As the Director of Projects & Strategic Partnerships at Algarve Evolution, António is committed to advancing regional development, promoting innovation, and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in the region. He is on a mission to transform the Algarve into an open and collaborative hub, fostering opportunities for the next generations.

Asceline Groot is an impact driven professional specialized in concept development to support changemakers in the early phase of their ventures and initiatives. She has a PhD on the idea development of start-up social enterprises and over 15 years of experience as author, entrepreneur and community manager, initiating and developing different online and offline communities, entrepreneurial platforms and programs. As a part of The Hague’s ImpactCity team - an international ecosystem that supports and connects impact driven entrepreneurs and professionals - she runs a community of 34 impact entrepreneurs and initiates an incubator for and by ambitious women in one of The Hague’s vulnerable districts.

Charles Landry is an international authority on using imagination and creativity in urban change, coining the term "Creative City" in the late 1980s. Charles helps cities identify their potential to become more resilient and self-sustaining.

Chiara has over 10 years of education and professional experience working in the entrepreneurial world, in cities such as Copenhagen, London, Paris and Berlin. 

After working at Seedcamp, one of Europe’s leading early stage funds (Revolut, Transferwise), Chiara came back to Copenhagen to reconnect to the Nordic Impact ecosystem and become the Programme Manager at Katapult Foundation and the Nordic Impact Investing Network. 

She is now on a sabbatical to focus on Biodiversity Conservation and Nature Based Solutions, and took part in Founders of Tomorrow’s incubator programme on Climate Adaptation and the latest Antler Nordics cohort. 

Her other professional undertaking saw her in constant dialogue between the cultural and tech industries, and ranged from top international documentary festivals and incubators such as CPH:DOX, to heading the programme of Scandinavian’s largest tech and startup innovation conference TechBBQ in 2019. 

Her education focused on entrepreneurial business development and management at Leeds University and Copenhagen Business School and culminated in a hardtech entrepreneurship competition at DTU, and the presentation of her Master thesis on gender-blindness, and how it affects the entrepreneurial industry from a diversity in leadership perspective, to the Danish Center for Research on Women and Gender (KVINFO).

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Ed Rowberry is the founding chief executive of Bristol & Bath Regional Capital, (BBRC) who “invest in real estate, infrastructure and businesses to deliver attractive returns for investors and strong social, economic and environmental outcomes for local communities”.

Before founding BBRC, Ed trained as a chartered accountant at KPMG and has worked in various investment roles over two decades. As a volunteer, Ed is also co-opted to the Board of Black South West Network and is a Trustee of a Local Pension Fund.

Erdem is CoFounder of Donkey Republic, bike and e-bike sharing service present in 60 cities in Europe with more than 20k bikes and ebikes. The company offers a responsible, sustainable and collaborative bike sharing service to cities as a part of their public transport. Donkey has been an innovator in the industry with first smart locks, virtual stations, and combining short rentals with long ones.

Prior to Donkey Republic, Erdem worked with citizen engagement projects and with helping public organisations innovate together with private sector. More specifically, he is an expert on impact analysis and public procurement of outcomes. He started his career with two years at McKinsey, which he found eye-opening and uninspiring.

Last September, he stepped down from CEO position at Donkey, and is now working on innovating public governance models, using integrating data and market thinking, that he calls 'merit democracy'. Born and raised in Istanbul, he lives in Copenhagen. He has a Masters degree in Public Police from UC Berkeley.

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Filip is an advocate for livable and resilient cities, who as a product owner currently serves as the driving force behind City.solutions, the platform that helps cities tackle and solve their most pressing urban challenges. Filip took the leap of faith and pivoted his career from the world of IT to embrace the realms of architecture and urbanism, all in the pursuit of rethinking the very essence of how we live in and build future-proof cities. 



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Filipe Almeida is the president of Portugal Social Innovation, a pioneering Government initiative that mobilizes European funds to promote social innovation and social entrepreneurship, as well as develop the social investment market in Portugal. In the programming period 2014-2020, through innovative blended finance solutions, the initiative approved around 700 projects from 477 organizations, cofinanced by 843 investors, including 487 business corporations and more than half of the Portuguese municipalities.

He is also professor of the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Center of Social Studies (CES/FEUC) and Center of Cooperative and Social Economy Studies (CECES/FEUC). He holds a PhD in Business Administration from EBAPE / FGV (Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and a PhD in Business Management from the University of Coimbra. He is the author of several books and articles in Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Academic Fraud.

Gerrit Jan van 't Veen is a founder and director of WorldStartup. WorldStartup supports purpose-driven changemakers creating long-standing impactful ventures. We build inspiring conditions for changemakers to accelerate the global transition to sustainable and equitable societies through entrepreneurship. We empower changemakers at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Our role is to find, unite, and support changemakers by providing them with access to markets, capital, knowledge, and new skills.

Graça began her career as an academic, at the Social Studies Centre of Coimbra University. For the past 22 years, she has served as public officer and politician, within local and central Government. She was deputy mayor at Lisbon, with the areas of economy, administrative modernization and digital affairs, education, civic participation. Appointed Secretary of State for administrative modernization, responsible for the areas of modernization and innovation in the public sector and civic engagement, leading the first participatory budget at a national scale. Between 2018 and 2022 she served as the Portuguese Minister for Culture. She holds a Law Degree, a Masters’ Degree in Sociology of Law and a PhD in Sociology.

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​​Inês Sequeira is the Founder & Director of Casa do Impacto, the biggest impact entrepreneurship hub in Portugal. Since it’s 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. Casa do Impacto is the place where the stakeholders contributing to changing the paradigm of business converge. Thought acceleration, investment and incubation programs the hub aims to create an exciting pipeline of solutions connected with the 17 SDGs. Throughout its activity more than 3 million euros have been invested in supporting businesses. Casa do Impacto is located on a 17th century convent on top of one of Lisbon’s hills and incubates over 70 startups.

Julian is an entrepreneur with a passion for affordable, well-designed and sustainable housing solutions. His actual project is Modoplus, an AI-powered search engine for properties with development potential. Before establishing Modoplus in his role as founder and CEO, he managed and successfully completed large-scale project developments, including those focused on affordable housing, both in a corporate setting and independently. Julian is an architect, additionally holding a Master's degree in Urban Design from HafenCity University in Hamburg and a degree in Real Estate Economics from EBS University for Business and Law in Oestrich-Winkel.

Kerem Halbrecht is a social entrepreneur who co-founded PlattenBaum, a startup that brings food production to underused urban spaces. He also founded 72 Hour Urban Action, the world’s first real-time architecture festival, which realized tens of installations across Europe. Kerem was awarded several Goethe Institut fellowships to develop cross-cultural programming in Rotterdam, Kyoto, Los Angeles and Guadalajara.

Together with Ulrich Dilger, head of the urban regeneration department of the city of Fellbach, Kerem is a BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt RISE Cities Fellow with the project AGRICULTURE meets MANUFACTURING. Their project aims to regenerate an industrial area and facilitate climate adaptation through the implementation of urban agriculture. They test quickly deployable solutions for commercial parking lots that improve climate resilience, social cohesion and urban spatial quality.

Maeva is co-leading the advisory work at the Innovation For Policy Foundation. She has recently supported co-creation processes in Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. She has also built a pan-african toolkit and MOOC for policymakers and ecosystem players who wish to support entrepreneurship through regulatory intervention. After hosting and moderating an event celebrating the adoption of the DRC Startup Act, she has conducted training sessions for cohorts of French and English speaking policy-makers on Entrepreneurship Policy".

Maria Tarp is the Ambassador of Denmark to Portugal with a long career in diplomacy. Previous positions include Director of Invest Denmark, enhancing Denmark's attractiveness for foreign investments, Director in the International Department of the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities focusing on international energy and climate issues and negotiations.

Maria's earlier diplomatic roles encompassed serving as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations in New York, Deputy Director in the MFA's Department for Public Policy, Communication, and Press, and First Secretary at the Danish Embassy in Kabul. Furthermore, she served as a policy advisor for the UNDP's engagement in fragile states.

Maria Tarp's academic qualifications include a master's degree in political science from the University of Copenhagen (2006). Additionally, she has completed executive leadership training programs at Columbia University and INSEAD Business School.

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Mateusz Lendziński studied Urban Design at HafenCity University Hamburg and subsequently worked in the field of integrated district development and urban regeneration. He has been working for the Hamburg Ministry of Urban Development and Housing since 2018 and is currently coordinating the development of digital applications for urban development and citizen participation as a certified Scrum Product Owner. He is particularly interested in open source software and data-based planning applications.

As part of the startup ecosystem for the past seven years, Nicolaj has had several leadership roles in different startups and organizations.The past few years as part of Digital Hub Denmark, where he took over as interim CEO in March 2022 and was appointed permanent CEO in September 2023. With a background in marketing, growth and product, Nicolaj brings commercial experience and strong strategic and leadership skills to the table sprinkled with an endless curiosity as to how tech can solve real problems for people and society.

Driven by the fascination of interdisciplinary thinking and the deep belief that this century calls for immediate and joint actions, Raffaela joined the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt’s RISE Cities program in 2022 and is leading the RISE Cities Fellowship. As an allrounder interested in many fields, Raffaela has worked in climate impact research and climate adaptation, communications and the arts before joining the Foundation.

Raffaela studied English and Geography in Munich and holds a master’s degree in Geography of Global Change from the University of Freiburg. During her studies she specialized in urban development and planning. Coming from the interface of social and natural science, Raffaela has discovered cities as her passion where she can combine her interdisciplinary thinking with her ambition to create a true impact.

Ricardo Marvão is besides being the Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Beta-i also a leading figure in Portugal's startup ecosystem. He's spearheading a fresh approach to innovation through collaboration. With a background in the public sector, he's played a crucial role in nurturing entrepreneurship and building thriving networks. Ricardo has invested in several promising startups and notably authored the Lisbon Startup Guide. Notably, he serves as a jury member at the European Innovation Council for the European Commission, emphasizing his dedication to bridging the gap between public and private sector.

An economist by training, and after a few years working in large companies in the energy and insurance sectors in the areas of Customer Engagement and Analytics, Marketing and Customer Experience, Rita joined Goparity in 2020.

Currently, Rita is the Marketing Director and oversees the Product and Customer Support areas. At Goparity, Rita found a company with purpose and a community with a huge desire to democratise the financial system with sustainability at its core. Whilst trying to deconstruct financial and investment concepts (accessible only to a few), Rita can now say that her personal impact is tangible and aligned with her personal values.

Lawyer and Historian, an international government consultant specializing in citizen participation, with experience in building deliberation and citizen participation networks, advocacy campaigns, and developing civic technologies for participation. A researcher with an academic background in deliberative democracy, peacebuilding, and citizen engagement.

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Simon Schaefer began his career as a designer in 1997, working for German startups with his own interactive agency. He has invested in about 50 angel- and seed-stage companies and In 2011 he co-founded Factory, a campus model for Startups, launching the very first of Europe´s mega-campuses. Whilst hosting the world's first Policy / Startup conference Startup Europe Summit with the European Commission from 2015 to 2019 and speaking publicly regularly, Simon and team Factory launched their second Berlin Campus "Silicon Allee” in 2017. Factory started construction in Lisbon in 2019 as the anchor of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa's innovation district Hub Criativo do Beato. Simon was driving the Portuguese Initiative for Entrepreneurship Startup Portugal as Founding President until 2021, served as member of the investment committee of the public venture fund 200M for 4 years and is currently a member of the Board of the global startup association Allied for Startups.

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.

Tiago Marques is the Co-founder & CEO of greenmetrics.ai. With a Mechanical Engineering background, he has previously worked in the wind power and automotive sectors as Product Developer and R&D engineer. After that he spent six years working as a Management Consultant, leading operational improvement projects globally in multinational organizations across 12 countries. Now he is focused on building resilience against climate change risks.

Yonca Braeckman is the founder & CEO of Impact Shakers, a global impact ecosystem tackling complex societal and environmental challenges through inclusive entrepreneurship. She is a mission-driven entrepreneur and investor in underrepresented founders. She helped build the Belgian and European tech startup ecosystems and is a sought after startup mentor and jury member. She built a new smart city hub in Ghent, Belgium, with an in-house acceleration program called Watt Factory. 

Yonca serves on the board of Kaira Fund, a new philanthropic fund investing in systemic change. She was selected for the new group of Belgian changemakers “40 under 40” to help advance bold societal goals and was named as one of the "Top 100 most influential women in the European startup and VC ecosystem" in 2023.