Josine BakkesJosine Bakkes is a Dutch social entrepreneur and expert in community-driven innovation, with over a decade of experience designing entrepreneurship and innovation programs across Europe. by the Female Factor in 2024 and finalist in the category of most influential women in the Diversity and Inclusion Space in Germany in 2021, Kave Bulambo is a trailblazing pioneer on a mission to challenge the status quo around women and underrepresented groups in Tech. A TEDx Speaker and moderator Kave has built an extraordinary career in Talent Acquisition working with some of Europe’s most innovative organizations in the technology industry. This experience coupled with her life journey led her to establish enterprises that center around building people up and cementing inclusion as a core part of business. She is the visionary behind BlackinTechBerlin, the first community of people of African descent in Tech in Germany. Next, she launched TalentDiverse, connecting diverse talent to excellent career opportunities with inclusive organizations.

Marija Butkovic

Marija Butkovic is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, innovation and business consultant, and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech sector. She is the founder and CEO of Women of Wearables – a leading global organization and ecosystem by and for women and allies in life sciences, particularly women’s health, digital health and biotech space. Marija is also a member of the European Innovation Council and a former Forbes contributor, where she covered topics in women’s health and female-led innovation. She has been featured in major tech and business publications such as TechCrunch, The Next Web, and Huffington Post, and selected as one of the Most Influential Women in UK tech by Computer Weekly in 2018-2024, as well as added among 17 female startup leaders in Europe to follow on LinkedIn by Sifted. Marija regularly appears as a public speaker and panelist at conferences, meetups, and corporate events, covering topics of diversity, emerging technologies, and female-led entrepreneurship. She holds an LLM degree from the University of Law in Rijeka, Croatia.

Lourenço Jardim

Lourenço Jardim is a seasoned advisor in innovation, business management, and public policy, currently serving as principal advisor to the Mayor of Lisbon and former EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. He has led Lisbon’s innovation strategy, helping position the city as a leading tech hub and securing its recognition as the European Capital of Innovation 2023. He spearheaded the Unicorn Factory project – one of Europe’s most ambitious accelerators -which doubled venture capital investment, tripled the number of startups, and generated over 18,000 tech jobs by 2025. Alongside managing European Affairs at the Mayor’s office, aligning city strategy with EU priorities and funding programs, Lourenço brings extensive consulting experience, having held leadership roles at Atrevia and worked on major transformation projects for global financial and consumer goods companies. An entrepreneur and late-founder of the digital health startup Line Health, he has also been active in policy and public engagement, contributing to European health and tech initiatives. His academic background includes a Master’s from Sciences Po Paris and a degree from Universidad San Andrés, complemented by a Gulbenkian Foundation research grant. He is deeply engaged in civic innovation, co-founding nonprofit initiatives, and representing Lisbon in international platforms such as C40, the World Economic Forum, and URBAN20.

Alex Kirsch

Alex Kirsch is an IT consultant, software architect, programmer, UX designer, coach and scientist.

Her academic background includes a PhD in Computer Science from TU München, a position as assistant professor for Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Tübingen, a former adjunct membership of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities as a member of the Young Scholar’s Programme, and a Carl-von-Linde Junior Fellowship of the Institute for Advanced Study of TU München. She has experience in a wide range of industries and research fields and has been certified as IT expert reviewer by DEKRA. Currently she runs her own IT company offering consulting, software development and training.

Her expertise covers all aspects of decision-making: making good professional and personal decisions, developing (software) tools that support good decisions, and considering basic questions about what a good decision is.

Lukáš Konečný

Lukáš Konečný is Managing Partner at Y Soft Ventures, a Czech Republic based corporate VC fund investing in Central European Hardware & IoT startups, and a member of the European Commission expert evaluator network. He started his career at JIC – South Moravian Innovation Centre, a public agency supporting entrepreneurial development, where he worked as a business consultant and a program manager. Lukáš is a prog rock enthusiast and a (bass)guitar player.

Anne Lebreton-Wolf

She is a business angel investing in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A French and European tech and deeptech startups since 2012.

Mentor and expert supporting high-potential ventures.

Founder of ALW Finance & Innovation, partnering with public and private stakeholders to design and implement innovation programs.

Co-founder of Good Only Ventures, leading investments focused on sea-life and maritime sustainability.

Anna Maj

Anna Maj is an Innovation Leader, Strategic Advisor and Board Member bringing 25 years of experience in driving deep tech and fintech innovation in Europe and in the Middle East, including C-level and NED roles.

Anna is a CEO of a French fintech Bridge API specialising in AI for finance. She combines hands-on experience with a global strategic approach spanning across sectors and emerging technologies (Digital, AI, New Space), acquired in key strategic and decision-making roles on top with startup advisory and mentorship.

Anna is an experienced Expert and Jury Member at the European Innovation Council, plus a Mentor for the EIC Scaling Club (Digital Security & Trust). She holds several board and advisory roles: among others Anna is a Senior Advisor at Truffle Capital.

Anna has been recognised as one of the TOP 10 FinTech Influencers (2026-2022); TOP10 FinTech Innovators (2021); TOP10 Women in FinTech (2020).

Ana-Maria Oltețeanu

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ana-Maria Oltețeanu is an Artificial Intelligence innovation expert with over 15 years of experience in research, teaching, and digital transformation across EdTech, cognitive systems, health and wellbeing. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers, books and special issues on building AI systems that enhance human cognitive skills like creativity, problem solving, strategic thinking.

She currently serves as Vice Dean of Computer Science and Informatics at a Berlin School of Business and Innovation and previously was Director of Research and Transfer at Constructor University, where she led AI-based research strategy, technology transfer, and supported the administration of research lines of around €10 million per year. Before that, she was AI Professor, Program Director AI & Sustainable Tech, and VP of Research at Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences, where she helped accredit and scale AI-related programmes and build AI-powered competency assessment and personalized learning.

Ana-Maria is the founder of Wellbeing Artificial Intelligence Research, a non-profit focused on AI solutions for wellbeing, organizational innovation, and cognitive enhancement. She regularly advises startups, universities and corporates on AI‑driven innovation, in EdTech, HealthTech, legal tech, Robotics, Digital Twins, HR and People Analytics.

Elena Poughia

Elena Poughia is the Managing Director of Dataconomy, one of the world’s top 10 AI magazines and educational platforms, reaching 1.5 million readers per month. She is also the founder of Data Natives, Europe’s largest data science and AI conference, held annually in Berlin.

A passionate advocate for data privacy and AI ethics, Elena has been a founding member and advisor to various community-driven initiatives focused on innovation, impact, and entrepreneurship. She actively mentors startups through Vision Health Pioneers, tech2impact, African Tech Vision, Applied Data Incubator, WeWork Labs, and more.

As a sought-after speaker, she has taken the stage at leading tech conferences, including Web Summit, 4YFN, Tech BBQ, SXSW, and MWC, and has delivered keynotes for IBM, SAP, and Google. Additionally, she has lectured on AI for Business Consultants at universities such as CBS, Hyper Island, and Esade.

Her achievements have earned her recognition as a “Change-Maker Woman of the Year” by CNN in 2020 and as an emerging entrepreneur by Handelsblatt in 2018.

Eugene Smyth

Eugene Smyth is an Investment Partner for Furthr VC Funds in Ireland, including the €53m AIB Seed Capital Fund where he manages the fast-growth technology portfolio. He is also an industry expert consultant on a variety of European Commission technology innovation programmes. His specialist areas include Cleantech, IOT, New Media, SaaS, DeepTech and emerging platform technologies.

Simone Vecchi

Dr. Simone Vecchi holds a degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a Ph.D. in Cellular, Molecular, and Industrial Biology from the University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum.”

With extensive experience in drug product and drug substance development, Dr. Vecchi has made significant contributions to leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, GSK Vaccines, and Insudpharma. He currently serves as Associate Director of Drug Product Development Scientific Integrator and CMC Leader, at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines, where he oversees the end-to-end development of innovative drugs and overall CMC strategy.

His expertise includes sterile Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing and the development of oral solid and sterile parenteral products across various therapeutic modalities. These modalities encompass small molecules, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and peptides, supporting innovative therapies, as well as generics and biosimilars development for various clinical phases and commercial manufacturing.

Dr. Vecchi’s research and development efforts have yielded to different publications in peer-reviewed journals and resulted in the issuance of three patents in the European Union and the United States.

Stephanie von Behr

Stephanie von Behr is a catalyst for business growth, a connector of people and ideas, and an expert in strategy for startups. She is a serial entrepreneur, operator, and strategic advisor with over a decade of experience scaling ventures, shaping ecosystems, and translating complex ideas into clear, actionable strategies.

She is the former co-founder and Managing Director of Founderland, an award-winning nonprofit supporting women of color founders, which has unlocked capital and community for over 550 entrepreneurs across 26 countries.

Stephanie is currently building Entermezzo, a next-generation social restoration concept designed to bring people out of digital distraction and back into embodied connection through immersive, design-led experiences.

A BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, she is a trusted voice in the European startup landscape and a strong advocate for more inclusive, human-centered innovation.