SPEAKERS 2022
Luciana
Lixandru
Partner Sequoia Capital
Luciana Lixandru is a Partner at Sequoia, where she focuses on enterprise and consumer technology companies across Europe. She is passionate about helping founders at all stages unlock their potential and think on a global scale. Prior to becoming Sequoia’s first partner in Europe, Luciana worked at Accel for eight years, where she led investments in Deliveroo, Hopin, Miro and UiPath, among others. Luciana has also held positions at Summit Partners and Morgan Stanley. She has a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Georgetown, and resides in London.

Neil
Rimer
Co-Founder & General Partner Index Ventures
Neil Rimer co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva in 1996.
His vision was to support the most ambitious entrepreneurs, bringing Silicon Valley-style investing to Europe at a time when “venture capital” was still a new term outside the US. As he recalled in a Financial Times interview: “We started every meeting with a slide that was literally ‘What is VC?’”. 20 years on, while staying true to its European roots, Index has become one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, with principal offices in London and San Francisco. So far, the firm has raised $7.25 billion and has more than 160 companies in its portfolio.
Today, Neil works with entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic, among them the founders of Deliveroo, Funding Circle, Roblox and Typeform. He previously led Index investments in companies including Betfair, Climate, Supercell and Trello.
Born in Montreal, Neil graduated in History and Economics at Stanford, and gained an MBA from Harvard Business School. He spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, and joined Index Securities in 1990 – the predecessor to Index Ventures. Neil is also on the board of the non-profit, non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch.

Daniel
Weinand
Co-Founder Shopify
In the past, Daniel has co-founded Shopify where he was Chief Design Officer, Chief Culture Officer and Chief Creative Officer. That's a lot of chief officering. Today he spends most of his time composing music, playing some poker and working on exciting projects with his new company Blue Pacific Studios, which he co-founded with three friends. Born in Germany, he studied computer science and music at the University of Dortmund.

Florian
Schweitzer
Co-Founder & Partner btov Partners
Florian co-founded btov Partners in 2000 as an online matching platform for Business Angels and startups. He has led the company since then to become a unique European venture capital firm, closely collaborating with professional business angels to support the growth of entrepreneurs and their startups. He serves on several technology startup boards and is one of the partners
in the btov Digital Tech Fund. While studying for his MA in finance from the University of St. Gallen, Florian was also responsible for developing the entrepreneurial student organization START which he today supports as member of the foundation board. He also serves on the board of Fondation Botnar, a Swiss-based foundation that champions the use of digital technology to improve the wellbeing of children in urban environments.

Tina
Müller
CEO Douglas Group
Tina Müller is an international business leader, author, and activist. She is a beauty industry expert (with over 20 years of experience in the field). Tina is currently the CEO of Douglas and a true purpose driven innovator at heart. Always seeking novel, better and more efficient ways to solve problems and reach visions. At Douglas, she’s successfully steering the #FORWARDBEAUTY.DIGITALFIRST strategy, creating the leading European beauty platform with new and disruptive digital technologies to ensure Douglas expands its number 1 position as beauty destination for European customers.
Tina is a passionate about change and transformational leadership. She is a supporter of women in leadership and she strongly believes in the power of support. That’s why she’s a mentor and partner of the Initiative Women into Leadership (IWiL). She is awarded with the "German Diversity Award" in 2020.
She is an author, future enthusiast, marketing guru and game-changer. When she’s not at the office you’ll find her in her urban garden or diving deeper into the topics of aging and health.

Jochen
Engert
Co-Founder & CEO FlixMobility
Jochen Engert is CEO and Founder of FlixMobility where he is responsible for the FlixBusCorporate Development & Strategy. FlixMobility is the global leading transportation platform for trains and busses. Prior to launching FlixMobility with the brands FlixBus and FlixMobility, Jochen worked as a Strategy Consultant for Boston Consulting Group in Munich, Germany.

Judith
Dada
General Partner La Famiglia VC
Judith is a Partner at La Famiglia, a European VC investing into B2B technology companies that enable or disrupt large industries. She focuses on the future of work, as well as data and ML-driven business models.

Richard
Socher
Founder & CEO you.com
Richard us the CEO of you.com: An ad-free, privacy preserving search engine that saves you time and money.
He also support other startups. Prior, Richard was the chief scientist (EVP) at Salesforce where he lead teams working on fundamental research, applied research, product incubation, CRM search, customer service automation and a cross-product AI platform for unstructured and structured data. Before that he was an adjunct professor at Stanford's computer science department and the founder and CEO/CTO of MetaMind which was acquired by Salesforce in 2016. In 2014, Richard got his PhD in the CS Department at Stanford. He like paramotor adventures, traveling and photography.

Lawrence
Leuschner
Co-Founder & CEO Tier
Lawrence Leuschner is the CEO & Co-Founder of TIER Mobility, the leading European shared micro-mobility service. Previously Lawrence was the CEO and Co-Founder of reBuy, Europe’s leading online electronics and media retailer.

Christian
Angermayer
Founder Apeiron Investment Group
Christian Angermayer is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and founder of his private investment firm, Apeiron Investment Group. With more than USD 3.5 billion under management and 50 FTEs across five international locations, Apeiron focuses on Life Sciences, FinTech/InsurTech/PropTech/Crypto, and FutureTech (e.g. SpaceTech, FoodTech, AI).Apeiron has a global approach and deploys its capital across the entire company lifecycle, from founding companies in-house, seed/startup investments to large-scale investments in listed companies. As Apeiron invests predominantly its own capital, the team is able to be highly entrepreneurial, reliable, and flexible.

Julian
Teicke
Founder & CEO wefox Group
Julian Teicke is the CEO and co-founder of wefox, a full-stack digital insurance company
driven by a simple purpose - to make people safe and prevent risk. This is achieved by
reinventing insurance at scale using technology.
Julian launched wefox in 2015 as a digital platform connecting brokers to their customers
and insurers. In 2018, Julian launched wefox Insurance which is Europe’s first fully-digital
insurance carrier and Germany’s fastest growing insurance company. Since launch the
company has doubled its revenues every year to reach USD$100M in 2020 and achieve
profitability. wefox Group is Europe’s leading digital insurance company. The business has
600 employees serving more than 600,000 customers. In 2021, wefox raised a series C of
$650m - a world record for an insurtech and giving the company a market valuation of $3b.

Mika
Salmi
Managing Partner Lakestar
Mika is Lakestar's Managing Partner and sources early stage deals in the media and consumer sectors. He is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has built or brought to market globally-recognised brands, talent and products.

Benedict
Evans
Tech Analyst
Benedict Evans has spent 20 years analyzing mobile, media and technology, and worked in equity research, strategy, consulting, and venture capital. He is now an independent analyst, trying to work out what questions to ask whose newsletter reaches over 160,000 subscribers. Benedict is known for his yearly presentations that reveal and analyze macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. Having been a Partner at a16z for five years, Benedict is currently Venture Partner at both Entrepreneur First and Mosaic Ventures.

Lena
Jüngst
Founder AirUp
Lena is Co-Founder and inventor of air up, the world’s first drinking-bottle that flavors water just by scent – innovative, sustainable and without sugar or artificial additives. Originally, Lena developed the first prototype of air up in her Bachelor Thesis at the University of Schwäbisch Gmünd which led to founding her own start-up in 2019. Since then, over 1M. drinking systems have been sold which saved 85 Millions of PET bottles and 2.465 tons of unnecessary sugar already.
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Severin
Hacker
Co-Founder, CTO & Board Director Duolingo
Severin Hacker, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Technology Officer and a member of our board since co-founding Duolingo with Luis von Ahn in August 2011. Severin holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Stephen
Kaufer
Co-Founder & CEO Tripadvisor
Steve co-founded Tripadvisor in 2000 with the mission to help travelers around the world plan and book the perfect trip. Under his leadership, Tripadvisor has grown into the largest travel site in the world. As CEO, Steve has led the growth of Tripadvisor, Inc., which includes 24 other travel media brands that operate in 48 markets worldwide. Prior to co-founding Tripadvisor, Steve was president of CDS, Inc., an independent software vendor, and prior to that, was co-founder and vice president of engineering of CenterLine Software. Steve holds several software patents. Over the years Steve has won a number of awards for his entrepreneurship and leadership in the travel industry including being inducted into the 2015 British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame, receiving the 2015 Pioneer Award by the International Society of Hospitality Consultants and 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Mr. Kaufer serves on the boards of CarGurus and the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (formerly known as Caring for Carcinoid Foundation). He's a fan of his brother-in-law's robot sculptures at Lipson Robotics (www.lipsonrobotics.com). Steve has a degree in computer science from Harvard University.Steve's favorite travel destination is Jerusalem, Israel.

Katharina
Kreitz
Co-Founder Vectoflow
Born in Munich in 1987 Katharina studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich with a specialization in aeronautics and astronautics. What she always really appreciated about her studies was the mixture of theoretical knowledge and how to apply it for practical purposes. After the successful graduation of her studies, she decided to become an MBA fellow of the Collège des Ingénieurs, which offers the exciting opportunity to obtain business and managerial skills by a "learning through action" approach. As integral part of this program, she was working as a Junior Consultant and Project Manager in the risk management of Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg.
Currently Katharina is having her own company, called Vectoflow, which produces special sensors in the field of aerodynamic. The idea for Vectoflow came from many years of experience in the academic and industrial sectors. While employed by NASA, Airbus, and BMW in the field of flow analysis, she was responsible for working with measurement systems purchased from suppliers who constitute our current competition. In addition to issues with fragility, software, service, poor temperature capability and lack of customization, our competitor’s probes are too large, resulting in up to 45% inferior measurement quality than with measuring systems from Vectoflow.

Chris
Kemp
Founder & CEO Astra
Chris is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra. Previously, Chris founded several tech start-ups and served as the Chief Technology Officer of NASA, where he introduced new technologies into America’s space program and founded OpenStack, the largest and fastest growing open source project in history. While at NASA, Chris worked at the White House to develop the cloud strategy for the United States. Chris has been recognized in the Silicon Valley Business Journal "40 under 40," the CNBC Disruptor 50 list, and received the prestigious "Federal 100" award for his service at NASA.

Léa
Miggiano
Co-Founder & CMO Carvolution
After graduating from the HSG (class of 2014), Léa Miggiano founded the start-up Carvolution at just 23. She succeeded in inspiring the right people for her idea within a short time. These include well-known investors, her co-founders, and a team that now counts 70. Today, Carvolution is the leading car subscription provider in Switzerland and has been one of the most promising start-ups for four years in a row. In her role as co-founder and CMO, Léa Miggiano was named one of the Top 100 Women in Business, featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 DACH for her achievements, and named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by SEF. She still has a long way to go, as she is determined to revolutionize the automotive industry with her team and change it for good.

Jaroslaw
Kutylowski
Founder & CEO DeepL

Prof. Dr. Veronika
Grimm
Economist German Council of Economic Experts
Veronika Grimm has been Professor of Economic Theory at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) since 2008. She studied economics and sociology at the Universities of Hamburg and Kiel and received her PhD in economics from Humboldt University Berlin in 2002. After her PhD she was an assistant professor at University of Alicante and spent some time at CORE (Université Catholique de Louvain) and ULB (Brussels), before she joined University of Cologne, where she earned her habilitation in 2008.
Her research interests are in the fields of market design (economic engineering) , behavioral economics, industrial organization, and energy economics. She is the founding director of the Laboratory of Experimental Research in Nuremberg (LERN) and head of the division „Energy Market Design“ at Energie Campus Nürnberg (EnCN). Veronika Grimm is a fellow of CESifo and member of several scientific commitees and boards. She has published widely in prestigeous economics journals, such as the Journal of Economic Theory, the Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, or the European Economic Review. Her research has been founded by the German Research Foundation, as well as other public and private institutions. She also regularly cooperates with public institutions or firms in joint projects.
In 2020 Professor Grimm has been appointed to Germany’s most important advisory committee for matters of economic policy, the council of five economic experts known as ‘die fünf Wirtschaftsweisen.

Lukasz
Gadowski
Founder & CEO Team Global
Lukasz Gadowski is an entrepreneur and investor in the fields of internet, aviation and energy.
He is the founder and CEO of Team Global - a global technology holding company with the mission and vision of a better world via technology.

Dr. Jeannette
zu Fürstenberg
Founding Partner La Famiglia VC
Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg is Founding Partner of La Famiglia VC, a European based Venture Capital fund investing in early-stage tech companies across Europe and the US. La Famiglia is backed by leading entrepreneurs from various industries that provide precious early market access, impactful par

Gregor
Müller
Co-Founder & COO GoStudent
Gregor Müller is Co-Founder and COO of the digital learning platform Vienna-based digital learning platform GoStudent. In November 2020, Gregor was included in the Forbes "30 under 30" ranking.

Felix
Oshwald
Co-Founder & CEO GoStudent
Felix Ohswald is co-founder and CEO of Vienna-based GoStudent, a digital learning platform founded in Vienna. Individual, digital tutoring for all school levels and subjects. School subjects. In November 2020, Felix was named to the Forbes "30 under 30" ranking, and in October 2021, he was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

Yoko
Spirig
Co-Founder & CEO Ledgy
Yoko Spirig is the co-founder and CEO of Ledgy, an equity management company for startups and high growth companies. Yoko studied Physics at ETH Zurich, the University of Oxford and CERN. She was also project lead of Swissloop, helping to build the first Hyperloop pod in Switzerland. Yoko met her two co-founders, Ben Brandt and Timo Horstschaefer, during her time at university. It was also during that time that they were first made aware of the problems related to equity management that many young companies (and their investors) face through a conversation with the Doodle founders, Michael Näf and Paul Sevinç, who were looking for a startup team on cofoundme. After graduating from ETH Zurich, the three friends went on a journey with the transsiberian railway from Vladivostok to Moscow where they read up on startup business strategy and sharpened the idea which would eventually become Ledgy. The company pivoted after 1.5 years from a free product to introducing business pricing and targeting larger companies rather than early stage startups. In the early days, the co-founding team also toyed with the idea of using Blockchain technology to enable their product. They however abandoned that plan after evaluating the regulatory framework and their customer needs. Today, Ledgy serves companies like Frontify, VIU and Sherpany and employs a team of over 10 people.
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Christian
Miele
Partner Headline
Christian is a partner at global VC fund Headline (formerly e.ventures). He currently manages e.ventures' investments in Sorare, Leapwork, PlanRadar, numa and Kenbi. Christian holds a Master's degree from INSEAD and is Chairman of the Board of Bundesverband Deutsche Startups e.V. He is frequently quoted as an expert on entrepreneurship and venture capital by international media such as Wallstreet Journal, Bloomberg and Handelsblatt, Germany's No. 1 business newspaper. Christian is also broadcast as a start-up expert on the national news channel n-tv. He has twice been named one of Germany's "40 under 40" by the financial magazine Capital.

Katharina
Wilhelm
Principal Index Ventures
Katharina is a Principal at Index Ventures where she leads Index' investment efforts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ranging from pre-seed to pre-IPO. Previously Katharina was an investor at Cherry Ventures, where she invested in enterprise and productivity software as well as consumer propositions. She started her career at The Boston Consulting Group in Zurich.
Katharina graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a B.A. in Business Administration and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nicolaus
Schefenacker
Co-Founder & Managing Director sennder
Founded in 2015 by David Nothacker, Julius Köhler and Nicolaus Schefenacker, sennder is now Europe’s leading digital freight forwarder. sennder operates in the traditional trucking industry but with a digital solution. It has created an online platform that connects shippers with a fleet of thousands of trucks. The company is focused on providing automated and data-driven services to improve the transparency, flexibility and efficiency of goods distribution.

Hanna Marie
Asmussen
Co-Founder & CEO Localyze
Hanna Asmussen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Localyze, a global mobility platform for companies and employees. With a passion for living abroad, having been an expat for 10 years and speaking 6 languages, Hanna co-founded Localyze after seeing the pain points associated with moving internationally for work.

Heini
Zachariassen
Founder Vivino
Heini is Vivino’s Founder, Board Member, and Chief Evangelist. Credited with bringing a technologyrevolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing whichwine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since. During his tenure, Vivino has grown into a communityof 50 million users, raised $221 million in funding, and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. Beforestarting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security companyBullGuard. Heini, who was named Entrepreneur of the Year by GP Bullhound in 2020, leads the team fromVivino’s European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Heini and Vivino’s story is featured in anindependent documentary, “Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur.” Heini also hosts the YouTubeseries Raw Startup, which offers candid advice for entrepreneurs and startups.

Paul
Klanschek
Co-Founder & CEO Bitpanda
Paul Klanschek first heard of Bitcoin back in 2010 and has been fascinated by blockchain technology’s implications on the financial sector and other industries ever since. Together with Eric Demuth and Christian Trummer, he co-founded Bitpanda in 2014. He successfully finished his Masters at WU Wien in banking and finance. Paul is well established within the global crypto community and was an advisor for popular cryptocurrency projects like NXT, Waves, Lisk, Komodo, and more.

Finn
Hänsel
Founder & Managing Director Sanity Group
Finn Hänsel started his career at the management consultancy BCG, where he rose to the position of project manager in Germany, the USA and Australia. He then founded THE ICONIC in Sydney, the largest fashion eCommerce retailer in Australia and New Zealand, which is now part of the Global Fashion Group.
After returning to Germany, he first founded the Berlin-based startup incubator EPIC Companies for ProSiebenSat1, which invested in well-known companies such as Gymondo, Amorelie and Valmano.
From 2015 to 2019, Finn led the startup Movinga as CEO, with which he reinvented the logistics market for moving. Movinga employs 250 people, is present in 6 countries with 3 offices and makes circa €50m annual revenue.
Today, he is the founder of Sanity Group- a cannabis startup. By trading and distributing medical cannabis, Finn and his partner want to be part of the fast growing market.
Finn Age Hänsel is also an active consultant, university lecturer and angel investor in over 10 European, Asian and Australian startups. He regularly speaks on digital policy, entrepreneurship and startup topics.

Catharina
van Delden
Co-Founder innosabi
Catharina van Delden is a digital entrepreneur and experienced businesswoman. She is co-founder of the software company innosabi, which she led from a student start-up at the Technical University of Munich to a market leader as CEO. In her work, she deals in particular with the question of how organizations can make the best use of their ecosystem in order to become more innovative and agile. Catharina is an MBA graduate from the Technical University of Munich and has temporarily studied at UC Berkeley. Before founding innosabi GmbH, she worked at OSRAM, including at OSRAM India in Delhi. In addition, she has published two books on innovation strategies, “Crowdsourced Innovation” and “Connect the dots”. Besides managing her company, Catharina is and was active in various advisory and political functions, for example, on the advisory board of Deutsche Bank, on the advisory board of [Laya.AI](http://laya.ai/), or on the bitkom executive committee for over eight years. Catharina has received numerous prizes in the course of her career, most recently the “TU Munich Entrepreneur of Excellence” or the “Spark Female Founder Award” from McKinsey and the Handelsblatt.

Dr. Jan
Wurzbacher
Co-Founder & co-CEO Climeworks
Jan Wurzbacher is the co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, one of the leading companies in direct air capture, based in Switzerland. Climeworks focuses on capturing CO2 from the air which, when combined with storage enables permanent removal from the atmosphere.
With more than 15 years of experience in CO2 capture from the air, he is considered by his peers as an expert in this growing and important industry.
He is a mechanical engineer by training, holding a master's degree with distinction and a PhD from ETH Zurich. During his PhD, Jan researched direct air capture technologies and founded Climeworks on this basis together with Christoph Gebald in 2009.
As co-CEO, Jan focuses on the technology, project development and financing side of the business. Jan believes that in order to fight climate change and take meaningful action, a portfolio of solutions is needed to reach global climate targets.

Erik
Muttersbach
Co-Founder & Managing Director Forto
Erik is Forto's visionary and technical leader, with the Tech, Product and Data teams in his care. Since childhood, Erik has been passionate about exploring new technologies. A full-blooded entrepreneur, he founded three B2B companies before co-founding Forto - the first at the age of 19.
Originally from Rostock on the Baltic Sea, Erik comes from a family of true sailors and is passionate about sailing. He also loves animals, which especially delights the Forties in the office on a regular basis when his dog Plato accompanies him.
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Lubomila
Jordanova
Co-Founder & CEO Plan A
Lubomila Jordanova is Co-founder and CEO of Plan A, a Berlin-based startup developing an end-to-end platform that enables companies to measure, monitor and reduce their environmental footprint and improve their ESG performance using machine learning and science.
She is also the co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of 1000+ startups which are connected to over 500+ advisors from VC, media and business.
Prior to Plan A, she worked in investment banking, venture capital and fintech in Asia and Europe. She was recently announced as Obama Leader Europe 2022, Marshall Fund Fellow for 2021, 100 Top Women in Germany 2020 (Focus Magazin), Top 50 Women in Tech in Germany 2021 (Handelsblatt).

Ophelia
Brown
Founding Partner Blossom Capital
Ophelia is Founder and Partner of Blossom Capital which she co-founded with a mission to bring a highly differentiated approach to early stage venture capital. Blossom’s mission is to supercharge the most visionary founders in Europe, enabling them to build companies which compete on a global scale.
Prior to co-founding Blossom Capital, Ophelia was a General Partner at LocalGlobe, where she helped build their first institutional fund and invested in a number of exciting companies including Beamery, Cuvva, Debut, Echo, Tessian and Zego. In 2016 Ophelia founded ALT “Ambitious Ladies in Tech”, a mentor programme whose mission is to improve the ratio of women in senior roles in technology startups.
Previously, Ophelia was with Index Ventures for four years where she led investments in Big Health, Call9, MarvelApp, Osper and Typeform and worked closely with Credit Benchmark, Peoplevox and Robinhood.
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Christian
Bach
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy and Creative Officer Netlify
Chris Bach is Chief Strategy, Creative Officer and co-founder of Netlify, launched in 2015 and today is one of the most popular web development platforms. Before Netlify he spent 14 years in the agency world as a founder, CEO and Chief Digital Officer. He started Denmark’s first hybrid production agency and won 20+ awards including Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, Eurobest and other competitions. At Netlify he also stands behind services like headlesscms.org, TestMySite.IO and jamstack.org and is one of the originators of the Jamstack term.

Raffael
Wohlgensinger
Founder & CEO Formo
Raffael is Founder & CEO of Formo. He has been working in venture development at different fast-growth, VC-backed startups in food and fashion. Previously, he was part of Atlantic Food Labs, a Berlin-based VC and company builder focused on food, health & sustainability. He graduated from the Master in Strategy and International Management at the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland.

Monisha
Kaltenborn
Founder & CEO Racing Unleashed Group
CEO Racing Unleashed Group Monisha has been engaged in the motorsports industry since 1998. She completed her law degree at the University of Vienna in 1995. This was by a course in International Privat Law at the Hague Academy for International Law. Monisha continued with a master’s degree in International Business Law at the London School of Economics. Starting her career in motorsports from the Fritz Kaiser Group she moved to the Sauber Formula 1 Team in 2000, and from 2001 onwards acted as a member on the management board. In 2010 she was appointed as CEO of the Sauber Group and from 2012 onwards she held one third of the Sauber F1 Team. In 2017 Monisha left her position at Sauber. Since July 2019 she is the CEO of the Racing Unleashed Group. Her ambition is to make motorsports accessible to everyone and transfer the tradition of racing into the future in a state-of-the-art manner.

Ignazio
Cassis
President of the Swiss Confederation
Ignazio Cassis worked as a medical doctor before starting his political career as a member of the communal parliament for Collina d'Oro, in the district of Lugano. Whilst serving as the cantonal physician, he was elected 2007 to the National Council as a member of FDP.The Liberals. 2017 Ignazio Cassis was elected to the Federal Council. In line with the seniority principle of the Federal Council, he takes on the presidency of the Swiss Confederation in 2022.

Aleksandra
Laska
Partner Redalpine
Venture Capital means exposure to the most cutting-edge technologies, creative problem solving, and ambitious teams right from the inception of an idea through to its growth into a viable business. Being part of that journey across a vast array of industries is what excites Aleks about it the most.
Aleks started her career at Goldman Sachs, where she brought to market an electronic trading platform. She has since spent the last seven years exposed to tech in various roles. As a founder, she launched a mobile payments platform followed by investing as a VC and angel. Since then, she built the corporate business for Improbable, now a unicorn that raised over $600m in funding. Before joining Redalpine, she helped Auterion, a multi-million dollar robotics software company, expand into the US market.
In her free time, Aleks likes to travel to exotic places and mentor early-stage founders.

Andreas
Goeldi
Partner btov Partners
Andreas Goeldi is an Internet technologist, serial entrepreneur and startup investor with over two decades of experience. Before
joining btov in 2019 as a partner, he previously co-founded and helped build several successful technology startups in e-business
services, social media analytics, video marketing and online content in both Europe and the United States. More recently, he was
the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at video marketing Al start-up Pixability in Boston. His varied and well-traveled career
has also seen Andreas excel in previous roles as a developer, CTO, head of consulting, board member and CEO. He has also been
an active angel investor for over 20 years. Andreas holds masters degrees in technology management from MIT and the University
of St.Gallen, as well as four U.S. patents. He lives with his family in St.Gallen, Switzerland and enjoys movies, gadgets and high-end
audio.

Johannes
Schaback
CTO Sumup
Johannes was born in Göttingen, Germany in 1982. He holds a diploma in Computer Science from Technische Universität Berlin, as well as a masters in Software Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Johannes is a tech-entrepreneur, angel investor and self-confessed geek. He started coding at the age of 16 - Basic and Pascal (when it was still cool) and loves computer science. He always felt more like doing something entrepreneurial rather than being a researcher, but still avidly follows recent trends in AI, for example. Additionally, Johannes loves to share his experiences on digital business and machine learning at conferences.2021 was the perfect time for Johannes to join SumUp, a company he has long admired. Johannes is a father of three. During his free time, he reads scientific works which, by his own admission, he struggles with and he considers himself the biggest Star Trek fan in this known part of the universe.

Mariam
Kremer
Partner Global Founders Capital

Christian
Piechnick
Founder & CEO Wandelbots
Christian Piechnick is co-founder and CEO of Wandelbots, a leading Startup for robotic software, which has grown to 140+ employees within 3 years. The no code robotic startup received 2020 more than €26M in funding from 83North, Microsoft and Siemens. Prior to founding wandelbots, Christian received his Diploma in Media Computer Science and started his PhD on “Role-Based Self-Adaptive Software Architectures” at the Technische Universität Dresden. In addition, Christian serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for the industrial excellence cluster Smart Systems Hub. In 2020 Christian was awarded for the “Newcomer of the Year” by the German Startup Association.

Thomas
von der Ohe
Co-Founder & CEO Vay
Thomas is Co-founder and CEO of Vay. After having spent 6 years in Silicon Valley – where he launched Zoox’s first self-driving vehicle on public streets as well as Amazon’s first Echo both in leading Technical Program Manager positions, Thomas returned to Europe to start Vay: a new approach to driverless mobility.
Thomas founded two (funded) mobility companies before, and holds a MSc Computer Science and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University. He is originally from Germany.

Jan
Goetz
Co-Founder & CEO IQM Quantum Computers
Jan received his PhD on superconducting quantum circuits in 2017 from TU Munich and continued as a Marie Curie Fellow in Helsinki at Aalto University. Together with three co-founders, Jan has been spinning off IQM Finland Oy from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Since February 2019 Jan is the CEO of IQM and drives the company efforts to develop scalable quantum processors.

Sandra
Tobler
Co-Founder & CEO Futurae Technologies
Sandra worked in the IT space for over 15 years. She worked for IBM in various international roles since 2007. She then supported companies with internationalisation projects out of Zurich and later San Francisco.
In 2016, Sandra co-founded Futurae together with two PhDs from the System Security Group of ETH Zurich, As a member of boards like the Kick Foundation, Startupticker, the Swiss Startup Association or in the jury of <<venture>>. Sandra continuously fights for better framework conditions for the Swiss startup ecosystem and in particular a thriving cybersecurity innovation companies in Switzerland.

Jan
Karnath
Co-Founder & CEO Timeless
As Co-Founder and CEO of Timeless Investments, Jan's vision is to give everyone access to unique collectibles, including art, sneakers, vehicles, watches and soon NFTs. Through fractional ownership, everyone can participate in the appreciation of unique collectibles. Before founding Timeless, Jan worked as a strategy associate at SAP and joined Fonpit AG as a board member in 2011. There he played a leading role in building the largest Android community in the world. His enthusiasm for distributed ledger technologies ignited in 2016 when he spent nights studying and analysing white papers with a good friend. Jan realised the potential of these new technologies, decided to further his education at Stanford University and founded Timeless Investments. Founded with the aim of giving everyone access to the asset class of collectibles, the platform today, seven months after its launch, already counts more than 50,000 users who can purchase shares in rare collectibles and thus participate in the performance.

Ted
Persson
Partner EQT Ventures
Prior to joining EQT Ventures, Ted co-founded a number of successful digital agencies, including Speedway Digital Army (1997), Abel & Baker (1999) and Great Works (2002). Great Works has been part of the North Alliance (NOA), Scandinavia’s leading communications and technology network, since 2014.
While at Great Works, Ted also co-founded Our/Vodka, a global vodka made by local people in cities around the world run by Pernod Ricard.
Ted is a Partner at EQT Ventures and is passionate about all things product design, UX, storytelling and branding-related.
Ted currently acts as an advisor to a number of creative schools and startups, including Hyper Island and Atsoko International.

Christoph
Berner
Founder & MD Cosuno

Jenny
Dreier
Investment Professional EQT Ventures
Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business from WHU and a Master’s degree in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics, Jenny enjoys combining these two views - the entrepreneurial and the more data-driven economic view on the startup ecosystem. Before joining EQT Ventures, Jenny gained first hand experience within the startup world from both sides of the table: at startups in Berlin and Sao Paulo and in venture capital at JOIN Capital. For three years, Jenny worked with corporates on innovation and digital business building as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Berlin.
As a Venture Lead at EQT Ventures, Jenny focuses on investing in, and working with, startups in the DACH region. She is especially excited about products that change societal dynamics – for example in education – and enjoys digging into deep tech or industrial products.

Roger
Dudler
Founder & CEO Frontify
Founder and CEO of Frontify, Roger Dudler has proudly led his organization to the forefront of brand management, with a powerful and holistic cloud-based experience. Since Frontify’s beginnings in 2013, he’s been the driving force behind Frontify’s mission and vision, empowering thousands of brands around the world to create, thrive, and evolve.

Florian
Reichert
Managing Director & Partner Picus Capital
Florian joined Picus in 2017 and started building our portfolio in emerging markets next to our core markets Europe and North America. Prior to that, he worked for The Boston Consulting Group in Zurich with a focus on corporate & innovation strategy, organizational restructuring and digitalization topics. Before, he gathered practical experience in investment banking, private banking/wealth management and the automotive sector.
Florian graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance.

Dr. Gesa
Miczaika
General Partner Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund
Dr. Gesa Miczaika is the honorary deputy president of the German Startups Association. She is one of the three partners of Auxxo Beteiligungen. Auxxo invests in business models that focus on sustainable growth and founders who want to create social value with their products and services. A particular focus is on supporting female founders.
In addition, Gesa accompanies founders as a mentor, e.g., in the Techstars Accelerator. By founding Evangelistas, a network of already more than 70 female business angels in Germany, Gesa contributes to the diversification of the investment industry. Before becoming an investor, Gesa worked in management consulting and startups. She studied business administration and holds a Ph.D. in economics.

Sebastian
Pollok
Founding Partner Visionaries Club
Sebastian is Founding Partner of Visionaries Club, an early-stage VC fund backed by leading European digital founders and family business entrepreneurs. Prior, Sebastian co-founded and led AMORELIE, which he successfully grew to > USD 60m revenue, >20% EBITDA and a team of 100 employees. AMORELIE was sold to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in 2018. Prior to AMORELIE, Sebastian worked as a VC for Headline in San Francisco and studied at WHU, St. Gallen, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and Northwestern University / Kellogg School of Management.

Christian
Kroll
Founder & CEO Ecosia
Christian is the founder of Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees. He launched Ecosia in 2009 after a year-long trip around the world to help people in developing countries and to do something about climate change. The Berlin-based search engine now has 100 employees and millions of users, enabling the company to plant a tree every second.

Mathias
Imbach
Co-Founder & Group CEO Sygnum
Sygnum is the world’s first regulated digital asset bank, founded on Swiss and Singapore heritage, operating globally. Sygnum makes digital assets bankable, secure and convenient, empowering clients to invest in the digital asset economy with complete trust.Prior to Sygnum, Mathias was General Manager at RNT Associates, Mr. Ratan N. Tata's personal investment platform, where he joined as first employee. He led multiple venture capital and private equity investments and participated in Blockchain/ DLT related equity deals globally.Mathias started his career at Bain & Company where he led advisory projects for Private Equity Funds, Family Offices and Technology companies.He holds a PhD from the University of St. Gallen and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Sami
Atiya
President, Robotics & Discrete Automation ABB
Sami believes innovation is key to improving our standard of living and progressing society. He's committed to advancing technology that saves lives, protects food supplies, secures logistics and provides safe transport.
At ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation Sami creates automation solutions that matter – for customers, partners and society.
Sami wants to share his passion for technology and discuss the challenges as well as the opportunities that robotics and automation can bring to all of us. He believes that we have a unique opportunity to shape our collective future in ways we’ve not been able to before - for the benefit of everyone.

Charlotte
Pallua
Co-Founder topi
Charlotte co-founded topi in the fall of 2021. topi is a B2B BNPL company, headquartered in Berlin. Prior to that Charlotte was working for Apple in Cupertino, California, where she was leading a global team focusing on financing programs. She started her career at the Boston Consulting Group in Munich, Germany. Charlotte holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, as well as a Bachelor and Masters in Economics from Bocconi University, HEC Paris and the University of Tokyo.

Jurgi
Camblong
Co-Founder & CEO SOPHiA GENETICS
Dr. Jurgi Camblong is a visionary entrepreneur who is pioneering the data-driven medicine movement around the world. He is a molecular biologist (published in Cell, Science and Nature), has a PhD in life sciences from the University of Geneva and an EMBA in management of technology from EPFL/HEC Lausanne. In 2011, he founded SOPHiA GENETICS with Dr. Pierre Hutter and Prof. Lars Steinmetz. He has since successfully led the development of the company, listed among the 50 Smartest Companies by the MIT Technology Review. Jurgi has been a member of the Advisory Council on Digital Transformation to the Swiss government and was personally recognized by EY as Emergent Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.

Rebecca
Görres
Co-Founder remi.so
Rebecca is passionate about the future of work and how to make organizations more human, even when they're remote. She's a product and brand person, leveraging her background in social and organizational psychology to build products that are valuable and meaningful for humans.
In the past, Rebecca created strategies and launched digital brands and products, for example as employee no 3 as part of the leadership team at Juit, an Oetker group incubation, where she helped grow the team from 3 to 40+ within a year.
Before that, she was a strategic growth consultant working in London, New York, Hong Kong and Berlin with C-suite level clients at Coca Cola, HSBC, Samsung, and Electrolux on their growth strategies.
Rebecca is a LSE and LBS graduate and Studienstiftung Scholar, Germany's national scholarship network for highly distinguished students.

Bettina
Hein
Serial Software Entrepreneur
Bettina Hein is a serial software entrepreneur that has built technology companies in both Europe and the United States. She is
most recently the founder of digital health startup juli, her third software company. She is also the founder of Pixability, a video
advertising company in Boston. Prior to Pixability, Bettina co-founded SVOX, the Swiss-based speech technology company which
was acquired by Nuance Communications (NUAN) for $125 million. Bettina has received numerous awards and recognitions such
as the 2018 Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year Award, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, L'Oreal NEXT Generation
Award, and The Boston Business Journal's "40 Under 40 Award." Bettina holds an MS degree from MIT, a law degree from the
University of Constance, and a business degree from the University of St. Gallen. Bettina holds two software patents and is the co-
author of Video Marketing for Dummies. She is also a "shark" on the Swiss version of Shark Tank called "Höhle der Löwen
Schweis"

Dirk
Lueth
Co-Founder & Co-CEO Upland
Dirk is a serial entrepreneur and an early adopter of blockchain and related technologies, based in Silicon Valley. He co-founded European and US-based companies in the FinTech and digital media spaces, including the Financial Times Deutschland and Forbatec which has been acquired by SunGard (today NYSE:FIS). Dirk mentored over 30 startups through his work at international startup accelerators in Silicon Valley and is a frequent speaker/panelist focusing on topics about the metaverse, blockchain, and platform economics. He has studied Business Administration in Frankfurt and Paris and received a Ph.D. from the European Business School in Germany where he wrote his doctoral thesis about private and state-controlled currencies.

Maximilian
Wühr
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer FINN
Maximilian co-founded the car subscription start-up FINN in 2019. He is responsible for driving user growth and passionate about all things tackling design, product, automation and data. Having an educational background in Economics & Technology Management, Maximilian obtained a great variety of practical experience in different sectors before co-founding FINN. His journey started in Private Equity and Venture Capital, later working with multiple start-ups at pre-revenue and building their growth.

Ina
Schlie
Co-Chairwoman encourageventures
After graduating in economics, Ina Schlie began her career at KPMG in the Audit and Tax department. She moved to the software group SAP, where she held various management positions, including Senior Vice President Global Tax and Senior Vice President Digital Government MEE. Ina Schlie is a member of the supervisory board and chairwoman of the audit committee of various listed companies and family businesses. She is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Business Administration at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Furthermore, she supports multiple start-ups as an investor and business angel and is the founder and co-chair of the encourageventures association, the investor network for founder women.

Thomas
Lueke
Partner Cherry Ventures
Thomas is a Partner at Cherry Ventures and is particularly excited about product-centric founders and industry-defining opportunities in software. Prior to Cherry, Thomas gained experience as an entrepreneur building Bonusbox, an e-commerce data and loyalty network. He also worked as assistant to the CEO and in corporate development at Penguin Random House in New York and in the e-commerce division of Bertelsmann/Arvato. He gained additional experience at McKinsey and in several startups. Thomas studied economics in Essen, London, and Berkeley and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Samir
El-alami
Founder & CEO Doctorly
Samir El-Alami has over ten years of international technology startup experience helping to build and scale innovative companies within the finance, insurance, dating, and healthcare industries. His vision of "enabling people to live healthier lives" is the base of doctorly’s product approach to innovating the healthcare industry: support the doctors with practice software, help the patients with an integrated health app, and integrate the wider health industry with an open partner platform.

Thomas
Andrae
Founder & Managing Partner Linden Capital
After his studies in Computer Science and Economics, Thomas spent ten years inmanagement consulting, predominantly in North America and Asia.Thomas possesses a unique understanding of consumer behavior and the modeling ofcustomer-centric ecosystems, as well as deep experience in driving companies from theearliest stages through periods of rapid growth. He strongly believes in thedemocratization of technology as a benefit and cornerstone to modern society.After starting his own company and successfully selling it seven years later to a Fortune500 company, he started building the Venture Capital business for 3M corporation, 3MNew Ventures. In close collaboration with the leading global technology companies andthe relevant Venture Capital funds, 3M New Ventures built a strong portfolio of cuttingedge material science and technology startups.As Founder and Managing Partner of the Venture Capital firm Linden Capital, he isfocusing on early stage investments at the interplay of technology and creativity.Industries addressed are mobility, insurance, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, andfood & nutrition; technology focus areas are machine learning, artificial intelligence,natural language processing, microprocessor technology, and advanced robotics.As executive board member of a Silicon Valley based next generation semiconductorfirm, he works on the current paradigm shift in mobility systems and services, establishingnew technologies in advanced perception processing systems for autonomous vehicles.

Dr. Heike
Riel
Lead IBM Research Quantum
Dr. Heike Riel is IBM Fellow and the Manager of the Materials Integration & Nanoscale Devices (MIND) group at IBM Research – Zurich, Switzerland. She is responsible for projects in the area of III-V semiconductors for applications in electronics, optoelectronics and energy harvesting and molecular electronics.
Heike Riel studied physics at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and received a PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in 2003 for her work on the optimization of multilayer organic light-emitting devices. After an internship at the Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, she joined the IBM Zurich Research Lab in 1998 as a PhD student, and became a Research Staff Member in 2003. From 2008 to 2014 she headed the Nanoscale Electronics Group and since 2014 she has been leading the MIND group. In 2011, she graduated with an MBA from Henley Business School. In 2013, Heike Riel was named IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical distinction and became Member of the IBM Academy of Technology.

Andri
Silberschmidt
Co-Founder Kaisin, Member of the Swiss Parliament
Andri Silberschmidt was born in 1994 and is an FDP National Councillor and gastro-entrepreneur from Zurich. Growing up in the Zurich Oberland, he decided to do a banking apprenticeship with a professional baccalaureate after his compulsory schooling. He then worked until 2019 for the financial services provider Swisscanto and for the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), respectively, where he was a fund manager in charge of quantitative funds for developing countries. Today, Andri Silberschmidt is an assistant to the Executive Board of Planzer Support AG. From 2013 to 2019, Andri Silberschmidt studied Business Administration part-time and graduated with a Master in Global Finance from CASS Business School in London. Furthermore, Andri Silberschmidt is co-founder and chairman of the board of kaisin. - a gastronomy company with branches in the cities of Zurich, Basel and Zug, as well as President of FH SCHWEIZ, the umbrella organization for graduates of universities of applied sciences.

Darja
Gutnick
Co-founder & CEO Bunch

Luca
Martinelli
Partner btov Partners
Entrepreneur by heart, investor by profession, Luca Martinelli joined btov in mid-2013 and is Partner in the Digital Tech Fund team. He studied International Business with a major in Finance in Maastricht, Milan and London and holds a Masters Degree (M.Sc.) in Technology and Management orientated Business Administration from the Technical University of Munich. From his second year of studies onwards, Luca was co-founder of two startups in the education and recruiting space. He helped building both profitable companies for 5 years until he joined btov.

Eugenie
Rives
Early Stage Moonshots at X, the moonshot factory
Eugenie leads several early projects at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory where uncomfortably ambitious, world-changing ideas are developed and taken out into the world. These early-stage moonshot teams are exploring radical new ways to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using breakthrough technology. Prior to her work on early-stage moonshots, Eugenie led a robotics moonshot in logistics. Eugenie is passionate about bringing more diversity to the tech industry and co-founded the “Women@X” group – a community of women who aspire to improve women's representation and bolster their success and opportunities at X.
Before joining X, Eugenie led Operations for Google in France and Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Francophone Africa). Before Google, Eugenie worked for Alcatel in Mexico city, managing projects to connect cities and public infrastructure online.
Eugenie grew up in Paris, and has a degree in applied mathematics, a Master in Business and Management, and graduated from Singularity University in 2010. She lives in San Francisco with her 2 Franco-English-American kids (Shan 6 years, Alma 4 years). Eugenie balances the fast pace of technology leadership by practicing meditation and yoga.

Ali
Albazaz
Founder & CEO Inkitt

Max
Thake
Co-Founder peaq
Max is an entrepreneur, writer and co-founder of peaq, a blockchain network powering the Web3 machine economy. peaq enables people to build apps for users of vehicles, machines and devices, while empowering both app builders and users to govern and earn from them. peaq’s clients include Fortune 100 companies such as Audi and NTT. Max has built multiple teams, developed brands and founded organizations during his five years in the blockchain space. He operates at the intersection between the humanities and sciences. He enjoys translating technological complexity, and using it to solve problems. Now 25, Max is dedicated to leveraging blockchain to enable a more inclusive and equitable world.

Dr. Thomas
Dübendorfer
President Swiss ICT Investor Club
Thomas Dübendorfer holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from ETH Zurich. He is president and co-founder of Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC), the largest angel investor club in Switzerland with a focus on Swiss early-stage technology product startups. He has worked in Silicon Valley and at Google in Zurich as tech lead and security software engineer. He is an angel investor, co-founder and board member in several startups, and has had several successful startup exits.

Olga
Shikhantsova
Principal Speedinvest
Olga joined Speedinvest in March 2021 with a focus on seed Fintech.
Before joining Speedinvest, Olga ran Fintech investments at Target Global out of the Berlin office, investing across early and growth stages in Europe and Israel. There she gained a track record of 15 new investments over three and a half years, including names like Rapyd, Zego, Kuda, and Copper.
Before Target Global, Olga covered Fintech for the funds Finsight Ventures and Binomial Ventures, both based in Moscow.
Olga holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics & Finance in a joint program between the Higher School of Economics and LSE. She graduated with honors in the top 5% of her class.
In her spare time, Olga enjoys tennis (both playing and watching), traveling, sailing, music and singing.

Christian
Wiens
Co-Founder & CEO Getsafe
Christian Wiens is challenging one of the largest industries in the world – as the founder and CEO of Getsafe. With $ 115 million raised to date and a quarter of a million customers, Getsafe is one of the largest European insurtech companies, operating in Germany and the UK. It is built on the belief that the world deserves a better insurance experience – one that is easy, flexible, and enjoyable. They meet consumers wherever they are in life with personalized solutions, using the most advanced technology and data science systems to empower them.
Entrepreneur at heart, Christian is also involved as a business angel. He loves working with experts and visionaries who share our enthusiasm for what we do. As a digital entrepreneur with a strong engineering background, you can find him at selected international conferences.

Pascal
Bieri
Co-Founder Planted Foods
Pascal Bieri is one of four founders of Planted and a member of the Executive Board. Pascal grew up in Sursee and studied business administration at the University of St. Gallen, gaining an M.A. in Business Innovation. After five years with Migros Industrie in various positions, including three years in the US, he founded the ETH Foodtech Spin-off Planted in 2019 together with three co-founders. Planted is currently the fastest growing start-up in the alternative protein space in Europe. Pascal is responsible for sales and international business development.

Melanie
Gabriel
Co-Founder & CMO Yokoy
Melanie Gabriel is co-founder and CMO at Yokoy, a Swiss FinTech company that uses Artificial Intelligence to automate corporate expense, invoice and credit card processes of midsize and large enterprises. Melanie holds a Master's degree in Business Management from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and is an advocate for more diversity in the tech and innovation industry as a board member at WE SHAPE TECH. She recently received the Female Innovator of the Year Award and was recognized as one of 100 Digital Shapers.

Georg
Stockinger
Partner Paua Ventures
Georg Stockinger joined Paua as a Partner in early 2016 and is serving on the board of various portfolio companies. Prior to Paua, Georg had built and led various successful startups in the eCommerce, Marketplace and SaaS area. He was Managing Director with Rocket Internet in Latin America and Consultant for McKinsey & Company. Georg holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Graz University of Technology, an MSc in Finance from ESADE Barcelona, and an MA in Strategy & International Management from University of St. Gallen.

Prof. Dr. Isabell
Welpe
Chairwoman Strategy and Organization TUM
Professor Welpe studied economics at LMU Munich and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. She completed an MSc at the London School of Economics before finishing her PhD on technology and innovation management at the University of Regensburg (2003). In 2007 she completed her lecturer qualification at LMU’s Institute for Information, Organization and Management (under Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Arnold Picot) in innovation and organization. She has held the Chair of Strategy and Organization at TUM since 2009.
Professor Welpe conducts research in the area of leadership, innovation, and organization from a behavioral science perspective, with a focus on the selection and evaluation of managers, strategic leadership, managing teams, the role of emotions within managing processes as well as incentive systems and performance measurement in universities. She follows a quantitative-empirical research approach, employing a variety of different data sources (e.g., laboratory experiments) and research designs (experimental and correlative designs).

Dr. Alexander
Schueller
Founder & CEO cellvie Inc.
Born and raised in Germany, Alex studied business at the Maastricht University, before joining the Boston Consulting Group. In his subsequent pursuit of a PhD he came across a surgical glue technology, upon which he co-founded Adhesys Medical. After building and successfully exiting his first venture, he founded cellvie with a group of researchers from Harvard in 2018 – a biotech-start-up developing a next generation cellular therapy, leveraging mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell.

Dr. Christoph
Klink
Partner Antler
Dr. Christoph Klink is a Partner at Antler Central Europe where supports exceptional entrepreneurs along their journey - from entering into a cohort to building and scaling their ventures successfully. He draws on his background as Business Angel and Partner with McKinsey & Company. Before joining Antler he served a range of leading technology organizations, amongst others from the mobility and transportation space, on disruptive strategy and building innovative business models. Building and nurturing top talent organizations is one of his key passions and a great source of inspiration for Christoph.

Maria
Wlosinka
Co-Founder & CEO Unlock
Maria Wlosinska is an HSG alumni and the CEO and co-founder of Unlock, a virtual platform helping remote teams to connect more meaningfully to build better cohesion and belonging. She founded the company in 2020, has raised more than $2 million dollars, grown the team to 18 and seen hundreds of teams around the world use Unlock to build better connections through experiences and activities on the platform.

Saket
Kumar
Co-Founder & CEO Vitt

Felix
Fein
VC Associate Speedinvest
Felix joined Speedinvest's investment team in 2019 where he focuses on Digital Health opportunities across Europe.
Prior to joining Speedinvest, he gained experience in strategy consulting, corporate strategy and M&A, but realized he's most excited about early-stage investing as this enables him to work with founders when it matters most: in the earliest days of a venture.
He is enthusiastic about the future and how humankind will solve its greatest challenges. In his free time, Felix adores the mountains, lakes and seas around the world. During summer he enjoys hiking and sailing, while in the winter you can find him on his skis, both uphill and downhill.

Greta
Anderson
Associate Balderton
Greta joined Balderton's investment team in 2020.
Prior to Balderton, Greta worked on the product team at Pleo, the fast-growing business-spending platform based in Copenhagen.
Prior to Pleo, Greta was an early employee at NYC-based reservation platform Resy (acquired by Amex), where she served as head of Data and Analytics.
Greta started her career at Goldman Sachs in New York City, working on the Cross Asset Derivatives team for two years.
Greta holds an MBA from INSEAD and a B.S. from Stanford University in Engineering. She speaks Swedish, and loves everything related to restaurants and hospitality — she has also consulted for Noma, considered the number one restaurant in the world.

Julius
Bachmann
Co-Founder JRNY
Julius Bachmann is a Berlin-based founder coach. He has coached, invested in and advised dozens of founders all across Europe and the United States. Julius has worked on both sides of the industry as an investor, operator and CFO. He’s financed businesses and sat on boards - from seed to Series B. Julius is on a mission to make venture more human. He’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs embrace their company’s journey as a personal growth opportunity.

Jürgen
Eckel
Managing Director and Partner, Head of Europe, Middle East, South America & Africa at BCG Digital Ventures.

Prof. Bernhard
Ehrenzeller
President of the University of St.Gallen
Bernhard Ehrenzeller is Full Professor for Public Law at the University of St.Gallen and Director of the Institute of Legal Studies and Legal Practice (IRP-HSG) and served as the Vice-President for Research in the years 2003 to 2011. His career involved research stays at the MPI for International Law in Heidelberg, at Harvard Law School and at the Swiss Institute for Comparative Law in Lausanne, as well as at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy in Boston and the Peter Allard Law School of the UBC in Vancouver (2016). Bernhard Ehrenzeller has close connections to legal practice and was heavily involved in the development of the new Federal Constitution, as well as in the creation of the new education constitution and the new higher education legislation in Switzerland. He serves as expert, advisor and speaker in the fields of Education Law, Direct Democracy, Federalism and Government Reform. Bernhard Ehrenzeller is President of the University of St.Gallen since 1 February 2020.

Dr. Tobias
Reichmuth
Founding Partner Maximon
Tobias is Founding Partner at Maximon, the longevity company builder. Maximon builds companies in the context of extending the human health-span and supports entrepreneurs both operationally and financially. Tobias sold his first company at the age of 23, built Europe’s leading climate-change infrastructure fund SUSI Partners, which manages CHF 1.8bn today, co-founded Crypto Finance Group, which was recently sold to Deutsche Börse Group – one of the larger exits in Switzerland’s start-up history – and also co-founded The Singularity Group, an asset manager identifying the most innovative listed titles across all sectors globally and beating MSCI significantly every year since inception in 2016. Tobias is a “lion” at the Swiss TV investor-show “Höhle der Löwen” (the equivalent to “Shark Tank”) and has visited more than 100 countries.

Steffi
Czerny
Co-Founder & Managing Director DLD Media
Steffi Czerny co-founded DLD Conference in 2005 and was appointed Managing Director of DLD Media in 2010.
Steffi’s background is in political sciences and journalism. Since the early days of the WWW in the 1990ies, she has followed developments in the digital world. As Managing Director of DLD, Steffi has established “one of Europe’s most important innovation conferences” according to The Economist as well as numerous topic-focused spin-off formats such as DLD Women, DLD Europe, DLD Campus, DLD Cities and, recently, DLD Sync. Under her leadership, the DLD brand has furthermore expanded with conferences and networking events in other cities. In addition to Munich, also New York, Tel Aviv, Brussels, Singapore, San Francisco, and London have now become regular DLD destinations.
An accomplished leader, Steffi has repeatedly been ranked amongst the 100 Most Influential Women in German Business by German business monthly manager magazine as well as by influential daily business paper Handelsblatt. She has furthermore been identified as number 30 of The 2015 Wired 100 and as one of the 50 Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by inspiring50.com for her success in bringing the international digital elite together at DLD.
Steffi is also an active member of various advisory boards and committees, i.e. University of Bayreuth, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM Karlsruhe), Biotopia Life Science Museum, and Deutsches Museum.

Marc
Bernegger
Entrepreneur focusing on Digital Assets, Longevity and Exponential Technologies
Marc P. Bernegger is a serial-tech entrepreneur who explored Bitcoin in 2012.
Besides starting the crypto hedge fund AltAlpha Digital he is a co-founder of the longevity company-builder Maximon, sits on the board of the Swiss Blockchain Federation and CfC St. Moritz and he is the Chairman of Longevity Investors.
Marc started the party platform usgang.ch in his 20s, and later sold it to Axel Springer Media. He is also a co-founder of amiando, a ticketing platform, which was purchased by Xing and named “Global Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Marc was a founding shareholder and board member of Crypto Finance Group (acquired by Deutsche Boerse in 2021) and has been involved in crypto quants since 2018.
Marc holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Zurich and is an alumni of the Singularity University.

Prof. Dr. Dietmar
Grichnik
Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Institute of Technology Management HSG
Dietmar Grichnik is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St.Gallen (HSG). He is the Initiator and Co-Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship (Startup@HSG) and served as Dean of the School of Management at HSG. Before joining HSG, Professor Grichnik served on the faculties of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. Moreover, he held a visiting professorship at the University of Melbourne, Australia, was guest professor at Harvard Business School, USA, and taught at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. As an advisor Professor Grichnik has worked with startups and corporations in start-up management and corporate venturing. He takes part in international start-up initiatives as a co-founder, board member and investor (US Inc500 and EU). He is ranked among the leading (TOP 100) entrepreneurship professors worldwide. He has published several books and more than 200 articles.

Alan
Frei
Co-Founder & CMO Amorana
Alan Frei is a Swiss entrepreneur and economist known for his minimalist lifestyle. After receiving a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Zurich (UZH),he founded several companies, including Nachhilfeportal.de and the e-commerce shop Amorana, and founded the start-up Center at the University of Zurich start-up center. In 2015, he began to receive press attention for his radically minimalist lifestyle, having reduced his personal possessions to around 80 items.

Maximilian
Wühr
Maximilian
Wühr
Co-Founder at FINN
Maximilian co-founded the car subscription start-up FINN in 2019. He is responsible for driving user growth and passionate about all things tackling design, product, automation and data. Having an educational background in Economics & Technology Management, Maximilian obtained a great variety of practical experience in different sectors before co-founding FINN. His journey started in Private Equity and Venture Capital, later working with multiple start-ups at pre-revenue and building their growth.

Dominique
Gruhl-Bégin
Head of Start-Ups and Next-Generation Innovators Innosuisse
Dominique Gruhl-Bégin is something like Switzerland's official start-up lady. As head of the Start-up Scene and Young Talent department at Innosuisse, she is responsible for nurturing the federal government's relations with the Swiss start-up scene in the department of Economics Minister Guy Parmelin. Innosuisse is the federal government's innovation promotion agency, formerly known as the CTI, or Commission for Technology and Innovation. The public-law institution, headquartered in Bern, has a significant task: It promotes innovation in the interests of the economy and society and thus aims to contribute to the country's sustainable competitiveness - and help nurture the flourishing Swiss SME landscape with up-and-coming start-ups.
Economist Gruhl-Bégin is a globetrotter. Educated in Lausanne, Montreal (Canada), and Leeds (UK), she has worked in Switzerland, the US, and the UK. Since 2013, Gruhl-Bégin has dedicated herself entirely to promoting innovation. First as a trade commissioner at the Canadian Embassy in Bern, and since 2016 as an employee of the Swiss Confederation.
A still young baby of Innosuisse is the "Bridge" program. It aims to support scientists in translating their basic research into concrete services or products in the marketplace.

Lukas
Wawrla
Co-Founder & MD Archlet

Anil
Sethi
Serial Entrepreneur, Author & Teacher
Anil Sethi is a serial entrepreneur, author and teacher. He founded his first company Flisom in 2005, as a spinoff of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich. After raising over CHF 80 million, he exited successfully. Subsequently, he co-founded a number of other technology startups including Scrona and Instaheat. He serves as an entrepreneur in residence and as an external lecturer at ETHZ and guides student teams through his course “Enabling Entrepreneurship: From Science to Startup”. “From Science to Startup” is also the name of his first book on technology entrepreneurship which was recognised as one of the top five books in the world in 2017 for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Helmut
Schoenenberger
Co-founder & CEO UnternehmerTUM
Scalable tech-startups are Helmut’s passion as co-founder and CEO of UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at Technische Universität München (TUM). He is especially interested in startups in the field of smart enterprises, additive manufacturing as well as smart city and mobility solutions. With his background as a founder, aerospace engineer and venture capitalist he loves to help new ventures solve strategy, recruiting, business development and future financing challenges.

Sabrina
Schenardi
Co-Founder BLP Digital
Sabrina Schenardi is co-founder of the AI startup BLP-Digital. The HSG and ETH spinoff has found a way to extract data from invoices, orders or delivery bills and automatically match them with the existing ERP. Sabrina is a board member of We Shape Tech, an association that promotes more innovation and diversity in tech professions. She is also responsible for media relations at the Surselva Impact Lab in Schluein (GR). The 19th century castle offers startups work and living opportunities and can additionally be used by the population or companies as a co-working space. In October 2020, Sabrina completed the Executive MBA in Business Engineering at the University of St. Gallen and won the diploma award with her master thesis - a "Strategis Foresight Serious Game Board Game". She gained her first experience with FinTech startups as a community builder at the Swiss stock exchange SIX before founding her own company. Until 2016, Sabrina worked in various functions at SRF including 10vor10 or the health program Puls.

Stefan
Metzger
Managing Director digitalswitzerland

Andrej
Majcen
Co-Founder & Head of Client Services Bitcoin Suisse AG
Andrej Majcen joined and helped co-founding Bitcoin Suisse AG in autumn 2013 as an account manager and later became a compliance officer where he ensured that all business activities adhere to the relevant laws and regulations of the digital finance industry in Switzerland. From November 2017 until August 2018, in his function as the COO, he was responsible for the daily operations as well as accounting and finance and significantly supported the fast scaling of the corporate structure and organization. As of August 2018, he serves as the Head of Client Services and is responsible for all relationship managers of the corporate & institutional, private and retail department. Andrej Majcen holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of St. Gallen. Andrej Majcen has been recognized by Forbes DACH in 2020 on its prestigious list of 30 Under 30.

David
Kahn
President & Co-Owner Paris Basketball
David Kahn started his basketball career as a journalist at the Portland Oregonian and at NBC Sports; then as a lawyer at Proskauer, the NBA’s outside law firm and then as a high-ranking NBA team executive.
Kahn spent nine years (1995-2004) with the Indiana Pacers, where he led the team’s new arena project and oversaw the day-to-day operations of basketball, business and the arena. After that he was four years (2009-13) the President of Basketball Operations at the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Passionate about European basketball, Kahn in 2017 began working on an ambitious project: the creation of Paris Basketball. With the help of the Mairie de Paris and Ligue National de Basket, Kahn has led the effort to put Paris Basketball on the European basketball map. In just 43 months, the club has entered into a long-term contract to be the exclusive resident club at the under-construction arena at Porte de la Chapelle, and ascended from the second division to the first division of the LNB. The Paris Basketball brand is now arguably the second-strongest brand in French basketball. While managing the Paris Basketball project, Kahn continues to teach sports business and sports law courses at New York University.

Antonia
Albert
Principal Wingman Ventures
Antonia is a Principal at Wingman Ventures, where she focuses on early stage investments across Switzerland. She is passionate about meaningful products that tremendously improve how we live, learn, work and play, and shaping a tech ecosystem that is more sustainable, human and diverse.
When she was 25 years old, Antonia founded Careship, a marketplace for in-home senior care, backed by Spark, Creandum and Atlantic Labs. Before that, she worked at Rocket Internet in Berlin in a FinTech venture. Born and raised in Vienna, Antonia studied at the Rotterdam School of Management and the University of St. Gallen, and holds a Master's degree in Strategic Management and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Administration.

Marc
Mächler
Government Councillor St.Gallen
Marc Mächler has been a member of the St.Gallen government since June 2016 (2016 to 2020 Head of the Construction Department). Since June 2020, he has been Head of the Finance Department and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the St.Galler Kantonalbank. He studied economics at the University of St.Gallen. Until his election to the cantonal council, the FDP politician worked for UBS in Zurich and St.Gallen for over 20 years, most recently as deputy director in the role of rayon head for private clients in St.Gallen. Mächler was a member of the Cantonal Council from 2000 to 2016 and President of the FDP in the Canton of St.Gallen from 2005 to 2016. Currently, Mächler is also president of the Minergie Switzerland association. He finds his balance in his family and in traveling.

Hung
Dang
Founder & CEO Y42
Now founder of Y42, Hung started his career in the live-event business. In 2014, he co-founded "Party like Gatsby", a global event series hosting more than 100,000 guests. Driven by thin margins, he developed his own data analytics tool in 2016. Similar to AWS, the tool soon became a company of its own under the name "Mitra Intelligence". Mitra hit a nerve and was acquired in 2018 by a MDAX (German Fortune 100) company. There, Hung, advised the CXO/VPs leading the data platform initiatives w/ a team of 30+ and executing a global rollout. However, Hung was far from finished and did not want to settle for a corporate career: in 2020, he put most of his money back into the business intelligence startup that would eventually become Y42.

Hilda
Liswani
Founder & CEO WeBloom
Hilda is an award winning sustainable investments and inclusive innovation professional. She is driving new opportunities to broaden the reach of sustainable innovation through WeBloom. WeBloom is the world’s first hub for gender-lens investing. It is an ecosystem of impact funds, women-led entrepreneurs, innovation hubs, academic institutions and journalists, all working towards the same goal: creating equitable and impactful innovation ecosystems.

Dennis
Weidner
Founder & CEO Cryptoticker.io
Dennis Weidner is the founder and CEO of Cryptoticker.io He is a german Crypto Investor, NFT Mastermind & Company Builder. With over 5 million users and 16 million pageviews, he is leading one of the fastest-growing Crypto Communities in the DACH area.

Simon
Bus
Head of Entertainment & Communications SNIPES
As if working for a company that deals in products you love wasn't great enough, a centrepiece of Simon’s day-to-day business at SNIPES is the so-called „SNIPES Dreamteam“, which supports artists and athletes from all over Europe in what they do best. Doubles the awesomeness, right? Simon's journey at SNIPES began in 2019 when he became the Head of Communications and implemented the Influencer Marketings and PR Department at SNIPES.
In 2021 he started his new role as the Head of Entertainment & Communications and is now also responsible for the event marketing as well as artist & athletes relations.

Fabian
Erici
Investment Manager Norrsken VC

Ling
Ge
General Manager & Chief European Representative Tencent

René
Janssen
Founder & Managing Director Lepaya

Stefano
Saeger
Investment Manager btov

BaoY
Van Cong
VC & Growth Investor Target Global

Antonio
Barresi
Co-Founder & CEO xorlab
Antonio is the CEO and co-founder of xorlab, a cybersecurity spin-off of ETH Zurich. Before founding xorlab, he spent most of his life breaking and building computer security systems. He founded xorlab with the purpose to help companies prevent modern cyberattacks. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from ETH Zurich.