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2008 PANELIST SPEAKERS
Confirmed panelist speakers:
Day 1:
Gary Palin
Shirley Jamieson
Day 2:
Miguel Palacios
Markus Wolf
Jose L. Barbero Navarro
Joowan Ha
Uli Fricke
Carlos Trenchs Sainz de la Maza
Claire Munck
Bill Baldasti
Adrian Amariei
Shane Immelman
Richard Kivel
Antoinette Muller
Diego Luzuruaga
Darsel Keane
Werner Arnt
Victoria Larke
Linda Plano
David Clark-Murphy
Carolina Rodriguez
Rafael Sancho
José Pacheco
Wendy Hanson
Richard Kivel
Linda Chao
Robert Crawford
Gary Palin
Rebeca Hwang
Sharon Bamford
Maria Callejon
Hugo Kantis
Carlos Talamas
Yaw Owusu
Brent Kreuger
Brian Payer
Mohammad Asfour
Day 3:
Javier Garcia-Martinez
Peter Hartzbech
José Antonio Martinez Aguilar
Rama Rao
Dorette Steenkamp
Erna Sittig
Gary Palin is the Executive Director of the NC State University College of Management Entrepreneurship Education Initiative and a faculty member of the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He brings a combination of 30 years experience in both the academic and business communities. He founded the Entrepreneurship Education Initiative at NC State in 1993. Palinís areas of expertise include new venture development, social entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and venture growth. He is an active member of the MIT Global Startup Workshop Board of Advisors, a founding member of the Social Entrepreneurship and Education Consortium and a participant in the United States Association for Small Business and
Entrepreneurship, National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, Academy of Management, North Carolina Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the North Carolina Chapter of Triangle Indus Entrepreneurs. Palin has recently been named a recipient of the 2008 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award from the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence
Palin earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management in 1978 from Providence College and a Masters of Business Administration from Bryant University in 1986. He has served as Director of NC State University's Small Business Technology and Development Center where he assisted hundreds of business launches, expansions, and acquisitions. He has developed executive education programs in business planning, new venture launches, and technology commercialization. He has consulted for numerous entrepreneurial business ventures and also with major corporations such as Texas Instruments, FMC Corporation, and Thomas Register. Palin serves on a number of high growth company advisory boards and is currently involved in several business development projects.
Shirley Jamieson is Head of Marketing at Cambridge Enterprise Limited which is the commercialisation office of the University of Cambridge. Currently Cambridge Enterprise manages 250 active patents and equity holdings in 72 companies. Shirley has been an advisor to the Cambridge Business Plan Competition (CUE) since its formation in 1999.
Shirley started work at the BBC which was followed by 15 years in executive search. First for Egon Zehnder International as a Researcher which was followed by 6 years as Managing Director of Scientific Resources Limited which was part of the Generics Group (re-named Sygentia). During the mid 1990s Shirley worked as an independent executive search consultant specialising in board level appointments. In 1999 Shirley co-authored the successful bid on behalf of the University of Cambridge for government funding to create the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre which has now developed into Cambridge Enterprise. She is an Independent Governor of Anglia Ruskin University and chairs the "Student Matters" main board committee. She was selected Businesswoman of the Year 2001 at the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards.
Miguel Palacios is Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Marketing at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM). He is one
of the promoters of BAN Madrid (2004/5), the first business angel network in Madrid and the business plan
competition of UPM. Miguel holds a Bs., M.Sc. and PhD. (entrepr.) by UPM, an M.Sc. by Ecole Centrale Paris
and an MBA from MIT-Sloan. He has collaborated in multiple research projects on high-growth entrepreneurship
and early stage financing European and American. Previously, he worked with Alcatel in new product develop-
ment and with Cluster (now Mercer) in entrepreneurial management consulting. He has launched several
companies for clients in the ICT, travel and media sectors throughout Europe. In addition to teaching, he advises
institutions on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in collaboration with the consulting firm CMI International
and is part of a panel on High Growth Entrepreneurship at the European Union.
Marcus Wolf holds a master degree in business administration with the majors marketing and international management. He finished his studies as best of class and gained some foreign experiences in the USA and Switzerland.
In 1998 he founded an internet startup witch was sold in 2002 to an international media company. After that he worked for the defacto marketing group (600 employees) in the department of strategic development before he came to netzwerk-nordbayern.
Between 2003 and 2006 he worked as project manager, since 2007 as assistant to the managing director for the netzwerk-nordbayern. netzwerk-nordbayern organizes the Northern Bavaria Businessplan Competition (Germanys most successful business plan and entrepreneurship network) and is according to BAND Germany most successful Business Angel Network with more than 100 Mio EUR matched capital.
As a consultant Markus also helped to establish the Lithuanian Business Plan Competition (Verslo Plano Turnyras) in Vilnius.
Additional Markus is a doctorate student at the HHL Graduade school of Management, associate lecturer at the universities of applied sciences in Schweinfurt and senior partner at LC Consulting.
Jose L. Barbero Navarro is currently advisor to the General Directorate of Innovation and Technology on business policy, within
the Andalusian Regional Government. Since 2005, he is also an Associate professor in Strategy and Organization at
the University Pablo de Olavide Business School. Since 2004, he is the Chair of entrepreneurship at the EOI Business
School. In 2006, we was a visiting professor in the entrepreneurship department at the University of Portland, Oregon.
He was previously with Accenture in London, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Spain. Dr. Navarro hols a Doctorate in
Business Administration from the University of Seville, Spain.
Joowan Ha is a student of Seoul National University majoring Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Joined the "Seoul National University Student Venture Network(SNUSV.net)" in 2006
Joowan was the organizer of "KOREA Student Venture Competition in 2006-2007
Joowan is also the vice president of "Seoul National University Student Venture Network" in 2008.
Uli Fricke is a Managing General Partner and Founder of Triangle Venture Capital Group. Since the foundation of Triangle in 1997, Uli led Triangle's fund raising activities for Funds I to IV. Triangle has advised
investments in 14 start-up companies, all spin-offs from University and research centers. Triangle is acting as lead
investor in all portfolio companies with more than 40 transactions completed, including follow-on and bridge funding
rounds. Uli currently serves on the Board of Directors of 4 portfolio companies. Previously Managing Partner of an
international insurance company, Uli sold this business successfully in a cross-Atlantic transaction, realizing a triple-
digit multiple for a business which has been break even from day one. Previously she was Managing Director of a
mid-size customer service company which specialized in international travel. Uli completed her study of Business
Administration at the University of Applied Sciences Worms at the age of 21.
Carlos Trenchs Sainz de la Maza is an Investment Manager at Caixa Capital Risc SCR and director of EmprendedorXXI ("la Caixa" program who aims the promotion of innovative entrepreneurial projects and investment of seed capital)
With a degree in Business Administration by the University of Barcelona and MBA for ESADE and Stern Business School (NYU). Carlos has specialized in different aspects of strategy and growth of companies at initial stages with specialized studies in the MIT.
More than 8 years of experience as entrepreneur in several internet and telecommunications start-ups. Since 2.004 he promotes the program of entrepreneurship at "la Caixa", third Spanish savings bank, he teaches in several business schools and is member of the board of several new innovative companies based in Spain like Futurlink, VidaSoftware, Das Photonics or Omnia Molecular.
Claire Munck is currently General Manager of the EBAN Secretariat, based in Brussels. As such she is responsible for its overall management, preparation of policy papers, publications, and relationships with the members, organisation of events, development and management of European projects related to the funding of innovation, entrepreneurship, etc. She is the author and co-author of several articles relating to risk capital and business angel finance. Claire is a frequent speaker at conferences in Western - Eastern Europe and the US, to promote the role of business of business angels in economic development, the importance of business angel networks and main characteristics of and trends in the European angel market. She has also taken part as an expert in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Innovation Financing for Development.
From 2003 to 2006, Claire acted as project manager of EURADA, European Association of Development Agencies, and Deputy Director of EBAN. Her work involved activities related to the implementation of projects in the framework of Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS and RIS-NAC), Interreg, Leonardo, Paxis, and FP6. Her educational background includes a Post-Graduate degree in International Politics (Free University of Brussels - Great Distinction), an MA in Political Communication EFAP - Belgium - Great Distinction) and a BA in Political Science (McGill University - Canada - Distinction). She is fluent in French and English, and has a good command of Spanish.
Bill Baldasti is the Director and Practice Manager at Infusion. He is responsible for the technical evangelism of Infusion's offerings
and helping new and existing clients leverage best-of-breed technology to design and build enterprise class
solutions. Bill is currently focused on business development within the Canadian marketplace, leveraging
world-class solutions developed by Infusion on both sides of the border. An experienced speaker, developer and
architect, Bill often speaks at technology and industry conferences across North America. Bill is also a partner in
Infusion Angels, an angel investment fund based in the Waterloo region. Before joining Infusion, Bill held several
positions with IBM and IBM Global Services at their locations in Markham, Ontario and their facility in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina. Bill Baldasti graduated from the University of Waterloo's Computer Science program
with an honour's degree in Mathematics. While still attending University Bill had good exposure to formal
requirements specification and definition by serving as a Teacher's Assistant for the University's "CS445; Software
Requirements and Specification" course delivered as part of UW's Software Engineering degree specialization.
Bill is also a Microsoft MVP, Solutions Architect and holds several Microsoft Certifications, including MCAD and MCT.
Adrian Amariei is the Founder of Axonite (2003), Voxtime (2000), iMediation (1998).
After management consulting on Wall Street (1996-1998), Mr. Amarei co-founded www.imediation.com,
a US/French company that reached a valuation of $300M from top notch VCs: Apax, Intel Capital,
GE Capital, DB, Vivendi, Morgan Stanley. iMediation expanded on 3 continents within 2 years of operations
and made Wall Street Journal first page in January 2002. It was featured by CNN as "business un-usual".
Repeatedly covered by Fortune, Forbes, Wirtschaftswoche, and "Les Echos".
Following the exit from iMediation he used $2.5M to develop a "ahead-of-its-time" technology: yield and
revenue management applied to mobile telephony. His message to the participants:
"There is purpose to a good business concept. Use common senseand execute well."
Shane Immelman is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Lapdesk Company – International (Proprietary) Limited, an organisations specialising in the educational upliftment and development of underprivileged children in global emerging markets using a unique model of media and corporate intervention.
Shane is an entrepreneur who has a broad product and market knowledge base from his current and past business projects and investments, where he has been involved in the FMCG, Medical, Telecommunications (GSM) and Media sectors.
Shane's current interests include media, enterprise development and life skills development initiatives, all relating to development and upliftment of underprivileged youth and women in emerging market economies.
In addition to his responsibilities with The Lapdesk Company, he is also the founder and Managing Director of HeadSpace Group Projects (an SMME incubator) the founder and Managing Director of Iziwasha Holdings (a product-based enterprise development initiative) and co-founder and Commercial Director of the Fenyane Group (mining and property development).
Shane is a member of Endeavor (inducted 2006) a New York-based organisation who's Board of Directors comprises world-renowned executives, private equity professionals and entrepreneurs, such as James D.Wolfensohn (retired World Bank president).
He has additionally been the recipient of the Proudly South African – New Business of the Year Award (2005) the South African iHeroes Grand Prix Award (2007) is a Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow (Oxford university 2008), and actively supports emerging market-related development programmes with the business schools of Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
Shane is engaged to Renee, and supports 17 children with full or partial scholarships, a faith-based youth outreach programme, a junior soccer team and many cats and dogs.
Richard Kivel serves as CEO of TheraGenetics, Ltd. TheraGenetics is a London, England based company focused on the development and commercialization of pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to help guide and improve the treatment of CNS disorders, such as Schizophrenia, Depression, ADHD and Alzheimer's. The technology, which was developed at King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, is based upon genetic factors involved in influencing an individual's response to antipsychotic drugs. Rich joined the company as CEO in early 2006.
Rich is a frequent guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management and has been a Judge for the MIT $50K / $100K Entrepreneurship Competition since 1998. Rich also serves on the Global Board of Directors of the MIT Enterprise Forum and serves as a Lead Catalyst for the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and is a founding board member of Biolink USA-Ireland.
Rich earned an M.S. in Management from Boston College, a B.A. from American International College and has completed the "Advanced Course in Genomics, Drug Discovery, Therapeutics and New Innovations" at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of the prestigious EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program
Rich has been selected for the "All Star" award for Biotechnology by Mass High Tech: Journal of New England Technology and by the Boston Business Journal as one of its "40-under-40"; top forty most promising business people under 40 in Massachusetts.
Rich lives in Boston, MA and London, England and can be reached at rich@kivel.net or +1-617-697-0952.
Linda Chao is a Senior Licensing Associate in Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing and a registered patent agent. She manages an intellectual property portfolio of over 280 inventions, including nanotechnology, photonic, semiconductor, and bioengineering technologies, and negotiates licenses with companies ranging from start-up ventures to Fortune 500 companies. She is the OTL representative to the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network, which is a federation of entrepreneurship-related organizations across the Stanford campus. Linda is also an active member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES), including LES Foundation board member and 2008 chair of the LES Foundation Graduate Student Business Plan Competition. Her technical and business experience includes microprocessor design at Digital Equipment Corporation, industry analysis at SEMATECH, and product marketing at Applied Materials. Linda received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, and a Master of Science in Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Antoinette Muller is the Director of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global Office, having joined MIT upon moving to Boston from her native South Africa in 2001. Under her directorship over the last four years, Antoinette has strengthened the Enterprise Forum's 24 chapters on a local level through successful volunteer management practices. Simultaneously, she has helped raise the visibility of the MITEF brand globally by connecting and collaborating with over 200 separate MIT and non-MIT entrepreneurial organizations across the world, with a goal to supporting the technology entrepreneur. Prior to coming to the US, Antoinette was the Relationship Marketing Manager for JD Group Pty Ltd, the largest group of national retail chains in the Southern hemisphere, and the Marketing Manager for the first IT chain in South Africa. She received her Bachelor's in Marketing and Financial Management from the University of Pretoria.
Diego Luzuruaga is the CEO of Aquariana, a Management Consulting Firm, specialized in strategy, M&A and systems thinking. Few years ago, Diego co founded BtoBen, a network of B2B e-commerce companies throughout Latin America, serving markets in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
Prior to BtoBen, Diego worked 3 years for The Exxel Group, an international Private Equity Fund. Diego also is a former McKinsey & Company consultant and has worked for Coca-Cola and Siemens.
Diego is the Director of the Management of Technology Graduate Program between Instituto Tecnológico Buenos Aires (ITBA) and Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI) de España. In addition he is also member of ITBA's Entrepreneurship Center and teaches business development in Latin America for the Duke and Kellog MBAs.
Diego holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico Buenos Aires (ITBA) and a Masters Degree in Management of Technology from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Diego is a former Fulbright scholar.
Darsel Keane is the 2008 Chairperson of Spark: The University of Auckland Entrepreneurship Challenge which is responsible for 3 competitions - a flagship Business Plan competition and ideas competition and a social venture competition as well as an accompanying 10 week course (Visions to Business) which educates students and staff on the basics of building a business. She has considerable experience in these operations having served as the CEO of the 22 person organising committee in 2007 after being the Events lead in 2006. Currently, Darsel is a post-graduate student in the Management and International Business Department at The University of Auckland specialising in Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer. In addition, Darsel is an intern on a permanent ongoing basis at The ICEHOUSE, the Business School's Incubator. In this role Darsel has been conducting market validation work for University Technology, providing assistance to the development of a marketing and communications strategy and is working closely with the Accelerator team on the streamlining of the incubation process for the Start-up programme. Darsel holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Marketing as well a Bachelor of Arts in Management and French from The University of Auckland.
Werner Arnt has 20 years of industry experience in worldwide sales of measurement and operating technology,
project management, management training, personnel management, referent and seminar/workshop super-
vision gloablly, including, in Algier, Bombay, Bangalore,Casablanca, Genf, Kyoto, Las Vegas, and Tokyo. For
the past 8 years he has been managing the innovations-platform for the Munich Business Plan Competition
(MBPW GmbH). He is responsible for the conception of the programme, knowledge and experience transfer,
supervision of different workshops and the networking process, topics: business plan,sales, marketing,
presentation,coaching,and leadership. He has established relationships with universities and research
establishments and exchange with international innovation partners: MIT Boston MA, CEC Cambridge UK,
Global Startup Workshop Org., IEEE etc.
Victoria Larke is the manager of the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship at Laurier's School of Business and Economics,
one of Canada's largest business schools. Since starting in her position at the inception of the Centre five years ago,
she has played an integral role in the development of the entrepreneurship programs that are offered at Laurier.
The Centre now operates three business plan competitions - BDO New Ventre Competition; Laurier Entrepreneurship
Challenge; and the Nicol LaunchPad $50K Venture Creation Competition. Each is targeted at a different student
audience but they share the common goal of educating and supporting students in developing their entrepreneurial
knowledge, skills, and ventures. The Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship has made business plan competitions an
integral part of its programming strategy.
Dr. Linda Plano is the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC), an organization dedicated to the commercialization of technologies developed in the state's nonprofit research institutions. The MTTC has a number of programs designed to support entrepreneurs, including technology showcases such as the Conference on Clean Energy (which is co-hosted with the Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition and the Energy Special Interest Group (ESIG) of the MIT Enterprise Forum), Platform events in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a small, hand-picked audience of investors and industry professionals for strategic feedback, and semiannual awards programs to provide prototype development funds to inventors in Massachusetts' nonprofit research institutions.
Dr. Plano is committed to the development of the Clean Energy Cluster in Massachusetts and the region. To that end, she helped co-found the ESIG as well as serving as chair of the Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) Business Presentation Competition for the last two years, which has provided mentoring and networking opportunities to over 100 teams in its first three years as well as more than half a million dollars in cash and prizes to the winners. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) at MIT for her volunteer work in developing materials to communicate clean energy issues to the general public as well as training in entrepreneurship for student inventors.
Dr. Plano did her undergraduate work in Physics at MIT, and earned her PhD at Stanford University in Materials Science and Engineering.
David Clark-Murphy holds a PhD in Management Psychology focusing on managerial decision making performance. David has taught
Marketing, Management, Business Research, Managerial Finance and Entrepreneurship at undergraduate and
postgraduate levels in Australia, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. He was awarded Business Faculty prize for
excellence in teaching in 2000; he mentored Australia's Young Businessperson of the Year in 2002; and managed
the Entrepreneurship semi-finalists team in the 2004 Global Business Competition; and was short-listed for the
award of Australia's Best Entrepreneurial Educator of the Year 2006. Panel member of Ch 31 Television program
"Marketing – Does Sex Sell"? Keynote Speaker at the Inaugural National Business Congress in Perth 2006, and the
2005 International Business Conference in Hawaii.
Wendy Hanson joined Scottish Enterprise in 2001 following 8 years in industry as a research manager and 2 years at the
University of Cambridge as a corporate fundraiser. She works as the Portfolio Manager for the £79m Proof of Concept
Programme and is responsible for the ongoing commercialisation of the 200 projects in the Programme's portfolio.
To date, 38 companies have been formed, 35 licence deals signed and over £200m of follow-on-funding has been
leveraged. Wendy led the team for the 2006 review and evaluation of the Proof of Concept Programme. The
Programme is supported by a highly skilled team of nine, including two secondees from the academic sector.
Working in close partnership with the academics, technology transfer offices, the private sector and others in
Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, the Programme supports the most promising technology projects
and facilitates the route to commercial success. Wendy has a doctorate in materials and is a chartered engineer and
chartered scientist with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
José Pacheco is the Program Manager of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.
José works closely with the Managing Director, Chairman and other members of the E-Center's team to build, develop and sustain the E-Center's research and educational programs, events, publications, alumni outreach, and networking activities. He promotes the MIT Entrepreneurship Center's courses, programs and activities throughout MIT, manages relations with MIT faculty, students and alumni, as well as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and private and corporate donors.
Rafael Sancho is the general manager of the Business Innovation Center Talavera de la Reina-Toledo since its creation in 2003. Sancho combines activities of innovation in enterprises and entrepreneurs and provides support necessary to innovative entrepreneurs in order to design their business plan as well as the technological management needs in SMEs already created.
He also has a dilated experience as Responsible of MBA Executive and Master and European Social Funds Courses in Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI) in Madrid for eight years and still collaborates .
Sancho has written many articles for specialized business magazines and recently has presented the publication "Innovation Management: 8 key of success" in which Rafael Sancho shows how innovation has become a nuclear factor of the management of the company.
EBN (European Business Network) has selected him as auditor of new European Incubators.
Carolina Rodriguez has been working within The Andalusia Technology Network (RETA) as Director of
the Technical Experts' Network. RETA is a non-profit business association aimed at promoting innovation and bringing
Andalusias' R+D+I's offer to local companies throughout our region. Ms. Rodríguez was an Associate Partner with
Global Europe Consulting Group in Alicante, Spain. From 2004 to 2006, she was Director Partner with Global Europe
Consulting Group in Brussels, Belgium. From 1999 to 2004, she was the EU Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Manager
with the British American Tobacco in Brussels, Belgium. Ms. Rodríguez holds a Masters Degree in Law from the
Universidad San Pablo in Spain, and a Masters Degree in European Studies from the Université Catholique de Louvain
in Belgium.
Dr. Robert M Crawford is currently an Executive Director of Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) with responsibilities for business development, communications, marketing and the Caledonian Business School, Scotland's largest.
Prior to GCU he was the chief executive of the Mersey Partnership, the 'public private' economic development agency for Liverpool and Merseyside and before that the director of strategy at the John Wood Group plc, an energy services company.
Between 2000 and 2004 Dr Crawford was the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, which was then Europe's largest economic development agency with over 3,000 employees and a £460 million annual budget.
In the 1990s he was a senior specialist in trade and investment at the World Bank where he worked with governments in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean on inward investment and trade issues. Following his period at the Bank he became a partner at Ernst and Young's UK practice.
Dr Crawford is extremely interested in all aspects of economic development, especially how businesses and universities might work more closely together to solve both practical, 'applied', problems as well as engaging in collaborative 'blue sky 'research .
In 2004 he was awarded a C.B.E. for his services to economic development.
He attended Strathclyde, Glasgow and Harvard Universities. He was a John F. Kennedy fellow at the latter institution.
Rebeca Hwang was born in Seoul, Korea, raised in Argentina and received her education in the USA. Because of her multicultural upbringing, she has developed a wide range of interests and skills.
Formally trained as a chemical, civil and environmental engineer at MIT, Cambridge, she discovered that her real passion was to find solutions to pressing problems in the world, particularly those related to improving access to safe water by poor communities in developing countries. During her undergraduate years, she participated in a number of initiatives and competitions that promoted sustainable solutions to developmental problems, one of which generated US patents 6 929 236, 6 935190 and 6 929235. The IP was donated to an NGO, Design that Matters, which took the technology to New Zealand, where a local businessman manufactured a 15 cent clamp that makes cholera treatment much more accessible to the millions of patients ever year. Her teams were honored to win the 1K award at the 50K MIT business competition with a proposal to generate chlorine locally in Haiti, and the IDEAS competition by designing a project to improve ceramic filer technology in Nicaragua. She also received a grant from the Lemelson Foundation.
Rebeca has always been keen in science: she was a gold medal for the National Chemistry Olympiad, a bronze medal for the National Physics Olympiad, and the first prize a national cancer research contest in Argentina. Rebeca was ranked first out of 2500 students five years in
a row at the Colegio National de Buenos Aires secondary school. She has demonstrated leadership skills by serving as the president of the Club Argentino at MIT for several semesters, and by representing the second generation Korean students at the Korean Science and
Engineering Association. She was also involved in Thinkcycle and Design that Matters, both initiatives that attempted to match real local needs with sustainable solutions.
Rebeca has significant fieldwork experience in Latin America and India. She is currently pursuing her PhD degree in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources at
Stanford University. Her thesis topic is based on the role of social network structures on the performance of water cooperatives in Argentina. Her research was recently featured in CNET. Rebeca is seeking to integrate institutional approaches and entrepreneurial principles to increase the efficiency and improve distributional effect of water management in Latin America. Rebeca currently leads the BASES Social e-challenge competition and is the Judging Chair for
the California Clean Tech Open Competition. Avid runner, rugby player, enthusiastic dancer and passionate reader, Rebeca enjoys traveling and practicing her Spanish, Italian, French and Korean language skills.
Sharon M Bamford is Chief Executive of The Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). The Scottish Institute for Enterprise, is a UK government initiative with the objective to stimulate, educate,
facilitate and create enterprising individuals within the higher education sector with the skills to contribute to
a Smart, Successful Scotland. Sharon has started 5 companies in varied industries, lectured in entrepreneurship
at the Robert Gordon University, managed an incubator facility, nurturing 14 young hi-tech startups and spin-
outs and been Director of the University of Edinburgh's flagship £100 million science park development. She has
been ranked one of the 'Top 100 Most Influential Women in Scotland' and was nominated for Businesswoman of
the Year, Business Insider Leadership Elite Awards three times.
Maria Callejon was a Chair Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona, in the fields of Industrial
Organisation, Economics of Innovation, Industrial Policy and Economic Policy. She is presently in leave of absence from
the University under the Special Service condition. She has published several books on her fields and many academic
articles in international journals. She has developed and directed industrial economy research projects. She has been
visiting professor in three US Universities: Berkeley, John Hopkins and Milwaukee. She has simultaneously developed
her academic career together with activities as economics and policy expert in areas of her speciality. Before her
designation as Director General she has regularly collaborated as expert with the Spanish Public Administration,
with the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the European Commission and with several public and private organisations.
Hugo Kantis is the Director of the Master in Industrial and Economic Development and SMEs in Argentina and a senior researcher specialized in the field of Entrepreneurship and Policies to foster entrepreneurial development. He is a consultant for several organisms such as the Inter American Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Development Program and National Governments (Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Uruguay). He has published an important number of papers and books related to Entrepreneurship. One of the most recent is "Entrepreneurship Development. Latin America and World Wide Experience". Member of the Editorial Board of several Journals such as Venture Capital, and The International Small Business Journal.
Carlos Talamas is the head of international relations for FORMAPER, an agency of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Craft and Agriculture of Milan, Italy, created in 1987. The main goal of Formaper is the promotion of entrepreneurship as well as supporting small and medium sized enterprises through orientation, training and assistance.
Mr. Talamas' experience includes managing SME support projects and manager internship programmes in 29 countries including Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia, Canada, Colombia, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Morocco, Egypt.
He has been the rapporteur, representing Eurochambres, of the expert group Education for entrepreneurship, set up within the "Euro-Mediterranean Industrial Cooperation" set up within the framework of the Barcelona process.
He has been involved in the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Small Business Network of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).
Yaw Owusu is the Managing Director of Gateway Innovations Limited, Accra, Ghana. Yaw Owusu founded Ghana Cyber Group in 1999 to promote technology investments in Ghana and facilitate the branding of Ghana's growing IT industry. In 2002, Mr. Owusu was appointed to the international advisory board of the Digital Partners, which entered into a merger with the Seattle, Washington-based Grameen Technology Center in 2005. Mr. Owusu founded Gateway Innovations in 2006. The company finalized a joint-ventured deal in 2007 with private partners in the United States and South Africa and Ghana's Institute of Industrial Research to develop Gateway Cyber City - an upscale business and innovation venture designed to provide high tech office space, incubate startup firms, assist firms to commercialize their products and services, sell broadband wireless internet service and between international buyers of offshore services and outsourcing firms based in West Africa. Yaw Owusu is collaborating with Xalles China to develop a trading network for Xalles, linking Chinese manufacturers of tech products and IT firms and consumers in Africa. Mr. Owusu worked in Maryland for General Electric and IBM as programmer analyst for 5 years and moved to New York to join the technology unit that manages Goldman Sachs Investment Banking applications. He enrolled in the Executive MBA program at Columbia Business School from 2001 to 2002. He completed his undergraduate studies in Mathematics and Economics at Albright College in Pennsylvania.
Brent Kreuger is the Vice President of Global Infobrokers Inc., a private training company whose flagship
program is an entrepreneurship program that over that past 17 years has facilitated the start-up of over
600 new ventures in western Canada. He is also the Principal and School Director of Praxis International
Institute, a private International high-school in Canada whose main focus is developing the entrepreneurial
mindset. Brent and Monica (his wife and business partner) established this school because of their desire to
create an environment that challenges the student to ask questions; find solutions and implement their ideas.
They wanted to provide an environment where creativity, "thinking outside the box" and learning diversity
are the norm. They also have projects and classes facilitated by those in the industry and community, as
well as educators who have firsthand experience in the subject areas. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts
from Ryerson University in Toronto; a Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan and has
earned a Masters in Distance Education from Athabasca University in Alberta. Brent is passionate about the
development and support of diverse learning methods, the importance of critical thinking, and desire to help
others achieve self sufficiency. He is married and has four children, three of which are on an entrepreneurial
path.
Brian Payer is an Associate at ENVIRON's Emeryville office. In his two years of air quality experience, he has worked on a wide variety of projects related to air dispersion modeling and emissions inventories. Using skills in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), meteorological data preparation and emissions estimation, Mr. Payer conducted an air dispersion modeling analysis and health risk assessment for three major rail yards in California. He has also prepared Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories for large scale residential and mixed-use communities. With his knowledge of California laws and regulations, specifically AB32, and his technical training, Mr. Payer provided quantitative solutions for the developer. He has worked on other projects including: Title V permit review; analysis and modeling of air toxics emissions from steel mills; modeling and mitigation for an emergency release of organic semiconductor waste; supervision of mold remediation and indoor air quality testing.
In addition to his engineering work, Mr. Payer is the Outreach and Recruitment Chair for the California Clean Tech Open, a business plan competition aimed at catalyzing clean technology startups. As a volunteer, he has helped build a collegial network of entrepreneurs, technologists, investors and researchers in the clean tech space. He facilitated the partnership between the CA Clean Tech Open and the ENVIRON Foundation.
Mr. Payer holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.
Mohammad T. Asfour was born, brought up and educated in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Mohammad Asfour is now part of the USAID funded SABEQ program where he is covering water, energy and environment. In addition, he is working on enhancing the productivity of Jordan's Architecture and Engineering Sector. Prior to that, he served as an Advisor to the Board of Trustees at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) and a Director for the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. During that period he worked on conceptualizing and developing El Hassan Science City. He had also served on the Jordan Investment Board (Government) and was active in Promoting Jordan's ICT sector in addition to Industrial development. During this period he also worked as a consultant for the UNDP, UNIDO, and US Aid's Amir Program. In 2004, he joined the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) and is managing the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. Between 2004 and 2006, he served as an advisor to the OECD's MENA Investment Program, aimed at improving the investment climate in 17 MENA countries.
Javier Garcia-Martinez is co-founder and chief scientist of Rive Technology. Javier co-founded Rive Technology, Inc., a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spin-off working on nanomaterials for energy applications in 2005 after taking part in the MIT 50K entrepreneurship competition while he was still a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at MIT. Javier is interested in nanotechnology for energy applications as well as innovation, intellectual protection and entrepreneurship in nanotechnology. He is the inventor of more than twenty patents as well as author of a number of articles and books on nanotechnology. In 2005, because of his discovery of nanostructured carbon and its application in energy storage, he received the Europe Medal; which is presented annually to the outstanding European chemist under the age of 35. The following year, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the European Young Chemist Award, for his contributions in biomimetic nanomaterials. In September of 2007, the MIT magazine on technology, Technology Review, selected him as one of the most technologically innovating people under the age of 35 for his work in nanostructured catalysts and their application for more efficient gasoline production. Currently, he is leading an international project for IUPAC to map the usage of nanotechnology in chemistry.
Peter Hartzbech is
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of iMotions - Emotion Technology A/S.
Peter's passion is global entrepreneurship and building companies. Driven by a desire to make a difference in the world, he embarked upon his entrepreneurial career by starting his first venture at the age of 25. Prior to founding iMotions, he worked in Ernst & Young Denmark and Venture Cup Denmark, where he advised start-up companies, working on strategic and financial issues.
In December 2006, Peter was appointed by Red Herring Magazine as Top 25 under 35, where the Magazine appoints Notable Entrepreneurs under 35. In addition iMotions have won many Entrepreneurial Awards due to their approach to Global Entrepreneurship, the latest one from American Chamber of Commerce, Denmark.
Peter's positive attitude and global vision have been the main driving forces behind iMotions' rapid growth and expansion. Within the first 24 months of iMotions' existence, he raised $US 6.8 Million in venture capital. He has also devised the "True Born Global Framework" to rapidly commercialize and internationalize the disruptive technology developed by the company. His experience in financing and business strategy, and his global network spanning across more than 90 countries, plays a continuing role in the company's global expansion.
Peter's background is in Business Administration and Accounting, and has studied at world class institutions where he achieved academic honors. He has a Master's Degree in Accounting, Economics, and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School, and also attended the MBA courses in entrepreneurship and Innovation at Schulich School of Business in Toronto; the London School of Economics; the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania; and The Australian National University in Canberra.
Peter actively participates in projects for aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world, and is a frequent speaker at entrepreneurship lectures and conferences. He is currently on the jury of Young Enterprise Denmark. He is a prior Jury Member of Venture Cup, the Danish National Business Plan competition and is now acting as a coach for new teams.
José Antonio Martinez Aguilar is the Director of Telecommunications and Media at Google Spain. After starting his profesional career in Soluziona, he joined Airtel in Jan 1995 as Director of Programme Management. Later he became Director of Product Development and, finally, Director of the Internet Business Unit.
In the year 2000, together with other Airtel executives, he founded mCentric, a company specialized in mobile telephony technologies and services, where he held the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing for five years.
Jose Antonio Martinez Aguilar is an engineer in telecommunications by the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and an MBA by Instituto de Empresa.
Dr Rama Rao, PhD in Botany from the University of Delhi (1980), was awarded the Indian National Science Academy's Young Scientist Medal by the Prime Minister. He taught and led a research group at the University of Delhi, and later moved to the private sector where he set up the largest plant tissue culture company in India. A paper presentation at a conference ended up with a career in international development with the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC) where he became the International Coordinator of the IDRC Bamboo and Rattan Research Network in Asia in 1989. He was part of the team that set up what became the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) in 1997 as an international intergovernmental organization. Rama is currently the Director of INBAR's Livelihood and Economic Development Program. His aim is to develop bamboo as a means for poor rural communities to break into the wood products market that would then give them an important market in addition to that of traditional agriculture.
Dorette Steenkamp is a social innovator and local economic development specialist with ten years direct experience in grassroots development of communities in South Africa. She has co-founded Uthango Social Investments, a public benefit company recognized internationally for its innovative approaches to civil society engagement and sustainable solutions to poverty. Most recently, Dorette heads up the new media strategy for Uthango to recommend emerging digital tools that would aid programmes addressing digital equity and information poverty. In her early years, she was appointed (at age of 25) as youngest Senior Lecturer to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to train young educators in Entrepreneurship, Educational Psychology and Religious Studies. She also served on the Hewlett Packard Global Advisory Board for Micro-Enterprises, as well as the Life Skills Standard Generating Body in South Africa. Her passion for innovation and action-learning training led to her secondment in 1998 as project manager of a national Febdev Entrepreneurship development programme for Further Education and Training Colleges sponsored by DFID. The project was recognised by the Universities of Rhodes and Cape Town as a pioneering and integrated ‘technopreneurial approach to skills training' that led directly to improved skills and self-sufficiency in poor areas. These days, Dorette investigates the power of new media and virtual worlds in participatory research and social capital development to enhance the forces of change in communities through the ‘wisdom of crowds'. Dorette has a BA (Psychology) and B.Ed (Educational Psychology) as well as Post-Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship Development from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Erna Sittig is the Co-Founder of Uthango Social Investments and is known as strategic paradigm pioneer in poverty alleviation. She received the Centennial Award from Rotary International in 2005 for ‘Service above Self' for her inspiring leadership role in the Uthango Micro-Enterprise Project, which also won the prestigious Impumelelo Innovation Trust Award in the same year for sustainability and innovation. Her earlier work in development in the Western Cape with the City of Cape Town was heralded in South Africa as she was recognized with various national awards for her groundbreaking approach to micro-enterprise mentoring and life coaching of emerging business owners - leading to her previously unemployed clients becoming successful contractors for government tenders and job creators. She is a vibrant, critical-thinker, social entrepreneur and community enthusiast that relentlessly seek social justice. Today, in her capacity as Executive Director at Uthango, she is responsible for business development, asset-based strategies for low-income communities and social innovation. Erna has worked directly with various rural and urban communities throughout South Africa to conceptualize and facilitate entrepreneurial ways to stimulate personal, social and economic development in sustainable ways. Her passion is to create healthy and sustainable communities (at a personal, family community and global scale) by harnessing local intelligence that could inform not only local development strategies, but also broader policies effecting the allocation of resources within specific areas. She is also involved in promoting responsible business practices and partnerships for development, and using corporate social investments to create a better and more sustainable future for poverty stricken communities.
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