Chris Barton is the Founder of Shazam. As the first CEO of Shazam, Chris led the creation of Shazam along with three co-founders from concept through inventing a new pattern recognition technology and then building and launching the world’s first music recognition service. The service has had over 1 billion downloads. Shazam was bought by Apple in September 2018. According to Wikipedia, it was the fifth largest acquisition by Apple in its history. Shazam raised $140 million in venture capital. Chris previously worked at Google focused on mobile as Head of Android Business Development for North America. He also worked at Dropbox as Head of Mobile Operator Partnerships. Chris holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Finance from Cambridge University and a BA from UC Berkeley.

Zarah Bruhn has been named one of Capital magazine`s Top 40 under 40. She delivered two TED talks and is a frequent speaker and interview partner. Zarah founded her two companies in times of crisis and with a special mission. During the refugee crisis, she founded socialbee, a social temporary employment agency for refugees, which today stands for professional integration and sustainable employment of disadvantaged people. During the Corona crisis, she launched Bring & Ring, an app providing shopping aid for at-risk groups, within a few weeks. She was appointed Ashoka Fellow in 2018 and thus became a member of the largest global network of social entrepreneurs.

Jeff Hoffman is an award-winning global entrepreneur, proven CEO, worldwide motivational speaker, bestselling author, Hollywood film producer, a producer of a Grammy Award winning jazz album, and executive producer of an Emmy Award winning television show. In his career, he has been the founder of multiple startups, he has been the CEO of both public and private companies, and he has served as a senior executive in many capacities. Jeff has been part of a number of well-known successful startups, including Priceline.com/Booking.com, uBid.com and more. In his keynotes he aims to inspire change and innovation, to tackle challenges that seem impossible and to make a difference.

Dr. Carolin Gabor is CEO of Movinx. Previously, as Managing Partner at FinLeap, she was responsible for venture development and growth. Before joining FinLeap, Carolin spent ten years working for Boston Consulting Group. Afterwards, she became the CEO of Toptarif.de and later held the CEO position of autohaus24.de GmbH. In addition, she is a member of the Women’s Council of HypoVereinsbank which supports promising female entrepreneurs through mentoring.

Professor Pinkwart was a Member of the German Bundestag (2002 - 2005) and Minister for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (2005 - 2010). In 2011 Professor Pinkwart has been appointed as Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and ever since holds the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. In 2017 he became Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Aya Jaff is a trader, founder and author. At a young age, Aya gained experience as a coder and had the privilege to work internationally for companies like Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. She was the long-time CTO for the largest social stock market simulation in Germany: Tradity. She worked at the startup incubator ZOLLHOF as Head of Communications and has significantly supported many startups on their way. She talks about her experiences and learnings in the financial and tech world in her SPIEGEL bestseller book "Moneymakers" published by FBV Verlag. She was dubbed "Mrs. Code" by ZEIT and made it to the cover of VOGUE Business, t3n and Business Punk magazines, as well as the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Sebastian Schaal is Founder and Managing Director at Luminovo, where he is responsible for Business and Product. Luminovo is a SaaS provider building the electronics operating system for EMS, OEMs, and distributors to accelerate technological progress. He graduated top of his class with an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from TU Munich and holds an Honours Degree from the CDTM. He obtained his second M.Sc. from Stanford University where he focused on Management Science and Machine Learning. He worked for Intel and researched on NILM algorithms for the energy sector before transitioning to Deep Learning, working for the deep tech startups NavVis and Magazino on Computer Vision problems. Besides his technical experiences, Sebastian also worked as a consultant at McKinsey, focusing on IT and data strategy.

Judith is a General Partner at La Famiglia, a European seed stage venture capital fund investing into B2B technology companies that enable or disrupt large industries. She focuses on the future of work, as well as data and ML-driven business models.

Montgomery Jaritz is a Co-Founder of IonKraft, a young Spin-Off of the RWTH Aachen University, which is currently industrialising its plasma coating technology to make recyclable plastic packaging possible. In the previous years he made his PhD in the field of plasma coating technology at the institute for plastics processing (IKV) in Aachen. During this time, he developed a chemically resistant barrier coating for plastics, which layed the foundation for IonKraft and the opportunity to strengthen the plastics circular economy in Germany and beyond.

Florian is Co-Founder and CEO of the medtech company medical magnesium. As founder of a technology start-up, he realizes the market approval and clinical trials of innovative medical devices. He brings his expertise in Regulatory & Clinical Affairs to develop and implement market access strategies for innovative healthcare products and services. In addition, he takes an active role at EIT Health and RWTH Aachen University to support innovative healthcare startups.

Joachim v. Arnim is Managing Director at Cellbricks. Cellbricks uses 3D bioprinting to replicate human tissue at scale for a future where the biofabrication of organs enables patients a longer and healthier life. Joachim studied production engineering at the RWTH Aachen and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After starting his career at Atlantic Labs, he has been supporting disruptive deep tech founders as an angel for more than half a decade. His passion spans from med tech and computer vision, to robotics and 3D printing.

Andy is the co-founder and Managing Director of gridX, a leading platform provider building the digital infrastructure to enable the energy transition. Andy studied electrical engineering and mechatronics in Aachen and worked on new technology and wireless protocols in industry and research for many years. He founded gridX with David Balensiefen in 2016 and today the smart grid scaleup has almost 70 employees across two offices in Aachen and Munich.

In July 2019, tech pioneer, founder and innovator Rafael Laguna has been appointed founding director of the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation SPRIND. With more than 30 year’s experience, Rafael Laguna has a proven track record of success in building and growing software companies. The Agency aims to foster innovations with radically new technologies and a great potential to change the market with new products, services and value chains. The Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the BMBF and BMWi, is the sole shareholder of SPRIND. The Agency will operate initially for a period of ten years. The funding currently planned for this ten-year period is around 1 billion euros.

Thomas Sattelberger is a member of the German Bundestag and spokesman for his FDP parliamentary group on innovation, education and research. For many years he was a member of the board of German DAX companies. From 2007 to 2012 he worked for Deutsche Telekom as Chief Human Resources Officer and from 2003 to 2007 for the automotive supplier Continental. Sattelberger joined Lufthansa in 1994 and served as Chief Operating Officer from 1999 to 2003. Between 1975 and 1994, he worked in various management positions and divisions for the Daimler Group.

Jasper joined HV Holtzbrinck Ventures in 2015 and brings entrepreneurial, angel investment, and strategic consulting experience along with a large network. Jasper focuses in particular on B2B models with a strong software or data component, and on AI-automated solutions to complex problems. He has been responsible for the fund’s investments in Zeitgold and Lingokids among others. Prior to joining HV, Jasper was CEO and single founder of greatcontent, a leading text production platform in Berlin, which he sold to the MairDumont Publishing Group. He was also engaged as an angel investor in more than 10 companies, for example McMakler, HeavenHR, FitReisen and MQ Real Estate.

Dr. Oliver Grün is founder, majority shareholder and chairman of the management board of GRÜN Software Group GmbH and is responsible for the overall management as well as the buy-and-build strategy of the group of companies, which now employs around 270 people at six locations in various companies. He is also President of the Bundesverband IT-Mittelstand e.V. (German Association of IT SMEs) and President of the European Association of IT SMEs European Digital SME Alliance. He also advises the Federal Government and the State Government of NRW in various digital advisory boards.

Dan Ram ignites the stage as an Event MC & Speaker at over 100 events a year. Hosting changemakers like President Barack Obama, billionaire founders like Sir Richard Branson, record breaking athletes like F1 champion Nico Rosberg, Grammy-winning artists and celebrities, he works on 4 continents from college campuses to parliaments to in-house corporate innovation days for Fortune 500 Companies to the biggest tech conferences in the world. His passion is to inspire people with his motto 'Start Now Start Simple' in building a future we all want to live in.

Vice-Rector and Professor at RWTH Aachen University, Adjunct Professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. Entrepreneur. Passionate runner.

Nele is a self-employed Creative Director and well-known international yoga and meditation teacher. With her own brand The Art Yoga, she works with global brands such as VW, Adidas, Inditex Group, Wolford and Lululemon, and has been featured in Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Grazia. Find out more: www.theartyoga.com IG @theartyoga

Caro is a self-employed fitness instructor who works with various global brands in the health sector such as Under Armour, Adidas and Generali. All of her workouts can be done with bodyweight or minimal equipment. An active lunch break is always a good idea! Check out her IG: www.instagram.com/caromareike/

Because of "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust, the Aachner Djane experienced a key experience in her youth. Music is more for her, it's her drive to make people happy with her sound. Check out her Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/svenson-music

After completing his studies as a physicist, Vince Ebert began his career at an international consultancy agency, where he gained significant experience in marketing and business. To inspire more people, Vince decided to leave his job in 1998 and discovered his passion for the stage. Since then, he has been performing to huge audiences across Germany, Austria & Switzerland. Moreover, Vince Ebert has been a host of a prime-time TV show about science on German television for six years. His books have sold over 500.000 copies and were listed on bestseller rankings for many weeks. Vince’s mission is to convey scientific contexts with the laws of humor.

Björn Lang is Principal Fonds and Senior Investment Manager at TechVision Fonds. Björn can answer the question "How to start a company...?" perfectly. After successfully starting a technology company in Aachen, the industrial engineer is now deeply involved in the development of up-and-coming start-ups.

Duc Quyen – known as Kim – is associate partner at Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH). After studying business administration at the University of Cologne, he worked in strategy consulting and corporate finance for international consulting firms. He subsequently supported the development of the Cologne company builder crossventures as an Investment Manager and was responsible for its portfolio. Throughout his career, he has gained a deep understanding of building and scaling businesses. Kim has an impressive knowledge in Deep Tech and Education technologies and new business models in these fields. Kim's heart beats for fine arts, literature & science, good films and excellent food. He is an integral part of the "Yellow Wall" of Borussia Dortmund and is always curious about new technological developments like in artificial intelligence, quantum computing.

Johannes is a partner at Earlybird UNI-X. He is particularly excited about extraordinary teams with breakthrough technology solutions and can support them with his strong academic and industry network. Before joining UNI-X he founded 5P Capital and was active as Managing Director and Chief Engineer in various positions in the fields of R&D, prototyping, industrialization, testing, production and consulting for automotive, mobility and machinery engineering products and processes (PEM and WZL Aachen University, production.net AC, PEM Motion, Velocity). He studied mechanical engineering in Aachen, Berkeley and Zurich and holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University.