Speakers
Innovate!Europe's agenda is packed with discussions, interviews, and debates with world-leading executives and experts who are dedicated to catalyzing Europe's technology ecosystem.
Our confirmed speakers include:
- Isabel Aguilera, Google Spain and Portugal
- Miguel M. Latasa Alzuri, Informatica El Corte Ingles
- Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
- Juan-Alberto Belloch, Mayor of Zaragoza
- Jean Bourcereau, Ventech Capital
- Niclas Bergstrom, ReadSpeaker
- Mike Carr, British Telecom
- Sherry Coutu, Angel Investor
- Fred Destin, Atlas Ventures
- Anthony Dyer, The Connectivity Warehouse
- Philip Gallagher, Guidewire Group
- Judy Gibbons, Accel Partners
- Marc Goldberg, Occam Capital
- Rafi Haladjian, VIOLET
- Tariq Krim,Netvibes
- Alberto Larraz, Government of Aragon
- Loic Le Meur, Six Apart
- Cedric Maloux, AllPeers
- Brian O'Malley, Enterprise Ireland
- Gil Penchina, eBay Europe
- Sherry Roberts, Symbian
- Francisco Ros, Ministry of Industry, Spain
- Nicolas Rose, Partner, XAnge Equity
- David Rowe, Microsoft EMEA
- Steve Schlenker, DN Capital
- Hervé Schricke, XAnge Private Equity
- Gary Stewart, Goa Internet Services
- Mark Tluszcz, Mangrove Capital Partners
- Mark Veverka, Barron's
- Javier Rodriguez Zapatero, Yahoo! Iberia
- Niklas Zennström, Skype
Check back here for additional speaker updates and bios.
Isabel Aguilera
Managing Director, Google Spain and Portugal
In January 2006, Ms. Aguilera joined Google as Managing Director for Spain and Portugal. Prior to that, she spent three years as Chief Operating Officer for NH Hotels. From 1998 to 2002 she was CEO for Spain, Italy and Portugal at Dell Computer Corporation, having previously been their Commercial Manager for Southern Europe. Prior to that Ms. Aguilera held several positions within various technology companies, including Olivetti PC; Airtel Movil (Vodaphone); Hewlett-Packard; Compaq Computer; and Grupo Soft.
Ms. Aguilera was born in Seville and has two children. She graduated in Architecture and Urbanism from ETSA in Seville and she holds an MBA and PDG from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. She is an Independent Director of Indra Sitemas; Laureate Inc.; Director of Pulsar Technologies; International Director of the Board of the Instituto de Empresa; and Director of the APD.
Miguel M. Latasa Alzuri
Director General,
Informatica El Corte Ingles
Mr. Latasa has a degree in Economic Science from Universidad Complutense de Madrid(1959-60/1963-64). He gained his doctorate from the same university (1964-65/1965-66) whileworking at S.I.E. (Sociedad de Investigación Económica - The Organisation for Economic Research) where he specialised in statistics, macroeconomics, and market analysis. Later, Mr. Latasa also obtained an advanced degree in operations management from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In May of 1966, Mr Latasa joined Informática El Corte Inglés as a systems analyst working on the installation of the first mainframe computer system (IBM 360-40) in August of 1967. Until 1971, he participated directly in this process, assuming also the position of overall Chief of Information Studies that included the Department of Analysis and Programming, as well as Data Processing and the Department of Economic Studies and Market Analysis. In 1974 he was appointed Director of Data Processing for El Corte Inglés, a role which he carried out for the entire Group of companies until 1998. In 1986 Informática El Corte Inglés S.A. was created and Mr. Latasa was appointed Managing Director and in 1994 became Chairman. Currently, he is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors for both the Computer Systems and Technology divisions of Informática El Corte Inglés.
Michael Arrington
Founder & Editor, TechCrunch
Michael Arrington is the founder and editor of the TechCrunch Network, a group of weblogs and podcast sites that together attract over one million monthly visitors and generate over 3 million page views. Mr. Arrington is also the co-founder and a member of the board of directors of Edgeio Corporation, a venture-backed Silicon Valley based aggregator of edge-of-networkcontent. He also serves on a number of advisory boards and is a member of the board of directors of Foldera Corp., a publicly traded company.Prior to TechCrunch, Mr. Arrington was an executive consultant to a number of technology companies, includingVerisign, Fatlens and SnapNames. Prior to his consulting positions, Mr. Arrington was the founding President and CEO of Ottawa-based Pool.com, a $25 million e-commerce company. Prior to Pool.com, he was the COO of RazorGator, Inc., acting COO at Global Name Registry, Ltd., and Co-Founder and Vice President at Achex, Inc., a Silicon Valley based payments infrastructure company. Prior to Achex, Mr. Arrington held various positions at RealNames Corporation, including General Counsel and VP Sales & Business Development. Prior to RealNames, Mr. Arrington was an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California, where he specialized in corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions law. At WSGR, Mr. Arrington co-authored a book published byBowne on corporate finance titled “The Initial Public Offering: A Practical Guide for Executives. Mr. Arrington received a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. He is a member of the California Bar Association.
Juan-Alberto Belloch
Mayor, City of Zaragoza
Mr. Belloch has a rich and diverse history of promoting democracy and human rights in Spain, founding "Judges for Democracy" and the Association for Human Rights in the Basque Country. As a judge, he has undertaken various postings in La Gomera, Berga, Vic, and Alcoy. He was also the president of the Provincial Court of Vizcaya. Mr. Belloch was the Spanish Minister of Justice from 1993-’94, and Justice and Home Office Minister from 1994-’96, under President Felipe Gonzalez' Socialist government. He was also a Member of the Spanish Parliament (1996-’00) and Senator for Zaragoza (2000-’04). He became Mayor of Zaragoza in June 2003 and is the Vice-president of Expoagua Zaragoza 2008.
Niclas Bergstrom
Founder and CEO, ReadSpeaker
ReadSpeaker International Limited is a company that has developed leading online speech-enabling services for websites. These services are specifically designed for people with special needs and significantly improve access to information available via the Internet. The portfolio also include services that turns RSS feeds into mp3 podcasts automatically. Mr. Bergström has a long track record of sales management in the recording industry. He has been an entrepreneur for the past six years, since he became a managing director and innovator within the IT accessibility industry. Mr. Bergström also founded Phoneticom, the Swedish software development company that invented the ReadSpeaker system, in addition to other innovative accessibility services. He strongly believes that all people, regardless of skills, function, and knowledge of computers and technology, should be able to participate in the digital community, and to reap the benefits of Information Technology. Mr. Bergström's company is based in the Uppsala, Sweden.
Mike Carr
Director of Research and Venturing, British Telecom
As Director Research & Venturing, Mr. Carr is responsible for BT’s world-leading research andcommercial exploitation unit, including Patent-licensing and Corporate Venturing activities. Mr. Carr joined BTas a Technician Apprentice in 1972. He has a First Class Honours degree in Communication Engineering and joined the Visual Communication Research Division at BTLabs in 1980. During his 15 years with BT’s labs his career has focused on the research, development, and practical designof real-time audio/visual and multimedia communications systems. He has several patents to his name in the fieldof video compression, and is the holder of two prestigious BT awards; the Martlesham Medal for R&D (1992) and the BT Gold Medal (1994) for leading multimedia product developments. From 1994 Mr. Carr was responsible for driving BT’s company-wide technology acquisition strategy and from 1999he was based in Silicon Valley, California, USA where he established BT’s US Technology Office and Corporate Venturing activity. He returned to the UK in 2001 to take on his current post of leading BT’s Research & Venturing activity.
Philippe Collombel
General Partner - Europe, Partech VC
Philippe Collombel joined Partech in 2001. His previous experience includes managing Internet strategic initiatives for @carrefour, a subsidiary of the leading retailer Carrefour, and for Accenture. Mr. Collombel serves on the boards of Pertinence, Netsize and Cartesis. He holds an executive degree from Northwestern University, a masters degree in Law and Economics from the University of Paris, and is a graduate of Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.
Sherry Coutu
Chairman, Porpoise Ventures
Sherry Coutu pursues a portfolio of interests which include investing in early stage companies, holding non-executive directorships at several private companies and public companies, and serving as a trustee of two charities. In addition, she is an active member of the CambridgeAngels, vice-chair of the Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group, a member of the Cambridge University Development Committee and a member of the European Leadership Council of the Harvard Business School.Prior to her portfolio career, Mrs. Coutu established and sold two software companies that continue to serve the financial services industry. The first was acquired in 1997 and currently has operations in more than 70 countries,and the second was floated on the London and NASDAQ markets in 2000 and currently serves 1.7 million retailfinancial customers in the UK. She has been named by Tornado Insider as one of the Top 20 Trend Setting Women in Europe and is a past finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year with Ernst and Young and Businesswoman of the Yearwith Veuve Cliquot. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, Mrs. Coutu worked as a consultant with LEK consulting, Accenture, and Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte. She is married and has three young children.
Fred Destin
Partner,
Atlas Ventures
Fred Destin is a Partner in the information technology sector and joined Atlas Venture in 2004. Prior to joining the Paris team, Fred managed Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's OM Technology Investments Fund where he focused on infrastructure software. He worked closely with management teams in the US and in Europe as Director of Inxight Software, Kasenna Inc and Vordel Ltd, among others. Previously, Fred served as Venture Manager at Speed Ventures, a seed stage technology investor funded by Permira Ventures and Soros Partners. He was also an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London, and has further experience with Zurich Capital Markets and J.P. Morgan. Fred holds a Masters in Financial Engineering from the University of Brussels (Solvay).
Anthony Dyer
Founder & Commercial Director, The Connectivity Warehouse
Anthony Dyer studied Computer Science at Salford University and started his career during the Main Frame to LAN convergence in the early 1990's, helping companies like Shell, BBC, KMPG integrate the new wave of computers with legacy business systems. In 1995, he entered the Personal Computer revolution and started his first computer company (M2 Bristol Ltd), which built and sold computers to home and SME customers. In 1998, he re-entered the business world by joining the management team of a small internet company called Internet Network Services Ltd (INS), which grew to become the second largest corporate ISP in the UK and was later sold to Cable and Wireless. After the acquisition, Mr. Dyer took a European Director position with C&W, working out of the European HQ office in Paris, and was responsible for integrating the indirect sales strategies of the other 30 ISP acquisitions made by C&W and for producing the European sales strategy to address the SME customer. He was also responsible for Pan European Alliances and formed part of the global team working on alliances with Cisco and Nortel.
In 2002, Mr. Dyer took a break from his career and moved to Spain to study Spanish and to learn more about the country. With the traditional telecommunication industry in turmoil, he looked for alternative technologies and in 2004 was contracted by Hughes Network Systems Europe to redesign and reposition their sales strategy for the Internet Business Group, which he later led as the European Sales Director. During his time at HNSE, Mr. Dyer had the opportunity to work with many of the European telecommunications companies to integrate satellite technology as an extension to their telephone and internet networks. In 2005, he returned to Spain to set-up TCW after realising the inadequacies of existing Spanish (and European) telephone infrastructure and also to improve the customer experience and education for alternative communication products.
Philip Gallagher
Research Director, Guidewire Group
Philip Gallagher has followed technology innovation in Europe for 23 years as a journalist, editor and analyst. After working for American, Japanese, and European information companies, in the early 1990s, Mr. Gallagher launched a successful subscription-based news service covering emerging technology markets in Europe. A decade later, the service was acquired by Euromoney Institutional Investor. Mr. Gallagher is also the Editorial Director for English-language publishing at CeBIT, the world’s largest technology tradeshow. Today, he is working with Guidewire Group and a team of top technology analysts to identify and evaluate innovative early-stage companies throughout Europe.
Judy Gibbons
Partner, Accel Partners
Accel Partners
Judy Gibbons has over 25 years’ experience in the computer industry with a focus on software, internet, and consumer technologies. Before joining Accel, Ms. Gibbons was Corporate Vice President of MSN Global Sales and Marketing at Microsoft Corporation managing the business across 40 markets worldwide. She joined Microsoft in 1994 to launch MSN in the United Kingdom, and went on to manage MSN Europe. She was promoted to run MSN International covering Asia-Pacific and Japan and in addition took on responsibility for US Sales & Marketing. Prior to Microsoft, Ms. Gibbons held various product development and marketing positions at Hewlett Packard, where she spent two years in Silicon Valley, and at Apple Computer where she was involved in the company’s early work in interactive multimedia and PDAs. Ms. Gibbons has been ranked among the “Top 20 Most Influential European Business Women” by the Wall Street Journal Europe for two successive years, and as one of Time magazine’s five “People to Watch in International Business”. She was awarded the Microsoft Women’s Leadership Award in January 2003. She served on the main board of O2, the European mobile network operator, until its purchase by Telefónica. Ms. Gibbons holds an honours degree in Engineering from Brighton University in England and has undertaken executive education programs at Harvard Business School and London Business School.
Marc Goldberg
Managing Partner, Occam Capital
Based in Paris (France), Mr. Goldberg is a managing Partner of Occam Capital with over 20 years of experience in the software industry in the US and in Europe. He founded Occam Capital in 2004 to focus on under-served Europe IPin the Information Technology industry, and build a technology consolidation fund that would support the local innovation community, and deliver superior return to its investors. Most recently Mr. Goldberg was a General Partner of RVC, the manager of the Reuters Greenhouse Fund, theCorporate VC arm of Reuters. RVC was instrumental in some of the most profitable European transactions withID2 (sold to Sonera), MetaMerge (sold to IBM), Orchestream (LSE IPO), Fantastic Corporation (Neue Merk IPO), Tradeum (sold to VerticalNet), as the Greenhouse fund was invested in 82 companies and generated 16 IPOs and27 trade sales.Before RVC, Mr. Goldberg was involved both as an entrepreneur and senior executive in Technology and Product Management in large and small technology companies: Renaissance Software (sold to SunGard), Rational Software (sold to IBM for $2.1B), Thales-Syseca (Paris) , KMPG-Nolan Norton (Palo Alto), and Reuters (London). After more than 15 years away from France, he is now back in Paris where he lives with his wife and three children. He's passionate about Venture Capital, technology, innovation, Europe, running marathons, great food and good wine.
Rafi Haladjian
Founder and CEO, Ozone
Having pioneered French telematics (Minitel) as early as 1983, Rafi Haladjian went on to found FranceNet, France 's very first ISP, in June 1994. His intuition at the time was that the Internet, a highly confidential network in those days, was "history in the making". FranceNet became Fluxus in 2000, and was sold to British Telecom in 2001. After heading one of the Internet's major French players for over nine years, Rafi Haladjian founded Ozone which is currently deploying a network, notably in Paris, that is based on Wi-Fi technology. Ozone Paris has set out to provide all Parisians, both individuals and corporate entities, with a wireless broadband Internet access.
Mr. Haladjian is also co founder of Violet.
Alberto Larraz
Minister of Science, Technology and University, Government of Aragon
Alberto Larraz Vileta (Zaragoza, 1949) is a doctor of Medicine and Surgery and a specialist inInternal and Intensive Medicine. Master in Health Economy by National College of Health, he was also a teacher of General Pathology, assistant director of Infirmary Technical College in Huesca and director of Infirmary Technical College in Teruel.He held out the position of Provincial Director of INSALUD in Teruel and in Zaragoza and he was its Regional Director between 1989 and 1992. After that, he was Secretary-General of INSALUD (1992-1994) and managing director of the University Clinical Hospital of Zaragoza (1994-1996). He continued with his duties as doctor of Intensive Care Unit at San Jorge’s Hospital of Huesca until he took up an appointment as Health, Labour and Welfare Minister in 1999. After the regional elections of 2003, he was confirmed as Health and Consumer Affairs Minister until his appointment as Science, Technology and University Minister in May, 2004.
Loic Le Meur
Executive VP & General Manager of EMEA, Six Apart
Mr. Le Meur is a well-known French entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Ublog, one o Europe’s leading blogging tools providers and hosting services. Prior to joining Six Apart EMEA, he founded and served as CEO for several companies in France, including Tekora, anASP-driven website publisher for small businesses and RapidSite France, the first shared Webhosting company launched in France. RapidSite France was sold to France Telecom. B2L, one of the first Web agencies launched in France, with clients including Chanel, 20th Century Fox, and Mars, was sold to BBDO.
Cedric Maloux
CEO & Co-Founder, AllPeers
Before co-founding AllPeers, Cédric Maloux was Vice President of European Operations for PlanetOut Inc, a leading global media and entertainment company. PlanetOut's brands include Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, Kleptomaniac.com, and OUT&ABOUT Travel. In 2000, Mr. Maloux joined Gay.com after it acquired OOups.com, a leading French community website he founded in 1996. He led the implementation of Gay.com in the UK where he brought his team to profitability within 14 months. Gay.com UK was awarded the prize for Best Consumer Media at the NewMediaAge Awards in 2002. Prior to PlanetOut, Mr. Maloux was Business Development Manager for UK and France at iPlanet. During that period he dealt on a day-to-day basis with the Heads of Group Security, Heads of Group e-Payments and Heads of Groupe-Commerce of the leading financial institutions in Paris and London. Mr. Maloux received master’s degrees in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from Stevens Institute of Technology (USA) and EPITA (France) in 1992.
Brian O'Malley
Senior Advisor – High Potential Start-up Division, Enterprise Ireland
Brian O'Malley is a senior advisor with Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government economic development agency focused on transforming Irish industry. Mr. O'Malley's specific role with the agency is to work with early stage technology entrepreneurs on Ireland's western seaboard to help them develop their ventures from business idea conception stage to first round investment and beyond.
He has specific responsibility for assisting High Potential Start up companies within the emerging Irish Web 2.0 cluster and his clients include Nooked & Tablane. With a background in luxury brand management, Mr. O'Malley joined Enterprise Ireland in 1998 from Fortnum & Mason plc. Fascinated by the disruptive effect Web 1.0 had in the mid 1990's on many established market channels, he continues to have a strong interest in the potential to build global companies by leveraging the internet.
He was educated at the University of Galway, Ireland and the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Gil Penchina
Vice President, eBay International
A long-time eBay employee, Gil Penchina has served in a number of executive positions at eBay. Currently based in Europe, Mr. Penchina directs eBay’s presence in Southern Europe, and oversees the company’s expansion efforts in Eastern Europe. In the past year he was responsible for launching websites in Hong Kong and Singapore, and facilitated the company’s entry into India. Penchina also played a role in eBay’s entry into the South Korea and China markets.
Prior to joining the international division, Penchina was vice president and general manager of eBay.com’s home and collectibles business. In this role he was responsible for marketing, product development, seller outreach and business development for several of the company’s most popular shopping categories.
Penchina came to eBay in 1998, first working in business development and then running the mergers and acquisitions department. In 2001 he was named vice president of business development where he built business and marketing relationships for eBay with a number of the top brands in the U.S.A including Microsoft, AOL, Disney and Yahoo.
A native of Amherst, Massachusetts, Penchina holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business.
Sherry Roberts
Operator Account Director, Symbian Ltd.
Sherry Roberts has 10 years of combined general management, product marketing and sales experience. She was appointed recently as Account Director for Vodafone Global by Symbian Ltd., a privately held mobile software companyowned by leading mobile players including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Siemens. Prior to joining Symbian, Ms. Robertsheld a board level position at Lycos UK and was responsible for Lycos Mobile. While at Lycos she initiated the “FreeSMS” service on the Internet revolutionising text messaging and attracting over 1.5 million users. This service washighly regarded by publications such as the Economist. In addition she spent four years in Germany and launched thefirst “Internet by Call” product for Mannesmann Arcor, setting the stage for companies to follow such as Freeserve. Ms. Roberts holds an Executive MBAfrom Northwestern University, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Francisco Ros
Secretary of State, Spain Ministry of Industry
Born in Lorca (Murcia), Spain, Mr. Ros holds two PhDs, one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and another from the Technical Engineering University of Madrid (Telecommunications). He also holds an Advanced Management Program degree (PADE) from the IESE Business School in Madrid. Appointed in May, 2004, Mr. Ros is Spain’s Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society. In 2003 he joined Qualcomm as Country Manager, responsible for operations of the company in Spain and Portugal. Prior to that, he was co-founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO of Alúa - BroadBand Optical Access. In 1996, Mr.Ros was appointed President and CEO of Unisource.From 1988 through 1996, Mr. Ros headed several business areas within the Telefónica Group, of which he was Managing Director as well as a member of the Executive Management Board, and responsible for the International Communications area from 1994 to 1996. Among others, he has been a member of the Board of AT&TMicro-electronics, WorldPartners, and Infonet in the U.S.,Mannesmann Arcor in Germany, Siris in France, and CTC in Chile.
Nicolas Rose
Photograph forthcoming.
Nicolas Rose holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Michigan (USA) and an MBA from the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (France). After starting his career as a software developer and IT consultant, he then developed sector expertise in the financing and valuation of high-tech companies for JP Morgan and as a financial analyst specialised in Information Technology with Hambrecht & Quist Euromarkets. Mr. Rose is a partner at Venture Capital firm XAnge Private Equity, specializing in Software technology, Internet and related services. He currently sits on the board of 5 high-technology companies.
David Rowe
Emerging Business Team, Microsoft EMEA
Dr. David Rowe works within Microsoft’s European management team with a focus on building relationships in the venture capital community and creating value in emerging businesses that develop innovative solutions on Microsoft’s .Net platform. Dr. Rowe previously worked within Microsoft’s EMEA Public Sector Team promoting e-government strategy, cross-border intellectual property reuse and local economic development. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Rowe worked inthe venture capital domain with a focus on the digital media, wireless internet and biotechnology sectors. He also has extensive research consulting and enterprise computing experience. Dr. Rowe holds a PhD in Computer Systems Architecting and a Bachelor of Computer Systems Engineering.
Steve Schlenker
Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, DN Capital
Mr. Schlenker has more than 15 years of venture capital and private equity investment experience.He is a Managing Partner and the Chief Investment Officer of DN Capital. He is particularly involved in investments in enterprise application software and oversees DN portfolio companies Endeca, MoreMagic, Lagan and Datanomic. Prior to co-founding DN Capital, Mr. Schlenker was a senior member of the investment team in his capacity as Chief Investment Officer for SUN Technology Investors. There, he was a Director of e-Start.com and was on the boards of Travelstore and KeySystem, the latter as Vice Chairman. He was also involved in the successful sale of PlanetAll to Amazon. Prior to joining SUN, he spent four years with Interlaken Capital, a buyout fund in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he worked on private equity investments in companies in the consumer goods, industrial distribution and service industries. Mr. Schlenker received a BSc in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of Finance with dual concentrations in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management, and an MBA, with high distinction, from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.
Hervé Schricke
Photograph forthcoming.
Hervé Schricke is founder and President of XAnge, a French and European Private Equity player with €150 million in managed assets. XAnge is composed of two entities:
- XAnge Capital, which invests in businesses connected to postal activities;
- XAnge Private Equity, which invests more generally in innovation led companies at all financing stages.
Chris Shipley
Executive Producer, Innovate!Europe Co-Founder & Global Research Director, Guidewire Group
Chris Shipley is a leading technology and product analyst. Best known as the executiveproducer of the DEMO Conferences for IDG Executive Forums, Chris she has helped technology companies bring over 1,000 new products to market since 1996. As a founding partner and Global Research Director of Guidewire Group, she analyzes emerging technology companies around the world to identify market opportunities and accelerate products to market. Fortune Small Business Magazine placed Ms. Shipley on its “Top 10 Minds in Small Business,” and the San Jose Business Journal named her a “Woman of Distinction.” She has often been cited as a leading influencer by Marketing Computers magazine. Ms. Shipley has covered personal technology since 1984 and has worked as a writer and editor for a variety of technology and consumer media. She is currently working on a book on the social impact of technology-driven change. Ms. Shipley holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Literature and Communication Arts and pursues knowledge and under-standing relentlessly.
Gary Stewart
Founder, Goa Internet Services
Mr. Stewart received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale College in 1996 and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School in 1999, where he was executive editor of and published student legal scholarship in The Yale Law Journal. After graduating from Yale Law School, Mr. Stewart worked with then Chief Judge Harry T.Edwards of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, before moving to London, England in 2000 to work as a corporate lawyer for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. In 2001, he moved from London to Barcelona, Spain to work as a corporate lawyer for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in international securities, private mergers and acquisitions,and international property law. In 2004, he left Freshfields to begin two Spanish companies: EOS Real Estate, S.L.and Ad Infinitum Servicios Legales, S.L. In 2006, Mr. Stewart founded Goa Internet Services with Oriol Blasco andSandy Chen. He is perfectly fluent in Spanish and English.
Mark Tluszcz
Managing Partner, Mangrove Capital Partners
Mr. Tluszcz is the co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mangrove Capital Partners. On behalf of Mangrove, he is involved with Dialcom Networks, Nimbuzz and Properazzi. He has also had the privileged experience to be involved with Skype, which was sold to eBay in 2005. Mr. Tluszcz is always on the lookout for cool ideas which disrupt the norm and is an enthusiast and believer in entrepreneurship in Europe.
Mark Veverka
West Coast Editor, Barron's
Mark Veverka is West Coast Editor and a columnist at Barron's, where he writes the weekly "Plugged In" column on technology. He joined the Dow Jones financial magazine in June 1999. He also appears weekly on CNBC’s Power Lunch. Before joining Barron's, Mr. Veverka was a financial markets columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Prior to that, Mr. Veverka was a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal. Earlier in his career, Mr. Veverka served as an associate editor at Crain's Chicago Business and was a business reporter for the Orange Country Register in Southern California. Mr. Veverka holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a masters degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. In 1992, he was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow, reporting from Europe on German unification and international economics. As part of the Burns alumni program, he reported on expansion of the European Union from Berlin, Warsaw and Istanbul in 2001 and 2005. He is based in San Francisco.
Niklas Zennström
CEO & Co-Founder, Skype
Niklas Zennström’s newest venture is Skype, the Global Internet Telephony company founded in 2003 based on peer-to-peer principles. He started his professional career at Tele2, when there wereonly 23 employees. Now the company is the leading consumer oriented pan-European telecom operator present in 23 countries. Mr. Zennström served in various business development roles including launching and being responsible for European Internet Service Provider business get2net and as CEO of the everyday.com portal. He later co-founded and servedas CEO of KaZaA, the world’s most downloaded Internet software to date with more than 370 million downloads. After that Mr. Zennström founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company developing and marketing peer-to-peer(p2p) solutions and p2p traffic optimisation technologies to companies. Mr. Zennström also co-founded Altnet, the world’s first secure p2p network promoting commercial content to millions of consumers and integrating the full value chain ofpromotion, distribution, and payment of digital content, including beingthe world’s largest issuer of DRM licenses. Mr.Zennström’s newest venture is Skype, the Global Internet Telephony company founded in 2003 based on peer-to-peer principles.Mr. Zennström, a Swedish citizen of 39, has a dual degree in business and MSc Engineering Physics, computer science from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When he is not creating new cutting edge disruptive businesses, he enjoys sailing, skiing, outdoor activities and travelling.
