Thought leaders

Yves Mersch

Published on 1 Apr, 2014 at 17:52 in Featured, Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Yves Mersch is a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg, a position he has held since the bank’s formation in 1998. He has been described as ‘a key member’ of the ECB Governing Council and is regarded as relatively hawkish on interest rate policy. He studied international law in Paris and is member of the Luxembourg bar. He is married and has two children.

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Sharon Vosmek

Published on 1 Apr, 2014 at 17:59 in Featured, Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Sharon Vosmek has been CEO of Astia since 2007, previously joining as COO in 2004. As CEO of Astia, Sharon has an unwavering passion and a uniquely well-suited background to drive forward the organization’s mission of propelling women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic. Under her guidance, the Astia community of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders has grown from 20 individuals in Silicon Valley; to more than 5,000 around the globe, representing every continent.
Previously, Sharon founded SJ Vosmek & Associates and held management positions at American Express and in the office of U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini. Ms. Vosmek currently serves as founder and lead of the We Own It Collaboration, an effort of over 65 organizations globally committed to exploring women’s participation in high growth businesses and identifying solutions to move us forward. She also currently serves on the Advisory Boards of two venture capital firms: StarVest Partners and Illuminate Ventures; the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst Experts Advisor Group; the AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassadors Advisory Committee; and on the ‘Making Value for America’ expert advisory committee for the National Academy of Engineering.

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Ian Angell

Published on 3 Mar, 2013 at 15:32 in Featured, Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Ian Angell is Professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics. He has very radical, yet constructive views on his subject and he is highly critical of what he calls ‘the pseudo-science of academic Information Systems’.
Ian’s growing reputation comes as the culmination of ten years of work developing a new perspective on information systems, stressing that the social, economic and organisational issues are more important than the technological ones. His research work currently concentrates on strategic information systems, on computers and risk, and on organisational and national IT policies.

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Tomasz Mackiewicz

Published on 1 Apr, 2014 at 18:06 in Featured, Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Tomasz Mackiewicz is a construction worker, an explorer, a Himalayan climber and a campaigner. In 2008, he did a 450 km trek across Alaska, taking in a first Polish assault on Mount Logan (5959m). He has also reached the summit of Khan Tengri (7010m), which he climbed solo.
His ambition for many years has been to reach the summit of Nanga Parbat (8126m) – one of only two Himalayan peaks never to have been climbed during Winter.
In March 2014, Tomasz led the ‘Nanga Dream – Justice4All’ assault on the summit. Although the expedition was unsuccessful, Tomasz was the first person to reach the 7,400m altitude in 18 years.
The attempt on the summit was sponsored by private donations using crowd funding.

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Chris Lowney

Published on 1 Apr, 2014 at 15:53 in Featured, Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Chris Lowney (b. 1958), formerly a Managing Director of JP Morgan & Co, is a writer, public speaker, and leadership consultant. He is author of the bestselling Heroic Leadership and of three other books. He chairs the board of CHI, one of America’s largest healthcare/hospital systems.
Born in New York City, Lowney entered a Jesuit seminary after high school. He completed a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Philosophy at Fordham University (both in 1981), and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He left the Jesuit seminary in 1983 and worked at JP Morgan & Co from 1983 to 2001. At Morgan, he was an investment banker to Fortune 1000 companies and, later, a Managing Director in Tokyo and Singapore, where he served on Morgan’s Asia-Pacific management committee; later, as a Managing Director in London, he served on Morgan’s Europe, Mideast, and Africa management committee.
Since leaving JP Morgan in 2001, Lowney has authored four books. He has delivered talks and conferences on leadership, decision-making, and business ethics throughout the U.S. and in Spain , France, Australia , Argentina, Uruguay , Colombia , Indonesia, and many other countries.
Since 2013, he has been chair of the board of Catholic Health Initiatives , America’s second largest not-for-profit hospital/healthcare system with more than 80 hospitals and $10.7 Billion in annual revenues.

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Mateusz Kusznierewicz

Published on 23 Apr, 2014 at 16:08 in Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Mateusz Kusznierewicz is one of Poland’s most successful competitive sailors, an Olympic Gold Medallist and three times World Champion. After more than 20 years, Mateusz retired from competitive sailing in 2012 to concentrate on business and running the Maritime Education Programme, which has introduced more than 15,000 young people to sailing. Mateusz is a popular motivational speaker.

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Tim Jackson

Published on 2 Apr, 2014 at 20:23 in Keynote speakers, Participants, Thought leaders | | No Comments

Tim Jackson is an investor, entrepreneur and technology commentator. As a partner at Lean Investments LP, he makes investments in early-stage Internet and mobile businesses and sits on the boards of a number of private companies. He is also a member of the UK Government Digital Service Advisory Board and secretary of the Argentarius Foundation, a ‘venture philanthropist’ that backs new organizations in addition to the traditional charity sector.
Tim was formerly at the Carlyle Group, one of the world’s leading private equity firms, where he was a managing director responsible for a $700m European technology venture fund.
QXL, the pan-European online auction company that he founded in 1997, was taken public in 1999 on the NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange, and sold in 2007 for $1.9 billion.
Educated at Oxford University, Tim began his career as a staff journalist with The Economist. He later served as a foreign correspondent in Brussels and Tokyo for The Economist and The Independent, a British daily newspaper, and as a leader writer. He is also the bestselling author of three books – including histories of the Virgin group and of Intel, the world’s most powerful chip company – and wrote a widely-read weekly column about web businesses for the Financial Times for seven years.

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