Innovation is the essence of social and economic progress. We can be innovative no matter if it's a relationship with a loved one or a mundane work in the office. Caution; the outcome could be a unique experience, increased satisfaction and self-enrichment.

Naveed lives each day the values that drive innovation and creativity in founders that he works with. He gives strategic perspective to their business models, peel their layers of assumptions and help build traction for their business that gets them to the next round of investment.

Dr. Sören Winkelmann is Corporate Brand & Analytics Manager (Global) // Project Lead Digital Transformation at KWS Saat. Furthermore, he is Visiting Associate Professor at MCI Management Center Innsbruck - The Entrepreneurial School®.

Christoph Jourdan is a Digital Marketing Consultant with a creative and data driven background. Before joining Sprinklr he was a Senior Solution Consultant technically specialized on SaaS products dealing with a wide range of topics like Social Media Marketing, Data Management or Real Time Advertising. Prior to that he worked as a Senior Strategic Planner at BBDO/Interone developing campaign strategies for brands such as o2, Burger King or BMW. Being a digital generalist in the ad tech and marketing world he is always driven by the objective to connect the dots between clear defined key performance indicators and stories brands want to tell.

Alfred Lief is an experienced Senior Manager and Senior System Engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in the aeronautical business.
In 2011 Alfred was appointed as Senior System Engineer and member of the Airbus Expert community.
Complementary to his extensive project responsibilities, Alfred has held several senior management roles.
Since 2016 January 1st Alfred is Senior Manager in the UAV product Line of Airbus.

Pascal created and led the global digital transformation program, which develops and deploys end-to-end digital capabilities to the Philips Lighting markets, business group and central staff organizations. This includes creating an award winning lean startup/accelerator program and measurement/analytics centers of expertise driving fact based global high impact digital programs.
Next to this the program is transforming and driving sales growth through all direct & indirect online channels for Philips Lighting for B2C and B2B including managing a global team of digital managers driving digital marketing & online sales in more than 60 countries.
Pascal holds a 20 year career of international Marketing, Sales, Ecommerce and Business Transformation Management roles in Fortune 500 B2C and B2B companies in Consumer Electronics, FMCG, Internet- and Telco Industry, Downstream Oil Industry and Construction Industry.

Markus Alt works as a Chief Technical Evangelist at K2 Northern Europe. Over the past few years, Markus worked intensively on the topic of process automation within the SharePoint environment and is an expert within this field.

Bosse Küllenberg is a multimedia expert and mobile pioneer with over 15 years of brand and agency experience.

Peter Bruhn is the Senior Digital Advisor at TAKKT and working on the digital transformation of this B2B mail-order company. With the Digital Agenda of TAKKT's portfolio companies, he has defined concrete measures for the coming years to double the e-commerce business by 2020 and create an outstanding customer experience with digital solutions. He has been assisting companies in digital transformation for almost 20 years and is currently responsible for the Group's Digital Transformation at TAKKT.

Michael Heimrich is Head of Innovation at RECARO Child Safety, a company of the RECARO Group. He is responsible for the design and the development of future innovations in the field of child seats and pushchairs. In the internationally established medium-sized company with around 200 employees, he is significantly driving forward the streamlining of development processes and the cooperation with new partners in order to offer relevant solutions to the changes caused by digitization and increasing consumer demands in this highly competitive industry. Digital is better for the Design Thinker if the implementation provides parents and their children with simple and sustainable value.

Anna-Lena Lorenz is G4A U.S. Program Coordinator in the US organization of Bayer. In this role, she implements and builds the G4A Program in the USA.

Dr. Andreas Wilke started to work as an Innovation developer at the Innovation department of the Bundesdruckerei in 2015. His task involves the introduction of innovations into the company profile, including molecular-based simulation methods, smart production processes and physic based concepts for IT-security and cryptography. From 2009 until 2015 he was conducting research in the field of semiconductor technologies as a scientist at the Humboldt University in Berlin for several publically funded projects. In 2014, he finished his PhD-thesis in physics. Many publications and talks on international conferences fingerprint his scientific doing during that time. In 2016 he started to work on the topic blockchain and identity and rights management. Since the beginning, he was in charge of the IP generation, the scientific writing and prototype development for proof of concepts.

Anne works at Deutsche Bahn in New Digital Business division and from its beginning she has been actively participating in establishing new business models outside of the DB´s core business in close cooperation with DB Digital Ventures. She is passionate about creating an entrepreneurial spirit in a business by creating a new working culture and encouraging employees to develop their own innovative business ideas towards a spin-off. Previously, she worked for several years in the strategic Transportation and Logistics division, where she was responsible for a variety of research and innovation topics. She was also responsible for building global excellence programs and worked as a consultant for several improvement projects to ensure the process effectiveness and efficiency. The balancing act between business standardization and the creation of a learning and innovative environment within the company is well known to her.

Michael Wilkinson is Head of Digital Change at CLIC Sargent, the UK's largest cancer charity supporting children and young people. Michael was formerly part of the digital transformation team at The Daily Telegraph and is a former political journalist.

Esra Dogramaci has recently joined Deutsche Welle from the BBC where she was a digital consultant. She has significant experience in digital transformation across news and current affairs, particularly in social video and off platform growth and development. Prior to Deutsche Welle, Esra was with Al Jazeera in Qatar and Turkey and UNICEF and UN headquarters working in new media/communications throughout. She’s also a former national team athlete, representing Australia in Ice Hockey.

Aleksandar Kapisoda is an experienced “Digital Design & Digital Production Officer” with a degree in information and knowledge management from the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart, Germany. He is part of the "Senior information scientist" team in the Scientific Information Center (S.I.C.) at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG in Biberach, Germany. Since over 13 years he is solving issues in challenging digital projects in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry. As a driver for innovative technologies in the field of information management landscape at Boehringer Ingelheim he is leading the design and creative direction of digital products and design systems.

Since 2005, he has been coordinating several digital projects in the area of Knowledge Representation, Information Retrieval, Web crawling, Visualization, Linked Data and Semantic Technologies. Thanks to his practical experience he is providing an excellent overview of product development, software & information landscape architecture, search, taxonomies, ontologies, linked data and visualization. He cares deeply about creating world-class, useful and beautiful User Interfaces that help people and make a difference.

Ezra Eeman is the Head of Digital at the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, working closely together with EBU Members on digital strategy and transformation. Previously he was the head of VRT Start-Up, a digital innovation lab at the Flemish public broadcast company VRT. In 2012, Ezra Eeman received a Fulbright scholarship to investigate the changing media landscape at the City University of New York. There he specialized in the latest technologies, platforms, and storytelling formats for news. He is also the founder of Journalism Tools, a Twitter service and online platform that has curated thousands of different tools for journalists.

Started in sales controlling and developed into direct sales roles. Spent decades in global and strategic account management, in sales leadership and general management roles. Successfully reshaped and built sales teams as well as development and services teams and also developed strategic alliance partners. Lead market development and sales excellence for multiple cross-industry companies using Infoteam's Sales Process expertise and the Blue Ocean Strategy toolbox.

Mr. Tony Andris is a Founder and Partner of dataWerks GmbH and serves as its Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Andris gained his 10+ years experience in New Economy startups. Starting at Dubai Media City in globally distributed Product Development, he soon started his entrepreneurial career focusing on Online Marketing and Advertising. He graduated from the University of Rostock in Business Informatics in 2004.

Daniela Baudisch holds a degree in business administration from TU Ilmenau. After multiple positions related to innovation management, she now is Global Innovation Manager at DB Schenker.

Hendrik Preis holds a Master of Business Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He worked 3 years as a researcher in the field of Systems Engineering at KIT and has more than 10 years experience in process consulting for sales organizations at ORBIS AG. He is the Specialist and Team Lead "Smart Services" at ORBIS AG and deals primarily with the integration of AI in business processes.

PhD in Theoretical Physics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
Product Manager for Optical Fibres for telecommunications
Manager at Siemens Communications
Principal at Booz & Company, Leader of the European Team for Telecommunication Networks & IT
SVP "Digital Product Management" at DB Fernverkehr

Born in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1983, Tobias became the Germoccan son of a German mother and Moroccan father. Growing up in such multi-cultural environment allowed me to learn quickly that the meaning of the famous proverb - all roads lead to Rome - holds a lot of truth. Therefore, it seemed natural for him to pursue a very international path during his 20s. In fact, that's when he allowed himself to live, study and work in numerous countries, spreading over three continents. He is most certain that the cultural diversity he has encountered throughout his life is the reason for my curiosity and open-mindedness today.

While he chose a corporate career, he has a huge entrepreneurial spirit. It's the energy that fires his drive for change and hunger for innovation. It means that with everything he does, he seeks to produce value for customers and sustainable returns for the organization.
Colleagues and friends appreciate his cooperativeness and sense of responsibility while managers have acknowledged his ability to produce unconventional, yet practical ideas.

He doesnät measure work-life balance in the number of hours he spends at work versus out of office. Rather, he evaluates it by the degree of self-actualization he finds in what he does every day. His motivation increases with the level of confidence he feels placed in him, the responsibility he is able to assume, and entrepreneurial creativity his project and/or position involves. He always seeks the opportunity to further develop himself and when the time is right, he'd like to rediscover the international path of his 20s.

More than 20 years of experience in solving integration challenges. Now helping companies to be successful in the digital economy with integration and analytics solutions from Axway.

We help you to build true Customer Experience Networks by connecting you with your customers, global business partners, mobile devices and cloud platforms to establish new business models in the digital economy.

Patrick Prüss holds an MBA from the University of Seattle. He entered the insurance industry at AXA and later went on to Gothaer to leading positions in product management and digital.

During her studies, Julia Gumula already co-presented workshops for well-known large companies. Thereafter, Julia researched the question "Why are other techniques leading to more innovative ideas than brainstorming?" at Göttingen University. After completing her Ph.D., Julia will join B. Braun Melsungen as Senior Manager Communications in July 2018.

Stefan has a 20 year track-record with BMW Group, the leading premium car manufacturer and service provider.

Having started in the financial services sector in Germany and Italy, Stefan moved to Sales steering and operations in the German market and on HQ levels in Munich/Germany.

Among others, he was heading the Regional Office in Munich for Sales Operations in the U.S. and Canada.

As current Head of Sales Innovations, he is constantly looking for promising technology-driven ideas and approaches, to test/pilot for application in BMW’s Sales and Marketing fields.

The transformation of a more than 100 year old car manufacturer towards Autonomous Driving, Connectivity, Electrification and Shared usage models has only just begun…

Ronald Mol, leads the Enterprise business for Pluralsight in Europe and is helping companies to close their Digital Skills Gaps and deliver successful digital transformation programs. He brings a wealth of software and SaaS experience having led enterprise operations for global organisations like BlackBerry, Skillsoft, DHL, and Desire2Learn. Ronald is a Dutch national and a truly global business leader who, while living and working in many countries, including Germany, Sweden, Spain, France has acquired a passion for food and fluency in 7 European languages – this makes him a consummate and skilled communicator across complex and distributed organisations.

Dr. Georg Loepp arbeitet als Account & Innovation Director für Cegeka. Er ist verantwortlich für neue agile und digitale Lösungen. Seit 1998 begleitet er Kunden - zunächst als Enterprise Solution Architect und später als Business Development Manager - auf dem Weg zur Erneuerung ihrer durch Innovationen getriebenen Geschäftsprozesse. IT und der Einsatz agiler Methoden waren in diesem Fall ein sehr hilfreiches Instrument, um sich den Herausforderungen einer sich schnell verändernden und immer komplexer werdenden globalen Marktverschiebung zu stellen. Er arbeitete für große Unternehmen wie IBM, Teradata und Allianz sowie für aktive Kunden in der Finanz-, Pharma-, Handels- und Fertigungsindustrie. Nach dem Studium der Physik an der Universität Heidelberg und Bochum promovierte er 1998 in Physikalischer Chemie.

Roman Schwarze is leading the Digital Campus Journey Management Team within Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt since the beginning of 2017. In the last years as Head of Process Excellence he has been responsible for several initiatives concerning the end-to-end process optimization and digitization within the bank, its strategy ‘Commerzbank 4.0’ and the setup of the Commerzbank Digital Campus.
Before, he worked several years in the strategy and development department of Commerzbank AG. He started his professional career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Academically, he did his diploma in mathematics an economics at Bielefeld University and at Purdue University in Indiana.

Matthias Schirrmacher studied International Business and Industrial Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden and has been working at Merck in a wide variety of roles since 2015. He has been in charge of designing, implementing and running processes to successfully operate the Merck Innovation Center, including all HR and Finance processes.
He is now responsible for creating a digitalization network and platform to allow alignment of topics and resources as well as exchange and training for project managers and employees, making collaboration possible among people located in different locations, but who are connected in Merck's workplace.

Geert Bullens studied both Industrial Design and Business Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. He has been working at IntoAction since 2013, focusing on deploying digital innovations in (digital) marketing teams of companies like TomTom, Akzo Nobel and Philips Lighting. He believes that business deployment of IT solutions can only be successful if the four components: process, people, information and technology are leveled and grow together. By keeping these leveled, digital maturity can grow in organizations.

At Philips Lighting, Geert has worked on projects to deploy new digital capabilities in global and market organizations, bringing a foundational knowledge level of digital marketing throughout the organization and to organize digital growth on digital maturity.

Studium Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen, Co-Founder Energie-Crowdfunding, Promotion im Bereich Innovationsmanagement, Co-Founder e-GO Digital GmbH, 100 prozentige Tochterfirma von eGO Mobile

Oliver Weinmann is Managing Director of Vattenfall Europe Innovation GmbH. As a subsidiary of
Vattenfall GmbH and part of the Vattenfall Business Area Wind the enterprise focuses on business
development and steering of activities in the field of product and technology development, mainly
related to renewable energies. He studied Process Engineering at the RWTH Aachen, followed by a
PhD on Solar Thermal Power Plants at DLR in Cologne. In 1992 he started his career at HEW in
Hamburg and changed to Vattenfall in 2003 as Head of Innovation Management. In parallel, between
2004 and 2007, he was Managing Director of Vattenfall Europe Renewables GmbH and built up of the
renewable energy business in the Vattenfall Europe Group. In 2010 he was appointed as Managing
Director of Vattenfall Europe Innovation GmbH.