High-growth technology business conference 2022

Prof. Alexander Wurzer (Director IP Management Education at CEIPI), is a professor at the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (Centre d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Industrielle, CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg, where he is responsible for all academic IP management training programmes run by the IP Business Academy.

Arne Krüger, started his professional career 25 years ago, as a consultant and trainer for collaboration tools in multinational corporations in the IT, banking and pharmaceutical sectors. He is founder and CEO of Moving Targets Consulting GmbH, an IT service provider with a team of 50 developers, support specialists and consultants. Since 2016, he has headed PIZnet.de, an association of the 19 German PATLIB centres and their host organisations.

Astrid Woollard, is a co-founded SMAPE Capital, a fund investing in tokenised economies, where she is primarily responsible for the fund’s investment strategy. She is an international expert in digitalisation, digital business models and intellectual property strategy. She received the Austrian Fund Manager Award in 2019. She has worked for world-renowned institutions, including the Institute of Science and Technology Austria / IST Cube, Oxford University Innovation and St George's Medical University of London.

Audrey Yap, is Managing Partner of Yusarn Audrey, a regional ASEAN practice headquartered in Singapore. She has been listed as one of the world’s leading IP strategists in London IAM 300 for 13 years running. She has also been named as one of the best practitioners in Euromoney’s Women in Business Law, a WTR 1000 top trademark professional, a WIPR Leader (Singapore), a market-leading lawyer in Asialaw and one of Singapore’s leading lawyers in Who’s Who Legal.

Bettina de Jong, after a 30 year career at Shell, including 11 years as manager of the global team of patent analysts, she provides consultancy, searching and training services in the patent information area. She is also Secretary General of the PDG and chair of the International Standards Board for Qualified Patent Information Professionals (ISBQPIP), and has roles in various other professional organisations and committees.

Bowman Heiden, is currently Co-Director of the Center for Intellectual Property (CIP), a centre for knowledge-based business development run jointly by the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology, and the Norwegian University for Science and Technology. He is also Executive Director of the Tusher Initiative for the Management of Intellectual Capital at UC Berkeley and a fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at the NYU School of Law.

Christian Hackl, has been Managing Director of TUM-Tech GmbH for more than 15 years. He is also an assistant professor at TUM's Chair of Technology and Innovation Management and managing director of a renewable energy start-up, as well as serving as a member of the executive board of a technology foundation. Before joining TUM-Tech, he worked for several years as a management consultant for a renowned strategic consultancy firm. His educational background is in chemistry and he did his PhD research in Munich and New York.

Juergen Graner, has more than 30 years of experience in managing companies, departments and strategic transactions. He has held CEO positions in 6 countries on 3 continents and coached over 100 CEOs globally. He also has over 20 years of teaching experience. He speaks at conferences and publishes articles about transaction management.

Ilja Rudyk, is a core member of the EPO's Chief Economist Unit. He has co-authored several studies on the role of patents and technology for the European economy. He provides expert economic insight into issues relating to innovation and technology commercialisation.

Martin Brassell, is an expert in the use of IP and intangible assets to raise business finance. He has worked with banks, investors, insurers and policymakers across Europe and Asia on ways to support businesses and economic growth by unlocking IP value. He co-founded Inngot (www.inngot.com), which provides online tools to help companies identify and monetise their IP, and has written or co-authored research reports and influential publications on IP in finance for the UK IPO, WIPO, OECD and ACCA, amongst others.

Robert Matthezing, as Associate General Counsel, he has been responsible for IP for Shell’s Gas&Power; Upstream and Oil Products businesses. Since 2018 he has focused on digital transformation and IT and legal support, first at Shell and, since 2021, with his own firm, Corundum. Robert is a Dutch and European patent attorney and holds an LL.B from the University of Law in London and is completing an LL.M in Law and Technology at the University of Tilburg (2022).

Stephanie Weber, is heading the communications team at the European Research and Project Office Gmbh (Eurice), Stephanie is a communication all-rounder with more than 15 years of experience in the strategic planning and implementation of communication measures for multiple international R&I projects. Plus, she has been managing the outreach activities of the European IP Helpdesk since 2011, collaborating with the EPO, the European Commission and other stakeholders from Europe’s research, IP and innovation landscape on different media formats, workshops and events.

Susanne Ruffert, has almost 25 years of experience as an information specialist for life sciences. Since 2002, she has been managing the Patent and Standards Centre (PNZ) of RWTH Aachen University, a modern information centre offering consultancy and advisory services, patent and trade mark searches and IPR monitoring for the regional technology transfer scene and organising workshops and events to raise awareness of intellectual property. She is a designated expert in the EU Commission's funding programme SME Fund and IP pre-diagnosis service Horizon IP Scan and in the regional start-up and growth initiative AC2.

Thomas Bereuter, is a certified licensing professional (CLP) with over 20 years of experience in the international commercialisation of early-stage technologies. He has founded and supported several high-tech start-ups and university spin-offs. He also led the business incubation and technology transfer waves in Austria in the early 2000s.

Willem Bulthuis, has worked for 30 years in global high-tech, at Philips Electronics, NXP Semiconductors, G&D and secunet AG, as Global Sales Executive, Group CTO and board member. He is CEO of Corporate Ventures Advisory, offering curated matchmaking between B2B ventures, customers and investors. He is a co-founder and board member of start-ups, Venture Partner at VCs and a board member of the Business Angel Network Germany (BAND).

Yann Ménière, has been the EPO's Chief Economist since 2016. He has many years' extensive experience in providing economic insights into issues relating to patents, innovation and economic growth and contributes high-level expertise and analysis to public and expert forums on a regular basis. He led the chair on IP and Markets for Technology at MINES ParisTech, where he was previously a professor of economics. He also lectured on the economics of IP at Imperial College London, the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and CEIPI.

Juliane Kotzur, is a lawyer in European and International Legal Affairs at the European Patent Office. She is a fully-qualified German lawyer with a specialisation in IP law. She holds a Magister Juris from the University of Oxford and a PhD in intellectual property law from Kiel University (Germany). In her work for the EPO, Juliane has been strongly involved in the implementation works for the upcoming Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court.

Maaike van Velzen, is currently Partner IP and technology law at Deloitte Legal in the Netherlands. Her focus is on supporting organizations in navigating the legal landscape in relation to digital business activities and developing IP strategies for protecting digital & high-tech innovation. She is a qualified European and Dutch patent attorney.

Jimmy Ahlberg, is currently working in Ericsson Open Source Program Office (OSPO) with the Ericsson CTO office. He is a board member of OpenChain, the international standard for open source license compliance and chairing the Telco Working group. His particular focus is the intersection between Open Source and Open Standards. Having been involved in the work of ETSI, ITU, NGMN, GSMA, IEEE, CEN/CENELEC, ATIS, MPEG and ISO he has a broad experience of different standardization fora and their forays into open source.

Mustafa Çakir, is an industrial engineer with 12-year experience in patent portfolio management, patent data analytics, patent valuation and licensing strategies. He is co-founder of Patenteffect.com, his company providing IP, tech transfer and deep-tech startup services. He mainly leads patent data analytics services, patent portfolio management, patent licensing, patent valuation, deep-tech startup acceleration programs and commercialization services for IP-based spinoff companies. He is also acting as product owner at depa.tech, the President of LES (Licensing Executives Society) Turkey and co-director of Founder Institute Turkey. Mr. Cakir is recognized as one of The World's Leading 300 IP Strategists by IAM.

Georgina Kyriakoudes, was one of the first people in the world to gain a Masters in Blockchain with distinction which led to her founding Aria Health, a Web3.0 healthcare data platform launched in major European hospitals. Prior to Aria, she spent 10 years working in international business in London and Cyprus, gaining her Certified Accountant qualification with PwC in London and building successful online education platforms. Thanks to her extensive research into medical records and blockchain, she has been published in prestigious publications such as the Lancet, and has delivered keynote speeches across the world.

Alexander Schuld, studied aerospace technology at the university Munich and did his PHD at Bochum university in the area of numerical modelling of composites. He is admitted as representative before the European Patent Office and as a German Patent Attorney. Mr Schuld is partner at the Cologne based law firm dompatent von Kreisler and regularly advises clients on the creation, prosecution and enforcement of intellectual property rights in multiple technical fields including computer implemented inventions. He also provides advise in IP related matters on the introduction of new products (such as conducting FTOs).

Allison Mages, is the Head of the IP Commercialization Section at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Building on her experience as an intellectual property attorney for a Fortune 500 company and an inventor, her team empowers enterprises, innovators, and creators to maximize their potential through the creation and commercialization of IP. Ms. Mages work at WIPO also focuses on how companies can tap into their intangible assets to secure capital. Ms. Mages has worked from the earliest spark of an idea to seeing companies through successful exits. She is an inventor on five patents, related to medical imaging, surgical navigation and data analytics. As an IP lawyer at General Electric, she built and managed IP portfolios to support commercial objectives, used intellectual property as a source of competitive intelligence, and managed IP and technology aspects of M&A transactions. At WIPO, Ms. Mages has worked with more than 50 countries to develop their legislative frameworks and support businesses through their creativity and ingenuity.

Neil Bellamy, has been a front-line Banker for 28 years and for the last 9 years, has been responsible for the strategy, proposition and risk for the TMT sector. A portfolio with a balance sheet of c£16bn. Bucks born & bred; he learnt his trade with the early technology firms who based themselves in the Thames Valley Tech cluster & is applying this experience to his UK role. His team are the no.1 supporter of the Tech sector & help businesses from university spin out to FTSE100 to get the 3B’s – get Backing, get Big & get Bought. He’s a strong advocate of the bank’s apprentice programme, Entrepreneur Accelerator and Mentor on the Imperial Ventures Mentoring Service (IVMS) for world class Imperial College spin outs. He’s accredited by the Institute of Enterprise & Entrepreneurship and Board Advisor to some of the UK’s most exciting start-ups.
Joe Doyle has over 10 years of experience in facilitating the integration of IP strategy and business strategy in companies. He has a strong background in university R&D as a researcher, inventor and co-founder of an IP-rich university spin-out company.

Joe Doyle has over 10 years of experience in facilitating the integration of IP strategy and business strategy in companies. He has a strong background in university R&D as a researcher, inventor and co-founder of an IP-rich university spin-out company.

Sandrine Guillermin is the Global Head of Intellectual Property for Transitions Optical, an Irish-based company specialized in photochromic lenses, subsidiary of the Essilor-Luxottica group, worldwide leader in the ophthalmic industry. Her wide expertise includes the management of patent portfolios, ensuring appropriate protection for innovations to create assets for the company. She also leads the IP strategy by providing IP advice and awareness to the technical communities, freedom to operate clearance, IP risk mitigations, contract negotiations, and enforcement, notably through litigation. Sandrine holds a master’s degree in general chemistry from the European School of Chemistry, Polymers and Materials Science, a French grande école (ECPM Strasbourg); another master’s degree in molecular and supramolecular organic chemistry, and a patent law diploma from the CEIPI in Strasbourg. She is also registered as a European Patent Attorney and French Intellectual Property Counsel. Sandrine has more than 15 years’ experience in intellectual property, working in the pharmaceutical industry and private law firm in Paris before joining the Essilor Group.

Stephan Rauscher is Co-Founder and managing director of Earlybird UNI-X, an Seed Fund investing in the most promising Deep tech Start-ups in Europe. Prior to the UNI-X Fund, Stephan has founded a regional VC Fund at the RWTH Aachen. Since 2010, Stephan is active as an investor / business angel in various Startups. The entrepreneurial journey has started, while working UBS Investment Bank and Wealth Management in Switzerland, with an excellent access to the Swiss Startup Ecosystem.

Benno Weißner has worked as an innovation and internationalisation consultant at ZENIT - Zentrum für Innovation und Technik in Nordhrhein Westfallen since 2008, where he focuses on the areas of nano/microtechnology and environmental technology. In this context, he was also involved for 8 years in the National Contact Point for Innovative ICT Applications of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. He is currently head of the Internationalisation Team within the Enterprise Europe Network NRW.

Pedro Pablo Uceda Carrillo is a Project Manager at IDEA Agency, since December 1999. He has extensive experience in managing projects co-financed with European Regional Development Funds. Pedro is also European IP Helpdesk Ambassador since October 2014, advising European SMEs and researchers on IPR. Apart from that he is also a co-chair of the EEN Intellectual Property subgroup, included in the Single Market Thematic Group. IMP³rove certified consultant by the European Innovation Management Academy. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management, by the University of Jaén and a Master of European Project Management by the International University of Andalusia.

Prof. Fazilet Vardar Sukan is a Chemical Engineer with a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from University College London. She is the founder of the Bioengineering Department at Ege University and was the head of Department until 2017. She is the holder of 1989 Turkish Scientific and Technological Council Incentive award in Bioengineering. She was the Director of Ege University TTO and Coordinator of Enterprise Europe Network. She has RTTP Certificate and EuKTS Grandfather Certificate and she is also the vice president of University-Industry Collaboration Centers Platform of Turkey, a member of EPO Academy Advisory Board and represents Turkey on ATTP Board, AUTM International Committee, ASTP-NAAC and EuKTS Board.