Thank you to all those who joined us in Brussels & online on 4 June. Replays will be available soon.
DIGITALEUROPE’s Summer Summit returned on 4 June to Brussels and online. Hundreds joined us for top level discussions on a broad range of hot-button tech issues.
The 2025 summit focussed on:
– Staying ahead: Securing Europe’s lead in clean tech
-Europe’s AI moment to win the tech race
-Simplify, simplify, simplify: The 2025 digital policy agenda
-Navigating uncertainty: Strengthening alliances in turbulent times
As Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen is tasked with combatting the increasingly complex security threats facing the EU, whilst at the same time strengthening our external borders and our internal security. This goes hand in hand with her responsibility to ensure our freedoms, justice and democracy are strengthened too.
Henna Virkkunen
Executive Vice-President
European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
Justin is a passionate believer in the power of technology to solve global challenges and advance human progress. Throughout his career, Justin has driven innovation, technology leadership and shareholder value creation at global tech companies.
Justin was appointed as Nokia’s President and CEO on April 1, 2025. Prior to Nokia, he was at Intel as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Data Center & AI Group. In this role, he was responsible for a significant expansion of Intel’s data center and AI business.
Between 2015 and 2024, Justin worked for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), rising through several leadership roles and serving as a member of the executive committee. His last role was Executive Vice President and General Manager, High-Performance Computing, AI & Labs. In this role, he delivered the world’s first exascale supercomputer for the US Department of Energy, and he positioned the company to be at the forefront of AI, quantum computing and sustainability research.
Previously, Justin held several leadership positions at NCR Corporation and Symbol Technologies. He started his career at Motorola, where he was an engineer deploying mobile networks for US carriers.
Justin holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He is based at Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland. In his spare time, Justin enjoys spending time with his family and skiing, and is an avid ice hockey and English football fan.
Justin Hotard
President & CEO,
Nokia
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 45,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the European Commission’s Industrial Forum and High-Level Forum on European Standardisation. She is also a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Gaia-X.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl served as a member of the Advisory Group to the Secretary General of NATO on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies. She was also a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, as well as a member of the B20 Digital Transformation Taskforce, a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
In March 2023, Cecilia received the Ukraine Peace Prize on behalf of DIGITALEUROPE for its work supporting Ukraine during the war.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle as well as with SMEs, building businesses across Europe and China and founding the global SAP implementation company and cloud provider GlobeIT. She served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB).
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Aura Salla is a Finnish MEP from the Kansallinen Kokoomus Party, which is part of the group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats). She was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024 where she is a member of the ECON committee and of the Delegation for relations with India. She is also a substitute for the IMCO committee, the Delegation for relations with Canada and the Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Previously, she was a member of the Finnish Parliament, where she actively engaged in international and EU affairs. Before entering the Finnish Parliament, Aura held the role of managing public policy director and head of EU Affairs at Meta’s Brussels office. She also has extensive experience in the European Commission, where she worked as a Foreign Policy and Communications adviser in the European Political Strategy Centre and as a member of cabinet for vice-president Jyrki Katainen. Aura holds a doctorate’s in Political Science from the University of Turku, focusing on the politicization of the European Commission during the euro crisis, and a master’s degree in EU Economic and Foreign Policy from Leipzig University.
Aura Salla
Member,
European Parliament
Jeremy Rollison is Director of EU Government Affairs within Microsoft’s Corporate, External, & Legal Affairs (CELA) group. Based in Brussels, he focuses on cloud policy related to the EU Digital Single Market (DSM), with a particular emphasis on data issues and corresponding public policy covering privacy, cybersecurity, and the cross-border provision of online services. Prior to joining Microsoft, he worked in the Government Relations team at Nokia in the company’s EU representative office, and was previously Director of the European Digital Media Association (EDiMA) in Brussels. He has over a decade of public policy experience in Brussels at the company, association, and consultancy levels, focusing and engaging with EU stakeholders on issues related to the development and delivery of digital and online services in the Internal Market and corresponding EU regulatory policy.
Jeremy Rollison
Senior Director & Head of EU Policy,
Microsoft
Alexandros Paterakis holds a degree in Computer Engineering and Mathematics from the University of La Verne.
He started his career as a Network Engineer and subsequently held positions of responsibility as a senior IT consultant, such as Head of the Consulting Services at MicroAge, Management Consultant at Arthur Andersen (current Accenture) in the UK, and later in Greece.
In 2003 he served as IT Director at Tellas Telecommunications and in 2008 he joined Vodafone where he held the position of CIO.
He was then recruited by Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), at Saudi Arabia, where he served as President of Infotech Mobility India Pvt Ltd before retiring in 2016 as CIO, where he was actively involved in the promotion of transformation in information and communication technologies (ICT).
Since 2016 he has provided consulting services focusing on digital strategy. Since 2018 he has held the position of CIO at AXIATA Celcom, a telecommunications provider in Malaysia.
Alexandros Paterakis
Deputy CEO – Executive Board Member of Digital & Advanced Services, PPC Group
Prior to this role, Felicitas was head of the Life Science Division at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, which she joined in 2007. She was responsible for the life sciences, pharmaceutical and health sectors in the Projects Directorate targeting innovation and competitiveness. Before joining the bank, Felicitas worked at the European Investment Fund as an Investment Manager with a particular focus on technology transfer. Her main tasks involved, among others, the analysis of technology transfer, the development of financial instruments targeting this particular area and the implementation of these funding structures.
Prior to that, she worked as a strategy consultant for L.E.K. Consulting in Munich and Los Angeles. There, she focused on Private Equity / M&A and Life Sciences. Her work included business planning, market research, development of market entry strategies as well as financial and commercial due diligences. She earned a Master of Science from the Philipps University of Marburg and Stanford University in Palo Alto with a major in human genetics and molecular biology.
Felicitas Riedl
Director, Innovation & Competitiveness Department, European Investment Bank
Alberto works across policy teams to forecast and analyse new legislation. He has a particular focus on priority files, and is in charge of ensuring quality across all of the association’s policy deliverables and thought leadership. In addition, he supports the projects team to strengthen synergies between policy and projects workstreams. Alberto also acts as DIGITALEUROPE’s data protection and antitrust compliance officer.
Prior to this position, Alberto headed the association’s work on cybersecurity, AI, data policy and privacy, telecoms, and consumer policy. Alberto joined DIGITALEUROPE in February 2018, having previously spent seven years at Qualcomm, a world leader in mobile technologies. His work there cut across EU technology policy areas such as privacy, telecoms regulation and the impact of digital on innovation and business models, including verticals such as connected cars and mobile health.
Alberto is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E). He holds degrees in law and European studies from the universities of Teramo and Trento in Italy as well as a masters in diplomacy from the Institute for International Political Studies in Milan.
Alberto di Felice
Policy and Legal Counsel, DIGITALEUROPE
J
Solutions at SAP, where he leads global strategy for helping energy and utility companies drive digital transformation and sustainability. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise software and energy innovation, he focuses on decarbonisation, grid modernisation, and digital customer engagement.
A recognised thought leader, Markus frequently speaks at international events on the role of technology in the energy transition. He holds a degree in business information systems and has held various leadership roles at SAP, guiding clients toward more resilient and sustainable futures.
Markus Bechmann
VP for Digital Energy Solutions, SAP
Bio to be updated soon
João Rui Ferreira
Secretary of State for Economy,
Portugal
Since 1995 Denis has been a career European Commission official, having held positions in the monetary, international economic affairs and internal market directorate generals of the EU Executive. He served as advisor to EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and a Deputy chief of staff to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Afterwards he headed the WTO division and then the Strategy division in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.
Between 2015 and 2020 he acted as Director for “WTO, Legal Affairs and Trade in Goods” in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission. In July 2020 he was appointed Deputy Director General and Chief Trade Enforcement Officer in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.
Denis Redonnet
Deputy Director General,
DG TRADE,
European Commission
Ann Mettler has more than two decades of experience in high-level public policy and strategy, operating at the intersection of technology, innovation, foresight and entrepreneurship.
At Breakthrough Energy, Ann is working with European partners to accelerate clean tech innovation in the pursuit of climate neutrality and a net-zero emissions future. Previously, she served as Director-General at the European Commission where she ran the internal strategy department, reporting directly to the President. An entrepreneur at heart, Ann set up her own think tank which she ran for more than a decade. Her career started at the World Economic Forum where she led the Europe department. If she is not busy pondering the state of the world, she loves spending time with family and friends, tending to her garden and walking her dog.
Ann has lived and worked in Germany, Greece, the United States, Switzerland and Belgium. She holds MA degrees in political science and European law and economics, and graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico, USA, and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany.
Ann Mettler
Vice-President, Europe, Breakthrough Energy
Luuk van Middelaar (1973) is a political theorist and historian. He is a professor of EU law at Leiden University and a political commentator for NRC Handelsblad. The author of the prizewinning book The Passage to Europe, he published more recently Alarums & Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage (2019) and Pandemonium (2021) – all available in multiple languages, as well as Le Réveil géopolitique de l’Europe (2022) in French. Van Middelaar published his first book, Politicide, in 1999. He was the chief speechwriter and a close advisor to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (2010-2014). Since 2018, he is a member of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV). In 2022, he founded the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics.
Luuk van Middelaar
Founder,
Brussels Institute of Geopolitics
Kathrin Watson joined Bosch in Brussels as the Head of EU Affairs Office in 2018. Since September 2023 she is the Head of Political Affairs and Government Relations.
Prior to Bosch, Mrs Watson has been working as advisor at the German Energy and Water Industry Association (BDEW) in Brussels where she was responsible for the topics renewable energy, energy efficiency, competition law and environment policy at EU level. She obtained a master degree in International Politics from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a master degree in Communication, Economics and Political Science from the University of Aachen.
Kathrin Watson
Head of Political Affairs and Government Relation,
Bosch
Note: All session timings below are in Central European Summer Time (CEST)
12:30 – 14:00
Networking lunch
14:00 – 14:15
Keynote
Justin Hotard, President & CEO, Nokia
14:15 – 14:30
Keynote from EVP Virkkunen
Henna Virkkunen, EVP European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
14:30 – 15:15
Europe’s moment: How can we win the global tech race with AI?
Aura Salla, Member, European Parliament
Jeremy Rollison, Senior Director & Head of EU Policy, Microsoft
Alexandros Paterakis, Deputy CEO – Executive Board Member of Digital & Advanced Services, PPC Group
Felicitas Reidl, Director in the Innovation & Competitiveness Department, European Investment Bank
Alberto di Felice (Moderator), Policy and Legal Counsel, DIGTIALEUROPE
Margrethe Vestager
Executive Vice-President ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age’
European Commission
Ann Mettler
Vice-President, Europe
Breakthrough Energy
João Rui Ferreira
Secretary of State for Economy
Portugal
The in person element of the event will take place at the Sofitel Brussels Europe. In person places are strictly limited and by application only, so please only arrange travel to the event once you have confirmation from the event team following your application.
The event will be live streamed, and details of how to join the online platform will be sent in the week prior to the event to those registered for virtual participation.
If you are interested in knowing how you can get involved in the #DESummerSummit, or for any information, please contact
Kivanç Akil, Associate Director for Events & Executive Coordination
+32 473 36 17 54 / events@digitaleurope.org