Arba Kokalari is a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, serving in the committees on internal market, economic affairs, employment and gender equality. Her main priorities are tech and digitalisation. Arba Kokalari has led negotiations on the digital omnibus on AI, negotiated the Digital Services Act (DSA) and a report on AI in the financial sector. She currently monitors the AI Act implementation in the AI Act Working group and leads negotiations on a report on AI and gender equality.

CEO of PULSE Foundation and President of hub.brussels, is injecting new energy into entrepreneurship across Belgium and creating the conditions for more founders to succeed.

Hedi Mardisoo is the Co-Founder & CEO of Cachet, where she and her team have spent the last eight years rethinking how risk should work in a digital, AI-driven world. Today, Cachet powers adaptive insurance and risk infrastructure for the platform economy across 17 European countries, helping mobility, fleet and platform work businesses move from reactive insurance to intelligent, data-driven risk management.Cachet's ambition goes far beyond insurance. The company believes every digital platform should have access to real-time risk intelligence that predicts, prevents and continuously adapts to changing behaviour, making risk management as programmable as payments or cloud infrastructure. That's the future Cachet is building.Hedi is also the Vice President of Startups for Europe, bringing a founder's perspective to how Europe builds, funds and scales its next generation of companies.

Co-founder of Transformative Times, a platform for complexity-informed research and futures. He has spent the last 10 years developing future-proof systems and experiences based on systems thinking and complexity thinking for start-ups, companies, and governments. He is also a lecturer on complexity at universities across Europe.

LJ is the Head and Co-founder LSE Generate, managing the entrepreneurship centre in London and its international chapters across the globe. Prior to joining LSE, LJ founded and led a careers and recruitment consultancy focused on climate and sustainability sectors, and earlier in her career worked in television and media. Her work focuses particularly on social innovation, healthy ageing, and mission-driven entrepreneurship, with a strong interest in how innovation ecosystems can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable futures. In 2026, she was awarded an MBE for services to social innovation and education.

Linda Capusa is an international executive with over 15 years of leadership experience across Europe and North America, including C-suite and senior executive roles in startups and global retail. She currently serves as Operations Director and Board Member at the Europe Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA), working with national governments and EU institutions to advance startup-friendly policies. Drawing on her extensive private-sector experience, she brings a practical perspective on scaling businesses, reducing regulatory barriers, and strengthening Europe's competitiveness.

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Lucien Burm is a veteran in the tech space, from co-founding startups to mentoring hundreds of startups across Europe. Today he is President of the Dutch Startup Association and board member of Startups for Europe. He is on a mission for building trillion-euro companies.

Meri Sahade is the Co-Founder and Program Director of Future Days, a global design and innovation platform, exploring and shaping alternative and better futures. A creative strategist, designer and curator, she has previously worked with clients such as Generalitat de Catalunya, Roche, Deutsche Telekom and L’Oréal, and has taught at Parsons Paris and IED Barcelona. Through the Future Days Lab initiative, she joins us to launch "Regenerative: Ecologies of Design & Production", an EU funded programme building open foundations for regenerative design and production across Europe.

Mike Sax is the Founder of Wellbeyond. Mike is also founder and chairman of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a non-profit organization that helps policy makers understand the impact of proposed legislation on small business innovators.

Founder of vaic.at Software, a Dutch-Brazilian technology company creating meaningful experiences and practical tools in the form of privacy-conscious apps.

Nuno Comando is the Director of Casa do Impacto. Fusing his experience and diverse background in marketing and communications, digital, management and entrepreneurship with his unwavering commitment to positive social change, he has contributed to Casa do Impacto's mission and has been involved with SCML's Hub since its early days. Casa do Impacto is the most significant impact entrepreneurship Hub in Portugal. Since its opening in 2018, this 'Casa' has put Portugal on the map of the impact ecosystem, gathering the resources and network to grow an impact venture/organization. Recognized by the Financial Times as one of Europe's Leading Hubs for Startups, Casa do Impacto is where stakeholders converge to change the business paradigm. The hub's unwavering focus on creating an exciting pipeline of solutions aligned with the 17 SDGs through acceleration, investment, and incubation programs ensures its mission aligns with the global sustainability agenda.

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Ricardo Correia is Co-founder and Head of Business Development at Untile and Co-founder of happyfact, a collective of digital-born leaders building a future where companies and startups can grow faster through fractional leadership. He works at the intersection of business, product, design, and technology and, with over 18 years of experience in digital products, helps startups and companies turn ideas into concrete products and businesses. He is also a mentor, supporting founders with opportunity validation, product strategy, and growth.

Sissel Hansen is the founder and CEO of Startup Guide, a creative content and publishing company that produces guidebooks and tools to help entrepreneurs navigate and connect with different startup scenes across the globe.

Torsten leads policy and strategy at Danske Iværksættere, working to strengthen the framework conditions for entrepreneurs and scaleups in Denmark and across Europe. He brings a rare blend of experience spanning regulatory affairs, public affairs, and international business, having previously headed government affairs at British American Tobacco and worked in political campaigning. He holds an MSc in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen. At Danske Iværksættere, Torsten focuses on building the dialogue between policymakers and the startup ecosystem, ensuring entrepreneurs have a clear and credible voice in shaping the regulatory landscape that affects their growth.