Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
VP of R&D Samsung Founder of Siri
Adam Cheyer is an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineering executive who explores how computers can augment individual and collective intelligence.
Adam is the Vice President of R&D at Samsung. Previously he was the co-founder and VP Engineering of Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence startup, acquired by Samsung in 2016.
Adam was also co-founder and VP Engineering of Siri, acquired by Apple in 2010 to build their virtual personal assistant, available on more than 1.5B devices today. He is also a founding member and first developer at Change.org - the world's largest petition platform with more than 300 million members. He has also co-founded Sentient Technologies, which applies distributed machine learning algorithms to discover novel solutions to complex problems.
Previously, Adam was VP Engineering at Verticalnet (enterprise software) and Dejima (mobile software). He has authored more than 60 publications and 25 patents. At SRI International, he was Chief Architect of CALO - the largest AI project in US history.
Adam graduated with highest honors from Brandeis University and received the “Outstanding Masters Student” award from UCLA’s School of Engineering. Previously
SVP, Enterprise Innovation 5G Solutions Verizon
Toby Redshaw is responsible for Verizon’s Enterprise Innovation and 5G Solutions Business. He previously ran the 5G Ecosystems, Innovation and Product Development, AR/VR and Location Services/Geo Intelligence Business.
Prior to joining Verizon, Toby was most recently CEO of Kevington Advisors, a leading edge consultancy offering services in enterprise technology strategy, coaching start-ups and various government/military engagements.
SVP International External and Regulatory Affairs AT&T
Karim Antonio Lesina is the Vice President of AT&T, covering International External Affairs for the European Union, Caribbean, Central and Latin America Regions and in charge of Trans-Atlantic Relations. In this role he leads AT&T's advocacy in those regions. AT&T is a premier global communications company, providing wholesale services and mobile roaming services to over 220 countries and territories, and providing business enterprise services to countries representing over 99 percent of the world’s economy. In addition to developing and implementing market access strategies to enable AT&T’s global expansion to satisfy customer needs, other responsibilities for Mr. Lesina include ensuring compliance with international telecom regulations, and advocacy on a wide range policymatters related to the stable growth, innovation and investment by the information and communications technology sector.
News Editor VentureBeat
Computer science graduate who stumbled into journalism, Emil Protalinsk is the News Editor of VentureBeat. He has over a decade of experience, having previously written for The Next Web, CNET, ZDNet, Techspot, Ars Technica, and Neowin.
Special Panelists
Host
Q&A Moderator
Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
Managing Partner Almaz Capital
Alexander (Sasha) Galitsky is a well-known innovator, entrepreneur and investor in USA and Europe. Sasha is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Almaz Capital, an international VC fund with major office in Silicon Valley, US as well as with offices in Central and Eastern European countries. Among the most famous deals of Almaz Capital are Yandex (IPO NASDAQ), QIK (sold to Skype), Sensity Systems (sold to Verizon Communications), Acumatica (sold to EQT) and others.
Sasha was the President of the South East Europe Tech Tour which took place in Bucharest (Romania) and Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2019, and in Warsaw (Poland) and Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2018. He was honored as best GP of 2013 by Venture Awards, was nominated for the best venture capitalist of the last decade in Europe in 2012 by Investor AllStars and named 'Technology Pioneer' at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000.
Partner Metavallon VC
Yorgos is a Partner at Metavallon VC, a €32m seed- and pre-seed venture capital fund investing in very early stage technology startups in Greece and Europe with a clear tech differentiation, usually in the B2B space. There, he oversees 4 investments mostly in Data Analytics & ML (Intelistyle, Perc.Robotics, Tendertec, Trucksters). In the past, he was at Attica Ventures, a €30m Series A fund, where he covered the IT, Telecom, Microelectronics, Automation & Robotics, eCommerce, Logistics, and Medical technology sectors.
CEO Nord Sloane Ventures
Karina is an entrepreneur with a demonstrated track record in financial services and technology innovation. As the CEO of Nord Sloane Ventures, she specialises in delivering investor relations and business development expertise to growing technology businesses. Karina has extensive experience in diversified sectors from telecommunications, defence and security to asset management and investment funds regulation. Having worked with professional investors, government representatives as well as experienced entrepreneurs from all over the world, she has gained well rounded knowledge of best business practices. As a result of past experiences, Karina has become a highly ambitious businesswoman. The inspiration to create enterprising mind alliances supporting sustainable ideas is derived from the passion for what she does.
Investment manager IAG
Leonardo is currently an investment manager at IAG, the largest Italian business angels network. He is involved in scouting and screening of investment opportunities in several industries (life science, digital, deep tech and fintech) and the management of the portfolio (e.g. fund raising, due diligence, monitoring, deal negotiation).
He previously worked 4 years in Transaction Service at PwC focused on financial due diligence for VC/PE funds and large corporates in Italy and abroad. Leonardo achieved a master's degree in Management and Business Administration and attended an English intensive program at Yale University.
Ciclogreen is an online platform that allows companies and city councils to reward their employees and citizens with incentives for using sustainable means of transport to go to work (e.g. cycling, walking, using an electric scooter and others). Ciclogreen analyses accumulated mobility data to provide accurate calculations of C02 emissions to companies and mobility pattern insights to city councils, helping them to design better infrastructures and services.
Road.Travel is an award-winning online trip planning platform for road trips, connected cars and innovations in tourism – the first-mover in introducing road trip packages. Our unique travel tech is an all-in-one solution for creating and publishing curated routes with storytelling, booking capabilities and an industry-unique budget optimizer, which makes car travels as simple as buying a holiday package.
TechNovator is a unique distance wireless solution that efficiently charges multiple devices simultaneously in the automatic mode as soon as the device appears within the range of the transmitter. TechNovator technology allows to charge high-power devices up to 200 Watts at a distance up to 1m and low power devices in a long distance up to several meters.
Executive Chairman Webit Foundation
Dr. Plamen Russev is the initiator and focal connector of one of the world’s largest impact networks and curator of the global Webit community, reaching out to over 800,000 digerati, policy makers, innovators and media. His success stories include creating the global Webit brand from scratch, supporting founders and brands in establishing and growing a successful marketing strategy, creating meaningful relations with potential partners, customers and media. Plamen supports causes which impact the achievement of the UN’ SDGs.
He is an investor, philanthropist and serial entrepreneur and proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
Plamen Russev is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management.
Plamen Russev has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his home country – Republic of Bulgaria and a member of European Commission’ BOF.
Dr. Russev’ work and impact have been recognised and awarded by governments, associations and NGOs along with 2 honorary doctorates from Universities in Europe and South America. Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media including The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, CNN to name a few.
Dr. Russev is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation and host of Webit Virtual.
He is happily married to the most wonderful girl in the world and father of 2 boys.
Special Correspondent CNBC
Rebecca A. Fannin is a Special Correspondent at CNBC and Forbes columnist for 10 years, her articles also have been published in Harvard Business Review, Inc., BBC Capital and Techonomy.
Rebecca is a leading expert on global innovation, award-winning author and founder/editor of news and events group Silicon Dragon Ventures.
Rebecca’s three forward-looking books, Silicon Dragon, Startup Asia and her latest title, Tech Titans of China, are a go-to resource on futuristic tech trends and players such as Jack Ma of Alibaba.
Rebecca is a frequent speaker at major business, tech and policy forums, including the Brookings Institution, Harvard, MIT, World Affairs Forum, Asia Society, Commonwealth Club and the China Institute. A media commentator, she has appeared on CNN International, CNBC, Fox Business News, BBC and Bloomberg TV, and been quoted by The Economist, Wired, BusinessWeek, New York Times and National Public Radio.
Rebecca is one of the first journalists to cover China’s entrepreneurship boom, reporting from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. She resides in Manhattan and San Francisco, and logs major frequent flier miles in her grassroots search to cover the next, new thing.
Chief Editor, Technology & Telecoms The Economist Group
Matthew Kendall is Chief Editor at The Economist Group. Matt manages telecoms coverage for the Industry Briefing team and creates worldwide technology- and telecoms-related content for the Industry Briefing website. A key element of his role involves editing reports that provide market-sizing information for the telecoms sector in 60 countries, as well as detailed market analysis and five-year forecasts within these key markets. He is also responsible for working closely with Consulting teams in various countries, collaborating on research projects that involve using qualitative and quantitative data collection, general macroeconomic analysis, index building and policy analysis to advise clients on their telecoms and ICT-related investment strategies.
Matt is an experienced editor who has previously spent time specialising as a financial services analyst, as well as more recently contributing to healthcare, telecoms, automotive and energy sector coverage within Industry Briefing. Before joining the Industry Briefing team he was a sub-editor covering Latin America, and he has contributed to economic and political country coverage for Barbados, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Senior Reporter BuzzFeed
Ryan Broderick is Senior Reporter at BuzzFeed Newsand he has been there for eight years. He was based in London for the last four years, reporting from 22 countries, covering the spread of far-right populism and tech. He's currently based in New York, covering the intersection of global web culture and politics.
Presenter,Tech24 France 24
Marjorie Paillon is a journalist, presenter and producer. She covers digital and media through 360 degrees, reviewing hot topics and trends (#TECH24 on France 24, Soft Power on France Culture, Médias le Magazine on France 5), interviewing innovators and those who matter in the industry (The Interview on France 24,L’Envers de l’éco on Yahoo!), along with moderating the most relevant events and conferences in the sector (Web Summit Lisbon, Les Napoléons, Hub Forum, European Film Forum @ Cannes – Brussels – Berlin, Tokyo Forum, Series Mania – Transatlantic Dialogues, Mipcom, Midem, Miptv, Hello Tomorrow Challenge, TEDx Education Unesco…).
Marjorie also covers American politics, reporting on the Presidential elections since the 2007 primaries (France 24, BFMTV, ILovePolitics.info) and has also collaborated with US and Canadian media outlets (MSNBC, CTV).
To put those ideas into practice, she founded ‘I Love Productions’, her production company, in 2015.
Special Panelists
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