Meet the speakers: Helder Antunes

Senior Director, Cisco

Helder Antunes is a Senior Director, Corporate Technology Group at Cisco. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. As a member of Cisco’s Chief Technology & Strategy Office, Antunes is charged with aligning technology development and corporate strategy to enable Cisco to anticipate, shape, and lead major market transitions. He helps direct technology and operational innovation across the company and oversees strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions and incubation of new technologies.

Before joining the Cisco, Antunes worked in various Silicon Valley startups. As a leader, he has earned a reputation for exceeding expected results through relentless and methodical execution and building exceptional teams to identify solutions that address complex global challenges. Outside of Cisco, Antunes is also a General Partner at Pereira Ventures and a counselor to the Regional Government of the Azores, Portugal. Antunes has received many awards for his work at Cisco and with the Portuguese government and is a much sought after speaker in various innovation, IoT and Security related topics.

Meet the speakers: Gary Martin

Director of Partnership Directorate, NASA

Mr. Gary L. Martin is the Director of Partnership Directorate at Ames Research Center. In this position he oversees public-private and international partnerships, new business opportunities, and NASA’s SBIR/STTR program for the Center.

Mr. Martin has been a civil servant at NASA for 25 years and has worked at Langley Research Center, NASA Headquarters and Goddard Space Flight Center before coming to Ames. He worked primarily in the science mission and human spaceflight areas, usually in program management for advanced technology and strategic planning. In 2002, he was named as NASA’s first Space Architect, leading strategic planning for NASA and providing the analysis that was used to develop NASA’s Vision for Exploration. For this work he was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2005.

Mr. Martin holds a Masters in Mechanical Engineering/Astronautical Engineering from George Washington University, and dual Bachelors degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Virginia Commonwealth University and Bachelors in Anthropology from Colorado State University.

Meet the speakers: James Laird

Associate Editor, Lifehacker UK

James Laird is associate editor at Lifehacker UK, the expert guide to living and working smarter in the digital age. He tweets various drivel from @scavgourmet and reviewed London restaurants in a previous life.

Meet the speakers: James Cameron

Accel Partners

James joined Accel in 2013 and focusses on enterprise software/SaaS, security, analytics and financial technology. Prior to joining, James was based in Silicon Valley, where he founded and ran BipSync, a SaaS-deployed research management platform for the investment management industry. Before starting BipSync, he spent time in the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley, focusing on the technology and media sectors.

Meet the speakers: Miguel Santo Amaro

Uniplaces

Miguel Santo Amaro is the co-founder of one of the most promising Portuguese startups. Uniplaces is an international marketplace for student accommodation which is now operating in 7 countries (Portugal, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Poland and Netherlands). He is recognized as one of the top entrepreneurs in Portugal and defines himself as a global citizen and avid networker. Approach Miguel if you want to know more about early stage startups, entrepreneurship matters, marketplaces, strategy, online rental, marketing, sales, Startup Financing, Negotiation, Social entrepreneurship or Emerging Economies (South America and Asia).

Meet the speakers: Inês Holtreman

IE Business School

Inês represents IE Business School, one of the most strategic partners of Lisbon Summit Investment in which we also host Venture Day, the grande finale of IE Business School accelerator program, Venture Lab. She also represents IE University in Portugal and is a board member for mentoring with PWN Lisbon. Prior to this, Inês was assistant to the board in Ricardo do Espirito Santo Silva Foundation and started her career as a consultant with A.T.Kearney – management consultants in the Lisbon, Madrid, Sydney and Sao Paulo offices. Ines holds an MBA from IE business school.

Meet the speakers: Graça Fonseca

Deputy Mayor for Education, Economy, Innovation at Lisbon City Hall

Graça was born in Lisbon, August 1971. Graduated in Law by the Law Faculty of the Lisbon University, has a master in State and Public Administration Sociology by the University of Coimbra and a PhD in Sociology by ISCTE, Lisbon.

She started her professional career as an investigation assistant of the Social Studies Institute of the Faculty of Economy of the University of Coimbra (1996 to 2000), having interrupted her academic activity in 2000 when she was appointed Vice-Director of the Legislative Policy and Planning Cabinet of the Ministry of Justice. Since 2010, she has returned to the academic activity as an invited teacher of ISCTE in the Public Policy Master. She is the Councilor of Education, Economy, Innovation and Administrative Reform at the Lisbon City Hall, having been elected for the first time in 2009.