Meet The Speakers

(We'll be announcing more every week!)

Hauke Stars

Chief Digital Officer @ Volkswagen

Karen de Lathouder

CEO @ bp The Netherlands

Christine Ashton

CIO @ SUSE

Montse Montaner

Chief Sustainabilty Officer @ Novartis

Lena Smart

Chief Information Security Officer @ MongoDB

Victoria Bunyard

Chief Technical Officer, Benelux @ IBM

Andreea Ionita

Chief Digital & Technology Officer @ E.ON

Aurelie Bergugnat

Chief Data Officer @ Schneider Electric

Delphine Donne

VP & General Manager @ Logitech

Ulrika Jagare

Director AI, Automation & IoT @ Ericsson

Marieke Mulder

Head of Sustainability @ ASML

Julia Palle

Sustainability Director @ Formula E

Sunna Bjorg Helgadottir

CTO @ HS Orka

Isabel Vilacides

Director of Engineering @ Github

Natali Vlatko

Global Lead, Open Source Program Office @ Wayfair

Emily Loh

Data Director @ MoonPay

Janneke Niessen

Co-Founder @ CapitalT

Androniki Menelaou

Head of Data Science @ Apollo Agriculture

Lisa Pickett

Head of Apps @ Deliciously Ella

Elahe Arani

Senior AI Research Manager & Sr. Research Scientist, Advanced Research Lab @ NavInfo Europe

Renka Pooja

Chapter Test Lead @ Admiral Group plc

Bidisha Agarwal

IT Lead @ ING

Violeta Misheva

Lead Data Scientist @ ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Trishia Poplawska-Leijen

Business Architect @ Flow Traders

Bukola Johnson

DevOps Engineer @ Hello Fresh

Carolyn Brand

Business Coach

Hauke Stars

Chief Digital Officer @ Volkswagen

Stars was born on June 3, 1967. She studied applied computer science at the Technical University of Magdeburg and studied further in the UK, graduating as a Master of Science in Engineering. Her whole working life has also been closely tied to information technology.

Stars began her professional career in the IT division of Bertelsmann at the beginning of the 1990s. She moved to the IT service provider Triaton in 1998, where she was initially in charge of software development and, from 2000 on, the member of the Management Board responsible for sales and marketing. Triaton was acquired by Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2004, with the result that Stars continued her career at this global IT group. She was responsible at HP for IT services business in the Netherlands and, from 2007, was Managing Director of HP's local organization in Switzerland.

In 2012 she joined the Executive Board of the DAX 40 company Deutsche Börse AG, where she was responsible for IT, capital market business and human resources (as Labor Director) until 2020.

The technology and financial market expert has also held seats on various Supervisory Boards since 2009, currently with Supervisory Board mandates at the power company RWE and the logistics company Kühne+Nagel.

The Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG has appointed Hauke Stars as a member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG with functional responsibility for 'IT' effective February 1, 2022. In this capacity, Stars is responsible for all Group-wide activities in the areas of IT, data, organizational development and process management.

Karen de Lathouder

CEO @ bp The Netherlands

After studying chemical engineering (including PhD) at TU Delft, Karen de Lathouder worked successively at Shell and AkzoNobel from 2008 to 2015. In 2015 she went to work for the oil company Orpic in Oman. From 2017, she worked for bp in the UK and Germany. As of January 1st, 2022, she is the new CEO of bp Netherlands. She is also manager of bp's Rotterdam refinery and will carry out her responsibilities as CEO alongside her current role.

When Karen is not working for bp she co-runs a gym in her hometown Schiedam as a personal trainer.

Christine Ashton

CIO @ SUSE

Christine is Chief Information Officer at SUSE where she is responsible for the global IT function. She previously served as CIO in Residence at SAP and as Senior Vice President of Technology at Thomson Reuters Corp. Prior to SAP and Thomson Reuters, Christine held global roles in data driven companies: BP, BG Group (now part of RDS), Transport for London (TfL), United Utilities and Associated Octel.

Christine is a Non-Executive Director (NED) of the Royal Bank of Scotland International, she sits on the DIGIT Lab Advisory Board and is Vice Chair of the British Computer Society's (BCS) Fellowes Advisory Task Group (FTAG).

She holds a Master's degree in Computing and Electronics and was awarded Fellowship of the BCS, where she also served 2 terms as a member of the strategic panel helping to advance its mission of Making IT good for Society.

Montse Montaner

Chief Sustainabilty Officer @ Novartis

Montse Montaner is a visionary and strategically driven transformational leader with more than three decades of international experience across large pharma companies delivering excellence in Quality and Manufacturing Operations Management and Sustainability.

Her strong business acumen and deep operational understanding makes her very effective in defining how quality and sustainability can become a business accelerator to deliver and make a postive impact into the organization.

Montse has been the first Novartis Chief Sustainabilty officer and during this period she has designed the new company environmental sustainability strategy, to become a biopharmaceutical leader in environmental sustainability.

Prior to this appointment, Montse served as Novartis Chief Quality Officer, leading quality organization from research to commercial, where she transformed quality organization operating model through strong focus on compliance and data & analytics, productivity initiatives and digitalization. Previously to this role, she held different roles in Novartis and Sandoz where she was VP Quality Technical Operations, Third Party and CMO Quality head and Novartis Quality Management Systems & Control Operations Head.

Prior to Novartis, Montse worked for more than 15 years at Sanofi, where she held different leadership positions across the corporation.

Montse has received accolades for her work: she was awarded as 100 Top Women in Sustainability (Ranking #1 in Pharma and #46 cross-sector), awarded in the Sustainability Magazine's Top 100 Leaders Program and short list for the European Diversity Award due to her commitment on promoting diverse teams in their organizations.

Montse has a Bachelor in Pharmacy at Barcelona University with MsC on Pharmaceutical Technology. She has undertaken different leadership programs at Harvard Business School, Princenton University, IESE Business School and Cranfield School Management. She has also been professor at a Pharmacy School at Barcelona University for a period of 8 years.

Lena Smart

Chief Information Security Officer @ MongoDB

Lena joined MongoDB in March 2019, with more than 20 years of cybersecurity experience. Before joining MongoDB, she was the Global Chief Information Security Officer for the international fintech company, Tradeweb, where she was responsible for all aspects of cybersecurity. She also served as CIO and Chief Security Officer for the New York Power Authority, the largest state power organization in the country.

Lena is a founding member of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan, formerly the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, which allows security leaders in academia and the private sector to collaborate on tackling the most challenging security issues. Lena is a member of IT-ISAC, frequently speaks at industry events and has been featured in Fortune, Dark Reading and CSO Online.

Victoria Bunyard

Chief Technical Officer, Benelux @ IBM

Vicky Bunyard is the IBM CTO for Northern Europe. She has a background in Systems Engineering and Enterprise Architecture and has spent time in primarily technical transformations ranging from software engineering process and methodology redesign through data and analytics, to Enterprise Architecture and Technology strategy. The result is that she truly understands that technology is only one part of the equation and technology in context is the way to success.

She firmly believes that technology can be 'the answer', but only when we truly understand 'the question' - and that it is not about how great the tech is, but about how great we can be when we are backed by great tech.

Andreea Ionita

Chief Digital & Technology Officer @ E.ON

Inspirational leader with broad international expertise in strategy development & execution, digital & data transformation, IT software development, marketing and commercial propositions.

Executive Board member, successfully leading teams over 200 people, budgets over 40 mil Euro and a diverse portfolio of strategic projects with high impact on local and central operations.

Andreea has an international experience of over 16 years across energy & telecom industries, having worked in EMEA, Africa and Middle East in different management positions for companies such as E.ON, Orange, Ericsson and Vodafone. With a strong digital and business leadership background, Andreea has experience in building high growth businesses within large corporations.

A recognized public speaker, actively involved in several external C-level industry forums.

Aurelie Bergugnat

Chief Data Officer @ Schneider Electric

Appointed in October 2019, Aurelie Bergugnat is currently the group Chief Data Officer and Senior Vice President in charge of Performance Management.

Prior to this role, after multiple operational roles in Finance, such as CFO of IT channel division for SE (US$2 Bn/ year) and M&A integrations, Aurelie led special projects for the Executive Committee of Schneider Electric, on the operationalization of strategy between Functions, Businesses and Operations; and the creation of the Digital Performance Office of the group – defining and deploying performance management for Digital Transformation and Subscriptions businesses of SE portfolio.

Aurelie received an Executive MBA from Columbia University (NY) and London Business School (UK); she is also a graduate of HEC Paris (France) in Strategic Management and Ecole Nationale Superieures d’Arts et Metiers (France) in Mechanical Engineering.

On a more personal note, Aurelie has been an active member of MIT CISR Data Board and WEST – Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology – based out of Boston, supporting women in their careers in Technology.

A long-time ballet dancer and yoga student, she also enjoys sailing and skiing. She is a French – American citizen with two hometowns: Providence, RI and Paris, France where she currently lives with her husband and two daughters

Delphine Donne

VP & General Manager @ Logitech

Delphine is a people-first leader with over 25 years experience in consumer electronics. Lived and worked in China, North America, and Europe she has transformed many global businesses leading innovation and forming cross-functional global teams. Today, she leads Logitech's biggest busniess group, Personal Workspace Solutions (>2BN$).

Her mission is to impact people's lives by creating simple and delightful experiences. A mission which is greatly influenced by her international journey exposing her to different western and eastern mindsets, e.g. China. People, DEI and environmental sustainability are at the center of this mission and rooted in how she builds any new organization. Her current organization is 50% female (vs. 26% global average) and hosts 30+ different nationalities. The product portfolio she manages is entirely carbon neutral with 2 in 3 products using PCR plastics. She believes that technology must drive sustainable and inclusive innovation. Fully committed to realize the company's pledge to being carbon positive by 2030, she leads the way inspiring others through her organization. In her opinion, innovation brings change, and any change leads to exciting, new opportunities.

Delphine is one of only 19%* of women in the tech industry that reach executive level and at the same time she is a mother of two children. She finds herself in the position of a role model, which she views as a serious and integral responsibility, and as such devotes herself to driving action for a more equal and better future for generations to come.

Ulrika Jagare

Director AI, Automation & IoT @ Ericsson

Marieke Mulder

Head of Sustainability @ ASML

Julia Palle

Sustainability Director @ Formula E

Julia Pallé is a leading expert on sustainability in motorsport and the international elite sport industry. As Senior Advisor – Sustainability, of the world’s first all-electric motor racing series, Formula E, Julia certified that the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was net zero carbon since inception – the first sport in the world to achieve the standard.

While developing and implementing the sustainability strategy at Formula E, Julia has overseen a range of significant achievements that establishes Formula E's credentials as a leader of sustainability in tier-one sport.

Julia is also Sustainability Advisor for Extreme E, the all-electric SUVs series, bringing electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems.

Before joining Formula E and defining the sustainability strategy, Julia was the Sustainability Executive at Michelin Motorsport.

Sunna Bjorg Helgadottir

CTO @ HS Orka

Sunna Bjorg Helgadottir (39) is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at HS Orka which is a privately owned power generator in Iceland, owning and operating over 170 MW of geothermal power production capacity, in addition to a 10 MW hydro plant commissioned in 2020.

Sunna's role at HS Orka is leading the technical team which involves large Capital Investments, as well as other smaller scale Engineering/Technical project. Sunna's primary focus since joining has been on expansion projects, increasing the power production in a very demanding, green energy market. In addition, Sunna does also lead the Health and Safety within HS Orka and with the team, they have focused on improving the Safety Culture within the company.

Prior to joining HS Orka, Sunna was the VP of Technical Operations as Alvotech, which is a state-of-the-art Biopharmaceutical company in Iceland. Sunna was responsible for all Technical Operations, i.e. Engineering group, Facilities, Supply Chain and all EHS within the company. Sunna's main role was to lead those teams and lead the Site Readiness program, which was to prepare the site for the first GMP audit.

Prior to joining Alvotech, Sunna spent 14 years at an Aluminum plan in Iceland, owned by RioTinto –called ISAL. Sunna started there 18 years old in the canteen and worked her way up to the Executive team at the age of 29 and was the youngest women within Rio Tinto to reach Executive team at a plant level. At the Aluminum plants Sunna was responsible for all production and had 80 employees within her team. Under Sunna's leadership ISAL broke a record in annual production, which was remarkable given that the plant was producing 2.5x the designed capacity.

Sunna has a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Engineering Management and Optimization from University of Iceland. Along with the university degree's Sunna has taken a few courses in leadership management, production optimization and has been working with the continuous improvements and Lean management philosophy from 2007.

Sunna's personal interest lies in spending time with her family and kids, as well she loves trail running in the mountains of Iceland and Europe and she just completed the Tour Du Mont Blanc circle this summer.

Isabel Vilacides

Director of Engineering @ Github

Natali Vlatko

Global Lead, Open Source Program Office @ Wayfair

Natali Vlatko (she/her) leads the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) at Wayfair, specializing in open source software, communities, and governance. She is the SIG Docs Co-Chair for the Kubernetes project and plays on the fun computer in her spare time. Her academic background is in Egyptology and Archaeology; specifically, burial customs across the various kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. Ask her about dead stuff.

Andrea Coifman

Data Science Lead @ Devoteam

Emily Loh

Data Director @ MoonPay

I'm Emily and I'm the Head of Data Analytics at MoonPay, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I've been in crypto for a few years now, having worked previously at Coinbase. But things move so fast in this industry, it feels like I'm a seasoned veteran.

Originally hailing from Toronto (i.e., Aubrey Drake Graham’s "the 6"), I moved to Amsterdam many, many moons ago to do my master's degree in Cultural Analysis. Long story short, I had a very difficult time looking for my first career job after the economic crisis of 2008, ended up becoming a digital marketing analyst, and haven't looked back since.

In my leisure time, I try and keep up with my literature roots by reading voraciously through the thousands of books I have on my list. I'm a fan of boutique gyms, a mediocre and fair-weather road runner, and I try to keep up my streak on Duolingo—with varying degrees of success.

Janneke Niessen

Co-Founder @ CapitalT

Janneke is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, board member and mentor for startups and co-founder of CapitalT, a VC fund that invests in technology companies using proprietary technology to evaluate entrepreneurial teams. In the past she has started and exited 2 international tech companies. She is co-initiator of InspiringFifty, an initiative that aims to increase diversity in tech by making female role models more visible. As part of the InspiringFifty initiative, Janneke has published The New Girl Code and Project Prep, a novel for young girls. The goal of the project is to encourage young girls, inspiring them to pursue a career in technology and invest in an educational foundation focusing on math and computer science.

Janneke is a member of the supervisory board of UNICEF, boardmember of Codam, advisory board member of FutureNL, member of the investment committee of Innovation Quarter and the supervisory board of NPEX. Janneke was named 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year and Most Innovative Leader in 2016, and one the 10 most prominent angel investors in 2018 and Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year in 2019, a few of many in a long list of honours for Janneke.

Janneke did research with Eva de Mol on the investments in female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. This has led to a lot of media, discussion and questions in parliament. Legislation is prepared now to take action and change the situation. The industry itself has agreed to a quota for their own teams and the teams they invest in.

Fun Fact: Janneke had her picture taken by Annie Leibovitz and has been appearing in a campaign for UBS that was shown in: WSJ Magazine, The Economist, Wallpaper but also on billboards at London City Airport, NY JFK and the airport of Frankfurt.

Androniki Menelaou

Head of Data Science @ Apollo Agriculture

Androniki Menelaou is the Head of Data Science at Apollo Agriculture with over a decade of experience in the world of Statistics and Machine Learning. Androniki currently leads a team of Data Scientists that builds ML-powered credit models and automated operations technology to unlock the massive, untapped small-scale farming market in Kenya.

Her current position allows her to combine her passion for statistics with her core value of using technology to help the underserved population and see first hand the effect of the models her team builds. Previously, she worked both as a Product Manager and a Data Scientist at ING and also co-founded a startup. She holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Oxford and has experience both in the academic and corporate world.

Fun Fact: I love traveling so I try to cross off the map at least as many countries I visit as my age. I am currently on track!

Lisa Pickett

Head of Apps @ Deliciously Ella

Lisa is currently Head of App at Deliciously Ella, where she is responsible for their health and wellbeing app, feel better. Her role involves working with external partners, development teams and senior stakeholders to determine the product roadmap and maximise product growth and value.

Before this role, Lisa was previously at SoulCycle helping launch and grow their UK and International businesses, and before that digital innovation agency AKQA, working in their London and New York offices on a variety of Nike businesses (including their Nike Training Club app), Amazon Alexa, L'Oréal and Virgin Sport.

Lisa's career in recent years has focused on helping scale-up teams build out their technical product offerings to deliver results with smart use of resources.

Elahe Arani

Senior AI Research Manager & Sr. Research Scientist, Advanced Research Lab @ NavInfo Europe

Renka Pooja

Chapter Test Lead @ Admiral Group plc

Bidisha Agarwal

IT Lead @ ING

Passionate about: Design thinking; Driving innovation amidst the daily business; Architecting reliable technology solutions fulfilling demanding business needs; Harnessing talent and energy; Agile mindset and behaviour; Defining Transformation strategies challenging the status quo; Platform thinking and design; Mobilization and Management of teams; Collaborating beyond silos and across organisations; Sharing knowledge; Public speaking; Fighting for human rights (specifically LGBTQ, Women, Children).

Violeta Misheva

Lead Data Scientist @ ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Violeta Misheva is a lead data scientist working in the banking world. She has about 10 years of experience in the world of data and holds a PhD from Erasmus University. She is very passionate about developing machine learning in a responsible and ethical way and likes sharing her knowledge with others.

Fun Fact: I was on a mission to run the major marathons in European capitals before the pandemic cut my training short (personal best: running the original marathon route in Greece).

Trishia Poplawska-Leijen

Business Architect @ Flow Traders

Trishia joined Flow Traders as a Software Developer in 2016. During her career there, she was a technical SME in OTC trading platforms and vendor communications, a team lead to the Trading Engine team followed by technology leadership in Fixed Income space. Currently, she moved to the business side to act as a Business Architect, aligning trading with the technological solutions that are developed in house. Previously she worked in Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. She is passionate about combining the technology and business needs and working with the developers and end users on most efficient software.

She holds a degree in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence from the University of Southampton. She was involved there in women in technology initiatives, running the ECSWomen society.

Bukola Johnson

DevOps Engineer @ Hello Fresh

Carolyn Brand

Business Coach

She has 30 years of agnostic professional experience working in global high-tech corporations such as Rolls-Royce, as well a range of startups from Tech, Sustainable, & Social Impact.

Carolyn is passionate about helping Women grow authentically and confidently to achieve their personal and professional.

Using her professional knowledge, personal experience and lessons learned she has created a portfolio of workshops and seminars which are focused on supporting and guiding Women to craft, implement and achieve their desired roadmap.

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