EBAN Team
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Jacopo Losso
Director General
As the Director General, Jacopo tracks issues of strategic importance to the early-stage investing ecosystem. He also strives to identify opportunities to influence the EU decision making processes, working closely with industry’s stakeholders to promote the excellence and expertise of EBAN’s Board Members to the European audience. Jacopo is also responsible of the coordination and implementation of EBAN’s activities in EU funded projects. Being the first contact point of the Association, he is also looking after members’ interests and helping ensure they obtain best value from their membership. Jacopo holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Thanks to his education and his strong academic background both in marketing and in financial management, Jacopo has a successful track record with international work experiences. He is a native Italian speaker and perfectly bilingual both in English and Spanish.
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Abel Fernández
EU Project Director
As a European project Director, Abel participates in the implementation of EU-funded projects, ensuring that decisions taken jointly are transferred and delivered with the desired impact and according to the standards set by the Commission.
Abel has previously worked as a Data Analyst-Researcher for the Spanish Government, the University of Granada and the Institute for Regional Development. In the last two years he has worked on the implementation of EU-funded projects and new proposals development. He is particularly interested in generating impact by following a top-down approach; capitalize on what we create at the pan-European level to generate value at the local level. -
Elena Stefanatou
Marketing Director
Elena started her studies in Communication at the University of Athens before moving on to the Sorbonne Nouvelle in France and the University of Keio in Japan for her Masters. Her work experience includes advertising agencies and big international organizations such as the Alliance Francaise in Canberra. She joined the marketing department of EBAN in September 2021.
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Teemu Semi
Operations and Finance Director
As the Operations and Finance Director, Teemu takes care of the association’s financial administration as well as other day-to-day administrative tasks ensuring efficient implementation of all of EBAN’s activities. Prior to moving to Belgium Teemu obtained his BSc in European Business Administration from Metropolia Business School and worked in a similar financial administrative role in Finland, which is where he is originally from.
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Alessandro Craglia
EU Project Manager
Alessandro is an EU Project Manager at EBAN. He currently leads six major EU projects aimed at facilitating angel investment through actions that range from designing guidelines and training courses, to match-making, and organising major pitching and networking events across the EU.
He has a Masters of Science degree in Science and Technology Policy from the University of Sussex, and a Bachelors degree in Sociology and Social Policy from Trinity College Dublin. His past working experience includes working at the European Economic and Social Committee in the Consultative Committee for Industrial Change, and EU Project and Communications Management at Carr Communications, in Dublin. In the latter, he led the project management of the Horizon 2020 funded project Factory2Fit, and supported the management of other EU funded projects that include DARWIN, SCENT, In-Prep, DELTA, and PASSME.
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Jacopo Piccagli
EU Project Manager
Jacopo is an EU Project Manager at EBAN currently working on six EU projects. His responsibilities encompass participating in the coordination and implementation of EU-funded projects aimed at facilitating angel investment. Jacopo manages project budgets and plays an active role in policy advocacy within this domain.
Jacopo’s professional background includes a Blue Book Traineeship at the European Commission for DG Trade Unit E2, where he conducted research and contributed to policy-related activities. He also gained experience as a bid manager trainee at a Belgian Consulting firm.
He is academically qualified with a Master’s degree in Conflict, Development, and Security coupled with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.
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Nathan Clos
Marketing Trainee
Nathan is recent Masters in Management graduate at the European School of Managment and Technologies in Berlin. With a specialization in global businesss strategy, he started his professional journey as and Event Coordinator for MCI Benelux. During this period he organised profesional events for the European Commission and incentive meetings for private companies. He has chosen to pivot his professional experience towards marketing and communications in which he is now taking an active role in supporting the EBAN team for their various projects and events.
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Kärt Klein
Events Director
Kärt is a versatile and adaptable professional with a passion for innovation, entrepreneurship have a strong background in community building, startup events organisation, deal sourcing, and external communications, as well as a master’s degree in international business and a micro degree in corporate finance.
In addition, Kärt has been involved in several startup community and ecosystem initiatives, and as leading Buildit Green Accelerator & fund pilot, a program that supports sustainable hardware startups, and have experience in Venture Capital from in the Venture Fellow program at Laconia in NYC and Change Ventures, a seed-stage VC firm in Baltics.
Executive Committee
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JORMALAINEN Janne
President
FiBAN, FINLANDJanne Jormalainen is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is active in the angel investment scene in Northern Europe, he has invested to over thirty high tech and education companies. He is currently chairman of the board in four highly successful start-up companies. He is chairman emeritus of the Finnish Business Angel Network (FiBAN). He is a frequently heard speaker in conferences and seminars.
Janne made his early career in large corporate environment, then moving to entrepreneurship. At Nokia, he was in charge of multiple functions and businesses; managing for example the mobile accessory, IoT and wearables business unit with 860 M€ in annual revenues. He has lived and worked in the USA, Europe and Southeast Asia. Since 2005 he has been working as an entrepreneur in multiple industries and founded several companies. In 2015 he sold SPU Oy, a company producing energy efficient building materials, to Kingspan Plc.
Janne holds master’s degree from Tampere University of technology. He considers himself as a resident of the world with current home in Espoo, Finland. He is passionate about the opportunities technology and entrepreneurship can bring to the human race.
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PRODANOVIC Selma
Vice President
Austrian Angel Investors Association, AUSTRIANamed Startup-Grande-Dame by the media and elected “TOP 100: Europe’s most influential women in the startup & VC space” in 2022, Selma is an internationally celebrated keynote speaker and thought leader. She is passionate about empowering people and creating a better future. In the last 20 years, she considerably shaped the startup and angel investing ecosystem across Europe. Global media in over 40 countries (Forbes, Financial Times, Elle, Aljazeera, Bloomberg Adria) covered her expertise and activities.
She is the founder & Board Member of the global SDG platform 1MillionStartups and the Austrian Angel Investors Association. She advised and supported hundreds of startups, hosted the “EBAN- Masters of Angel Investing” interview series with the best business angels in Europe, authored two books, and is lecturing entrepreneurship at universities. Besides her passion for entrepreneurship, she is a fervent advocate for female empowerment and mental health. Above all, Selma is happily married to her first love and is the proud mother of two fantastic young adults.
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JARLBÆK Jesper
Treasurer
Danish Business Angels, DENMARKJesper Jarlbæk is an angel investor and board member of a number of growth businesses. Jesper is currently Vice-Chairman of DVCA (Danish Venture Capital Association) and Chairman of DanBAN, Danish Business Angels, Denmark’s largest and most successful Business Angel Network. In 2009, Jesper was awarded the “Business Angel of the Year” title by DVCA. Jesper Jarlbæk is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Bang & Olufsen A/S, an NASDAQ OMX listed company and Chair of Happy Helper listed on NASDAQ First North. Jesper is the Chair of CataCap, a Danish PE fund. Until 2002, Jesper Jarlbæk was employed at Arthur Andersen, ultimately holding dual positions as Managing Partner, Denmark and Nordic Managing Partner – Assurance and Business Advisory. From 2002 to 2006, Jesper was Managing Partner of Advisory Services at Deloitte. Jesper lectures and mentors at CBS, Copenhagen Business School and is a member of the Danish Committee for Good Corporate Governance.
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LOSSO Jacopo
Director General
EBANAs the Director General, Jacopo tracks issues of strategic importance to the early-stage investing ecosystem. He also strives to identify opportunities to influence the EU decision making processes, working closely with industry’s stakeholders to promote the excellence and expertise of EBAN’s Board Members to the European audience. Jacopo is also responsible of the coordination and implementation of EBAN’s activities in EU funded projects. Being the first contact point of the Association, he is also looking after members’ interests and helping ensure they obtain best value from their membership. Jacopo holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Thanks to his education and his strong academic background both in marketing and in financial management, Jacopo has a successful track record with international work experiences. He is a native Italian speaker and perfectly bilingual both in English and Spanish.
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KETIKIDIS Panayiotis
Capacity Building Committee Chair
Hellenic Business Angels Network, GREECEProfessor Panos Ketikidis is the Co-Founder of the Hellenic Business Angels Network (HeBAN) and Board Member of EBAN.
Current position: Professor of Innovation and Technology, CITY College – Chairman of the South East European Research Center (SEERC) and Business Angel Investor.
Professor Ketikidis has over 30 years of experience in management, education, innovation, research, and competitive research funding and very solid networks as a result of this experience. His expertise lie in (responsible) innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, triple helix, (impact) investment, regional development, supply chain management and health informatics. Prof. Ketikidis also served as President and Board member in several profit and non-profit associations supporting and mobilizing the knowledge triangle (research, business and education) to facilitate innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems Science, Health Informatics from CITY University (UK).
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DREMELJ Nina
Membership Engagement Committee Chair
Business Angels of Slovenia, SLOVENIANina Dremelj is the president of Business Angels of Slovenia. Her greatest passion is to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into real, successful businesses. In last 5 years she invested in more than 17 companies with average investment multiple 7,71x.
She also puts her energy and focus towards Alita Capital, Investment company, investing smaller tickets but a lot of time and knowledge into extremely early stages or founding teams with a lasting will to bring innovative projects to life.
In the past, she co-owned and successfully managed the Swiss seed fund AlpVent AG. In 2021, under the auspices of business angels, she helped set up the first daFUND venture capital fund, supported by business angels and also invested in it.
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LUZ Ricardo
Partnerships Committee Chair
INVICTA ANGELS, PORTUGALFounder & Partner of Gestluz Consultores, Matching Ventures and Absolute H. Board Member of EBAN & Partnerships Committee Chair. Founder & President of Invicta Angel – Associação de Investidores early-stage do Norte de Portugal. Founder & Vice-President of FNABA, the Portuguese Federation of Business Angels Associations, 2007-15. Executive Board Member of Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (now BPF), 2015-17. Former Board member of several SME´s and private associations, and Consultant of Strategy, Business and Competitiveness. Former Professor of Higher Education of Courses of Management, Sales and Finance. Undergraduate Degree in Economics and Master degree in Design for Sustainability. Postgraduate Degrees in Political Journalism and National Defense Auditor.
Board of Directors
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BJARKBY Christine
Stockholm Business Angels, SWEDEN
Christine Bjarkby is an investor and founder at Lincs focusing as Senior Advisor in Growth Capital at Lincs. Christine is in the board of EBAN since 2017. Christine has a broad experience from business development worldwide from large public global companies to small start-up companies. Christine has previously worked with investments as a representative of Invest Sweden, Entrepreneurship Network (Enterprise Network for Startup ICT) and Connect Sweden. Christine is and has been a board member of several startup companies and is herself a business angel. Christine is one of the founders of NordicBan and are now building up the Business Angel community in Sweden. Christine matches growth companies with capital and crucial skills and contacts. Her network consist more than 500 investors is spread all over Sweden both Business Angels as VC. Christine works actively to develop its investment network at regional, national and international levels.
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COLOMER Albert
Business Angels Network Catalunya, SPAIN
Albert has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement in Spain. In 2002, he co-founded and became executive director of the Business Angel Network Catalunya BANC, the first Spanish angel network, which he led. Additionally in 2006 he co-founded ESBAN, a private foundation to raising awareness and promoting angel investment and Business Angels Networks in Spain. Since 2003, Albert is member of the Board of EBAN. Albert has been appointed by the Parliament of Catalonia as member of the Advisory Board of the Catalan Institute of Finance, the public credit institution of the Government of Catalonia. During his career, Albert has gathered a profound knowledge of the entrepreneurship skills. As a consultant, advisor, coach or business angel, His experience in entrepreneurial field, over 25 years, has helped thousands start-ups and entrepreneurs to born and grow. He is co-founder (1986) and executive director of CPAC (Fundació Privada per a la Promoció de l’Autoocupació de Catalunya), an independent charity with a mission to help people and organizations to be entrepreneurs.
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DEMIRHISAR Huseyin R
BiD Capital Partners, THE NETHERLANDS
Founder & Partner of Gestluz Consultores, Matching Ventures and Absolute H.; Board Member of EBAN & Financial Institutions Partnerships Committee Chair; Founder & President of Invicta Angel – Porto Business Angels Association; Member of the Fiscal Council of <Payshop, SA; Founder & Vice-President of FNABA, the Portuguese Federation of Business Angels Associations, 2007-15; Executive Board Member of IFD – Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento, SA (now BPF), 2015-17; Former Board member of several SME´s and private associations, and Consultant of Strategy, Business and Competitiveness; Former Professor of Higher Education of Courses of Management, Sales and Finance; Master degree in Design for Sustainability, Postgraduate Degrees in Political Journalism and National Defense Auditor; Undergraduate Degree in Economics.
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DRIDJE Marcel
Sophia Business Angels, FRANCE
Marcel Dridje is the SOPHIA BUSINESS ANGELS President Emeritus & a Mentor at The Camp in Aix en Provence.
A seasoned European Sales senior Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK and holds an M&A executive program credentials from INSEAD.
Marcel most recently left CISCO after 35 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel with SBA to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development.
Vaelsys/ IVAS (France), Zetalabs (France), Faveeo (CH), Digitalarti (France), OnePulse (UK) and Cyberflowanalytics (Recently acquired by Webroot a leading US cybersecurity company based in Denver USA) are six of his star ventures.
A self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 30 years IT& Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA, USA and APAC.
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ENNUSTE Jaak
Estonian Business Angel Network, ESTONIA
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KOIAVA Guri
Axel – Georgian Business Angel Network, GEORGIA
Guri Koiava is an entrepreneur, early stage angel investor, startup mentor and public speaker with work history in organization development and management with nonprofit, government and private sectors.
In 2005 Guri received the Presidential Scholarship for Best Sportsman of the Year and a black belt in martial arts. As well he was a board member for the Georgian scouts movement. Around this time Guri moved to the EU to pursue new opportunities. He volunteered at the Robert Schuman Foundation (Poland) and had the opportunity to manage civil rights and social action projects. In this time he received a study scholarship and moved to Latvia.
As a student Guri was one of the co-founders of NGO “Pagalms” for the Youth in Action Program (Erasmus+) in Riga. As a result he become a team lead, facilitator and co-organizer of numerous seminars, training sessions and gatherings representing Latvia and Georgia. He gained BBA & MBA degrees during his studies at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and Turiba University in Latvia.
In early 2013 Guri was accepted to work in the Georgian National Tourism Administration (Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia). During that time Guri and a team were determined to develop and promote Georgia as the loveliest travel destination worldwide. During his work at GNTA the number of international visitors increased by 21%, followed by a financial boom in the hotel and restaurant industry.
In different years, Guri was involved in co-organizing music festivals with the goal of increasing tourism in less traveled Georgian regions, for example the town of Anaklia or Poti. Projects: KaZantip Republic / Anaklia (2014), Georgian Electronic Music Festival – GEM Fest / Anaklia (2015,2016,2017) and Swing Festival / Poti (2021).
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GOLUB Cyril
Latvian Business Angels Network, LATVIA
Cyril is a venture capital professional and well-known business angel in Baltic countries. In 2023, Cyril was awarded as a Business Angel of the Year in Latvia. Co-founder of two business angel associations: LitBAN (Lithuania) and Angels Band, and Board Chairman at LatBAN (Latvia); actively participates in several CEE angel investor communities, focusing on early-stage technology startups founded by entrepreneurs from Central and Eastern Europe. He knows exactly what potential investors look at when deciding to give the green light to support an investment round. Cyril personally invested in over 20 startups, mostly at the pre-seed and seed stages.
Executive MBA at Kozminski University (Warsaw, Poland).
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KRAWCZYK Dominik
CobinAngels, POLAND
Dominik is currently a CEO of Cobin Angels, the biggest angel network in Poland. He is also a Supervisory Board Member of tech company Salesbook. Dominik’s previous experience is connected to consulting firm among the other PwC. He was providing advisory services on behalf of corporate and startups in the area of innovative organisational change, fundraising, valuations, strategy and arranging beneficial cooperation between startups and corporations. Dominik was also involved in running a corporate accelerator owned by PricewaterhouseCoopers, covering Central and Eastern Europe.
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O’CONNOR Michael
CorkBIC, IRELAND
Michael O’Connor started in marine and arctic exploration before specialising in high technology or innovative projects usually involving international growth. Early experience with Raychem Corporation Menlo Park before co-founding Intepro, a venture capital backed Irish IT startup. Led the US market entry with several rounds of international venture capital before a successful trade sale. Since returning from the USA he has created many new initiatives, advised over 300 start-ups and built an angel network doing over 100 deals, investing over €50m in primarily start-ups. Founded the International Security Accelerator to invest in AI, Cyber & big data global start-ups and co-chairs the EBAN E-Xcelerator. Graduated from Cambridge University in Engineering and holds an MBA from London Business School and the Wharton School. Board member & investor in several companies. International judge and umpire in the sailing world for major international events.
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POLEKHIN Vitaly
International Investor Organization INVESTORO, ARMENIA
Vitaly Polekhin is the President of International Investor Organization INVESTORO aiming and focusing on early stage investment deals in startups and scale ups around the world. Since 2016 he serves as a Board Member of the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN) and the President of the National Business Angels Association of Russia.
Vitaly is a founder and head of the Association of Entrepreneurship Development ‘SKOLKOVO Community’ Investor’s Club – a platform that brings together entrepreneurs and investors looking for new business opportunities.
Vitaly Polekhin is an active angel investor and was named Angel Investor of the Year 2015 in Russia, has PhD in Philosophy and graduated Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO (Executive MBA), Lomonosov Moscow State University (MBA) and different programs in business schools like MIT Sloan School of Management (Entrepreneurship and Innovation Executive Education), UC Berkley Haas School of Business (Venture Capital Executive Education), Harvard Business School (Private Equity and Venture Capital Executive Education).
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ROUHANA Nicolas
IM Capital, LEBANON
Dr. Nicolas Rouhana (PhD) is currently the Chairman and CEO of IM Fndng, managing IM Capital & IM Ventures funds of $60M, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee and Technical Assistance to businesses and investors in Lebanon. The funds co-created the first Seed accelerator SpEED@BDD in Lebanon, created and managed 5 business angel groups with more than 135 angel investors, trained more than 65 mentors, invested in more than 45 startups, leveraged more than $40M matching private capital, and created and maintained more than 800 jobs.
Between 2002 & 2015, Nicolas was the Executive Director of Berytech, a leading Technology Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon. We was also board member of EBN (European Business Network). He is currently President of the Internet Society-Lebanon Chapter and the Chairman of Speed@BDD accelerator, and board member of Berytech and several Lebanese technology companies.
Nicolas has a Telecommunications Engineering degree from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, a PhD in Networking Systems from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and an EDP graduate from INSEAD, France.
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SAI Caroline
Angels Santé, FRANCE
Caroline is of French-American background and educated both in the US and France. After a master’s degree in International Business, she gained extensive business and Communication experience in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She is currently the Operations Manager of Angels Santé, the largest business angel network in Europe solely dedicated to healthcare and well as the Head of the EIT Health Investor Network operated by Angels Santé. This European network dedicated to equity investment in healthcare brings together Healthcare investors and pre-qualified healthcare European startups raising between 500 K to 10 M €. She represents Angels Santé on the EBAN Board.
Caroline, who is passionate about early stage investment and the power of networking, is now based in Paris.
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SAKUS Rita
Lithuanian Business Angel Network, LITHUANIA
Rita is an experienced investor, co-founder of the Lithuanian Business Angel Network (LitBAN), a board member of the European business angel network (EBAN), and an active mentor in the European startup ecosystem. She is a Canadian-Lithuanian and has a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston and an executive education certificate from Harvard University all with a sharp focus on innovation and high tech. Her colourful career led her to great corporations such as Texas Instruments, Nortel Networks, Transcom Worldwide and others. While working with Venture Capital in Israel twenty years ago, she couldn’t help but notice parallels between there and Lithuania vis a vis innovation and incredibly bright talent. Shortly thereafter she moved to Lithuania and taught seminars at the International School of Management in her first years in Vilnius on Venture Capital and building innovative startups. Startups are her passion since the start of her career led by great professors of entrepreneurialism. She is a certified scuba instructor and enjoys singing a bit of jazz from time to time.
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SHALLAL Audra
Corenvest, FINLAND
Audra Shallal is an expert in Women’s Entrepreneurship and Angel Investment in the EMEA region. She promotes Entrepreneurship and Angel Investing through Programs, Mentoring, Business Plan Competitions, Business Angel Networks and Women’s Economic Empowerment within the EU and the MENA region. She consults for international organizations such as OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and the European Commission, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship to the Grandes Ecoles such as ENSCP, X, ParisTech, CELSA. Audra has played a key role in launching the Enterprise Financing Network within the MENA-OECD Investment Programme which creates a unique platform to connect entrepreneurs, financiers, research bodies and policymakers in order to improve the conditions for financing entrepreneurship. She is used to hold the position of Vice-President of the Femmes Business Angels and currently serves on the Board of BADGE (Les Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles), the Advisory Board of Tenmou-Bahrain First Business Angel Company, and the Paris Executive Business Accelerator. She is also Chair of the Mentoring Taskforce within the American Chamber of Commerce’s Women Leadership Committee and is an accredited Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and BiD Network. She is also a Member of the Board at NFBAN – Nordic Female Business Angel Network.
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SIMA Petr
DEPO Ventures, CZECH REPUBLIC
Founder of DEPO Ventures with 25 years of experience in M&A and Corporate Finance with emphasis on business valuation. Founder of Angel Network and Grouport Investment Fund. Petr has extensive VC and Investor exposure accumulated over the years.
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SOSSO Ian
Monte Carlo Capital, MONACO
Ian Sosso, winner of EBAN’s “best European early stage award” in 2019, is the founder of Monte Carlo Capital (MCC), a group of business angels, UHNWI and family offices investing in Europe and the US in early stage deep tech and highly disruptive businesses.
MCC combines the best features of business angels and venture capital: a global group of sophisticated investors and family offices capable of taking businesses from seed all the way to exit, providing financing and helping management scale their businesses up internationally. MCC typically starts investing as pre-seed/seed, taking an entire financing round, and leads follow-ons too.
Ian is also a managing partner of the Start Up Nursery fund, a fund dedicated to financing the creation of deep tech US university spin offs. Ian started his career in 1993 and previously worked in Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong with HSBC, UBS and JPMorgan, holding investment banking positions in trading, sales and financial engineering. Before founding Monte Carlo Capital, Ian was, until 2009, the regional managing director and head of capital markets in Asia for Commerzbank where he was managing all capital markets activities in Asia, including equity derivatives, credit, precious metals, foreign exchange, debt capital markets, as well as the treasuries of HK, Singapore and Shanghai.
Over the years, Ian has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences in China, HK, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Monaco. Ian currently lectures venture capital to MBA and finance MSc students at the International University of Monaco, and a regular speaker at leading business school. He is also a board member of the Monaco Venture Capital Association. Ian joined the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), in 2016 and recently won the best performing new member award at the annual conference of EBAN in Malaga. Ian is a Monégasque and holds a MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE)
PRESIDENT EMERITUS ADVISORY COUNCIL
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COWLEY Peter
EBAN President 2018-2020
Peter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 39 years. He has built up a portfolio of over 70 angel investments with eight good exits (including more that is 107X and returned all invested cash) and twelve failures. He is the President of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.
In 2011, he founded and has since run Martlet: a Corporate Angel, investing (currently £8M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company. He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund. He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities.
With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts. Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world.
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JOHNSON Candace
EBAN President 2014-2018
Candace Johnson is a co-founder of SES, the world’s pre-eminent satellite group and the architect of SES Global. She is also the founder of various companies as Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network, and Europe Online, the world’s first Internet-based online service and a founding investor and Member of the Board of Kacific, the high-throughput Satellite Internet System for the Pacific.
Under her presidency of EBAN, she co-founded MBAN, the Middle East Business Angel Network and ABAN, the AfricanBusiness Angel Network. Ms. Johnson is also the President of three investment funds and is the founder of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN), Global Board Ready Women (GBRW) and the VATM, the German Association of Private Telecom Operators.
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ANDREZ Paulo
EBAN President 2012-2014
Paulo Andrez is an angel investor. He is Vice-President of FNABA (Portuguese Business Angels Federation), President of Cascais Business Angels, and Member of the Board of DNA Cascais (BIC). He chaired (2010-2012) the EBAN Research Committee, which produced the first EBAN Co-Investment and Tax Breaks reports, in cooperation with BDO. Paulo Andrez was the Chairman of the 2007 World Business Angels Leaders Forum (Estoril) that decided to create the World Business Angel Association. Within the scope of his involvement with FNABA, Mr. Andrez participated in the design of the first Business Angel co-investment fund in Portugal. In 2010 he also participated in the design and implementation of the first Business Angels Tax Break in Portugal.
Paulo Andrez has experience as a serial entrepreneur and has created several companies in areas like IT software, training, real estate and industrial resins. In 2000, he participated as an entrepreneur (seller) in the IPO of Novabase (via Euronext), the largest national IT provider in Portugal, with more than 1900 employees and working in 33 countries. From this point on, Mr. Andrez became a business angel, helping entrepreneurs achieve desired results. He is an IT Engineer and has an MBA from Nova University in Lisbon.
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BAUMANN Brigitte
EBAN President 2009-2012
Brigitte is the Founder of Go Beyond Early Stage Investing. Go Beyond enables novice & experienced, small & large investors, to access angel investing as an asset class through its unique platform, tools, training and expert angels. Go Beyond works with individual investors, family offices, professional groups/associations and corporations. Go Beyond operates in Europe and the US. Its team is comprised of seasoned business angels and is the subject of a Harvard Business School case. Brigitte is a Business Angel since 2003 and has received The European Investor of the Year from EBAN in May 2015. In 2017, Brigitte was selected in EY’s European Winning Women Entrepreneur program. In November 2016&2017, Brigitte is listed in Europe’s TOP 50 most influential women in the start-up and venture capital space and Top Women in FinTech. Brigitte is President Emeritus of EBAN, the European trade association for Business Angels and Seed Funds www.eban.org and Member of the Board of CTI Start Up www.kti.admin.ch . Brigitte is past Chair of Young Presidents Organization’s www.ypowpo.org (24k CEOs) global Angel Investing group.
Brigitte Baumann has 20+ years of experience in bringing new technologies to market in the US and Europe . She was the CEO and Director of iWORLD Group, a VC backed, global developer of mobile content. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager Internet at American Express (Amex) Corporate Services. There she launched a variety of internet businesses including online travel (strategic partner of Expedia.com and subject of HBS case study) and e-Procurement. Prior to that, Brigitte spent three years as President for US and Canada of Gemalto, the world’s leader in smart card technology and applications to introduce smart cards in the North America. Before, she spent six years in different Vice-Presidential/General Manager positions in the UK, France and Switzerland at Amex. She also spent five years with McKinsey & Company Inc. as Senior Engagement Manager, in New York, Paris and Tokyo. She began her career in manufacturing and sales with Rohm & Haas, a leading specialty chemicals company.
Brigitte holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University, Boston and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Born and raised in France, Brigitte and her family now live in Zurich.
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CLARKE Anthony
EBAN President 2004-2009
Anthony is professionally a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Legal Secretary having qualified whilst with the City of London based Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
His early career post qualification was as a CFO and CEO of a number of U.K. based SMEs before becoming a serial angel investor nearly 25 years ago. During this period he founded the UK’s first Government backed Angel Co investment Fund in 2002 namely London Seed Capital where he was also its CEO. He also founded London Business Angels twenty years ago and sold this business and its associated Angel VC arm to City of London based Newable Group in 2017. He remains as an Investment Committee member of Newable’s private investment arm.
Anthony joined the Board of EBAN in 2004 and served as its President from 2004/2009. He is currently President Emeritus of EBAN. He also co founded UKBAA in 2003 and was its Chair from 2004/2012.
Anthony is a co founder and Managing Partner of early stage City of London based VC firm Seraphim Capital which was established in 2006. It manages circa 125m EUR which includes the world’s first Series A Space Fund notably Seraphim Space Fund which was launched in 2016.
Anthony cofounded EBAN Space in 2016 and was its President until 2019. He is also a Board Member of the UK’s Space Research and Innovation Network ( SPRINT).
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JUNGEN Peter
EBAN President 2001-2004
Peter Jungen holds an MBA from Cologne University, Germany. Starting his career in the industry, he became CEO of Strabag AG, Köln 1987, one of the largest European Civil Engineering Groups. After a successful turnaround of Strabag AG, he founded Peter Jungen Holding GmbH in 1991, which holds investments in various industrial and service companies.
He is a Co-Founder of or Investor in numerous start-ups in Europe and in USA, including Idealo Internet GmbH, the leading German prize comparison shopping platform from Berlin. He is a Partner at the Halo Fund, Palo Alto. Peter Jungen is the Founding President of Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland (BAND) as well as Co-Founder and President (2001-2004) of European Business Angels Network (EBAN). He is a member of the New York Angels and founding member of the China Business Angels Network (Cban).
He is a Co-Founder of or Investor in numerous start-ups in Europe and in USA, including Idealo Internet GmbH, the leading German prize comparison shopping platform from Berlin. He is a Partner at the Halo Fund, Palo Alto. Peter Jungen is the Founding President of Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland (BAND) as well as Co-Founder and President (2001-2004) of European Business Angels Network (EBAN). He is a member of the New York Angels and founding member of the China Business Angels Network (Cban).
Mr. Jungen is a Member of the IAC, Columbia University. He is the Chairman of the MENA-OECD Enterprise Financing Network, a Member of the International Josef Schumpeter Society and of the Mont Pelerin Society. Additionally, he used to hold the position of Chairman of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University.
In August 1999, Peter Jungen was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by its President.
In September 2000, the leading German business weekly “Wirtschaftswoche“ named Peter Jungen one of the most important personalities to shape the future of the „New Economy“.