Note: This is a provisional agenda and timings are subject to change.
All session timings below are in CET.
Registration, Platform and Venue Open, Virtual Networking
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General, DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 35,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and of NATO’s high-level Advisory Group for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, as well as a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, and of the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies in charge of identifying Key Enabling Technologies.
She was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Council and Chair of the Export Grant Committee under the Danish Foreign Ministry. She also served as Executive Board member in DIGITALEUROPE, and as a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she led the development of policy positions on issues such as business digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle as well as with SMEs, building businesses across Europe and China and founding the cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Hilary Mine, President, DIGITALEUROPE and Vice President Strategy & Technology, CX, Nokia Based in the Netherlands, Ms. Mine leads Customer Operations for Nokia in eleven countries across Nordics, Baltics, and Benelux. She and her teams lead sales, business management, delivery and operations across the region.
Prior to her current role, Ms Mine was based in Silicon Valley, and ran Nokia’s Global Network Transformation practice. She has also run Alcatel-Lucent’s global Consulting Services business, and the full regional business of Alcatel-Lucent in North Asia and Australasia/Oceania which included sales and delivery of large transformation and managed services projects, and well as being Managing Director of both Australia and New Zealand.
Before joining Alcatel, Ms Mine was a much-cited and published analyst and consultant working across the IT and telecom industries. She has worked in the communications and IT field for more than 25 years, during which time she has held senior executive roles with Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Technicolor and Probe Research, and has lived and worked extensively in Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as North America.
Ms Mine holds an MBA from San Francisco State University and a BA in Economics from Reed College. She has one daughter, and enjoys cooking, yoga, running, hiking, and travel.
Hilary Mine
President, DIGITALEUROPE and Vice President Strategy & Technology, CX, Nokia
Ursula von der Leyen, President, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has been President of the European Commission since 2019. As the head of the European Union’s executive, she has defined six headline ambitions for Europe for her mandate: a European Green Deal, a Europe fit for the digital age, an economy that works for people, a stronger Europe in the world, promoting our European way of life, and a new push for European democracy.
Before joining the Commission, Von der Leyen held a number of federal ministerial portfolios in Germany, including Defence Minister, Minister for labour and social affairs, and Family Minister.
Ursula von der Leyen
President, European Commission
Panel Debate in association with
The European Economy of the Future – Lean, Green and High-Tech
Europe is a manufacturing powerhouse and is leading the way on industry 4.0. It has strengths in traditional sectors like transport, energy and others. Our technologies are world-leading in terms of driving down emissions. What are the pioneering examples of Europe’s industrial renaissance, and where do we need to focus to roll them out across the continent?
Katrina Sichel, Communications Specialist Katrina is a London-born, now Brussels-based moderator and communications specialist with a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University. As part of an eclectic career path spanning steel-trading in Africa to business development in the former Soviet States, she spent four years as co-Director of a broadcast PR company. Here she produced news packages for the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, AP and Reuters, interviewing well-known figures from the arts, sport and political arenas.
Since 2007, Katrina has been moderating events covering diverse topics and policy areas, from R&I, social affairs, development, finance and digitisation, to agriculture, environment, energy, fisheries and health. Alongside, until 2017, she managed the creation and roll-out across Europe of multimedia, multi-lingual communications campaigns targeting the public, and EU and national stakeholders from diverse sectors. Katrina speaks fluent French, rusty Russian and a dash of German alongside her native tongue.
Moderated by: Katrina Sichel
Communications Specialist
Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice-President, Industry, Marketing & Sustainability, Dassault Systèmes Since 2018, Executive Vice-President, Industry Solutions, Field Marketing, Global Affairs of Dassault Systemes. Started career as a financial analyst in investment banking in New York. Then acquired more than 5 years of experience in the public sector: with the European Commission in Brussels, responsible for the trade relationships between the EU and China, and thereafter of the antitrust case against Microsoft. 2007, joined the team of the French Minister of European Affairs, as Adviser on trade and industry issues. 2008-17, worked at Engie, a world leader in the energy sector, first in charge of Business Development for the group, then as Chief Executive Officer, Engie, Qatar, and later Vice-President for the group procurement performance plan; finally appointed Chief Operating Officer, Engie, Europe and Russia. Member of the Board, past or present: PSA; Air France. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2013). Graduate, Ecole Polytechnique / Corps des Mines.
Florence Verzelen
Executive Vice-President Industry, Marketing & Sustainability, Dassault Systèmes
Mathieu Weill, Head of Digital Economy Department, French Ministry of Economy Biography to follow shortly.
Mathieu Weill
Head of Digital Economy Department, French Ministry of Economy
Rainer Brehm, CEO Factory Automation, Siemens Digital Industries Vita
Mr. Brehm was born in March 1975 in Erlangen. He is married and has two sons and one daughter
Professional career
Following his graduation as an electrical engineer, Mr. Brehm joined Siemens AG in 1999. During the first four
years, he was working in Product Management for Automation Engineering. In 2004, he started working as
Project Leader in the Siemens internal Management Consulting department. During the next three years, he
was responsible for Factory Sensors. In the year 2010, Rainer Brehm globally headed the General Motion
Control Segment. In October 2014, Mr. Brehm moved to Sao Paulo (Brazil), where he worked as Division Head
of Process Industries & Drives and Power & Gas. In September 2017 he became Vice President of Automation
Products and Systems – Siemens Digital Industries.
As of January 2020, Rainer Brehm is the CEO of the Business Unit Factory Automation in Nuremberg. He is also
responsible for CTO Digital Industries as well as for Quality Management & EHS and Product Safety at Digital
Industries.In addition to his role as CEO Factory Automation, Rainer Brehm is Chairman of the Automation
Division of the German Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (ZVEI) and member of the
Managing Board of ARENA2036
Rainer Brehm
CEO Factory Automation, Siemens Digital Industries
How Innovation can Underpin Europe’s Recovery
150 billion + euros of COVID recovery funds provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul Europe’s digital infrastructure. Using case studies of Italy and Spain, our high-level panel will look at the different ways that companies, as well as governments, can work together to develop and rapidly scale new solutions to societal challenges. More specially, how does the principle of open innovation help to modernize the public sector, clean up our cities, and support our traditional industries to be more productive? Are there technical challenges and policy roadblocks to getting there? Are we ready to fully unlock Europe’s potential?
Katrina Sichel, Communications Specialist Katrina is a London-born, now Brussels-based moderator and communications specialist with a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University. As part of an eclectic career path spanning steel-trading in Africa to business development in the former Soviet States, she spent four years as co-Director of a broadcast PR company. Here she produced news packages for the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, AP and Reuters, interviewing well-known figures from the arts, sport and political arenas.
Since 2007, Katrina has been moderating events covering diverse topics and policy areas, from R&I, social affairs, development, finance and digitisation, to agriculture, environment, energy, fisheries and health. Alongside, until 2017, she managed the creation and roll-out across Europe of multimedia, multi-lingual communications campaigns targeting the public, and EU and national stakeholders from diverse sectors. Katrina speaks fluent French, rusty Russian and a dash of German alongside her native tongue.
Moderated by: Katrina Sichel
Communications Specialist
Vittorio Colao, Minister for Technical Innovation and Digital Transition, Government of Italy (TBC) Vittorio Colao
Minister for Technical Innovation and Digital Transition, Government of Italy
Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Government of Spain Carme Artigas is a recognized Expert in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Technology Innovation, with more than 25 years of experience the Technology sector.
She cofounded and was the CEO of Synergic Partners, a Pioneer European Big Data Company, which was acquired by Telefonica group in November 2015.
She continued serving as company CEO until the company’s full integration into the Telefonica Group at the en of 2018. Since 2019 until her appointment as Secretary of State, she was member of several International Advisory Boards.
She was appointed by the University of Stanford (California) as Ambassador “Women in Data Science (WIDS)”.
She was recognized by the American business magazine ”Insight Success” as the one among the 30 most influential executives with an international projection. She is among the top women in the world in the data business and she has come the public sector to make Spain a leading country in Digital transition and Technology transformation.
Carme Artigas
Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Government of Spain
Roberto Viola, Director General, DG CNECT, European Commission Roberto Viola is Director General of DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology) at the European Commission.
He was the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT, European Commission from 2012 to 2015.
Roberto Viola served as Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, as Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010. He was a member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators), and Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG) in 2007.
He held the position of Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM, from 2005 to 2012. Prior to this, he served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004.
From 1985-1999 he served in various positions including as Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services at the European Space Agency (ESA).
Roberto Viola holds a Doctorate in Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
Roberto Viola
Director General, DG CNECT, European Commission
Gianni Anguilletti, Vice President for the Mediterranean Region, Red Hat Gianni Anguilletti has more than 30 years of experience in business, marketing and organizational management.
He currently covers the role of Red Hat Vice President for the Mediterranean Region, which includes Italy, France, Spain Portugal, Israel, Greece and Cyprus; in this position he is responsible for the implementation of corporate strategies at local level, overseeing an organization that supports thousands of customers at improving their competitiveness and operational agility.
Gianni joined Red Hat in 2006, after a number of successful sales and managerial experiences at Business Objects, Think3 Incorporated and PTC, where he covered roles such as Sales Director and Vice-President of Operations and where he has consistently achieved significant results by setting up highly productive organizations and by establishing strong business and technological partnerships with prestigious customers and partners.
Before joining PTC he worked for other companies, taking part in several projects for the implementation of CA-X and Industrial Automation systems, in Italy as well as in other countries.
Gianni Anguilletti
Vice President for the Mediterranean Region, Red Hat
Sophie Proust, EVP Chief Technology Officer, Atos Sophie Proust is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Atos since January 2019.
She has been ranked among the among the “TOP 100 TECHNOLOGY LEADERS, 2021” in September 2021 and “Top 25 Women Leaders in IT services” in September 2020.
She is part of the advisory board of Atos Quantum, chaired by Atos CEO with Serge Haroche (Nobel 2012).
Sophie joined the Atos group in 2014 following the acquisition of Bull by Atos, where she held the position of Head of Research and Development.
In 2010, Sophie led the Tera100 Project which developed and supplied the CEA with the first Petaflops-scale calculator in Europe.
At Atos, Sophie headed the Research and Development division for the Big Data and Cybersecurity sector from 2014 to January 2019.
Sophie is a member of the board of directors of IDSA (International Data Spaces association), member of the Scientific Board of INRIA (French Institut National de Recherche en sciences et technologies du Numérique). Member of the board of directors of UTT (Technological University of Troyes). Member of BDVA (BigData Value Association) for “Industrial Data and AI” advisory committee
Sophie Proust is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité “Supélec” of Paris, which is since 2015 CentraleSupelec.
Sophie Proust
EVP Chief Technology Officer, Atos
Future Health Trends – How Technology will Transform Medicine
Data and artificial intelligence are revolutionising the way we treat patients and create new medicines and vaccines. Meanwhile, the pandemic accelerated the use of virtual health technologies as we were stuck at home. How can we make sure the advances made over the past few months are here for good? Join our expert panel as we discuss what is possible now, and what will be possible in the next 10 years, if we get the policy right.
Jillian Deutsch, Reporter, Bloomberg News Jillian Deutsch is Bloomberg’s European technology correspondent, covering tech news in Brussels and around the European Union. Before that, she worked as a health reporter at Politico Europe focusing on vaccines, medical devices and cannabis. She’s also written for USA Today, Poynter, daily newspapers and women’s magazines in the U.S. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 2016 with a focus on journalism and gender studies.
Moderated by: Jillian Deutsch
Reporter, Bloomberg News
Isabelle Zablit-Schmitz, eHealth Europe & International Director, French Ministry of Health Isabelle Zablit-Schmitz joined the French Ministry of Health as eHealth Europe & International Director. She is in charge of coordination between France, Europe, and international eHealth matters. Prior to joining the French Ministry of Health in 2020, she had a career in the private sector as eHealth executive, lately as eHealth transformation and strategy consultant and co-founder of the 1st crowdfunding platform dedicated to innovation in eHealth in France.
As Board and Comex Member of Syntec Numérique (now Numeum, the French Federation of Digital companies) in 2015-2021, she chaired the Programme #5000startups (+850 startups) and eHealth Committee, leading industrial lobbying initiatives in ehealth.
Previously, she held several positions with IBM Europe and France in Global Technology Services and Global Consulting Services, as well as with PwC Management Consulting, Tenneco Automotive Europe and LafargeHolcim. She is also in charge of an international risk Management course at Université Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne and serves as IHEST (Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology) board member as well as for an care institutions for the elderly.
Isabelle Zablit-Schmitz
eHealth Europe & International Director, French Ministry of Health
Francesco Buonarroti, Vice-President IT and CIO, Janssen EMEA, Chair of DIGITALEUROPE’s Digital Executive Council for Health Francesco Buonarroti is the Chief Information Officer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson, where he has been working for 12 years now. His previous positions include Senior Director IT, Janssen Commercial EMEA and IT Director EMEA Finance Logistic and HR amongst other.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Francesco has worked for SAP.
Francesco Buonarroti
Chief Information Officer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals EMEA, Johnson & Johnson
Nicolas Monsarrat, Managing Director, Accenture Health, Digital Health Europe Lead Nicolas has 30 years of experience at Accenture, leading Accenture’s Digital Health initiative in Europe, focusing on industry convergence around healthcare. Nicolas is the lead for Digital Health in Europe, engaging across industries, including Health, Insurance, Telecommunication, HealthTech and ecosystems to drive industry convergence value proposition and programs around healthcare. Recently, he has led strategy and operational initiatives related to the sanitary crisis, including core epidemics management, vaccine management and Green Pass certification projects.
Nicolas Monsarrat
Managing Director, Accenture Health, Digital Health Europe Lead
In-Person Roundtables, Virtual Networking, Breakouts, VIP Lunch
Are the EU’s Connectivity Goals Ambitious Enough?
Pekka Lundmark, President & CEO, Nokia With almost 20 years as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pekka has accrued deep expertise in the telecommunications, technology, energy, machinery, and finance sectors, all of which are central to the transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Pekka was appointed as Nokia’s CEO on August 1, 2020. He has put in place a new operating model for the company and positioned Nokia as a trusted partner for critical networks around the world. These critical networks are advanced systems of hardware and software that run mission-critical services for companies and societies. They are central to Pekka’s passionately held belief that technology and connectivity can and should help industries and societies improve productivity and sustainability as well as create new opportunities.
He previously worked for Nokia between 1990 and 2000, when he helped oversee the company’s emergence as the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer and a significant player in mobile infrastructure.
Pekka started his Nokia career as an account manager, responsible for the launch of the world’s first GSM network. He led the company’s expansion into new territories and became known as a dynamic and visionary leader who knew how to adapt businesses to prepare for, and capitalize on, coming trends.
In 2000 he moved from Nokia into venture capital with Startupfactory, followed by the consumer goods company Hackman, where he first became a CEO. He then led Konecranes for 10 years, before in 2015 moving to Fortum, an international energy company.
Pekka’s broad experience, which includes working in Silicon Valley and Asia, has given him insight into technologies that will be at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These include 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, private networks, the Industrial Internet of Things, and cloud computing.
Originally from Espoo, Finland, Pekka earned a master’s degree in information systems from Aalto University’s Department of Technical Physics (formerly Helsinki University of Technology). He holds advisory or oversight roles at the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, the Climate Leadership Council, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, among others.
Pekka Lundmark (pre-recorded)
President and CEO, Nokia
Digital Innovation as a Pillar of Peace and Security
Mircea Geoană, Deputy Secretary General, NATO Mircea Geoană became NATO Deputy Secretary General in October 2019, after a distinguished domestic and international career. Mr Geoană is the first Deputy Secretary General from Romania, and the first from any of the countries that joined the Alliance after the end of the Cold War.
Mr Geoană was born in Romania on 14 July 1958. He studied at the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris, and he holds a PhD from the Economic Studies Academy of Bucharest. Mr Geoană has served as a diplomat and a politician, and in 2009 was his party’s candidate to be President of Romania.
Mircea Geoană
Deputy Secretary General, NATO
Gina M. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce (pre-recorded) Gina M. Raimondo serves as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce and was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3, 2021. As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on a simple but vital mission — to spur good-paying jobs, empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow, and help American workers and businesses compete.
Secretary Raimondo was formerly the 75th Governor of Rhode Island and its first woman governor. She grew up in Smithfield in a tight-knit Italian-American family, the youngest of Joseph and Josephine Raimondo’s three children. Her family history and her childhood experiences shaped her core beliefs in hard work, opportunity for all, and the importance of financial security.
After arriving from Italy at age 14, Secretary Raimondo’s grandfather learned English studying in the Providence Public Library and later lived with her family. Her mother was a homemaker, who dedicated her life to teaching her children about the importance of hard work and determination. Her father was a World War II Navy veteran from a family of butchers and became the first in his family to attend college thanks to the GI Bill. After working for 26 years in manufacturing, Joseph lost his job along with hundreds of others when the factory moved overseas, and the Raimondo family lost their sense of financial security.
As a teenager, Secretary Raimondo rode a public bus to LaSalle Academy in Providence, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class. She went on to graduate with honors from Harvard, where she was recognized as the top economics student in her class. She won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she earned a doctorate and met her future husband Andy Moffit. She later graduated from Yale Law School. Secretary Raimondo clerked for US District Judge Kimba Wood and served as founding employee and senior vice president at Village Ventures.
Wanting to start her own business and be close to family, she returned home to Rhode Island and founded Point Judith Capital, a venture capital firm. In November 2010, Secretary Raimondo was elected to serve as General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving the largest number of votes of any statewide candidate. When she took office as General Treasurer, she tackled the state’s $7 billion unfunded pension liability. Secretary Raimondo was sworn into office as Governor in January 2015 and won a second term in 2018. She also served as chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association in 2019.
During her time as Governor, Secretary Raimondo kick-started the state’s economy and made record investments in infrastructure, education, and job training. She focused tirelessly on creating economic opportunities and good-paying jobs for all Rhode Islanders. Early in her administration, she launched an innovative workforce development program that develops business-led partnerships to address unique workforce challenges.
Secretary Raimondo is married to Andy Moffit and they have two children, Ceci and Tommy, and a rescue dog, Sparky.
Gina M. Raimondo (pre-recorded)
U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Setting Transatlantic Standards for Tech Governance
Europe is racing ahead with new rules for artificial intelligence and online content moderation, both in Brussels and in some member states. Meanwhile, the new transatlantic Trade and Technology Council wants to set the standard on tech in a wide range of areas. How should the EU and US work together to shape global technology norms? And what would success for the TTC look like?
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General, DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 35,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and of NATO’s high-level Advisory Group for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, as well as a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, and of the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies in charge of identifying Key Enabling Technologies.
She was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Council and Chair of the Export Grant Committee under the Danish Foreign Ministry. She also served as Executive Board member in DIGITALEUROPE, and as a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she led the development of policy positions on issues such as business digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle as well as with SMEs, building businesses across Europe and China and founding the cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Moderated by: Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Stefano Sannino, Secretary General, European External Action Service Mr Stefano Sannino is the Secretary-General of the European External Action Service
(EEAS) of the European Union since 1 January 2021.
He held the post of the Deputy Secretary General for Economic and Global Issues at the
EEAS from April 2020 to December 2021.
From March 2016 to April 2020 he was Ambassador of Italy to Spain and Andorra.
From July 2013 until March 2016 he held the position of Permanent Representative of Italy
to the EU in Brussels.
After a period at the Cabinet of the President of the Commission (from 2002 to 2004) he
joined the Directorate General for External Relations as Director for Crisis Management and
Representative at PSC (2004-2006), then Director for Latin America (2008-2009) and finally
as Deputy Director General for Asia and Latin America (2009-2010). In 2010 he moved to
the Directorate General for Enlargement as Deputy Director General and later as Director
General, a position he held until June 2013.
From 2006 to 2008 he was the Diplomatic Advisor to the Italian Prime Minister and his
Personal Representative to G8 summits.
He has also held the position of Ambassador and Head of the OSCE Mission in Belgrade
from 2001 to 2002 and within the Italian Diplomatic Service: Deputy Head of Mission of the
Italian Embassy in Belgrade (1994-1996), Head of the Secretariat of the Under-Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs (1996-1998), Diplomatic Advisor and Head of the Cabinet of the
Minister of Foreign Trade (1998-2001).
Mr Sannino is fluent in Spanish, English and French beyond his native Italian.
Stefano Sannino
Secretary General, European External Action Service
Peter Harrell, Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness, White House Peter Harrell
Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness, White House
Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy, EU Institutions at Google Karen leads Google’s Government Affairs & Public Policy team in Brussels.
She drives the development and implementation of outreach strategies, and engages in various policy areas affecting the digital industry such as platform policies, privacy, content management, economic recovery and sustainability.
Previously, Karen was the CEO of the public affairs consultancy BCW (formerly Burson-Marsteller), becoming one of the most senior female executives under 40 working in EU affairs. She also led BCW’s Public Affairs Practice across Europe and managed pan-European advocacy programs for a wide range of industries towards regulators, industry, NGOs and media. Karen was a board member of EPACA, where she supported the trade body on setting priorities and strategic direction. Previously Karen worked at the UN, the European Commission and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Karen Massin
Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy, EU Institutions at Google
Daniela Braga, Founder and CEO, Defined.ai Dr. Daniela Braga is founder and CEO of Defined.ai, one of the fastest growing scale-ups in the AI space. With two decades of experience across research, industry and entrepreneurship, and a hybrid background that spans from linguistics to engineering to AI, Dr. Braga is a citizen of the world and one the world leaders of Crowdsourcing adoption in large enterprises.
Previously at Microsoft, Dr. Braga worked across all stacks of Speech Technology and shipped 26 languages for Exchange 14, 10 TTS voices in Windows 8 and was involved in Cortana. At Voicebox Technologies, created the Data Science team and shipped voice enabled products for clients like Samsung and Toyota, introduced Crowdsourcing for big data solutions and re-structured the Engineering infrastructure around data collection, processing, ingestion, instrumentation and discoverability. Dr. Braga is oftentimes guest lecturer in the University of Washington, USA, is the author of more than 90 scientific papers and several patents.
At Defined.ai, Dr. Braga has raised more than $63 million USD, and is the woman founder who raised the largest Series B in an AI company in US. Always looking for the next challenge and to get out of her comfort zone, Dr. Braga has led her company to outstanding achievements in just five years. In June 2021, she was invited by the Biden’s Administration to join the US National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task-force.
She has been recognized several times during her career. She was the Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 by the João Vasconcelos Award, and is an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020 Pacific Northwest finalist. Under her leadership, Defined.ai ranked #27 in the Inc 5000 list with an 8550% revenue growth (2016-2019), won the VentureBeat AI Innovation Award (2019); and was featured on the following rankings: Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers, Forbes’ America’s Top 50 Most Promising AI Companies (2019); Hottest Start-ups in Lisbon by Wired (2018, 2019); AI 100: The Artificial Intelligence Startups Redefining Industries (2019).
Daniela Braga
Founder and CEO, Defined.ai
Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research , Culture , Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel is responsible for European Union (EU) policies related to Horizon Europe (the EU R&I programme), research and innovation, the Erasmus+ programme, education, culture and sport. Between 2017 and 2019, she was European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. Under her leadership, the Digital Single Market of the European Commission became a reality. She created the first pan-European programme Digital Europe with a budget of €9 billion.
She has been elected as Member of the European Parliament in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
Mariya Gabriel is First Vice-President of the European People’s Party, and since 2012 Vice-President of EPP Women.
Mariya Gabriel
European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
Presented by Commissioner Gabriel
Jennifer Baker, Journalist Better known as Brusselsgeek, Jennifer has been a journalist in print, radio and television for nearly 20 years, the last 8+ specialising in EU policy in the tech sector.
She has worked across a wide range of media, from editing a national daily paper in Malta, to reporting on European affairs for Middle Eastern television, and has a wealth of experience in navigating the political quagmire of the EU. As well as an address book packed with insider sources and contacts in Brussels, Jennifer is skilled at translating EU policy-speak into understandable English.
Regularly listed as one of the top digital influencers in the EU bubble, Jennifer is a member of the Expert Council of the Good Technology Collective, is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Data Protection and Privacy, is on the also a GLG expert Council Member providing advice on EU Policy, and was named by Onalytica as one of the world’s Top 100 Influencers on Data Security 2016. She was also listed by Politico as one of the Top 20 Women Shaping Brussels in 2017.
She has written for some of the biggest names in media, including ArsTechnica, Computerweekly, TheNextWeb, Macworld, PCworld, and The Register. She regularly features as an expert on BBC radio, SkyNews and others, and hosts Brussels’ must-watch weekly roundup show TOTW for Euractiv.
Moderated by: Jennifer Baker
Journalist
Douglas Johnson-Poensgen, CEO and Co-founder, Circulor As CEO of Circulor, Doug has 25 years international experience as an Executive and Non Executive Director, operating in TMT, Financial Services, IT and Management Consultancy sectors. His leadership experience spans roles in large corporates (Barclays, BT, Serco, AIMIA), scale-ups (Cadence, ISD) and start-ups (Circulor, Snapdragon). He has broad functional experience with consistent themes being innovation (both new product and to drive transformation), delivering growth and regulation.
Douglas Johnson-Poensgen
CEO and Co-founder, Circulor
Olcay Silahlı, Co-founder and CEO, Fazla Gıda Olcay Silahlı is the Co-founder and CEO of Fazla Gıda. He was born in 1988. He spent his childhood in Tekirdağ in his grandfather’s farmhouse. Since he was a child, he always sought to find solutions to food waste that happened in his grandfather’s and neighbours’ farm houses.
He went to Kuleli Military High School and he continued his university education at Turkish Military Academy. However, because of his passion to create a social enterprise, he dropped out of the military academy, moved to İstanbul and got into Istanbul Technical University. He has graduated from the Management Engineering department and joined business life in 2011.
He had started his work life in Deloitte as a consultant. Before Fazla Gıda, he worked in Unilever as a Brand Manager for six years. Additionally, he managed several food waste responsibility projects in Unilever.
He always placed great importance on volunteering and global problems throughout his student and work life. He volunteered in Kenya to help children and had been delegated by Unleash to attend One Young World to tackle food waste. There he realized, there was no initiative from Turkey that aimed to achieve SDGs. Also, there was no sustainable initiative to tackle food waste. Thus, he decided to create a social enterprise to show young people in the world it is possible to do a job that involves goodness for people and the world.
Starting with the vision to create a social enterprise and show people that it’s possible to do good for the world while earning money, and teaming up with the right people who shares the same vision, in 5 years, 30.000 tonnes of food have been saved and 1.100.000 families got monthly food donations and more than 75.000 tonnes of carbon emissions have been prevented in Turkey. In 2018, he was invited to NY UN General Assembly as a speaker and good example as well as Social Good Summit in Geneva. He is also selected as Thought For Food ambassador.
He will continue to tackle global problems with the team members who share the same vision as him. And his next goal is to open up to the world and to grow the impact of Fazla Gıda.
Olcay Silahlı
Co-founder and CEO, Fazla Gıda
Frederik Fahning, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Zenjob Frederik Fahning was born in 1988 in Hamburg to a businessman. Even as a young kid, Frederik harboured the ambition to start his own company one day. After finishing his studies in Business Law, Frederik moved to Berlin to gain work experience. A few months later, he met Fritz and Cihan, and together they founded Zenjob. Frederik was just 27 at that time and now four years later, Zenjob has over 250 employees. Since the start, Frederik has always believed that everyone in the world has the power to change the future of work.
Frederik Fahning
Co-Founder & Managing Director, Zenjob
Data and the Green Recovery – The Power is at our Fingertips
Data is essential to harness the power of digital across the different economic sectors and support them to become more efficient and greener. Examples include data on rainfall patterns to enable farmers to make smart decisions on water and fertiliser usage, or real-time data in production processes to optimise energy usage. How can we best make sure of the information that is all around us, blending public and private data and encouraging sharing amongst different industries? What should policymakers do to maximise this potential?
Katrina Sichel, Communications Specialist Katrina is a London-born, now Brussels-based moderator and communications specialist with a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University. As part of an eclectic career path spanning steel-trading in Africa to business development in the former Soviet States, she spent four years as co-Director of a broadcast PR company. Here she produced news packages for the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, AP and Reuters, interviewing well-known figures from the arts, sport and political arenas.
Since 2007, Katrina has been moderating events covering diverse topics and policy areas, from R&I, social affairs, development, finance and digitisation, to agriculture, environment, energy, fisheries and health. Alongside, until 2017, she managed the creation and roll-out across Europe of multimedia, multi-lingual communications campaigns targeting the public, and EU and national stakeholders from diverse sectors. Katrina speaks fluent French, rusty Russian and a dash of German alongside her native tongue.
Moderated by: Katrina Sichel
Communications Specialist
Clara de la Torre, Deputy Director General, DG CLIMA, European Commission Since 1 September 2019, Clara de la Torre has held the post of Deputy Director General in the Directorate-General for Climate Action in the European Commission.
Prior to her current appointment, her professional career focussed on research and innovation policy. She had been Director for Transport in the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation from 2016 to 2019.
Previously, starting in 2014, she was responsible for Key Enabling Technologies, following a 3-year appointment as Director in the field of Innovation.
In her first post as a Director, from 2008 to 2010, she was in charge of inter-institutional and legal matters related to the Framework Programme at the European Commission.
In the late 1990s, she dealt with National Research Policies and Intergovernmental Cooperation. She worked at the EU Joint Research Centre in Brussels and Seville, where she was Advisor to the Director of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies.
Before joining the European Commission, she had spent some years in the private sector.
Clara de la Torre has a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid.
Clara de la Torre
Deputy Director General, DG CLIMA, European Commission
Irma Jiménez-Guler, Director of Corporate Affairs, EU, HPE Irma is a senior executive with international experience within multinational organisations managing regulation and public policies at national and EU levels, corporate and government affairs, sustainability and brand reputation.
Irma has been working for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) since 2004, previously she worked as Director Public Affairs for Weber Sandwich Group in Madrid and spent 10 years in Brussels as a lobbyist. She started working for the Spanish Ministry of Trade -“becaria ICEX”-, jumped to the European Commission for a stage and then worked for 7 years at FoodDrinkEurope, as the Director of the Legal and Environment Department.
She studied Law and Economy at Deusto University, holds and Executive Management Program from IESE Business School, two executive programs at Harvard Business School (Board governance and risk management) and an Executive Program for Women at Board of Directors at IESE. Irma is a Swiss-Spanish national, has lived in Portugal, France, Belgium and Spain.
Irma Jiménez-Guler
Director of Corporate Affairs, EU, HPE
Annika Hedberg, Head of Sustainable Prosperity for Europe Programme, European Policy Centre Annika Hedberg is the Head of Sustainable Prosperity for Europe Programme at European Policy Centre (EPC), an independent think tank based in Brussels, Belgium. She joined the EPC in 2010 and over the years has worked on a wide range of policy areas, including climate, energy, environment, health, and industrial transformation. In her role as the Head of Programme, she aims to promote discussion on the foundations and drivers for a more sustainable and competitive European economy. She is keen to explore linkages across sectors and policy areas that are needed for the green transition, including the role of digitalisation as an enabler for sustainability. She regularly writes, moderates events and speaks on these topics.
Prior to joining the EPC, she worked at the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, a policy think tank in Helsinki, and at the Finnish Foreign Ministry. She has a LL.M. in Public International Law from the Helsinki University and a BSc in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics
Annika Hedberg
Head of Sustainable Prosperity for Europe Programme, European Policy Centre
Ellen Carey, Head of Public Affairs & Strategy, Circulor Ellen has dedicated her career to advocating for clean technologies—running successful campaigns for technologies such as electric vehicles and renewable energy that shape market dynamics and create new business opportunity.
She has held senior positions at Samsung, Audi of America, and the American Wind Energy Association, working internationally across policy, communications, and corporate development.
Ellen Carey
Head of Public Affairs & Strategy, Circulor
Margrethe Vestager Executive Vice- President, European Commission, in conversation Margrethe Vestager is the European Commissioner in the Von der Leyen Commission, currently serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age since December 2019 and European Commissioner for Competition since 2014. Vestager is a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party, and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) on the European level.
She previously served as Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior (2011-14) and Minister for Education (1998-2001) of Denmark, and as President of the ECOFIN Council (2012). She was Political leader of the Danish Social Liberal Party (2007-14), and has worked for the Danish Ministry of Finance (1993-95). Ms. Vestager holds an MSc in Economics (University of Copenhagen).
Margrethe Vestager
Executive Vice-President, European Commission
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