Candace is a global infrastructure, network and innovation expert and entrepreneur. In May 2014, she took EBAN presidency for the two next years. She is co-initiator of SES/ASTRA and SES Global, the world’s pre-eminent satellite group. She is founding President of Europe Online Investments, the world’s first internet-based online service and satellite broadband network and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe.

Ms. Johnson is also the founding President of the VATM and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). Recently, she has helped launch the Global Board Ready Women initiative. Ms. Johnson is the founding president of three multi-million Euro investment vehicles, Succès Europe, Croissance Europe and Innovation Europe, together with MeeschaertGestionPrive. she is also the Founding Member of the Sophia Business Angels, Cologne Business Angels, Galata Business Angels and Advisory Board of the Luxembourg Business Angels Network.

I am the Founder and CEO of Starttech Ventures, a privately-owned venture builder and pre-seed investor headquartered in Athens, Greece. I'm particularly interested in entrepreneurship development and growth models which provide for repeatable success in a capital-efficient manner. In this framework, I study Lean Startup, Customer Development, Agile and Design Thinking while I also work on pertinent team culture, communication and dynamics.

I have been an active Angel investor since 2009, being a member of EBAN - European Business Angels Network since that year. I have also served twice as member of the EBAN's Board of Directors [2013-14 and 2016-18] and in 2015 I co-founded HeBAN - Advocates for Growth, Greece's first formal angel group.

Current position: Professor of Innovation and Technology, Vice President of Research & Innovation - University of York Europe Campus, CITY College and Chairperson of the South East European Research Centre (SEERC) and Business Angel Investor.

Prof Ketikidis has over 30 years of experience in management, education, innovation, research, and competitive research funding and very solid networks as a result of this experience. His expertise lie in (responsible) innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, triple helix, (impact) investment, regional development, supply chain management and health informatics. He is invited regularly as Keynote Speaker in several national and international business and academic conferences.

Prof. Ketikidis is a Board member in several non-profit and profit professional associations supporting and mobilizing the knowledge triangle (research, business and education) to facilitate innovation.

Executive Board Member of EBAN - Thee European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players (2020-present); Co-Founder and Executive Board member HeBAN - Hellenic Business Angels Network (2015-present). Member of the Board of the Innovation Zone of Thessaloniki [(AZK) 2013-present]; He is the President and founder of the Triple Helix Association Chapter of Greece (2013-present); Member of the Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Committee – Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce (6 years); Member of the Board at Technopolis – ICT Business Park (10 years); Emeritus Member of the Management Board - Exporters’ Association of Greece (14 years) and Expert Evaluator for the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Experienced Professor Corporate Finance and European policy and outstanding International and European experience (MIT, European Commission, European Council and European Social and Economic Committee). Experienced and skilled in Corporate Social Responsibility. Masters in Thomistic Philosophy (KUL), Economy (KUL) and European economy (college of Europe). Co-founder of EBAN, the European Business Angels Network and of FREE (the Foundation for the Research on Education and Entrepreneurship). Columnist (FD Magazine, CXO and Trends) and author of several books (30+) and papers (300+) on corporate finance, politics and economics. His handbooks 'Financial Management in Practice' and 'Entrepreneurship, no guts, no glory' (both Intersentia, Cambridge), are widely used both in academic and business world.

Arif Akdag, founder of EKA GLOBAL (a network of companies spanning a variety of businesses) is a serial entrepreneur and an experienced venture investor with a seemingly endless appetite for starting new businesses.

Mr. Akdag joined Arthur Andersen’s Moscow/Russia (and later Almaty/Kazakstan) offices in 1992 where he worked for six years. Mr. Akdag was a member of the team that built Arthur Andersen’s Russian Federation and Kazakstan audit, tax and legal services practice.

He has provided audit compilations, performed financial, operational and internal control reviews for Arthur Andersen’s multinational, Russian, Turkish and Kazakh clients active in the banking, construction, manufacturing, oil & gas and hospitality industries including Menatep Bank, Troika-Dialog Bank, Coca Cola Bottlers CIS, Kempinsky Hotels Russia, Dow Chemical, Nordica Energy, Occidental Petroleum and Newmont Mining. He was also involved in many Russian and international audits, restatements, evaluations, diagnostic studies and due diligence reviews. Mr. Akdag audited The National Bank of The Republic of Kazakstan for two consecutive years and also assisted the European Commission Defense Conversion Program for Moscow Area.

Mr. Akdag left Arthur Andersen and focused on coordinating family- run businesses and assets in real estate, manufacturing, foreign trade and maritime industries.

An innovative and creative technology leader that knows how to build talented teams at scale that gets shit done.

With over 25 years of Software Development experience in R&D including product and UX/UI. Experience with Big Data, Machine Learning, and Infrastructure.

Delivered into market large scale deployments in the consumer and enterprise spaces. Led organizations up to 300 peeps and across geographies.

Throughout my career, I have attained comprehensive experience in leading regional sales and digital marketing initiatives and generating new business opportunities across the market. I have strong business acumen; possess a comprehensive background in leading successful negotiations of multi-million-dollar contracts with keen focus on consistently developing and sustaining strong and loyal customer base. I am a entrepreneurial minded professional with remarkable expertise building and mentoring sales/account professionals’ teams to assess market/customer needs, aimed at delivering suitable product. I have track record in leading and managing development and deployment of the crisis management guidelines and building of crisis management team to counter any difficult situations. I am adept at establishing robust relationships with key clients and stakeholders with an aim on improving organizational performance.

Angel investor since 2014, built 7 angel groups with more than 400 angels.
Former entrepreneur and now reshaping the angel industry.
CEO @ COREangels, CEO @ REDangels, and President @ Investors Portugal - Portuguese Association for Early-stage Investors.
Looking to connect with angels who want to go further on professionalizing angel investing with outcomes, involvement, and trust.

Christine has a broad experience from business development worldwide from large public global companies, as Electrolux, Saab to small start-up companies and representative for local government and foreign affairs.

Christine is today and investor, board member and chairman of several startups, scaleups, contributing by building governance and finding strategies for growth and capital. Christine is, since 2017 back a board member of EBAN, The association of European business angels network, representing Sweden. Christine has previously worked with investments as a representative of Invest Sweden, Entrepreneurship Network (Enterprise Network for Startup ICT), in the board of Automotive Sweden and Connect Sverige. Christine have continuously cooperation with innovations-system as academia, science parks and Local Authorities, all working for the same goal, growth.

Andreas has a long-standing experience as an investor in the global stock markets. With a multiple study background in Law, Business, Information Systems, and a PhD in GSCM he was a lecturer, and he worked as an EU projects manager in an ICT Business Association and as a management consultant in an ICT Business Incubator. He is a managing partner at Wilhelm Bofinger, Germany. Andreas developed an active interest in the start-up scene in the EU and, in particular, in Greece, which made him also the co-founder of HeBAN, the Hellenic Business Angels Network.

I am a serial entrepreneur and business angel, focussing on investment opportunities in the tech space. With over 20 years of experience, the power of entrepreneurship is what I am still excited about. Helping to build the European ecosystem and foster start-up entrepreneurs has become my expertise and obsession. After having gained my initial experience in various senior and top management positions in the aerospace and automotive industries, I successfully launched and IPO-ed two industrial companies. Launching two finance-related enterprises helped me gathering profound knowledge of the international capital markets.

I keep being invited to coach start-ups, investors and government bodies, to share my learnings and insights as a public speaker. Recent activities on stage include appearances with:

• EBAN (Member of the Board of Directors) (www.eban.org)
• World Business Angel Forum (panelist, judge, trainer), Istanbul (www.wbaf.org)
• CEO Day (jury-member), Switzerland (www.ceoday.ch)
• European Innovation Day (panelist, mentor), Silicon Valley (http://eid.mindthebridge.org)
• MENA ANGEL INVESTORS SUMMIT (speaker), Bahrain
• Alpine High Tech Venture Forum (judge), Lausanne
• Korea Innovation Forum (mentor), Brussels
• NLSDays (panelist), Stockholm (www.nlsdays.com)
• WEBIT. FESTIVAL (Speaker), (www.webit.bg)
• TECH INVESTMENTS MEETING (Speaker, Panelist) Dubai, Riyadh

In a more active role, I enjoy helping my portfolio companies to make the right decisions for growth as an active shareholder, senior advisor and board member.

Having administered dozens of investments in start-ups and scale-ups, I have build a vast network in various high-tech verticals and – not to forget – a global network of investors. I am a firm believer in the necessity of bridging cultural gaps by building global companies through cross-border investments.

Athina Chatzipetrou is the CEO and President of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Development Bank SA, which promotes fair, sustainable, and holistic economic development at regional and national level by facilitating SMEs’ access to finance. Since March 2020 and during her leadership, the Hellenic Development Bank has been restructured. Moreover, it has handled in excess of 8.4 billion euros in loans, while starting with only 280 million euros. More than 39,000 new loans have been granted during the same period, contributing to the creation of more than 18,600 new jobs. With almost 30 years' experience in the corporate sector of leading positions and successes in diverse assignments and sectors, she carries a long and deep experience in financial management, including highest-level interactions with counterparties internationally. Among her previous roles, she has served as Regional Finance Manager at Coca-Cola Hellas, Finance Director at Beiersdorf Hellas, and Group CFO of Toyota Group in Greece. Ms Chatzipetrou has also served as Finance Advisor at the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness, Resident Advisor both at the Netherlands enterprise agency (RVO) as well as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and as President of the BoD and CEO of the Archaeological Resources Fund. Ms Chatzipetrou holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business, a Master of Science degree in Operational Research from the University of Athens and a Master’s degree in Heritage Management from the University of Kent. Ms Chatzipetrou, a Greek national, speaks English, French and German.

Albert has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement in Spain. In 2002, he co-founded and became executive director of the Business Angel Network Catalunya BANC, the first Spanish angel network, which he led. Additionally, in 2006 he co-founded ESBAN, a private foundation to raising awareness and promoting angel investment and Business Angels Networks in Spain.

Since 2003, Albert is member of the Board of EBAN. Albert has been appointed by the Parliament of Catalonia as member of the Advisory Board of the Catalan Institute of Finance, the public credit institution of the Government of Catalonia. During his career, Albert has gathered a profound knowledge of the entrepreneurship skills.

As a consultant, advisor, coach or business angel, His experience in entrepreneurial field, over 25 years, has helped thousands start-ups and entrepreneurs to born and grow. He is co-founder (1986) and executive director of CPAC (Fundació Privada per a la Promoció de l’Autoocupació de Catalunya), an independent charity with a mission to help people and organizations to be entrepreneurs.

I build, support and invest in fast-growing technology companies.

Tomi Davies is Collaborator-in-Chief (CiC)' at TVC Labs, an entrepreneurship support organisation in Lagos, Nigeria which he founded. He is also Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Greentec Capital Partners, Frankfurt, Germany, a venture capital firm focusing on Africa. He is a co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN), Chairs the Diaspora Angels Network (DAN) and ccHub Syndicate, is founding President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) and board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN). In December 2021, TD was named as one of the “100 Most Influential Africans of 2021” by New African Magazine.

Huseyin R. Demirhisar (48), is an experienced investment, asset management and finance professional with a career, spanning corporate finance, PE, VC, and investment banking.

He is currently the Founding CEO of BiD Capital Partners, impact investment advisory and management firm in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Benelux.

His angel investment activities are focused on Impact Investment and Tech4Good domain

I'm Estonian and European startup ecosystem activist, angel investor, startup mentor and serial entrepreneur with experience in investment management ("traditional" asset classes and startups), visual media production and IT retail.
As an angel investor I'm focused on Baltic (mostly Estonian) B2B SaaS startups with 5K+ MRR.

As Partner at Big Pi, a venture capital firm investing in Greece, I support ambitious but pragmatic innovation. I enjoy new business ideas, optimistic entrepreneurs, critical thinking, leading-edge research and realistic targets.

I am one of the pioneers of the private equity industry in Greece, beginning in 1995. I have been on the board of over twenty companies, in industries ranging from health clubs to banking software; including CEO positions in grape packaging and in business consulting. My experience includes new business and start-ups; acquisitions and divestments; governance; operations (logistics, costing and MIS, key account development); fund raising and fund structuring.

Since 2010 I have been researching and commenting on economic and social issues, especially on the Greek crisis. My book "The Invisible Rift: Institutions and Behaviors in the Greek Economy" (in Greek) came out in 2013. I have a monthly op-ed column in Kathimerini, and I blog at aristosd.wordpress.com.

Nina Dremelj is the president of Business Angels of Slovenia. Her greatest passion is to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into real, successful businesses. She is currently dedicated to Alita Capital as well, where they are the real investors - they invest relatively small amounts and a lot of their time and knowledge in extremely early founders or. founding teams with a lasting will to bring innovative projects to life. In the past, she co-owned and successfully managed the Swiss seed fund AlpVent AG, where she invested in successful Slovenian companies such as Hooray Heroes, TAIA, FlySentinel and others. Under the auspices of Alita Capital, she has supported Cirriosoft, Salesqueze and other companies.
in the end of 2021 she helped to establish first angel fund daFUND being powered by Business Angels of Slovenia. Although significant part of daFUND’s investors are also members of Slovenian Business Angels, we are extremely excited that we were able to build a true pan-European VC fund – with investors from around Europe (from Switzerland and UK to Spain and Slovenia). In today’s world there are no borders – and startup companies should strive to conquer their respective global markets – regardless whether they come from EU, Switzerland, UK or Serbia

A seasoned European Sales Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT , Deeptech and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK. He walked away from his first position with IBM UK as an Applications Engineer greatly relieved to embark on a career in sales…his forte and passion.
Bi-Lingual in French and English with a working knowledge of Spanish, Italian, German and Arabic.

Three major highlights from his career include helping Airespace to be the #2 WLAN in EMEA market share and positioned Cisco to be #1 WLAN vendor worldwide. He has helped start promoting Cisco VCE alliance (VMware, EMC, Cisco) and the BMC OEM relationship to Kick Start their first SP IaaS Cloud offering on a worldwide basis .He also pioneered the French ISP Internet business while leading Ascend’s insertion into FT/Orange first ISP business to include ISDNET, OLEANE and Internetway.

Marcel most recently left CISCO after 30 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel to help startups with Mentoring , seed money, VC connections and Business development. Vaelsys ,FAVEEO ,OnePulse , Mpearl , Netwookie , Digitalarti and Cyberflowanalytics are 7 of his star ventures.

A self proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his
30 years IT& Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA,USA and APAC.

Rui Falcao is a passionate angel investor, founder and managing partner of COREangels (www.coreangels.com) an international network of professional angel groups operating in five countries with more than 200 members. Rui is also the co-founder & president of REDangels (www.redangels.pt), the leading angel group operating in Portugal. Coming initially from a software engineer background, Rui is a serial entrepreneur of the internet booming days, participating as an entrepreneur and angel investor in more than 40 startups. Rui has the complete experience of the entrepreneurial cycle going from the founding stage, validation, growth and internationalization, failure, and successful exits. Rui has received several national awards on entrepreneurship and creativity during his career. Always committed to the common good for society, Rui founded ESA an Entrpreneurs Students Association, supporting students with economic difficulties. Rui is a member of the Superior Council of Investors Portugal, the National Association representing and promoting Early Stage Investment in Portugal. Rui has a passion for contributing and creating thought and good practices on angel investing. Rui has finished his PhD on Angel Investing.

Based in Madrid and Berlin, Anna is the founder and lead angel of Croton Capital, an international female investor syndicate investing in early-stage businesses to drive diversity and sustainability.

Anna also advises businesses on their business and financing strategy and works as a coach and mentor for leadership teams and executives in the start-up ecosystem, focusing on female founders.

As an Associate Professor of Technological Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece, I teach innovation and entrepreneurship, e-business and development of new products and Services and more. I also teach at a post graduate level and collaborate with a number of other Academic Institutes in the areas of my expertise.

My research is being published in more than 50 international peer-reviewed journals and conferences and I have participated in almost 30 International and National research projects, including innovative research projects in Developing countries.

I teach because I am passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation and development of new ventures.
I am also a serial entrepreneur developing a number of ventures mainly related to provision of Digital, innovative business models, others resulting in success and others in teaching me valuable lessons.

My background is widespread and combines studies and experience ranging from crafting a corporate strategy and responding to competition with innovative actions to handling and rearranging business operations and filling in accounting and financial information.

This diversity has allowed me to obtain a broader view in developing new business ventures ranging from evaluation of the business proposition to financial projections analysis. To this end I am happy to assist new entrepreneurs of any age to pursuit their dreams. I am doing so through various Incubator programs such as Orange Grove, Ace-In and by personal coaching. I have also worked for the ESA Technology Transfer program.

I have also been extensively engaged in business advisory, assisting established firms to evolve to viable, competitive players in their markets and organize their internal resources in a more efficient way by utilizing digital opportunities.

I am a persistent person and focused in achieving my personal and my team's goals!

Gytenis has been active in the startup investing ecosystem since 2015. In 2018 Gytenis took the initiative to establish LitBAN and since May 2019 together with 70V he invested in 50+ early-stage companies. 70V’s revenue acceleration program has helped many of the portfolio companies surpass 1mEUR in ARR and more 📈. One portfolio company has had a successful exit 💰 within 18 months from 70V’s initial investment, and 2 have raised significant Series A rounds.

30+ years experience from early stage tech companies to large multinational technology/web companies such as Microsoft, OpenText, and Fujitsu, and recently as CEO of ASX listed 8common Ltd (ASX:8CO) acquiring B2B software companies and shifting them into SaaS growth businesses.

Cofounder of several early stage tech startups which raised $85+m venture capital (VC) equity funds to start and grow, including Peakhour (dotcom period), 3eep/SportsPassion, Kent & Lime, and an angel investor in many Australian startups over the last 10 years including VenueNow, eCal, and Pollenizer. Advised and led software & digital business turnaround, transformation, and growth ventures. A past mentor at Telstra’s muru-D accelerator and H2 Ventures (fintech) in Sydney and corporate venturing advisor to companies including Singtel, CCA, PwC, and CHOICE.

Previous Board member (now Board Advisor) of Athens based eLearning SaaS provider, Epignosis.

At circulist, Nick is now leading a mission driven venture to build a tomorrow where products are made to be used rather than thrown away. Where circular design and intelligent ecosystems will enable us to reuse and recycle natural resources, and where products can be good for people and the planet.

Business angel, impact investor and serial entrepreneur, focusing on investment opportunities in the tech space that mobilize capital and resources towards positive social and innovative seed and start-up ventures.

Maria is passionate about networking and she is focused mostly in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her main goal as an angel investor is to connect sector specific investors with start-up entrepreneurs.

She is an active member of EBAN (European Business Angel Network) and of EBAN Health Committee. As a member of MITEF-Greece she has been part of judges' committee at “Startup Competitions”, since 2016.

Maria has started her career in finance, whereas she has initially gained her experience and her profound knowledge of the international capital markets through asset management positions, focused in equity fund management and portfolio allocation.

Maria keeps being invited to provide coaching, mentoring and sources of financing to start-ups. She is focused on building the European ecosystem, while she is committed on the power of entrepreneurship, social impact and innovation.

I have been an entrepeneur in online and offline advertising since 1996 and mobile marketing as of 2001, joining the startup scene (independent of myself as a founder) as of 2013 and with a specific focus on smart mobility as of 2015.

I currently spend most of my time as an early-stage angel investor through Eoniq.fund, focused on founding teams based in Spain from any sector, but with a preference for the following areas: Smart Mobility, Logistics, Rest-tech, Edtech, Ecommerce, Adtech and Martech, with investments.

CEO Angels Club is a group of senior executives and entrepreneurs related to Bulgaria investing their own money in early stage startups in return for equity.
Our members make their own investment decisions and they can invest together or individually. They also provide expertise, contacts and pro-active mentorship to increase company value.

CEO Angels Club looks for early stage, normally post-accelerator startups that are highly scalable and that can show us how the company will get to break-even or to a clear meaningful mile stone (e.g.Seed or Series A.Funding) within 12-24 months on the basis of our one-time investment. This typically means smallish teams (2 to 5 people), with serious domain expertise and a product that is either currently in the market or already in beta.

Serial entrepreneur & angel investor. A business leader with 20+ years of experience in the marketing and advertising field, with a great passion for events and event management. A demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Strong business development skills in Marketing Management, Strategy, Event Management, Entrepreneurship Development, Angel Investing, Building & Developing Business Angel Networks.

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou is a 33yo entrepreneur and investor who works at the intersection of technology, culture and new media. He serves as Co-Founder and General Partner at Velocity.Partners, a pre-seed and seed Venture Capital Fund active in Greece and SEE.

He is best known as the Founder and Curator of TEDxAthens, the most impactful platform for ideas, dialogue and talks in Greece. Prior to his role at Velocity.Partners, Dimitris co-founded Found.ation (a leading startup acceleration and innovation hub in the Balkans), TechTalent School (a coding school) and TechTalent Pool (a recruiting SaaS for developers).

A C-Level technology leader with an entrepreneurial attitude, an inclusive culture and a passion for the future of work.

My Moto “#Ethos #Gnosis #Pathos” (Ethos, Knowledge, Passion) has been driving me throughout my career.

I say that I’m always an Entrepreneur!
Software Developer since 12, grew up as a technology Entrepreneur, life changed when I decided to study A.I. at Edinburgh University in 1989.

I LOVE startups, I breathe Technology, my passion for the future is my driving force.
Customer centric 1000%!
I like to think and envision the future and then act on bringing it closer. A visionary, continuously drawing new lines on the tech innovation canvas. With more than 35 years of experience in software, I now focus on the intersection between technology innovation and business to help teams and companies work with ground-breaking global solutions that can create massive ROI across existing and emerging technology disciplines.

I'm excited to build and market great enterprise products for knowledge workers of the future.

I started developing Software in 1978 (at the age of 12), programming the PHILIPS P330 mini computer in Assembly and I was then one of the youngest programmers in Europe.

I always invested so much in lifelong learning, I love sharing this knowledge and I strive to see collective knowledge and intelligence evolving to another level with AI.
I discovered that #blockchain might help deliver that faster, mainly because it can utilize the AI data and align interests.

I often mentor young entrepreneurs. I've been an entrepreneur all my life and I made a lot of mistakes.

I value and I am continuously trying to promote #diversity. Not as a word, but as a practice. My family background, friends and studies have contributed immensely on that aspect. My business experiences, made that need imperative.

Guri Koiava is an entrepreneur, angel investor, startup mentor, public speaker and business consultant based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Solid work history in organization development, management and marketing with nonprofit, government and private sectors.

Co-founder of the following organizations

1) Startup Büro – an organization that champions Georgia's startup ecosystem and development locally and internationally.

2) Axel – a network organization for Georgian and international angel investors. Axel's mission is to facilitate the development of Georgia’s tech startup ecosystem with smart money investments aimed towards the most promising Georgian entrepreneurs.

Within these organizations Guri has run 39 distinctive programs, co-organized more than 120 startup events and engaged approximately 50K citizens and residents of Georgia.

Awards, Education & Work History

In 2005 Guri received the Presidential Scholarship for Best Sportsman of the Year and a black belt in martial arts. As well he was a board member for the Georgian scouts movement. Around this time Guri moved to the EU to pursue new opportunities. He volunteered at the Robert Schuman Foundation (Poland) and had the opportunity to manage civil rights and social action projects. In this time he received a study scholarship and moved to Latvia.

As a student Guri was one of the co-founders of NGO "YARD International" for the Youth in Action Program (Erasmus+) in Riga. As a result he become a team lead, facilitator and co-organizer of numerous seminars, training sessions and gatherings representing Latvia and Georgia.

Guri gained BBA & MBA degrees during his studies at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and Turiba University in Latvia. In early 2013 Guri was accepted to work in the Georgian National Tourism Administration (Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia). During that time Guri and a team were determined to develop and promote Georgia as the loveliest travel destination worldwide. During his work at GNTA the number of international visitors increased by 21%, followed by a financial boom in the hotel and restaurant industry.

In different years, Guri was involved in co-organizing music festivals with the goal of increasing tourism in less traveled Georgian regions, for example the town of Anaklia or Poti. Projects: KaZantip Republic / Anaklia (2014), Georgian Electronic Music Festival - GEM Fest / Anaklia (2015,2016,2017) and Swing Festival / Poti (2021).

Passions: helping startups, events, skiing, hiking, traveling, djing and giving back.

I have been working in technology research, software system design and new product development since 2005. This was through various roles – as R&D software engineer, PhD researcher, technology and product innovation consultant, company founder and advisor to growing companies.

I was trained as a computer scientist and for 8 years I worked in applied research on cloud service architectures, decentralised governance of software services delivered by business networks, data integration and applied artificial intelligence with semantic technologies.

Since 2013 I have shift my focus on the transformation of technical innovation into new products. This requires understanding the progress that customers are struggling to make, finding new ways of applying technology to solve problems, assessing the market potential of a new solution and iterating over product design. It also comes to building teams, starting new companies, bringing the first customers onboard and raising investment capital to grow faster.

Having gone through this transformation process in different contexts with, admittedly, mixed results, I was taught one or two valuable lessons about bringing new products into "profitable and sustainable mainstream markets" (to quote Geoffrey Moore from 'Crossing the Chasm'). I am now building on this experience - and continuously learning.

Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history in the EDA and semiconductor industry. Strong business development professional skilled in entrepreneurship, enterprise software sales, EDA, semiconductors, management, startups and international transactions.

• Fundraising Advisor achieving 3,5 MM€ + 2MM€ in process (sectors: Delivery, SaaS Energy, entertainment and sports industry, fashion, B2B platform)
• Board member & Investment Committee Member at University PreSeed/ SeedFund : 290K€
• Deal Flow generator of more than 1.500 startups worlwide
• Started launching a Deep Tech & Deep Science Venture Capital fund , Origen Ventures Fund
• Fundraised Sponsorship Sailor for Vendée Globe 2020 : Raised 0,5MM€ (in 8 months during pandemic)
• Launched the first women angel network of Spain
• StartUps Strategic Advisor (+7)
• Corporate Open Innovation Advisor for 4 top world class companies in the following industries: Pharma, Football (Barcelona) , American Chemical Company (invested by Warren Buffett), top european fintech
• As deputy general manager , Business booster and Value Creator (x2 EBITDA in 3 years) and co-leadering sale process (M&A) of company (top 5 in financial sector)
• More than 20 years in management positions in financial industry involved in new bank launching in France, creating wealth management unit for a bank in Spain.
• Board Member in different key institutions of the european funding and entrepreneurship ecosystem
• Speaker in more than 200 international events around the world about Alternative Funding (BA, VC), Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Passionated Teacher
• Government and Public institutions Strategic Advisor ( Council of Barcelona, French Government, Spanish Government, Moroccan Government,…)
• Positive Impact and Value Creator
• Positive Thinker

Startup mentor, entrepreneur, expert in Baltic startup ecosystem. Expert in International Trade, Management, Transportation, Project Management, Business Investing and Road Construction. Passionate about IT, IoT and sports. Interested in B2B startups that help to digitize their customers processes. Ex-professional athlete.

Angel investor and board professional with a passion for helping startups and growth companies to fulfill their true potential.
Feel free to reach out regarding speaking opportunities, board, and advisory work as well as investment opportunities (for investment criteria see https://www.readyfireaim.fi/investment-criteria).

Experienced Investor with a demonstrated history of working in the human resources industry. Strong business development professional skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, Management, and Entrepreneurship.

I support people who want to become and develop as Business Angels / startup investors, based on the following experience.

Executive leader with broad experience in Information Technology, Venture Capital and Innovation areas including business creation and development, business management and people management. Successful in developing New Businesses for various vertical markets in the enterprise environment. Specialized in Creating and Executing Strategy for New Products and Services including Marketing, Partners&Alliances, Pre-Sales support and Bid Management. Experienced in various Go to Market models, including Direct Sales, Channel and Alliances. Business Unit leadership experience with International P&L responsibility. Decision-maker with strong Risk Management and analytic skills driven to Achieve Results.

From 2015 focused on Cobin Angels to make a bridge on brilliant ideas and capital market using business angel model and smart money for value creation. Recently looking for cooperation with global VC's planning to enter Poland and CEE.

In 2017 joined the European Business Angels Network (EBAN) 2017 awarded The Best Performing New Member of EBAN. Elected to the Board of EBAN in June 2018. EBAN is the pan-European trade association for the early stage investor community, representing Europe’s 30,000 business angels, and gathers member organisations in 59 countries.

Engineer, turned business strategist, turned early-stage startup investor. More than 15 years of experience across:

• Technology, Energy, Manufacturing, and Professional Services
• Operations, Enterprise (B2B) Sales, and Strategy
• Startups, SMEs and Fortune 500 companies
• 12 countries and 4 continents

I'm a long term growth enabler of organisations and business. Leading people through transitions has many times been the core of growth. Exploring mind, data based approach expanding to corporate responsibility and public relations make the base for my experience.

Working in a triangle of business, politics and academic thinking has been a chosen path to link the actors from different background. Experience in risk management, finance and government ownership and steering, combined with curious mind for innovations form a robust platform to build business with impact.

Time as political advisor for the minister in charge of publicly owned companies broadend the field of expertise on government affairs and communication. I love to see good stories that tell the tale and make ideas tangible. All these areas have given a broad network of people consisting on both private and public sector actors.

Specialties: finance, government affairs, risk management, communication

Leading an exceptional team into growing Yodeck.com as the No.1 Digital Signage cloud platform around the globe.

Manos is a co-Founder and the CTO of AbZorba Games!

AbZorba Games was acquired by Novomatic Interactive (Greentube) in 2015.

Manos is a passionate tech entrepreneur, innovator, executor, leader with more than 15 years of experience, always eager to turn a problem solving into a business opportunity. Effective communicator and motivator of teams to reach goals. Chief Technology officer who oversees his organisations technical development and implementation of new technologies, always leveraging technology to support the company's long-term financial and growth targets.

Manos is also a Business Angel Investor trying to help other entrepreneurs to scale up their startups.

Manos was the creator of AbZorba’s flagship casino title ‘Live BlackJack 21′ on Android which attained Top 10 US App Store ranking in ‘Cards & Casino Games’ category. That success gave Manos the perspective to design and build the team delivering the full suite of multiplayer social casino titles and the ‘Hub of Fun’ mobile casino.
Previously, Manos was the Co-Founder and CTO of a successful Greek start-up MVNS which was a pioneer in creating Mobile Social Games targeting Carriers in Europe.

Manos has graduated from the computer science department of University of Crete in 2003 and received his master degree from the same department, two years later. After that, he held the position of staff member at the Distributed Computing Systems Laboratory (FORTH-ICS) while participating in many research industrial projects. His research interests back in these days mainly included Device Independence for Mobile Devices and the development of Live Multiplayer Social Games.

Alexandra has more than 25 years of experience in the international corporate finance business with banks, private equity and venture capital companies in Germany and Austria. In these roles she helped her clients raise millions of tailor-made funding.

Since 2021 she is Regional Manager Austria for FASE, a European corporate financing agency for social entrepreneurship. Alexandra's goal is to connect impact investors and social entrepreneurs in a joyful and competent manner.

Alexandra is active in two European Angel investment groups with a strong focus on impact and gender-lense investing.

She has two Master degrees (Business Administration and Law) and a PhD in International Tax Law. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Computer scientist by training, security expert by experience, I am now working with top entrepreneurs and help them grow their businesses. I am passionate for great technology, love to work with great teams and motivated by smart people I can learn from. My main focus is on IT and cybersecurity.
I am also proud member of the Kauffman Fellows Society.

My past experience was from AVG Technologies (NYSE:AVG) where I served as a CTO, Chief Scientists and for more than a year also a iCEO. More recently, alongside Evolution Equity Partners I invested in technology companies that applied new innovative approaches to security, such as Cognitive Security - acquired by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), SecurityScorecard, Onapsis, DFLabs, CarbonBlack or OpenDNS.

If you want to connect or just reaching out, please, consider adding a paragraph to your invitation explaining context or where we met, why we should connect. While I am happy to discuss various opportunities via e-mail, on LinkedIn I prefer to connect only with people I met or worked with. Thanks

Currently, I am looking for Executive Assistant to help me and my colleague organising our calendars, travel arrangements etc. Please, contact me directly, if you would like to learn more

Passion for life-long improvement and learning. Growing up as a competitive leader. Coaching high potential individuals.

Specialties: competitive bidding processes; Identification, creation, and implementation of process improvements; Analysis of financial statements; Development of tools and metrics for measuring business performance; Sales

John is Founder and CEO of Pollfish, Inc. Pollfish is a platform that provides brands a revolutionary way to learn, communicate and interact with existing and prospective customers.
Passionate about platforms and businesses that scale mainly focused on the mobile domain.

Panos is a software engineer turned founder turned VC. He is currently a Partner at Marathon VC and invests across sectors with DevTools being his favorite.

Before joining the VC world Panos was a founder at BugSense, a mobile app performance management solution that was one of the top 5 SDKs for mobile developers with an install base of over 400M devices and several Fortune 500 customers. BugSense was acquired by Splunk NASDAQ:SPLK in September 2013.

Panos has invested in several startups and helped them shape their go-to-market strategies, recruit and raise follow on capital. When not working with startups he organizes developer communities and spends a lot time studying crypto projects.

I consider myself a creative person and I approached entrepreneurship as a way to express my creativity. The company I co-founded, Epignosis, is an educational software company. We are building software solutions (TalentLMS, TalentCards, eFront) that help companies train their people in a more efficient way. During the last decade we have helped hundreds of thousands of organizations across the globe reach their potential through better training.

The last years I am active on Angel investing as well. If you have an interesting business idea, feel free to contact me.

Passionate technologist & a senior leader enabling technical teams to innovate and deliver in fast-paced and financially prudent environments. Strong technical background and extensive experience in leading global teams of software engineers, infrastructure & quality assurance engineers.

Thierry De Poerck (49) is a Belgian citizen established for more than 20 years in Luxembourg. He holds a degree in Business Engineering (from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management) and a MBA.
He benefits from a quite diversified experience in the following sectors:

• Fast moving consumer goods (Group Gillette in Brussels),
• Banking (BNP Paribas in Luxembourg),
• Finance and stock exchange (Clearstream & Deustche Börse Group in Luxembourg & Frankfurt) and
• Branding & retail (Ice-Watch world-wide).

He has held senior and executive management positions in finance and banking for 15 years until joining the founder of Ice-Watch as partner and managing director for 4 years. Under his stewardship the company quickly extended its reach, signed ground breaking partnerships and attained commanding financial performance.
Over the years Thierry has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in the following functions: general management, corporate strategy, business development & optimization, financial control, risk management and audit. He has also concrete experience in corporate finance (valuation – optimization – mergers & acquisitions) whether in his early days when he was supporting his customers as a Head of Corporate Banking Benelux with Paribas Luxembourg, later on as Director of Corporate Finance & Strategic Planning in Clearstream or more recently as Managing Director of the Ice-Watch Group when considering and deciding the acquisition or divesture of brands.

In 2015 always looking for new challenges Thierry decided to share his experience with and offer his personal services to other business entrepreneurs facing various stages of their company life cycle. With this idea in mind he accepted in a first step to take the helm of Actoria in Luxembourg moving on to ONEtoONE Corporate Finance as Managing Partner to extend service range and geographic coverage.

Israel Pons realizó tanto su desarrollo académico como profesional en el Reino Unido durante 23 años, donde fungió durante 5 años como Ejecutivo de Operaciones para la empresa número uno de ese país en el área de entretenimiento. Ha fundado e invertido en negocios de los cuales el 90% siguen siendo negocios de éxito dentro del Reino Unido.
En México participó como Director de Expansión Internacional para un modelo de Inclusión Digital y Financiera, con el mismo grupo se desarrolló como Director de Alianzas estratégicas e inversiones de impacto con una cartera de $20,000,000.00 USD.
Israel es socio co-fundador de Angels Den México y Angels Nest Holdings, donde ha generado una plataforma de “Crowdfunding Responsable” y ha sido mentor de proyectos ganadores en el concurso de Network BID donde representó al mercado mexicano en Holanda. Es miembro activo de paneles de jurado en diferentes concursos en México.

Early Stage & Series A Technology Investor in B2B Swiss and European startups with global ambitions and determined to make a positive change in the world.

Nina is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Reinhart Capital. She co-invests with Angels, VCs and Family Offices in Swiss and European ICT and B2B startups such as mobile payment system PayCash (acquired by Daimler) or seafood trading marketplace Procsea. She is the first Angel from Switzerland to receive a matching co-investment agreement with the European Angel Fund. Nina served on the Board of the fastest growing Swiss Angel Club Swiss ICT Investor Club where she is now an Advisor & Jury Member, growing the member base from 25 to more than 350 angels in four years.

Nina has extensive international experience in strategy, business development, transformation and executive coaching in the US, Europe and Latin America. Before becoming an Angel, she worked at UBS, Nestlé and Frogdesign in Silicon Valley (acquired by Flextronics). A nonlinear thinker, she earned a Master Degree in Anthropology and an MBA. Besides investing, she supports Entrepreneurship Education to Teenagers to raise a Next Generation of Entrepreneurs and Value Generating Citizens.

Tech. SaaS. Media.

I help build resilient tech companies powered by people + culture.

Leading with heart + purpose to create + support great teams empowered to make a difference.

I am currently focused in developing new ventures based on science and technology.

My previous experience in the Venture Capital industry as investor and in the management of a public Fund-of-Funds provide me the industry and entrepreneurial ecosystem knowledge to support startups and scaleups.

Nicolas Rouhana is currently the Chairman and CEO of IM Fndng, grouping IM Capital & IM Ventures, $60M programs respectfully funded under USAID MENA Investment Initiative & Lebanon Investment Initiative, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee and Technical Assistance to businesses and investors in Lebanon.

Between 2002 & 2015, he was the Executive Director of Berytech, a leading Technology Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon. He is currently also President of Internet Society-Lebanon Chapter, board member of Berytech and several Lebanese technology companies, and is the current Chairman of Speed@BDD the first seed accelerator in Lebanon.

Nicolas has a Telecommunications Engineering degree from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, a PhD in Networking Systems from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and an EDP graduate from INSEAD, France.

Lead, design and implement strategic projects in the field of innovation, education and entrepreneurship. Results oriented execution. Enjoy working in international teams.
*"Quick adapter": lived in London, Brussels, Washington, Madrid and Barcelona (but my heart is Atlantic / Cantabrico).

Identification of initiatives to develop partnerships together with corporates, public sector entitities, startups and other stakeholders aligned with our strategic goals.

Definition and execution of the operations of IESE Businesss School community of investors in early-stage ventures, including international outreach, research and communication. My favourite objectives: bringing more women to the investment community, helping Latam entrepreneurs to reach Europe.

Monitoring European Union related policies anticipating and advising on policy issues of concern for businesses. Identifying key policy makers and private actors to engage with them in dialogue and build strong alliances.
*Creative, self-motivated but a real team player.

Charles L. Sidman, MBA, PhD, is Founder and Managing Partner of ECS Capital Partners, LLC, an innovative early-stage venture fund based in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, but operating globally. He is a founding member of the American Angel Capital Association (ACA), past president of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), a frequent advocate for, contributor to and speaker on financial, entrepreneurship, policy and ethical issues in Washington, D.C. and beyond, an enthusiastic member of and participant at NACO, EBAN, GBAN and numerous other professional organizations and networks, and a 2018 Special Recognition Honoree of EBAN. He invests in and supports early-stage companies throughout the world using Angel investing, Venture Capital, Crowdfunding and the public markets.

Dr. Sidman retired as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology from the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where he also served for many years as Professor of Management in the College of Business and in the university-wide Honors Scholars Program.

His education includes a PhD in Immunology from Harvard University, an MBA specializing in Management from the University of Cincinnati, and sabbatical study in Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also an ATP-licensed pilot and Certificated Flight Instructor, and a former Commissioned Officer in the Massachusetts Army National Guard.

Panos Siozos has a PhD in Educational Technology from the Computer Science Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a BSc from the same department. He has extensive work experience as a computer science educator and as a software engineer and IT manager. He has taken part as a researcher in many EU funded research projects. He has worked in the European Parliament as a policy adviser for research and innovation issues (2009-2014). He is currently 'tasting his own medicine' having co-founded LearnWorlds.com, an edtech SaaS startup.

His research interests include Computer Assisted Assessment, On-line Educational Environments, Computer Ethics, privacy, ICT, innovation.

Soumaya is an investor and a Venture Capitalist focusing in the ME, GCC region with an interest in
international investment opportunities. A trilingual and a people enthusiast who chose as a mission
to empower impactful entrepreneurs.

A Senior Startup enabler with experience in Startup incubation, acceleration and investment. For
more than 8 years, Soumaya led Startup Operations and Incubation programs with successful
Startup Exits in Silicon Valley; and monitored a MENA Fund of Funds initiative as an Ecosystem
Officer.

A scholar of the US embassy with a business educational background, Soumaya has a BSc in Business
Intelligence and an MBA specialized in Investment & Sustainability.

Argyris has more than 25 years experience in consulting businesses and interim management services – ranging from Startups to SME's. He is currently CEO of Anthology Ventures an Angel-based venture studio for startups targeting SE/NE Europe early-stage investable projects. He is also Co-founder of Innovation Farm, and an expert monitor in European Union innovation programs. His expertise ranges in a variety of fields from Business Development, Operations to Financial planning. In 1997 he founded Alpha Consulting Europe SA, a boutique consulting firm that offered fully-outsourced business services of interim management along with strategic advice and hardcore business coaching for Business Development and RoF. Prior to founding Alpha Consulting Europe, he served as Director of Sales and Business Development for both the retail and wholesale divisions for LEDAI S.A. Argyris’ key expertise is focused on business model development and marketing strategy. Between 1997 and 2013 Argyris was also an adjunct Professor of Marketing at the American College of Thessaloniki. He is also active as a judge, advisor or mentor in a wide series of acceleration programs or bootcamps as well as a trainer for Mentors and Business Angels.

More people than ever are cooking at home. 85% of consumers say the pandemic has altered their eating habits and 71% plan to continue cooking at home post-pandemic, too. However, 52% consider deciding what to have for dinner the hardest part of the meal-planning process and 51% would consider cooking at home even more if they had new ideas.

Why shouldn’t your company or brand be the one to fill this gap for your users? That’s the inspiration behind Recipe Guru.

Shelves across the world are stacked with hundreds of recipe books, each with some fantastic recipes hidden within. These recipes often remain on the page and aren't accessible online - this is where we come in. Today, Recipe Guru has over 150,000 recipes in our catalogue, taken from a range of leading chefs, influencers, and restaurateurs. By digitising their content, we create highly structured, smart, shoppable recipes. We proudly maintain strong working relationships with many publishers, syndicating content from the likes of DK and Hachette.

Recipe Guru means your business can access an expansive, brand-safe library of curated, white-label and bespoke recipe content, allowing you to connect with and support your audiences in new ways. All our recipes are enhanced with nutritional and dietary information to help people hit their health goals, and can cater to dietary, lifestyle, and budgetary requirements. By adding greater value to your users, we enable you to unlock new audiences, retain existing ones, and foster greater brand loyalty.

For your users, Recipe Guru is a simple answer to the question “what’s for dinner tonight?” A question we are all too familiar with. We have created a convenient way for you to uncover the breadth and depth of recipes you need to best support your users or fill any gaps in your existing database.

Telecommunications R&D Engineer for over a decade. Serial entrepreneur with Mobile Apps, SaaS, Social Good and Hardware startup efforts. My diverse experience and background, sharpened my product management skills and focus on turning ideas into products, iterating all the way to product market fit. Overall an engineering mindset with entrepreneurial skills and qualities.

My current activities as a partner at Ideas Forward include product innovation management and creating opportunities for cutting edge research, in such fields as blockchain technologies and others, for market applications and commercialization.

Entrepreneur and investor in technology space. Helping students discover and meet their potential in underprivileged schools.