Roberto Viola holds a Doctor degree in Electronic Engineering (Dr. Eng.) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). He is Director General of DG CONNECT, in the European Commission.

From 2005 to 2012, he was the Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM (Italian media and telecom regulator). He was Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, and Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010.

He was member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators). He was Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG) in 2007.

He served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004, in charge of inter alia, regulation in terrestrial, cable and satellite television, frequency planning, access and interconnection of communication services, cost accounting and tariff in telecommunication and broadcasting services.

From 1985-1999 he served in various positions as a staff member of the European Space Agency (ESA) in particular, he has been Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services.

Secretary of State at the Ministry of Digital Affairs since July 10th 2018, in 2016-2018 Undersecretary of State. Government Plenipotentiary for Cybersecurity since 2018. He supervises the work of the Department of National Systems, Department of Development of Digital Services and the Cybersecurity Department. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Digital Committee of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the IT Architecture Council. Member of the Joint Committee of the Central and Local Government, where he is also Vice-Chair of the Information Society team. Chairing Steering Boards for a number of key governmental programmes, among others, e-ID, Central Registry of Vehicles and Drivers, National State Registries, eID NODE and Open Data. Chairman of the Audit Committee at the Ministry of Digital Affairs.

Graduate in Management and Economics at Gdańsk University of Technology (2001) with a master of science and engineer degree. Program and Project Manager holding executive positions in consulting services as well as banking and postal services. In 2001-2012 was involved in numerous IT projects on behalf of the international consulting company Accenture Sp. o.o., and then worked as IT Director at Polish Post Office Digital Services and FM PBP Bank. Holder of the PMP, Prince 2 Practitioner and ITIL certificates as well as participant of numerous trainings regarding IT systems implementation and IT governance. Specialized in complex integration projects as well as in change management and development cycle processes. Privately – a passionate of Latin-American literature, watchmaking, photography and sport. Married, two children.

Reinhard Posch as founder of the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications at Graz University of Technology headed the institute from its very beginning and has become emeritus on October 1st 2019.

His research interests include applied information processing with a focus on it security, eGovernment and IoT.

As the CIO for the federal government since 2001 he is primarily involved in the strategic coordination of activities in the field of information and communications technology that concern all levels of government.

As scientific director of the Austrian Secure Information Technology Centre the main efforts are computer security, cryptography, secure hard- and software and eGovernment.

He is chairman of the board of trustees of the non-profit foundation Stiftung Secure Information and Communication Technologies SIC which has been donated by Graz University of Technology. As such he participated in many large scale pilot. One outstanding result in this context is the “Handy-Signatur” a most successful instance of the Austrian Citizen card that was also used as a model for the remote Signature of eIDaS.

He acted also as Chair of the Board of ENISA, the European Network and Security Agency.

He took part in various groups installed by the European Commission to elaborate ICT and security strategies (e.g. „Future Internet Visionaries“, RISEPTIS). He was a member of the “Rat der IT Weisen” he is providing advice to the Commissioners Kroes and Sefkovic in the area of IT-Security to assist the implementation of the Digital Agenda. Helping Greece to recover from the economic crisis he worked with the Reichenbach Group to assist implementing innovation in the Greek eGovernment. He also participates as an advisor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the IT advisory board.

Reinhard Posch got awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and founder and editor of E!Sharp, an online magazine dedicated to covering the European Union and Europe’s place in the world.

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

As Managing Director for EU Affairs and Head of Facebook’s Brussels office, Thomas Myrup Kristensen is responsible for Facebook’s representation towards the European Institutions. Before returning to Brussels, Thomas spent the last few years representing Facebook in a number of member states as well as countries outside the EU as Director Public Policy, Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe and Russia. Before coming to Facebook in 2011, Thomas spent several years in Brussels working for Microsoft and before that he was a special adviser in the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Thomas’ career in tech stems from a life-long passion for how tech can both improve human interactions and shape society. A bit of a techie himself, he also owns a growing collection of outdated gadgets.

Jochen Michels is Head of Public Affairs, Europe, at Kaspersky. In this role, Jochen is responsible for Kaspersky’s governmental affairs work at EU level and across the member states. He studied political science, public law and history at Helmut-Schmidt University (a University of the German Federal Armed Forces), in Hamburg; he holds an additional degree in PR and public affairs (DAPR). For more than 20 years Jochen has been working in various marketing, public relations and public affairs management positions in the ICT industry. He has worked in several working groups and platforms of industry organizations, public private partnerships and think tanks, and contributed to several studies and papers on ICT and cybersecurity issues. From 2011 to 2018 he contributed to the work of platform 6 of the Digital Summit of Germany’s Federal Government. Previously, he was an army officer with the Federal Armed Forces of Germany, and held various staff and management positions as an officer of the engineering forces and in the public relations department.

As Chief Security Officer for the Europe division of Orange, Francois is in charge of a multi-country security work streams to integrate security in IT and Network (ITN) transformation. Such transformation consists in introducing cloud technologies and infrastructures to support the future generations of telecommunications networks. To anticipate the effects on architecture design and on operations requirements coming from regulatory, standardization and certification, Francois is Président of AFNOR standardization commission for cybersecurity and Head of France Délégation at the Sub-Committee 27 of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, closely teaming with the entire ecosystem (European industry, European standardisation bodies and institutional representatives).

Before joining Orange’s Technology and Global Innovation, Francois was successively at Orange’s Group Security Department where he lead the global security management system for the Group, one of the Group’s pillars for security governance in its Europe, Africa and the Middle East operations, the B2B division and spent two years in the United States in developing remote sensing business for mobile networks engineering.

Francois is member of various France-based professional clubs promoting risk management best practice such as the EBIOS Club, the CESIN, the Club of Business Continuity. He sits at President-elect of the French National Standardization Body national commission mirroring the joint ISO/IEC Sub-Committee 27 for the standardization of Information Security, Data protection and Privacy. Francois also provides lectures at University of Limoges, Telcom ParisTech and others institutions in France.

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and founder and editor of E!Sharp, an online magazine dedicated to covering the European Union and Europe’s place in the world.

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

Volkmar Lotz is Senior Manager and Research Strategist at SAP. He has 30 years’ experience in industrial research on Security and Software Engineering. He is Strategy Lead for SAP Security Research, specializing on Security Certification, Software Security, and IoT security. He defines and executes SAP’s security research agenda in alignment with SAP’s business strategy and global research trends. Volkmar holds a diploma in Computer Science from the University of Kaiserslautern.

Martin Stierle heads the Competence Unit “Security and Communication Technologies” at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and is in charge of strategy and business development. The research activities in this competence unit focus on reliable wireless communication, quantum optics, dependable system engineering and cyber security. Before his position at AIT, Mr. Stierle was registered manager at Telekom Austria. There, he was in charge of the wireline infrastructure of the company.
Martin Stierle holds a PhD in Physics from Vienna University of Technology as well as a MBA of International Strategic Management from LIMAK.

Zahra is the founder and CEO of Firmalyzer SPRL, a Brussels-based company specialized in providing security solutions for IoT/connected devices. Their key product is the first automated firmware security analysis solution for IoT device vendors, security labs and enterprise device users. They also provide IoT security and privacy consultancy services for companies in terms of audit and compliance check with regulations, standards and leading practices.

Zahra has more than 12 years of experience in IT security including embedded systems, operating system, software, network, mobile and cloud security. She was the co-founder of the Operating System Security Lab in Alzahra University, which is aimed at fostering women’s participation in IT security technology. She was also the co-founder and CISO of MBSCo company that provides secure products and services for enterprises.

Martin Übelhör works in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect). He currently works as Head of Sector for Cybersecurity Industry and Innovation, negotiating a Regulation for an industrial policy and competence centres in cybersecurity.

Prior to that, he worked as policy assistant to the Director for Digital Society, Trust and Security, dealing with topics such as cybersecurity and digital privacy, smart mobility and smart energy, as well as eGovernment and eHealth.

Martin studied political science and sociology in Mannheim, Baltimore and Bruges. After first experiences in international affairs (United Nations HQ) and research (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Research) he joined the European Commission in 2008.

Matthew Newman is a chief correspondent for MLex and writes about data protection, privacy, telecoms, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Matthew began his journalism career in 1991 in community newspapers. He worked as a reporter in Riga, Latvia in 1993 and then moved to Chicago where he covered local news. In 1995, he became a personal finance reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and was then transferred to Brussels in 1999. He specialized in EU regulatory affairs, including trade and telecom issues. He began covering competition for Bloomberg News as an EU court reporter in 2004. In 2010, he was named spokesman for Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner. In January 2012, he helped launch the commission’s proposal to overall data protection rules. He began working at MLex in April 2012 and has covered mergers, antitrust and state-aid cases. He spent a year studying French, history and communications in Grenoble, France in 1988 and 1989 and is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in history and journalism. He earned a diploma in competition law from King’s College in 2016.

As the Global CISO of Iberdrola, one of the largest European Utilities, Rosa Kariger is responsible for cybersecurity governance, intelligence and oversight for the IT and OT environments in all countries where the Group operates (Iberia & Continental Europe, UK, US, Mexico and Brazil). With a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and more than 20 years of experience in the electricity sector she participates in several international expert groups for cybersecurity in the electric industry and is co-chair of the World Economic Forum “Systems of Cyber Resilience: Electricity working group”.

Chris graduated from the University of Warwick with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science. He holds certifications in Project Management and Information Security. Chris has 17 years of experience working in multinational companies in IT, compliance and security related areas.

From 2003-2010 Chris worked at a leading multinational Energy company across various areas of IT, Projects and compliance. Since 2010 Chris has worked in Financial Services, firstly in IT Risk and latterly as a Chief Information Security Officer with global responsibilities, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Chris has worked in several industry and regulatory engagement groups to help support initiatives that make companies, society and their stakeholders, safer and more secure.

Martin Übelhör works in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect). He currently works as Head of Sector for Cybersecurity Industry and Innovation, negotiating a Regulation for an industrial policy and competence centres in cybersecurity.

Prior to that, he worked as policy assistant to the Director for Digital Society, Trust and Security, dealing with topics such as cybersecurity and digital privacy, smart mobility and smart energy, as well as eGovernment and eHealth.

Martin studied political science and sociology in Mannheim, Baltimore and Bruges. After first experiences in international affairs (United Nations HQ) and research (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Research) he joined the European Commission in 2008.

Matthew Newman is a chief correspondent for MLex and writes about data protection, privacy, telecoms, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Matthew began his journalism career in 1991 in community newspapers. He worked as a reporter in Riga, Latvia in 1993 and then moved to Chicago where he covered local news. In 1995, he became a personal finance reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and was then transferred to Brussels in 1999. He specialized in EU regulatory affairs, including trade and telecom issues. He began covering competition for Bloomberg News as an EU court reporter in 2004. In 2010, he was named spokesman for Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner. In January 2012, he helped launch the commission’s proposal to overall data protection rules. He began working at MLex in April 2012 and has covered mergers, antitrust and state-aid cases. He spent a year studying French, history and communications in Grenoble, France in 1988 and 1989 and is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in history and journalism. He earned a diploma in competition law from King’s College in 2016.

Innovation and entrepreneurship professional. Passionate about 5G, Smart Cities and the new industrial revolution. Also for the new social paradigm that they can represent.

Certified Project Manager (PMI) and ITIL Foundation Certificate, specialist in the ICT field. Business developer and connoisseur of the technologies involved in the different business areas, with a focus on client and project, as well as to create “Taylor made” services in each case.

Disseminator and lecturer in different fairs and conferences in different fields, as well as participant in different standardization, standardization and regulation tables of the electronics and telecommunications sector.

Very involved in the associative world, I believe in associations as engines of change and support for the professional and the entrepreneur. My development in this field has allowed me to meet and enjoy a large number of professionals in the sector and establish friendly relationships with many of them, which I am most proud of.

After 10 years of work as a robotic engineer at JET (Joint European Torus) a fusion research centre, Jean-Francois Junger joined the Commission. First he worked from 1998 until 2001 in DG Research on the subject of waste water as part of FP5 and on the Endocrine Disruptors. Then he moved to DG INFSO in the software unit for two years where he was in charge of the “Open Source Software” subject. In 2003 he joined the eTEN unit as part of the programme and followed project in many different domain. Since the launch of the CIP ICT-PSP programme in 2007, he has been the prime actor in supporting and promoting the launch of the large scale pilot with Member States and the launch of the “Connecting Europe Facility” telecom programme. Between 2012 and July 2018, as the deputy head of unit in the ‘public services’ unit, he strongly supported the transformation of the public sector towards an open government vision. He took a very active role in the definition of new eGovernment Action Plan. Since July 2018 he works as Deputy Head of Unit to strength European Cyber security capacity.

Miapetra Kumpula-Natri is a Member of the European Parliament representing Finland and the S&D Group for the second term. She is eager to find sustainable solutions to climate change and the energy sector. She strives to enhance sustainable development and Europe’s ability to create jobs and wellbeing with help of European integration, innovations and trade. Digitalization and teleoperation markets are close to her heart, and in the European Parliament Mrs Kumpula-Natri is also known as “Madame Roaming” and “Digi-MEP”.

Mrs Kumpula-Natri is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute of the Committees on International Trade (INTA) and on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) as well as a member of the US delegation. Prior to her election to the EP, she was a member of the Finnish Parliament for 11 years and acted as the chairperson of the Parliament’s Grand Committee (EU affairs) and 3 years special advisor for Prime Minister on parliamentary affairs. She is an engineer by education.

Stefan Schnorr (56) has been working at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy since March 2010 and has been heading up the Director-General for Digital and Innovation Policy since April 2015. Prior to this, he worked in several other divisions of the Ministry.

Mr Schnorr is a legal expert. He started his career as a judge at the administrative court in Trier, before working at the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Justice in Mainz, where he headed up the public relations division and served as press officer. In 2001, he joined the Representation of Rhineland-Palatinate to the Federal Government and the European Union in Berlin. There, he headed up the legal division, before assuming the role of Deputy Director-General for Federal Affairs, in which he was responsible for coordination with the Bundesrat. From 2009 to March 2010, he served as head of the Representation of Lower Saxony to the Federal Government in Berlin.

Mark Smitham is Senior Manager of EU Public Affairs at Huawei responsible for the policy area of cyber security and data privacy. In this role, Mark works with policy and technical stakeholders on a range of cyber security issues, including security strategy and policy, 5G security, risk management, information assurance, and critical infrastructure protection.

Before joining Huawei’s EU Public Affairs team in 2019, Mark worked in EU Government Affairs (EUGA) at Microsoft. He came to Microsoft from the Directorate General for Communications, Network, and Content Technologies (CNECT) at the European Commission where he worked on the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS) and actions to extend access and build trust as set out in the European Commission Communication on the European Cloud Initiative.

Mark has 15 years of experience in the policy areas of cyber security, cloud, IoT and 5G, standards, interoperability and public procurement issues of cloud services, including developing trust and improving the overall level of security across Europe.

In 2010, Mark joined the UK Government where he worked in the Government Digital Service and UK Home Office, leading cloud security public policy and managed large IT projects and delivered systems in very high-profile and secure environments.

Mark holds an M.Sc. in Information Technology from the University of the West of Scotland, UK as well as an M.A. from the University of Glasgow, UK.

Innovation and entrepreneurship professional. Passionate about 5G, Smart Cities and the new industrial revolution. Also for the new social paradigm that they can represent.

Certified Project Manager (PMI) and ITIL Foundation Certificate, specialist in the ICT field. Business developer and connoisseur of the technologies involved in the different business areas, with a focus on client and project, as well as to create “Taylor made” services in each case.

Disseminator and lecturer in different fairs and conferences in different fields, as well as participant in different standardization, standardization and regulation tables of the electronics and telecommunications sector.

Very involved in the associative world, I believe in associations as engines of change and support for the professional and the entrepreneur. My development in this field has allowed me to meet and enjoy a large number of professionals in the sector and establish friendly relationships with many of them, which I am most proud of.

Wiktor Staniecki is the Head of Cyber Sector in the Security and Defence Policy Division at the European External Action Service. Before assuming this post, he was posted to Tokyo, working in the Political Section of the EU Delegation to Japan. Within the European External Action Service, Mr Staniecki also worked as desk officer for Brazil (2013-2015) and the United States (2008-2013). Previous to his work for the EEAS, he was a consultant at Burson-Marsteller Brussels and worked for the European Commission on entrepreneurship policy.

Mr Staniecki holds Master’s Degree of European Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, as well as Diplôme d’Etudes Générales Européennes of Centre Européen Universitaire de Nancy 2.

Marina Kaljurand was elected in March 2019 to the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDE). In this context, she announced during the GCSC meeting in Kobe, Japan, that she has handed over the chairmanship of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.

Previously, Marina served as Estonian Foreign Minister from 2015 July – 2016 October. She has also been appointed as Ambassador of Estonia to several countries, including the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the State of Israel, Mexico, and Canada.

Ms. Kaljurand has been appointed twice to serve as the Estonian National Expert at the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security.

She began her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 and had since held several leadership positions, including Undersecretary for Legal and Consular Affairs (Legal Adviser), Undersecretary for Trade and Development Cooperation, Undersecretary for Political Affairs. She has played an important role as expert and negotiator in the process of Russian troop withdrawal and in negotiations on land and maritime boundaries agreements between Estonia and the Russian Federation, as well as in the accession negotiations of Estonia to the European Union and to the OECD.

Marina Kaljurand graduated with cum laude from Tartu University (M.A. in Law), she also has a professional diploma from Estonian School of Diplomacy and an M.A. degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Additionally, she has undergone professional training at the Universities of Lapland, Pittsburgh and Durham and at the Civil Service College in London. She is a founding member of the Estonian branch of the International Law Association and of WIIS-EST (Estonian branch of Women in International Security). She has been awarded the Order of White Star, III class, and the Order of the National Coat of Arms, III class, by the President of Estonia. She is fluent in Estonian, English and Russian.

Turo Mattila is the Chair of the EU Council Working Parties dealing with countering hybrid threats and cyber issues during the Finnish Presidency. Mr. Mattila entered the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 2010 and has served in Finnish Embassies in Kyiv and Moscow prior to his appointment as Deputy Representative of Finland in the Political and Security Committee of the EU (PSC) in 2015.

As Cybersecurity Policy Manager for Microsoft, Florian Pennings believes that EU industry collaboration and multi-stakeholder management is important to ensure strong cybersecurity. In previous roles at the Dutch National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and at the EU Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) he coordinated strategic and tactical cooperation with industry and public stakeholders. In his current role at Microsoft, he actively engages in, and contributes to EU cybersecurity policy discussions. He believes in public private cooperation in cyber security: ‘Cooperation is built on trust and common interests, not on differences.’

Daniel Michaels is the European Aerospace and Aviation Editor of The Wall Street Journal, based in Brussels. He writes about and oversees coverage of airlines, aviation and aerospace industries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He has been covering these industries since 1999. He also frequently writes aheds, about almost any subject.

From 1993 to 1999, Daniel covered Central & Eastern Europe for the WSJ, based in Warsaw, focusing on business, politics and society. He previously worked as a management consultant on privatization in Poland and Russia. Before that, he was a management consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York City, working across a range of industries in the U.S. and Canada.

Daniel is a graduate of Princeton University, where he studied China and East Asia. He speaks French, Polish and rusty Mandarin Chinese.