Doug Richard
As a serial entrepreneur, effective public speaker, and armed degree in psychology from the University of California, Doug Richard is uniquely prepared to create and deliver effective training in how to start and run a profitable business. Through School for Startups Doug has delivered instruction to more than 10,000 business owners with help from universities, public institutions like the British Library and philanthropic organizations like the Royal Institute of Great Britain. In 2006 Doug Richard received an honorary Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion for his work promoting, developing and helping entrepreneurs. In 2010 Richard received the Enterprise Educator of the year award from the National Council on Graduate Employment for his work through School for Startups with UK Universities.
Greg Horowitt - Innovation Ecosystem Architect, Venture Capitalist, Serial Entrepreneur, Author, and Global Innovation Policy Adviser
Greg is the co-founder and Managing Director of T2 Venture Capital, a seed and early stage multi-disciplinary venture fund and advisory services firm focused on high impact innovation in the technology and healthcare sectors. He has lead T2’s involvement in portfolio companies; Somark Innovations (sold to LabStamp Australia), Biomatrica, Independa, GroundMetrics, and AutoPoint Software (sold to SRS Solutions).
He is also the co-author of the bestselling book, ‘the Rainforest: the Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley’ which examines the dynamics and drivers of innovation ecosystems. Mr. Horowitt is also the co-founder of Global CONNECT, a think tank based at the University of California, San Diego, focused on the development and growth of innovation clusters worldwide.
Demian M. Bellumio is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Senzari, Inc.
A "big data" content recommendation company based in Miami, with additional presence in Berlin, Madrid, San Francisco and Sao Paulo. Demian is also an active investor through Quotidian Ventures LLC, a seed to early-stage investment fund that invests in great visionaries building global companies whose services we want to incorporate into our everyday life
Paris de l´Etraz - General Manager Venture Lab IE Business School
Paris de l’Etraz has spent over 20 years in investment banking and venture capital, mainly at UBS Bank and ABN AMRO. Since 2005, he has continued to be in the business of either raising funds, setting up new companies, selling or buying companies through his group Amazing Lab. He has a keen interest for what makes an entrepreneur and what he/she needs to succeed. In particular he has focused on venture capital, digital marketing, sports management, renewable energy and new technology industries.
Paris has developed and registered two patents, one in 1999, which provides an enterprise solution to the “six degrees of separation” idea and another in 2009 that takes client management into virtual online platforms with two-way communication between clients and service providers.
His PhD and research work focuses on the socialization challenges of certain highly quantitatively trained professionals in today’s organization using a narrative identity development approach.
Yanire Braña - Presidente MET Community.
Yanire works for the Change Management Office at the World Bank Group and dedicates her personal time to support and enhance professional women through mentoring, training and networking activities.
Previously, Yanire worked for the Inter-American Development Bank as an Organizational Communications Leader. Prior to that, she worked as a Corporate Development Manager at Banco Popular Group in Madrid, Spain. Since 2008, she is the founder and Director of MET Community, an organization to help women entrepreneurs in Spain and Latin American countries. She is currently a Board Member for Ladies America, a professional networking group that helps women around the globe.
Yanire has more than twelve years of experience in strategic definition, launching and implementation of new initiatives and projects. She teaches communications and technologies courses for various prestigious academic institutions such as IE Business School. She combines this activity with research projects, reports and articles since 1998. She is always in search for new opportunities to develop innovative and technological processes that can support professionals in today’s dynamic business environment.
Robert A. Suess - D&PE General Manager, Latin America, Microsoft
Robert leads the Latin American Region D&PE team. His organization consists of teams spanning sales, architecture, industry, partner, academic and audience marketing.This team includes 9 managers and carries a $130M tools quota across the EPG and SMS&P segments.He also leads the US national audience marketing efforts targeting 2.5M developers and 7.0M IT professionals.
Monica Tanase - Envestors UK
Monica has started early and pursued a career in Mergers & Acquisitions with Morgan Stanley where she helped execute multi-bilion-Euro transactions in a variety of sectors in Europe. She later specialised in the telecom industry and worked with Vodafone Group on its major M&A projects throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2008, she left behind all travels around the world and other people's billions, to go it alone and invest in her own catering business in London. She is passionate about nurturing entrepreneurs, investing as a business angel and helping other fellow private investors choose the best startups out there to invest in. Monica holds a BA degree in business and economics in Paris and a MSc in corporate finance in Milan.
Susana García Robles - Multilateral Investment Fund/IADB - USA
Senior Investment Officer, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Since 1999, Ms. Garcia-Robles has created and guided the venture capital investments of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) in Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. She also leads MIF's microfinance activities for Argentina and Uruguay. Ms. García-Robles serves on many boards of directors and investment committees of venture capital funds, and is frequently invited to speak at the world's leading conferences concerning venture capital and microfinance issues in Latin America. She is an Advisor to several Latin American governments on VC policy issues and on how to develop a conducive ecosystem for VC investment. Beyond technical matters, she also speaks regularly on a range of topics related to public policy and private investment in Latin America, and addresses the issues of management, accountability, and business climate, working with local partners to improve them. She has been a member of the US-Brazil Venture Capital Task Force hosted by the Commerce Department and the Kauffman Foundation since 2006. Ms. Garcia-Robles has also worked for and served on the boards of several civil society organizations, including the Executive Council of Diplomacy in Washington, a private, non-partisan organization established by the private sector to help the Secretary of State and the US government improve political, economic, business and cultural relations with other countries. From 1994 to 1999, she worked with local and international NGOs and several Latin American countries on economic development issues at the U.N. She participated as a country delegate in all the main negotiations of the major U.N. conferences during that period: Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul, and The Hague. Ms. Garcia-Robles has a Master's Degree in International Economic Policy from Columbia University in New York, and a Master's in Philosophy and Education from the Catholic University of Argentina. A native of Argentina, fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, she is a US citizen.
Javier Andrés
Javier Andrés Marín is the founder and "Chief Ticketero" of Ticketea.com, an innovative platform for promoting events and tickets online selling. Javier holds a Graduate Degree in Business Administration by ICADE (Madrid) and Tulane University (USA). He has also completed the Master in Digital Business conducted by the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. Born in La Rioja, Javier has over 5 years of experience in strategic consulting in multinationals like KPMG or AT. Kearney. Ticketea has succeeded in a new round of funding (U.S. $ 4 million) from a group of investors led by the fund Seaya Ventures to grow in 'm-commerce' and start their internationalization.
Nayda L. Almodóvar-Reteguis - World Bank Group – USA-
Nayda L. Almodóvar-Reteguis joined the Women, Business and the Law project in 2010. Her work involves historical legal research focused on the evolution of labor and family law reforms, and analyzing issues on women’s entrepreneurship and the business environment. Her previous experience includes serving as Deputy Advisor for the Governor of Puerto Rico, presiding over the Board of Appeals of the Department of Family Affairs of Puerto Rico and working as an attorney focusing her private practice in Family and Inheritance Law. Nayda holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico, a Juris Doctor from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and an LL.M. from The George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. She is fluent in Spanish.
Marta Cruz, Co-Founder & Director en NXTPLabs
Marta Cruz is the Co-Founder & Director of NXTP Labs, an Latinamerica-based acceleration program with an early-stage fund, focusing on Spanish-speaking technology startups that are pursuing global or regional opportunities. NXTP provides seed funding, consulting services, hands-on advice, training and, access to a network of mentors across Latin America, the US and Europe.
Marta is also Co-Founder of digital agency Nextperience, where she currently serves as a Director.
Prior to these two ventures, Marta worked for more than 8 years at MRM Worldwide, the McCann Worldgroup digital agency, as Latam Regional Director, managing accounts likes of HP, Intel, Coca-Cola, GM, Hilton Hotel, Nortel and MasterCard
Marta’s introduction to entrepreneurialism began in 1979, when she founded with her husband, Ponchiarello, a men's clothing factory, focusing on the wholesale and retail business. Their decision to start manufacturing and selling uniforms for companies led them to develop their business on a large scale.
Marta has a BA degree from Buenos Aires University- and a postgraduate specialization in management from IAE, Austral University. She is also professor at San Andres University (BA) and ADEN Business School.
Jose María Castillejo - President Zinkia
Founder and current Chairman and CEO of Zinkia Entertainment, creator and producer of Pocoyo. With worldwide audience and leader in many of the markets in which we operate. Entrepreneur, founder and manager of companies in sectors as varied as hydropower generation, distribution, telecommunications, automobile, financial and furniture. I've seen success and failure. I'm still in the fight every day.
Amnon Levav, Managing Director Systematic Inventive Thinking - Israel
Amnon Levav is co-founder and Managing Director of SIT - Systematic Inventive Thinking (www.sitsite.com), a company dedicated to help people and organizations to become more innovative. He is a facilitator of workshops and projects for Problem Solving, New Product Development and Marketing Communications, and an experienced trainer in courses for inventive thinking.
