EUROPEAN INNOVATION AREA - Key Persons
Bernd Schäfer has extensive business experience. Prior to his recent role as CEO/Managing Director at apt Group, leading European supplier of extruded, anodised and processed aluminium products, he was the VP Commercial, Global Commercial Transportation and Industrial in Alcoa. His area of accountability included global market responsibility as well as execution of the innovation and technology roadmap in close cooperation with R&D.
Mr Schäfer was a Board Member with the Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie (the trade association of the aluminium industry) and the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Metalle (the umbrella of metal producing companies in Germany) until 2020.
Carol was born on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois, USA. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies. She has a master's degree in theological studies (MTS) from Harvard University, where she specialized in World Religions and was a researcher for the Pluralism Project. She is currently a.b.d. (all but dissertation) from a PhD program at the University of Chicago.
She has been a lecturer in business schools and worked at The Next Women where she was the architect behind the Fempower Your Growth training, working alongside the major Dutch banks and policy institutions to offer an intense program to train female entrepreneurs on growth strategies while addressing the biases of bankers and investors.
Combining these interests, Carol is shifting her focus onto impact investing. As president of The Wominvest Observatory, she wants to highlight awareness of intersectionality and the need to ensure equal access to financial and network capital for all women and their businesses as we shift towards gender-smart funding practices.
Carol is an Included VC Fellow (inaugural class), mom to 3 sons and founder of Atomic Spices. She's President of the Harvard Alumni Club of The Netherlands and an avid amateur soprano and rower.
Job Titles:
- Technology Policy Expert With a Specialization in AI
Charlotte Stix is an experienced technology policy expert with a specialization in AI governance. Her PhD research at the Eindhoven University of Technology critically examines ethical, governance and regulatory considerations around artificial intelligence.
In that context, she serves as Fellow to the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge and as Expert to the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Neurotechnologies. Most recently, Charlotte was the Coordinator of the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence.
Formerly, she was a Researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, a Fellow to the World Economic Forum's AI Council, a Policy Officer at the European Commission's Robotics and AI Unit, consulted international start-up Element AI as an Advisor on their European AI engagement and worked as a Policy Officer at the World Future Council where she advocated for rights for future generations.
Charlotte is awarded for her work as a 2020 Forbes' 30 under 30 (Europe).
In her spare time, Charlotte runs the bi-monthly EuropeanAI newsletter with >1900 subscribers, widely seen as the definitive resource for insights into developments in AI policy across the European Union.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Vice Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Takeaway.Com NV
Corinne Vigreux is a Co-founder and currently CMO of TomTom, the location technology specialist shaping mobility with digital maps, navigation software, real-time traffic and services for consumers, the automotive industry and leading tech companies.
Corinne is the vice chairwoman of the supervisory board of Takeaway.com NV , chairwoman of TechLeap, supervisory board member of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, advisory board member of the University of Amsterdam and of SNCF Mass Transit, and international advisory board member to the Amsterdam Economic Board. She is chair on the trustee board of the Sofronie foundation.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Managing Partner at Dalberg Data Insights
Frédéric Pivetta is the Founder and Managing Partner at Dalberg Data Insights (DDI). Frédéric is active over the last 8 years in the context of data for development where he has collaborated with major funders and local end-users and stakeholders. DDI is part of the Dalberg Group, which has offices in 25 countries. DDI focuses on developing data ecosystems aiming at social impact, Big Data approaches, tools, platforms and capacity building. Ultimately, the goal is to create economic value and social impact.
Gianpiero Lotito is Founder, with Mariuccia Teroni, and CEO of FacilityLive: the Italian scaleup that the global media define The European Search Platform.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Machine Learning at Universiteit Leiden
Holger H. Hoos is Professor of Machine Learning at Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands) and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (Canada), where he also holds an appointment as Faculty Associate at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), chairman of the board of the Confederation of Laboratories of Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE), vice-president of EurAI, past president of the Canadian Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAIAC), Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) and leader of the VISION coordination mandate for the recently launched European networks of centres of excellence in AI.
Holger's research interests span artificial intelligence, empirical algorithmics, bioinformatics and computer music. Known for his work on machine learning and optimisation methods for the automated design of high-performance algorithms and on stochastic local search, he has developed - and vigorously pursues - the paradigm of programming by optimisation (PbO); he is also one of the originators of the concept of automated machine learning (AutoML). Holger has a penchant for work at the boundaries between computing science and other disciplines, and much of his work is inspired by real-world applications.
In 2018, together with Morten Irgens (OsloMet) and Philipp Slusallek (DFKI), Holger launched CLAIRE, an initiative by the European AI community that seeks to strengthen European excellence in AI research and innovation. CLAIRE promotes excellence across all of AI, for all of Europe, with a human-centred focus (for details, see claire-ai.org).
Job Titles:
- Consultant at Nextwave - Infinium
Ilse is a consultant at Nextwave-Infinium, an investment analyst and project manager at Nicoya Capital Group and a faculty member and trainer at the London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF) for the Centre for Sustainable Finance. She has degrees in both Law and Business and has completed an executive management course in Sustainable Finance at Cambridge University.
Kanira joined EIT Digital in 2020 as the Antwerp Satellite Manager for EIT Digital focusing on building out the vibrant Antwerp ecosystem. Previously, she worked as Investment Manager at SPDG, an investment firm focused on investments in India as well as early stage investments into the mobility, IoT and industry 4.0 verticals in Europe and USA.
Prior to joining SPDG, Kanira worked at DN Capital in London as an Investor Relations Manager/Associate, successfully helping DN Capital raise its fourth fund of 200 million and looking at investments in the mobile app, marketplace and SaaS space.
Before that, she worked as an Associate at Praefinium Partners, focused on Clean Technology in emerging markets and was also an active entrepreneur for a few years in the creative industry in India and the UK.
Kanira holds a Masters in Information Systems Engineering and a Master of Science in Environmental Technology, both from Imperial College London and an MBA from INSEAD. She has also published her MSc thesis via NHH, Norway.
Job Titles:
- Investor
- Founding Venture Partner at NextGen Ventures
Kelly Keenan is an active angel investor, venture capitalist, and producer based in the United States. She funds women-led startups and films through her portfolio company, See Jane Invest.
In addition to See Jane Invest, Kelly has served as a founding venture partner at NextGen Ventures, a board member of the Baltimore Angels, and mentor to over 50 companies. She is also a recurring panelist on CNBC's Power Pitch. As a speaker, she has presented at President Obama's Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative, the Japan American Society, Dubai Internet City, Crowdfundx, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and UC Berkely.
Prior to See Jane Invest, Kelly helped women run for public office through the nonprofit Running Start and the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, St. John's College, and the University of Detroit Mercy, Kelly holds a Masters in Business Administration, J.D., Masters in Liberal Arts, and a B.A. in English Writing and History.
Job Titles:
- Member of the European Parliament
Lina Gálvez Muñoz is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2019. In the EP, she is Vice-chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and member of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA).
She also belongs to the committees on Employment and Social Affairs and Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Lina Gálvez Muñoz PhD, European University Institute (Florence) is Economic History and Institutions Full Professor at the Economics Department at Pablo Olavide University (Seville).
She has also been professor at the Universities of Reading (Reading), Carlos III (Madrid), and as a visiting professor at Centre for time use research at Oxford University (Oxford).
She has more than hundred scientific publications and she has also been Vice-Rector of her university from 2007 to 2012 and served as Regional Minister of Knowledge, Research and University of the Government of Andalusia from 2018 to 2019.
Martins Valters is Co-Founder and CFO/COO at Mintos, an award-winning global marketplace for investing in loans. Prior to Mintos, Martins has spent eleven years at Ernst & Young undertaking audits, due diligence and consultations for large banking groups across Europe.
He is a Chartered Certified Accountant with a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Job Titles:
- Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo
Born in Avilés, Spain, 1971. Susana Solís is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo, Machine Engineer from the Fachhochschule de Osnabrück (Germany), and holds an MBA from the Business Institute and a Master's Degree in Marketing Management from the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid).
She has over 18 years of professional experience in several multinationals in Germany (Mercedes Benz, Robert Bosch) and in Spain (Rexel, Essilor and Johnson & Johnson).
In May 2015, she was elected Deputy in the Parliament of Madrid, being the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment.
Since May 2019 she is MEP in the European Parliament in the Renew Europe Group and she is a member of the Committee on Regional Development and Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula. She is also substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and the Delegation for relations with the United States.
Job Titles:
- Board Member of the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers
- President of Delft University of Technology
Tim van der Hagen (born 1959) has been President of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) since May 2016 and also Rector Magnificus since January 2018. He studied Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology. After taking his doctorate in 1989 at TU Delft, he stayed on at the Reactor Institute Delft, which conducts radiation-related research into energy, materials and health. He was director of the Institute between 2005 and 2012. In 1999 he was appointed professor of Reactor Physics.
Between September 2010 and May 2016 he was Dean of the Applied Sciences faculty at TU Delft. During this latter period Tim was one of the instigators of the Delft Plan, published in 2015, which set out TU Delft's vision on how the Netherlands could play a leading role in the European energy market. In 2015, he was also the co-author of an advisory report ‘A prosperous nation without CO2: Towards a sustainable energy supply by 2050' produced by the Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli). Van der Hagen has broad managerial experience in the field of energy, including as a former member of the Dutch Energy Council and the Top team of the Top Sector Energy in the Netherlands. Both bodies advise the government on the implementation of energy policy.
In addition to this he is a member of the national Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) which was established by the Dutch government to advise the government and parliament on policy in the areas of scientific research, technological development and innovation.
Furthermore, Tim is a Board member of the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers (KIvI), a member of the Board of the Netherlands Energy Research Alliance (NERA) and of GROW (Growth through Research, Development and Demonstration in Offshore Wind), member of the Supervisory Board of Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste (COVRA) and Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Strategic Advisory Board on Energy and the Supervisory Board of Advanced Dutch Energy Materials (ADEM). He also holds a chair in the General board of the 4TU Federation, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Steering Committee of Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Alliance (LDE).
Between May 2014 and May 2016, he was Chair of the Supervisory Board of HollandPTC (Holland Particle Therapy Centre) jointly built on the Delft campus by the Erasmus and Leiden University Medical Centres and the TU Delft. In May 2016, Tim van der Hagen was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In his free time, he plays in a pop cover band and he enjoys going to jazz concerts, the theatre and museums.