3º Infodev Global Forum

Alaya Bettaieb is a known VC in MENA, with 15 years of good track record in Venture/Seed Funds Management.  He is behind several reforms in the VC/PE sector in Northern Africa and the initiator of seed funding, corporate VC in Tunisia, and in introducing Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer issues to the VC community in MENA with a recognized VC-TT model easing investment in Technology. Mr. Bettaieb is frequent international speaker sitting in the advisory board of known MENA funds. He is presently backing the Arab Science and Technology Foundation to raise and manage its Technology Fund, and to lead its Arab Academic TT project for the region.

Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira holds an MA and PhD in Economy area from universities of São Paulo and Sussex, England, respectively. Nowadays, he is the president of Apex (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) and of the World Association of Investment Promotion (WAIPA). Besides, he works as the Executive Secretary of Joint Economic and Trade Committee (Brazil – UK), of the Brazil-USA CEO’s Forum and Counselor of the Brazilian National Bank of Social and Economic Development (BNDES).

Allon Raiz is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp, He is an author, a radio show host, and has written and hosted a primetime reality TV show, all in the field of entrepreneurship. Allon is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs Organization South Africa and Rural Roots and sits on the advisory and judging boards of numerous local and international NGO’s and Entrepreneurial Awards. He is completing a Doctorate in Entrepreneurial Studies and Innovation. Allon’s passion and focus on the development of entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the World Economic Forum which, on 11 March 2008, awarded Allon as a Young Global Leader.

Andre Averbug is the co-founder and CEO of PV INOVA and a partner at Kleintech. His professional career also includes employment with the World Bank (IBRD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the National Development Bank of Brazil (BNDES), in addition to providing consultancy services for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Euromonitor International, and start-up and mid-size companies. Andre has valuable experience in business development and start-ups, capital raising, strategy, negotiation, implementation, project evaluation, sector analysis and economic policy and research. He earned his Masters degree at the University of London in England, and received an MBA from McGill University in Canada, having received the McGill MBA Latin American Student Award.

Dr. Boni Mehlomakulu is a former Deputy Director-General: Research, Development & Innovation at the Department of Science and Technology. She has had an illustrious career in the energy sector, having been with Sasol for 7 years in various roles ranging from R&D to business intelligence.  In 2006, she advised the Minister of Finance on possible reforms to the fiscal regime applicable to windfall profits in South Africa’s liquid fuel energy sector, with particular reference to the synthetic fuel industry. She currently serves on the boards of Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) and Innovation Hub Management Company. She co-chaired the international multilateral UN’s Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Science and Technology committee.

Carlos Alberto Schneider is a researcher, coordinated the development of various mecatronic products and systems for the automation of measurement and quality control. In 1986, proposed and organized the first business technology incubator in Brazil, and in 1990 became the Latin America coordinator of an incubator promotion program, within the scope of the COLUMBUS project. In October 1998, he was awarded by the President of Brazil, with the National Order of Scientific Merit in “Engineering Sciences”. In 2003 he was awarded as the Academic of the Quality by the Banas Quality Award and in 2004 won the SUCESU SC-30s, for his contribution in the development of computer technology and telecommunications. In December 2007 was awarded by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade with the “Medal of Recognition” for his contribution to the expansion of the Brazilian productive sector and the exchange of this with research centers and academia.

Danco Dimkov worked for many Macedonian NGO’s which helped him to create a network of friends and supporters. At the age of 20, he was on the internship for the Government of R Macedonia. At the age of 21, he started the first Mobile marketing Agency in Macedonia and Balkan.
He is specialized in Marketing, business consulting and business planning.  At the age of 22 was enrolled in International NGO SNV(Netherland Development Organization) as Advisor for south-eastern Macedonia.

Dr. David E. Martin is the Founder and Executive Chairman of M∙CAM Inc.  A leading advocate for global ethical finance, Dr. Martin has established the foundation for innovation accountability and finance in projects ranging from the creation of the Heritable Innovation Trusts for the promotion and protection of indigenous commons knowledge to sophisticated Sovereign Technology Credit Obligations for the optimal financial integration of innovation in Government Procurement.  His work has included direct involvement in over 100 countries at the public sector, private sector and academic levels.  In addition to his corporate work, he is also a Fellow of the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. 

Eduardo Moreira da Costa is the director of Innovation of Research and Project Financing (FINEP).  He is an engineer graduated from Minas Gerais University, Master in Computer Science and PhD in Electronic from the University of Southampton and Public Administration from Harvard University.
He was a criator of Promotion for Excellency of Brazilian Software Soceity (Softex). Since 2004, before enterring FINEP, he was a superintendent to support the area small innovative company.

Harkesh  Mittal is the Head of National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board  and the National Innovation Project of the Government of India.
His area of expertise is promotion of innovation and technology entrepreneurship. He has been responsible for building institutions and policy systems for high growth and innovation based ventures.  He is frequently requested to help and guide, build a conductive eco-system, by the developing countries.  As a speaker, he is known to passionately share, from his own experiences, the story of the “Grind and the Glory” of India in this area.

Ilari Patrick Lindy is Advisor on Information Society and Science, Technology, Innovation policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, related to policy and programming of instruments for development cooperation and information society, science, technology and innovation. He has previously served as Counsellor on ICT4D at the Embassy of Finland in South Africa, Senior Expert for European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and Project Officer at the European Commission DG Information Society.  He is co-Chair of EU-Africa strategic partnership no 8 focusing on science, technology, information society and space.

Juliano Tubino is the Worldwide Director for Emerging Business at Microsoft. He is responsible for leading the company’s Local Software Economy initiative, aiming to accelerate software industry development and innovation by helping entrepreneurs and startups to build software skills, solutions and businesses.
A 12-year Microsoft veteran, Juliano most recently was Regional Sales and Marketing Lead in Latin America, where he oversaw all marketing, sales, service and business development in the Developer and Platform Division. Prior to joining Microsoft, Tubino’s professional background included responsibilities in several areas in the Tech Industry in companies like Compaq and HP and as CEO of few startups in the music industry.

Dr. Kiran K Sharma is Principal Scientist, Plant Biotechnology, Head of Agri Business Incubator & Director for Platform for Translational Research on Transgenic Crops.  With major contributions:
-          In efficient protocols for the genetic engineering of legumes;
-          On conceptualization and setting up of the Agri-Business Incubator and platform for Translational Research of Transgenic Crops;
-          Publication of over 90 research papers.

Markku Kauppinen is an Ambassador for Trade and Development at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in Helsinki since 2007. He was the Deputy Director and Director for Cooperation with Neighboring Regions from 1997 to 2003. From 1993 to 1997 he worked at the Embassy of Finland in Beijing as a Minister Counselor in charge of Political and Economic Affairs. From 1990 to 1993 he worked as a Counselor at the Embassy of Finland in Prague. From 1986 to 1990 he was the Head of Export Promotion at the Ministry and before that from 1981 to 1986 he was the Commercial counselor and Head of Mission to the Embassy of Finland in Dublin. He was the Head of Purchase Division in 1978 and having entered the Ministry as the Administration Officer in 1973.  

Mohsen A. Khalil is a joint Director at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department. He is in charge of the World Bank Group’s activities in the area of telecommunications and information technologies world wide.  This involves advisory work to governments on sector reforms, regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity building, in addition to supporting private investments in developing countries. Former Director of IFC’s Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa Department.  He also served IFC as Chief Investment Officer in the Telecommunications, Transport, and Utilities Department.

Narayanan Ganga Vidya is dedicated to Swaminathan Research Foundation, Índia, as a Coordinator of Rural Knowledge Movement as well as a researcher for identifying growth pattern and shifts.  Has core competency on:
-          Sustainability Sciences in the Context of Longevity of Natural Resources;
-          Multi Stakeholder Partnerships in the Development Perspective;
-          Entrepreneurship for Financial Sustainability of Knowledge Centers;
-          Management of Innovations and Creativity in the Economic, Social and technological Dimensions of Development.

Oren Pinsky is a partner with Stratus Group, a 10-year-old private equity firm based in São Paulo with US$ 300 million in assets under management to invest in mid-size companies in Brazil, where he is responsible for the CleanTech Fund. Previously with Philips Latin America, he led and executed the acquisition of two local medical devices companies as a New Business Development director. Before, he created, grown and sold a technology company and was a consultant with McKinsey. He is a Chemical Engineer, and earned his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Dr. Pham Minh Tuan is Director of TOPICA Online Academy and Dean of Banking and Finance, Hanoi Open University. He founded CRC-TOPIC Incubator in 2004 with an infodev grant, then leveraged sponsorship from Microsoft, Qualcomm, HP and USAID into a 64-province national network of telecenters, and transformed it into a high-growth market-leading venture that offers online university degrees. 80% of the telecenters are now sustainable, 3 out 9 local incubatees have raised significant venture capital, and TOPICA’s projects were finalists of Development Gateway and Stockholm Challenge Awards. Dr. Pham is formerly a McKinsey consultant, a venture capital professional, and a software development manager.

Randeep Sudan, ICT Policy Specialist, leads the practices for e-Government and IT industry development at the Global ICT (GICT) Department of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank he held senior government positions in India, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service. His areas of expertise include ICT policy, e-government, investment promotion, infrastructure development and public-private partnerships.

Rina Pridor is the founder of the Technological Incubators program in Israel and served as General Director between 1991 to February 2009.  Twenty-six technological incubators are operational in Israel under this national program which led to the creation of innumerous new hi-tech start -ups.
In the 80’s, she had joint Worldtech  Ltd, and as CEO helped in raising large investments  in the U.S. for hi-tech start ups in Israel, which enabled the establishment of leading public companies such as Comverse, Teledata, Oshap/Robcad (Technomatics) and Lannet.

Roberto Rittes leads Oi Paggo and responsible for all business, commercial and operating decisions relating to company’s mobile business unit.  At Brasil Telecom, he was head of Mobile Operations and Marketing Planning director between main functions included pricing, market research and client, and offer segmentation and revenue budgeting.
Roberto was an Associate Director at UBS’ New York based telecom corporate finance team and held different positions at EDS’ financial department, both at the company’s global headquarter in Texas and in Brazil.

Ronaldo Mota is Secretary of Technological Development and Innovation at Ministry of Science and Technology. Professor of Physics at Federal University of Santa Maria. Master from Federal University of Bahia (1978). PhD from the Federal University of Pernambuco (1984), the University of British Columbia, Canada (1985) and the University of Utah, USA (1993).
In physics, the main area of expertise is, “Modeling and Simulation of Nanostructured Materials”, especially working on “Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes.” Previously, among other positions, he was Special Advisor to the Minister in the Ministry of Science and Technology (10/2008 to 07/2009), Secretary of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (04/2007 to 10/2008), Secretary of Distance Education (03/2005-04/2007) and deputy Minister of Education (07/2006).

Samer Jabari is the co-founder and CEO Of Focus Solutions “Software house of IT solutions of the banking industry,” FOCUS Solutions is a leading technology provider of Collection, Debit, Remedial and Credit Management Systems. 
Mr. Jabari participated in international programs for entrepreneurship such as Visit US program part of MEPI program in University of California – San Diego and he was part of an Arabian delegation to visit entrepreneurial projects in Australia. He has an educational background in electrical engineering. 

Susana García-Robles – Senior Investment Officer, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).  Since 1999, she has created and guided the venture capital investments of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) in Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. She also leads MIF’s microfinance activities for Argentina and Uruguay and serves on many boards of directors and investment committees of venture capital funds, and is frequently invited to speak at the world’s leading conferences concerning venture capital and microfinance issues in Latin America. She has been a member of the US-Brazil Venture Capital Task Force hosted by the Commerce Department and the Kauffman Foundation since 2006.

Wang Zhen is assistant director of Shanghai Technology Innovation Center, has been responsible for international cooperation of business incubation in Shanghai for over 10 years.  He is biochemical engineer and computer science with master degree.  Has been engaged in organizing International Training Workshop on Incubation Mode of Business Incubators for 11 years. He has also been the resource person of ESCAP-UN (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations). Now he is the director of AABI Secretariat and director of administrative office of Shanghai Technology Business Incubation Association and Shanghai International Business Incubator.

Dr. William F. Miller has spent about half of his professional life in business and about half in academia. He was the last faculty member recruited to Stanford University by the legendary Frederick Terman, who was then Vice President and Provost of Stanford. Miller himself later became Vice President and Provost of Stanford.
He co-founded SmartValley, Inc. and was a founding director of the Center for Excellence in Non-profits. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Sentius Corporation; is a Founder and Chairman of Nanostellar, Inc.; a Founder and Chairman of Lumiette, Inc.; and Honorary Dean of the William F. Miller School of Management of Technology at Konkuk University in Seoul Korea.