Speakers

In 2015 Hermann was awarded an KBE for services to Engineering and Industry.

Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.

Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Hermann has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin, Strathclyde, Glasgow and York.

Candace Johnson is an international telecommunications expert and entrepreneur, and one of the 50 most powerful businesswomen in Europe. She is co-initiator of SES ASTRA and SES Global, one of the largest satellite systems in the world.

She is the founder and president of Europe Online, the world’s first Internet via satellite network and is the founder of the continent’s first independent, private trans-border satellite communications company, Teleport Europe-Loral Cyberstar.

Candace has played a revolutionary role in European telecommunications and has been honoured for her contributions to advances in telecommunications across Europe and America. She has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Communications Awards as well as honours from the Luxembourg and German governments.

She holds masters degrees from the Sorbonne and Stanford University and graduated with a bachelors degree from Vassar College. Candace is currently President of EBAN (The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players).

Joe O’Sullivan is the founder and CEO of Ophir Mfg Solutions, a Singapore based company that provides Virtual Operations for both start up and mature companies introducing new technology, primarily in the wearables space.

Joe has over 30 years of Global Operations, Manufacturing and Procurement experience. Joe held the positions of Vice President, Consumer Products & Asia Operations at Apple, COO at InFocus, and most recently COO at Intelligent Energy. Joe has built and led Operations and Supply Chain teams in Europe, USA and Asia.

Peaches Kemp co-founded Itsa with her sister Domini in 1999. Starting with one bagel shop and 2 employees 19 years ago, the Kemps now employ over 100 people, have 12 outlets and 6 brands including Kemp Sisters at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Hatch and Sons, Joe’s Coffee, Itsa, Alchemy and Feast Catering. They have successfully run Table Restaurant for Brown Thomas in Cork for the past 13 years and are the wholesale suppliers of sandwiches to Butlers Chocolates. Peaches is a qualified chef, has a post graduate degree in PR, and holds an advanced diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (UK). She won Image Businesswoman of the Year in 2009 and was a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year programme in 2011. She is Chair of the EY EOY Alumni Board and is a supporter, judge and a mentor for Social Entrepreneurs Ireland.

Julian Costley is an active investor in technology and media companies and serves as a chairman or non-executive director on a number of boards. He has just completed a book on crowdfunding (How to use Crowdfunding).

He was a Country Manager at Thomson Reuters, before creating his own TV channel on BSB (later BSkyB), then CEO of France Telecom’s Globecast satellite company. After meeting venture capitalist Hermann Hauser in 1998, they created E*TRADE UK, the UK’s first all-Internet stockbroking firm and effected a trade sale at the height of the dotcom boom.

Since then he has invested in 16 companies and became chairman/NED or adviser to many more focusing on the telecoms, media, financial services, and internet markets in UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, France, Canada and China. He is an occasional lecturer/mentor/MBA course judge at London Business School, Said (Oxford University), EDHEC (Nice), UM (Barcelona), Skema Business School (Sophia Antipolis) and Deusto (San Sebastian).

Marcel Dridje is a seasoned European Sales Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace).

During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK. He walked away from his first position with IBM UK as an Applications Engineer greatly relieved to embark on a career in sales…his forte and passion.

Three major highlights from his career include helping Airespace to be the #2 WLAN in EMEA market share and positioned Cisco to be #1 WLAN vendor worldwide. He has helped start promoting Cisco VCE alliance (VMware, EMC, Cisco) and the BMC OEM relationship to Kick Start their first SP IaaS Cloud offering on a worldwide basis.

He also pioneered the French ISP Internet business while leading Ascend’s insertion into FT/Orange first ISP business to include ISDNET, OLEANE and Internetway. Marcel most recently left CISCO after 30 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development. Vaelsys,Microgine, FAVEEO, Digitalarti and Cyberflowanalytics are five of his star ventures.  A self proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 30 years IT& Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA,USA and APAC.

Pete Smyth is founder and CEO of Broadlake a private investment company focused on investing in established and growing SMEs.

Broadlake manages €100m of family capital, investing €1-10m in ambitious businesses.  Pre Broadlake, Pete was CEO of Noonan Services Group where he led the Group through a period of high growth culminating in the sale of the business in 2008.  At the time it was one of Ireland largest Service companies employing 5,500 people.

Former life experiences include periods in Private Equity and Investment Banking

Peter studied Engineering and Computer Science at Cambridge University, lives near Cambridge and has owned and run small businesses in technology and construction. Peter was UKBAA business angel of the year 2014/15 and is one of top Global Corporate Venturers.

He is a Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School. He is currenty the president of EBAN. He has been an active angel investor for many years and is a board member of the Cambridge Angels and the Investment Director of the Marshall of Cambridge, Martlet Corporate Angel division.

He has personally invested in over 50 startups (in the SaaS, biotech, sensing, IoT, cleantech, fintech, edtech, medtech and security sectors), has led many investment rounds and is a non-executive director or observer of seven technology start-ups. Peter has been voluntary chair, treasurer and trustee of numerous charities for over fifteen years and he has built several domestic houses and refurbished many others, including the Cambridge Advice Centre. Peter is a freeman of the City of London and is on the advisory board of a Social Enterprise in criminal justice.

Ronan Murphy is CEO of Smarttech, past Chairman of the board European Tech Cluster – IT@Cork, Chairman & Co-Founder of Zevas Communications and Director Cork Chamber of Commerce.

A seasoned C-level executive. Working with an elite team of engineers, support teams and sales executives to deliver world class cyber security and business outsourcing solutions. Technology stack is powered by the worlds leading companies.

Honours degree in Business & IT and an accredited ITIL practitioner. Passionate about working with enterprise clients and multinationals to deliver managed technology services, managed security, desk side support and global helpdesk services to our clients helping to streamline their IT processes and reduce operating costs.

Peter E. Braun has 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and in various senior and top management positions in the aerospace and automotive industries. He has successfully launched two industrial companies and two finance-related enterprises, and completed two IPOs, one in the United States and one in Germany. During his career, Peter acquired profound knowledge of the capital markets and the finance sector though his activities in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada, USA and Asia. He is a much asked for coach for start-ups, a compelling speaker and a sought after senior advisor and board member.

In his most recent activity as a Co-founder and CEO of the Mountain Club AG, he created a peerless e-banking solution for business angel and private equity investments in collaboration with strategic partner UBS AG.

Former Senior Advisor of the Elite Programme of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), star of the Turkish version of the television show Dragons’ Den / Sharks Tank, Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), Co-chair of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), Vice President of the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN), President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA), the World Entrepreneurship Forum Ambassador to Turkey and the Balkan countries, and President of Deulcom International.

One of the top global speakers on entrepreneurship, innovation and angel investment invited by former US President Obama to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Recipient of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) award for the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 2014 (Ireland), 2015 (Netherlands), 2016 (Portugal) and 2017 (Spain). The only entrepreneur to be granted a personal audience with former President Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC. Developer of the world-renowned entrepreneurship theory, the Altuntas Start-up Compass Theory, researched by Sheffield University and used in numerous MBA programmes. Advisory board member of the South East Europe Research Council in Greece. Appointed as JCI Ambassador, following Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations.

Profiled regularly by leading international media such as CNN International and Bloomberg. A co-author of Planet Entrepreneur: The World Entrepreneurship Forum’s Guide to Business Success Around the World, published by Wiley (2013). Author of Off the Bus, Into a Supercar! How I Became a Top TV Star and Celebrated Investor, published by Balboa Press (2014) and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Albanian, and Macedonian.

Janne Jormalainen is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is active in the angel investment scene in Northern Europe, his has invested to over twenty high tech and education companies. He is chairman of the board in six companies and chairman of the board of the Finnish Business Angel Network, FiBAN. He is a frequently heard speaker in conferences and seminars.

Janne made his early career in large corporate environment, then moving to entrepreneurship. At Nokia, he was in charge of multiple functions and businesses; managing for example the mobile accessory, IoT and wearables business unit with 860 M€ in annual revenues. He has lived and worked in the USA, Europe and Southeast Asia. Since 2005 he has been working as an entrepreneur in multiple industries and founded several companies. In 2015 he sold SPU, a company producing energy efficient building materials, to Kingspan Plc.

Janne holds master’s degree from Tampere University of technology. He considers himself as a resident of the world with current home in Espoo, Finland.

Jesper Jarlbæk is an angel investor and professional board member of a number of growth businesses. Jesper is currently Vice-Chairman of DVCA (Danish Venture Capital Association) and Chairman of BA Copenhagen, Denmark’s largest and most successful Business Angel Network. He is also a member of VL7. In 2009, Jesper was awarded the “Business Angel of the Year” title by DVCA.

Jesper Jarlbæk is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Bang & Olufsen A/S, an NASDAQ OMX listed company. Jesper has previously served on the board of 3 other NASDAQ OMX listed companies in Denmark and one US listed company. He is the Chairman of CataCap, a Danish PE fund, as well as a member of the Board of Polaris Invest III fund, the second largest Danish PE fund.

Between 1975 and 2002, Jesper Jarlbæk was employed at Arthur Andersen, ultimately holding dual positions as Managing Partner, Denmark and Nordic Managing Partner – Assurance and Business Advisory. From 2002 to 2006, Jesper was Managing Partner of Advisory Services at Deloitte and, as such, one of four members of the senior management team. In both these executive positions, Jesper had bottom line responsibility for 1000+ highly qualified professionals.

Juan is running an impact investing fund in Deep tech & Deep science to fund IP, Proof of Concept and Spin-offs raising from the most universities, research centers, scientific and technological Parks.

Larissa is an active early-stage investor privately and through the women’s’ angel program, Rising Tide Europe, Larissa has been nominated president of the Luxembourg Business Angel Network (www.LBAN.lu) and is engaged with the European Business Angel Network (EBAN).

She is also the director and co-founder of Equilibre (www.equilibre.lu), a Luxembourg-based think-tank delivering research, advisory and advocacy for ‘gender complementarity’ at work – working with companies of all sizes, government bodies and associations to harnessing the power of diversity.

Due to her entrepreneurial background in growing and exiting a RegTech company in the Intellectual Property domain, as well as an MBA and Masters in Finance, she has become a proverbial ‘Jane-of-all-trades’, lecturing at Universities and on the European speaker circuit on subject related to gender, impact investing, entrepreneurship and family business.

Christine Bjarkby is a Senior Advisor at Lincs. Christine has a broad experience from business development worldwide from large public global companies to small start-up companies. Christine has previously worked with investments as a representative of Invest Sweden, Entrepreneurship Network (Enterprise Network for Startup ICT) and Connect. Christine is and has been a board member of several startup companies and is herself a business angel. Connect matches growth companies with capital and crucial skills and contacts. Connect’s network of more than 400 investors is spread all over Sweden. Connect works actively to develop its investment network at regional, national and international levels. Connect has a large flow of qualified growth companies seeking venture capital, arranging over 50 investment events across the country every year, as well as speed pitches and industry-oriented meeting places. As an investor, Connect Sverige members will have access to the digital marketplace GUST, where all the capital-seeking Connect companies are presented. Connect works to visualize the role of early growth capital in the ecosystem through debate articles, statistics and referral issues. Connect is a member of the Swedish Risk Capital Association and the European Business Angels Network as well as Nordic Business Angel Network.

Albert has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement in Spain. In 2002, he co-founded and became executive director of the Business Angel Network Catalunya BANC, the first Spanish angel network, which he led. Additionally in 2006 he co-founded ESBAN, a private foundation to raising awareness and promoting angel investment and Business Angels Networks in Spain. Since 2003, Albert is member of the Board of EBAN. Albert has been appointed by the Parliament of Catalonia as member of the Advisory Board of the Catalan Institute of Finance, the public credit institution of the Government of Catalonia. During his career, Albert has gathered a profound knowledge of the entrepreneurship skills. As a consultant, advisor, coach or business angel, His experience in entrepreneurial field, over 25 years, has helped thousands start-ups and entrepreneurs to born and grow. He is co-founder (1986) and executive director of CPAC (Fundació Privada per a la Promoció de l’Autoocupació de Catalunya), an independent charity with a mission to help people and organizations to be entrepreneurs.

Amparo de San José is CEO at IESE’s Business Angels Network since 2009. The network has reached a record investment year in 2017 with 32 deals and +4 million invested, added to complete a +190 startups portfolio. In 2013, IESE was recognized with the EBAN Award for Best European Business Angel Network. Previously, de San José served as consultant for InterAmerican Development Bank in Washington, and keeps occasional collaboration with the institution on entrepreneurship issues.

At LATAM, she has been part of several consulting projects devoted to entrepreneurship and startup creation, and is a member of the XCALA initiative for the creation of business angels networks. Her study Accelerators and Social Entrepreneurship: Acceleration Models and Support Ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean has recently been published, along with three case studies conducted at a local scale and the AEBAN Business Angels Report 2016 (an annual report on the situation of business angel investment in Spain). Currently, she is the lead person behind Startup Europe Latin America and Women Angels for Entrepreneurs in Spain.

José Herrera has been the President of AEBAN – the Spanish Association of Business Angel Networks – since 2015 and has extensive experience as a business angel.

He is a partner at the law firm H.F Legal, specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions, as well as a member of IESE Business School’s Business Angel Network. José Herrera holds a degree in Law and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Barcelona.

Professor Ketikidis is the Vice Principal for Research, Innovation & External Relations of CITY College – An International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, and the Chairman of the Management Committee & Academic Director of the Doctoral Programme at the South East European Research Centre (SEERC). He has over 25 years of experience in management, education, research, and competitive research funding with various networks established as a result of this experience.

Professor Ketikidis has been listed in the Marquis´s Who´s Who, Publications Board in Science and Engineering, Eleventh Edition 2011-2012. He is a member of the International Faculty Administration Board of CITY College, which provides steer and leadership on the academic and development strategy of the College (1993-present).

He was the Head of the Computer Science department of CITY College (1993-2001); Head of Continuing Education (1991-1993) at CITY College; He was also, a Project Leader at Sterling Drug Inc., responsible for all the phases of the Software Development Life Cycle to support Discovery Research at Sterling Drug Incorporation, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A. (1989-1991); Database Administrator and Systems Analyst at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (1986-1989), and Research Assistant – Graduate Assistant at West Chester University, U.S.A. (1984-1986).

Professor Ketikidis is the President of the Greek Computer Society (EPY) – Macedonia-Thrace chapter (elected 2008-2010); He has been elected as President of the International Society of Logistics – Chapter Thessaloniki (1999-2005) and from 2006 he is an Emeritus President of the International Society of Logistics; Scientific Advisor of the Management Board for the Association of Information Technology Companies of Northern Greece (SEPVE: 1998-present); Honorable Member of the Exporters’ Association of Northern Greece Management Board (SEVE : 2006present); Member of the Administration Board – Centre for the support of female employment and entrepreneurship ERGANI (2006-present); Member of the Prefecture Board for Enterprise and Vocational Training, Prefecture of Thessaloniki (2007-present); He was for many years an Expert (reviewer) of DG XIII (Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation) of the European Commission, and has also been involved in many European Information Technology projects funded by the European Commission (1992 -current).

He is Chief Editor of the International Journal of Innovation & Regional Development (IJIRD), Associate Editor of the International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation (IJLEG), Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Operational Research (IJOR), European Editor of the International Journal of Enterprise Network Management (IJENM), and a member of organizing and scientific committees in various national /international conferences and workshops.

Robert graduated from the Carlson School of Management MBA program and the Warsaw School of Economics as well as individual intercollegiate studies at Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin University of Technology and Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. Co-founder and Managing Partner at CobinAngels, business angel network, entrepreneur, investor.

He is an expert in diffusion of innovation, business models and organization and development of new ventures. Mentor and member of evaluation teams in start-up contests, investor and coach in several innovative technology startups. Member of the supervisory boards and control bodies of a number of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, including WorkService S.A. He has extensive experience gained while working on managerial positions in global technology companies such as Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, recently Atos.

He supervised and was responsible for the implementation of a number of innovative projects in Poland like STORK EU, projects in collaboration with Atos Research & Innovation and ASE Scientific Community. He created and supervised the implementation of strategies in the area of introducing new products and technologies as well as marketing and sales on the Polish and regional markets of Central and Eastern Europe, Israel, Egypt and Turkey. He also held a number of functions in industry and social organizations including President of Business Students Club, Member of the Board of Polish Chamber of Information and Telecommunications, Warsaw Executive MBA Alumni Association and French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland. Initiator of the Business Angels Poland Confederation and a member representing Poland in Business Angels Europe Association and EBAN Space Executive Committee.

Founder & Partner of Gestluz Consultores, since 2014. Member of Risk Finance Advisory Group for Horizon 2020. Guest and opinion maker on Porto Canal TV. Board Member of EBAN – European Business Angel Network from 2014 to 2016. Founder & President of Invicta Angels – Porto Business Angels Association and Founder & Vice-President of FNABA – National Federation of Business Angels Associations, from 2007 to 2015. Shareholder Founder and President from 2010 to 2014 of Invicta Angels, SGPS and IA-FCI, Creative Industries.

Executive Board Member of IFD – Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento, SA. from 2015 to 2017. Former Board member of several SME´s and private associations, and Consultant of Strategy, Business and Cities Competitiveness. Former Professor of Higher Education of Courses of Management, Commercial and Sales, and Financial Management.

Master degree in Design for Sustainability, Postgraduate Degree in Political Journalism, Undergraduate Degree in Economics.

Michael O’Connor is the CEO of CorkBIC, a private-sector led organisation, specifically set up to identify and build knowledge-intensive companies based on promising technology usually involving international growth. Michael provides an integrated process for incubating and growing high potential technology driven companies. His previous experience was in manufacturing and sales startups with Raychem Corporation, before co-founding Intepro, a venture capital backed Irish IT startup.

John has extensive experience in start-up and growth businesses (three start-ups; one in the UK, two in Ireland and GM of a computer games company in Chicago). His first business was an Animation Studio in London focusing on Feature films, TV series and Commercials. The success of this venture led to his appointment as General Manager of a Computer Games company in Chicago.

His domain knowledge is in the MediaTech, Digital Media, Software, ICT, Games & Animation sectors, but has also engaged in early stage Research (FP7, H2020 and the European Commission) and Space (ESA) technology sectors.

Through his engagement with Dublin BIC, the Halo Business Angel Network, the AIB Seed Fund and Enterprise Ireland he has his “Finger on the Pulse” of entrepreneurial activity in Ireland and the funding requirements (Equity, Debt, Grant, R&D) for start-up and growth companies.

John is also the Independent Chair of Animation Ireland and a board member of Filmbase.

Vitaly Polekhin is the President of National Business Angels Association (Russia) and Head of SKOLKOVO Investor Club. He was recognized as Angel Investor of the Year 2015 by Russia Venture Awards. Vitaly is shareholder and Supervisory Board Member of Addventure, Texdrive (Genezis Capital) and Venture Angels venture funds. Vitaly holds a PhD in Philosophy, Executive MBA from Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, an MBA from Lomonosov Moscow State University and completed a number of programmes at MIT Sloan School of Management, UC Berkley Haas School of Business, Harvard Business School (Private Equity and Venture Capital programs).

Selma Prodanovic is an internationally awarded entrepreneur, angel investor, and philanthropist. She is passionate about empowering people and creating the future. Named Startup-Grande-Dame by the media, she is famous for her ability to identify, create, and connect business potential. Selma is founder & CEO of 1MillionStartups, the global platform providing exposure and support to entrepreneurs dedicated to solving today’s grand challenges and the UN SDGs. She is co-founder and Vice-President of Austrian Angel Investors Association, Board Member of European Business Angel Network (EBAN), and member of Global Business Angel Network (GBAN). The Business Angelina has a portfolio of startup investments, is lead investor at Rising Tide Europe 1 – impacting the next generation of female business angels, was an investor in the Austrian startup TV show “2 minutes – 2 million”, and served as a judge in over 100 investment panels. Since 2005, with her business developer Brainswork, she launched a dozen of “made in brainswork”-brands, supported over 400 startups, and advised numerous global investors, corporations and organizations. As an inspirational speaker Selma was over 1000 times on stage. Selma is happily married to her first love and proud mother of two fantastic teenagers.

Priit Rohumaa has a master degree in Power Engineering from Tallinn University of Technology and MBA from Estonian Business School, lives in Tallinn, Estonia. Priit has worked in corporate finace sector – privatized Estonian second biggest power grid and has been 18 years in Estonian biggest Oil&Gas-Energy corporation Viru Keemia Grupp, where first 11 years he was CFO and last 7 years as a CEO.

He is a board member of the EstBAN – Estonian Business Angels Network and has been an active angel investor for several years and has invested in over 10 startups (in the defence, machine learning, gaming, education, IOT, industry solutions).

By Estonian President Priit is nominated as Chairman of the Council in Estonian Foresight Center next to Estonian Parliament. Priit is a Chairman of the Supervisory Board in Estonian Railway. Also supervisory board member in Tallinna Vesi – water utility company in Estonian capital.

He was elected as Alumni of the Year 2014 in Tallinn University of Technology (TTU) and he is also a board member of TTU Alumni Council.

Audra Shallal is an expert in Women’s Entrepreneurship and Angel Investment in the EMEA region. She promotes Entrepreneurship and Angel Investing through Programs, Mentoring, Business Plan Competitions, Business Angel Networks and Women’s Economic Empowerment within the EU and the MENA region. She consults for international organizations such as OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and the European Commission, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship to the Grandes Ecoles such as ENSCP, X, ParisTech, CELSA. Audra has played a key role in launching the Enterprise Financing Network within the MENA-OECD Investment Programme which creates a unique platform to connect entrepreneurs, financiers, research bodies and policymakers in order to improve the conditions for financing entrepreneurship. She is used to hold the position of Vice-President of the Femmes Business Angels and currently serves on the Board of BADGE (Les Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles), the Advisory Board of Tenmou-Bahrain First Business Angel Company, and the Paris Executive Business Accelerator. She is also Chair of the Mentoring Taskforce within the American Chamber of Commerce’s Women Leadership Committee and is an accredited Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and BiD Network. She is also a Member of the Board at NFBAN – Nordic Female Business Angel Network.

Ian is a full-time business angel and founded Monte Carlo Capital in 2009 to invest his own assets in early-stage companies. Over the years Ian attracted a group of private co-investors and family offices and, as a group, invest between $500K and to $2M per company at seed/early series A. Ian also brings in follow-on investors in follow-on financings.

Ian is regularly the lead investor and is involved at each step of the deal, from deal sourcing to due diligence, deal structuring, and often joins the board or the advisory board. Once invested, Ian brings in a global network of co-investors and advisors who help portfolio companies access clients, partners and expertise.

Before founding Monte Carlo Capital, Ian was, until 2009, the regional managing director and head of capital markets in Asia for Commerzbank where he was managing all the trading floors activities in Asia, including equity derivatives, credit, precious metals, foreign exchange, debt capital markets, as well as the treasuries of HK, Singapore and Shanghai. Ian started his career in 1993 and previously worked in Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong with HSBC, UBS and JPMorgan, holding positions in trading, sales and financial engineering.

Over the years, Ian has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences in China, HK, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Monaco. Ian currently lectures venture capital to MBA and finance MSc students at the International University of Monaco, and a regular speaker at leading business school. He is also a board member of the Monaco Venture Capital Association. Ian joined the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), in 2016 and recently won the best performing new member award at the annual conference of EBAN in Malaga. Ian is a Monégasque and holds a MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE)

Davorin Stetner is an entrepreneur, investor and an adventurer. He is the President & CEO at his KREATOR GROUP which consists of companies, brands, projects and investments. Among these accomplishments he is President of the Croatian Business Angels Network – CRANE and member of the Economic Council of the President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar – Kitarović.

Born on 10th of November 1981 in Zagreb, Croatia, Stetner launched his first company when he was 20. He is the owner of various businesses in the media & entertainment industry (Kreator TV, Kreator Film New York, Zimo digital), hospitality industry and others. Stetner is an active angel investor with a wide portfolio of investments in startup companies around the world, mainly in Croatia and USA.

He made a world breakthrough with acquisition of Formula 1TM media rights for Croatia in 2011 when he alone negotiated and signed a contract with Bernie Ecclestone beating huge multinational companies. At 29 years old then, he thus became world’s youngest private F1TM rights holder. As he later said – Formula 1TM and the contacts and friendships he made there were his true breakthrough and lifetime value. Stetner has huge premium sports and television production experience. He worked, and he is working with the biggest names in the industry like Formula 1TM, Volvo Ocean RaceTM, MotoGPTM, Eurosport and others. He leads multiple media projects for more than 15 years. He built a numerous media projects and TV stations from the scratch. Motorsports is his big love. He founded Kreator Racing Team in 2012 to help young drivers to compete at the World stage. Kreator Racing made great results in Formula Renault, Karting and Motocross. This team now holds more than 11 national and international Championships titles and is one of the most successful motorsports teams in Croatia.

Stetner was appointed to Croatian President Kolinda Grabar – Kitarović’s Council for Economic Affairs. He has been active in the National Car & Carting Federation (member of FIA) first as a Board member and from 2017, as a Deputy President. His other passions include traveling and long expeditions. Stetner is an adventurer who has traveled throughout many countries of the world such as: the Ivory Coast, Liberia, DR Congo, Panama, Bhutan. So far he has visited more than 70 countries. He also has a Pilot License (PPL) and he is a skipper.