Irene Hernandez
Gataca
Biography
Described by Forbes as one of the ‘21 leaders of change’ in 2021, Irene Hernandez is an entrepreneur, sought-after speaker and educator, who has cemented her work in the world of cybersecurity and blockchain technologies. As the founder and CEO of GATACA, she is defining a new decentralised identity architecture for the internet, empowering individuals and businesses to take control of their data and safeguard their privacy.
Irene is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience advising multinational corporations on IT strategies, bringing an in-depth understanding of the challenges facing today’s digital world. Her research on decentralised identity technologies and self-regulated energy financing systems at MIT, where she earned an MBA, has earned her recognition as a thought leader in the industry.
Organisation
Gataca
Start-up
Gataca is a cybersecurity company leader in decentralized identity management technology. Its mission is to develop highly secure digital identities that are privacy-preserving, user-friendly, and effortlessly integrated into existing systems. Since its inception at MIT in 2017, Gataca has developed a decentralized identity solution that streamlines the issuance, verification, and management of identity credentials in a simple, compliant, and secure manner, positioning itself as the most mature full-stack platform and interoperable infrastructure provider.
Speaker session
PLENARY 3 : Open Web Search and Large Language Models and Beyond: Challenges and opportunities for Europe
Europe is currently piloting an open and distributed Web search ecosystem to support European Web search solutions. The core of European Web infrastructure is a substantial Open Web Index, hosted and maintained in a distributed manner across a number of European computing centres. The invited speakers will examine the current state and potential of this initiative. They will also reflect on the challenges in setting up such a cooperative undertaking.
The panel will discuss how start-ups and innovators can build and offer their services based on such the European Open Search infrastructure in the future. The panel will in particular address the overall role of web search in the current and future development of Large Language Models and the potential of an open and distributed web search model to train Large Language Models and build diverse public and commercial Web services at scale while remaining in line with European values and jurisdiction.
Isabell Claus
thinkers.ai
Biography
Isabell Claus is a serial tech entrepreneur, managing director of thinkers.ai, winner of the Europe State Award 2022, Innovator of the Year 2022 in Austria and Austrian Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.
From 2012 to 2018, she was a member of the leadership team at RadarCyberSecurity, the European market leader for continuous cybersecurity monitoring. During this time, the start-up transformed from nothing into one of the Top 100 fastest-growing companies in the EMEA region, receiving awards five years in a row from the Financial Times and Deloitte. After the team sold the venture, Isabell co-founded her second tech company thinkers.ai, which has built the first ‘find engine’ in the ‘search engine’ market.
Before her tech venture, Isabell worked at a stock exchange and Wellington Partners Venture Capital. She studied business and legal studies, and completed her doctorate in strategic finance, having studied at Vienna, Harvard, Dubai and Singapore Universities, and the London School of Economics. Isabell is also a university lecturer, author of many books and publications on cybersecurity and AI, and an active and leading figure in the global entrepreneur community.
Organisation
thinkers.ai
Corporate
The "find engine" in the "search engine" market.
Speaker session
PLENARY 3 : Open Web Search and Large Language Models and Beyond: Challenges and opportunities for Europe
Europe is currently piloting an open and distributed Web search ecosystem to support European Web search solutions. The core of European Web infrastructure is a substantial Open Web Index, hosted and maintained in a distributed manner across a number of European computing centres. The invited speakers will examine the current state and potential of this initiative. They will also reflect on the challenges in setting up such a cooperative undertaking.
The panel will discuss how start-ups and innovators can build and offer their services based on such the European Open Search infrastructure in the future. The panel will in particular address the overall role of web search in the current and future development of Large Language Models and the potential of an open and distributed web search model to train Large Language Models and build diverse public and commercial Web services at scale while remaining in line with European values and jurisdiction.
Melanie Rieback
Radically Open Security
Biography
Dr Melanie Rieback is the CEO/Co-founder of Radically Open Security (the world’s first not-for-profit cybersecurity company) and ‘Post Growth’ start-up incubator Nonprofit Ventures. She designed and teaches ‘post growth entrepreneurship’ at the University of Amsterdam Business School, and is a cybersecurity lecturer at Singularity University and former assistant professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Melanie is a fellow of the Post Growth Institute, and was named ‘Most Innovative IT Leader of the Netherlands’ by CIO Magazine (TIM Award) in 2017, and one of the ‘9 Most Innovative Women in the European Union’ (EU Women Innovators Prize) in 2019.
She was described as one of the 400 most successful women in the Netherlands by Viva Magazine (Viva400) in 2010 and 2017, and one of the 50 most inspiring women in tech (Inspiring Fifty Netherlands) in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Her company, Radically Open Security, was named the 50th Most Innovative SME by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (MKB Innovatie Top 100) in 2016.
Organisation
Radically Open Security
SME
Non-Profit Computer Security Consultancy
We're an idealistic bunch of security researchers, networking/forensics geeks, and Capture The Flag winners that are passionate about making the world more secure. We believe in transparency and openness, and our goal is to secure the society that allows us to run a company in the first place.
Our Business Model
Radically Open Security prides itself on being the world's first not-for-profit computer security consultancy company.
We are prototyping an innovative new business model - using a Dutch "Fiscaal Fondswervende Instelling" (Fiscal Fundraising Institution) to provide a commercial front-end that sends 90% of our profits tax-free to a charitable foundation (Stichting NLnet) that has supported open-source, Internet research, and digital rights organizations for almost 20 years. Our low management/overhead costs mean we can afford to pay competitive wages to our computer security consultants. There are similar constructions in the world (B-corporations, Mozilla, etc..), but we tackle things from a slightly different angle.
Our idealism fuels our growth; it helps us to hire idealistic A-list security experts, and to find like-minded customers who want to use their security budget as a "vote" to support socially responsible entrepreneurship. We see ourselves as "hacking a new business model" for prototyping an ideal company - one that optimizes for benefit to the world (customers, employees, society) as opposed to profit motive (shareholders, investors, founders). Our hope is that, in a few years from now, we might inspire others to setup similar sustainable "not for profit businesses" in other industries. Call us dreamers, but we hope that we can help to move society forward in this way.
Speaker session
PLENARY 3 : Open Web Search and Large Language Models and Beyond: Challenges and opportunities for Europe
Europe is currently piloting an open and distributed Web search ecosystem to support European Web search solutions. The core of European Web infrastructure is a substantial Open Web Index, hosted and maintained in a distributed manner across a number of European computing centres. The invited speakers will examine the current state and potential of this initiative. They will also reflect on the challenges in setting up such a cooperative undertaking.
The panel will discuss how start-ups and innovators can build and offer their services based on such the European Open Search infrastructure in the future. The panel will in particular address the overall role of web search in the current and future development of Large Language Models and the potential of an open and distributed web search model to train Large Language Models and build diverse public and commercial Web services at scale while remaining in line with European values and jurisdiction.