Eva Blaisdell

Founder at Copernic Space

Eva Blaisdell, also known as Lady Rocket, is a visionary tech and space industry leader. Her career began in Silicon Valley during the 1980s, where she played a pioneering role in shaping new markets. With notable positions at HP, Convergent Technologies, and SwissRe, she became a celebrated IT figure in the United States during the 1990s.

Recognized for her achievements, Eva caught the attention of global leaders, including President Walesa and President Bush, as one of the first women to lead a US Fortune 10 company in Europe, serving as the General Manager of Compaq in Central Europe from 1993 to 1998. During this time, she spearheaded the computerization of the Polish Government, banks, and media while supporting the growth of new IT companies in the region. She left HP-Compaq for the US to start her digital media start-ups, such as e-TV, where she received investments from prominent US funds and Motorola.

In recent years, Eva Blaisdell has joined her multi-generation family legacy in the space industry, co-founding Copernic Space, a groundbreaking blockchain platform dedicated to the Space Economy. She also established the Lady Rocket Foundation, which focuses on engaging people in space through fashion, entertainment, and art. Through these endeavors, Eva continues to drive innovation at the intersection of technology, media, and space, cementing her position as a prominent figure in the industry.

Agnieszka Filipiak

Deputy Editor in Chief of “Forbes Women”

Deputy Editor in Chief of “Forbes Women”, journalist and editor with extensive experience, in the past working for “Gazeta Wyborcza”, forbes.pl and newsweek.pl. A founding member of the FemGlobal Association. Women in international politics. An expert in South caucasian politics: agfilipiak.substack.com

Alina Iliescu

Automation Innovation Director at UiPath

Alina Iliescu is Automation Innovation Director at UiPath, a leading enterprise software automation company, where she oversees Immersion Lab Innovation initiatives with strategic customers and partners, and governs the operational excellence of the Lab.
Alina has expertise in strategic planning, direct or indirect execution, budgeting, strong leadership, supervision, and mentoring, helping teams to achieve goals. 20 years of experience in tech (IBM, Microsoft) with consistent track record of performance achievement in IT services, consulting, pre-sales, training and delivery, project & program management.
Prior to UiPath, she held leading roles at IBM, where she acted as Microsoft Competency Leader for Europe, with a focus on growth opportunities and was responsible for enterprise consultancy, implementation and support programs in Microsoft space.
Between day-to-day work, Alina also served as a member of multiple volunteering missions in Africa and Romania, devoting much of her time between 2006 – 2011.

Michalina Konkel

Organizational consultant, co-creator of DEI strategies in multicultural environments, inclusive leadership expert

Consulting DE&I strategies she always make sure that proposed solutions are supporting equity, especially gender equity. She is the author of many international projects on growing inclusive leadership competencies in global organizations. Experienced in organisational culture change process – coleader of a M&A of 3000 employees. Being certified facilitator of Leadership Development Intensive Program, she has extensive experience in growing leaders through their blind spots. From 2007 she provides DE&I trainings, and managing across cultures session, especially on cooperating with India, for leaders from ITO, BPO sector.
Latest achievement of Michalina and her team is implementation of DE&I Action Plans for Żywiec, Siemens, Pfizer, Mondi, CdProjekt, Schneider Electrics.

Monika Kordowska

Tribe Leader of Operational Excellence Tribe in BNP Paribas.

Responsible for operational processes transformation. Many years of experience in operational risk management, internal control systems and fraud prevention. Captain and one of leaders of “Women changing BNP Paribas” program, actively involved in women’s activation and potential building. Art history passionate, volleyball player.

Nina Nourafrouz

Managing Director of Billennium GmbH

Nina Nourafrouz is the Managing Director of Billennium GmbH responsible for the DACH + Nordics regions. She has spent most of her career in IT companies, working in various roles focused on business and people, always driving innovation. Nina is an energetic and ambitious pioneer of business transformation with a passion for business development. She previously served as a successful leader of the IT consulting business at NCR for the Nordics region, where she focused on establishing market position and driving growth. Currently, she is driving business growth and internationalization of Billennium SA by expanding its services to the DACH + Nordics region. Nina studied at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, specializing in technology and social sciences. Currently, she is researching and working on her doctoral thesis on the topic of Process Mining and Sustainability.

Howard Steinberg

Business Development Professional

Howard is a seasoned business development consultant specializing in technology (SaaS, Ecommerce and FinTech) and digital media. He focuses on providing dedicated and focused efforts in the following roles: direct and channel sales, account management and on forging strategic alliances and partner management.
Further, Howard has extensive experience working cross-functionally across client and strategic partners’ organizations. Clients have ranged from early startups – US-based and various international countries – to enterprise-level.

Sonia Wędrychowicz

Partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office

Sonia is Partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office. She is a transformational business and technology leader in transactional and consumer banking, with 25 years of experience across Europe, Asia and USA with passion, high energy and commitment levels, who managed change, innovated and restructured businesses and put them on the path of growth triggered by technology innovation.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Sonia has served as Head of Technology Transformation at JPMorgan Chase in New York City, COO of digital bank at DBS in Singapore, Head of Consumer Bank in SCB Malaysia.
Prior to moving to Asia Sonia spent 18 years working for Citibank at Poland, for the last 6 years holding position of the bank’s deputy CEO.

Nicola Whitehead

General Manager of the European Network for Women in Leadership

Nicola Whitehead has been General Manager of the European Network for Women in Leadership (WIL Europe), a non-profit working to support female leaders and emerging leaders across Europe, since October 2020. Her 12-year career has taken her around the world, from EU policymaking and negotiation in Brussels and Paris for the UK Foreign Office and the European Parliament, to fighting to improve education standards in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo for a social start-up and philanthropic organisation respectively. Fostering gender equality and diversity are the two issues closest to her heart, and ones she has worked on not only in a professional capacity but also as the founder of a Paris-based discussion group, Diversify. A fluent English, French and Portuguese speaker, she enjoys communicating in different languages and working in an international environment. She has a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a BA in English Literature from Bristol University.

Cindy Rubbens

Senior Vice President People at relayr.

Cindy is expert on Company Culture, People Operations and HR Tech.
Her focus is on building a high-performing organization with a strong company culture, using people data to deliver optimised processes and supporting managers to become better at managing and leading. Prior to being Senior Vice President People at relayr Cindy was Director People & Culture at Amorelie, Chief People Officer at Marley Spoon, Head of HR at DaWanda, payleven (SumUp) and Mendeley ltd (Elsevier).
Cindy is co-Chair and Juror at the HR Innovation Award, guest lecturer, mentor and speaker.

Lynn Teo

Vice President, Global Marketing & Customer Experience
Health Learning, Research & Practice at Wolters Kluwer

Lynn is a Customer Experience, Digital Marketing & Digital Product executive who specializes in digital transformation, integration, and innovation initiatives that lean on customer-centricity as a market differentiator. She is currently VP (CMO), Head of Global Marketing and Customer Experience, Wolters Kluwer Health LRP where she leads a large 270+ global team comprising of digital marketing specialists, solution marketers, customer support, PR/Comms, sales operations and enablement, and Business Intelligence/Data/Predictive Analytics experts. She has led large, complex global & regional teams to deliver a vision of Modern Marketing through omnichannel Centers of Excellence, Digital Demand Centers, and “brand-to-demand-to-revenue” full-funnel marketing. In her prior role at B2B software giant CA Technologies, she was Head of Marketing for the APAC region and led corporate digital marketing for three years accelerating expansion of its digital properties for web, social, and search. Before heading the client-side, Lynn was the first Chief Experience Officer at McCann New York, capping her 10+ year career as Head of User Experience for global marketing agencies such as AQKA and Sapient.
Cindy is co-Chair and Juror at the HR Innovation Award, guest lecturer, mentor, and speaker.