Dr. Monique Calisti
Dr. Monique Calisti is the founder and President of Digital for Planet. Monique is actively engaged in several research and innovation projects and initiatives that focus on definition, development and deployment of advanced, human-centric, and sustainable digital technologies and solutions. She has consolidated experience within the ICT scene as CEO of Martel Innovate, and former Vice President R&D of Whitestein Technologies. Dr. Calisti has been organising and moderating many scientific, technical, and policy-related events, she has been serving as a Program Committee member of several conferences, she has worked on more than 50 publications, she has been Member of the Board of Directors for the Autonomic Communication Forum and for the IEEE FIPA Standardization Group and she has been Editor in Chief of the Whitestein Series in Software Agent Technologies and Autonomic Computing.
M.Sc. Ana Karanfilova Maznevska
Mrs. Maznevska is a of the head of waste department at the Ministry of environment and physical planning. She has 20 years of experience in the field of waste management and sustainable development. She is responsible for waste management within the Ministry of environment and physical planning and carrying out the main administrative, planning, monitoring, and development tasks related to the waste management projects on the national and local /regional level. Mrs. Maznevska is experienced in environmental impact assessment procedures, preparing strategic documents in waste management as well as harmonization of the EU legislation and drafting national waste management laws.
Prof. Dr. Michael Bongards
Michel Bongards, professor for automation technology and computational intelligence at the campus Gummersbach of the TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, started his employment at the university in 1990 after a career as founder and CEO of a software company. Since 2005 he was engaged as scientific director in the design and operation of the :metabolon research site. Since his retirement in 2020, he supports his successor, Prof. Dr. Christian Wolf, as senior consultant in research and education activities.
Emilija Andonova
Emilija Andonova is an SME advisor for sustainability and circularity in the Enterprise Europe Network. She posses extensive experience in shaping circular business models of startups and SMEs.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Holzhauer
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Holzhauer studied mechanical engineering at the Technical Universities of Dortmund and Hannover. At the University of Dortmund he passed his degree as Dr.-Ing. According to the relevant professional activities in the fields of materials handling, logistics and waste management, he was appointed in 1994 to the Chair of recycling technology of the University of Applied Sciences Westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen. Currently, the work focuses on the design of recycling processes and process technology for future energy sources. Prof. Holzhauer is part of various associations. He is a board member of the VDI Society for Energy and Environmental Technology, director of the business development center Ruhr for circular economy and director of the department “Resources and Sustainability” of the North Rhine Westphalian Graduate School.
Angel Batalla
Angel Batalla founded Last Mile Team in 2016 after 40+ years of experience in Global Supply Chain, earned at international blue-chip corporations and startups. Last Mile Team is an Artificial Intelligence driven startup that develops award-winning inclusive digital solutions to help cities and companies to bolster goods road transport sustainability, efficiency and resilience with tools to support road transport twin green and digital transitions. Mr. Batalla is a partner in “LEAD”, a European Commission financed H2020 Research and Innovation Action, working on design and implementation of Digital Twins of urban logistics in six European cities. He is responsible of route optimization and sustainability assessment in Madrid Living Lab.
Benno Weissner
Benno Weissner is a consultant at ZENIT Centre for Innovation and Technology with a focus on StartUp Promotion and Circular Economy. He is also active in the Enterprise Europe Network. As a graduate geographer, he has gained professional experience in the field of material flow management at the IÖW, Technologiezentrum Ruhr and engineering companies, among others.
Fernando Barriento
Fernando Barrientos was born in Argentina where he was trained in Law with deepening in Environmental Law at the University of Buenos Aires. From 2010 to 2013 he worked as an environmental legal consultant for large firms and public agencies. This work experience woke his curiosity for the strong connections between environmental sustainability and innovation. Thus, he moved to Germany to study (2013-2015) how universities and research organizations produce scientific knowledge and then exchange it with those who exploit it (mostly companies and the public sector). Since 2016 he decided to stay in Germany and pursue an international carrier where he consults entrepreneurs, researchers and policy makers on innovation management in international research cooperations (Horizon2020, Horizon Europe, INTERREG).”
Goran Kelemen
Goran Kelemen is the founder of UrbanFolx, a consulting company that deals with digitalization and communication. Kelemen was a consultant for the Russian sales channel Irexx TV in Stuttgart and advised them in the areas of partnerships and sponsoring. His specialization in the German market began with the cooperation with “Wiege Media AG” and the ADAC with transmission technology of the motorsport racing series "ADAC GT Masters".
Bojana Stanojevska
Experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the environmental services industry. Key qualifications at project management, project development, institutional framework and governance in the environment, energy and climate sector, capacity building, development of strategic documents and policy making, energy and environmental management, as well as communication, coordination and public awareness at environmental and climate issues. Strong program and project management professional with a Postgraduate focused in Energy, environment and sustainable development from University of Oslo.
Goran Rafajlovski
Mr. Rafajlovski is an operational director of SEEUTechPark and IP Consultant who helps entrepreneurs and innovative startups reach-out their maximum potential. With an ongoing 15-year successful career in managing StartUp Centers, Incubators, Accelerators & TechParks he has build-up portfolio of an experienced business mentor, passionate about technology & brands. His background includes: Operations Management, Startup Investments, Intellectual Property & Valuations.
Marija Raspopovic
Marija Raspopovic is a Senior Advisor in Projects Department at the Chamber of Economy of Montenegro. She has years of experience in Montenegro, Belgium and the United States working for international media, organizations and companies in the field of communications, electoral systems and project management. She holds a BA degree in Political Sciences: European Studies and MA degree in European Studies: Transnational and Global Perspectives, as well as MSc in International Business Economics and Management. She is participating in drafting the first Roadmap Towards Circular Economy in Montenegro, is a project manager for BLUEfasma project focusing on circular economy in the fishing and aquaculture sector and a member of the Working Group for Green Economy, formed by the Ministry of Economic Development, Government of Montenegro.
Patricia Ceysens
Patricia Ceysens is Founder and CEO of WeWatt, a mission-driven company that aims to fight the 'sitting disease' with its sustainable, human powered bike desks.
Daniela Mladenovska
Daniela Mladenovska is a mechanical engineer, PhD in technical sciences from the University of Ss’ Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Skopje. Main areas of research include sustainable energy infrastructure planning, energy efficiency, energy policy, etc. UNIDO certified expert for Energy Management Systems Implementation and Compressed Air Systems Optimization. More than 20 years’ experience as an engineer in energy sector. Adjunct docent at the Faculty for Technical Sciences at Mother Teresa University in Skopje.
Damjan Postolovski
Damjan is an IT engineer with experience in developing solutions in the energy industry. He is a co-founder of Swift Data and CTO at the company’s leading solution Solar Data Collector which performs assessment, monitoring, optimization and forecasting services for solar plants. He is experienced in developing solutions that integrate data analytics, prediction and modelling in highly dynamic environments.
Ulrich Reuther
Ulrich Reuther is the Account Director at VES-ECOTEC GmbH and a business economist, passionate about and experienced in building companies. After completing his studies in Business Administration and 5 years of working at the Institute for Management at the Freie Universität Berlin, he has founded and headed many start-ups over the last 20 years. For many years he worked as CEO and consultant for Omnex Europe GmbH for automotive industry first tier suppliers, such as Lear Corporation, Magna, ABB, Continental, Knorr Bremse, and in the field of lean tools, process optimization and quality management. With VES-ECOTEC, he is currently working on an innovative circular business model in the area of solvent recovery, which has the potential to take a major step towards a low-carbon future.
