Pedro Pereira

Pedro Pereira (Director, Digital Transformation and Innovation Strategy, SAP EMEA South Innovation Office, DGTAL XO)

Pedro Pereira is an expert in digital experiences. Serves as head of Digital Growth and Innovation Strategy for SAP across EMEA South region and acts as digital transformation evangelist worldwide being invited as the jury for Dubai 10X Initiative, Gulf Capital SME Awards, ambassador for the UAE Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence, chapter lead of SingularityU Dubai and keynote speaker in Smart City conferences as subject matter expert. He is also Advisory Board Member at The BeSure Network, a startup using block chain and AI to potentially save people’s lives. Passionate about mentoring startups as member of in5, Techstars, Flat6Labs, SAP.iO 1BLives.

Born and graduated in Brazil, honored with executive certifications from MIT Sloan School of Management, Singularity University, the University of La Verne in the areas of Strategy and Innovation, International Marketing and Business Management.

Amadou Gallo Fall

As Vice President & Managing Director, NBA Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall works with local federations and basketball entities in Africa to grow the game of basketball in the region. Fall, originally from Senegal, also oversees the NBA’s grassroots events and its partnerships with marketing, media and consumer products companies in Africa.

In his role, Fall traveled to Africa and was an integral part of the NBA’s Basketball without Borders, the NBA and FIBA’s global elite basketball development program that also uses the sport to create positive social change in the areas of education, health, and wellness. Prior to spending 12 years with the Mavericks, Fall worked for the Senegalese Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Senegalese Basketball Federation.

Fall is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, where he played center on the basketball team.

Dr. Alexis Champion

Alexis holds a doctorate in computer science, with a specialty in distributed artificial intelligence (University Polytechnique des Hauts de France). For a dozen years, he was a researcher and then director of IT projects at the Research Department of Renault, the National Institute on Transport and Safety (INRETS), at CS Group, SNCF, Astek. He was then director of a foundation of public utility, IMI. He is also a trainer and author, and is a lecturer in innovation management for a license degree for AFPI-Sorbonne.

Alexis's fields of reflection and commitment are mainly the cooperative use of reasoning and intuition, research on perceptions and consciousness, Man-machine differences and collaborations, physiological and cognitive excellence. This in particular in the fields of activities demanding performance in extreme situations and sport.

Dr. Karl-Heinrich Dittmar

Specialist and head of the medical department at Bayer 04 that covers sports science, fitness, rehabilitation, coaching management and sports psychology. In addition to looking after the team, Dr Dittmar is responsible for the organization and development of the department and he played a considerable role in the planning and organization of the medical facilities during the modernization of the Bay Arena.

Dr. Alessio Rossi

Alessio Rossi holds a PhD in “Biomedical Research and Master Degree at the University of Milan in and previously the Bachelor Degree in Sport Science. He collaborated with “Finnmark University College” (Alta, Norway) on chronobiology and sport science projects. In his PhD he focused the study on the research method and statistical analysis. Mr. Rossi followed different projects about different topics: soccer, statistics, thermography, facial asymmetry involving anxiety, pacing strategy, chronobiology, strength performance, and balance ability. He obtained PhD with a thesis entitled “Predictive models in sport science: multi-dimensional analysis of football training and injury prediction.” Currently, actively working in collaboration with several companies in order to develop AI that will improve health status and sport performance by using Big Data and Machine Learning approaches.

Yevhen Shagov

Mr. Shagov is a Chief physician, CEO of age management clinic – ReFuture Clinic, Ukraine. He has extensive experience in Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine, worked both for Ukrainian and USA companies. He is a Founder and leader of the BAMIL community (Biotechnologies in the Aesthetic Medicine International League) and member of the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine and International Hormonal Society. Mr. Shagov is also an author of the ReFuture Book – a step-by-step guide to age management; and co-author of “First steps towards healthy life” in collaboration with the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.

Johannes Holzmüller

Johannes Holzmüller, FIFA’s Head of Football Technology & Innovation, is the captain of a forward thinking team who covers the whole innovation process: from the identification of football stakeholders’ needs, through the feasibility analysis of innovations, all the way to the development of global standards and introduction into the game. His team co-developed innovations like goal-line technology (GLT), electronic performance and tracking systems (EPTS) and video assistant referee (VAR) and implemented these innovations successfully at FIFA World Cups. Currently they are working on a new football data ecosystem which will support the next generation of football management. Before Johannes joined FIFA in 2008 he worked for the agency Lagardère (former SPORTFIVE)

Laszlo Vajda

Laszlo Vajda is a Hungarian-born sports and Olympic professional, who started his involvement with the Olympic Movement at the Hungarian National Olympic Committee in 1991. At present, Laszlo Vajda is the Senor Expert at Beijing 2022

Jesse Davis

Jesse Davis is an Associate Professor in the CS department at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on developing novel artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, and data mining techniques, with a particular emphasis on analyzing structured data. Jesse’s passions lie in using these techniques to make sense of lifestyle data, address problems in (elite) athlete monitoring and detecting anomalies.

Yana Klochkova

Yana Klochkova is Ukrainian swimmer, four- time Olympic champion, the most titled athlete of Ukraine in the history of the Olympic Games. She also has a title of Hero of Ukraine.

Wladimir Klitschko

Wladimir Klitschko is a Ukrainian former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2017. He held the world heavyweight championship twice, including the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, Ring magazine and lineal titles. A strategic and intelligent boxer, Klitschko is considered to be one of the best heavyweight champions of all time. He was known for his exceptional knockout power, using a strong jab, straight right hand and left hook, as well as excellent footwork and mobility, unusual for boxers of his size. Klitschko held a Ph.D. in sports science—hence his nickname “Dr. Steelhammer”.

Veikka Gustafsson

Veikka Gustafsson is a Finnish mountaineer who has ascended all 14 eight-thousanders in the world without the use of supplemental oxygen. He is also known for presenting a TV Travel Show on Finnish Television. In 1993 Gustafsson became the first Finnish person to have reached the top of Mount Everest. In the spring of 1997, he also became the first Finn to have reached the summit without the use of bottled oxygen

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen, nicknamed "the Flying Finn", is a retired Finnish professional racing driver. He was the 1998 and 1999 Formula One World Champion, driving for McLaren and has been ranked among the greatest Formula One drivers in various motorsport polls. Häkkinen currently works in driver management and is a brand ambassador for various companies.

Since his retirement, Häkkinen has often been voted among the greatest Formula One drivers. Michael Schumacher has stated that Häkkinen was the driver whom he gained the most satisfaction of racing against.

Christian Guttmann

Professor Dr. Christian Guttmann was recently named TOP 100 global AI leaders in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science. He is executive director of the Nordic Artificial Intelligence Institute, Global Head of AI and Vice President at Tieto – one of the world’s largest Software and IT companies.

He advances AI technology and business to new heights for societal prosperity in teams of bright and passionate minds. He works on strategy and execution of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for business and government organization.

He has over 25 years of solid industrial, scientific and technological experience in AI. At Tieto, British Telecom/Etisalat, IBM, HP, successful startups and top ranked universities (Harvard and Stanford), he led innovation teams using artificial intelligence & machine learning. He creates high-impact AI systems and products, patents and scientific publications.

Prof. Marc Raibert

Marc Raibert is the founder and CEO of robot maker Boston Dynamics.

Working with his team at Boston Dynamics, Marc Raibert builds some of the world's most advanced robots, such as BigDog, Atlas, Spot and Handle. These robots are inspired by the remarkable ability of animals to move with agility, dexterity, perception and intelligence.

Raibert founded Boston Dynamics as a spinoff from MIT, where he ran the Leg Laboratory, which helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots. He was a professor of EE&CS at MIT and before that associate professor of CS & Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.

Stephane Houdet

Stéphane is one of the world’s best wheelchair tennis players with two Paralympics Games Gold medals, 20 Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles and a total of 35 singles titles and 78 doubles titles. In 2014, he became the first man in history to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam in men's wheelchair doubles. He was named “Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur” in 2009.

HE Katri Kulmuni

HE Katri Kulmuni is a Finnish politician and the current Minister of Economy of Finland.

Kulmuni graduated as Master of Social Science from the University of Lapland in 2018. She was elected first time to the Parliament of Finland in 2015 and again in 2019. After the 2019 elections she was named as the Minister of Economic Affairs at the cabinet of Antti Rinne.

Minister of Economic Affairs Katri Kulmuni is responsible for matters concerning the Innovations and Enterprise Financing Department and Energy Department. Minister is also responsible for matters concerning part of the Regions and Growth Services Department.

Dr. Aisha Butti bin Bishr

Dr.Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr is the Director General of the Smart Dubai Office, the government entity entrusted with Dubai’s city-wide smart transformation by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Dr.Aisha also leads the creation of ‘The Smart City Index’ - the first-ever benchmark for smart city implementation across the globe in cooperation with International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations. As an acclaimed digital transformation and smart cities thought leader globally, she represents Smart Dubai in the City Protocol Society, Smart City Expo World Congress and GSMA Mobile World Congress.

Dr.Julian Gold

Julian A. Gold, M.D., was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in 2011 and served as mayor in 2015 and 2018. Mayor Gold graduated Team Beverly Hills, class of 2002.

Dr. Gold grew up in New York and graduated NYU School of Medicine. A board certified anesthesiologist for 40 years.

He is a An active supporter of local youth sports Community , Dr. Gold was a board member of Beverly Hills Little League and coached both Little League Baseball and AYSO Soccer.

Frédéric Genta

Frédéric Genta is the Country Chief Digital Officer of the Principality of Monaco. Appointed by HSH Prince Albert II.

He is in charge of Monaco’s IT and network infrastructures, e-government program, smart-nation ambition, and digital economy.

Prior to this role, Frédéric worked at Google in both Paris and California. As the Head of the Retail industry in France and the US, he helped the largest retailers define and implement their digital strategy. Frédéric also worked at Amazon.com, where he led the sports division. He started his career at Orange, holding a variety of positions in France, the UK and Slovakia.

Donnie Nelson

Donnie Nelson is an American basketball executive who is the general manager and president of basketball operations for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the son of Don Nelson, the former head coach of the Golden State Warriors and the Mavericks. In a 2007 Sports Illustrated article ranking the NBA's personnel bosses from 1 to 30, Nelson was ranked No. 2. In a 2009 Yahoo! Sports article Nelson was ranked the third-best general manager of the decade after producing nine 50-plus-win seasons in a row and the first Finals appearance in franchise history in 2006.

Dorukhan Acar

Mr. Acar is a board member and chief treasurer of Galatasaray SK, Vice Chairman of Galatasaray Merchandising AS, Head of Galatasaray Commercial Committee

From 2001 to 2016 he worked as a management consultant for Many Intl Groups .

Mr. Acar is an active angel investor in the entertainment industry – he produced / co-produced 8 movies & 1 TV Series including 2016’s top grossing Turkish movie Dağ 2 (IMDB rating 9.8)

He is very active in sports economics via guest lectures at universities and pro-bono sports board memberships

Amadou Gallo Fall

As Vice President & Managing Director, NBA Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall works with local federations and basketball entities in Africa to grow the game of basketball in the region. Fall, originally from Senegal, also oversees the NBA’s grassroots events and its partnerships with marketing, media and consumer products companies in Africa.

In his role, Fall traveled to Africa and was an integral part of the NBA’s Basketball without Borders, the NBA and FIBA’s global elite basketball development program that also uses the sport to create positive social change in the areas of education, health, and wellness. Prior to spending 12 years with the Mavericks, Fall worked for the Senegalese Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Senegalese Basketball Federation.

Fall is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, where he played center on the basketball team.

Bryn Balcombe

Bryn Balcombe is the Chief Strategy Officer for Roborace, the world’s first motorsport competition for human and AI teams. He oversee’s the company’s strategic direction and alignment with government, industry, academia and media.

He has previously worked for Lotus Engineering on Vehicle Safety System design, testing and validation before joining the Formula One Group in 1997.

Working in the special projects group he patented the first ground based cellular communications systems between the track and F1 cars for bidirectional video, audio and telemetry data. He was then responsible for developing the technical infrastructure and race control systems for all new F1 circuits as well as the laying the technical and operational foundations for F1’s Global Media Network, CDN and Data Centre infrastructure. Bryn holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering & Vehicle Design.

Colin Webster

Colin Webster, former IESF Board Member and General Secretary of Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), is a President of IESF to serve the role for the remaining term of presidency, which is until 2019 GM. Mr. Colin has been actively involved in promoting esports as a fully accredited sport, conducting dialogues with various traditional sports stakeholders.

In fact, Mind Sports South Africa was the first national federation to be accepted as a member of a National Olympic Committee.

Susanna Rahkamo

Dr.Susanna Rahkamo, two times Olympian and world silver medalists in ice dance has been involved with sports all her life. She is currently the Vice President of the Finnish Olympic Committee, the Chair of the Olympic Culture and Legacy Commission in European Olympic Committee (EOC) and Chair of the International Skating Union's (ISU) Development Commission.

In her position as Chair of the ISU development commission, she works to increase the numbers and improve the quality of Skaters, Coaches, and Officials engaged in competitive international Figure Skating and Speed Skating. In this work, digitalization and machine learning are opening new possibilities for training and evaluation as well as reaching out and helping members all over the globe.

Alessio Rossi

Alessio Rossi holds a PhD in “Biomedical Research and Master Degree at the University of Milan in and previously the Bachelor Degree in Sport Science. He collaborated with “Finnmark University College” (Alta, Norway) on chronobiology and sport science projects. In his PhD he focused the study on the research method and statistical analysis. Mr. Rossi followed different projects about different topics: soccer, statistics, thermography, facial asymmetry involving anxiety, pacing strategy, chronobiology, strength performance, and balance ability. He obtained PhD with a thesis entitled “Predictive models in sport science: multi-dimensional analysis of football training and injury prediction.” Currently, actively working in collaboration with several companies in order to develop AI that will improve health status and sport performance by using Big Data and Machine Learning approaches.

Risto Siilasmaa

Risto Siilasmaa has been the chairman of Nokia's board since 2012. He has led the company in one of the most successful corporate transformations ever. He is also the author of Transforming Nokia: The Power of Paranoid Optimism to Lead Through Colossal Change as well as the founder and chairman of F-Secure Corporation, a Finnish cybersecurity company. Siilasmaa is a member of Investment Council of Finnish Industry Investment Ltd, a member of the Board of The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries and a member of the Board of Directors, Confederation of Finnish Industries. He has received severals awards including Nordic Chairman of the year 2009, the Most Influential IT Leader 2007 and The Leader of the Decade 2003.

Steve Tzikakis

Steve Tzikakis has led SAP’s South Europe, Middle East and Africa region since 2015. With a plan to expand SAP’s leading market position and enable customers and partners on to become intelligent enterprises, Tzikakis is responsible for SAP’s go-to-market strategy and execution for all lines of business across the region. Tzikakis joined SAP in 2008 and has held a number of senior roles including general manager for South Europe, head of strategic customers for EMEA and managing director of Russia and CIS

Prior to joining SAP, Tzikakis was regional VP global accounts, EMEA at Infor Global Solutions and the managing partner of an internet enablement and applications management business in the UK.

Alejandro Agag

Alejandro Agag is a businessman, entrepreneur and visionary. Founder & CEO of Formula E - Agag has steered the ABB FIA Formula E Championship from an initial idea and a note on a napkin, to become the fastest-growing category in racing and touted by many as the future of motorsport.

Agag was born in Madrid and enjoyed an international upbringing, starting out in politics as the personal assistant to the Spanish prime minister, before moving into the fast lane with business partner Flavio Briatore. After selling the TV rights for Formula 1 in Spain and revamping the Campos outfit in GP2, Agag plugged into Formula E and won the tender to promote the newly-formed electric street racing series.

Still in the driving seat, Alejandro Agag is showing how the excitement of sport can have a meaningful social impact - promoting cleaner air and cleaner technologies through the competitive platform of Formula E.

Bibop Gresta

Bibop Gresta is the chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies since 2014.

With a team of more than 500 professionals in 42 countries, their quest is to build the Hyperloop™ Transportation System — the next generation of travel — by utilising existing infrastructures, it will save construction costs of railway projects and reduce travel time. With expertise ranging from the fields of startups, transportation, media and finance, Bibop specializes in mass market community building and project design. He is also on the board of several humanitarian efforts including Cure Aids Project, Project Happiness and Project Peace on Earth, and supports transhumanism and ethical entrepreneurship.

Alexis Champion

Alexis holds a doctorate in computer science, with a specialty in distributed artificial intelligence (University Polytechnique des Hauts de France). For a dozen years, he was a researcher and then director of IT projects at the Research Department of Renault, the National Institute on Transport and Safety (INRETS), at CS Group, SNCF, Astek. He was then director of a foundation of public utility, IMI. He is also a trainer and author, and is a lecturer in innovation management for a license degree for AFPI-Sorbonne.

Alexis's fields of reflection and commitment are mainly the cooperative use of reasoning and intuition, research on perceptions and consciousness, Man-machine differences and collaborations, physiological and cognitive excellence. This in particular in the fields of activities demanding performance in extreme situations and sport.

Rigan Machado

Rigan Machado is a red & black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, having been the very first black belt graded by Carlos Gracie Junior. Rigan is the nephew of Gracie Jiu Jitsu founder, Carlos Gracie (Senior), having been amongst the toughest BJJ competitors of the 1980’s. Machado moved to the USA in the late 1980’s where he established his own successful grappling franchise, producing high profile fighters such as Rico Rodriguez and coaching famous personalities like Dan Ionosanto and Chuck Norris. Rigan Machado is also a successful author, having published one of the most successful books in Jiu Jitsu, the Encyclopedia of BJJ

Jan Pommer

Jan Pommer initially worked as a lawyer before turning to sports management 20 years ago. After holding positions as general manager of the communications agency Sponsor Partners (BBDO network), as managing director of Basketball Bundesliga and the DSM (Marketing Company of the German National Olympic Committee) and most recently as Vice President of the largest sports company in the world, ESL, he is now managing director of the German Racing Federation in Cologne. He is active in numerous committees, e. g. as a member of the Executive Committee of the advertising industry association ZAW or on the Executive Board of WESA, a major esports league.