Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Moderators

Sir Julian King

Commissioner for the Security Union, European Commission

Sir Julian King was appointed Commissioner for Security Union on the 19th September 2016.

He joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1985. He has held various positions, including: UK Ambassador to France (2016); Director General Economic & Consular (2014); DG of the Northern Ireland Office London and Belfast (2011); UK Ambassador to Ireland (2009); EU Commission Chef de Cabinet to Commissioner for Trade (2008); UK Representative on EU Political and Security Committee, (2004).

Sir Julian is a graduate of Oxford University. He was awarded the KCVO in 2014; CVO in 2011 and CMG in 2006.

Vivian Loonela

Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Ansip, European Commission

Vivian Loonela is a member of the Cabinet of Andrus Ansip, European Commission's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.

Previously, she was heading the sector for international data protection issues at DG Justice, focussing on the negotiations with the US on Privacy Shield/Safe Harbour and the Umbrella agreement.
Before that she worked at the Secretariat-General of the European Commission, following economic governance and rule of law issues, and at DG Justice and Home Affairs, where she covered transatlantic relations and counter-terrorism.

From 1997 to 2005, Vivian worked at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including a posting at the Permanent Representation of Estonia to NATO. She has graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu.

Taimar Peterkop

Director General, Information System Authority, Republic of Estonia

Taimar Peterkop is Director General of the Information System Authority, where he is responsible for coordinating Estonia’s national cyber security and developing Estonia’s e-government platform.

Previously, Mr. Peterkop has worked as the Undersecretary for Legal and Administrative Affairs in Estonian Ministry of Defence, where he managed and coordinated the work of Legal Department, Finance Department,
Administration Department and IT Department.

Mr. Peterkop was born on 20th January 1977 in Tallinn. He has graduated from the University of Tartu Faculty of Law and holds a Master`s degree in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College. He is also a reserve officer.

During 2000–2001 Taimar Peterkop worked as a lawyer in the Government Office. Between 2001 and 2005, he worked in the Ministry of Defence as the Director of International Law Office and 2005–2008 as the Director of
Operations and Crisis Management Department. From 2008 until July 2010 he worked as a Defence Counsellor in the Estonian Embassy in Washington.

Taimar Peterkop has also worked as a national defence teacher in several high schools and as an international law lecturer at Estonian Business School.

The Information System Authority is responsible for coordinating national cyber security, developing public IT solutions, including Estonia's e-government infrastructure and administering IT-related public funds.

Thomas Tschersich

Senior Vice President Internal Security and Cyber Defense, T-Systems

Thomas Tschersich began his career with Deutsche Telekom in 1989 as a telecommunications technician. He then went on to complete his degree in Electrical Power Technology at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. Thomas then continued to fulfill various roles within Deutsche Telekom before becoming Assistant VP of IT Security and Information Protection for Group Security in 2000, between 2001 and 2007 he was VP of Security Strategy and Policy for Group Security. Thomas then furthered his career when he was promoted to VP of Technical Security Services for Group Business Security, a role he fulfilled between 2007 and 2009. Afterwards he took the role as the SVP of Group IT Security Service followed by the role as SVP of Group Security Services. In his current position, Thomas is the SVP of Internal Security & Cyber Defense at Telekom Security, a role he has been in since January 2017.

Åshild Hanne Larsen

CIO, Statoil

Åshild Hanne Larsen was appointed CIO and Senior Vice President of Statoil’s IT function in November 2015. Her current focus is on digital transformation and creating business value from IT – using IT as a key enabler in improving operational efficiency and transforming the oil and gas industry. Åshild started her career with Statoil in 1993 and has broad experience both from professional and executive roles primarily within HR and IT, including leadership of corporate projects and large-scale organisational change efforts. Prior to taking on the CIO role, she was the Vice President for People and Organisation in Statoil’s technology, projects and drilling business area. Åshild holds a specialist MBA from Heriot Watt University in the UK, as well as an MA degree from Universität Bielefeld in Germany. She also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the International School of Stavanger.

Despina Spanou

Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity, DG CONNECT, European Commission

Despina Spanou was recently appointed Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity at the Directorate-General Communications Network, Content and Technology. From 2013 to 2017 she was Director for Consumer Affairs at the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers in charge of consumer policy, consumer and marketing law, redress and enforcement, and product safety. In that role she oversaw the overhaul of consumer law and enforcement as well as the integration of consumer policy in the digital single market strategy. From 2010 to 2013 she served as Principal Adviser in the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and was responsible for communication and also led the work on strategies on managing chronic diseases including the EU's contribution to the UN General Assembly on Health.

She was the Deputy Head of Cabinet for the European Commissioner for Health and Consumers Mr. Kyprianou (2004-2008) and for the Commissioner for Health, and later Education & Culture, Mrs. Vassiliou (2008-2010).

Despina Spanou started her career at the European Commission at the Directorate General for Competition. She had previously practised European law with the Brussels branch of a US law firm. She is a qualified lawyer, a member of the Athens Bar Association and holds a Ph.D. in European law from the University of Cambridge.

Steven Wilson

Head of EC3, European Cybercrime Centre

Steven Wilson was appointed Head of Europol (EC3) in 2016. He is responsible for the central collation of criminal intelligence on cyber crime across the EU, supporting member state investigations into online child sexual exploitation and cyber attacks on payment systems, critical infrastructure and information systems. He is also responsible for the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (JCAT), a team of specialist cyber investigators seconded to EC3 from many countries, providing digital and document forensic support in complex cases across the EU, strategic analysis of threats and trends and liaison with industry, academia and on-law enforcement partners. During his 30-year career as a police officer he has held a variety of senior detective roles and was responsible for Scottish national units delivering witness protection, covert technical policing, fugitives, undercover policing, assisting offender programme and all forms of cyber crime. He has served with Strathclyde Police, Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and, from 2013 to 2015, with the reorganisation of policing in Scotland into a national force. Mr Wilson was also the Scottish representative on UK cyber governmental and policing groups and led on industry and academic partnership groups on cyber resilience in Scotland. He has worked in covert policing, major investigations, sex offender management, counter terrorism investigations and represented the UK on international policing matters.

Ambassador Sorin Ducaru

Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO

Ambassador Sorin Ducaru took over the post of Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges in September 2013. He is responsible for providing support to the North-Atlantic Council and for advising the Secretary General on the evolution of emerging security challenges and their potential impact on NATO’s security.

Sorin Ducaru, Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges
Prior to his appointment as ASG, Ambassador Ducaru served as Romania’s Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, from September 2006 to September 2013. From November 2011, Ambassador Ducaru was the Dean of the North Atlantic Council.

Ambassador Ducaru was born on 22 June 1964, in Baia-Mare, Romania. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in 1988 and the Romanian National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in 1992. He holds a MPhil Degree in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam (1993) and a PhD degree in International Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest (2005).

He joined the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993, assuming various posts such as member of the Policy Planning team, counsellor to the Minister, spokesman of the MFA and Director for NATO and Strategic Issues. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Romania’s Ambassador to the United States of America. In 2000–2001, Ambassador Ducaru served as Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations, in New York.

In the year 2000 Ambassador Ducaru was awarded by the President of Romania the National Order of “Faithful Service” in rank of Commander, followed by, in 2006 the Order for “Diplomatic Merit” and in 2008 the rank of Knight of the National Order “The Star of Romania”. He received the title of “Ambassador of the Year” in 2003 and 2012, from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.

He is married to Carmen Ducaru (a graduate of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and of the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration) and has two children: Maria-Teodora and Matei-Nicolae. Ambassador Ducaru speaks German, English and French, and enjoys playing the guitar, skiing, tennis, photography and cinema.

Stina Ehrensvärd

CEO and Founder, Yubico

CEO and Founder of Yubico, and co-inventor of the YubiKey - a small device that makes strong two-factor authentication easy and affordable for everyone. She is a visionary IT entrepreneur with proven track records of creating and bringing new technology innovations to global markets.

Stine is regularly featured in leading international tech media and an accomplished speaker on Internet identity, security and entrepreneurship. She was named as one of Inc.'s "Woman to Watch in Tech".

Kaja Kallas

Member, European Parliament

Kaja Kallas is an Estonian politician. She is currently a Member of the European Parliament elected from Estonia and belongs to the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). She has previously worked as an attorney-at-law and been a Member of the Parliament of Estonia (Riigikogu), where she chaired the Economic Affairs Committee. She is also Vice-Chairman of the Estonian Reform Party. As an attorney, she specialised in European and Estonian competition law.

In the European Parliament Kaja Kallas serves on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and is Vice-Chair of the Delegation to the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. She is also a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the Delegation for Relations with the United States. She was a rapporteur for the jointly drafted strategic report "Towards a Digital Single Market Act" that calls for ambitious action to remove barriers in the digital world as well as to avoid hindering the technological revolution by overregulating the sector.

Thomas Boué

Director General, Policy — EMEA, BSA l The Software Alliance

Thomas Boué oversees the BSA | The Software Alliance’s public policy activities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. He advises BSA members on public policy and legal developments and advocates the views of the ICT sector with both European and national policy makers. He leads on security and privacy issues as well as broader efforts to improve levels of intellectual property protection and to promote open markets, fair competition, and technology innovation in new areas such as cloud computing.
Prior to joining BSA, Boué served as a consultant in Weber Shandwick where he advised clients on a wide range of technology and ICT-related policy issues and represented them before the EU institutions and industry coalitions. In this role, he also served as policy and regulatory adviser for both EU and US telecom operators. Prior to that Boué worked for the EU office of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry where he was responsible for the lobbying activities towards the EU Institutions in the areas of trade, education, and labor, as well as for the organization and running of seminars on EU affairs for SMEs and business professionals.
Boué holds a Master of Business Administration from the Europa-Insitut (Saarbrücken, Germany), a Certificate of Integrated Legal Studies (trilateral and trilingual Master’s degree in French, English, German and European Law, from the Universities of Warwick (UK), Saarland (Germany) and Lille II (France) as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Law from the University of Lille II, France. He is based in BSA’s Brussels office.

Michal Boni

MEP, European Parliament

A graduate of the University of Warsaw, where for many years he lectured in the Department of Polish Culture History. Involved in "Solidarity" underground movement since 1980, since 1987 its leader on University of Warsaw and from march 1983 till 1989 editor in chief of underground weekly newspaper "Wola". Since 1989 a member of the national authorities of "Solidarity", in 1990 – chairman of the "Mazowsze" Region Managing Board.

In 1991, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, from 1992 to 1993 he held the position of the Secretary of State in the same ministry, where he was responsible, inter alia, for labor market policy. Member of Parliament of the first tenure. From 1998 to 2001, the chief advisor to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy. Key expert cooperating in shaping of the National Development Plan and the National Action Plan for 2007-2013.

Since January 2008, the Secretary of State in the Prime Minister's Office. In 2009 appointed to the office of the Minister – a member of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. Since 2008 he was the Head of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister.

The Minister of Administration and Digitization of Poland from 2011 till 2013. The host of the Congress of Freedom on the Internet, the organizer of the consultation on digital privacy and data protection, creator of the Governmental Operational Programme Digital Poland 2014-2020.

Since 2014 the Member of the European Parliament active in LIBE and ITRE Committees. The member of Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and the Vice-chair of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. The co-founder of the Intergroup Digital Agenda for Europe.

Alex Momot

Founder & CEO, REMME

Boasting an IT-experience of over ten years, Alex has been working in blockchain space since 2013. Currently he is leading the REMME company that builds distributed Access Management solution eliminating passwords. In 2014 Alex ran BitX, a start up that allowed people to pay for telecom and other everyday usage services in bitcoins. He is the Board Member of the Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine for the last three years and has also been in Bitcoin mining since 2015.

Steve Purser

Head of Core Operations Department, ENISA

Steve Purser was born in the UK and attended the universities of Bristol and East Anglia where he obtained a BSc. in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical Physics respectively. He started work in 1985 in the area of software development, subsequently progressing to project management and consultancy roles. From 1993 to 2008, he occupied the role of Chief Information Security Officer for a number of financial institutions. He joined ENISA in December 2008 and is currently responsible for all operational activities of the Agency.

Steve is currently a member of several Steering Boards and Advisory Committees, including notably the Steering Board of the CERT EU and the Programme Board of the EU Cyber Crime Centre. In the area of standards, he is the ENISA representative on the ISO SC 27 working group. As Head of Core Operations, he regularly represents ENISA in international conferences on information security.

He was a co-founder of the 'Club de Securité des Systèmes Informatiques au Luxembourg' (CLUSSIL) and has frequently published articles in the specialised press. He is also the author of 'A Practical Guide to Managing Information Security' (Artech House, 2004).

Ben Cade

CEO, Trustonic

Ben has a proven track record in establishing and scaling businesses. Prior to Trustonic, Ben founded Linaro, the Open Source Software venture backed by IBM, Samsung, ARM and other key industry stakeholders. During his tenure at ARM he established and led the Security Division, helped scale the Infrastructure Business Unit from zero revenue to eight figures in under 18 months and helped establish the ARM M&A and Corporate Venture Capital function. Over his career, Ben has worked in major Asian and European blue chip companies as well as at the front line in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating globally. His passion lies in taking bold ideas and great people and turning them into businesses. He holds an Executive MBA from the London Business School and a Masters in Engineering from Southampton University.

Anton Shingarev

Vice President for Public Affairs , Kaspersky Lab

In his current role as Vice President of Public Affairs of Kaspersky Lab, Anton coordinates the company’s worldwide public policy agenda by managing both the company and the CEO’s cooperation and communications with national and international governmental bodies (UK, EU, etc.) and international public institutions and organizations (the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Europol, INTERPOL, etc.), including coordinating participation in government-level events, programs and projects, and negotiating contracts and strategic alliances.

Simultaneously as Head of the CEO Office of Kaspersky Lab, he leads the personal media and support office of Eugene Kaspersky – founder, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab. In this function his team provides full PR support to the CEO, including overseeing his reputation management and fully coordinating his communications with mass media globally, working in close cooperation with all the company’s heads of departments and regional offices worldwide generally, and with the Corporate Communications and Social Media departments in particular. Anton also assists in formulating corporate vision and strategy and in enhancing corporate identity. All this comes under the overarching strategy of consistent execution of a successful worldwide media campaign to position the CEO as a global thought leader and top authority in cybersecurity.

Anton is a member of Europol’s Advisory Group on Internet Security, and also of the Advisory Group to both UNCTED (the United Nations Counterterrorism Executive Directorate) and ICT4Peace (a policy and capacity-building oriented international foundation).

David Francis

Director, Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre

David Francis was appointed Managing Director of the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre in December 2016, having previously been Huawei’s European Cyber Security Officer. David joined Huawei in 2013 as the UK&I CSO.

David started his career with British Telecom and has worked his way up to hold senior positions in the IT sector in the UK and the US. Just prior to joining Huawei, David was a Chief Operating Officer with an eCommerce platform. David has management experience of both large corporations and startups on both sides of the Atlantic. He worked for MessageLabs/Symantec for over 9 years, of which the last 5 as Vice President of Operations, responsible for the global SaaS / cloud operations unit. Working closely with government and local authority customers, he has a vast experience with cyber security challenges and requirements for both the public and the private sector.

Staffan Truvé

Co-founder & CTO, Recorded Future

Staffan co-founded Recorded Future in 2009. Previous to that, he was CEO of the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) and Interactive Institute. Before that, he was CEO of CR&T, a research-oriented consulting company and technology incubator.

Staffan has co-founded or helped launch more than a dozen high tech start-ups, including Spotfire, Appgate, SmartEye, PilotFish, Makewave, Gavagai, Peerialism, Axiomatics, and Recorded Future. He has been on the board of several other startups, and has acted as a senior advisor to InnovationsKapital, a leading Swedish VC fund.

Staffan holds a PhD in computer science from Chalmers University of Technology. He has been a visiting Fulbright Scholar at MIT and holds an MBA from Göteborg University. His research interests include parallel and distributed computing, artificial intelligence, information visualization, and open source intelligence.

Staffan is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and is currently chairing division XII of the academy, Information Technology.

Nemanja Malisevic

Senior Security Strategist , Microsoft

Nemanja Malisevic joined Microsoft in 2014 and leads GSSD’s engagement in Germany.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Malisevic worked more than 10 years for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) where, be was the Organization’s first Cyber Security Officer. In this capacity he was deeply involved in the negotiation of the first set of OSCE cyber/ICT security related confidence building measures (CBMs), adopted in December 2013. Before that, he led the Organization’s efforts dealing with combating terrorist use of the Internet.

Mr. Malisevic holds a Bachelor degree (B.A) from the University of Wales (Cardiff, UK) and a Master degree (M.Litt.) from the University of St. Andrews (St. Andrews, UK). His is happily married and a proud father of two daughters.

Franz Hoheiser-Pförtner

CISO, Vienna Hospital Association

The Vienna Hospital Association includes all hospitals and geriatric centres of the City of Vienna and is one of the biggest hospital operators in Europe. Presently the Vienna Hospital Association is responsible for 10 hospitals, including the General Hospital-Medical University Campus, 11 geriatric centers and residential nursing homes with socio-medical care of the City ofVienna + the socio-therapeutic center in Ybbs and 6 training facilities for general healthcare and nursing care.

Franz Hoheiser-Pförtner is CISO of the Vienna Hospital Association and head of the CERT Advisory Council of the Federal Government, is representative of the health sector in the "Cyber Security Steering Group" and in the Security Commission of the ELGA (EHR of Austria).

He is a founding member and member of the board of the "Cyber Security Austria", which promotes the cyber security of Austria's strategic infrastructure. In addition to his professional activity, Franz Hoheiser-Pförtner teaches at colleges. Information Security and Cyber Security for E-Health Applications and Perspectives Resilience management for non-clinical health processes is one of the main areas of his scientific and professional activities.

An important aspect for Franz Hoheiser-Pförtner is: "Anyone who believes they are secure is part of the problem!"

Stijn Vande Casteele

Co-founder and CEO, Sweepatic

Stijn holds a Master’s degree in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London and several active certifications.

He’s an entrepreneur and cyber security professional with 15 years of hands-on experience. Having worked for start-ups and several enterprise organizations in both the private and public sector, Stijn is skilled to combine his industry experience, business insight and technical know-how towards all levels in the organization.

As co-founder and CEO of Sweepatic, Stijn is responsible for growing the company. He works with customers, partners and the Sweepatic teams on a daily basis to further evolve the Sweepatic reconnaissance and counterintelligence offerings in making organisations and the internet a safer place.

Pawel Herczynski

Director for Security Policy , European External Action Service

Pawel Herczynski is Director for Security Policy at the European Union’s External Action Service. He oversees the EU's external security policies in the areas of non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament; counter-terrorism/countering violent extremism; cyber, maritime and space security as well as EU sanctions.

Prior to joining the EEAS he served as Representative of Poland to the Political and Security Committee of the EU in Brussels, covering CFSP and CSDP issues. He held several senior positions within the MFA of Poland both in the headquarters and abroad, including Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Deputy Director of the EU Department - European Correspondent, Head of the Iraq Task Team and Deputy Representative to the NATO Political Committee in Brussels.

He holds a Master Degree in International Economics from Warsaw School of Economics. He has studied in Poland, Germany, Spain, Japan and China.

Leo Punt

Deputy Chief Executive, EMEA, SWIFT

Leo Punt is Head of EMEA Services & Support since October 2010, appointed Deputy Chief Executive EMEA in September 2015 and responsible for the SWIFT Customer Security program rollout in EMEA.

He has a broad experience in Technology, Operations and Security related Services. He joined SWIFT in 2004 and prior to joining SWIFT held various senior level positions in IT, commercial and delivery functions in multinational institutions across different industries.

Leo has a degree in Information Technology and MBA from Henley Business School.

Paul Adamson

Chairman, Forum Europe

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and founder and editor of E!Sharp, an online magazine dedicated to covering the European Union and Europe's place in the world.

He is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board, Rand Europe's Council of Advisors and the external advisory board of YouGov-Cambridge, a polling think-tank. He is a member of the board of advisors of the European Institute in Washington DC, the advisory board of the Washington European Society and the advisory committee of the EU chapter of Women in International Security (WiiS).

Paul is a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

He founded the consulting firm Adamson Associates, which was sold to Weber Shandwick and The Centre, which was later sold to Edelman.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to promoting understanding of the European Union”, a part of the Queen's 2012 New Year Honours Diplomatic Service and Overseas List. In 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

Thomas Renard

Senior Research Fellow, EGMONT

Thomas Renard joined the Egmont Institute in 2009. His research focuses on (counter-)terrorism and (counter-)radicalization in Belgium and in Europe. He is consultant for the Belgian public TV/Radio (RTBF), and contributes regularly to media worldwide. Previously, Mr Renard worked with the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation (as the head of the Brussels office) and with the Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank. He started his work on this topic as a data-entry analyst for the Center on Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS) in the US, contributing to the elaboration of the Global Terrorism Databasa (GTD) hosted by the University of Maryland, the largest database worldwide on terrorist incidents. Among many reports, he edited Counterterrorism in Belgium: Key challenges and policy options (Egmont Paper 89, 2016).

Other topics of research are the multipolarisation of international affairs (in all dimensions, from economy to military) and the strategies developed by the European Union to cope with emerging powers, notably the so-called strategic partnerships, as well as a focus on cyber-security, and more specifically its diplomatic dimension. He was project leader for the European Strategic Partnerships Observatory (ESPO), a joint project of FRIDE and Egmont (2012-16). His main contributions on this topic include the edited volume The European Union and Emerging Powers in the 21st Century: How Europe Can Shape a New Global Order (Asghate, 2012, with Sven Biscop), or The Treachery of Strategies: A Call for True EU Strategic Partnerships (Egmont Paper 45, 2011). His publications have been translated in Chinese and Russian, notably.

He is an Adjunct Professor at the Vesalius College, a PhD student at Ghent University, a member of the Reseau Multidisciplinaire d’Etudes Stratégiques (RMES). In 2012, he became a member of the Young Atlanticist Program, convened by the Atlantic Council of the US. He was a founding member of the Friday Group until 2017, a group of young Belgians from diverse horizons gathering to reflect on strategic and major societal issues, supported by the King Baudouin Foundation, as well as a member of the Korea-Europe Next Generation Policy Expert Forum (2015).

Previously, he worked as a journalist and as an analyst for US think tanks, based in Washington DC.

Erik van Zuuren

Founder, CEO, TrustCore.eu

Erik has years of experience/expertize in amongst others: Governance/Risk/Compliance, eGovernment/eBusiness/eBanking, Trust Services and Trusted/Trustworthy (eco-)systems, Enterprise (Security) Architectures, Service Oriented Architectures and Cloud Platforms, Information & CyberSecurity (Management),…

Erik's engagements include activities in public sector (Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal ICT Department (Fedict), the eGov & ICT agency of the Flemish Gov, DG Connect, DG Employment, DG RTD, EC-ISA, etc.) as well as activities in a diverse spectrum of private sector organizations (incl. NBB, ING, KBC, Electrabel Suez, Infrabel, DeLijn, BPost, Euroclear, ...).

Erik's achievements include being one of the fathers/authors of the blueprint for the Belgian Personal Identity Card Project (BelPIC) and being one of the fathers of key egov-supporting services at the Flemish government (wide range of (trust-)services wrt e-identification / e-authentication / authorisation / e-signing / stamping /... ).

Approx 1.5 years ago Erik left a big4 to start up TrustCore.EU and is currently amongst others active as: vice-chair of EEMA.ORG, Topic-leader at Solvay Brussels School, Enterprise Information Security Architect at BNP Paribas Fortis’ Global Security office, ProjectManager for an ENISA-study in context of Trust Services, …

Currently Erik is focusing on Enterprise (Security) Architecture, on the effects/implementation of the eIDAS-Trust Regulation and on the upcoming Payment Services Directive 2.

Ulrich Seldeslachts

Executive Director, LSEC.eu

Ulrich Seldeslachts is executive director of LSEC.eu, a not for profit industry association focused on Cyber Security and Data Protection in Europe, based in Belgium and with operations in the Netherlands, UK and Germany. LSEC is a cyber security catalyst, bringing together enterprise and government users, with industrial ICT Security expertise and academic experts and researchers. As a spinoff of KU Leuven university, LSEC is a thought leader on Cyber Security since 2002. Next to GDPR and data protection, LSEC has been active in domains of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), Insider Threats, and Cyber Security Market Analysis. Prior to LSEC, Ulrich was responsible for the corporate development of a US-European Broadband wireless operator (Sprint-Clearwire), held operational ICT security positions at Orange and ran Cybersecurity investments at a Corporate Venture Capital. LSEC runs 3IF.be, a transformation platform to digitize manufacturing with IoT and Industrial Internet, and is within the European Connected Factory responsible for the Cyber Security and Privacy challenges for advanced manufacturing platforms. LSEC participates with its expertise in the support on targeting Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks from a Cyber Crime perspective. Ulrich holds a BA in Communications, postgraduates in CS and an MBA from LBS. Within LSEC, Ulrich supports a team of 13 experts paving the way for a more secure industrial internet. Ulrich is Board Member of the Privacysalon, the organiser of the CPDPConferences.org, the leading European conference on privacy and data protection.