Speakers & Participants

In 2015 Hermann was awarded an KBE for services to Engineering and Industry.

Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.

Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Hermann has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin, Strathclyde, Glasgow and York.

Edna Conway is an innovative executive who forecasts the future of business and creates clear strategies to deliver new and secure operating models for a digital economy. Forged from over 30 years of broad and deep leadership success creating new organizations and delivering cyber security, compliance, risk management, sustainability and value chain transformation across $50B technology company. A builder of new capabilities which achieve lasting and pervasive operational improvement.

Specialties: Cyber Security, Enterprise Risk, Compliance, Supply Chain Operations, Intellectual Property Law, Sustainability

Neil Gibson is a frequent media commentator and a sought-after speaker on the international stage, Neil is Chief Economist for EY providing economic advice, commentary and modelling input across all lines of service. He works closely with the EY-DKM Economic Advisory Services. Current areas of focus include supporting firms through COVID-19 business impacts as well as preparing for Brexit and forecasting the Irish economy. In ordinary times, Neil works closely with Government clients to ensure a policy focus on long term competitiveness. A macro-economist and forecaster by background, Neil has built several forecasting and policy models for clients in public and private sectors throughout the world. He manages EY’s suite of forecasting and simulation models on the island of Ireland. He is a visiting Professor of Economic Policy at Ulster University and is also a 2014 Eisenhower Fellow. Neil was formerly head of global cities and regions for Oxford Economics and the first Director of the Economic Policy Centre at Ulster University. Prior to joining EY, he was their senior economic advisor across the island

Colin Mason is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Scotland. His research is in the area of entrepreneurship and regional development with specific research focus on entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ecosystems. He has written extensively on business angel investing for nearly 30 years. His research has a strong policy and practitioner focus and he has engaged with numerous external organizations and government, including, HM Treasury Scottish Government, European Commission, Eurochambres, InterTrade Ireland, Growth Analysis (Sweden), OECD and the European Union’s Joint Research Centre. He was joint winner of the ESRC’s 2015 Outstanding Impact in Business award for his research (with Prof Richard Harrison) on business angels. He is the lead author of Canada’s National Angel Capital Association (NACO) annual report on angel investment activity. He is the founding editor of the journal Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance (published by Taylor and Francis Ltd) which is now in its 21st year of publication. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and the Regional Studies Association.

Nina is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Reinhart Capital. She invests in Swiss and European Early Stage ICT and B2B startups such as mobile payment system PayCash (acquired by Daimler) or seafood trading marketplace Procsea. The last 4 years she served on the Board of the fastest growing Swiss Angel Club Swiss ICT Investor Club where she is now an Advisor.

Nina has extensive international experience in strategy, business development, transformation projects and executive coaching in the US, Europe and Latin America. She worked at UBS, Nestlé and Frogdesign before becoming an Angel Investor.

She earned an MBA from Babson College in the USA and a Master Degree in Anthropology from the University of Montreal.

Vitaly Polekhin is the President of National Business Angels Association (Russia) and Head of SKOLKOVO Investor Club. He was recognized as Angel Investor of the Year 2015 by Russia Venture Awards. Vitaly is shareholder and Supervisory Board Member of Addventure, Texdrive (Genezis Capital) and Venture Angels venture funds. Vitaly holds a PhD in Philosophy, Executive MBA from Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, an MBA from Lomonosov Moscow State University and completed a number of programmes at MIT Sloan School of Management, UC Berkley Haas School of Business, Harvard Business School (Private Equity and Venture Capital programs).

Simon is a recognised thought leader in provider with deep expertise in Clinical Services and Physician Enterprises. His career started as an executive (including serving as CEO) on the provider side in both not and for profit, later joining a top global consulting firm initially as their healthcare centre cluster leader (serving Europe Africa, India and Middle East) and later leading the Clinical Transformation practice.

His focus is on strategic clinical transformation, assisting organisations in optimising their clinical assets and engaging their physicians in these transformation journeys. He has deep expertise in all aspects of physician organisations including M&A, VBC, network development, operational and financial optimisation, and service line design and implementation.

Orla is a partner with Kernel Capital. Orla works closely with the entrepreneur community identifying Series A investment opportunities in the range of €1M-€5M. She enables the growth and development of Kernel Capital portfolio companies, directly working with the executive teams of investees. Portfolio companies for which Orla is the lead Kernel Capital Partner include Code Institute, Sytorus, Immersive VR Education, Oncomark and Pilot Photonics. Prior to joining Kernel Capital in 2007, Orla was Global Services Manager with Qumas Ltd, a Kernel Capital portfolio company, which sold to Accelrys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCL) for US$50m in December 2013.

Orla graduated from UCC with a degree in Economics and Computer Science (2000) and subsequently attained a Higher Diploma in Software Engineering (2001). Orla holds a Diploma in Digital Marketing (2010) from the Digital Marketing Institute, is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and holds an IoD Diploma in Company Direction (2015).

Allan Beechinor, Serial CEO and Founder, Altada Technology Solutions, has 20 years of technology experience in Data Governance, transformation, AI and Data Science, Founding member of Algo Data Analytical and Altada: AI, RegTech, FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech and Blockchain technology solutions. A member of the Artificial Intelligence Thought Leader Group of Ireland Allan worked closely with Irish Government bodies and contributed to Ireland’s first National MSc for AI.

Peter studied Engineering and Computer Science at Cambridge University, lives near Cambridge and has owned and run small businesses in technology and construction. Peter was UKBAA business angel of the year 2014/15 and is one of top Global Corporate Venturers.

He is a Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School. He is currenty the president of EBAN. He has been an active angel investor for many years and is a board member of the Cambridge Angels and the Investment Director of the Marshall of Cambridge, Martlet Corporate Angel division.

He has personally invested in over 50 startups (in the SaaS, biotech, sensing, IoT, cleantech, fintech, edtech, medtech and security sectors), has led many investment rounds and is a non-executive director or observer of seven technology start-ups. Peter has been voluntary chair, treasurer and trustee of numerous charities for over fifteen years and he has built several domestic houses and refurbished many others, including the Cambridge Advice Centre. Peter is a freeman of the City of London and is on the advisory board of a Social Enterprise in criminal justice.

Michael O’Connor is the CEO of CorkBIC, a private-sector led organisation, specifically set up to identify and build knowledge-intensive companies based on promising technology usually involving international growth. Michael provides an integrated process for incubating and growing high potential technology driven companies. His previous experience was in manufacturing and sales startups with Raychem Corporation, before co-founding Intepro, a venture capital backed Irish IT startup.

GER O’MAHONY is an entrepreneur who has accumulated significant experience mainly in technology but also in other industry sectors. He has been involved in a number of successful technology start-ups including being the founder of the software business Engage Technologies Group and its subsequent sale to NorthgateArinso (a FTSE 250 company) and also being the co-founder of the networking systems integrator Bridgecom Group and its subsequent sale to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Telecom. He has completed funding rounds, identified and successfully completed and integrated company acquisitions and negotiated company disposals during this period. Recently Ger has focused on helping established technology companies to scale and grow both in Irish and International markets. These include the high growth businesses Action Point Technology Group and Voxpro Communications both of which have achieved revenue growth in excess of 50% year on year.