Thank you to the 600+ attendees who joined us in Brussels and online for the 2022 edition of the Summer Summit!
Since the Single Market was founded 30 years ago, Europe has profited from the increased flow of goods and services across the Union. The work to complete areas that remain fragmented continues, however, as do efforts to ensure that as novel goods and services enter the marketplace, they are also liberated from unnecessary red tape, avoiding fragmentation and enabling innovation and economic development to thrive.
In the digital sector, where much of the cutting edge European innovation takes place, there remains significant work around issues such as artificial intelligence, data privacy, cybersecurity, product safety, energy efficiency, and taxation, to name a few.
DIGITALEUROPE’s Annual Summer Summit will discuss some of these major themes that challenge the digital single market, and look for solutions, particularly for SMEs who are disproportionately impacted by market fragmentation.
Ms. Stella Kyriakides is the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety since 2019, year in which she was Vice President of the European People’s Party (EPP) at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and a Member of the EPP Ethics Committee. Previously she has been a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, a role which she has combined with her responsibilities as Vice President of the Democratic Rally Party (DISY), Head of the Cyprus Delegation to the PACE, and has held different managerial postions at PACE. Trained as psychologist, Ms. Kyriakedes has been President of the National Committee on Cancer Strategy (2017-2019) and President of the European Breast Cancer Coalition Europa Donna (2004-2006), after working for many years as clinical psychologists at the Ministry of Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1979-2006).
Stella Kyriakides
European Commissioner for Food and Health Safety
Timo Harakka was born on 31 December 1962 in Helsinki. In Finland he is known for his active participation in public debate and involvement in society, and as a person with a keen interest in cultural matters. Prior to his political career, Harakka worked for over thirty years as a journalist, author and television producer.
Harakka grew up in a working-class family in Äänekoski, a small town in Central Finland. His parents were deaf, which is why his mother tongue is sign language.
He took his matriculation examination in 1981 and continued his studies at the Universities of Jyväskylä and Helsinki and at the Theatre Academy, from where he graduated with the degree of Master of Arts in Theatre and Drama. He has not yet completed his doctoral dissertation at the Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) at the University of Tampere.
During his journalist’s career, Harakka served as a columnist for Helsingin Sanomat, Suomen Kuvalehti and Talouselämä. In 1997–2014, he worked as editorial coordinator for Ylioppilaslehti magazine and as editor-in-chief of Vihreä Lanka magazine. His most well-known TV productions are the shows Musta laatikko (Black Box) and Pressiklubi (Press Club) and the 10 Books series, for which he earned the Golden Venla award in 2011.
Harakka has written five books, the last two of them concerned with international economy. Luoton loppu (The End of Credit) was published in 2009 and Suuri kiristys (The Great Extortion) in 2014.
Harakka was elected to Parliament for the first time in 2015. He represents the Uusimaa electoral district, and as an MP he is known as an expert in economics and taxation. He has been a member of the Finance Committee (most recently its chair), a member of the Grand Committee and a deputy member of the Committee for the Future. In the Government led by Prime Minister Antti Rinne Timo Harakka served as the Minister of Employment, and now in Sanna Marin’s Government he serves as the Minister of Transport and Communications.
The key themes for Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka are fast and reliable connections, both in transport and online. Transport becomes a service and digitalisation is at the heart of everything. The keys to Finland’s success are the 5G and 6G networks, cyber expertise and world-class IT skills. Rail investments are needed to expand the commuting areas and secure a sustainable growth.
Harakka lives in Helsinki with his wife Anu Laitila and their three children. Literature, architecture, other arts and basketball are close to his heart.
Timo Harakka
Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland
Ivan Bartoš has been the leader of Česká pirátská strana (the Czech Pirate Party) for many years, and was one of its founders in 2009. He has been a member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic since autumn 2017, and also defended his mandate in 2021. He spent four years in the Chamber as chair of the Committee on Public Administration and Regional Development. Since December 2021, Ivan Bartoš has held the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalization and Minister for Regional Development.
Mr. Bartoš studied theology at the Hussite Theological Faculty, and information and library studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Eventually, he decided to focus more on information studies, in which he obtained a Ph.D. degree. His professional career has included several posts at Czech and multinational IT companies, such as Newton IT, Monster Worldwide, and T-Mobile; he also launched the employment portal Air Jobs.
Ivan Bartoš
Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation and Minister of Regional Development, Czech Republic
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 35,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and of NATO’s high-level Advisory Group for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, as well as a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, and of the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies in charge of identifying Key Enabling Technologies.
She was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Council and Chair of the Export Grant Committee under the Danish Foreign Ministry. She also served as Executive Board member in DIGITALEUROPE, and as a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she led the development of policy positions on issues such as business digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education.
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 cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Based in the Netherlands, Ms. Mine leads Customer Operations for Nokia in eleven countries across Nordics, Baltics, and Benelux. She and her teams lead sales, business management, delivery and operations across the region.
Prior to her current role, Ms Mine was based in Silicon Valley, and ran Nokia’s Global Network Transformation practice. She has also run Alcatel-Lucent’s global Consulting Services business, and the full regional business of Alcatel-Lucent in North Asia and Australasia/Oceania which included sales and delivery of large transformation and managed services projects, and well as being Managing Director of both Australia and New Zealand.
Before joining Alcatel, Ms Mine was a much-cited and published analyst and consultant working across the IT and telecom industries. She has worked in the communications and IT field for more than 25 years, during which time she has held senior executive roles with Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Technicolor and Probe Research, and has lived and worked extensively in Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as North America.
Ms Mine holds an MBA from San Francisco State University and a BA in Economics from Reed College. She has one daughter, and enjoys cooking, yoga, running, hiking, and travel.
Hilary Mine
President, DIGITALEUROPE, and Vice President Strategy & Technology CX, Nokia
Yann was one of the founders of EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe in 1997. He is the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer since 2000.
Yann initiated Rare Diseases International (RDI) in 2009. He is an elected member of the RDI Council and Chair of the RDI Advocacy Committee. He is a founding member of the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases (United Nations, New York) in 2014 and its Vice-Chair. Yann is a Co-Chair of the Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children with a Rare Disease since its launch in 2018. Yann is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Health Stewards Board from 2020 and of its Global Precision Medicine Council since 2019.
Recent past positions include: member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 2017-2019; Chair of the Therapies Scientific Committee of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC), 2013-2017; Vice-Chairman of the EU Committee of Experts on Rare Diseases (EUCERD), 2011 – 2013; and a member of the Commission Expert Group on Rare Diseases, 2014 – 2017; member of the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) at the EMA, served 9 years, two elected mandate as Vice-Chair for 6 years.
Yann holds an MBA from HEC Paris. He has three daughters, the eldest of whom is living with cystic fibrosis.
Yann Le Cam
CEO, EURORDIS – Rare Diseases Europe
Since 16 of January 2020 Kilian Gross is Head of Unit A/2 in DG CNECT responsible for policy development and coordination with regard to Artificial Intelligence. Following the work of the High-Level Expert Group the Unit has drafted a White Paper on Artificial Intel-ligence, which presents the options on how to promote the uptake of Artificial Intelligence and how to address at the same time the risk associated with certain uses of this new technol-ogy. Based on the results of the Public Consultation on the White Paper, in April 2021 his Unit has proposed a legal framework, aiming to address the risks generated by specific uses of AI as well as an updated Coordinated Plan aiming to align AI policy support measures among EU Member States. The Unit is currently following up the process for the adoption of the legal proposal as well as the implementation of the Coordinated Plan on AI. In addition, Kilian Gross leads the legal team, which has prepared the proposal for a European Chips Act.
Beforehand since November 2015 Kilian Gross was a member of the Cabinet of Commis-sioner Oettinger. Within the Cabinet, he was mainly responsible for the Commission Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and DG HR.
Kilian Gross
Head of Unit, Development and Coordination of AI policy, DG CONNECT, European Commission
Michael is VP of data science for Optum Ireland and UK. He leads a team that designs data architectures, platforms and cutting-edge algorithms to impact the cost, quality and clinical impact of interventions for more than 100 million patients as part of UnitedHealth Group US operations.
A supporter of the UnitedHealth Group and Optum innovation agenda, Michael’s team leverages longitudinal health records, genomics and advanced analytics to better understand chronic disease onset and development.
Michael joined Optum in 2017 and has previously led the Optum Enterprise Analytics data science team. He has 13 years of professional analytics experience and holds a PhD in statistical astrophysics from the University of Cambridge. Michael has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications across statistics, astrophysics, cosmology and data science with more than 12,000 citations and a h-index of 36.
Prior to Optum, Michael worked in Deloitte consulting, quantitative finance and held university research positions in Inference, Astronomy and Physics.
Michael Bridges
VP for Data Science, Optum Ireland and UK (a UnitedHealth Group company)
Nicolas has 30 years of experience at Accenture, leading Accenture’s Digital Health initiative in Europe, focusing on industry convergence around healthcare. Nicolas is the lead for Digital Health in Europe, engaging across industries, including Health, Insurance, Telecommunication, HealthTech and ecosystems to drive industry convergence value proposition and programs around healthcare. Recently, he has led strategy and operational initiatives related to the sanitary crisis, including core epidemics management, vaccine management and Green Pass certification projects.
Nicolas Monsarrat
Managing Director, Accenture Health, Digital Health Europe Lead, Accenture
Susana Solís is a Spanish MEP for Ciudadanos, part of the Renew Europe group. She was elected to the European Parliament in the last elections in 2019 and since then has been a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Before coming to Brussels, Solís was elected Deputy in the Parliament of Madrid, being the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment from May 2015 on. Furthermore, she has over 18 years of professional experience in several multinationals in Germany (Mercedes Benz, Robert Bosch) and in Spain (Rexel, Essilor and Johnson & Johnson). Solís is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo, Machine Engineer from the Fachhochschule de Osnabrück (Germany) and holds an MBA and a MA in Marketing Management from the Insituto de Empresa (Madrid). She also holds a MAP in Public Administration and Leadership from IESE (Madrid).
Susana Solís Pérez
Member of the European Parliament
Casper Klynge is Microsoft’s Vice President for European Government Affairs with responsibility for all of Microsoft’s government affairs and public policy work across the continent. He serves on the senior leadership team of Microsoft’s CELA group. Prior to joining Microsoft, Casper most recently served as Denmark’s (& the world’s first) Ambassador to the global tech industry. Previous posts include: Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea & ASEAN (2014-2017), Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus (2013-2014), Deputy Head of NATO’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province, Afghanistan & Head of Mission of the EU’s civilian crisis management planning mission in Kosovo (20062008). Casper holds a M.Sc. in Political Science and is a 2009 Marshall Memorial Fellow.
Casper Klynge
Vice-President, European Government Affairs, Microsoft
Francesco Buonarroti is the Chief Information Officer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson, where he has been working for 12 years now. His previous positions include Senior Director IT, Janssen Commercial EMEA and IT Director EMEA Finance Logistic and HR amongst other.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Francesco has worked for SAP.
Francesco Buonarroti
Chief Information Officer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals EMEA, Johnson & Johnson
Sorelle Carina, Head of Marketing in the US, is the key to bringing EyeVi’s AI platform presence to the United States market with her passion, dynamism and friendliness forged in her every outreach.
She studied foreign languages for 8 years and 3 more years of Tourism later on. She speaks 10 languages and has been working as a Live Translator for big firms around the world during their deals negotiations. But, her passion for innovative technologies led her to EyeVi where she is enjoying and helping with the extensive growth that the AI startup has been demonstrating in the past 2 years.
Sorelle is also a guru of trends and communication who can convey anyone on any subject in almost all the most important languages of the business industry.
Besides, she is very social, family-oriented and a loyal friend. There is something about her, she smiles a lot. Her hobbies include long-distance running, Jazz singing and she is a model for various famous decent brands.
Sorelle Messine
Head of Marketing, Eyevi Tech
Axel Voss became a Member of the European Parliament in 2009, representing the electoral district of Middle Rhine, which includes the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen and the districts Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft.
Mr Voss is a member of the European People’s Party group. Since 2017, he is the political group’s speaker for the Committee on Legal Affairs as well as member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Axel Voss
Member of the European Parliament
Farzad Saber has M.Sc. in engineering, is certified in information security and has been working with different aspects of digitalization since the 90s. In the early 00s was Farzad responsible for inter-ministerial IT projects as head of division in the ministry of Finance in Denmark and has also worked as consultants for many years. The work with AI and healthcare started in 2010 and resulted in developing automizing treatment of respiratory patients. Farzad is cofounder and chairman of the board in O2matic Ltd and is co-author of two AI patent applications.
Farzad Saber
Chief Product Officer, O2Matic
Dr. Petak has over 25 years of scientific carrier in the field of precision medicine, molecular pharmacology, drug discovery, and predictive molecular pharmaco-diagnostics of anti-cancer targeted therapies. He is a senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmacology, Semmelweis University, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He is also the co-founder of the Oncompass Medicine Corp. He obtained MD and Ph.D. from Semmelweis University, Hungary in 1995 and 2000. In the first years of his carrier, he has published several biochemical research articles about the molecular regulation of apoptosis induced by anti-cancer therapies. He spent five years at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, the USA as a Fulbright Scholar. During this period he conducted research on death receptors as novel biological targets and published articles in Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Cell Death, and Differentiation. He was among the first, who used molecular evidence to treat lung cancer patients prospectively in 2003, which was first published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2005. Dr. Petak has published 150 articles in the field of signal transduction therapies, molecular diagnostics, and precision oncology. He was an invited author of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in 2010. Among other societies, he is a member of the Swiss Group of Clinical Cancer Research, ESMO, and ASCO. Dr. Petak also serves as the chairman of the Scientific and Ethical Committee of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. Dr. Petak received Gabor Denes Award in 2012. Dr. Petak presented his medical software to find effective cancer therapy for each molecular alteration, developed by his team, at the 10th Precision Medicine World Conference in 2016. He was an invited faculty speaker at the annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology in Madrid, 2017. The work he had led has received the best abstract award of the “Breakthrough Innovations in Oncology” conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO), Bangkok, 2019. In 2021, under his leadership, Oncompass Medicine was selected to be the winner of the Future Unicorn Award of DIGITALEUROPE and won the Global Get In the Ring start-up competition in the health category.
Istvan Petak
Founder and CEO, Oncompass Medicine
Sorelle Carina, Head of Marketing in the US, is the key to bringing EyeVi’s AI platform presence to the United States market with her passion, dynamism and friendliness forged in her every outreach.
She studied foreign languages for 8 years and 3 more years of Tourism later on. She speaks 10 languages and has been working as a Live Translator for big firms around the world during their deals negotiations. But, her passion for innovative technologies led her to EyeVi where she is enjoying and helping with the extensive growth that the AI startup has been demonstrating in the past 2 years.
Sorelle is also a guru of trends and communication who can convey anyone on any subject in almost all the most important languages of the business industry.
Besides, she is very social, family-oriented and a loyal friend. There is something about her, she smiles a lot. Her hobbies include long-distance running, Jazz singing and she is a model for various famous decent brands.
Sorelle Messine
Co-Founder and Head of Marketing, Eyevi Tech
Axel Voss became a Member of the European Parliament in 2009, representing the electoral district of Middle Rhine, which includes the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen and the districts Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft.
Mr Voss is a member of the European People’s Party group. Since 2017, he is the political group’s speaker for the Committee on Legal Affairs as well as member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Besides European Law, Voss’s main area of expertise is the digitialisation of daily life. Mr Voss will be in charge of drafting the AIDA Committee’s final report on AI in the European Parliament; previously, he was the rapporteur of the report on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence as well as on the Copyright Directive in the digital single market and also shadow rapporteur of the report on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability.
Axel Voss
Member of the European Parliament
Farzad Saber has M.Sc. in engineering, is certified in information security and has been working with different aspects of digitalization since the 90s. In the early 00s was Farzad responsible for inter-ministerial IT projects as head of division in the ministry of Finance in Denmark and has also worked as consultants for many years. The work with AI and healthcare started in 2010 and resulted in developing automizing treatment of respiratory patients. Farzad is cofounder and chairman of the board in O2matic Ltd and is co-author of two AI patent applications.
Farzad Saber
Chief Product Officer, O2Matic
Note: All session timings below are in Central European Summer Time (CEST)
14:00 – 14:15
Opening Remarks
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 35,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and of NATO’s high-level Advisory Group for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, as well as a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, and of the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies in charge of identifying Key Enabling Technologies.
She was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Council and Chair of the Export Grant Committee under the Danish Foreign Ministry. She also served as Executive Board member in DIGITALEUROPE, and as a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she led the development of policy positions on issues such as business digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education.
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 cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Hilary Mine is Vice-President & Market Unit Leader Nordics, Baltics & Benelux at Nokia.
Based in the Netherlands, Ms. Mine leads Customer Operations for Nokia in eleven countries across Nordics, Baltics, and Benelux. She and her teams lead sales, business management, delivery and operations across the region.
Prior to her current role, Ms Mine was based in Silicon Valley, and ran Nokia’s Global Network Transformation practice. She has also run Alcatel-Lucent’s global Consulting Services business, and the full regional business of Alcatel-Lucent in North Asia and Australasia/Oceania which included sales and delivery of large transformation and managed services projects, and well as being Managing Director of both Australia and New Zealand.
Before joining Alcatel, Ms Mine was a much-cited and published analyst and consultant working across the IT and telecom industries. She has worked in the communications and IT field for more than 25 years, during which time she has held senior executive roles with Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Technicolor and Probe Research, and has lived and worked extensively in Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as North America.
Ms Mine holds an MBA from San Francisco State University and a BA in Economics from Reed College. She has one daughter, and enjoys cooking, yoga, running, hiking, and travel.
Hilary Mine
President, DIGITALEUROPE and Vice President Strategy & Technology CX, Nokia
14:05 – 14:20
Opening Keynote Speech
Stella Kyriakides
European Commissioner for Food and Health Safety
Francesco Buonarroti
Chief Information Officer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals EMEA, Johnson & Johnson
14:20 – 15:05
Panel Discussion – The European Health Data Space: bridging the health data divide
The European Health Data Space (EHDS) could be a make-it-or-break-it opportunity to address fragmentation in the digital healthcare sector. This panel discussion will bring together industry executives, Member States, and patient representatives to discuss key elements of the EHDS and their potential in fixing fragmentation in healthcare. More specifically, the panel will cover the following questions:
Ray Pinto is currently the Digital Transformation Policy Director for DIGITALEUROPE.
Ray joins DIGITALEUROPE with over 20 years of government affairs and communications experience in Brussels and across the EMEA region. Ray is responsible for the digital transformation strategy providing policy recommendations to government stakeholders on the disruption being caused to European industries including manufacturing, healthcare, transport, and financial technologies.
Ray leads the Digital Transformation Policy Group helping our members to advance important work on areas impacting vertical industries such as data, cybersecurity, data protection, international trade, emerging technologies (AI, blockchain, IoT, etc), and skills development.
Previously, he worked at Microsoft responsible for socio-economic issues and strategies to improve relations with governments.
Ray holds citizenship with both Canada and France and is a graduate of McGill University in Political Science.
Moderator: Ray Pinto
Director for Digital Transformation, DIGITALEUROPE
Susana Solís is a Spanish MEP for Ciudadanos, part of the Renew Europe group. She was elected to the European Parliament in the last elections in 2019 and since then has been a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Before coming to Brussels, Solís was elected Deputy in the Parliament of Madrid, being the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos in the Committee on Budgets, Economy, Finance and Employment from May 2015 on. Furthermore, she has over 18 years of professional experience in several multinationals in Germany (Mercedes Benz, Robert Bosch) and in Spain (Rexel, Essilor and Johnson & Johnson). Solís is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Oviedo, Machine Engineer from the Fachhochschule de Osnabrück (Germany) and holds an MBA and a MA in Marketing Management from the Insituto de Empresa (Madrid). She also holds a MAP in Public Administration and Leadership from IESE (Madrid).
Susana Solís Pérez
Member of the European Parliament
Nicolas has 30 years of experience at Accenture, leading Accenture’s Digital Health initiative in Europe, focusing on industry convergence around healthcare. Nicolas is the lead for Digital Health in Europe, engaging across industries, including Health, Insurance, Telecommunication, HealthTech and ecosystems to drive industry convergence value proposition and programs around healthcare. Recently, he has led strategy and operational initiatives related to the sanitary crisis, including core epidemics management, vaccine management and Green Pass certification projects.
Nicolas Monsarrat
Managing Director, Accenture Health, Digital Health Europe Lead
Yann was one of the founders of EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe in 1997. He is the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer since 2000.
Yann initiated Rare Diseases International (RDI) in 2009. He is an elected member of the RDI Council and Chair of the RDI Advocacy Committee. He is a founding member of the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases (United Nations, New York) in 2014 and its Vice-Chair. Yann is a Co-Chair of the Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children with a Rare Disease since its launch in 2018. Yann is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Health Stewards Board from 2020 and of its Global Precision Medicine Council since 2019.
Recent past positions include: member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 2017-2019; Chair of the Therapies Scientific Committee of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC), 2013-2017; Vice-Chairman of the EU Committee of Experts on Rare Diseases (EUCERD), 2011 – 2013; and a member of the Commission Expert Group on Rare Diseases, 2014 – 2017; member of the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) at the EMA, served 9 years, two elected mandate as Vice-Chair for 6 years.
Yann holds an MBA from HEC Paris. He has three daughters, the eldest of whom is living with cystic fibrosis.
Yann Le Cam
CEO, EURORDIS, Rare Disease Europe
Michael is VP of data science for Optum Ireland and UK. He leads a team that designs data architectures, platforms and cutting-edge algorithms to impact the cost, quality and clinical impact of interventions for more than 100 million patients as part of UnitedHealth Group US operations.
A supporter of the UnitedHealth Group and Optum innovation agenda, Michael’s team leverages longitudinal health records, genomics and advanced analytics to better understand chronic disease onset and development.
Michael joined Optum in 2017 and has previously led the Optum Enterprise Analytics data science team. He has 13 years of professional analytics experience and holds a PhD in statistical astrophysics from the University of Cambridge. Michael has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications across statistics, astrophysics, cosmology and data science with more than 12,000 citations and a h-index of 36.
Prior to Optum, Michael worked in Deloitte consulting, quantitative finance and held university research positions in Inference, Astronomy and Physics.
Michael Bridges
Vice President Data Science, UnitedHealth Group
15:10 – 15:30
Coffee break
15:30 – 15:45
Keynote Speech
Ivan Bartoš has been the leader of Česká pirátská strana (the Czech Pirate Party) for many years, and was one of its founders in 2009. He has been a member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic since autumn 2017, and also defended his mandate in 2021. He spent four years in the Chamber as chair of the Committee on Public Administration and Regional Development. Since December 2021, Ivan Bartoš has held the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalization and Minister for Regional Development.
Mr. Bartoš studied theology at the Hussite Theological Faculty, and information and library studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Eventually, he decided to focus more on information studies, in which he obtained a Ph.D. degree. His professional career has included several posts at Czech and multinational IT companies, such as Newton IT, Monster Worldwide, and T-Mobile; he also launched the employment portal Air Jobs.
Ivan Bartoš
Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation and Minister of Regional Development, Czech Republic
15:45 – 16:30
Keynote fireside chat: Europe’s cyber resilience
Timo Harakka was born on 31 December 1962 in Helsinki. In Finland he is known for his active participation in public debate and involvement in society, and as a person with a keen interest in cultural matters. Prior to his political career, Harakka worked for over thirty years as a journalist, author and television producer.
Harakka grew up in a working-class family in Äänekoski, a small town in Central Finland. His parents were deaf, which is why his mother tongue is sign language.
He took his matriculation examination in 1981 and continued his studies at the Universities of Jyväskylä and Helsinki and at the Theatre Academy, from where he graduated with the degree of Master of Arts in Theatre and Drama. He has not yet completed his doctoral dissertation at the Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) at the University of Tampere.
During his journalist’s career, Harakka served as a columnist for Helsingin Sanomat, Suomen Kuvalehti and Talouselämä. In 1997–2014, he worked as editorial coordinator for Ylioppilaslehti magazine and as editor-in-chief of Vihreä Lanka magazine. His most well-known TV productions are the shows Musta laatikko (Black Box) and Pressiklubi (Press Club) and the 10 Books series, for which he earned the Golden Venla award in 2011.
Harakka has written five books, the last two of them concerned with international economy. Luoton loppu (The End of Credit) was published in 2009 and Suuri kiristys (The Great Extortion) in 2014.
Harakka was elected to Parliament for the first time in 2015. He represents the Uusimaa electoral district, and as an MP he is known as an expert in economics and taxation. He has been a member of the Finance Committee (most recently its chair), a member of the Grand Committee and a deputy member of the Committee for the Future. In the Government led by Prime Minister Antti Rinne Timo Harakka served as the Minister of Employment, and now in Sanna Marin’s Government he serves as the Minister of Transport and Communications.
The key themes for Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka are fast and reliable connections, both in transport and online. Transport becomes a service and digitalisation is at the heart of everything. The keys to Finland’s success are the 5G and 6G networks, cyber expertise and world-class IT skills. Rail investments are needed to expand the commuting areas and secure a sustainable growth.
Harakka lives in Helsinki with his wife Anu Laitila and their three children. Literature, architecture, other arts and basketball are close to his heart.
Timo Harakka
Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 35,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and of NATO’s high-level Advisory Group for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, as well as a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl was a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, and of the High-level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies in charge of identifying Key Enabling Technologies.
She was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Council and Chair of the Export Grant Committee under the Danish Foreign Ministry. She also served as Executive Board member in DIGITALEUROPE, and as a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she led the development of policy positions on issues such as business digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education.
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 cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Casper Klynge is Microsoft’s Vice President for European Government Affairs with responsibility for all of Microsoft’s government affairs and public policy work across the continent. He serves on the senior leadership team of Microsoft’s CELA group. Prior to joining Microsoft, Casper most recently served as Denmark’s (& the world’s first) Ambassador to the global tech industry. Previous posts include: Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea & ASEAN (2014-2017), Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus (2013-2014), Deputy Head of NATO’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province, Afghanistan & Head of Mission of the EU’s civilian crisis management planning mission in Kosovo (20062008). Casper holds a M.Sc. in Political Science and is a 2009 Marshall Memorial Fellow.Casper Klynge is Microsoft’s Vice President for European Government Affairs with responsibility for all of Microsoft’s government affairs and public policy work across the continent. He serves on the senior leadership team of Microsoft’s CELA group. Prior to joining Microsoft, Casper most recently served as Denmark’s (& the world’s first) Ambassador to the global tech industry. Previous posts include: Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea & ASEAN (2014-2017), Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus (2013-2014), Deputy Head of NATO’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province, Afghanistan & Head of Mission of the EU’s civilian crisis management planning mission in Kosovo (20062008). Casper holds a M.Sc. in Political Science and is a 2009 Marshall Memorial Fellow.
Casper Klynge
Vice-President, European Government Affairs, Microsoft
16:45 – 17:30
Panel discussion – Small businesses and the AI Act: Navigating a complex web of rules
SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups have been at the forefront of AI innovation in Europe. The new legislation on AI aims to bring trustworthy and safe AI to Europe, but it may also dramatically increase uncertainty for companies, particularly smaller businesses soon facing a potential regulatory wall. How can we ensure that the AI Act becomes a business opportunity for companies without crushing Europe’s thriving AI SME and start-up scene?
Alberto Di Felice leads the Infrastructure, Privacy and Security teams at DIGITALEUROPE. He is responsible for data protection, cybersecurity and telecoms.
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.
Moderator: Alberto Di Felice
Director for Infrastructure, Privacy & Security Policy, DIGITALEUROPE
Since 16 of January 2020, Kilian Gross is Head of Unit A/2 in DG CNECT responsible for policy development and coordination with regard to Artificial Intelligence. Following the work of the High-Level Expert Group, the Unit has drafted a White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, which presents the options on how to promote the uptake of Artificial Intelligence and how to address at the same time the risk associated with certain uses of this new technology. Based on the results of the Public Consultation on the White Paper, in April 2021 his Unit has proposed a legal framework, aiming to address the risks generated by specific uses of AI as well as an updated Coordinated Plan aiming to align AI policy support measures among EU Member States. The Unit is currently following up the process for the adoption of the legal proposal as well as the implementation of the Coordinated Plan on AI. In addition, Kilian Gross leads the legal team, which has prepared the proposal for a European Chips Act.
Beforehand since November 2015, Kilian Gross was a member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Oettinger. Within the Cabinet, he was mainly responsible for the Commission Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and DG HR.
Kilian Gross
Head of Unit, Development and Coordination of AI
policy, DG CONNECT, European Commission
Axel Voss became a Member of the European Parliament in 2009, representing the electoral district of Middle Rhine, which includes the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen and the districts Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft.
Mr Voss is a member of the European People’s Party group. Since 2017, he is the political group’s speaker for the Committee on Legal Affairs as well as member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Axel Voss
Member of the European Parliament
Sorelle Carina, Head of Marketing in the US, is the key to bringing EyeVi’s AI platform presence to the United States market with her passion, dynamism and friendliness forged in her every outreach. She studied foreign languages for 8 years and 3 more years of Tourism later on. She speaks 10 languages and has been working as a Live Translator for big firms around the world during their deals negotiations. But, her passion for innovative technologies led her to EyeVi where she is enjoying and helping with the extensive growth that the AI startup has been demonstrating in the past 2 years. Sorelle is also a guru of trends and communication who can convey anyone on any subject in almost all the most important languages of the business industry. Besides, she is very social, family-oriented and a loyal friend. There is something about her, she smiles a lot. Her hobbies include long-distance running, jazz singing and she is a model for various famous decent brands
Sorelle Messine
Head of Marketing, EyeVi Tech
Farzad Saber has M.Sc. in engineering, is certified in information security and has been working with different aspects of digitalization since the 90s. In the early 00s was Farzad responsible for inter-ministerial IT projects as head of division in the ministry of Finance in Denmark and has also worked as consultants for many years. The work with AI and healthcare started in 2010 and resulted in developing automizing treatment of respiratory patients. Farzad is cofounder and chairman of the board in O2matic Ltd and is co-author of two AI patent applications.
Farzad Saber
Chief Product Officer, O2Matic
Dr. Peták has over 25 years of scientific carrier in the field of precision medicine, molecular pharmacology, drug discovery, and predictive molecular pharmaco-diagnostics of anti-cancer targeted therapies. He is a senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmacology, Semmelweis University, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He is also the co-founder of the Oncompass Medicine Corp. He obtained MD and Ph.D. from Semmelweis University, Hungary in 1995 and 2000. In the first years of his carrier, he has published several biochemical research articles about the molecular regulation of apoptosis induced by anti-cancer therapies. He spent five years at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, the USA as a Fulbright Scholar. During this period he conducted research on death receptors as novel biological targets and published articles in Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Cell Death, and Differentiation. He was among the first, who used molecular evidence to treat lung cancer patients prospectively in 2003, which was first published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2005. Dr. Petak has published 150 articles in the field of signal transduction therapies, molecular diagnostics, and precision oncology. He was an invited author of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in 2010. Among other societies, he is a member of the Swiss Group of Clinical Cancer Research, ESMO, and ASCO. Dr. Petak also serves as the chairman of the Scientific and Ethical Committee of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. Dr. Petak received Gabor Denes Award in 2012. Dr. Petak presented his medical software to find effective cancer therapy for each molecular alteration, developed by his team, at the 10th Precision Medicine World Conference in 2016. He was an invited faculty speaker at the annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology in Madrid, 2017. The work he had led has received the best abstract award of the “Breakthrough Innovations in Oncology” conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO), Bangkok, 2019. In 2021, under his leadership, Oncompass Medicine was selected to be the winner of the Future Unicorn Award of DIGITALEUROPE and won the Global Get In the Ring start-up competition in the health category.
István Peták
Founder and CEO, Oncompass Medicine
17:30
Closing remarks, cocktail reception & virtual networking
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