Virtual 2020 EAIS Summit and New Board Chart Path for Growth Post COVID-19

EBAN Elects new Board of Directors for the 2020-2022 Term

A newly elected Board, voted in during a General Assembly on October 28th for the 2020-2022 term has brought even more energy to EBAN, along with new aspirations to make angel investing an even larger part of Europe’s future. The Board will be led by newly-elected President Janne Jormalainen, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor and President Emeritus of the Finnish Business Angels Network. Serving alongside him, the EBAN Board of Directors for the 2020-2022 mandate is composed of 24 members, bringing together a number of different sectors, countries, and EBAN membership categories across Europe. Find the full list of the 2020-2022 EBAN Board here.

Janne Jormalainen’s election as President marks the end of the 2.5 year mandate for Peter Cowley, who became president in 2018 and led EBAN to create numerous new activities, including new educational initiatives with the EBAN Institute, a greatly successful new annual event – the European Angel Investment Summit, new partnerships, strategies and more. Peter Cowley’s mandate also saw EBAN through its 20th anniversary, as well as the turbulent 2020 months with a multitude of online activities to keep EBAN members together during the COVID-19 pandemic. EBAN would like to thank Peter Cowley for his leadership as EBAN President and welcome him to the President Emeritus Advisory Council.

European Angel Investment Summit – Working Together (even if Remotely) towards a Common Purpose 

The 2020 European Angel Investment Summit, which took place online on 28-29 October, was the pinnacle of EBAN’s online year, with over 300 business angels, innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy-makers coming together virtually to discuss key issues like COVID-19 recovery, gender inequality, digital transformation and climate and environment. The discussions at the Summit, which was done in cooperation with the European Commission – emphasized the need for change in the way our society works to achieve common goals and the importance of joining forces and leveraging the power of networks in this regard. The necessity for a moral shift towards sustainability and gender inclusion was also underlined, along with how much change investors are able to bring about by investing in and mentoring entrepreneurs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled us to work together with a common goal in mind – and this mindset can and should be used to tackle similarly massive challenges by better aligning public and private actors. EBAN is looking forward to taking in the insights gained from EAIS to help investors do business in new and better ways.

Sincerely,

The EBAN Board