Tartu Science Park » Baltic Dynamics 2008 » Speakers

Speakers

Toomas Hendrik Ilves
President of Estonia

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia has educational background in psychology from Columbia University (USA) - BA in 1976 and Pennsylvania University (USA) - MA in 1978.

He started his career as a research assistant in Columbia University (1974-1979), became Assistant Director of Open Education Center in Englewood, New Jersey (1979-1981). In 1981 he moved to Canada to become Director and Administrator of Art at Vancouver Arts Center. Before moving to Germany in 1984 he also worked as a lecturer in Estonian Literature and Linguistics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. From 1984-1993 he was working in Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany. Since 1993 he has been working in civil service as Ambassador of Estonia to USA, Canada and Mexico (1993-1996), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1996-1998; 1999-2002), Member of Parliament (2002-2004) and Member of European Parliament (2004-2006). From 2006 he became the President of the Republic of Estonia.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves is a well-known speaker and a supporter of innovation. From his initiative The Tiger Leap Foundation was founded in 1996. It is a national specific programme launched by the Estonian Government with an aim to increase Estonian school education quality utilizing modern information and communication technology.

Maive Rute
Director at DG Enterprise and Industry
European Commission

Ms Rute has graduated from Estonian University of Agriculture in 1991 (cum laude, economics and administration) and has a Master's degree from Danube University in Krems, Austria (business administration).

She has a background in building up and managing SME support schemes. Prior to her current appointment, she worked for several years as the Chief Executive Officer of Credit and Export Guarantee Fund KredEx. Experienced in areas ranging from financing innovation and technological development to business consultancy and management training for enterprises, her contributions to developing access to finance and export guarantees and her articulation of the SME dimension in policy-making have been recognized through prestigious awards from the Estonian Small Business Association and Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Rick Weddle
President and CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, owner and developer of The Research Triangle Park.

The renowned Research Triangle Park was established in 1959 and is the largest high-technology park development in North America, covering 7,000 total acres. Mr. Weddle was tapped to lead the Research Triangle Foundation in July 2004. In addition to overseeing Park operations and development, Mr. Weddle is setting the strategic direction for the Park’s next 50 years. In the past three years, the Park has far surpassed its historic performance, generating development projects with projected capital investment of over $800 million and projected creation of over 6,300 new, high quality jobs.

Mr. Weddle’s career encompasses over twenty-five years of successful leadership and organizational change management. Previously, he led regional economic development organizations in four different states, including the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Toledo, Ohio Regional Growth Partnership, the San Joaquin Partnership & Business Council in Stockton, California and Winston-Salem Business Inc in North Carolina. During his tenure, these organizations created a combined total of 32,000 new jobs and invested over $3.4 billion in their regions.

An active speaker and leader in numerous economic development and science park organizations, Mr. Weddle was elected as the first Chairman of the Board of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in 2002. Currently, Mr. Weddle serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). In addition, he has served on numerous gubernatorially appointed task forces and working committees, including the Arizona Partnership for the New Economy (2000-2001) and the Ohio Economic Development Advisory Committee (1996). Mr. Weddle has also been an instructor since 1986 at the Economic Development Institute, an extension of the University of Oklahoma.


Dirk Meissner
Swiss Science and Technology Council

Dr. Dirk Meissner is responsible for Technology and Innovation Policy at the Swiss’ Science and Technology (SSTC) Presidential Office. Dirk joined SSTC in 2008. Prior joining SSTC he was in charge of innovation and technology studies at the Center for Economic and Scientific Studies (CEST) in Bern, management consultant with Arthur D. Little and Proneos Management Consultants with special emphasis on technology and innovation management. He conducted major work on innovation policy for the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and various German ministries. His major fields of work include national innovation systems; industry science relationships; public-private partnerships in R&D; Foresight studies, research cooperation culture and intellectual property management. Dirk Meissner holds a Phd from Dresden University of Technology in business management.


Gunnar Okk
Vice President
Nordic Investment Bank

Gunnar Okk graduated with MSc from the Tallinn University of Technology in 1983. In 1998 - 2005, Chairman of the Management Board & CEO of Eesti Energia AS. In 1991 – 1997, held various positions in the Norwegian oil company Statoil in Estonia and Sweden.

Gunnar Okk has been active in various organisations and companies, such as Hansabank (Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board); Estonian Employers' Confederation (Vice-Chairman of the Council); Estonian National Committee of the World Energy Council (Chairman); Development Foundation of the Tallinn University of Technology (Chairman); Union of the European Electricity Industry (Member of the Board of Directors).

Author of several publications on the executive management of energy industries and businesses in Estonia and worldwide.

Sten Tamkivi
General Manager
eCommerce General Manager
Estonia Interim General Manager of Communications
Skype

Sten Tamkivi is the General Manager of Skype's eCommerce activities, responsible for developing next-generation commerce around Skype's core communication offering. SkypeFind global business listings, SkypePrime premium voice & video services and SkypeCasts voice communities are examples of projects his team is working on. As an Interim General Manager of Communications Sten is also responsible for Windows, Mac and Linux clients. Based in Tallinn, he also looks after Skype Estonia as local GM.

Sten joined Skype in 2005 and has held executive positions as the Head of Operations, overseeing our sites and servers, as well as internal IT, security, and productivity tools and more recently managing the engineering for Skype Devices. Prior to Skype, Sten was business development director at Helmes, a Tallinn-based software development and IT-consulting company where his client roster included major regional financial institutions, telecoms and utilities.

Having begun his career as a programmer and web designer, Sten co-founded and managed Halo Interactive DDB Estonia, the countryﾕs first full service digital media agency. It was at Halo, while working on a web portal project, that he first met the future founders and core engineers of Skype.

Sten has studied Public Relations and Communication at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He lives in Tallinn where he cooks gourmet meals for his wife and son.


Luis Sanz
Director General
International Association of Science and Technology Parks

Luis Sanz was born in Valencia (Spain), in January 1952.

Finishing high school he applied and was accepted to an AFS training scholarship to stay for one year in the USA and upon his return he began his higher education at the University of Valencia (Faculties of Law and Linguistics), and in 1973 moved to The Netherlands, where he finished his education in Linguistics and Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.

He worked for five years as a journalist for the International Dutch Radio Broadcasting System, and was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Modern Languages of the University of Utrecht in the late seventies.

In 1980 he moved to Italy where he began his professional activities in the private sector, as Marketing and Export Manager of an important group of industries in the optical sector. In 1981 he founded his own consulting company in Italy, focusing on international marketing and import-export activities. In 1987 he returned to Spain to set-up and develop the Technology Park of Valencia. During this period he was:

• Vice-President of the Spanish Association of Technology Parks (1990-94),
• President of the IASP European Division (1992-96), and
• Member of the IASP International Board of Directors (1992-1995).

In 1995 he was elected International Vice-President of the IASP and in 1996 he was appointed Director General of the IASP (International Association of Science Parks). In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Council of the IASP. In 2005 he was elected General Co-ordinator of the World Alliance for Innovation, which gathers the most important national associations of Science Parks and innovation-based business incubators in the world.

Luis Sanz is also President and founder of Perfil Trh. S.L.,an international technology-brokerage company, and Chairman of LU2 Ventures Ltd., a Hong Kong-based corporation operating in the areas of economic development and technology-based investments, with branch offices in Spain and The Netherlands.

He has published a large number of articles and presented many papers on the topic of Technology Parks, innovation, knowledge economy, sociology of globalisation, etc. He is also editing consultant and advisor to economy magazines, and special advisor to Science and Technology Parks in different countries.

Luis Sanz speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian and Dutch, and Portuguese. Since 1982 is also “official interpreter” of the State, in Spain.


Dr. Hongxin Tan
General Manager
International Technology Transfer Center (ITTC) and
R&D Management Office
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China

Dr. Hongxin Tan has been acting as General Manager of International Technology Transfer Center (ITTC) and R&D Management Office, Tsinghua University since 2001, and has been taking the position of President of Coway International TechTrans Co., Ltd. since 2002.

Dr. Tan achieved his Bachelor, Master and Doctor degrees in Department of Mechanism Engineering of Tsinghua University in succession from September 1983 to June1993. Furthermore, he is a qualified senior economist.

From July 1993 to February 2001, he had been working for China Non-Ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. He had been engaged in the international economic & technological cooperation for a long time and had been appointed as Project Director, Division Manager and Board Chairman & General Manager of a branch company in succession.

Dr. Tan has completed various cases of technology transfer successfully and obtained abundant experience. He has been devoted himself not only to promoting technology transfer in the region of Beijing, but also to building up the interprovincial technology cooperation platforms and the international channels between China and foreign countries, including France, UK, Germany, Canada, Estonia and South Korea etc.

At the same time, Dr. Tan has completed various researches on the theory of technology transfer. He sets up Senior Training Course for Technology Manager for the practitioners in the field of technology transfer which takes place every year since 2002 and trains the trainees himself as the lecturer.


Vida Rozite
Senior advisor
Nordic Energy Research
Oslo, Norway

Vida Rozite has graduated from University of Stockholm (BA in political science) and she has MSc degree in Environmental Management and Policy from Lund University. She has also completed a number of graduate level courses from several universities in Sweden and Norway in the areas connected with Environmental Science, Energy and Energy Technology, Geology, Human Ecology, Water Management and Biology.

She started her working career in Embassy of Latvia in Stockholm. From 2000-2005 she was working as Deputy Director and advisor for Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Riga, Latvia. From 2006-2007 she has been active researcher in Lund University, Sweden. She has been working with projects in: Green Markets and Cleaner Technologies (focus areas; innovation and energy efficiency), Substitution of Chemicals in Companies (focus areas: cleaner production, management). From April 2007 - present day she has been working as the Senior Advisor in the Nordic Energy Research. Additionally she is board member of several research projects and secretary of the Nordic Working Group for Renewable Energy.She is also expert evaluator for EU Commission's 7th Framework Programme

She is proficient in English, Latvian, Danish and Norwegian.

Recent Publications:
2008 - The challenges of energy efficiency innovations in the Nordic building sector
Greener Markets and Cleaner Technologies (GMCT), TemaNord 2008:566 , ISBN 978-92-893-1723-8

2008 - KemI Rapport 2/08. Att arbeta med produktval i praktiken, KemI, maj 2008. (Working with the substitution of chemicals - case studies).

2007 - Produktval i Praktiken. Projektrapport 240-1436-06
Företags arbete med produktval och utbyte av farliga ämnen samt hur olika aktörer kan verka pådrivande för detta arbete. (Companies' work with substitution of hazardous substances and how various actors can promote this work).

2006 - MSc. Thesis: Innovation in the building sector - promoting energy efficiency in Denmark and Sweden, International Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics.

Janis Stabulnieks
Prof., Dr.habil.sc.ing.
Managing Director
Latvian Technological Center

Janis Stabulnieks is the Managing Director of Latvian Technological Center – the first innovation support structure established in Latvia. Since 1993, his main research in the expertise areas has revolved around the analysis and policy advice for the creation of the National Innovation System in Latvia. In 2001-2002, he was Chairman of the working group for elaborating the National Programme on Innovation. He is an invited expert for the EU Programme “Regions of Knowledge” in FP7 and the coordinator of the technology transfer part in the Enterprise Europe Network in Latvia under the EU CIP Programme.

Dr. J.Stabulnieks is a member of the IASP (International association of Science Parks), EBN (European Business and Innovation Center’s Network) and BASTIC (Baltic Association of Science/Technology Parks and Innovation Centres). He is the President of the Latvian Association of Technology Parks, Centers and Business Incubators (LTICA).

Linas Kliucininkas
Department for Environmental Engineering
Kaunas University of Technology

Linas Kliucininkas is a Professor at the Department for Environmental Engineering at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. From 1997 to 2007 Kliucininkas was the Head of the Department. At the moment he leads research group on monitoring, modelling and integrated assessment of the environmental impacts from energy and transport sectors. He has extensive record of publications covering fields of Environmental Science and Sustainability. The major part of the publications is of an applied character and has interdisciplinary nature. During last decade Kliucininkas has initiated and participated in a number of international programmes and projects supporting environmental and sustainability studies in the Baltic Sea Region.

He is member of editorial board of the International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development. Kliucininkas is an expert in FP7-Infrastructures-Environment and Energy programme, as well as evaluator of environmental study programmes at universities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Kastytis Gečas
Director
Lithuanian Innovation Centre

Dr Kastytis Gečas has been the Director of the Lithuanian Innovation Centre since it was founded in 1995. Besides his duties as CEO of the organisation that renders country-wide innovation support services, Mr Gečas has acted as partner manager in more than 40 international projects to support innovation in companies and research laboratories across Europe, mostly financed by the European Commission.

Since 1997, he has acted as Coordinator of the European Innovation Relay Centre – Lithuania (from 2008 – the member of Enterprise Europe Network) as well as the Regional Innovation Strategy INNPULSE - Lithuania. In Lithuania, he is responsible for running Innovation Support Network – the country-wide network of innovation advisors to SMEs. He has also participated in several European and national innovation support-type initiatives (e.g. inno-nets), and he advises public institutions and business associations on innovation. Mr Gečas was the head of two expert groups that drafted the country's mid-term Innovation in Business Programme (in 1999 and in 2007). Mr Gečas is nominated by European Patent Office as Jury Member for annual EPO and EC contest “European Inventor” (in 2007 and in 2008).

He has an academic background in mathematics and computer science.


Chuck Erickson
Executive Director and CEO
US Market Access Center
Silicon Valley, USA 

Chuck Erickson is currently the Executive Director and CEO of the US Market Access Center, serving approximately 30 companies expanding their market reach to the United States. Previously, he worked as a business consultant specializing in start-up or start-over operations and activities involving CEO coaching, interim CEO/COO positioning, and project management (CTO/COO).

He has recently held positions of corporate President/CEO, CTO, Managing Director, and Technical Director of entrepreneurial management teams in start-up and turn-around companies. Mr. Erickson is a seasoned executive with over thirty-five years of management experience focused in the areas of innovative software and hardware development, international business and corporate operations. He has extensive international experience in software and hardware development, marketing, and manufacturing. He has proven abilities as an effective team builder, strategist, and communicator.

Mr. Erickson holds a BSEE from Illinois Institute of Technology, has done post-graduate studies at The University of Chicago, and has taught at IIT, Penn State University and San Jose State University. He is an active volunteer in the Boy Scouts of America, holding positions of Council President, Executive VP, and Area President. He also recently served as Chairman of the Board for Eastfield Ming Quong, a child and family services non-profit agency.


Omar Mencin
Managing Director
US Market Access Center
Silicon Valley, USA

Omar Mencin is responsible for the worldwide business development of the US Market Access Center’s (USMAC) services. In 2003, Mr. Mencin started the USMAC consulting group which provides strategic consulting services to foreign based high-tech small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and government agencies worldwide. Since 2003, he has closed contracts and created partnerships with over 100 client companies in the information communications technology, solar and renewable energy, and biotech and life science sectors, and with several government agencies and foreign based business incubators from over thirty countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

Mr. Mencin is currently an advisor to several government groups from Japan, Finland, China, Slovenia, Chile, Belgium, and Germany which work to bring small and medium sized technology companies to the US market. He was previously an analyst with Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, which invests private equity capital worldwide. Mr. Mencin has also worked in a variety of law offices structuring M&A deals, IPO's, and international finance projects, has served as an intern for the World Bank Paris Office and as a research assistant for the Hoover Institute at Stanford.

He has a BA from Swarthmore College with Honors, has studied mandarin Chinese at the Taipei Language Institute and National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, and has a certificate in Management Science and Engineering and an MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University. Recently, he was elected to membership at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Peter Vadasz
Mayor of the City of Güssing
Austria

With educational background as a secondary modern teacher, Peter Vadasz has been  the Mayor of Güssing since 1992. He has also been working as Member of Parliament Burgenland from 02.06.1996 till 2005.

Mayor Peter Vadasz was awarded with the “Hans Kudlich Award”. The city of Güssing was nominated in the year 2004 as the “Most innovative community of Austria” under Mayor Peter Vadasz. Güssing got this award from the Austrian association of municipalities together with the newspaper “Wirtschaftsblatt”. Furthermore the city of Güssing was awarded in the year 2004 with the “Austrian Solar-Energy-Award” and at the same time with the “European Solar-Energy-Award”. Mayor Peter Vadasz accepted this award at Bonn/Germany. At the world exhibition 2005 in Japan, Mayor Peter Vadasz and Ing. Reinhard Koch accepted the universal price for environment in seven categories – “Global 100 Eco Tech Award 2005” – for the European Center of renewable Energy and the community of Güssing.

The city of Güssing is known in Europe and as well in overseas countries like the USA, Canada or Japan because of the model “Energy self-sufficient City” (self-sufficiency with biomass: heating, warm water, electricity, fuel and planned also cooling of buildings with biomass). Furthermore under Mayor Vadasz more than 1.000 jobs have been created. About 500 new jobs will be created in the next years because we have immense interest of future investors in Güssing. At the moment the first solar cell plant of Austria is build, where about 300 people can find a new job.


Dr. Valery Tsepkalo
Director
Belarus High-Technologies Park

Valery Tsepkalo has graduated from the Belarusian Technological Institute, Minsk and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (Doctor in International Law). His working career started at the USSR Embassy in Finland in 1991. The following 3 years he was working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. He has also been Adviser to the Chairman of the Parliament of Belarus (1993-1994) and to the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (1994). From 1994 – 1997 he was the First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. From 1997- 2002 he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the United States of America.
From 2002 – 2005 he was working as Aide to the President of Belarus (Science and Technology issues) and since 2005 he is the Director of Belarus High-Technologies Park.

Additionally, he is the author of 80 articles on religion, world economy, international security and foreign policy. Author of 20 publications on e-government, information technologies and intellectual property rights. Among others are publications in Foreign Affairs, Journal of Congress, Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Horizons.
Author of the series The Great Teachers of Humanity: Buddha and Death, Prophet Moses and the Book of Life, Mohammed and the Return to Eden, Jesus Christ and the Resurrection of Man.

Author of the books By the Road of Dragon on economic development of new industrialized nations of South-East Asia and Immortality Code on the mystery of death and resurrection of man.

Governmental expert to the UN Secretary General in the field of information and communication technologies. Speaks English, Russian, Finnish, Polish.



Rolf Ulseth
Associate Professor
Department of Energy and Process Engineering
Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Rolf Useth has graduated from Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH). He has master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (Siv.ing.) from 1965. Additionally, he has attended courses on Environmental Engineering at the Nordic Health Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden.

His working career started as a Mechanical Construction Engineer at the Norwegian Defence Research Institute. Later he has been working as assistant professor and consultig engineer at HVAC Departments at NTH. His main expertise lies in heating, air conditioning and environment engineering: heat load and energy demand in buildings, energy supply systems for buildings, energy and heat planning, hydronic heating and cooling systems, energy flexible heating systems and heating system simulation.

Rolf Useth is a member of Norwegian Society of HVAC-Engineers and Norwegian District Heating Association. He has also been active in a number of Commissions dealing with energy efficiency, building standardisation, thematic events organisation, etc. A few examples of recent years:

• 2002- Chairman, Committee for "Heating Systems in Buildings", Norwegian Council for Building Standardization
• 2002 Chairman, The 8th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling at NTNU, Nordic Energy Research Programme, Nordic Council of Ministers
• 2003- Chairman, Committee for "Energy in Buildings", Norwegian Council for Building Standardization
  2003- Member, Committee for “Energy Performance of Building Directive” Norwegian Council for Building Standardization
  2006 Member of Programme Committee, The10th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling, September 3-5.
  2007-11 Project leader for the PhD-project; Primary Energy Efficiency in Nordic Energy Research
• 2008 Member of Programme Committee, The11th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling, August 30 –September 2. NTNU, 2008-08-11/RU
  

Sigridur Thormodsdottir
Senior advisor
Nordic Innovation Centre
Oslo, Norway

Senior advisor at Nordic Innovation Centre (NICe), a Nordic instrument for promoting an innovative and knowledge-intensive Nordic business sector. BSc in Biology from the University of Iceland and MBA from BI Norwegian School of Management, Norway.

Sigridur is responsible for several projects within life science s.a. NICe's Environmental Technology focus area.


Jelena Angelis
Consultant
Oxford Innovation
UK

Jelena has worked for both Oxford Innovation and SQW, which comprise SQW Group. She is working on
projects in the areas of SME support and development (including access to finance), business incubation and innovation. She is a part of the in-house Oxford Innovation team helping entrepreneurs to structure their investment pitches for presentation at Oxford Innovation’s OION investment meetings.

Jelena has specialist knowledge in life sciences through running the Healthcare Interest Group at Oxford Innovation and working on a number of projects in the biotechnology sector. The most recent work examples include implementation of the Bulgarian National Innovation Strategy; evaluation of FP6 funded projects; support to smaller medical diagnostics companies through the Innovation Advisory Service; and provision of expert opinion on the development on infrastructure to support Science and Technology base in Lithuania. At SQW, Jelena worked as a Consultant on a number of projects in the areas of regional development and innovation. In between these two roles, Jelena completed her PhD on the topic of collaborations between small biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical companies, developing a methodology and framework for performance assessment of such collaborations.

A qualified economist Jelena comes from Lithuania. Her last position was with Lithuanian Export Credit Agency, a government agency in charge of export promotion and SMEs development in Lithuania, working with both public and private sector clients and co-ordinating the Agency’s work within the Berne Union framework.

Katharina Krell
Executive Manager
Greenovate! Europe

Katharina is co-founder and Executive Manager of Greenovate! Europe, a Brussels-based EU-wide expert network in support of environmental innovation. From 2004 to March 2008, she was the Secretary General of EUREC Agency, a European Group of 47 renewable energy research centres. She developed the support to innovation and knowledge transfer from renewable energy research to the market as a new strategic business area for EUREC Agency and led successful projects in the field.

From 2000-2002, she was working for the German Development Service (GTZ/CIM) in China, as seconded expert for renewable energy electrification strategies.

Katharina is German and holds a BA in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Relations in Geneva, as well as an MBA from United Business Institutes in Brussels. She speaks 6 languages.



Tarvi Martens
Development Director
Certification Centre Ltd
Estonia

Tarvi Martens, born in 1969, has been a key figure in the Estonian IT and infosecurity field for the past dozen years. He has an MSc degree from Tallinn Technical University, with his thesis being on the theme "On Evidential Value of Digital Signatures".

Tarvi has been building governmental Internet (1993-1997), developing information security and PKI products (1997-2001) and being actively involved in various aspects of developing Estonian e-government in a whole. Tarvi was among the originators of the Estonian ID card project in 1996 and has been a supporter and dedicated evangelist of it ever since. In 2002, Tarvi joined SK where he laid down the original concept of DigiDoc, the national de facto standard in Estonia for digital signatures.

In 2003 Tarvi started with the e-voting project with National Electoral Committee in order to provide Estonian electoral system with Internet voting capability. The system was used wide-scale in local government elections in 2005 and in parliamentary elections in 2007.

Tarvi has often written articles and given presentations at various events to popularise the Internet usage and applications in Estonia. He is a frequent speaker in European IT-security events and representative of the Estonian Government in various EU working groups.

On 2007, Tarvi received the “Top Outstanding Young Person of the Year” award from JCI (Junior Chamber International) for the achievements in technological developments.


Adrian Duckworth
Programmes Manager
Enterprise Europe Network
Coventry University Enterprises Ltd
UK

Adrian Duckworth is a qualified business advisor with over 15 years of project management experience. Currently employed as a Programmes Manager for Coventry University Enterprises Ltd, Adrian manages several projects focusing on International Business and Knowledge Transfer.

Throughout the course of these projects Adrian has been active providing support in innovation and trans-national technology transfer for regional companies, having spent considerable time identifying and working with companies within the region, providing them with assistance in interfacing with European technology providers and helping them to commercialise their intellectual property. Having both taken companies to overseas seminars and partnering events and also hosted international brokerage events here in the UK, Adrian has successfully brokered a number of International trade agreements between Midlands and European Companies

An active participant with regional groups providing business support such as UK Trade and Investment, Advantage West Midlands, East Midlands Development Agency, RING and Climate Change Solutions Ltd. Adrian has worked closely with these groups to help promote trans-national technology transfer to technology developers and innovators within the region working at all levels of the supply chain.

In addition to managing International trade and technology transfer projects Adrian also has previous experience managing and delivering applied research projects at both doctoral and post-doctoral level, focusing on Concurrent Engineering and Stage Gates Design methodologies in SMEs. Adrian has also lectured to students from undergraduates to Masters level and was previously employed as the Subject Leader for BSC Product Design Innovation and Eco-design undergraduate degree course at Derby University and has over half a dozen national and international published papers.


Jonas Wolff, M.Sc.(Eng.)
Senior Technology Adviser
Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
Helsinki, Finland

Carl Jonas Vilhelm Wolff, born on April 25, 196, graduated as M.Sc in Engineering in 1994.

Mr. Wolff has a long career in energy and environmental technology, having done appied research with VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, and product and business development with ABB.

In 2003 he joined the Technology Centre Merinova as programme manager for a Finnish national technology progam for distributed energy systems (DENSY), funded and managed by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes. The program funded research and industrial development to a cumulated volume of Euro 60 million during its 5-year term 2003-2007. Mr Wolff was responsible for coordinating research, managing joint activites and disseminating results.

In 2007 he continued as a Senior Technology Adviser with Tekes, bringing the mentioned technology program to its succesful end and to start up new development activites with the energy and environment industry. He is currently involved in a Tekes program on Sustainable Communities and in several working groups with the International Energy Agency and is His special interests are in commericialising research results and developing business models for new technology.


Tarja Teppo
Head of Research, Partner
Cleantech Invest
Finland

Before co-founding Cleantech Invest, Ms. Tarja Teppo (PhD in Industrial Management, M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering) earned her doctorate at Helsinki University of Technology conducting research on cleantech capital markets. Previously she worked for Nokia group in Finland and in the US where she held several management positions within R&D and venturing activities. She was also a co-founder of an internal venture at Nokia Group. Other previous positions include working in China, and R&D and research positions in sensor technologies.

Cleantech Invest was formed to meet institutional investors' need for financial information services related to clean technologies. Our services include the following: Global cleantech industry analysis, Investment analysis of listed cleantech firms, Investment advisory and sub-advisory services, Financial consulting services and Due diligence services.


Markku Paananen
Development Manager
Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences
Finland

Markku Paananen (B.Sc in forestry) has worked for Finnish private forestry in forest management planning and forestry based business development. Since 1993 he has made his career at bioenergy research and development sector. He worked three years at the VTT, The Technical Research Centre of Finland, in the Central Finland Forest Energy project, which was the largest demonstration project of the national Bioenergy Research Programme.

After that he initiated and developed with his colleaques the Benet Bioenergy Network, a network of 10 bioenergy expertise organisations, and managed the network ten years in the Jyväskylä Science Park and it’s follower the Jyväskylä Innovation Ltd. During that period he developed and managed over 50 focal bioenergy R&D projects, including 25 international co-operation projects. He also developed the Bioenergy Strategy and Action Plan for the Central Finland region. Today he is leading the Bioenergy Cluster Programme of Central Finland, one of three business development programmes of the region, involving in 33 core companies and institutions.

Alasdair Reid
Director
Technopolis Group
Belgium/Estonia

Alasdair Reid directs the Technopolis Group offices in Brussels and Tallinn. He has fifteen years of experience in policy research and in providing advice to the European Commission services, national and regional authorities. His work has supported agencies and partnerships active in the fields of regional economic development, innovation and enterprise policies.

Following two-years as an economist in Coopers & Lybrand's European office (Brussels), he gained a Masters in Economics and then spent three years as a researcher on regional innovation policies at the University of Louvain (Belgium). He then managed the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy (DG REGIO) initiative of regional innovation strategies from 1996 to 1999.

From 2000, he led a range of multi-country evaluation and innovation related studies for the Belgian consultancy ADE S.A. Since 2004, and joining Technopolis, he has been leading the two major European policy benchmarking initiatives in the field of innovation and research: respectively the Innovation TrendChart and the ERAWATCH Network. Other recent projects include studies for DG REGIO for on innovation in the Structural Funds. He has published widely on innovation policy in both books and journals. Alasdair holds economic degrees from Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh) and UCL (Belgium). He is fluently bilingual (English and French) and speaks some Spanish and a little Estonian.


Katrin Männik
Head of the Tallinn Office
Technopolis Group
Estonia

Katrin Männik, PhD (in economics) began working with Technopolis at the beginning of 2006. She is based in Tallinn where she acts as the head of the office. Prior to joining Technopolis, Katrin has worked in science, technology and innovation policy field (research, teaching, policy-making) for eight years at the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU), the University of Sussex and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, at the University of Tartu. She has worked in the field of innovation and technology for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of the Republic of Estonia.
Regarding her recent works she has been the Estonian country correspondent for PRO INNO Trendchart, also evaluating the successful innovation projects co-financed by EU Structural Funds in Estonia (Food and Fermentation Technologies Competence Centre) and Latvia (Venture Capital Financing), leading the European wide Sectoral Innovation Watch Study on ‚Innovation Champions‘ from 10 industrial sectors (70 interviews and 30 showcases), implementing the feasibility study for developing the Technology Investment Support Programme as well as the mid-term evaluation of the Competence Centre Programme for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Aside from her mother tongue, Estonian, she is fluent in English and has a good command of Russian.


Wolfgang Kniejski
Manager
INI-GraphicsNet Stiftung
Germany

After finishing studying business management and economics at the University of Mannheim, Germany, Wolfgang Kniejski started his business career in 1991 as the Financial Manager of Fraunhofer-Institute for Computer Graphics, in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1999 he took the position as Business Manager of INI-GraphicsNet Foundation, since 2004 he was appointed as its Treasurer and Business Director.

In this capacity he developed and implemented successfully methodologies and processes to support the technology commercialisation for universities and research institutions via licensing and spin-off activities.

Mr. Kniejski represents the interests of the INI-GraphicsNet Foundation as shareholder in the Boards of several high-tech spin-off companies and technology transfer organisations all over the world, as well as through his membership in several professional advisory bodies.

He was appointed as innovation consultant by different governmental agencies on an international level to develop concept for High-Tech Incubators and Business and Science Parks, and he is also jury member in several international business plan and idea competitions.

Mr. Kniejski spun his technology commercialisation knowledge off into his own company and created INI-Novation GmbH as an innovation management and consulting entity. In 2006, he won the innovation award of the Singaporean government for exploiting the integrated technology commercialisation concept to Singapore.


Veneta Ivanova
Manager
INI-Novation GmbH
Germany

Between 2004 and 2007 Mrs. Veneta Ivanova has been working at the INI-GraphicsNet Foundation in Darmstadt, Germany, specialising in the area of Innovation Management and Technology Marketing. Ms. Ivanova was supporting the international technology transfer focusing on the USA, West- and Eastern Europe. She was elaborating market studies and developing marketing strategies and business models for newly established Spin-offs.

In the summer of 2007 she was appointed as Managing Director of INI-Novation GmbH, the privately held innovation management company of INI-GraphicsNet Foundation.

Ms. Veneta Ivanova graduated in 2000 with a Master of Media Management and Communications from the University of Economics in Sofia, Bulgaria.

While employed at Wrangler, Germany, as a project manager, she developed a market penetration strategy for a product launch on the European fashion market. At ÖKO-TEST Publishing in Frankfurt, Ms. Ivanova was also responsible for customer acquisition within the market for biological products and for the supervision of existing customers.

Aivar Pere
Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Tartu, Estonia

Mervi Raudsaar
Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Tartu, Estonia

Experience
02/2007 - present University of Tartu, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Center for Entrepreneurship. Research field: social entrepreneurship, civil society.
08/2007 - present University of Tartu, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Center for Entrepreneurship, European Social foundations project: "Learning program: Entrepreneurship for young people"
08/2000 - 02/2007 Lecturer and research secretary at the Tartu Academy of Theology
08/2000 - 08/2007 Member of the Tartu Academy of Theology council and board

Education
2006 - present Doctoral studies (Sociology), Faculty of Sociology, University of Tartu, Estonia
12/2004 Magister Artium (Social Work and Policy), Faculty of Sociology, University of Tartu, Estonia
06/1997 BA (Social Work and Policy) Faculty of Sociology, University of Tartu, Estonia


Leeni Uba
Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Tartu, Estonia

Study experience
2003 - 2007 University of Tartu: master studies in cultural management, cultural entrepreneurship; Master of Arts in Humanities (Cultural Management)
1968 - 1973 University of Tartu: Estonian Philology; philologist, Teacher of Estonian Language and Literature.

Work experience:
2007 - Tartu University, Centre for Entrepreneurship, adviser
2004 - Self-employed Entrepreneur
1973 - 2003 University of Tartu: Tartu University Press, Department of R&D, Patent Office, Innovation Office, PR Office;
1992 - 1999 Patent Bureau Käosaar, Kahu & Pisuke; Patent and Innovation Bureau OÜ Ustervall

Professional and other experience and skills: language editing and editing books; project manager of innovation fair INNOVAATIKA 1992 - 1999 in Tartu; adviser on PR and marketing area.

Ulrich Müller
ProArbeit kAöR
EU-Consultancy for Osterholz County

Since 1980 Ulrich Müller has been active in planning and management of EU-funded projects (Social Funds), regional development under the scope of Human Resources Development and environmental issues as consultant and managing director of a development agency.

Since 1990 he has specialised on transnational knowledge-transfer projects in sustainable regional development, energy supply and vocational training as project developer and project manager.

He is EU-advisor of the County of Osterholz since 1998. Since 2002 he has been active in projects on Life Long Learning in the context of regional and local development. He has developed projects for Learning Region Osterholz, focusing on ICT as a driving force for growth and development.

Since May 2008 he is the coordinator of KISoLL project.


Priit Enok
Member of the Board
Estonian Oil Stockpiling Agency

Priit Enok is a diploma engineer in Industrial and Civil Engineering. He has been involved in energy and environmental sector since 1996. In February 1996 PE was employed as a manager of the Estonian Regional Energy Centres. At the year 2000 the consultancy company AF-Esteam was established with PE as a manager. From April 2003 until March 2005 PE was employed by the Ministry of Economy and Communications as a counsellor and as a head of the Housing and Building Department.

Since April 2005 until June 2008 PE was employed as a project officer by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation in the European Commission. One of main tasks of the Agency is implementation of the Intelligent Energy – Europe programme. PE was responsible for implementation of the Sustainable Energy Communities’ key action.

Since June 2008 PE is acting as a Member of the Board of the Estonian Oil Stockpiling Agency. This is a Governmental Agency established for the purpose of establishment, maintenance and holding of the compulsory oil reserves of the Republic of Estonia.

Rene Tõnnisson
Counsellor, International Co-operation Projects
Tartu Science Park

Rene Tõnnisson is working as counsellor of Tartu Science Park and member of executive boards of Baltic Innovation Agency and Institute of Baltic Studies. He has more than 10 years of experience in innovation management, technology transfer and business development.

He has been previously member of executive boards of Tartu Science Park, Tartu Biotechnology Park, and Connect Estonia. He has been responsible for wide range of innovation, technology and business related activities such as being coordinator for Estonian Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) and Tartu Regional Innovation Strategy projects. He has been involved in large number of European and international projects and has been managing more than 30 EU funded projects. His main areas of expertise include international technology transfer, regional innovation systems and strategies, foresight, cluster development and internationalisation.

Since 1996 he has also been working as a lecturer at University of Tartu, teaching courses on EU policies and institutions as well as on EU programmes and project management. Rene Tõnnisson holds a Master degree in Public Administration and Policy from University of Tartu, Estonia and Certificat d’Etudes Politiques from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Strasbourg, Université de Robert Schuman, he has also been studying at University of Cambridge and European University Institute.