Alan Barrell

Following a scientific training and six years working in the hospital laboratory service, Alan Barrell has spent almost thirty years in senior executive positions in technology based industries. He worked around the world with Baxter Healthcare, the world's largest Health technology company and was Chief Executive of Baxter UK for six years. Subsequently he switched industries and joined a very small Cambridge Phenomenon company in industrial electronics, Domino Printing Sciences, as Managing Director. Alan stayed six years, during which time Domino grew internationally and was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Today Domino has revenues of £300 million plus a market capitalisation approaching £400 million.

Alan's last full time Chief Executive position was six years with Willett International, a manufacturing and marketing company in industrial electronics which now has businesses in 100 countries, 26 overseas subsidiaries and sales of close to £100 million. From early 1998 until 2002 Alan´s business life was spread between non-executive chairmanship of smaller technology companies, engagement with N W Brown Capital Partners in raising a new regional early stage technology venture capital fund of £35 million, "The Cambridge Gateway Fund" and work with charities in which he has special interests. These include the Papworth Trust, The Royal Society of Arts Manufactures and Commerce (where he has been treasurer and member of the Trustee Board) and The Centre For Tomorrow´s Company of which he was Vice Chairman. During 2001 and 2002 he was Chair of the Steering Committee of the Cambridge International Enterprise Conference now held annually.

>From the beginning of 2000 until April 2002 Alan worked full-time as Director and Managing Partner of N W Brown Capital Partners Ltd, raising and investing the Cambridge Gateway Fund. He has also become closely associated with Three Business Angel Groups in Cambridge .The Cambridge Gateway Fund was recently week voted "Investor of the Year" in the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards 2002.

Alan´s most recent appointments have been as Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre, and Visiting Professor of Enterprise, University of Luton School of Graduate Business Studies, Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, and Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Essex.. He has also been appointed Chairman Health Enterprise East and Chairman Medilink East. He is Chairman of the biotech company Advanced Protein Systems Ltd., and of E-Financial Management Ltd. Also, a member of the External Advisory Board, University of East Anglia in Norwich.

In July 2005, Alan was presented by the Queen with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion – one of the first ten individuals awarded this new honour. On September 7th, Alan Barrell was conferred the Honorary Degree – Doctor of Business Administration ( DBA ) by the University of Luton ( Now re-named Bedfordshire ), in recognition of his work in the UK and Internationally of the encouragement and development of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in others.

In April 2006, Alan, with colleagues, founded Dragon Cambridge International Ltd., a company set up to assist companies and other organisations in UK, Europe and in China, connect with each other for good business reasons and to support Chinese businesses starting up in Europe.

Most recently, working in the Baltic Rim countries, assisting the establishment of Business Angel Organisations and Early Stage Venture Capital Funds. Associations in Estonia and Latvia.

Burton Gintell

A member of Sophia Business Angels, Burton Gintell actively participates in its Entrepreneurship Programme as a coach to participating early-stage companies. American born, educated and trained, with now 29 years in Europe, he has had the practical experience of actually having run businesses, two of which received the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in the U.K. during his tenure as Chief Executive. Burton Gintell has formed/headed companies in seven European countries, including in Eastern Europe, and operated within corporate environments and as an entrepreneur.

As Consultant to a professional practice in Sophia Antipolis, he created and presently directs its corporate finance function, and also serves on the International Advisory Board of a Turkish university-based company.

Resident in Cannes, Burton is on the Board of Governors of the American Club of the Riviera, and supports arts organisations in France. Burton Gintell’s investor activities in Eastern Europe may be especially interesting to the NGEF 2007 attendees as a template for emerging markets. In 1990, he perceived the market potential for American film / video entertainment in the emerging democracies of the former Eastern Bloc, and began negotiations to acquire IFEX, an established U.S.-based East-West film distributor. He prepared a business plan; conceived Hungarian corporate structure; organised London City finance from Govett Hungarian Investment Company Ltd; identified Guild Entertainment Ltd (then the largest U.K. independent film/video distributor) as a management resource. Burton successfully concluded complex negotiations for acquisition of IFEX assets and joint venture interests by a newly-formed Hungarian entity owned by Govett, Guild, the vendors and himself.

He subsequently:
• established corporate headquarters in Hungary;
• formed new subsidiaries in Poland, Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia, each with full legal qualifications and banking relations;
• re-structured Hungarian and Czechoslovakia joint ventures with State enterprises;
• acquired distribution rights from major U.S. studios (Warner Bros., Walt Disney, Columbia TriStar, Fox)

Following the purchase of Guild UK by Pathé, Burton resigned as CEO/Director whilst retaining equity in the holding company, and purchased its controlling (80%) interest in Guild Film Romania, which had been formed in 1992 as the first non State-owned film distributor in the country and is still the largest. With all cinemas in the country owned by the State, he recognised the need for a flagship Western-style multiplex in the capital city, located a site at the country’s first shopping mall, successfully presented opportunity to InterCom (the largest multiplex operator in Hungary). The 10-screen Hollywood Multiplex opened in 2000 with state-of-the-art facilities and immediately became the most important exhibitor in Romania.

Burton then formed a joint venture Romanian distribution company with InterCom with rights from Warner Bros., Columbia TriStar, and Fox, and remains a large minority shareholder.

Candace Johnson

Candace Johnson is an international telecommunications expert and entrepreneur. Currently, she is Vice President, NeuStar, Inc. She is co-initiator of the Astra satellite system and SES Global, one of the world´s largest satellite systems in the world. She is also founding President of Europe Online, the world’s first and largest independent Satellite Broadband Network, and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe´s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network. Ms. Johnson is also founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). She has continued to be a long-time Member of the Board of Directors of all of these companies and organizations at various times throughout the years.

Ms. Johnson is also President of Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV). JPV is a principal founding shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, Bayerische Landesbank, and the SPEF in Sophia Euro Lab, Europe´s first trans-border early-stage investment company based in Sophia Antipolis. Ms. Johnson is a Founding Member of the Board of Directors of Sophia Euro Lab. JPV is also a principal founding shareholder in Ariadne Capital, "Architecting Europe.net" based in London as well as a founding Member and Member of the Board of the Sophia Business Angels in Sophia Antipolis France.

In her personal capacity, Ms. Johnson is a minority owner of FMN, a German telephone manufacturing company, and a member of their Supervisory Council. She is also a minority owner of Alpha Com, a wireless data manufacturing company. Ms. Johnson is also a member of the Advisory Board of numerous European and US ventures as well as being a Member of the Board of Governors of Theseus MBA Institute, the University of Haifa, Sabanci University, and a Senior Enterprise Fellow for the University of Essex.

Ms. Johnson was also Vice President Worldwide of Iridium and brought it into the GSM MoU, the ITU and ETSI. She also was Director of Marketing for the German manufacturing company Fuba.

Ms. Johnson has been featured in articles in Time Magazine, the Financial Times, the Economist, Le Monde, WirtschaftsWoche, and Manager Magazin, to name a few. She has been decorated as an Officer of the Bundesverdienst Kreuz and the Couronne de la Chene respectively by the German and Luxembourg governments for her work in deregulating and privatizing telecommunications and media across Europe. She is also the second recipient ever of the United Nations-sponsored World Teleport Associations’ "Founders Award" and has been named by Time and Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in Europe.

Ms. Johnson has also received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" along with Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners Lee from the World Communication Awards, the prestigious global telecoms organization 2002. Ms. Johnson holds Masters Degrees with Honors from the Sorbonne and Stanford Universities and a Bachelors Degree from Vassar College.

Dmitry Goroshevsky

From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Goroshevsky was CEO of Internet Telecom Ltd., one of the first IP telephony core technology development companies to spearheaded the development of advanced IP telephony systems for the broadband cable and PBX markets. Mr. Goroshevsky has guided Internet Telecom through innovation, growth and sale in 2000 to Terayon Communications Systems (NASDAQ: TERN).

Trained as a media communications producer and director, Mr. Goroshevsky was influenced by the expansion of the Internet in the early 90s and became one of the first to recognize and develop the potential of voice over IP. In 1995, he co-founded and managed Delta Three (NASDAQ: DDDC), the first global VoIP service provider. During the late 80s, Mr. Goroshevsky co-founded the First Open University in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Mr. Goroshevsky´s innovative vision and business insight have culminated in the design, development and patenting of the serverless telephony concept that created Popular Telephony´s Peerio technology in 2003. Mr. Goroshevsky is a Chairman and CEO of Popular Telephony.

Mr. Goroshevsky is also a co-founder of Futurist Fund, an early stage investor in internet projects such as www.wikitimer.com, www.sportreport.ru, www.talkingdates.com, www.kribla.com among others.

Mr Goroshevsky is a co-author of patents related to serverless p2p and Internet User proximity search technologies

Francesco Bongiovanni

Francesco Bongiovanni is the founder of CODIMA, an investment company, Monaco.

He has an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was awarded the Morgan Guaranty Fellowship.

He also holds an engineering doctorate awarded with the highest honours. He was formerly an investment banker with Dillon, Read & Co in Wall Street and London, where he was active in corporate finance, M & A and new issues syndications.

Heidi Roizen

Heidi Roizen is an accomplished executive with over twenty years of senior management experience in the technology industry. She has achieved success as an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, and most recently as a corporate director and venture capitalist. She has held positions of leadership within a number of industry organizations, and is a recognized and popular spokesperson for the technology industry.

Today, Roizen is a Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital, a technology venture fund with $2 billion under management. Roizen serves on the Boards of Directors of Reactrix, Perpetual Entertainment, Ecast and AuctionDrop. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, where she is on the Executive Committee and chairs the MAGNET initiative on national competitiveness. Roizen is also involved in various educational, political and nonprofit organizations and initiatives.

A member of the board of directors of the Software Publishers Association (SPA) from 1987 to 1994, Roizen served as its president from 1988 to 1990. She also served on the board of Great Plains Software from 1997 until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2001, and is a past Public Governor of the Pacific Exchange.

>From 1996 to 1997, as Vice President of World Wide Developer Relations for Apple Computer, Roizen was responsible for building and maintaining relationships between Apple and its developers worldwide. She and her 300-person team served as the primary contact point for major partners such as Microsoft, Lotus and Adobe, as well as 12,000 other firms, emerging and established, providing products for the Macintosh platform.

>From 1983 to 1996, Roizen was co-founder and CEO of T/Maker Company, a successful developer and publisher of personal computer software. T/Maker, backed by venture firms Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Draper Fisher, shipped a number of innovative products in word processing, desktop publishing and multimedia, achieved market leadership in image content software with it´s ClickArt® line, and was ultimately acquired in 1994 by Deluxe Corporation. Roizen's principal functions at T/Maker included strategic planning, product planning and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, fundraising, recruiting, managing the relationship between T/Maker and Deluxe, and directing the senior management team.

Heidi Roizen holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University (1980) and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1983). She is 48 years old and lives with her husband (orthopaedic surgeon David Mohler) and two daughters in Atherton, California.

Jason Drummond

Jason Drummond started Micromax his first venture, at the age of 15, distributing computer software through newsagents.

At 18, he established IDL Communications Limited, a distributor of cell phones and fax machines. He spent approximately three years outside the UK, establishing and running distribution and new media companies in emerging markets such as Russia and Africa and returned to the UK in 1995, prior to establishing Virtual Internet (UK) Ltd, an online intellectual property protection and web hosting services company.

Virtual Internet plc (VI) listed on the AIM market of the London stock exchange in January 1999 and became the first web hosting company to list on a primary European market. In April 2000 VI combined a £25 million fundraising with a move to the official list of the London stock exchange. In February 2002, VI was acquired in a recommended cash offer by Register.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCOM), a leading provider of global domain name registration and Internet services.

In September 1999 Jason Drummond co-founded Gaming Corp. Gaming Corporation plc (LSE:GMC) listed on the AIM market of the London stock exchange in April 2001. In March 2005 Gaming Corporation plc raised £10 million in an institutional placing. In May 2005 Gaming Corporation acquired Gambling.com for $20 million; Gambling.com is the global leader in searching casino, poker, and sports betting sites. In October 2006 Gaming Corporation plc changed its name to Media Corporation plc (AIM:MDC) to reflect the fact that the Company generates its entire operating profit from its portals and advertising businesses.

In October 2000 Jason Drummond came up with the concept for a new top level domain name (TLD) and established RegistryPro to jointly bid with Register.com for .pro. In May 2002 RegistryPro (www.registrypro.com) signed its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) the organisation that administers global domain names; under which it will operate the registry for the new top level domain (TLD) pro.

In December 2005 Nettworx plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:NTWX) the company intends to invest in the fast-growing area of voice, video and data networks. Nettworx raised Net proceeds of approximately £9.4 million. Jonathan Rowland and Jason Drummond, are joint executive directors of Nettworx.

Jason Drummond founded Coms plc in 2000. In August 2006 Coms plc was listed on AIM (LSE:COMS). Coms plc provides a range of Voice Over IP (VoIP) and convergent services such as video calling and IP Centrex to small to medium sized business. Jason Drummond is the Executive Chairman and largest shareholder.

Since October 1998 Jason Drummond has directly raised over £130m of cash on over £400m (deal value).

About Media Corporation plc (AIM:MDC) http://www.mediacorpplc.com/

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Media Corp, is a leading internet media and advertising company focused on search, publishing and media sales. The company has three principal divisions:
• Search - The vertical search specialists – building sector specific search engines for advertisers to communicate in a highly targeted environment with their particular audience. All of our Search and Media products are powered by our own high performance proprietary technology. We can therefore partner with your online businesses to offer "White Label" services across a number of key vertical markets.
• Publishing - Media Corp has a diverse publishing division ranging from online to printed media. Our impressive stable of websites includes a number of market leading sites including www.onthebox.com, www.casino.co.uk.

Media - Eyeconomy was formed in 1996, and is a separate operating division of Media Corporation. Eyeconomy specialises in the various sectors of online marketing and advertising, such as online media planning and buying, as well as managing online media campaigns for clients including AOL, Dell and American Express.

About Coms plc http://www.coms.com/

Coms was founded by Jason Drummond in 2000 with the vision of using the Internet to carry and deliver voice telephone calls. Unlike Skype, Coms is based upon the industry standard SIP protocol which enables the widest possible connection of customers, devices and integrated Web 2.0 applications. Coms subscribers can make high quality calls over the internet wherever a high-speed internet connection is available including in wireless hotspots.

Coms subscribers can also select their own free telephone number. Ofcom has allocated Coms 2 million numbers in the top 178 UK geographic area codes by population which Coms subscribers can choose from. In addition, Coms can transfer a company’s existing telephone number to their service. Subscription is available in a range of packages from the Company’s website

As well as the obvious cost saving implications for businesses and consumers, the expanding market will enable Coms to develop and offer innovative new convergent services such as video calling, IP Centrex, location independence and online presence. It is these new innovative features, alongside the cost saving benefits that are likely to encourage customers away from traditional PSTN systems and combine their broadband service and voice calling system.

Coms launched its consumer service in October 2006, and recently acquired ExchangeXT, a leading provider of business VoIP services, to enable Coms to enter the SME market. Coms is an Ofcom authorised Public Electronic Communications Network (PECN) and a member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA). Coms plc joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 6 September 2006 (AIM:COMS).

Jay Mitra

Professor Jay Mitra is the Founding Professor of Business Enterprise and Innovation, Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research at the University of Essex, and Head of the School of Entrepreneurship and Business, at the University of Essex, Southend, UK. He is also the Director of the Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and its LEED (Local Economic and Employment) Programme, in Paris, France, and in Trento, Italy. Professor Mitra has held Visiting Professorships and Fellowships at the Universities of Bologna, Italy, Bari, Italy, and Kuopio, Finland, and in China. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Management at Fudan University in China.

Educated in India and in the UK, Professor Mitra has written and published widely on entrepreneurship, innovation, small firm growth and internationalisation, technology and knowledge transfer between universities and small firms for international refereed journals, international conferences and seminars. Professor Mitra has over 20 years of experience relating to entrepreneurship in large and small firms, small businesses and local economic development, gained while working for a firm of consultants and accountants, in local government, as head of an innovation centre, as an academic, and through two new business ventures of his own in London.

Professor Mitra has taught and lectured in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, the USA, Latin America, at seminars, workshops and conferences for corporate executives, owner managers of small firms, entrepreneurs, policy makers and educators. He has worked with UNIDO, the OECD, the European Commission, and a range of universities in various countries. His particular interests are in the areas of innovation management, creativity, new venture creation, entrepreneurship and economic regeneration. Professor Mitra is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK.

John Mclean

John Mclean was born in Ayr, Scotland, the same small town as Scotland’s famous poet Robert Burns. With a creative vision and an entrepreneurial spirit, John always held a keen interest in the fashion and luxury sectors. After his studies, John began his career in the fashion industry, where he had four years’ management experience with Coats Viyella, including brand management experience with Jaeger.

Having gained a reputation as a talented force in the United Kingdom’s marketing sector, John enjoyed a number years in the brand consultancy field with the world’s largest and most prestigious marketing firms. John was Associate Board Director with D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B), the world’s third largest marketing and advertising agency group.

Shortly after this, Mclean felt the desire to become an entrepreneur, thus utilising his professional strengths and past successes in global marketing. In 1989 he founded The Late Escapes Group, which began as a small travel company. With a phenomenal rate of growth and success, the company became the largest and most profitable direct sales travel agency group in the UK, counting over 200 members of staff and an annual turnover in excess of US$75 million. At the height of its success, the Late Escapes Group was acquired by an international travel corporation, and is now part of the Thomas Cook Group.

Shortly after the sale of his business in 1996, John Mclean became a permanent resident of the Principality of Monaco. Whilst managing his family office financial interests, John’s deep interest in fashion augmented, fuelled by his passion for Monte Carlo’s unique heritage and way of life. He desired to create a brand that allowed the glamorous traits of the Principality to be showcased to the world.

In 2006, as part of this vision to develop a Monaco based, super-premium fashion brand, John graduated with an MBA, specialising in Luxury Branding, from the prestigious International University of Monaco.

Equipped with both the vision and the acumen, John Mclean founded Mont Charles de Monaco in 2007, and opened the company’s Monte Carlo headquarters. Having amassed a talented team, John has since steered the marque toward the launch of its first exquisite handbag line, the “Lady Collection”, and held a series of private preview launch events. From this, John wishes to eventually create a total fashion label.

Inspired by the wonderful legacy of HSH Prince Charles III and the foundation in 1861 of Monte Carlo, it is John’s desire that Mont Charles de Monaco will showcase spirit of the Principality’s style and glamour worldwide.

John Watton

He founded his own law practice which specializes in corporate and commercial property work.

The practice acts for a wide range of clients ranging from entrepreneurs setting out on their first venture to FTSE 100 companies.

Mr. Watton´s experience has covered a wide range of transactions from seed corn to multi million pound/euro transactions and in many cases Mr. Watton was very "hands on" as part of the clients team and has made personal venture capital Investments.

Mr. Watton is now resident in Monaco and a consultant to the practice.

Judy Churchill

With over twenty-five years experience in communication skills, language training and consulting at corporate level, Judy has developed her own particular style based on both her studies and experience. An honours graduate in French and Spanish, speaker of five languages, a qualified teacher and trainer, legal and official translator (for the Monaco Law courts), Judy has worked in four countries and set up her own businesses in three.

Judy also worked for 4 years as Regional Manager (PACA, Monaco, Corsica) for Educational Testing Service (USA), dealing with the sales and teacher training of the foreign language testing unit of ETS. This set her up as a specialist in exam preparation and stress management resulting in several articles, conferences and lectures on the subject.

She currently runs her own communications consultancy from Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (next to Monaco) and is director of UK based Language Consulting Services Ltd.

Her six years as English Training Manager for Merck- Théramex (Monaco/Paris) provided her with the necessary experience and credentials to become a specialist in the medical and pharmaceutical field. In 2006 she ran training courses in French across France training French Dermatologists in Non-verbal communication skills. In 2007 she received the CityWealth platinum award for professional excellence in her field.

2007/2008 saw Judy develop and run her own brand of assertiveness training for one of the major international pharmaceutical companies.

Part of her work today involves assisting VIPs with PR and Protocol. She was responsible for the setting up and conducting of a Cross Cultural trade delegation project at ministerial level (Monaco/Finland) resulting in a training video, “Bridging Cultures” with University of Westminster and Swedish School of Economics, Helsinki. Her portfolio includes royalty and stars from the cinema and sports world. Last summer Judy was consultant to Piers Morgan for the making of the programme Piers Morgan on Monaco which was broadcast on ITV on 5 February 2009.

Judy has lectured at various universities across Europe. She occasionally runs workshops on the IUM MBA executive programme, conducting sessions on Emotional Intelligence and its application on the acquisition/improvement of specific skills (Conflict Management, Stress Management, Face to Face Interaction) and seminars on Cross-Cultural awareness.

Read more: www.judychurchill.eu

Juliana Garaizar

Juliana Garaizar is the Managing Director of Ifex Innovation Finance, based in France at Sophia Antipolis and has recently joined the Sophia Business Angels network in the capacity of Business Manager.

Previously, Mrs. Garaizar worked for 5 years in Singapore: first as an international trade consultant for the Trade Commission of Spain in a broad range of industry sectors and then as a Project Manager for the Asia Technology Office of Citigroup, leading projects both at national and international level. In the more recent past, Mrs. Garaizar has obtained an MBA at the London Business School, specializing in Entrepreneurship and in Venture Capital at the Haas School of Business in Berkeley California.

Earlier Mrs. Garaizar obtained a Bachelor´s degree in Business Administration at the Universidad Comercial de Deusto in Spain.

Lawrie Lewis

Lawrie Lewis founded Bleinheim Group Plc in 1979, which became the largest publicly quoted exhibition company in the world, with over 500 events in 10 different countries. In Germany, Blenheim owned Equitana in Essen, Medica in Düsseldorf, Fibo in Essen, Haffa in Stuttgart, and many others.

It also owned the worlds renowned Batimat along with Equiphotel in Paris.

In 1996 Bleinheim was sold to the exhibition arm of the British newspaper The Daily Express. Mr Lewis was at this time living in Monte-Carlo and decided in 1998 to get back into the business and found ITE, an exhibition company in Russia. He simultaneously bought a publicly quoted paint company, which was without innovations and set about selling its business and assets, but keeping the plc shell which he later reversed ITE into, and it became known as the ITE Group Plc.

Mr Lawrie developed this business into the CIS along with Ukraine and the Urals. He expanded into the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Egypt and Turkey. ITE was famous for the Moscow Motor Show and the Istanbul Motor Show.

In 2001 Mr Lawrie sold his shares in the ITE Group Plc created the concept of Top Marques the only live supercar show in the world. His vision was to go beyond the static exhibitions in Paris, Frankfurt, Geneva, Detroit, and have test drive cars available for the lucky and enthusiastic buyer of a supercar. His theme is, see it, drive it, buy it&. He believes strongly in alternative fuels, biofuel, ethanol, hydrogen, hybrid, and electric, and pushed strongly the presence of Fisker, Venturi, Lexus and BMW. Top Marques is in its sixth year.

Mr Lewis was honoured by the Prince Albert II of Monaco with the Ordre de Saint Charlesfor the creation of Top Marques.

Ronald Posner

Ronald Posner has been a leader in the consolidation of the high technology, internet and software industries for more than 30-years. He has a strong track record as CEO, investor and board member of improving market values and liquidity results for public and private companies in record time frames.

He started his career at The Coca-Cola Company and Xerox Data Systems in sales and marketing roles. He then led two successful liquidity events in the computer services business in the 70´s at National Training Systems, which he founded and sold the Safeguard Scientifics (SFE), and Tratec, which was taken public and then sold to McGraw Hill.

He then led consolidation and turnarounds in the PC and enterprise software industries from the early 80´s to the mid-90´s as CEO of Peter Norton Computing, which he merged with Symantec (SYMC); as CEO of Wordstar, which he merged with The Learning Company to create over $3B in market value after 20 consumer software acquisitions; and at Ansa software (CEO role) and Ashton-Tate (Exec VP role), both of which were merged into Borland (BORL). He was an investor and board director of Cyber-Media, which was sold to McAfee (MFE), and SmallWorld in the UK, which was sold to General Electric. He was also an early investor in Segue Software (SEGU), just sold to Borland.

Mr. Posner then participated in the growth and consolidation of the internet industry, starting in the mid-90´s, as a start-up investor/board member in such companies as Match.com, sold to InterActive Corp (IACI); Spinner.com, sold to AOL; NetAngels/Firefly, sold to Microsoft; Rival Networks, sold to Terra-Lycos; Flipside.com, sold to Vivendi, and Click2learn that was merged with Docent to form Sum Total Systems (SUMT). He remains an active investor in www.iwin.com.

Since its formation in 1997, PS Capital, has made investments in and provided advisory services to the telecom/wireless/digital media industries. PS Capital also led the recapitalization of Novatel Wireless (NVTL), and made investments in Popular Telephony, a VOIP company, Iris Wireless, Brand Mobile, Instrumental Media, and d3d Media.

Recently Mr. Posner became a Venture Partner at Saints VC (www.saintsvc.com), focused on secondary venture transactions in Europe and Asia. He also serves on the advisory boards of IDG Ventures (San Francisco), Next Stage Ventures (Paris), Palace Ventures (London), and Minerva/Sabanci Ventures (Turkey). He was the first E.I.R. at Mayfield Fund in 1988.

Additionally, Mr. Posner serves on the boards of eChinaCash, Trinity Learning and Razorsight, and is an investor in several VC Funds, including NEA and JP Morgan Technology Partners.

He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS Math degree from Rensselaer.

Tracy Mattes

Tracy Mattes currently serves as Marketing Director of Sports Teams and Event Merchandising for Jaguar Sports Corporation, headquartered in the United States.

Ms.Mattes, a former world-class athlete, is the Founder and Vice President of the Monaco Association High Performance Sport Training, a company which is in the process of establishing a high-performance multi-sport International Olympic Training Center in Monaco. She has extensive experience in Olympic team relations and coverage.

In addition, Ms. Mattes also serves as an official Representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism for the Elimination of Poverty) Foundation. She is working with the Foundation on effective joint measures towards sustainability and poverty alleviation by forging greater partnerships among the entities of Sports and Tourism.

Prior to her involvement with UNWTO ST-EP, Ms. Mattes served Editor in Chief of World Olympians Association publications "Olympian Round Up", "World Olympian Magazine&, and as Producer and Reporter for various NBC television affiliates throughout the United States. Ms. Mattes received her B.A in Broadcast Journalism form Arizona State University and last year she received her Executive M.B.A. degree from the International University of Monaco where she was Valedictorian of her graduating class.

Ms. Mattes´ contribution to our speakers´ panel this year is extra special because she is a former participant and prize winner of the NGEF Business Plan Competition. She won 2nd Prize in 2004 for her business plan to create an Olympic Training Center in Monaco. Tracy´s story is an example of a successful business plan that was first introduced at the NGEF and is now developing into a reality. Ms. Mattes is a great role model for all entrepreneurs.

Walter de Brouwer

Walter De Brouwer was nicknamed by Corriere della Sera the "Woody Allen del business" because of his übernerd personality. He is most known as the founder of the European cult company Starlab, the first private blue sky research laboratory (called 'Nerd Heaven') that once, together with Paul Allen's Interval and MIT specialized in highly advanced 'deep future' research. This gained him the reputation as a futurist and big-picture thinker. De Brouwer was asked for the 20th Anniversary of The Wall Street Journal Europe as one of the four guru's to depict the World in 2023 together with John Naisbitt (Global Paradox), Bill Ghitis (Dupont) and Shai Agassi (SAP).

De Brouwer studied Philology at the University of Ghent and did his PhD in Semiotics at the University of Tilburg (Holland). He started his academic career as an assistant lecturer at the Jesuit University UFSIA (Antwerp) but left academia in 1989 and became an entrepreneur. In 17 years' time he set up more than 40 companies, was involved in several international IPO's (Stepstone [LSE: sso], Eunet-Qwest [nyse:Q]) and stood at the cradle of long-distance carriers in two continents (Eunet, Qwest). Originally De Brouwer's expertise was in publishing; he founded an international publishing house that published three computer magazines in three countries and was taken over by VNU in 1995.

In 2008 Walter De Brouwer was elected Chairman of the (British) Royal Society of Arts (RSA, Europe) serves since 2003 as a Director of the Tau Zero Foundation, which was formerly known as NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project.

Women on top

Linda Westall & Angela Ward are the co-founders and directors of Women on Top, an inspirational organisation for modern, professional business women based in the U.K.The pair have been to Latvia, Spain, France and Dublin to explore business opportunities and speak at conferences there and in the U.K.Linda & Angela have also enjoyed working on female focused projects with The University of Essex.

Linda trained as a professional dancer and became a qualified dance teacher, following this path for many years. Later she became an international visual merchandiser for a fashion chain heading up the re-fits and openings of stores in the U.K. and Middle East. A spell working in a membership organisation with the Chamber of Commerce raised her profile in the local business community leading to a wealth of support and interest in Women on Top.

Angela attended a local college where she studied and gained a number of qualifications. She started her career in the city of London in the competitive world of recruitment. After a short time her determination and dynamic approach landed her a promotion to a senior position where she headed a large team. Always looking for a new challenge, she decided to start her own company which she successfully ran for a number of years before launching Women on Top with Linda in 2004.

Linda & Angela are a prime example of two female Entrepreneurs who seized an opportunity to use their experience and expertise to take "just an idea" and turn it into a successful business, delivering events and workshops in a fun, interactive way throughout the U.K.and soon internationally, with branded merchandise and a massive expansion program planned for the future.