Add Your Heading Text Here

Prof. Dr. Tomasso Calarco has been a full professor at the University of Cologne since 2018 and at the University of Bologna since 2023. He received his PhD at the University of Ferrara and started to work as a postdoc in the group of P. Zoller at the University of Innsbruck. He was appointed as a Senior Researcher at the BEC Centre in Trento in 2004 and as a Professor for Physics at the University of Ulm in 2007, where he then became Director of the Institute for Complex Quantum Systems and of the Centre for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology. He has authored in 2016 the Quantum Manifesto, which initiated the European Commission’s Quantum Flagship initiative, and is currently the Chairman of one of the Flagship’s Governing Bodies: The Quantum Community Network (QCN). In 2020, together with the QCN, he has launched an initiative towards the creation of a consortium of European quantum industries, which has been legally established in 2021 under the name of European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC).

Dr. Gustav Kalbe studied Applied Physics at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. In 1991 he studied Applied Optics at the Imperial College of Science in London. In 1995 he completed his studies and earned a PhD in Physics, Molecular Spectroscopy, at the UCL, Belgium.

He started his professional career as a project manager in photonic networks at the incumbent telecom operator in Belgium. He was R&D manager when he left the company. 

In 1998 he joined the Directorate General Information Society & Media of the European Commission where he started working as Project Officer managing research projects of the European Framework Programs for Research. Over the years he had several assignments in quantum technologies, photonics, and cybersecurity.

In 2014 Gustav Kalbe became HoU for Administration & Finance in the European Commission, in DG Connect.

In 2016 he was appointed HoU of the newly created High Performance Computing and Quantum Technology unit in DG Connect. 

In 2018 he became responsible for the establishment and operation of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. He occupied the post of Interim Executive Director of the JU until its autonomy by the end of 2020. 

Since May 2022 Gustav has been the Acting Director of DG Connect C “Enabling and Emerging Technologies”.

Prof. Dr. Tomasso Calarco has been a full professor at the University of Cologne since 2018 and at the University of Bologna since 2023. He received his PhD at the University of Ferrara and started to work as a postdoc in the group of P. Zoller at the University of Innsbruck. He was appointed as a Senior Researcher at the BEC Centre in Trento in 2004 and as a Professor for Physics at the University of Ulm in 2007, where he then became Director of the Institute for Complex Quantum Systems and of the Centre for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology. He has authored in 2016 the Quantum Manifesto, which initiated the European Commission’s Quantum Flagship initiative, and is currently the Chairman of one of the Flagship’s Governing Bodies: The Quantum Community Network (QCN). In 2020, together with the QCN, he has launched an initiative towards the creation of a consortium of European quantum industries, which has been legally established in 2021 under the name of European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC).

Mario Grotz started his career at the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Craft, where he acted as advisor to SME’s in areas concerning business creation and business management. In 2001, he joined the Ministry of the Economy where his focus was on the evaluation of R&D projects implemented by the private sector. From 2009-2012 he was appointed Head of the Directorate for Infrastructures and Technology. From 2012-2020, he is the Director General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies, responsible for the development of the technology-based sectors in Luxembourg: cleantech, biotech, ICT and space. He also represents the State of Luxembourg in different boards of private companies. From 2021, he is the Director General for Industry, New technologies an Research. In 2012, he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Creos Luxembourg, the national grid company.

In 2018, Mario Grotz became President of Luxinnovation, the national innovation agency, which offers a wide portfolio of services to companies and public research organisations.

Mario Grotz has been a key advocate of the country’s space industry and commercial space activities. In context of the SpaceResources.lu initiative, he has played a crucial role in the setup of the regulatory, legal and financing frameworks that have positioned Luxembourg at the forefront of space resources utilisation. In September 2018, the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) officially launched operations with the goal of promoting the further economic development of the Grand Duchy’s space industry by attracting businesses, developing human resources, providing innovative financial solutions and supporting educational and research infrastructure. In 2021, Mario Grotz became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Luxembourg Space Agency Foundation (LSA).

Dr. Thierry Botter is a successful industry executive, and an expert in the area of quantum technologies. He is the Executive Director of the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), a pan-European industry association with nearly 200 members and affiliates dedicated to supporting and strengthening quantum companies on the global stage. He is also a long-standing contributor on quantum technologies at the World Economic Forum and serves as an advisor on various councils. Dr. Botter previously held several leadership positions at Airbus, including deputy-Head of Airbus’ cross-divisional Central Research and Technology organisation. He also served as a member of the first strategic advisory board for the European Commission’s Quantum Flagship. Dr. Botter holds a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Alexandra comes with 15 years of professional experience within the public sector, private sector and academia.

She is currently working at Pasqal – the global quantum computing leader based on neutral atoms technology – as the Global Public Policy Lead. In her role, she takes responsibility over Pasqal’s Public Affairs, Standardization and Sustainability activities.  

Alexandra previously worked as Chief Economist in the Cloud & Software Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). In that role, she took responsibility over the economic, competition, statistical, industrial and investment aspects of cloud computing. She notably acted as the Commission’s trusted advisor to guide 12 Member States and hundreds of companies from the data, cloud and software ecosystems to design and set-up the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services.

Prior to that, she worked at Accenture where she pursued strategic consultancy missions for more than 50 public administrations and local governments across Europe in which she specialized in the digital transformation of public services and cities.

Alexandra started her career as an academic and teaching fellow at the College of Europe, where her research focused on the use of European public funding to shape local policies in Spain, Italy and Portugal.

She graduated in Economics and Sociology and in European Affairs and Public Policy, from the London School of Economics (LSE), the College of Europe, Sciences Po. Paris and la Sorbonne. 

Freeke Heijman recently founded an independent global consultancy practice targeting startups and corporates, governmental programs and investors on their innovation strategies in the field of quantum computing and deeptech. She has broad international experience in developing ecosystems, for the last 10 years specialized in quantum technologies. She brings unique expertise and an impressive network to actors ready to embark on a meaningful journey of technological transformation.

Freeke co-founded and scaled Quantum Delta NL, the foundation that runs the € 615 Dutch national Quantum Program that consists of a comprehensive ecosystem approach to accelerate R&D, education, facilities, and commercialization. She served in the executive board as director of Ecosystem Development and the House of Quantum. She has been active in the field of Quantum since 2013 as a special advisor to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Director of Strategic Development at QuTech, the renown quantum R&D center in Delft. In this context she was responsible for the Dutch policy and investments in Quantum Technology, international partnerships such as the launch of the EU flagship under NL Presidency and development of the Delft Quantum Campus ecosystem. She has extensive experience in public innovation policy, including space, industrial and entrepreneurship in the role of policy advisor and head of unit at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Hague. She graduated at the TU Delft Policy Analysis and Systems Engineering department in 1999 and started her career at KPN Research. Her passion is to drive innovation at the crossroad of academia, business, and government.

Pascal Maillot is deputy Head of Unit of the High Performance Computing and Quantum Technology unit in Directorate General Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission. He is in charge of the one-billion euro Quantum Flagship initiative launched in October 2018 with its first 20 projects.
He graduated as a computer engineer in 1998 and had several positions in the private and public sector as telecom project manager and cyber-security analyst.
He then moved to the quantum domain and focuses specifically on the future “quantum internet” interconnecting quantum computers, simulators and sensors via quantum networks to distribute information and quantum resources securely all over Europe. He’s been working for the EU institutions for 14 years.

Tomas Jakimavicius is a European Government Affairs Director at Microsoft. His main activities focus on Digital Infrastructure, Cloud, Quantum and Industrial regulatory policies impacting Microsoft and its customers’ use of and access to Microsoft’s products and services. Tomas has over 15 years of a wide-ranging senior level experience in both private and public sectors. In his career, he held leadership and advisory positions in trade associations and private sector companies and served as a diplomat at the Council of the European Union with a focus on EU digital regulatory policies.

Samira obtained a PhD in Materials Science from the Applied Physics Department of Chalmers University of Technology, specializing in superconducting quantum devices, nanoelectronics and materials characterization. She worked as R&D project manager in one of the leading foundries in the semiconductors industry in Sweden, where she developed the expertise to create proof-of-concept of innovative microelectronic devices and later she joined IMEC and through her role in the cleanroom management team learned even more about the practical obstacles that scientists and startups face. Samira transitioned from technical to policy work with becoming Project Manager – Innovation in the European Standardization Organizations (CEN-CENELEC). Since April 2022, she works as Programme Manager for Quantum Technologies and Electronics in EC European Innovation Councils and SMEs Agency, where she is responsible for developing visions for technological and innovation breakthroughs, the proactive management of EIC quantum technologies portfolio and supporting EIC beneficiaries in shaping the European quantum ecosystem.

Jérémy Lambot is since October 2022 responsible for the Technology Innovation department at Belfius where he explores and promotes the use of new technologies to improve the customer experience and commercial value for Belfius Bank and Insurance.

With experience in the telecommunications sector as innovation and strategy manager for more than 7 years, Jérémy joined Belfius in 2020 as strategy manager in charge of defining the digital & data vision for the B2B segment.

Jérémy is a computer engineer with an executive education in Innovation Management from INSEAD. Passionate about coaching, solving complex problems, building innovative solutions and trusted ecosystems,  he is also the founder of the Belfius Technology Innovation lab, representative of the Belgian Quantum Circle community and member of Febelfin’s Data sharing working group. The Business Workgroup within the Quantum Circle Community id led by Jérémy and the team focuses on: (1) Building a cross-functional team to understand the value of quantum for Belgian companies, (2)Creating quantum collateral material and building experience on how to introduce quantum technology, (3) Bringing quantum technology to the agenda of C-level executives and relevant use-cases.

Pierre Desjardins, co-founder and CEO, Managing Director. He is a graduate of École Polytechnique and Columbia University in New York (Master of Science in quantum physics obtained in 2013). He has worked as a research assistant at MIT’s Quantum Photonics Lab. From 2014 to 2020, he was a strategy consultant at Roland Berger, a global consulting firm. He managed or participated in over 40 projects, advising companies and investment funds on strategic and operational assignments.

Axel Ferrazzini leads 4iP Council, a research council promoting the role of intellectual property in European innovation. He heads the academic programme for the quantum computing and technologies major at a leading engineering computer science school.

He is listed as an inventor on 20 patents and has contributed to standards development organisations for more than 20 years. Axel has served as an elected member of the ETSI Board since 2014, of the Global Intellectual Property Alliance Board since 2022 and is ranked in the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists. 

Matija Matokovic is the Acting Head of Unit in NATO’s Innovation Unit. He is responsible for developing NATO’s strategies and policies for emerging and disruptive technologies, with a focus on NATO’s Quantum Strategy. Matija is also working on a portfolio of NATO’s initiatives aimed at capturing opportunities of EDTs for the Alliance. Matija’s professional background is in innovation and industrial policy. He has worked as an official for the European Commission in areas related to the EU Single Market, Horizon Europe, industrial strategies, public procurement for innovation and industrial partnerships for green tech. Matija’s academic interests are in systems of innovation elements aimed at scale up and commercialisation of emerging and disruptive technologies.

Dr. Fabiana Da Pieve received her PhD in Physics in Rome in 2006, with a thesis on continuous-variables entanglement between photons in atomic decays. She has also a side education in cryptography, and she helped setting up the Public Regulated Service of Galileo in the first experimenting phases. She did several postdocs covering fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics and correlations in many-body systems, studied by photon beams and under radiation in simulated space missions, also leading her own team and a H2020 consortium. She moved then to the European Institutions, first working for the European Research Council and now at the Commission in DG CONNECT as Program Manager in the field of quantum communication technologies, post-quantum cryptography, the combination of the two for in-depth defense and in the field of quantum networks of broader scope.  

Anita Wehmann is Program manager Digital Resilience Central Dutch Government at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and she initiated the Quantum secure cryptography Gov. program. She is also a member of the French-German-Dutch co-chairing team for the EU-workstream, which aims to achieve the goals of the EU Recommendation on a Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography.

She has been working in the field of Cybersecurity and integrated security since 2009 for several organisations within the Dutch government. Her passion is to make the Dutch Government and society more cyber resilient through collaboration.

With the power of quantum technology, Vikram Sharma and his company QuintessenceLabs are transforming cybersecurity to safeguard our digital lives.

Recognising the potential of quantum cybersecurity, Vikram Sharma conducted award-winning research to mature this science at the Australian National University (ANU).  He founded and leads the Canberra-headquartered company QuintessenceLabs, which is now at the forefront of the quantum cybersecurity industry.  The company’s capabilities have received many awards including global runner-up in IBM’s SmartCamp competition, Top 20 Westpac Businesses of Tomorrow, Security Innovation Network’s SINET16 Cyber Security Innovators, and most recently, recognised as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

Vikram holds a Master of Science in computer science from the ANU, a Master of Science in management (Sloan Fellow) from Stanford University, and a Doctorate in Quantum Physics from ANU. Vikram is also the recipient of the 2013 Pearcey State Award for Entrepreneurship, serves on several industry boards, and is a member of the National Security College Futures Council at the Australian National University.

Prior to QuintessenceLabs, Vikram successfully built several technology companies, including a consultancy firm providing IT services to the Government of Australia, and one of the first private ISPs in India. Vikram’s TED Talk on “How Quantum Physics Can Make Encryption Stronger”, has had over 1.2 million views.

Andrea G. Rodríguez is an Associate Research Fellow in the GRID Unit at CEPS.

She is also Lead and Chair of the Governing Board at ImpaQT, a quantum tech consortium based in Delft (Netherlands). Andrea teaches Cybersecurity and Security and Technology at the Catholic University of Lille (France) and participates in many advisory and working groups in different organisations, such as NATO STO and CEN-CENELEC. Before, she was a Lead Digital Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank and Lead Researcher at CIDOB, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs.

Mother tongue Spanish, Andrea is fluent in English and has intermediate knowledge of French.

Agustin Diaz-Pines is Deputy Head of the Unit “Future Connectivity Systems” at DG CNECT (European Commission), responsible for the policy and strategic developments in 5G and 6G communication networks as part of the Digital Decade strategy to foster investment, innovation and European leadership in the field. 

His previous roles at the European Commission include policy development in electronic communications and policy assistant to the Director of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry at DG CNECT, and merger review in the telecoms, ICT and media sectors in DG Competition.

Previously he worked as a telecommunications economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, Paris). He started his career at the Spanish government (State Secretariat for Telecommunications and the Information Society), involved in national and European ICT policy. 

Agustin holds a Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from the Madrid University of Technology and a PhD in Management/Economic Sciences from École Polytechnique/Paris-Saclay in Paris (France).

Karel Dumon is R&D Project Coordinator for Quantum Communication at imec. He is currently leading the BeQCI project, with the goal to build the first public quantum communication infrastructure testbed in Belgium as part of the EuroQCI initiative, and to strengthen the quantum technology landscape by leveraging imec’s platforms and research capabilities.

Laura Schulz is the department head of Quantum Computing and Technologies at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching, Germany. She drives efforts toward integrating emerging quantum accelerators into several layers of the high-performance computing (HPC) ecosystem. Laura is PI for LRZ on around a dozen grant projects for regional, national and European initiatives. This includes Germany’s Euro-Q-Exa project to seat a EuroHPC Joint Undertaking quantum system in Bavaria. Before joining LRZ, she was part of the Computation directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as well as LLNL’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center (HPCIC). Laura was named an HPCWire 2023 Person to Watch.

Jan Sonck is a business innovation leader, with over 25 years of experience in telecommunications and information technology industries. At Proximus, he plays a pivotal role driving our Quantum initiatives. He also leads Quantum Circle, the Belgian community dedicated to Quantum technologies.

Amit Nagpal is a Partner at Aetha Consulting, a boutique TMT consultancy. Amit has been working in the telecoms industry since 1990, advising fixed and mobile operators, regulators/government bodies, financial institutions and equipment manufacturers on a wide range of commercial, technical and regulatory issues. He has supported several multi-billion dollar M&A and debt financing transactions as well as leading numerous high-profile regulatory studies, particularly in the area of radio spectrum policy. Amit is able to bring a global perspective to his work having undertaken projects for clients in Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia.