Summit

Valentin Oeru, General Manager, TradeAds Interactive (Romania)

Valentin Oeru is General Manager of Tradeads Interactive, the company that launched the first online ad exchange on the Romanian market which turned out to be a success, covering over 95% of the Romanian Internet users. TradeAds opened a branch in Moldovia last spring and plans to contribute to the development of the Moldovian online advertising market. Valentin Oeru has over 5 years of experience in Sales in the digital marketing industry. For additional information, look here.

Vlad Stan, Business Designer, Investor (Romania)

Is doing business for over 20 years and for 10 years exclusively online. In the past few years, also became an investor and is investing in internet startups for now. Vlad Stan believes that you can build a business following your passion, a business that can bring real value in the world and that can generate, in the same time, extraordinary profits, keeping it small, dynamic and innovative. For additional information, look here.

Catalin Emilian, Country Manager, Gemius (Romania)

Has more then 7 years of experience in online industry and since 2007 he is country manager of Gemius in Romania. Gemius is an international research agency, the leader and forerunner in the field of research of the internet and on the internet in Europe. Originating in Poland, Gemius has expanded across the EMEA region and is now currently operating in more than twenty markets. The company is the pioneer of the full hybrid methodology for online audience measurement, integrating both consumer panels and advanced site-centric research, giving media planners highly credible results. For additional information, look here.

Calin Fusu, CEO and Stakeholder, Neogen SA (Romania)

Born in Moldova, Calin Fusu became one of most successful entrepreneurs in Romania, owning and managing an online business for over 10 years. The projects Bestjobs, Neogen and Zumzi are among the most thriving online projects in Romania, with expansions in Bulgaria, Serbia and Moldova. In 2007 attracted venture capital from two large international funds, which had an impact on business development and management. For additional information, look here.

Oleg Ciubotaru, IT Department Coordinator, Hai Moldova, Project Manager, Propeople (Moldova)

Oleg is in the list of top 10 most active people from Chisinau. He is a general manager of ProPeople Company, in the same time involved in several outstanding social projects and great initiatives as Think Moldova, Blogosfera etc. For additional info, look here.

Denis Gudym, Government Affairs Manager, Intel Corporation in Russia & CIS (Russia)

Denis Gudym manages government affairs function of Intel Corporation in Russia and the CIS region since January 2006. He is in charge of maintaining and sustaining Intel Russia/CIS relationships with policy makers and government regulators to influence policy by obtaining ‘win-win’ between Russia/CIS government and Intel. Prior to joining Intel, since 2001 till 2005 Denis worked as Head of Public Relations and Corporate Affairs Service at Verysell Group of companies, where he was responsible for media relations, employee communications and interaction with industry and business associations. Earlier Denis served as Public Relations manager for Compulink retail chain (2000-2001) and as IT-manager for Construction Corps’ military unit of Russian Ministry of Defense (1993-2000). He earned BA degree ‘Hardware Design Engineer’ in 1993 at the State Technical University of the Republic of Moldova. In 2003 graduated from London School of Public Relations. In 2009 earned MBA degree with highest honors in American Institute of Business and Economics in Moscow. For additional info, look here.

Ian Broom, Co-Founder, Launch48 and Owner, Weboo (UK)

Ian Broom has been creating web sites since he was 15 years old.  Since then he has studied software development, business management, HR, and project management.  He has worked in project management, consulting, software development, and IT management roles for IT, finance, digital agency, and charity companies. In 2004 Ian started Weboo in Australia to help clients with online advice, development, and management.  In 2007 Ian moved to the UK and started Weboo in the UK in 2009.  Weboo has rapidly expanded and today works with some of the biggest companies in the UK as well as helping smaller clients in the UK and Australia to effectively use the internet. Ian is a serial networker who never says no to a coffee, he works hard to help others and enhance the startup community globally. He is passionate in the business opportunities the internet offers entrepreneurs and works hard to stay on top of the latest technologies to ensure he can always give current advice to startups and customers. For additional info, look here.

Bogdan Balaci, Country General Manager, IBM (Romania)

Bogdan Balaci was appointed Country General Manager of IBM Romania starting January 1st, 2011. Prior, Bogdan was: Territory Sales Manager in IBM Romania between July 2007–December, 2010; GTS Manager in Romania between July 2006-July 2007 and Sales Operations Manager between July 2005 - July 2006. His main experience is in sales area, he managed the Large Enterprise GB sales team and was Account Manager for banking in IBM Romania. He joined IBM in September 1999. Bogdan graduated University of Bucharest, Physics Faculty in 1993, and was awarded MBA at Henley Management College UK in 2006. For additional info, look here.

Vladimir Sharov, Country Manager, Intel (Ukraine) 

Vladimir Sharov started working at Intel in May 2002 as a Director of corporate projects development in Ukraine, supervising the banking and public field activity. In addition, he was responsible for relationships with government and regulatory bodies in the IT field, as well as for projects in the field of wireless technologies and their development in Ukraine. Vladimir has been the head of Intel in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova since August 2005. Vladimir Sharov has 18-year experience of a successful work in the IT business at the Ukrainian market in the area of computer manufacturing, sales of hardware, software and its development, IT consulting. Before joining Intel Corporation, he had been a vice president and a member of the supervisory board of the famous Ukrainian software company - JSC "Softline", where initially worked as a commercial director. In 1993-1997 Vladimir Sharov had been working for JV "ComputerLand Kiev". In 1995 he graduated from Kiev Polytechnic Institute with a specialist degree in "Developing software for the automated systems and artificial mentality". In 2001 Vladimir got a MBA from the International Management Institute in Kiev.

Riccardo Fedeli, Owner, Ofarm (Moldova)

Has 10 years experience in managing web and mobile development projects. Formerly he was project manager and internal producer for some videogame publishing companies and since 2006 he is owner of OFarm in Moldova. The company serves world-wide well known brands in developing online and mobile solutions, including the development of on-line gaming platforms, saas and social applications. For additional information, look here.

Lenka Kmetova, CEE Business Development Manager, Scytl Secure Electronic Voting (Spain)

Has extensive marketing, sales and public relations experience in the region. She acquired international experience as a project team leader, advisor and a trainer. She further extended her professional skills in the field of international marketing and sales, enterprise development, marketing information systems, export marketing planning and financing, advertising, etc. by participating in a two-year EU education programme led by WIFI Österreich and euro solutions. In 2002 she established her own company TOP Events focusing on organising professional events with participation of world’s leading personalities, preparation of client projects and lobbying. In 2008 she took the senior marketing manager position in Ardaco, a technology company producing globally patented software solutions for secure mobile communication, electronic signature and paper and electronic document management systems. As of February 2009 she has been working for a Catalan company Scytl Secure Electronic Voting, a global leader in the field of secure electoral modernization and eDemocracy, where she is responsible for business development in the Central and Eastern Europe. For additional information, look here.

Martin Galik, Manager, IT Solutions Centire (Slovakia)

Has more than 13 years of experience in IT industry especially in developing and leading the strategic IT solutions for financial sector (banks, insurance company). Among many successfully realized projects, in the role of project manager and analyst he has been driving the project of State Treasury for Ministry of Finance of Slovak Republic. After that, he took challange in developing the eGovernment for public administration sector in Slovakia. He was co-author of strategic documents such as National Concept of Government Informatization, that lays down basic principles, architecture, standards and processes of building information system for public administration. Later on he co-authored Feasibility studies on eGovernment Services for Self-Governing Regions and Municipalities. He is the father of the CIVITAS.SK project, which takes new approach for providing eGovernment services of Municipalities. CIVITAS is cloud-oriented portal designed to provide eGovernment services of municipalities to citizen and enterprise via one central place - portal civitas.sk.

Virgo Riispapp, Head of ICT Department, Estonian Police Board (Estonia)

Virgo got Bachelor degree in IT Management from Estonian Business School in 2006 and has been IT manager for 10 years and has made up his career from Help Desk clerk post in government sector. After successful years in wholesale and retail business he filled an office as a Head of ICT Department in Estonian Police Board. He was responsible for all ICT activities in Law Enforcement organisation. It involved planning directing, managing and overseeing ICT strategy and action plans, overseeing service delivery goals (SLA, OLA), aligning IT strategy to business strategy, development project delivery activities and compliance operations. Under his command Estonian Police started a development of modular SOA-based ePolice solution, which has dramatically improved the work results and reduced the operating costs of the Law Enforcement organisation.

Marius Georgescu, Cloud Computing Specialist, Microsoft (Romania)

Marius has been working for Microsoft since 2007 as one of the first Cloud Computing experts in Microsoft Romania, managing Cloud sales from the moment of services availability. His responsabilities include developing the SaaS market adoption, developing the business with hosting providers, telecom operators and partners. In the last 12 months, during Microsoft’s shift towards cloud computing, Marius lead Cloud Services adoption efforts in Romania, with a particular focus on enterprise customers.

Joice Fernandes, Microsoft’s worldwide Senior Director for Public Private Alliances (Portugal)

Joice Fernandes is currently Microsoft’s worldwide Senior Director for Public Private Alliances that delivers millions of new users access to personal technology. In this capacity Mr. Fernandes leads a 15-person worldwide team that provides expertise and resources to governments on 5 continents. As a driving force behind the world’s largest 1:1 digital inclusion project in Portugal, Mr. Fernandes’ previous work with the Portuguese government over the past 6 years as Microsoft’s Public Sector Director resulted in over 1.5 Million new computers being delivered to students and families. His unique relationship with Ministers of Education, Telecommunication and other senior government and NGO organizations allows Microsoft to be a trusted advisor to governments and help them realize the full scope of their digital inclusion citizen initiatives. Mr. Fernandes is a part of Microsoft’s worldwide education strategy team, representing the company’s interests in numerous board and chairmanship positions. For additional information, look here.

Geo Lupascu, Project Manager, RT Design Studio (Moldova)

The work experience in the banking sector as customer services representative and the recent implication in the management of the web projects offered the possibility to understand the necessities of the web businesses and to adjust them to the end user expectations. For additional info, look here.

Raul Rikk, E-Governance and Cyber Security Department, Trustcorp Company (Estonia)

Raul Rikk is one of the founders of the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. He was leading the establishment of the Centre from 2004 to 2008. Currently he heads the E-Governance and Cyber Security Department in Trustcorp Company. He advises Georgian National Security Council in cyber security related matters and Albanian IT and Innovation Minister in e-governance and cyber security related matters. He has a military background being long time a signal officer in Estonian Defence Forces. After graduating from Finnish National Defence University and US Army Command and General Staff College, he held various signal and IT related positions including Chief of Communications and Information System’s Training and Development Centre, and Head of Information Security Department at the Headquarters of Estonian Defence Forces.

Florin Manaila, Systems & Technology Group, Advisory Accredited Architect, IBM (Romania)

Florin Manaila has 3 years of work experience within IBM Romania, being responsible for the development of architectures; defining structures of solution to business problems in the areas of: High Performance Computing architectures and Cloud Computing architecture; using various techniques including modeling, simulating, and testing to validate the designs and selected products. Also, for more than 5 years is engaged in frastructure architecture of all major IBM Romania projects within the country and region.

Markus Mitzkat, Dr., Responsible for Sales in Public Sector, IBM Global Business Services (Czech Republic)

Markus Mitzkat is currently responsible for sales in Public sector for Global Business Services and the IBM GBS leader for Romania. In these roles, he is responsible for signing services business with Public clients across Central Eastern Europe, one of the major industries in the region, and he leads all of IBM’s GBS business in Romania, which is the largest market in Southern Eastern Europe. With 15+ years of successful services industry experience, Markus has covered a broad variety of roles: Technical and Business Services, Strategy and Operational Execution, he has been serving Financial Services, Automotive, Media and Public sector clients and has worked throughout European and Middle Eastern/African Emerging Markets. In 2007 he was responsible for completing IBM’s only services acquisition in Eastern Europe. For additional info, look here.

Peter Reichstädter, Di, Senior e-Government Strategy Expert, Federal Chancellery of the Austrian Republic (Austria)

Peter Reichstädter is working in the Division for the Austrian ICT-Strategy, which is responsible for the elaboration and coordination of the Austrian E-Government strategy within the initiatives of the Digital Agenda and EU2020 (there he is leading the focus working group on Austria's Interoperability Framework). He is/was there responsible for establishing basic E-Government services (Model of electronic delivery, Interoperability Frameworks, Cloud perspectives, Social Media in E-Government) and structures (like Person Data structures, notifications). Peter is also strategic technical advisor at the e-Europe-Award 2003 honoured project, coordinating the needs and necessary project steps towards establishing help.gv as the main Austrian transactional E-Government portal. Furthermore, Peter is the head of the Austrian Computer Society working group on E-Government / interoperability & architectural aspects, author of many specific publications, lecturer at the E-Government and E-Commerce courses of studies at the Danube-University Krems and FH Joanneum, research partner at Vienna's Technical University. For additional info, look here.

Ronald Binkofski, General Manager, Microsoft (Romania)

Oversees since October 2010 Microsoft’s operations in Romania and Moldova, employing close to 400 people within three operational organizations – Sales & Marketing, Customer Service and Product Development. Ronald also helps steer Microsoft’s activities in the region as a member of the Central and Eastern Europe Board. Apart from being responsible for Microsoft’s Romania business results, Ronald is concentrated on ensuring a positive experience for Microsoft customers and partners in both countries. In that role, he engages with Government Elites, Business Leaders and Community Members. Prior to his current assignment, for the last 5 years Ronald Binkofski was Operational Director of Microsoft Poland overseeing subsidiary’s entire operations and leading the organization through a significant period of successful operational enhancements. Ronald Binkofski started his career in high tech with Software AG, Germany. During his almost 10 years there, he held numerous positions, including responsibility for Sales and Marketing in Central and Eastern Europe as Area Lead & Head of the Representation Office in Russia.

Gil Taran, President and Chief Executive Officer, iCarnegie, Associate Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon, Master of Software Engineering Program (USA)

Since being appointed CEO of iCarnegie in 2009, Gil Taran has led the restructuring of the company to focus on areas of workforce development, capacity building and educa­tional strategy. These areas are intended to help countries enhance their market competitiveness and develop their local economy through building the skills of their people. Taran is ideally suited to lead iCarnegie, having extensive international business experience in more than 20 coun­tries, as well as notable teaching credentials. He has used that background to position iCarnegie as an Educational Strategy company that has engaged organizations in In­dia, Russia, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Panama, Brazil, the Middle East and North Africa interested in transforming the lives of their people through education. Taran has taught both at the undergraduate and graduate level at Carnegie Mellon university, most recently in the Masters of Software Engineering Program in the School of Computer Science and the Software Engineering Institute. Over the years, Taran has developed courses and curricula in the areas of software development, software manage­ment and Information Technology. For additional info, look here.

Sebastian Foo, Assistant Director, IDA International Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Sebastian Foo is an Assistant Director at IDA International Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of the Infocommunications Development Authority of Singapore.  Mr. Foo oversees IDA International’s business development strategy for Africa, Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia geographies, and the design of innovative eGovernment programmes to deliver social and economic outcomes for foreign governments. Prior to Mr. Foo’s employment with IDA International, he was head of the eGovernment Innovations Department in IDA, focusing on the conceptualisation of value creation eGovernment services through the innovative use of technologies. For additional info, look here.

Costel D. Todor, Deputy Vice-president Mergers & Acquisitions, SIVECO (Romania)

Costel D. Todor is Deputy Vice-president Mergers & Acquisitions of SIVECO Romania, the largest software house of Romania. He holds a B.S on Electrotechnic Engineering from the “Transylvania” University and M.Sc. degree on European Union Finances and Economy from the Academy for Economic Studies, Bucharest. He has a strong experience in central & local government and project management on issues of public services, local infrastructure and local economic development, education and social assistance, and business development on ITC sector. His career core consists in more than 20 years in public administration, consultancy and industrial sector on different levels, from execution positions to the top management ones, like Secretary General of the Romanian Ministry of Justice. He managed large organizations and conducted them for the improvement of performances combining the modern methods of management with ITC tools. In this respect, he is appointed as BoD member of different public bodies (e.g. Member of Board of Directors of Deposit Guarantee Fund in the Banking System of Romania 2006-2007; Member of Board of Directors for Superior Council of Accountancy and Financials Reports 2005-2007) or NGOs (Vice-President of The Association of Secretaries General, Romania).

Virginie Haas, Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services, Cloud Sales and Strategy (France)

Virginie Haas has been with IBM since 1989 with a career focused on leading IBM sales and marketing efforts across the business. She has been a leader for enterprise accounts sales, start ups, as well as developing IBM's business partner sales community. Her career began working for IBM France and has since grown to include several different country, regional and global roles.  Her experience is in business management from business unit transformation to business unit creation. In August, 2010, following her role as leader of all IBM Global Technology Sales in France, Ms. Haas was appointed to lead worldwide cloud computing sales and strategy for IBM Global Technology Services ITS division. Her expertise is helping to align the organizational goals of IBM for cloud computing with the needs of the customers.

Sava Marinković, Director, Teleskin (Serbia)

Sava is the director of Teleskin, a venture-backed startup developing hardware and software to diagnosis melanoma and skincancer in Serbia. Prior to Teleskin, Sava led GE Healthcare’s Service Technology Marketing for GE Healthcare International, focusing on developing, planning, and driving go-to-market strategies for new and innovative technology offerings for unmet customer needs across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Sava’s previous experience includes leading Lean six sigma improvements in New Product Marketing/Pricing, Customer Satisfaction, Service Delivery, and Product Quality across a $1.5B Medical Systems Device Business. Prior to GE, Sava focused on nanotechnology entrepreneurship with MITRE Nanosystems group, and in various national business plan competitions (Winner, MIT $1k, Finalist, MIT $50k, 2nd place, Stanford e-Challenge, 5th/740 teams, Carrot Capital Challenge). Sava is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.