Armenia
Hayk Asriyants
Founder of Startup Armenia, a think-tank focused on policy and initiatives for developing entrepreneurship in Armenia.
Azerbaijan
Jana Krimpe
Head of the Mobile ID project consortium in Azerbaijan as well as the chairwoman of the Azerbaijani-Estonian Chamber of Commerce.
Bulgaria
Anton Tsenov, Nickolay Andonov
Founders of Start It Smart, a training and mentorship program for first-time entrepreneurs in Bulgaria.
Atanas Kiryakov
Founder and chief executive officer of Ontotext, a provider of semantic databases and content analytics to large media companies.
Stefan Stoyanov
Vice-mayor of Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city; in charge of education, business development and international co-operation
Belarus
Eugene Nevgen
Creator of MSQRD, provider of animated masks in a real time video chats.
Art Stavenka, Kiryl Chykeyuk
Founders of Kino-mo, a company that develops smart visual technologies for projecting images.
Czech Republic
Alexey Nasonov
Founder and chief executive of Worldcore, an internet-based financial services provider.
Vaclav Horník
Creator of Windguru, an app that offers wind and wave forecasts from around the world.
Vaclav Muchna
Co-founder of Y Soft, which provides software to help companies manage their printers.
Jakub Jan Fiala, Ondrej Kocan
High school students who created an interactive English textbook, using technology such as QR codes to automatically redirect students to online sources such as CNN and the BBC.
Martin Hausenblas
Co-founder of Adler Czech, one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of advertising textiles in Europe. He also co-founded Liftago which connects passengers directly to taxi drivers.
Oliver Dlouhy
Co-founder and chief executive of Skypicker, a booking app that helps users find and book low-cost flights around the world.
Pavla Holcova
Founder of the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism, where she has investigated cases concerning Serbian organised crime suspects, Montenegrin secret service investments in Prague, money laundering, and offshore companies.
Robert Casensky
Former editor-in-chief of Czech newspaper MFDnes. After being expelled by new the owner, vice-premier Andrej Babis, he founded a monthly magazine, Reporter, which focuses on long-read journalism.
Pavel Hajek
Senior manager of the Vaclav Havel Library in Prague, which collects, researches and promotes the writings and political thoughts of the late Czech author, playwright and dissident.
Pavel Machalek
Co-founder of SpaceKnow, a venture-backed start-up based in Silicon Valley, which tracks economic trends by analysing satellite images.
Dita Charanzova
Member of the European Parliament, where she focuses on Digital Single Market strategy and support for central European start-ups.
Michal Tosovsky
Open data advocate at Fond Otakara Motejla, which seeks to promote the idea of open data and increased government transparency in the Czech Republic
Vít Rakusan
Mayor of Kolín in the Central Bohemia region.
Jana Adamcova
Former strategic adviser at the Office of the Government, focusing on R&D and digital technologies, and founder of the Institute for Digital Economy
Marek Antos
Lawyer, internet entrepreneur, and co-founder of online news businesses Internet Info and Lupa.cz.
Ondrej Neumajer
Digital education consultant for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and main author of The Digital Strategy for Education in The Czech Republic until 2020.
Estonia
Mari Vavulski
Acting Head of Startup Estonia, the government initiative to support and promote the growing start-up community.
Kaspar Korjus
Team Lead and Managing Director of e-Residency, the programme to provide anyone in the world a government-issued digital identity.
Kristjan Maruste
Co-founder and chief executive of coModule, a provider of connection technology for vehicles.
Croatia
Mate Rimac
Founder and chief executive of Rimac Automobili, a Croatian car manufacturer that develops and produces high-performance electric cars.
Hungary
Laszlo Kishonti
Founder and chief executive of Kishonti Informatics, a mobile benchmarking company based in Budapest.
Peter Bodo
Founder and chief executive at Route4U, a sidewalk navigation app for wheelchair users.
Zsolt Robotka
Founder of SignAll, computer system that translates sign language into text.
Andras Petho
Co-founder and editor of Direkt36, an investigative reporting centre in Hungary.
Zoltan Takats
Inventors of iKnife, a surgical scalpel, which analyses tissues and immediately gives information as to whether that tissue contains cancer cells.
Tamas Haidegger
Chief executive of HandInScan, which makes machines that check if hospital staff have sanitised their hands properly.
Peter Labody
Head of the copyright department at the Hungarian intellectual property office.
Prem Kumar Rajaram
Head of the Roma integration program at central European University and co-creator of CEU OLIve, which offers free classroom courses for refugees in Hungary.
Alíz Pocsuvalszki
Activist with Migszol, a civil society group campaigning for refugee rights in Hungary.
Aniko Grad-Gyenge
Head of the department of Civil and Roman Law at Karoli Gaspar University and vice-president of the Hungarian Copyright Forum.
Lithuania
Daumantas Dvilinskas
Serial entrepreneur who co-founded TransferGo, an online money transfer service.
Martynas Gudonavicius
Chief executive and co-founder of TRAFI, an app that helps urban commuters plan their journeys.
Vaidas Adomauskas
Chief executive and co-founder of WoraPay, a platform that allows customers in stores to pay using their mobile phone.
Ruslanas Irzikevicius
Editor-in-chief at the Lithuania Tribune.
Vytenis Buzas
Founder of NanoAvionics, an aerospace technologies company providing small satellite services.
Latvia
Ainars Kļavins
Founder of Overly, an augmented reality company.
Lauris Liberts, Agris Tamanis
Creators of Draugiem, the largest social networking website in Latvia with approximately 2.6m registered users.
Poland
Maciej Rys
Founder of EarlyLogic, a cloud-based educational technology which digitalises diagnosis and therapy of dyscalculia and other mathematical disorders in children between 3 and 9 years of age.
Mariusz Cieply
Founder and chief executive of LiveChat Software, a Polish manufacturer of communication software.
Mateusz Mach
Creator of Five, an messenger for deaf people.
Patrycja Wizinska-Socha
Co-owner and chief executive of Nestmedic, a medical company that has created Pregnabit, a telemedicine solution for monitoring foetal health.
Anna Skorzynska
Founder of Szumisie, a company that makes teddy bears that emit a white noise that helps babies fall asleep.
Stefan Batory
Co-founder and chief executive of Booksy, an app that helps small businesses schedule appointments.
Adam Wisniewski, Michał Mazur
Director and partner, respectively of PwC’s drone consultancy, based in Warsaw.
Marcin Kawalski
Co-creator of Snowcookie, a device that helps skiers improve their technique and make their skiing experience safer.
Bartosz Gonczarek, Piotr Sliwinski
Co-creators of Explain Everything, a teaching app.
Kamila Staszczyszyn, Kuba Matyka
Creative directors of MELT, a company that helps brands advertise through art and new media.
Martyna Regent
Former project lead at StructView, a software company making 3D views for web pages.
Aleksandra Przegalinska
Assistant professor at Kozminski University and a former expert at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Bogumił Zieba
Chief executive of Inovatica, which has designed a shirt with sensors to measure heartbeat activity.
Grzegorz Brona
Chief executive and co-founder of Creotech Instruments, which makes scientific instruments for the space industry.
Joachim Jakubas, Grzegorz Koper, Marcin Markowski
Co-creators of the Blood Analyser, a device that can specify blood type in just three minutes.
Tomasz Trzcinski
Assistant professor at the Institute of Computer Science at Warsaw University of Technology
Alek Tarkowski
Director of Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt: Polska, a think-tank encouraging citizens to participate in government through the use of digital technology.
Anna Strezynska
Polish Minister of Digital Affairs
Jadwiga Emilewicz
Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economic Development. She supervises the implementation of the Digital Poland 2014-2020 Program.
Marcin Iwinski, Michał Kicinski
Co-founders of a CD Projekt, the video game developer best known for The Witcher series
Jakub Lipiński
Co-founder & chairman at Polidea, which provides design, development and testing software
Adrian Kajda
Product Manager & Developer at Sygic, the navigation app.
Romania
Andrei Dunca
Chief technical officer and co-founder of LiveRail, which connects marketers to publishers on the web and on mobile. Facebook bought the company in 2014.
Dumitru Popescu
Chief executive at ARCA Space Corporation, which has developed the ArcaBoard, a commercially available electric flying machine.
Raul Popa
Co-founder, chief executive and data scientist at TypingDNA, a biometrics company that verifies people according to the way they type.
Dan Nechita
Counsellor to the Prime Minister of Romania on information systems and cyber security.
Mihai Raneti, Claudia Dehelean, Adina Brutaru, Kacper Gogol
Ethical hackers at Clepsisoft CyberFog, who help protect organisations by creating thousands of fake computers and services, thus helping hide the actual equipment.
Andrei Avadanei
Chief executive of Bit Sentinel Security, a cyber security company.
Roxana Rugina
Founder of Simplon Foundation, which organises coding workshops for adults and children.
Andreea Hanganu
Co-founder of the Institute for Digital Government.
Radu Puchiu
State Secretary, Prime Minister’s Chancellery. Head of the Online Services and Design Department.
Attila Bustya, Andras Lenard
Co-founders of Spider Drone Security, drone specialists.
Serbia
Branko Milutinovic
Co-founder and chief executive of Nordeus, a social and mobile gaming company.
Slovakia
Jan Lunter
Chief executive of Innovatrics, a biometrics company that has created an algorithm for fingerprint analysis and recognition.
David Rintel
Chief executive of Trustpay, the online payment gateway.
Marek Lavcak
Organiser of Startup Weekend Kosice and co-founder and executive officer of Eastcubator, a start-up incubator in Kosice.
Simon Sicko
Co-founder and executive director of Pixel Federation, an independent game publisher and developer.
Igor Pavelek, Milan Novota
Co-founder and director of product and engineering, respectively, at Pygmalios, an analytics tool for the tracking of physical behaviour of customers and workers.
Martin Adamek, Jozef Simko, Daniel Novak
Co-founders of Inloop, a mobile app developer.
Michal Pastier
Co-founder and group creative director of advertising agencies Zaraguza Bratislava, Zaraguza Prague and branding agency The Big Name Theory.
Martina Drahosova
The face of Ixworx, a company that provides software for interactive, 3D product visualisation.
Peter Pellegrini
Deputy Prime Minister for Investments. Formerly the State Secretary for Finance, Minister for Education, Science, Research and Sport and Speaker of the National Council.
Marian Kisdurka, Michal Simonfy
Creators of the web portal Odkaz pre Starostu, which allows citizens to raise practical issues with the government
Juraj Hostak
Special Advisor for Innovation and Deputy Director General, at the directorate for Business Environment and Innovation, Ministry of Economy of Slovakia.
Lucia Desmarquest-Orviska
Founder and chairman of the board in AkSen, an non-governmental organisation focused on supporting elderly people and their families.
Slovenia
Ivo Boscarol
Founder of Pipistrel, the light aircraft designer.
Denis Loncar
Founder of digital agency Numo.
Kristjan Kosic
Chief executive of Adora, a technology platform for surgeons.
Zeljko Khermayer
Founder of Feelif, an app that helps blind people read and write on tablets and smartphones.
Tomo Kriznar
Peace activist, notable for delivering video cameras in Southern Kordofan to the local ethnic Nuba civilians in order to help them collect the evidence of North Sudan military’s war crimes against them.
Blaz Zupan
Professor at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana. His bioinformatics lab develops Orange, a data mining suite.
Ukraine
Victor Shaburov
Founder and chief executive of Looksery, a facial recognition company acquired by Snapchat for $150m.
Yaroslav Azhnyuk
Co-founder and chief executive at Petcube, a technology company dedicated to improving the lives of pets.
Olga Afanasyeva
Executive director at the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.
Olga Yurkova
Founder and editor of fact-checking website Stopfake.org.
Dmytro Dubilet
Co-creator of iGov — an internet service where people can request official documents from governmental institutions.
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