JURY

Dr. Björn Bronger

Björn has been advising entrepreneurs for many years, among others, in his function as Advisor in the context of the Social Innovation Tournament (SIT) of the EIB Institute and the Young Entrepreneur Summit (YES). In this context, he regularly gives speeches and workshops, and participate to startup competitions and in panel discussions. 

He works as Counsel responsible for finance operations at the European Investment Bank (EIB), the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world and one of the world’s main financers of climate action. With its long-term venture debt products, support to microfinance institutions, and loans to SMEs via intermediated financing, the EIB Group is a strong supporter of entrepreneurs.

With Björn’s academic background in law and in international relations, he has a profound understanding of the interconnected and rapidly changing multilateral environment.

Cornel Amariei

Cornel Amariei is a renowned Romanian inventor, speaker, and entrepreneur known for creating  .lumen – a startup that builds glasses that empower the blind to live a better life.

Cornel was born in a family where his parents and sister lived with disabilities, severely limiting their mobility.

Previously, Cornel was known for operating as Head of Innovation in a large Automotive company. He became the first Romanian inducted into Forbes 30U30 Europe, the Global Business Hall of Fame and JCI's Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World for his work. Awards previously won by personalities such as Elvis Presley, Levi Strauss, and John F. Kennedy

Fabio H. Mathias

Fabio works as a Managing Partner at  Mathias Consulting & Investments and as an Associate Partner, at HCM Group. He did his Bachelor's and MBA from Concordia University in the US, and has more than 20 years of experience in financing, M&A, and private equity management positions.

A strong networker and fundraiser for innovative start-ups from Seed to Series A rounds, he has had over 200 successful projects and transactions.

Fabio is also a lecturer at Constructor University and the University of Europe for Applied Sciences (UE) and a Serial guest speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, private equity, M&A, and financing.
Moreover, he is a Former Jury-member of “GründerGeist” in Hamburg.

Mali M. Baum

CEO & Founder at WLOUNGE one of the biggest and most influential tech networks in Germany, and founder and Founder of MAGDA GROUP. Mali has 20 years of experience in founding companies, and plays an instrumental role in creating the Tech ecosystem in Germany, Europe and beyond (Israel, US and Asia). Mali pushes for more women in influential positions in corporations, investment and startups. She is a key player in opening doors for female investors/founders, having built a Female Angel Accelerator to encourage more women to enter into this field. As an X5 serial entrepreneur she started her own first-business in 2007. Since January 2020 she is an advisor and jury member of the EU Innovation Council, EIC accelerator and the EIC fund, involved in the EIC Green-Deal. She is an ambassador for the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises for StartUp AsiaBerlin (SUAB) and Asia-Pacific Week Berlin (APW).

Mali lectures at several universities on entrepreneurship, founding companies, diversity and international business, and is a regular speaker at industry conferences, a mentor and jury member of startup competitions.

Kostja Hausdörffer

Kostja started his career as a sales and project manager for an industrial SME in Mannheim in 2009. There he launched an innovation management process which included both domestic and international subdivisions. Since 2015 he is an advisor and consultant for startups of different maturity stages with a focus on strategic business issues such as business model and value proposition design, business strategy or investments. Moreover he designs startup ecosystems for over seven years so that especially innovative and scalable business models can thrive.  His work experience is backed up by university degrees in business administration, regional economics and entrepreneurship. In his actual position he works for the Starthaus Bremen- a segment of the Bremer Aufbau Bank GmbH, the business promotion bank of the federal state of Bremen.

Jewell Sparks

Wilhelmina Jewell Strong Sparks is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BiTHOUSE GROUP Inc and the Managing Partner of UNITED17 Ventures and One Page VC. Jewell has worked in both Corporate and Startup environments for over 20 years preparing markets and launching innovative products and services in biotech, software technology, retail, music and entertainment. Recently, she had been focused on developing and executing various programs and initiatives for Corporates and SMEs which aim to identify and foster innovative talent from within an organization in order to align with external partners to acquire and gain the skill sets needed to launch and scale innovative products and services enabling digital transformation while enhancing customer engagement and business sustainability. Jewell has been recognized  as a global “Digital Trailblazer” + diversity and inclusion influencer and implementor. Jewell is the founder of various community initiatives bringing together technology + community + executives (FashTech Germany, AgTech FoodTech Summit, IoT Lab, Mobile Monday Nexxt, BVDS Food and FoodTech Platform) in the US, Asia and Europe since moving to Germany from San Francisco in 2013. She serves on several global advisory boards: IADAS (International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences) and SXSW Accelerator, WHU MiE , amongst others and is an active advisor/mentor to several startups and accelerator programs focused IoT, AI, mobility, food, retail, entertainment, fashion, sustainability and health. “Bridging the Gap,” by “Connecting the Dots'' is her motto.

Dr. Björn Bronger

European Investment Bank

Dr. Björn Bronger works as Legal Counsel responsible for finance operations at the European Investment Bank (EIB), the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world and one of the world’s main financers of climate action. He also advises entrepreneurs of the Social Innovation Tournament (SIT) of the EIB Institute. In addition, he holds various positions in non-profit organizations to support climate action and multilateralism.

With his academic background in law (University of Heidelberg and New York University) and in international relations (University of London/London School of Economics), he has a profound understanding of the interconnected and rapidly changing multilateral environment

Dr. Phillip Veit

Boerse Stuttgart

Dr. Philipp Veit is the founding director of fintogether – the SMART Finance Accelerator of Group Boerse Stuttgart, one of Europe’s largest stock exchanges He holds a PHD in the field of Strategic Entrepreneurship, is an alumnus of the Foundation of German Business (Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft) and won several renown case competitions. Philipp gained extensive international experience in the U.S., Great Britain and India and has previously worked in start-ups, strategy consulting and the automotive industry.

Irene Walsh

Messagelab

As a venture coach, entrepreneur and expert in investor communications, Irene has been a fixture in the European start-up community for the past 20 years, helping hundreds of early-stage ventures across all tech sectors to raise funding. Irene is working internationally with VCs, incubators and accelerator programmes, such as the EIC Accelerator (EU), imec in Belgium and Seraphim Space Camp in the UK. She founded her consultancy firm, MessageLab, in London in 2000 and made a mark for herself by developing and running the pitch format for London Business Angels, the UK’s largest Business Angel network. Most recently, she has extended her experience to work with Think Tanks in the energy sector as well as global entrepreneurship programmes, such as LIF (Leaders in Innovation Fellowships), hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Debbie Gilbert

Business Owner

Debbie has had had her own marketing and agency for 22 years. She works with small to medium businesses to grow their client base. Since 2009, she has organised business networking events, business exhibitions (The 3 Counties Expo)  and since 2015 a UK wide business awards for women (The Best Business Women Awards).

In 2018 she published a book 'The Successful Mumpreneur' which has been a best selling book across the world including the UK, Canada and Australia. She has won 6 business awards and also delivers presentations on the importance of business awards.

Claudio Marseglia 

Founder of Skilltransfer

Claudio is the founder of Skilltransfer, a self-funded EdTech startup that is equipping tomorrow’s leaders with business skills to transform their lives and impact the world by providing curated and practical online courses.

He holds a Master of Science degree in International Management from King's College London, University of London and previously worked at Mercedes-Benz, Siemens Healthineers, and Porsche. He also founded ThinkTwice and Awaken&More and holds a leadership experience of over a total of 39 team members.

Shilpa Panchamtia

Tech entrepreneur and business advisor

Shilpa  is an entrepenuer in the tech sector and a business advisor working specifically with companies looking to scale and grow.  She is passionate about startup business having started four of her own and she is an active supporter of small business and the impact that they can make to the economy.

She has run four businesses across various sectors in 3 continents. She loved her business journey coming from working with Pepsi and Coca Cola in marketing.

Tina Ruseva

Founder of Mentessa 

She studied computer science and communications at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. She quit to enroll in a fulltime MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at TUM in 2007 and founded her first software start-up GymZap in 2009. She successfully managed the company until the birth of her second daughter. From 2011 to 2015, she earned her PhD in Innovation Management at the University of Sofia (Berkeley & Intel Curriculum), taught entrepreneurship, and worked as an independent start-up coach.

Her journey led her to Fraunhofer Venture as Program Manager and to the municipal start-up center Werk1 as Head of Startup Programs. Currently, she is founder and CEO of Mentessa, a community platform for agile collaboration, speaker and initiator of the decentralized Big & Growing New Work Festival.

André Wollin

Founder of M01N Startup Camp & Startup Taxi

André loves radical changes and crises. Without money and experience in the event business he created the biggest startup event in northern Germany together with friends. Thousands of founders investors and executives joined M01N Startup Camp in Germany Singapore and Vietnam.

Besides that he holds thrilling entrepreneur talks in hisStartup Taxi with 500.000+ views on YouTube Instagram & TikTok. Find out more about his ventures on www.andrewollin.com

Raju Gurung

Raju is an entrepreneur, venture advisor and consultant working with startup incubators, accelerators, VC firms, universities and corporate ventures across 6 continents. At the helm of 10x Innovators, he collaborates with startup entrepreneurs, research scientists, and corporate innovators to take innovations to market. With a track record of collaborating with over 100 startups, his passion lies in facilitating clarity and direction during the critical early stages of venture creation.

Raju holds a Bachelors in Biology & Neuroscience from Jacobs University Bremen, and a Masters in Business Administration and Bioentrepreneurship from Copenhagen Business School. Beyond the consultancy realm, he leads an impactful retail venture- IKIGAAI which bridges design, philosophy and craftsmanship. With his startup ecosystem engagements, he is also affiliated with several organisations like Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship, GIC, Seedstars, Rockstart, Tech2Impact, iGEM, TheDo, TH.0, Beyond the Pond Association.