Speakers

Paul Cuatrecasas is the Founder and CEO of Aquaa Partners. Previously he was the Founder and a Partner of Alegro Capital (www.alegrocapital.com) from 2003-2010. Previous to Alegro, Paul was the co-founder and Managing Director of ARC Associates from 1993-2003. (ARC Associates was a leading independent London-based TMT mergers and acquisitions advisory practice with a full range of blue chip and entrepreneurial clients including Sonera, Cable & Wireless, Apax, Marconi, Equant, ICL Fujitsu, KKR, Permira and BT, amongst others).

Paul has directly or indirectly completed over 35 M&A transactions around the world worth over $6 billion and over 40 corporate finance advisory and strategic consultancy assignments. He has directly or indirectly originated and structured over 15 private placements of equity capital raising over $500 million. He also directed the ARC investment programme and achieved a historical professional investment track record over 50% IRR since 1994.

Prior to ARC Associates, Paul was a Senior Associate with Arkwright Capital (ex-Bain & Co. partners), an M&A and Corporate Finance advisory firm in London (1991-1993) and with GE Capital in their LBO and Restructuring Group in New York (1989-1991).

Paul is a Non-Executive Director of Motive Television plc.

He holds an MBA from Columbia University where he was awarded the Roswell C. McCrea Scholarship and a BA from Wake Forest University. Paul holds dual US and UK citizenship and speaks fluent Spanish.

As a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP, and based in London, Tina co-chairs the firm’s European Emerging Technologies and Venture Capital Practice.  She advises both public and private clients in the US and Europe on a broad range of matters, including public and private capital raising transactions, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, securities law compliance and other commercial and financial transactions.  

Tina has served on various committees and task forces of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA), including the EVCA’s Professional Standards Committee, the Code of Ethics Working Group and the Disclosure Guidelines Task Force.  She is also active in the Seedcamp community, serving as a mentor and judge. 

Tina is also a recording artist and songwriter (www.tinab.tv) and currently performs opera in concert.  Her most recent album features soul music done in a classical style (www.somethingsaretimeless.com).

A persuasive advocate who is passionate about inspiring business leaders to make the most of their talents and their people; Ashley is a Director of European Leaders and heads its performance services and leadership academies. Much of his work today is facilitating the rapid performance increase of management teams which is usually required in the countdown to exit.

As a seven times CEO over 26 years with four public offerings behind him, he has experienced extreme learning. He led the IPO of Orchestream in 2000 to its £1b market cap, and as MD of Cray Communications/Anite Networks led the turnaround and executed its sale in two parts to Cable & Wireless and Intel. Ashley has been involved in around 20 M&A transactions as CEO as well as around 20 individual VC funding deals. He is a former professional racing driver and instructor and competed at international level for 13 seasons and over 200 races.

Ashley designs and lead facilitates learning and development workshops for GMs & CEOs and HR leaders. He is also part of the team delivering European Leaders’ innovative performance based consulting, coaching and mentoring services.

Yves Cornaz joined Google in 2010, and is a manager on the corporate development team, which is responsible for evaluating, negotiating and executing Google's acquisitions and investments.  Prior to Google, Yves worked as a director with KPMG transaction services providing financial and commercial due diligence assistance to San Francisco Bay Area strategic and private equity investors involved in M&A transactions.  Yves started his professional career as an equity analyst with HSBC Private Bank in Geneva.

Yves has a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and an MBA from the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Davis. Yves is also a CFA Charterholder.

Per Roman is a partner of GP Bullhound Ltd., a leading technology investment bank. Prior to founding GP Bullhound, he worked in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers Inc. focused on technology mergers & acquisitions and equity capital market transactions. He also has experience from the software industry where he held various roles both in Europe and the US for Autodesk, Inc., the global leader in PC based Computer Aided Design.

Per Roman holds a MSc. Finance from Stockholm School of Economics and has in addition conducted MBA studies at ESADE in Barcelona, Spain. He also holds the IIMR Investment Management Certificate and is a CFA Candidate (Level II). He appears as a regular technology commentator on CNN, CNBC Europe, BBC and Bloomberg TV.

With over 20 years experience in communications, Jane Gideon currently serves as CEO of Incendio International, which she founded in 1994. Incendio focuses on international public relations and corporate communications activities, with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta and London.  Jane is responsible for the overall management of Incendio’s international operations and clients.   Incendio has served such clients as Amnesty International, Apple Computer, Boston Red Sox, Cisco Systems, Deckers Corporation, Hyperion Corporation, IBM Corporation and Flextronics International, President Obama and has conducted PR programs in 24 countries in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia.  

During her career, Jane has also served in the primary communications role for high-level executives such as Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs and John Sculley of Apple, Frank Calderoni of Cisco, Scott Cook of Intuit, and Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems.  She has placed these executives as keynote speakers at conferences such as the World Economic Forum and handled crucial executive testimony before US and EU government bodies.   

Jane brings extensive knowledge and experience in international mergers and acquisitions, including investor, employee, customer and influencer engagement, change management following an acquisition and complying with all international communications standards for publicly-traded companies.  Her M&A experience includes heading up M&A communications for Cisco, Intuit, Hyperion, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.  She currently works with the CFO’s office at Cisco where she is responsible for all M&A communications globally, including employee, investor, press and analyst communications.  She also serves on the company’s integration management team which covers all aspects of acquisitions from making the deal to logistics of integration and onboarding employees.

Jane’s experience outside of the technology industry includes work with Amnesty International, the Boston Red Sox, UGG shoe brands and Attune Foods.  She also headed up the press conference activities for President Obama’s visit to France during the 2009 D-Day events, where she worked with President Sarkozy of France and his communications team to coordinate press efforts.

Jane began her career at Alexander Communications and in 1990 launched that company’s West Coast operations. She has also directed such prominent accounts as Intuit and Symantec. Working with Waggener Edstrom, Gideon directed two of the most high profile PR programs of the decade with the launches of Windows NT and Windows 95.  

Jane received her Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychology from Vanderbilt University and did graduate studies in business administration at Emory University.

Hanna joins the ink posse as Director of Public Relations & Social Media. She brings real world marketing and PR experience with a profound knowledge of mobile, broadcasting and telco industries. Hanna demonstrates a proactive approach to implementing PR strategies for her clients and cuts to the chase to find the best results for her clients. She knows a trick or three and made her bones in London’s competitive agency arena.
 
Hanna has worked with world-class companies and organizations such as BBC, IBM, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and GSMA. If you were a regular visitor to Mobile World Congress, you would have seen her running the media center. Hanna has also helped innovative companies such as Hammerkit, Frantic, Axel Technologies, Fjord and Ge.tt to gain local buzz as well as global credibility.
 
Hanna conducted her studies in both Finland and the UK and holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and has a Masters in Marketing. She is fluent in English and Finnish, wants to refresh her Swedish and add Spanish to her list of special skills. You can follow Hanna on Twitter @HannaManna

Since 1996, Jeff Coe has worked with a number of established and emerging technologies from concept to maturity. He was responsible for developing and expanding several technology companies including Mercury Mobility LTD and sevenload GmbH into multiple countries and technology sectors. His core expertise lies within the internet and mobile space primarily that of entertainment, and has brokered several landmark business deals between traditional media and new media including the first major music ringtone deal in Australia. Jeff co-founded Halfahead, a pioneer digital music platform in Europe which was the first legal music platform in Scandinavia featuring record label content. In 2003, Jeff co-founded Mercury Mobility, a mobile entertainment company in Australia which saw a successful stock listing in 2007. Post IPO, Jeff migrated to Europe and began investing in European businesses. His core focus is to alleviate growing pains and shorten the growth cycle as much as possible to improve their early success in the market.

Mindy M. Hull is the Founder and Managing Director of Mercury Global Partners, a multi-discipline, international marketing and PR firm with offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam and Paris. Mercury Global Partners offers strategic guidance combined with tactical execution to companies who seek a blend of traditional and highly creative ways to reach their target markets. The company is uniquely geared toward providing an unmatched range of 360-degree marketing and PR services in both the online and offline world for pan-European and US companies within the tech, mobile, internet, publishing, digital media, real estate, education and venture capital sectors.
Mindy brings significant executive-level experience to her role at Mercury Global Partners with over 15 years of B2B and B2C expertise in marketing, PR/corporate communications, business development product development, and operations within the tech, mobile, internet, publishing and digital media sectors.
Prior to founding Mercury Global Partners, Mindy spent over 10 years working in the publishing and digital media industries in a variety of roles including VP, Business Development, VP of Marketing, Director of Channel Development, Director of Operations, Circulation Director, and Consumer Sales and Marketing Director. 
She attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied Business Administration and Marketing.

Pär-Jörgen joined Northzone in April 2003, bringing another fifteen years of strategic analysis, creativity and entrepreneurship onboard.
Pär-Jörgen has been active in Venture Capital and Private Equity since 1994, starting out with buy-outs in the consumer goods sectors, backing companies such as Falcon Breweries, subsequently sold to Carlsberg, and Candelia which was sold to Cloetta Fazer. During this period he also privately acquired Falkeskog Delikatesser, a distressed seafood producer, which he managed through a successful turn-around process.
During 1998 to 2001 he built Cell Ventures, an early stage technology venture capital company to one of the hot European Internet investors with portfolio companies such as Pricerunner and Tradera. Cell Ventures in 2000 was sold to a publicly listed UK Investment Company for SEK 1.2 Billion.

Like a few others within Northzone, Pär-Jörgen also has a background as a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Europe and in the US, serving clients within the telecom, technology and consumer goods industries.
Although you are most likely to meet Pär-Jörgen in a business situation, you may also encounter this multi-talented partner as part of a Heavy Metal band, belting out his highly appreciated versions of Hendrix´classic Purple Haze and such, at the same time bending the strings of one of many vintage guitars from his private collection.

Pär-Jörgen holds an MBA from Stockholm School of Economics (1989) and Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Pär-Jörgen speaks Swedish, English, Italian, German and French.

Pär-Jörgen serves as Chairman of the Board of Fox Technologies Inc. and Testfreaks.com, and as Director of Spotify SA, Jasper Design Automation Inc, Proxilliant Systems Corp and Xcerion AB. He also serves as a Board Member of Videoplaza and Avito.

Nagraj is currently Vice President of Qualcomm Ventures (QCV) and heads up worldwide activities for the team. Nagraj also leads all business development activities for new projects in Qualcomm’s R&D group and manages the QIN (Qualcomm Innovation Network) program which is designed to solicit new ideas from Qualcomm’s employee base. Mr. Kashyap has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to his current role, Nagraj worked in various engineering and management capacities at Nortel, 3COM, Motorola, PRTM and Qualcomm.
QCV was formed in 2000, with a $500-million fund commitment to make strategic investments in early-stage high-technology ventures. Since joining Qualcomm Ventures in 2003, Nagraj has expanded QCV presence and programs in China, India, Europe, Israel and Korea and has more than doubled the team size. Currently, Nagraj actively manages and serves as a board member or observer for QCV investments in Zeebo, Obopay, locationlabs, Sotera Wireless and Avaak. Kashyap also led QCV investments in Airvana (IPO), Bitfone (acquired by HP in 2007) and Novarra (acquired by Nokia in 2010).
Nagraj holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Mysore, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Texas and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
 

Jure Mikuz is a Managing Director of RSG Capital, a Ljubljana-based Venture Capital management company that focuses on early-stage technology investments in the Balkans region. He established the first Slovenia-based VC Fund, raising private commitments mostly from domestic industrial investors. He serves on several boards of the investee companies, including Celtra, TAB Systems and Novitim. Jure is actively promoting entrepreneurship and regularly holds lectures on finance and fundraising procedures for the start-up communities in Slovenia and across the Balkans. Prior to establishing RSG Capital he was a deputy head of asset management in KD Group and stock broker on the Ljubljana stock exchange. Jure holds MBA from the University of Ljubljana. 

Frank Kelcz has spent over 20 years building businesses and communities in multi-cultural and multi-lingual environments. At SEB, he is focused on Media-Tech investments. Frank is Founder and President of Excelerance Limited, a marketing, sales, and business development constultancy for clients entering the European market. 

Prior to founding Excelerance, Frank sent nearly ten years at Ziff-Davis Publishing where he launched the group in Europe, created Ziff-Davis's first international corporate sales and marketing group, and successfully launched leading IT publications in Europe.

Frank has held senior management positions for leading companies such as Bertelsmann's, Gruener & Jahr, and Entertainment Systems International (ESI).

Frank earned a Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) from Bowdoin College in Maine, and pursued MBA studies at New York University before leaving to launch a magazine in Italy. He is fluent in English, French and Italian, and is conversant in German and Spanish

“We always invest with the exit in mind, and we begin the grooming process at least one year prior.” - Frank Kelcz

As Chief Executive Officer, Bertram Meyer oversees the company’s strategies and operations. Before joining Taulia, Mr. Meyer held positions as director at Railteam, Europe's high-speed rail alliance, and managing director at RailLink, Railteam's IT subsidiary. Prior to that, Mr. Meyer acted as chief sales and marketing officer at Ebydos, the SAP® solution provider widely known for its Invoice Cockpit solution which was sold to ReadSoft in 2006. Earlier, Mr. Meyer worked for 5 years as a top management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.

Christophe Maire is CEO of txtr, a Berlin-based start up that builds tools and services for digital reading and provides a complete service software stack, supporting a multitude of vendors, applications and devices.

Christophe has 15 years of experience as founder and CEO of technology ventures. He founded and led gate5 AG, a Berlin-based pioneer in mobile mapping & community software for 7 years before selling the company to Nokia in the summer 2006. He was previously Managing Director of one of Europe’s largest digital media production and visual effect ventures, raising equity from Bertelsmann, Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom (70M Euros total funding).

Hubert Deitmers is co-founder and co-owner of Van den Ende & Deitmers.

Until 2005 he was a Member of the Executive Board of Endemol, the world’s largest independent provider of content for television, telephone and computer platforms. He joined Endemol early 1996 and has played a leading role in all acquisitions completed by the company since its IPO late 1996. Amongst others he was also responsible for Corporate Development and Legal Affairs.

Prior to Endemol, Hubert has had over eight years of international venture capital experience in Europe and the US at Atlas Venture, a leading international venture capital partnership with a focus on information technology and life science.

In 2005 he also co-founded Solid Ventures, an early stage venture capital partnership focussing on Dutch ICT companies. He is a supervisory board member of several companies and an advisory board member of the New Business School. Furthermore he was an advisor to the Minister of Economic Affairs.

He holds a Masters Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from the University of Eindhoven.