Managing Director Amazon Prime Video Italy

Preside della Facoltà di Scienze Bancarie, Finanziarie e Assicurative Università Cattolica

Elena Beccalli is dean of the School of banking, finance and insurance at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan), and full professor of banking at the same School. She is research associate at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation of the London School of Economics, and academic fellow at the Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance of the University of St. Andrews. She has been visiting professor at the Singapore Institute of Management and at the Pecking University. She is chairwoman of the Italian branch of European Society for Banking and Financial Law (AEDBF), and member of the Directive committee of Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA). She serves as journal manager of Journal of financial management, markets and institutions (JFMI). She has published extensively (books and articles) on several subjects related to banking. She has a ten-year experience as independent non-executive board member and chairwoman of board committees of Italian listed banks and asset management companies.

Co-Founder & Co-CEO Planet Farms

Born and raised in Milan, Daniele achieved a BSc in Economics cum laude at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2002, Daniele has been living in London, where he worked for ten years for Goldman Sachs in private equity and then at the head of the bank's internal hedge fund. After starting his own business and managing his hedge fund, Benros Capital, Daniele ran the European business of Halcyon Asset Management. Daniele has been an angel investor for years, focused mainly on companies in the technology and consumer products spaces. This passion culminated in his decision to join forces with Luca, a childhood friend, and create Planet Farms.

Photographer

Settimio Benedusi was born in Imperia in 1962, a professional photographer with a studio in Milan since 1990. He has been a registered member of the Association of Journalists since 2000 and is active as a fashion, advertising and portrait photographer, collaborating with all the major publishing houses. He is a precurser of internet sharing, having had an active personal blog since 2003, with over 5 million page views: http://www.benedusi.it/blog/ He is also highly engaged on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with thousands of followers. Lecturer at IED Istituto Europeo di Design. Lecturer at IULM in Milan. Very active in education and publication, teaching in the best Italian workshops. The only Italian to produce the international edition of Sports Illustrated, with two covers, for 7 consecutive years. Exclusive curator and creator of the special swimwear supplement of the Gazzetta dello Sport Sportweek, with testimonials Melissa Satta, Elisabetta Canalis, Federica Pellegrini and Belen Rodriguez. Contributor to Corriere della Sera. In 2013 he held a Lectio Magistralis at the Milan Triennale organised by the Italian Association of Professional Photographers, an exhibition that invites onto the same stage Oliviero Toscani, Ferdinando Scianna, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Toni Thorimbert and Giovanni Gastel. In 2013, he was Artistic Director of the San Felice sul Panaro Photo Festival, for which he involved 12 major Italian photographers and Martina Colombari in a weekend to raise public awareness and give new vitality to a town seriously affected by the earthquake. He travelled to make investigative photographic reports in Uganda with Filippa Lagerback for CBM Italia and in Haiti for NPH with Martina Colombari. In 2016, at the Leica Gallery in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, he presented a solo exhibition dedicated to the memory of his late father. In 2016, to verify if photography can still have any real value beyond the ‘likes’ on social media networks, he travelled on foot from Imperia to Milan without any money, trading photographs in exchange for eating, drinking and sleeping: he succeeded! He has collaborated with Oliviero Toscani in countless initiatives. In 2018, he founded the ‘Collective of Popular Photography’ RICORDI STAMPATI (Printed Memories), which reproposes the luxury of the Printed Photographic Portrait. He loves to condense the infinite characteristics of a person into a single small gesture: what he would like to be known for is someone who never throws litter on the ground.

Founding Partner of REVAIA

Revaia invests in European growth-stage companies with global ambitions and sustainable leadership positions such as Aircall, Frontify and Deepki, helping them navigate throughout entire life cycles from the growth stage to IPO and beyond. Prior to founding Revaia, Elina was involved in the creation of Eurazeo Growth, Eurazeo’s growth equity arm where she supported leading tech companies such as Farfetch, PeopleDoc and ContentSquare. Elina has experience in the financing, structuring or the oversight of 30+ growth companies, and was previously an investment manager at Bpifrance. Elina sits on the boards of Frontify, Welcome to the Jungle and GoHenry. Elina has been consistently recognised as an investor and a young leader by the industry. Some distinctions she has received include Venture Capital Journal’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars, Best Young Private Equity Personality of 2021 at the Private Equity Exchange & Awards, Les Echos’ France Tech Personalities of 2021, inclusion in the Choiseul 100 and France Invest’s “Coup de Coeur trophy” of 2019. Elina graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and Columbia University in New York.

Managing Partner of Connect Ventures

Pietro is a founder turned VC. He has invested at seed stage for 10 years, focusing predominantly on B2B software. He is first check and on the board of several unicorns, including: Typeform and TrueLayer. Pietro learned the whole rollercoaster journey of tech entrepreneurship as co-founder and CEO of Neo Network, a mobile communication platform. Started in Milan in 2001, scaled up to 25m ARR, acquired in 2008. Prior to that, he did 5 years of Product and Marketing Management at Kraft Food where he experienced with Philadelphia the power category domination. A classic journey from soft cheese to soft…ware. Pietro’s passion and expertise is in everything SaaS, in product-led growth and in category design. He likes experimenting with new frameworks like his notorious Minimum Viable Category Design or the PLG Trifecta (LINKs) Pietro lives in London with his wife and two boys who has coerced to become Inter Milan fans.

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Imaginary

Nick Brown is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Imaginary Ventures. Founded in partnership with Natalie Massenet in 2018, Imaginary Ventures invests in best-in-class brands, platforms and entrepreneurs that are changing how a new generation of consumers live, eat and shop. Notable investments include Skims, Reformation, Glossier, FarFetch, Daily Harvest and others. Prior to starting Imaginary Ventures, Nick was a Partner at 14W Venture Partners. Nick received his BA from Harvard University.

Direttore Rai Play e Digital con responsabilità ad interim della Direzione Contenuti Digitali

Following a Master in Science Communication from SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies) in Trieste, Elena Capparelli began collaborating with Rai in 1997. From 1997 to 2000, she was the author of MediaMente, a historic Rai3 programme, which recounted the advent of the Internet in Italy. In 2000, she joined RaiNet as Content Manager and, after the launch of Rai's first portal in 2001, she began following all Rai projects for the first digital platforms, taking on increasing responsibility. She was also editorial manager of Rai's first on-demand TV service, Rai Click. In March 2008, she oversaw the launch of Rai.tv and until 2015 she was responsible for the editorial development of Rai’s entire digital offer. In June 2015, she was appointed Deputy Director of Rai Cultura, as head of Scheduling and Programming and the Rai Scuola channel. Since November 2017, she has been Deputy Director of Rai 3 with direct responsibility for Programming and Marketing. In May 2019, she was appointed Director of the Digital Department, renamed Rai Play and Digital the following December. From July 2019 to March 2022, she was a member of the Board of Directors of PER – (Player Editori Radio). Since June 2020, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of Rai Cinema, and since April 2021, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of Auditel Srl. In December 2021, she was appointed Director of the Digital Content Division and interim Head of Rai Play and Digital. In August 2022, she was again Director of Rai Play and Digital, taking interim responsibility for the Digital Content Division.

Senior Fellow of Global Health Johns Hopkins University

Senior Fellow of Global Health at Johns Hopkins University, Ilaria Capua has directed Italian and international research laboratories and developed the concept of Circular Health. Member of the European Academy of Sciences, she is the author of books for adults and children and a columnist for Corriere della Sera. Among the most authoritative Italian scientists at international level, Ilaria Capua has directed research groups in Italy and abroad for over thirty years, dedicating herself to viral infections that are transmittable from animals to humans, and their pandemic potential. She pioneered open access science applied to pandemic preparedness, designing and laying the foundations for the development of a platform for sharing virus genetic data to accelerate and optimise the response to pandemic emergencies. This initiative – taken up by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal – overturned the existing paradigm and today, because of it, millions of Sars-CoV-2 sequences are available in publicly accessible databases. Appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic in 2012, from 2013 to 2016 she was a member of the Italian Parliament at the invitation of the then Prime Minister Mario Monti. From 2016 to 2023 she directed the "One Health" centre of excellence at the University of Florida, where she developed the concept of Circular Health that promotes the advancement of health as an integrated system through interdisciplinary approaches. She is also an essayist and author of highly successful books including Io, trafficante di virus (Virus Trader) (Rizzoli, 2017), Salute Circolare (Circular Health) (Egea, 2019), Il Dopo. Il virus che ci ha costretto a cambiare mappa mentale (The Aftermath. The virus that forced us to change mind maps) (Mondadori, 2020), La meraviglia e la trasformazione (Wonder and transformation) (Mondadori, 2021), Il coraggio di non avere paura (The courage of not being afraid) (Solferino, 2022). She has also written books for children, including: Ti conosco mascherina (I know you, facemask) (La Coccinella, 2020), Il viaggio segreto dei virus (The secret journey of viruses) (De Agostini, 2021), Girogirotondo è uno il mondo (Ring-a-ring-o’ roses, there’s only one world (La Coccinella, 2021). A number of documentaries have been made based on her professional career, and in 2021 the film "Io trafficante di virus" (Virus Trader) starring Anna Foglietta. She has received countless awards, including in 2008 the Scientific American 50 Award, awarded to the world’s top 50 researchers, and in 2021 the Hypatia Prize for Life Sciences awarded from the European Academy of Sciences. In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Master's Degree in Med

CEO of Feltrinelli Group

Chief Executive Officer of the Feltrinelli Group since January 2022, for the previous seven years she held the position of CEO of Agnona, part of the industrial textile group Ermenegildo Zegna. Before that, she was Chairman and CEO of Emilio Pucci (LVMH group) for three years, and Senior Vice President Luxury Brands Europe and CEO South Europe of Ralph Lauren for eight years. Previously, she worked in top roles in Valentino and Levi Strauss. After graduating in Economics from the University of Bologna, she began her career in the strategic consulting firm McKinsey in Milan.

Founder & Ceo Miscusi

Born in 1989, at eighteen he took his first plane to London for a sabbatical and immersed himself in catering. He returned to Italy and graduated with honours in Economics from Bocconi University, spending a semester of his MBA at the Kelly School of Business in America. After a brief experience in Boston Consulting Group, he joined Rocket Internet in Berlin and founded Helpling Italia, helping to raise 57M€. At the age of 26, he founded miscusi. In 2019, he was nominated by Forbes among the 100 young Italians who will change the future.

Co-founder & Co-CEO of Velasca

Enrico Casati is the co-founder and co-CEO of Velasca, together with Jacopo Sebastio. In the early years of his career, he worked for the HSBC bank, mainly abroad between London and Singapore, both in the field of management support to top management and directly on the markets in the Asset Management division. In 2013, he decided to follow his entrepreneurial vocation by starting his own business. That same year, he founded Velasca, covering all company roles according to the company’s needs. Today he focuses on strategy, human resources, marketing, operations, technology and customer service, overseeing and coordinating a team of dozens of people towards the common goal of sustainable growth. Passionate about business and entrepreneurship, over the years he has shared his experience with other startups in the Italian ecosystem, with students of university courses and on Linkedin. Velasca is the first Italian style brand, created online in 2013, to adopt direct sales to the final consumer (first online and now omnichannel) as the centre of its growth and development. Velasca's mission is to bring "beautiful, well-made Italian style" to the world. The brand started from men's handmade shoes, but is rapidly expanding into the women's sector and into other total-look product categories, consistent with a lifestyle brand strategy that unites people in the world with the same values of style, craftsmanship, appreciation, and high quality made to last.

CEO & Founder of hlpy

Born in Rome where he graduated in Social Sciences from Sapienza, he grew up professionally in Milan where he began his working career in the ‘new economy’ of the late Nineties. He directly experienced the great enthusiasm of the first wave of digitisation in those years, followed by the bursting of the speculative bubble, first in Freedomland and then in Genie (British Telecom's digital brand). After two years of Sales & Marketing consultancy mostly in the automotive sector, in 2004, he joined Europ Assistance, the Generali Group's assistance providing company. In those years, in addition to covering various roles with increasing responsibilities in insurance, operations and sales & marketing, he developed his academic career by completing an Executive Program in General Management at Insead in Fontainebleau. In 2017, having exhausted his experience in Europ Assitance, he joined AmTrust International, the European arm of the American insurance group AmTrust, a player specialised in P&C and Warranty business, as General Manager. Since May 2020, Valerio Chiaronzi is CEO & Founder of hlpy, a European company based in Milan that is redesigning (digitising) the vehicle assistance services industry, serving car manufacturers, car rental agencies, motor insurance companies and mobility players. Hlpy has just concluded a Series A funding round and is expanding its activities into major European markets. Valerio is passionate about music, guitars and sports, and he is married with one son.

Executive Vice President of Samsung

Marco Chisari currently works as Executive Vice President at Samsung in Silicon Valley, California, heading the US Foundry business and Corporate Development and Venture activities. The business he heads had about $9bn revenue in 2022. From 2018 to 2021 he worked as Managing Director, Global Head of Semiconductor for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in San Francisco. At BAML he has advised on many transactions. In 2020 alone, he advised on $69bn of M&A, including the $35bn sale of Xilinx to AMD, the $21bn acquisition of Maxim by Analog Devices, the $9bn sale of Intel NAND business to SK Hynix. Other transactions include the $10bn acquisition of Cypress by Infineon, the $4.6bn acquisition of Osram by AMS, Marvell acquisitions of Aquantia and Avera. From 2016 to 2018 he worked as Managing Director, heading technology M&A in San Francisco for Credit Suisse. In this role he has advised on semiconductor and software transactions, including the $14.7bn acquisition of Linear Technology by Analog Devices, the proposed $47bn sale of NXP to Qualcomm, the $5.6bn acquisition of Brocade by Broadcom. Prior to this role, he served as an Executive Director at Mubadala, working on technology M&A investments. In about 7 years he participated in investments worth over $22bn, including the creation and the M&A activities of GlobalFoundries which has become the second largest foundry player in the world with over $6bn revenue. While at Mubadala he has also served as SVP, head of M&A and Corp Dev at GlobalFoundries working on the $2.8bn acquisition of Charter Semiconductor and IBM Microelectronics, partnerships with Samsung as well as a $2.5bn joint venture in China. He also served on the Boards of some of Mubadala VC portfolio companies, including SoftMachines, SmoothStone and Aquantia. Prior to Mubadala he worked at JPMorgan in TMT investment banking in London. In this role he worked on over $20bn of M&A transactions including some of the largest technology LBO transactions ($10.6bn NXP LBO). Prior to JPMorgan he worked at STMicroelectronics in San Jose, CA developing System-on-Chip products with ARM processors and Flash Memories, and at NOKIA in Italy, developing turbo codes and 3G algorithms for 3G baseband and smart antennas. He graduated summa cum lauded in microelectronics engineering from Politecnico of Milano, Italy and he holds an MBA degree from SDA Bocconi University and attended as a second-year exchange student the MBA program at Wharton Business School.

Founder of Musixmatch

Product-focused, balance-sheet driven entrepreneur with a 25+ year track record in pioneering, launching and growing profitable business in the media and tech space with broad experience in product, business, and content development. Massimo Ciociola is the Founder and CEO of Musixmatch, the global leading consumer and business Music Data company based in Bologna, London and San Francisco. The company focuses on building the best languages, transcriptions and meta data out of any audio formats. From Music to Audio. Musixmatch has more than 70 million users worldwide throughout all consumer platforms and global distributions agreements with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Instagram, Google, Facebook, Vevo, Spotify, Tidal, Youtube, etc with the goal of enhancing the consumer music experience. Musixmatch since July 2022 is a TPG Growth's portfolio company.

Researcher, Entrepreneur and Activist

John Henry Clippinger was a founding Director of the Open Earth Foundation, and co-founder of Bioform Labs. He was a co-founder of The Token Commons Foundation and Swytch, now ClearTrace Inc., and the Institute for Data Driven Design (ID3) with Professor Sandy Pentland. He was a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab Human Dynamics Group, and currently a Research Affiliate at the City Science Group. Formerly, he was a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of The Law Lab at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School. He was the Co-founder and CEO of four AI and NLP companies and Director of Intellectual Capital at Coopers & Lybrand, now PWC. Dr. Clippinger is co-editor From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond; The Quest for Identity and Autonomy in Digital Society, the author of A Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity, and the Biology of Business. (He has been a member of the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council, Santa Fe Institute, Aspen Institute, Highlands Forum, Institute for the Future, Yale CEO Summit, Dubai Futures Forum, Aspen Italia, TII/Vanguard, Kinnernet, DLD, and others. Dr. Clippinger is a graduate of Yale University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His recent Boards and Advisories: Open Earth Foundation
Active Inference Labs
Raise Green
Swytch/ClearTrace
Cashaa
Bancor
Evident Proof
Smart Valor
Decentralized Pictures
Co-Makery
OVR