yrs., he was Chairman of Global Catalyst Partners, a global VC firm ($350M under management). Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through effective education and empowerment of the youth (with special emphasis on young women) using the leverage of ICT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where he served as Co-Chairman (2009-2011).

Tania Marinich

Gianluca D'Antonio

Chief Information Security Officer

FCC Group

Chief Information Security Officer at FCC Group, the parent company of one of Spain's leading construction and service groups. He’s Founder Member and Chair of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Information Security (www.ismsforum.es) and Academic Director of Master in Cybersecurity at IE. He holds more than 15 years of experience in the field of Information Security Management Systems and Cybersecurity.

Elena González- Blanco

General Manager of Europe

Cover Wallet

Yuval Avni

Venture Partner

Giza Venture Capital

Dr. Yuval Avni, has been with Giza since 2008. Focusing on investments in the life science and cleantech sectors. Yuval led or co-led investments in LifeBond, Takadu, VisionCare, Navotek, Aleees, Danen, CareDox and Solapoint, was on the boards of IceCure, Mitralign and Navotek and is currently on the boards of VisionCare and LifeBond. He is also a Venture Partner at Swanlaab, a Giza-sponsored Spanish-based early stage venture capital fund. Yuval is a trained medical doctor, with four years of clinical experience in general surgery and vascular surgery. Prior to his medical tuition, Dr. Avni served for 5 years in the IDF as an officer in an elite intelligence unit and is currently a consultant on new technologies to the IAF chief medical officer. Yuval is a visiting lecturer in entrepreneurship and fundraising at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University and is a consultant on entrepreneurship to ORT, Israel's leading technological school network.

Rodrigo Martínez

Partner

Point Nine Capital

Rodrigo joined Point Nine Cap after finishing his MBA at London Business School in 2013. Before that, he was a Summer Associate at Index Ventures in London and worked as a Senior Strategy Consultant at PwC in Madrid. As a Telecom Engineer by training, Rodrigo spends a lot of time with all kinds of geeky stuff - including developer tools, machine learning, blockchain, etc.

Roberto Magnifico

LVenture Group

Roberto Magnifico has a long career in finance and has worked over 20 years abroad. He began with Lehman Brothers in New York then UBS, Barclays Capital and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in London and Banco di Roma in Rome. He is Co-founder of Business Club Italia, a non-profit to promote Italian enterprise in the UK and he held board positions in Italian alternative asset management companies. Roberto is a Co-founder and board member of LVenture Group S.p.A, the first Italian publicly listed VC fund. He is an active business angel, mentor and advisor and co-founder and CFO of NetLex, a cloud-based legal practice management SaaS. Roberto is also a partner of InnovAction Lab, a non-profit whose mission is to develop entrepreneurial talents and a mentor in LUISS ENLABS accelerator. He is a frequent lecturer on VCs and supporting growth and development of startup ecosystems. He is also a staunch supporter of crowdsourcing.

Pauline Roux

Partner, Elaia Partners

Pauline joined Elaia Partners in early 2014 as Investment Manager. She began her career as an Equity Research Analyst at Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux (former broker of Crédit Agricole CIB), then in an independent firm, Genesta Finance, where she spent three years covering European midcap stocks in the internet and video games sector. In 2011, she joined the Corporate Finance team at the investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. Still specialising in the Internet and TMT industries, Pauline has realised more than ten transactions, from M&A to fundraising/IPOs and capital restructuring. She became Partner in 2017. Education: EM Lyon (MSc in Management), Corvinus University of Budapest Expertise: AdTech, HR Tech, E-commerce, Digital Media, SaaS Followed participations: Agriconomie, Criteo, Cryptosense, Easyrecrue, Pandacraft, Selectionnist, Talent.io, Tinyclues, Wyplay, Realytics, Keymantics

Joshua Siegel

Rubicon VC

As General Partner – New York, Joshua oversees the day to day activities and operations of Rubicon, including evaluating early stage technology companies seeking funding, assisting current portfolio companies with development and interaction with our angels, attracting LP capital, and development of our network. Joshua has extensive experience and connections in technology, real estate, luxury lifestyle brands, digital media, and consumer products. Previously, Mr. Siegel was an early stage strategic advisor for startups and real estate concerns, and board member of The Founders Club, an equity exchange based liquidity platform for entrepreneurs. Formerly he was CEO Professional Connection Resources, in an enterprise level marketing system for the legal community. Further he performed as the Manager of Eastern European Banking Systems at Citibank and Director of Market Intelligence at Citicorp Debt Capital Markets.

Itxaso del Palacio

Investor

Formerly at M12

Itxaso is an Investment Partner for Microsoft Ventures. She is based in London and is responsible for the investments in Europe. Previously, Itxaso was a Principal at Lepe Partners where she led investments in venture growth companies in digital media and consumer technologies. Prior to that, she was at EC1 Capital investing in early stage startups and helping them build and commercialise their technologies. Itxaso is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a BSc and MSc in Engineering as well as a PhD focused on Economics and Venture Capital. Dr. del Palacio has also taught entrepreneurship in many institutions including Imperial College and University College London (UCL).

Javier Torremocha

Founding Partner

Kibo Ventures

Javier is a Founding Partner at Kibo Ventures, a Madrid-based early-stage VC with €120M in AuM. Javier serves on the board of companies like JobandTalent, Flywire, Captio, iContainers, Iguama or Odilo. Previous experience includes other Venture capital initiatives (Netjuice Capital, Social Leverage and business angel), investment banking (Lehman Brothers) and wealth management (UBS). Javier started investing in digital startups back in 1999. Javier has a dual degree in Law & Business Administration from ICADE University, an MBA from INSEAD and a degree in leadership & international politics from the University of California at San Diego.

Nick Nigam

Principal

Samsung NEXT

Nick is a Principal at Samsung NEXT Europe, where he focuses on early stage investments and was heavily involved in establishing and building out the Samsung NEXT Europe team. Nick is keen to change the image of CVC’s and worked on the investments in LiquidSky, Sorenson Media, Spatial, Unbabel and Grover, as well as the acquisition of AdGear.

Emmanuel Cassimatis

Investor

SAP

Emmanuel Cassimatis leads investment activities for SAP.iO Fund in emea north. SAP.iO Fund is the early stage co-investment fund of SAP, helping SAP customers to get more value from data and new technologies. Emmanuel previously worked in Venture Capital and small cap Private Equity in France. He also founded or co-founded several organizations - an internet startup, an energy company which was acquired and an ngo. He is a visiting professor for Private Equity at the Edhec Finance Master, co-authored a book on Investments, ‘Tout Savoir sur le Capital Investissement’, and is the author of ‘The Accelerating World: Speed vs. Control’. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master from Edhec.

Paloma Castellano

Director

Wayra

Director of Wayra Madrid. Wayra, powered by Telefónica, is one of the most potent business accelerators with presence worldwide. Paloma is Executive MBA by IE Business School and MSc in Computer Engineer by UCM. She started her profesional career in Microsoft, joining Telefónica afterwards as Product Manager. After several years launching and managing innovative products as mobile TV she moved to Telefónica China, where she worked with CNC Labs CEO in designing and implementing the strategic plan for this company. Back to Spain, she was in charge of Mobile Broadband business development. In 2011 she joined Wayra to collaborate in the global launch as part of the foundational team. She is currently the Director of Wayra Madrid. In Madrid only, Wayra has helped create and grow more than 50 startups.

Alexis Bonte

CEO/Partner

eRepublik Labs/Atomico

Alexis is a Venture Partner at Atomico advising on new investments in France, Spain & Portugal and Eastern Europe as well as sourcing and accelerating growth in the games, blockchain and travels vertical. He currently serves on the Bossa Studios board, Atomico's latest game investment. He is also interested in high impact purpose driven companies. A strong believer that "great companies can come from anywhere", Alexis is also the co-founder & ceo of games company eRepublik Labs (eRepublik.com, Age of Lords, World at War, War and Peace) a "free to play" pioneer with HQ in Ireland and studios in Bucharest and Madrid. Alexis sold eRepublik Labs in June of 2017 in a cash and shares deal to Stillfront Group (quoted on Nasdaq First North). Alexis remains as CEO of eRepublik Labs giving him a unique mix of investor as well as operational expertise.

Nicolas Debock

Investment Director

Idinvest

Before joining Idinvest in early 2018, Nicolas worked for Balderton Capital and XAnge Private Equity, where he made numerous SaaS, Marketplaces and Fintech investments focusing on the French and Southern European markets. Prior to this, he worked as Innovation Ecosystem Manager for La Poste, where he was in charge of analyzing new trends in technology and managing relationships with the start-up ecosystem.

Brian Caulfield

Partner

Draper Esprit

Partner at Draper Esprit After being CEO of Peregrine Systems for 7 years he became the CEO of Exceptis Technologies, after that, Brian spent 2 years being the VP of Product Management at Trintech. In 2001 he founded Similarity Systems, at the same time he was the Investment Director of Trinity Venture Capital and Non-executive Director of AePONA. In 2007 he became an Interim CEO at AePONA meanwhile being NON-executive Director of PUTPlace, after that, he became Non-executive director of ezetop and in 2012 the Non-executive Director of Imagine Broadband. Nowadays Brian is the director of Caliban Ventures, Non-executive Director of Clavis Insight, The Irish Times, Mobile Travel Technologies, Datahug, Movidus and RhodeCode and also he is a partner of Draper Espirit.

David Buttress

Partner

83North

David is a Partner at 83North – a global venture capital firm with offices in Israel and London. David was, until 31 March 2017, Chief Executive Officer of JUST EAT. David joined Just Eat in March 2006 to start its UK business after having a successful career with Coca-Cola. David holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Law and Business from Middlesex University Business School and an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Entrepreneurship. In 2014, David was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Investor Allstars Awards and was listed as one of the London Evening Standard’s top 1,000 influential people. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 he was named as one of Britain’s most influential people in the Debrett’s 500.

Karen McCormick

CIO

Beringea

Karen is Chief Investment Officer at Beringea, the US/UK Venture Capital firm with $675m under management. She is responsible for setting overall investment strategy, as well as making new investments and working with portfolio companies through to exit. Her investments include Watchfinder, Thread, Blis, Monica Vinader and MatsSoft amongst others. Karen has direct start-up and line management experience, and she joined Beringea in 2007 from the Boston Consulting Group.

Hillel Zidel

Kennet

Nico Goulet

Partner

Adara Ventures

Nico has managed Venture Capital investments in high-tech companies for the last 17 years. During this period he has been actively involved with more than 25 early stage ventures and served on the board of 22 companies, totalling more than 100 years of tenure, mainly in early stage technology ventures. Nico is a founder and Managing Partner of Adara Venture Partners. Adara manages $120Mn across several investment vehicles, all focused on early stage ventures. Its accumulated portfolio includes more than 23 companies in the Digital Enterprise space. Prior to Adara he founded and was CEO of NETfractal, a venture fund based in Madrid. From 1992 until 1999 he was a partner at Monitor Company, and previously he worked at Andersen Consulting in Paris. Nico obtained a BSc degree (Aerospace Engineering) from the École Centrale de Paris, an MSc (Aeronautics & Astronautics) from MIT and an MBA from INSEAD. He is a private pilot and an advanced aerobatics competitor.

Dilek Dayinlarli

212 VC

Dilek Dayinlarli is a Vice President at 212 Limited. She focuses on investments in internet, telecommunication and technology companies. She worked at Groupon as a Director of Strategy and Analysis. She was a Senior Management Consultant in Accenture’s Communications & High Technology practice. Dayinlarli spent the first couple of years of her career in Turkey as a Business Developer at Koc Holding’s Telecom division executing business development and strategy. She started her career in the USA, where she held different project management positions and also created her own start-up. She holds a M.B.A. in Strategy from Johnson & Wales University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University

Javier Ulecia

Partner

Bullnet Capital

Founder and Partner Bullnet Capital (Spanish VC investing in high-tech companies). Bullnet has been investing in Spanish early stage companies for the last 15 years, mainly in the SW, electronics and semiconductors space. Among our success stories are Netspira Networks (sold to Ericsson) and Anafocus (first spinoff from CSIC and sold to e2v). Currently member of the board of seven technology companies (OncoVision, Digital Legends, Visure, Codice, Zhilabs, KDPOF and UAV Navigation). Previous experience at Bain & Company in Paris, Munich and Madrid (strategic consulting) and Renault in Paris (R&D). Aeronautical Engineer (Politécnica Madrid) and MBA (HEC Paris). He was chairman of ASCRI from 2015-2017 (first time that a VC leads the organization since it was founded 30 years ago). Collaborates with several incubators or organizations related to entrepreneurship (South Summit, Wayra, StartupBootCamp…)

David Fogel

Co-Founder & Investor

Accelerated Digital Ventures

David focuses on finding the best startups in the UK and Ireland and helping them supercharge to create generation defining tech companies at scale. ADV invests patient venture over the long term of a company's journey. He started his career in Israel building B2B software products [Telco and Fintech], worked at an accelerator and early stage VC in Spain and spent three years doing M&A and strategy innovation across Europe, Asia and the US. Before joining ADV David spent two and a half years heading up the acceleration program at Wayra, Telefonica’s early stage investment arm.

Laurent Dumas Crouzillac

Partner

CapHorn Invest

Laurent Dumas-Crouzillac has spent most of his career in high tech investment and M&A activities. Over the last 13 years he has been investing in technology companies in France and Europe within funds like Idinvest Partners and A Plus Finance. He is now Partner at CapHorn Invest focusing on ICT investments in European based companies. He has been an investor and board member in successful companies such as : Sigfox, Trace One, Groupe Concoursmania, Laboratoire Sebbin, … He is now actively invested in : Ledger, Saagie, FinalCad and Antvoice. Laurent is an engineer EFREI/Georgia Tech and graduated from ESSEC MBA. He started his career in strategic marketing at Schneider Electric before becoming a Product manager at WorldCom (now Verizon). He spent part of his childhood in southern California, is bilingual French/English.

Ricardo Sequerra Amram

Senior Associate

Cherry Ventures

Ricardo joined Cherry Ventures as a Senior Associate. Previously, he spent several years gaining experience as an operator as well as working closely with founders in the roles he held at Faber Ventures, Seedrs and Seedcamp. Born in Lisbon, he speaks five languages and has lived in Portugal, Argentina, Spain, the UK and now Germany. He studied Economics in Lisbon and holds an MSc. in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from ESADE Business School. Ricardo is especially passionate about businesses building competitive advantages through data and addictive products able to change people’s habits. Cherry Ventures is a Berlin-based Venture Capital fund, founded by a team of entrepreneurs with substantial experience in building fast-scaling internet businesses. Currently investing out of a €150M fund, Cherry Ventures backs the most ambitious seed stage founders Europe-wide and supports their portfolio companies with a strong follow-on strategy.

Nenad Marovac

Founder & Managing Partner

DN Capital

Nenad has more than 25 years of venture capital and private equity investment experience in the media, telecom and technology sectors. Nenad is the Founder and Managing Partner of DN Capital. DN Capital was founded in June 2000 and now has operations in London, Berlin and Silicon Valley. Nenad is based in London and oversees the global operations of DN with his day-to-day responsibilities encompassing DN’s operations in Europe. Nenad focuses on investments in marketplaces, software as a service (SAAS), fintech, mobile and digital media companies. Amongst his select investments are Shazam Entertainment (world’s leading mobile application), Auto1 (largest online marketplace for used cars), Apsmart (acq. by Thomson Reuters), Book a Tiger, Datanomic (acq. by Oracle), Delectable, Endeca (acq. by Oracle), Happn, HomeToGo, JacobsRimell (acq. by Amdocs), Mister Spex, Purplebricks (IPO on London AIM), Tbricks (acq. by Orc), Quandoo (acquired by Recruit Holding), Windeln and OLX (acq. by Naspers).

Ravi Kurani

Investor

Earlybird Venture Capital

Ravi Kurani joined Earlybird in 2016 and is currently a Principal at the Munich office. Prior to joining Earlybird, Ravi was a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, where he mainly worked in the financial services and private equity industry, and built an expertise in big data analysis. Before that, he gained practical experience, among others in consulting at Roland Berger, in Research & Development at Daimler AG, and as a research assistant for hermodynamics at Braunschweig University of Technology. Ravi holds a B. Sc. in mechanical engineering & business (focus in automotive engineering) from Braunschweig University of Technology, as well as a Master of Engineering Management (focus in quantitative finance) from Duke University.

Pauline Roux

Partner, Elaia Partners

Pauline joined Elaia Partners in early 2014 as Investment Manager. She began her career as an Equity Research Analyst at Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux (former broker of Crédit Agricole CIB), then in an independent firm, Genesta Finance, where she spent three years covering European midcap stocks in the internet and video games sector. In 2011, she joined the Corporate Finance team at the investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. Still specialising in the Internet and TMT industries, Pauline has realised more than ten transactions, from M&A to fundraising/IPOs and capital restructuring. She became Partner in 2017. Education: EM Lyon (MSc in Management), Corvinus University of Budapest Expertise: AdTech, HR Tech, E-commerce, Digital Media, SaaS Followed participations: Agriconomie, Criteo, Cryptosense, Easyrecrue, Pandacraft, Selectionnist, Talent.io, Tinyclues, Wyplay, Realytics, Keymantics

Mark Kavelaars

Investor

Swanlaab

Mr. Mark Erik Kavelaars serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Partner at Swanlaab Venture Factory SGEIC, S.A. He has held different roles in the areas of banking and financial services, information technologies, corporate consulting, and counselling, among others, in wealth management and private banking at HypoVereinsbank, Business Development Manager at Compaq Computer, and CRM-Change Manager at Hewlett Packard. Mr. Kavelaars actively participates in supporting and investing in new technologically-based ventures through International Venture Consultants, where he is General Manager, and he has already invested and/or advised more than 40 start-ups in the past five years. He speaks Spanish, English, German, and French. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from European Business School.

Manuel Balsera

Senior Vice President

AMC Networks International Southern Europe

Manuel Balsera is currently Senior Vice President at AMC Networks International Southern Europe, the leading producer of thematic TV in Spain, Portugal and France. Manuel holds a Law and Communications Degree from Complutense University of Madrid, a Diploma in Media Management and Marketing Communication from Missouri-Columbia University, having also earned a Masters degree in Management, the PDD and IFP from IESE Business School and the Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT. In this role Balsera oversees all the business operations including: Digital, Marketing, Affiliates, Ad sales and Business development areas of more than 24 TV channels and a significant amount of digital assets such as; Microcanales- AMC´s FVOD app-, Odisea VR or the SVOD tracker. Balsera has developed a wide professional senior management career in companies such as Proximity BBDO, ONO or VIVENDI, among others. He is also a co-founder and a serial investor in more than 20 startups and a professor in several Business

Pedro Rocha

Co-Founder & President & CEO

Beta-i

Pedro is co-founder, President and CEO of Beta-i - an organization dedicated at helping startups succeed and boosting entrepreneurial ecosystems based in Lisbon. Pedro is the host and a mentor of SeedCamp Lisbon, a facilitator and co-director at Startup Weekend Lisbon, and was the co-director and a mentor of the first Founder Institute Lisbon, in addition to several other mentoring initiatives. Pedro is a fellow of Kauffman Global Partner Network, member of World Entrepreneurship Forum and Young Urban Leaders Network, co-founder of Startup Portugal and a member of APBA - Portuguese Business Angel Association, where he was an Executive Board Member for nearly three years. In 2007 he co-founded and was a co-director of the Social Innovation Program at TESE - a social innovation hub based in Lisbon (in partnership with Young Foundation), during three years.

Federico Pienovi

Regional Managing Director

Globant

He joined Globant 9 years ago and during 2017 was named Regional Managing Director and Head of EMEA. Prior to becoming Regional MD, Federico was the Managing Director for several Financial Services clients in the East Coast based in New York City. As an MD, he was responsible for defining all technology and delivery strategies, coordinating between all internal areas, and defining and executing methodologies to deliver Globant's vision and value to JPMorgan Chase. In addition, he ensured the successful development and delivery on all programs including products for Digital Content, Big Data, Web applications and User Experience. He started his career working for 3 of the biggest companies in Argentina, YPF (oil), Edenor (energy) and Verizon (telco). Federico holds a degree in Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Computer Software Engineering from Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.

Thomas Anglaret

Google

Javier Verde

Sales Director for the Startups

Salesforce

Javier Verde is Salesforce Sales Director for the Startups and SMEs division, directing a team of professionals and clients that create a double digit increase in Salesforce's leadership as a # 1 company in CRM, Marketing and the "Customer Success Platform" . Javier is passionate about the new technologies and initials that joined Salesforce after working almost 4 years in IBM in the divisions of Hardware and Cloud Computing. Previously a commercial consultant and director at Doriath Solutions, transforming companies and implementing ERP and CRM solutions, where he began to discover his passion for technology and fast growing businesses.

Enrique Jimenez

Managing Director

Philip Morris

Born in Madrid, Jiménez has a Law Degree and he is graduate in Business Administration and MBA at the IE. The new managing director leads this region, which he knows perfectly well, as he held different positions of responsibility in Spain, Canary Islands, Andorra and Portugal. For the past few years, he has been managing Philip Morris in Turkey. His objective for the three new markets is to consolidate the IQOS expansion (the company's first major smokeless product venture, which uses high-precision technology to heat tobacco instead of burning it, thus preventing combustion, which is the main cause of smoking-related diseases). Another of Jiménez's main challenges is to open a constructive debate with the community and medical authorities to verify the science behind this electronic device.

Dilek Dayinlarli

212 VC

Dilek Dayinlarli is a Vice President at 212 Limited. She focuses on investments in internet, telecommunication and technology companies. She worked at Groupon as a Director of Strategy and Analysis. She was a Senior Management Consultant in Accenture’s Communications & High Technology practice. Dayinlarli spent the first couple of years of her career in Turkey as a Business Developer at Koc Holding’s Telecom division executing business development and strategy. She started her career in the USA, where she held different project management positions and also created her own start-up. She holds a M.B.A. in Strategy from Johnson & Wales University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University

Juan Miguel Perez

Finboot

Tomás Coca Stefaniak

Head of Project Selection & Evaluation Entrepreneurs Fund

Fundación Repsol 

Chemical Engineer from the University of Nottingham (UK), is the Responsible for the Selection and Evaluation process in the Fundación Repsol Entrepreneurs Fund, managing the process from the beginning of the selection to the start of the acceleration of the start-ups, where he participates as Coordinator since 2013, helping in the technical and economic development of the start-ups and promoting their growth and success. He has multidisciplinary experience in several companies managing projects and teams in different sectors such as water treatment, CO2 capture, refining and other processes.

Sara Bravo

Senior Account Executive Venture Capital

Salesforce

Sara Bravo handles the Department of Salesforce for Venture Capital. She has been working at Salesforce with Start ups and Venture Capitals from the last 5 years, helping entrepreneurs design their Customer Company vision and execution roadmap, professionalising their sales teams and increasing the efficiency of their organisations.

Victor de Avila

Chief Strategy & Corporate Development Officer

Sacyr

His current scope of responsibilities includes: - Corporate Strategy development for all four business units ( Construction, Concessions, Industrial EPC projects and Services (Waste Management, Facilities Management, Energy and Water) - Digital Transformation Process for +30,000 employees - Leading the Innovation agenda across +25 countries With an extensive international experience, Mr. De Avila has worked in more than 15 countries accross Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. During his professional tenure he has worked in the Chemical & Minning sectors, in the Strategy Management Consulting business for Booz Allen & Hamilton and for AT Kearney, having advised some of the largest Energy, Utilities and Manufacturing companies in the world. Aditionally, Mr. De Avila has more than 15 years of experience in the Waste Management and W2E field, having developed a number of projects across Spain, Africa and Latin America. Mr. De Avila holds a BSc. degree in Chemical Engineering from t

Pablo Rivas

Founder

Global Alumni

Pablo holds his bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and an MBA from IESE Business School. Additionally, he studied at Harvard, Berkeley and Loyola University in Chicago. He has senior management experience in both, public and private sectors. He is the founder of Global Alumni, a pioneer edtech company.

Carlos G. Plaza Vegas

Director and Chief Editor

Phaedrus Music Porta

Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1959. With almost 30 years of experience in consulting, Mr. Plaza has been involved in complex IT project implementations on a wide variety of markets, with different solutions and customers ranging from medium to global enterprises. Mr. Plaza worked for Indra for almost 16 years, holding different positions related to International Operations in the Technology Solutions Division, and Business Development for Public Sector and Health Markets. Between 2013 and 2016, Mr. Plaza held the position of SVP for Public Sector and Health in Indra USA, putting focus on Indra’s robust portfolio around Smart Cities, interoperability and citizen-centric solutions. Mr. Plaza is currently a member of the Innotalent Hub consultancy group and is Director and Chief Editor of the digital music portal Phaedrus.

Sergio Gabrin

General Manager

Essence Group Spain

Systems Engineer by National University of the Province of Buenos Aires. PAD in Digital Transformation by IE Business School. PMP Certified by PMI. His Executive Profile is completed with his accreditations as Master Certified Executive, Directive and Organizational Coach by IAC. Coach accredited by AECOP. With over 25 years of experience as a Manager in IT Business Development at INDRA, Soluziona and Coopers & Lybrand. He has an international professional and personal experience developed in different geographies and cultures, residing in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico and currently in Spain.

Stephanie Zweifel

Corporate Director

Fundación máshumano

Overall has 18 years of experience in Human Resources areas and 4 years of experience in Operations and Customer Service management. Worked 7 years in DHL Worldwide Express as Operations Director for Latin America in Fort Lauderdale, Miami USA and later on as Human Resources Director for the Southern Cone based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Formed part of Grupo Vips in Madrid, Spain for 7 years as Human Resources Director. Actually works In Fundación máshumano for 7 years as Corporate Director of national and international enterprises whose mission is to humanize organizations in order to change their processes and put their people in the center of their strategy.

Ignacio de Pinedo

CEO

ISDI

Luis Pardo Céspedes

CEO & Vice Chairman

Sage Iberia

CEO and vice chairman of Sage Iberia since 2014, Luis Pardo runs a company that innovates to facilitate the day to day of companies. In Sage he took on greater responsibilities in Europe until he was appointed Manager of Spain and Portugal, a role that combines with being the counselor of several companies, including Director of different startups. His wide experience gives him a panoramic vision on the challenges of digitalization. Luis Pardo not only speaks about technological development and the improvement of business management processes. He has a proven track record of leading companies in their strategic innovative steps to succeed in business development, in digital adaptation, in management of equipment, business culture, leadership and internationalization. He is member of the Business Council of the CEOE, of the Employment Promotion Advisory Council and of the Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain. In 2016 he published 'The ABC of the Autonomous' (Deusto).

Ann-Christine Roope

Founder & CEO

Ethan Partners

Ann-Christine is Founder and CEO of Ethan Partners a global executive search company focusing on high growth Internet companies. Ethan Partners has supported over 150 successful Internet companies and placed more than 3000 high profile candidates. Clients include among others Uber, Houzz, Naspers, Zomato, Ringier, Deliveroo, and Goldman Sachs. Previously Ann-Christine was Director of International Recruiting at Rocket Internet where she was responsible for Founder and Senior Executive recruiting for +75 portfolio companies in +45 countries, taking Rocket Internet from a few 1000 people European company to a +25.000 person global organization in 2 years. Before this Ann-Christine was Director of International Recruiting at Groupon as they entered +50 countries globally. Ann-Christine has also supported some of the largest VC’s and PE’s globally with talent acquisition. Ann-Christine holds a Master in Marketing and Business Communication from Copenhagen Business School.

Emma Fau

Founder

EU Capital

Emma is the founder of EUcapital, a Brussels-based consulting firm specializing in access to finance and equity instruments for startups. EUcapital offers its services to both public and private institutions. Emma has more than 20 years of professional experience in Brussels, including 12 years working in the European venture capital association ("EVCA", now "Invest Europe"). Since the creation of EUcapital, Emma has worked for different investor organisations, including the European Confederation of Business Angels (Business Angels Europe BAE) as well as for an international network of family offices founded in Belgium by a member of a family office. In 2016 Emma started to invest in startups and currently invests in Belgium and Spain. Emma is a member of two business angel networks: BE angels in Belgium and Women Angels for STEAM in Spain (WA4STEAM), a network of women investors who invest in leading technological startups.

Patricio Guitart

Founder

Guitart&Partners

Advisor of leading organizations in Latin America, USA and Spain on topics related to growth, innovation in the business model, implementation of strategies and organizational alignment. Founder of Guitart & Partners, a network of consultants and experts in management, innovation and organizational transformation. Patricio works closely with Dr. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School), Francis Ross (Michigan Business School) and Renée Mauborgne (INSEAD Business School) in the field of academic and consulting research in Latin America. He is a Professor at the Entrepreneurial Education Center of the University of San Andres, Visiting Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA and is a Visiting Professor at the INALDE Business School in Bogotá, Colombia. He is Coordinator of the Innovation Lab at the Entrepreneurial Education Center of the University of San Andrés, Mentor of the Endeavor Network and Member of the Board of Directors of Fundación Leer.

María Jesús Fernández

Director of Finance & Investor Relations

ICEX-Invest in Spain

María J. Fernández is Director of Finance & Investor Relations at ICEX-Invest in Spain, a position she took after having served as Trade Commissioner of Spain in Chicago for five years and Director General for International Financing at the Ministry of Economy and Finance for two years. During her extensive professional career, she has also held senior positions at the Bank of Spain, where she was Head of the International Relations Division and Head of the European Affairs Division; at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, where she represented Spain at the Executive Board as Senior Advisor and Alternate Executive Director respectively; and at the Defense of Competition Tribunal, where she was Head of the President’s Office and Deputy Director of the Studies Department.

Jose Manuel Carol

Director of BStartup 10

Banco Sabadell

Director of BStartup10 at Banco Sabadell. BStartup10 is an investment vehicle for early stage startups, that makes 10 investments per year of € 100k each. Prior to joining Banco Sabadell Jose has developed his professional career working as management consultant for Deloitte, as manager for La Salle Technova Business Angel Network and in finance as an analyst for and M&A boutique and as a private banker for Banco Sabadell. Jose holds a bachelor’s in Market Research and the International MBA of IE Business School.

Pepe Borrel

Managing Director

CrowdCube

Crowdcube makes equity investments easy and rewarding for anyone, anywhere. Since 2011 we've helped +800 businesses to raise over 500M€. Key responsibilities include managing Barcelona team and office, adapting our value proposition for non-UK customers, representing Crowdcube in front of local institutions, regulators, partners and media, and spending time with startup founders and C-Level Executives raising over 1M€.

Santiago Reyna

Business Angel

I am CEO of Realiza, a small VC based in Valencia-Spain. We have inveted mainly in biotech and digital technologies. Moreover, I am founder of Bracken IR, a financial communications agency with office in Madrid-Spain. I've been General Manager of DCN Ventures during the last 7 years. I am Lawyer and AMP from Instituto de Empresa.

Karel Escobar Sánchez

Dealflow Manager & Startup Relations

Startupxplore

Analyst at Startupxplore, the premium investment platform, focusing on early stage startups and seed capital. Karel is in charge of startup relationships and scouting activities. Since Startupxplore they have financed more than 20 companies with a total investment of 5 million€. The financing rounds of Startupxplore range from 200k€-500k€. Before joining the Startupxplore team, he spent 4 years in Tetuan Valley, the first pre-accelerator in Europe. In Tetuan Valley he spent 2 years as CEO developing entrepreneurship programs in Spain, working on European Commission projects and collaborating with corporations in Open Innovation activities. In addition to the above, she has experience in early stage startups, has acted as an investor and is a member of the COTEC 100.

Carlos Silva

Co-founder

Seedrs

Carlos is a co-founder of Seedrs, the leading equity crowdfunding platform in Europe, and Entrepreneur-in-Residency at Faber Ventures, as well as Innovation Lead at Accenture. He is a founding member of Beta-I, a Portuguese non-profit to promote entrepreneurship and innovation and a mentor at several acceleration programmes (Seedcamp, Lisbon Challenge, Founder Institute, etc.). Carlos also serves as an advisor and board member at multiple innovative start-ups. He has been distinguished with a Young Gun award in the UK, for the most promising individuals under 35, and has been distinguished as one of Portugal's 40 under 40. Carlos holds a Computer Engineering degree from Instituto Superior Técnico and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Andreu Garrido

Socio y Consultor

Teknecultura

Ha trabajado en diferentes empresas y varios años como autónomo en proyectos vinculados al sector cultural en tareas de consultoría, comunicación y producción. Actualmente es socio y consultor en Teknecultura, empresa especializada en el análisis de datos y desarrollo de estrategias de marketing 'Data-driven decision', un enfoque innovador para el sector cultural y gracias al que seguimos aprendiendo día tras día. Anteriormente había sido Director de proyectos en Bissap Gestió Cultural, consultora especializada en planificación y gestión de públicos culturales. Colabora regularmente con el programa de Gestión Cultural de la Universidad de Barcelona en proyectos de investigación sobre políticas culturales. Actualmente es el Presidente de la Asociación de Gestores Culturales de Catalunya compartiendo proyecto con un amplio grupo de profesionales de diversos ámbitos del sector cultural.

Miguel Fernández Díaz

Co-Founder

Arqueovuelos

Miguel is archeologist, pilot-operator of RPAS/drones and specialist in New Technologies applied to Heritage. Its works focuses both on the research and on dissemination of historical - cultural contents. He is founder and CEO of Virtua Nostrum (experts in 3D scanning and Virtual Archaeology), as well as co-founder (together with the Pequeños Arqueólogos team) of Arqueovuelos, a project dedicated to the spreading, diffusion and Heritage education using drone technology.

Carlo D'Ursi

Producer

Potenza Producciones

Carlo D’Ursi has more than fifteen years of experience in the film industry with coproductions that achieved selections in important festivals such as Cannes, Malaga, Venice, Seville, among others. Consultant of many projects and renowned film enterprises business plans, as well as counsellor for funding applications. As a film producer, he started working with El Deseo (Agustín and Pedro Almodóvar production company), and Alta Producción (Alta Films). In 2004 he founded Potenza Producciones. Films produced by Potenza Producciones have won more than 200 national and international awards. InCannes Festival (2017), he represented Spain on the Producers on the Move European Film Promotion’s (EFP) networking platform. The experience of Carlo as a film producer is only a part of his career. In 2015, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture-Cultural Industries, Potenza Producciones has launched VEOBEO, an online film distributor for on-demand projections.

Sergio Pérez Merino

Director of Venture Capital

Banco Sabadell

Sergio Pérez is an Investment Manager at the Venture Capital division of Banco Sabadell. Sabadell Venture Capital , is Banco Sabadell´s initiative to provide equity to early stage across Spain with a focus on ICT with a philosophy focused on supporting entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Banco Sabadell, Sergio Perez worked at Caixa Capital Risc where he collaborated in the expansion and consolidation of the division from more than 10 years. Further to his investment experience, Sergio was part of the initial team of Southwing , a technology start-up in the field of Bluetooth devices. He previously worked at Vodafone as an Engineer in the Integrated Solutions department. Sergio holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and a Master in Corporate Finance law, Mergers and Acquisitions and Business Financing in ESADE

Rodrigo Mallo Leiva

Program Director

SOSV

Rodrigo is Partner & Program Director at SOSV, where he leads the European early-stage life sciences investment team, focused on the intersection of biology and engineering. He's passionate about how founders can engineer science to solve most of the world's biggest challenges. He sits on the boards of Algiknit, Visusnano,and Chronomics, and serves as a mentor for The Founder Institute, Techstars, and Startup Chile. Before his venture career, Rodrigo founded four LatAm companies in the food, gaming, and digital advertising industries. He is a regular speaker at Slush, Vivatech, Dublin Tech Summit, and Biofabricate, among others, and is an Ambassador for the MIT Technology Review in Europe. Rodrigo is a Kauffman Fellow.

Gonzalo Tradacete Gallart

CEO & Co-Founder

Faraday Venture Partners

Gonzalo Tradacete co-founded Faraday Venture Partners, a private investors club in technological startups. Faraday analyses and presents to its Partners a selection of what it considers the best investment opportunities, manages the investment process and negotiations on behalf of its Partners and represents their interests in their invested companies. Faraday represents today 192 Partners having invested over 10 million Euros in 23 startups. Previously, Gonzalo worked in KPMG’s M&A department, in a London based Hedge Fund / Private Equity, as technology consultant for alternative investment funds an as alternative investment companies’ auditor in PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. Gonzalo is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder, Master in Business Entrepreneurship by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, MSc in International Finance by the Westminster University and holds a Licence in Economic Sciences by the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Pieter Welten

Principal

Prime Ventures

Pieter Welten is a Principal who joined Prime Ventures in 2013. Based in Amsterdam, Pieter currently serves on the board of directors of Iwoca and EatStreet. Prior to Prime, Pieter worked at a corporate finance and private equity boutique based in London where he worked on several early stage and growth capital investments in technology based companies. At the same time, Pieter co-founded a mobile social startup which now rests in the app graveyard.

Gonzalo Martinez de Azagra

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Cardumen Capital

Gonzalo has over 13 years of technology, venture capital, and advisory experience. He is co-founder and Managing General Partner at Cardumen Capital, a European venture capital firm investing in deep tech in Israel. Prior to Cardumen, Gonzalo spent four years in Korea at Samsung’s headquarters. He then founded and lead Samsung Ventures Israel’s office. At Samsung Ventures he deployed over $120 million in capital in the USA, Europe, and Israel. Notable deals include: Replay (acquired by Intel), PrimeSense (acquired by Apple), Cortica, Earlysense, Corephotonics, Celeno, Aveni, StoreDot, Humavox, Elastifile, Yume (NYSE), and Rounds (acquired by Kik). In the past Gonzalo was a strategy consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a systems engineer at the former Atomic Energy authority (AEA Technology) in the UK.

Tobias Schirmer

Managing Partner

JOIN Capital

After graduating from the University of Exeter in 2003, Tobias started his career in the finance sector, working for Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank in Europe. After his MBA from IE Business School in 2007, Tobias founded two startups before joining the Bertelsmann Entrepreneur Program in 2008. During this time Tobias worked for Random House in New York, Antena 3 in Madrid and BMG Rights Management in Berlin before joining Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments as Principal, where he made direct and fund investments across Europe. In Spain, Tobias invested in companies like Traity, Whisbi and Marfeel. In 2015, Tobias co-founded JOIN Capital, an early stage venture capital firm based in Berlin in vesting in enterprise and industrial technology startups in Europe.

James Wise

Partner

Balderton

Pauline Roux

Partner, Elaia Partners

Pauline joined Elaia Partners in early 2014 as Investment Manager. She began her career as an Equity Research Analyst at Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux (former broker of Crédit Agricole CIB), then in an independent firm, Genesta Finance, where she spent three years covering European midcap stocks in the internet and video games sector. In 2011, she joined the Corporate Finance team at the investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. Still specialising in the Internet and TMT industries, Pauline has realised more than ten transactions, from M&A to fundraising/IPOs and capital restructuring. She became Partner in 2017. Education: EM Lyon (MSc in Management), Corvinus University of Budapest Expertise: AdTech, HR Tech, E-commerce, Digital Media, SaaS Followed participations: Agriconomie, Criteo, Cryptosense, Easyrecrue, Pandacraft, Selectionnist, Talent.io, Tinyclues, Wyplay, Realytics, Keymantics

Sebastian Peck

Managing Director

InMotion Ventures

Sebastian Peck is Managing Director of InMotion Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s mobility business and corporate venture capital arm. Sebastian started his career at the Boston Consulting Group and later joined the TMT advisory team of UBS Investment Bank, providing corporate finance services for telecoms, media and technology clients. For the past seven years, Sebastian has been involved in early-stage technology businesses as an investor and operator. As CFO / COO of Digital Science, a fast-growing provider of scientific software, he successfully built a business with corporate backing from the ground up. He also established Digital Science as a leading corporate VC, developing its signature investment approach and completing more than fifty early-stage transactions.

Andrea Martinelli

Managing Director

Nello Investments & WA4STEAM

Andrea is a corporate strategy and M&A director at S&E Partners and Nello Investmentos, advising mid-market companies in Europe and LATAM in health care, technology and industrial sectors. Before joining S&E, Andrea directed 3M’s health care business in EMEA where she led and participated in several acquisitions and divestitures. Also, as SVP at Schneider Electric, she led their global customer operations through restructuring and digital transformation. She is the co-founder of Impulse4women, fostering connections between investors and female and social impact entrepreneurs and a member of SWAN and WA4STEAM - Women Angels Networks, where she supports the life science entrepreneurship ecosystem, investing and mentoring startups.

Juuso Koskinen

Investment Analyst

OpenOcean

Juuso has been working with and in startups since 2012. Before OpenOcean, he worked for one of our portfolio companies, Oppex, focusing on user activation and product marketing. Prior to that, he spent a couple of years organizing Slush, Europe’s leading startup conference and running the Startup Sauna accelerator for the most promising early-stage startups in Northern and Eastern Europe. Juuso holds a degree in M.Sc. from Aalto University, where he majored in Strategic Management and Work Psychology, but spent time also with UX Design and Financial Engineering.

Stefano Gurciullo

Partner and Head of Science & Technology

Redstone VC

Stefano is Partner and Head of Science & Technology at Redstone, a data-driven venture capital firm empowering the corporate venture capital activities of several global companies. Stefano focuses on early stage investments related to artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics and generally frontier tech, and is leading the building Redstone's own tech stack investment. Stefano holds a PhD in Financial Computing from University College London, has built a company and worked with several public bodies, such as the Italian Government, the European Commission and the Bank of England, on matters related to finance and data science. He is a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum.

Tom Mendoza

Deal Partner

EQT Ventures

Tom started his career in the world of hedge funds at ING and PSAM, where he led and managed event-driven investments within the technology and financial services . Pulled in by the allure of entrepreneurship, Tom decided to start his own business, founding Tep, a mobile internet service for travellers, in 2010. Having built and bootstrapped the business from initial concept into a global and fast-growing profitable connectivity service, Tom then sold Tep to DHI in 2018. Prior to joining EQT Ventures, Tom was responsible for HotelTonight's international expansion across the UK and Ireland, the company's largest international market. As a Deal Partner at EQT Ventures, Tom focuses on the UK and Southern European markets. Tom was born in the UK, grew up in Venezuela, studied in Boston and has lived in London for the past 12 years. He loves electronic music (amateur DJ), football (Man Utd fan) and spending time in nature.

Carles Illa

Data Scientist

Nauta

Carles Illa is a Software Engineer and Data Scientist at Nauta Capital in Barcelona. He works on the development of the Dealflow Engine, a proprietary tool to automatically extract, structure and enrich data of potential investment opportunities. Prior to Nauta, Carles was Chief Technology Officer at APIMATICA, an Information Technology Company focused on extracting information and knowledge from open sources. As the CTO, Carles guided the technical direction of the company and also contributed to software development. Carles holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the UAB in Barcelona and an MBA from ESADE.

Francesco Corea

Investor

Four Trees Merchant Partners Inc.

Francesco Corea, Ph.D., is a complexity scientist and tech investor who is mainly focusing on science-driven companies in high-social-impact verticals including life sciences, energy, and artificial general intelligence. Francesco has a background that ranges from economics and finance to applied machine learning, and he's been working on a variety of different data problems over the past few years (e.g., sentiment analysis, fraud detection, behavioral science, etc.). Currently, he is working with a few AI companies as well as an emerging VC fund. Dr. Corea holds a Ph.D. in Economics.

Arturo Moreno

Founding CEO

Preseries

Arturo is a firm believer that technology financing must be a fast, data-driven and fair process. He is the cofounder and CEO of PreSeries, a spin-off from BigML, and the rising-leader software startup for venture capital data management and predictive modelling. At PreSeries he is building an affordable, best-in-class software tool to allow all investors leverage the benefits that data and ML represents for the generation of insights. Arturo previously worked in Bessemer Venture Partners as a venture capitalist, Kensho Technologies and Ferrovial as an Investment Manager. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as BS in Business and an LLB from Universidad Carlos of Madrid. He is the former President of MIT FinTech and MIT Martin Trust Center for entrepreneurship Practice Leader.

Sonya Iovieno

Managing Director

Silicon Valley Bank

Sonya Iovieno heads up the Growth and VC-Backed division of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK Branch. Working closely with high growth technology and innovation companies, Sonya brings a deep pool of banking and debt resources to support these businesses in a fast changing world. She liaises closely with companies and investors to build financing solutions for some of the UKs most exciting and innovative businesses. Sonya joined SVB from Lloyds Bank in September 2016, where she was responsible for New Business Origination with Mid-Market companies. She brings 20 years of corporate and commercial banking experience with both large and mid-sized corporates. Her career spans M&A, Corporate Leverage and Relationship Banking. With a keen sense of responsibility to pass on her experience to the next generation, Sonya sits on the board of a Southwark schools charity initiative through Career Ready, mentoring and supporting sixth form students to prepare them for the world of work.

Jay Reinemann

Partner

Propel Venture

After over 25 years in financial services as an investor and operator, Jay is a General Partner at Propel Venture Partners, investing in early-stage companies that are leveraging technology to transform financial services. Prior to Propel Venture Partners, Jay founded and led BBVA Ventures through its spin-out into Propel. While at BBVA he was also responsible for emerging technology strategy and corporate development, including investments such as TravelBank, SimplyCredit, DocuSign, Coinbase, Personal Capital and the acquisition of Simple. Jay previously held several investment and operational roles at Visa, ultimately heading the Corporate Ventures and Strategic Alliances group, which invested in and guided companies that were acquired by larger firms such as Motorola, Sybase, HP, and VeriFone. His background includes launching a start-up challenged by the financial crisis, as well as positions at Old Kent Financial Corporation (Fifth Third), and Andersen Consulting.

Vin Lingathoti

Head of Ventures Investments Europe,

Cisco

Vin Lingathoti is a senior investment professional at Cisco Investments focusing on venture investments in Cybersecurity. In his current role, Vin serves as a board observer at Panaseer, Behaviosec, Intersec, and 6Wind. He is also a member of LP Advisory Committee at Evolution Equity, Partech Ventures and Idinvest. Vin has over a decade experience in tech industry and has held multiple roles in corporate development, private equity, management consulting and product management.

Julian Vinue

Director in Barcelona

Wayra Barcelona

Telecommunications Engineer and MBA, I was leading the Entrepreneurship Area at La Salle Technova Barcelona until 2012, where I managed a community of 100+ startups looking for investment and gave them support in their business development. Then I went on to direct Wayra in Barcelona, the world's most global, connected and tech-driven Open Innovation Hub powered by Telefónica to support technology entrepreneurs with projects in Europe and Latin America. Wayra Barcelona investments have been a success, raising third parties investment rounds for the startups for a total of more than $30M and also executed 3 cash-outs with high returns for the company. I am observer in the board in all of the 27 companies we have in the Wayra Barcelona portfolio as of today. I am also speaker at entrepreneurship conferences and university, trying to communicate new entrepreneurs and degree students my experience with other startups.

Brian Caulfield

Partner

Draper Esprit

Partner at Draper Esprit After being CEO of Peregrine Systems for 7 years he became the CEO of Exceptis Technologies, after that, Brian spent 2 years being the VP of Product Management at Trintech. In 2001 he founded Similarity Systems, at the same time he was the Investment Director of Trinity Venture Capital and Non-executive Director of AePONA. In 2007 he became an Interim CEO at AePONA meanwhile being NON-executive Director of PUTPlace, after that, he became Non-executive director of ezetop and in 2012 the Non-executive Director of Imagine Broadband. Nowadays Brian is the director of Caliban Ventures, Non-executive Director of Clavis Insight, The Irish Times, Mobile Travel Technologies, Datahug, Movidus and RhodeCode and also he is a partner of Draper Espirit.

Vytautas Balsys

Vice President

Eight Roads Ventures

Vytautas Balsys is a Vice President at Eight Roads in the Europe Ventures team, where he focuses on investments in enterprise software, online & mobile consumer platforms and financial technology. Earlier in his career, Vytautas advised leading companies on strategy, technology and operations at McKinsey, ran a tech-enabled insurance brokerage business, and built software.

Boris Golden

Principal

Partech Ventures

Boris is a Principal at Partech in Paris, focused on seed activities. He invests up to €1M in early-stage startups across Europe. Boris joined in February 2015. Before joining Partech, Boris was Director of Product at Viadeo, the leading professional social network in France & China. He was also a lead mentor at Le Camping Startup Accelerator and Microsoft Ventures, and a hands-on advisor to numerous startups. Prior to that, Boris was the founder & CEO of Pealk, a SaaS startup making it seamless to find & contact professionals on social networks. Pealk was acquired by LinkedIn competitor Viadeo in 2012.

Jeff Clavier

Founder and Managing Partner

SoftTech VC

Jeff Clavier is the founder and managing partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most established seed VC firms in Silicon Valley. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Kongregate (GameStop), Brightroll (Yahoo), LiveRamp (Acxiom), Milo (eBay), Wildfire (Google). Jeff was appointed on the board of the National Venture Capital Association in 2015 and he has also been on the Advisory Board of Telefonica Digital since 2010. In the SoftTech portfolio, he sits on the boards of Curse, Handshake, DroneDeploy, Shippo and DocSend.

Tytus Cytowski

Founder

Cytowski & Partners

Tytus Cytowski is an American technology lawyer and founder of Cytowski & Partners, a law firm for startups, series A and US expansion. Tytus has developed a successful startup law practice focusing on European startups scaling and fundraising in Silicon Valley. He has mentored over 500+ founders, helped launch over 100+ startups and assisted 50+ startups to raise almost $1 billion in financing. His clients are companies from Y Combinator, 500 Startups and Techstars. He holds his law degree from Harvard Law School and Warsaw University. He is mentor at several incubators/accelerators in the US and EU.

Alberto Yepez

Co-Founder & Managing Director

 ForgePoint Capital 

Alberto is one of the pioneers of the cybersecurity industry and has played significant roles as a serial entrepreneur, public/private company CEO, board member and venture capital investor. He founded enCommerce in 1995 to enable the secure use of the Internet for business, was co-CEO & President of Entrust, and Chairman & CEO of Thor Technologies leading them to successful exits. He spent 10 years at Apple and 2.5 years at Oracle in senior leadership roles. He is currently on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and is chairman of the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC). Alberto is recognized as one of the leading investors in cybersecurity and for his company building skills.

Adam Draper

Founder and Managing Director 

Boost VC

For Adam Draper, Managing Director at Boost VC, no idea is too crazy. He dreams of building an ironman suit and leads the deals in the wildest SciFi Tech investments - exoskeletons, jetpacks, rockets... Go big or go home. He co-founded Boost VC after his success as an Angel Investor in companies like Coinbase, Amplitude and Plangrid. In a previous life, he wanted to be a professional tennis player and has an odd affinity for Australians. He once drank an entire bottle of tabasco sauce (the big ones) in 43 seconds. 4th generation venture capitalist, 2 time entrepreneur, and most importantly, he's a friend.

Pablo Massana

Operating Partner

Urizen Ventures - United States

Pablo is Operating Partner for Urizen Venture's Barcelona-based/Spainish Office. As operating partner at Urizen Ventures I, Pablo has focused on working with some portfolio companies on their internationalization strategy and business development including companies such as Fingi, Simppler, Earnest and Instacart among others. Previously, Pablo joined Opinno in 2009 as fourth employee of the company and was responsible for creating and leading all of Opinno's business functions in the US. These included business development, business operations, finance and growing the team from 5 employees up to more than 150. While at Opinno, Pablo collaborated with M.I.T.'s Technology Review to host the TR35 Young Innovators Awards in Spain and Latam. Pablo began his career in T-Systems as Project Leader at Seur logistics company where he implemented and managed strategic TQM program driving enhanced quality process controls and logistics solution nationwide.

Ben Marrel

Founding Partner

Breega Capital

Ben Marrel is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Breega Capital, a Paris- based venture capital firm managing over 150€ million in seed and Series A funding, dedicated to fueling start-ups across Europe in a variety of sectors, from fintech and martech to AI. Breega Capital is backed by blue chip executives and entrepreneurs, including the former CEO of Vodafone Europe and a member of the co-founding team of LinkedIn. Ben Marrel is co-founder of Breega Capital, a VC firm managing over 150€ million in funding, fueling start-ups across Europe. Breega Capital is backed by the former CEO of Vodafone Europe and a Linkedin co-founder among others.

José del Barrio

Co-Founder

La Nevera Roja & Samaipata Ventures

Happy husband and proud father of three little girls. Founding partner at Samaipata.Helplessly curious. Listener. Ironman (I'm a WIP). Chasing #networkeffects and always hungry for anything #foodtech related. Previously a co-founder and CEO @LaNeveraRoja, sold to Rocket Internet (+$100M). In another life consultant at strategy group @pwc. An economist by education, entrepreneurship is my way of life. Madrid is my home.

Gabrielle Thomas

VC Investment Manager

BlackFin Capital Partners

Gabrielle Thomas has been an Investment Manager at BlackFin since early 2018. She focuses on the Fintech, Insurtech and Regtech markets in Europe. She started her career as a strategy consultant at Suez (Lyonnaise des Eaux), where she had the opportunity to work directly with the CEO on several tech projects, turning them into strategic added value. In 2013, her career took then an international turn as she co-managed a startup competition/acceleration program based in both France and California (UC Berkeley). Back in France, she joined Alter Equity as a VC analyst, and contributed to the launch of the fund. In 2014, Gabrielle joined XAnge (Siparex group) as a VC Associate, where she supported 20 startups, including MicroDon, Docéa Power (sold to Intel), La Ruche Qui Dit Oui!, Digiteka (sold to Ouest France – Rossel), Roctool, Quadrille, Arcure, Scentys, and Elum, among others. A French national, Gabrielle is a graduate of ESSEC Business School and La Sorbonne Paris IV.

Jacky Abitbol

Cathay Innovation

Jacky brings more than 17 years of advisory and operational experience and has a proven expertise in consultancy, private equity, corporate and business development. Specialties include:  Deep knowledge of the telco and digital arena  Solid relationships with the VC community, leading mobile operators and digital groups  Extensive Strategy & BizDev experience  Corporate and M&A experience  Proven track record with start-up (IPO, merger & acquisition) Previously, he has worked as: - Venture Partner at Iris Capital - Managing Director at Fab Israel - Board Member at Orange Advertising Services - Board Observer at My things - Investment Director at Orange Capital - Business Development & Sales Director at SanDisk - Corporate & Business Development Director at GFI - Vice President at Fantine Group (now Aviv Venture Capital)

Benoit Wirz

Investment Partner

Brighteye VC

Benoit Wirz is a partner at Brighteye working with startups that leverage technology to help people learn, create and participate in the knowledge economy. Brighteye Ventures is the first and largest edtech focused venture capital fund based in Europe, investing in early stage companies in Europe, Israel and the US. Previously, Ben started and ran the Knight Enterprise Fund, a US seed stage venture fund as part of the $2.5B Knight Foundation focused on edtech, media and govtech companies, investing in over 40 startups including Nearpod, Newsela and Tapad (acquired by Telnor). Prior to Knight, Ben was a partner with US Global, where he developed and invested in startups in energy, manufacturing and tech. Ben received his BA and MA at Stanford University, his MBA at INSEAD and is a Kauffman Fellow.

Mercedes Storch

Head Of International Relations 

AXIS Participaciones Empresariales SGEIC SA

With more than 15 years linked to ICO/AXIS in different departments and a global point of view of ICO as development bank. Currently and for the last two years linked to AXIS as head of international relations promoting the venture capital in its activity as investor abroad. Previously in capital markets linked to the structuration of ICO´s first social bond as well as Councinl of Europe Development Bank´s first social bond during a secondment. Personally convinced that future will be only possible with a sustainable approach.

David Fogel

Co-Founder & Investor

Accelerated Digital Ventures

David focuses on finding the best startups in the UK and Ireland and helping them supercharge to create generation defining tech companies at scale. ADV invests patient venture over the long term of a company's journey. He started his career in Israel building B2B software products [Telco and Fintech], worked at an accelerator and early stage VC in Spain and spent three years doing M&A and strategy innovation across Europe, Asia and the US. Before joining ADV David spent two and a half years heading up the acceleration program at Wayra, Telefonica’s early stage investment arm.

Iker Marcaide

Founder

Zubilabs

Iker Marcaide is the founder of Zubi Labs where he focuses on impact ventures looking for a financial, social & environmental return. In 2017, he founded La Pinada, an eco-town in Valencia currently in design that aims to create a smart, sustainable, kids-friendly, healthy and vibrant town over 25 hectares of land where over 4000 people will enjoy a living-as-a-service innovative experience. The town is being co-designed by the future neighbours in a lean-model applied to urban developments and has already been chosen by the EU as a pioneer in fighting climate change. Previously, Iker co-founded in 2016 Imagine Montessori School, a school focused on personalized education. In 2009, he founded peerTransfer (aka flywire) one of the fastest growing fintechs, and today the global leader in international education payments and a venture that raised over $43M from top VCs. Iker is an MIT Sloan MBA graduate, MIT TR 35 and originally from Valencia, Spain.

Marisol Menéndez

Chief Open Innovation

Spain Startup - South Summit

"She is Chief Open Innovation Officer at South Summit, the global Open Innovation platform that connects startups, corporations and investors and former Global Head of Open Innovation at BBVA – where she designed and developed the Open Innovation project since its beginning. This experience has given her a unique understanding of both the corporate and startup worlds, needed to develop successful collaborations. Marisol is an expert with more than 20 years of experience in the areas of open innovation, fintech and digital transformation. An Industrial Engineer with an MBA, currently pursuing a PhD in Open Innovation. Marisol is known for her inclusive leadership style, talent for creating high-performance teams, and ability to establish lasting connections. An industrial engineer who loves to sing and play guitar, Marisol Menendez believes deeply in the power of trust to drive change, and in collaborative innovation. "

Pablo Leguina

Seedtag

Pablo is the CFO at seedtag, the leading in-image advertising platform. Seedtag was founded in 2014 by two former googlers with a clear mission: to change how online advertising is done. Today we have a large international presence with over 100 employees and are positioned as the leading In-Image Advertising platform in Europe and LATAM. Previously, Pablo was CFO at 3INA, a cosmetics start-up based in Madrid, and held positions of responsibility in several blue chip companies both in UK and Spain, including Ferrovial, TUI Group or Deloitte. He holds a BA in Business Management and Finance from CUNEF

David Rovira

Co-Founder & CSO

Polaroo

Balázs Faluvégi

Co-founder & CEO

Blueoped

SRI advisor and wealth manager from Budapest, Hungary. My mission is to help investors to achieve their financial goals, while putting their money to work for the good of society. A vast of research material clearly proves, that no one needs to give up good returns on securities markets investing in environmentally and socially responsible companies. As a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) advisor, I use ESG research which stands for: Environmental, Social and Governance factors. Only positive screening is applied, which lets our investors to hold only the truly best end most beneficial companies be in their portfolios.

Dr Ekta Dang

Venture Partner

Fenox Venture Capital

Dr Ekta Dang is a Venture Partner at Fenox Venture Capital. She is a seasoned Industry Executive with 15 years of experience in Product, Business Development and Venture Capital. She brings a stellar network from the Venture Capital and Corporate world to the startups, eg Innovation/Investment arms of Honda, Yamaha, NTT, SAP, Google, Samsung, etc. She is also the CEO and Founder of U First Capital. She has been a member of Hillary Clinton's Technology Policy Advisory Committee. She is an invited Speaker at several top Venture Capital/Startup conferences, like TiE, Silicon Valley Open Doors, etc. She has a PhD in Physics and is a graduate of UC Berkeley Haas School's Venture Capital program. She has published several research papers in IEEE and other reputed international journals. Ekta has advised several companies over her career. She is a Mentor at top Accelerators like Google Launchpad, Alchemist Accelerator, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, etc.