Venture Cup Jury

Dennis Westergaard

Business Development Director, Danfoss Ventures

Dennis is involved in all stages of business development within Danfoss Ventures; Screening, evaluation of business ideas and their potential, fundraising and as an active board member. With a background within Finance and Economics, he has a major experience in advising and financing companies and has beside this been co-founder of and CEO in his own company for some years before joining Danfoss. Dennis holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Management Accounting and Business Finance and a Master in Leadership and Innovation and has been with Danfoss Ventures since April 2006.

Klaus Lorentzen

Vice President Product Development, Velux

Klaus is Vice President Product Development at VELUX, previously Director Global Product Management also in VELUX.

In his former jobs Klaus has worked with production as well as sales & marketing.

Based on his theoretical and practical experience he has a very broad insight to what can be developed, produced and sold and has used this for many years to evaluate new business ideas.

Klaus has a degree in Electromechanical Engineering and a degree in International Marketing.

Lene Vognsen

Research Manager, Arla Foods

Lene is a Research Manager at Arla Foods, and her experience covers 15 years in R&D, mainly from the dairy industry. She's leading a group with the purpose of turning ideas and results from food technology research into business. Her focus is on early-stage development and judging potential of new technology for new product development or implementation in production. She has experience in leadership, project management, technology development and strategic planning.

Her eeducational background is a Master of Science in Engineering (Chemical Engineering).

Sune Højfeldt,

Patent Attorney, ST Ericsson

Sune assists small- and medium-sized companies in optimizing the value of technology and know-how. He also frequently assists investors in making more informed investment decisions by assessing intellectual property rights aspects. Often he is also able to help start-ups meet investors, and vice versa.

He holds a M.Sc. degree in Physics & Mathematics from Copenhagen University and a Ph.d. degree in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Denmark.

Jakob Boman

Partner, Wemind

Jakob Boman is partner in Wemind, a small start-up company. Wemind specializes in social capital and how companies or individuals can create value-adding relationships with their stakeholders. Jakob was a management consultant at Accenture before joining Wemind.

Jakob holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark.

Jon Froda

Co-founder & Partner, Hoist

For several years, Jon has been researching the field of social software, specializing in strategies that help organizations develop knowledge, lead and to stay ahead of the market. This includes both a strong theoretical grounding within social media as well as a practical approach to building tools for online networking and knowledge sharing in the business market. He has five years of experience in the development of social web-applications.

Jon Froda is also partner and co-founder in Hoist, a web based service that helps people work efficiently across organizations or geographical locations. At Hoist, Jon has been involved in product development as well as working closely with partners to spread the word about 'the new way to work' and how to organize it in the 21st century. Hoist is currently in private beta.

Rasmus Bjerngaard
Investment Manager, SEED Capital

Rasmus is Investment Manager in SEED Capital. His main focus is on hardware but he is also involved in investment decisions in software, mobile and medico technologies. He is in the board of UpCon Technologies A/S, Teklatech A/S, AidOnline A/S, Doctors Without Borders.

Rasmus has a background from high-tech innovation and product development mainly from the electronics and telecommunications industries. Before joining the SEED team, Rasmus was Engineering Manager and Director of Software Platforms in Litepoint where he was key in establishing and running the European department of the US startup company. Previously Rasmus was Operations Manager in the startup Swirlnet in Silicon Valley. Further he has been Technical Lead in Nokia Mobile Phones heading the development of a large software platform spread across 15 countries. Rasmus has several international publications from his time as researcher in medical ultrasound and he has hands-on entrepreneurial experience from starting an online media company.

Rasmus holds a Master of Science degree in electronics and computer science from the Technical University of Denmark, a bachelor minor in Psychology from the University of Copenhagen and a bachelor of commerce, 1st part, from Copenhagen Business School.

Ole Trudslev

Investment Associate, Inventure Capital

Ole has been working in the venture industry since 2000, and is currently an investment associate with Inventure Capital A/S. He has primarily been working with evaluating new investments, strategic development and contract negotiations. Prior to Inventure Capital, Ole has experience from InnFond and Novi. Ole's educational background is an M. Sc. Business Administration and Business Law from Aalborg University and he is currently studying for an MBA at Aarhus School of Business.

Søren J. Nielsen

Investment Director, NorthCap Partners

Søren has more than twenty years working experience in the High-Tech, General Management, Strategy Consulting and Venture Capital/Private Equity industry, having served in multiple senior roles.

Søren worked at Nokia for several years in France, Denmark and Sweden. Søren has also had roles as interim Chief Operating Officer - COO, for a mobile semiconductor start-up and Director of Sales & Nordic General Manager for a Californian software (mobile internet focus) start-up company - in these roles he helped raise more than $ 40 Mill in equity for the companies. Most recently he has worked a 5 years in venture capital and private equity. Søren has worked in a $ 200 Million Nordic technologies venture fund and Partner and co-founder in a $ 100 Million industry Leveraged-Buy-Out fund. The past few years he has also been engaged in various entrepreneurial start-ups in Asia and US.

Søren holds a Masters Degree from Aalborg University, Denmark, graduated with highest honors; in Microelectronics and Telecom combined with a years extend master thesis in microelectronics at ESIEE, France. He has complemented this with Executive Programs in strategy and finance from INSEAD - France.

André Elm

Regional Manager Zealand, CONNECT Denmark

André Elm has a background as a mechanical engineer. For the past 16 years, André has been working as an business adviser for entrepreneurs and has been a board member and CEO in two companies.

André Elm is now working as Regional Manager for CONNECT Denmark. Managing the Zealand region, he advises a broad portfolio of entrepreneurs and companies with high-growth potential.

Anders Pollas

Co-founder, Hoist

Anders is an entrepreneur, co-founder of Hoist, which is a hosted social media platform aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing in teams across projects and professional networks. He works with Design and Communication and has previous experience with web development, social media and digital communication.

Mads Lacoppidan

Analyst, Vækstfonden

Responsible for screening of investment proposals and analysis of portfolio companies at Vækstkapital. Several years of experience within the Danish Venture Market and co-author to a number of publications focusing on the Danish Venture Capital Market, including industry specific reports on the Danish Cleantech industry, the Danish Fashion industry and the perspectives for experience economy in Denmark. Mads holds a MS.c in Marketing Economics from Copenhagen Business School, which he has supplemented with studies at Harvard and Singapore Management University.

Ragnar Heldt Nielsen

CEO, GTS - Godkent Teknologisk Service  

Ragnar is director of GTS (Advanced Technology Group), which is the common organisation of the nine Danish service institutes approved by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. His core interest is to facilitate and foster networking and matchmaking between knowledge suppliers and consumers, especially how to involve SME's and secure there growth trough knowledge. Ragnar has comprehensive insight in the public innovation support activities. He holds a master in political science and applied technology.

Kim Kjølhede

Manager Projects Department, Dantherm Power

Kim is heading up the Projects Department in Dantherm Power. This is where the start-up cleantech company bridges the achievements from R&D department Product Development.

Before joining Dantherm Power Kim worked more than 10 years in IT and telecommunications in various functions as analyst, sales director and CEO at among others TDC, Innovation Lab and NRGi Fibernet A/S.

Kim holds a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration and has extensive management experience from both a large corporation like TDC and from startups like Innovation Lab, NRGi Fibernet and Dantherm Power.

Christoffer Dupont

Founder, Dupont LightStone

Christoffer Dupont has a background as a Product Development Engineer and geeky tech-child always trying to create new and cool things out of old and busted stuff.

One of the cool things he came up with is the digital concrete screen which is a slab of concrete with embedded fiber optics that you can watch a movie on.

In 2008 he founded Dupont Lightstone that develops and commercialise this technology for use as digital signage and architectural frosting for the buildings of tomorrow.

Christoffer entered Venture Cup in 2007 and finished among the top 10.

Umar Akram,

Partner, Mobile Weaver

Umar Akram, a serial mobile and internet entrepreneur is presently the CEO of Mobile Weaver ApS and a major contributor in VAS market. He initiated the value added app store concept in 2005. Today, the app store service combines more than 35000 innovative applications for variety of handsets covering major mobile OS. Mr. Akram is also an early stage investor in Zapna ApS, TimeSvr Pte Ltd and Hub Media Ltd. Currently he serves as the Chairman of Mobile Monday Pakistan, a non profit organisation. All through his career, Umar has remained an active participant and speaker in various mobile events such as 3GSM Barca and Mobile Content World.

Hans Hasselby-Andersen

Founder, Solo Innovation

Hans has experience from various management roles in the semiconductor and electronics industry within products areas such as Integrated Circuits (IC), mobile phones and audio equipment.

He has worked with business and product strategy development, product definition, R&D management, innovation and technology development processes.

Hans has experience from working in start-up companies (Toccata Technology) as well as in multinational corporations (Nokia, Texas Instruments), and has recently founded his own company, Solo Innovation.

Hans holds an M.Sc. degree (Electronics) from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and an Executive MBA from Scandinavian International Management Institute (SIMI).

Asger Clausen

Senior Consultant, Zealand Business Development

Asger has a background from international banking. The last 10 years advicing entrepreneurs and companies. His specialities include economical and business development matters, international

financing, sales and marketing, product sourcing and management.

Asger holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

Morten Stærdahl Andersen

Investment Manager, Syddansk Innovation

Mads Prebensen

Group Senior Vice President, Grundfos New Business

Mads is responsible for "New Business" (Corporate Venture) within Grundfos. Seeking out excellent internal or external business ideas for investment and development through to an exit or transition. The projects can become future Grundfos divisions or sold off.

Previously working for Danfoss for 18 years after completing M Sc Mech Eng, where Mads started as Marketing Responsible. Mads moved to Australia for 2 years, working as Business Development manager; to Singapore for over 6 years as Regional President for ASEAN and to Germany as Sales Director. From Danfoss, he moved to Alstom Power Flow Systems in Denmark, working as VP Sales & Marketing, finally joining Grundfos as New Business Director in 2004.

Thorbjørn Machholm

Chief Investment Advisor, Grundfos New Business

Thorbjørn works with corporate venturing, business development and investment management. Prior to that, he worked with cross-functional/cross-cultural management, sales development, strategic planning and business controlling. Thorbjørn has international experiences from many countries and regions. A substantial part of his career falls within large international companies. He has worked with development and execution of strategies on strategic HQ level as well as on regional management level, and he has completed a multitude of assignments and missions on operational field sales level as well as within complex organizational structures and different cultural environments. Thorbjørn's professional background falls within sales/marketing, business development, finance & accounting (HQ/subsidiary reporting, budgets/controlling), operations & logistics, and international project management.

Thorbjørn holds a M.Sc. (DEA) in Management of Tech. and Innovation from Dauphine University, Paris (1994), a M.Sc. in Strategic Planning and Management (1992), and a Graduate Diploma in International Management and Marketing (1990) from Copenhagen Business School.

Troels Øberg 

Head of Cleantech, Dong Energy

Troels is heading DONG Energy's Cleantech activities. DONG Energy's Cleantech business delivers seamless Cleantech solutions such as geothermal heating pumps, insulation, solar energy and energy efficient windows to home owners all over Denmark.

Founded in 2009, the Cleantech business in DONG Energy offers a unique one-stop-shopping experience, where trained energy advisors constantly strive to identify energy saving Cleantech solutions for each and every customer.

Troels holds a M. Sc. in Economics and Strategy and has extensive leadership experience in driving change processes and business development initiatives from FMCG and the Energy sector. Prior to the job as Head of Cleantech in DONG Energy, Troels was Business Director in Toms Confectionary Group with the commercial responsibility for the Danish market.

Kristoffer Gandrup

Innovation Development Manager, Novozymes

Kristoffer Gandrup is Innovation Development Manger at Novozymes. Previously he ran a network of VCs, was partner in a consultancy that did business development for technology companies and was also department manager in an IT venture company.

Kristoffer's specialty is integrating business strategy with people in relation to new business creation. In addition to this, he is seasoned in corporate innovation strategy, venture capital, coaching and in adding an intuitive touch to business management.

John Agerholm 

Specialist in Market Intelligence, Vestas Wind Systems

John works as a Specialist in Market Intelligence for Vestas Wind Systems. Before joining Vestas he worked for Ernst & Young in a Venture Capital advisory group in Boston.

John has been involved in several start-up companies going from lap-top bags to biotech. He has also participated in international business plan competitions and won the first prize in Venture Cup in 2008.

Jacob Christoffer Kunstmann

European Project Manager, A/S Dansk Shell

Jacob has a M.Sc in Management, Innovation and Business Development from Copenhagen Business School. In addition he has spent 6 months in France and 2 months in China studying international business and developing markets. Previously Jacob has worked as Procurement Executive in Shell, responsible for the negotiation of contracts in UK/Nordic and before that he started and ran his own business. Currently Jacob is working as European Project Manager in Shell.

Jesper Dalsgaard

Business Development Director, VKR Holding

Jesper is heading up VKR Business Development within VKR Holding. An industrial investor bringing daylight, fresh air and a better environment into people's everyday life. The VKR Group comprise companies such as VELUX, VELFAC, Rationel Vinduer, Sonnenkraft, WindowMaster, Monodraught etc. VKR Business Development is responsible for exploring and commercialising emerging technologies and businesses within the construction and renewable energy sectors.

Jesper holds a M.Sc. in Law and Economics and has extensive management experience from management consulting companies such as A.T. Kearney and the Boston Consulting Company. Previously, Jesper held a position as Business Development Director in the C.W. Obel group as well as CEO of one of the subsidiaries in the group.

John F. Dascher
Investment Director, Inventure Capital

John has more than 10 years experience investing in seed-stage companies in the US ICT, Life Science and CleanTech industries. Recently, John was an Investment Director with SATAI in San Antonio, Texas on behalf of the USD 200 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund; he also acted as SATAI's Chief Financial Officer. Additionally, he has held positions with CrossBow Ventures and VentureNow (Florida-based early-stage venture funds) and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners in Philadelphia (one of the world's first state-sponsored seed capital funds), after starting his career as an aerospace engineer.

John has a BS in applied physics from Albright College and an MBA in finance from the Le Bow School of Business at Drexel University; he is also a graduate of the Venture Capital Institute.

Stephan Skare Nielsen
Business Development Manager - CleanTech, Copenhagen Capacity

Stephan comes from a background in future studies and strategy consulting. He is now Business Development Manager at Copenhagen Capacity in the area of Cleantech. His responsibility is to help international cleantech companies establish in the Copenhagen Region, create international partnerships and showcase Danish cleantech competences to foreign investors. He enjoys analysing opportunities and has a passion for identifying radical and potentially disruptive trends for businesses, society and individuals.

Stephan holds a Master of Science in Innovation and Business Development and a Bachelor in International Business from Copenhagen Business School

Lars Jagd

Lars has a background from the international energy sector. For the past 4 years, he has been the CEO of one of the leading Danish cleantech startup companies, Stirling DK. Previously, he has been involved in the start-up of two other companies and has worked as business development manager in Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor and as project engineer in the leading consulting firm Ramboll.

Lars holds a Masters degree and a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark and an MBA from Copenhagen Business School.

Henrik Gedde Moos

CEO and co-founder of Danfoss IXA, a cleantech startup within climate and emission sensors. Global experience and excellent track record within entrepreneurial business development, global PR and marketing, public affairs and crisis communication.

Inga Marie Wollny

Patent Attorney, Team Manager, Zacco Denmark A/S

Inga Marie holds a M.Sc. in Control and Automation from the Technical University of Denmark (2001) and assists industry and public institutions within the areas of patents and commercialization. She has previously worked with immaterial rights for different companies and as a project engineer within the field of control and regulation.

Jacob Fink Ferdinand

Founder, Climate Leadership Action

Jacob is an entrepreneur and environmentalist with more than 12 years experience from startups, business development, and the environmental and climate business. Currently, he is working to develop Climate Leadership Action, which aims to enhance climate innovation.

 Jacob holds a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, Organisation and Management from CBS."

Martin Speiermann 

Vice President, Sales and Marketing, PowerSense

Martin joined PowerSense A/S in September 2006 as VP of Sales and Marketing. PowerSense became - Entrepreneur Of The Year 2009 in Denmark within the Cleantech category. Martin deals with the world's largest power utilities and is participating actively in developing the new rules of the next generation of the global energy markets.

Before joining PowerSense, Martin was Business Developer and Product Manager within the American company Magnetek PEG (Power Electronic Group) for more than 8 years. Magnetek PEG now PowerOne (PWER@ NASDAQ) is one of the world's leading power electronic producers specialised in industrial power electronics. In 2006 Magnetek PEG was merged into PowerOne Inc.

Martin graduated in power engineering (B.Sc.) in 1998 and has attended several executive management programmes at booth MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School.

Stephan Christgau

Investment Director, NOVO Seeds

Stephan Christgau joined Novo A/S in September 2007 as Investment Director of Novo Seeds. Stephan obtained his MSc degree from the Technical University of Denmark in 1988 and his PhD degree in 1992 from Technical University of Denmark, for a project in diabetes immunology, conducted at Hagedorn Research Institute and University of California, San Francisco.

Prior to joining Novo Seeds, Stephan was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Osteologix where he played a leading role in the development of the company, taking the lead candidate drug through all stages from lead identification to phase II testing for osteoporosis treatment. He also played an active role in the company's financing including a public listing in the US on the OTC exchange through a reverse merger with a public shell company. Previously Stephan has worked in the metabolic bone disease area and arthritis in Nordic Bioscience and Osteometer Biotech and as a protein chemist in Novo Nordisk A/S.

Stephan is the author of more than 60 scientific publications and inventor on more than 30 patent families.

Thomas Rasmussen

Executive Assistant to EVP/CSO, Novozymes

Since high school Thomas has participated in, and won, national and international young scientist competitions, and later through jobs at Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten onboard the Galathea Expedition and as founder of the biotech educational website www.biotechacademy.dk gained a lot of empirical experience with communication of science and technology. With main interest in the areas bordering science and business Thomas co-founded the CBS-DTU-KU joint "BioBusiness & Innovation Program" where biotech students develop business plans together with CBS students, aiming at educating talents with interdisciplinary competencies enabling an competitive edge as either intra- or entrepreneur in Medicon Valley and beyond.

Currently Thomas works as ExA for EVP Per Falholt in Novozymes where he focuses on global R&D management and radical/open innovation together with international universities.

Thomas holds a M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark with pronounced international angles through semesters at Stanford University and full time Mandarin studies at Beijing Language and Cultural University.

Peter A. Villadsen

Head of Corporate Pricing , Leo Pharma

Peter Aksel Villadsen is Head of Corporate Pricing at LEO Pharma - a global pharmaceutical company within Dermatology and Critical Care. Peter is experienced in strategic market access and commercialisation of life science technologies. Previous to joining LEO Pharma he held various positions within the national and international life science industry.

Peter is MSc in Economic of International Strategy and Governance from Copenhagen Business School. He is the co-founder of the DTU/CBS based Biotech Business and Innovation Programme and is a member of the advisory board for the national science talent programme.

Sidsel Hauge

European Patent Attorney, Awapatent A/S

Sidsel has been at Awapatent since 2002, and specialises in drafting and prosecuting patent applications worldwide.

She has experience in providing customized patent seminars for the industry, and has previously researched protein chemistry at Macquarie University, Sydney and The Technical University of Denmark.

Sidsel holds a M.Sc. Eng. with Biotechnology as specific field from The Technical University of Denmark.

Gyda Bay

Investment Manager, Østjysk Innovation

As Investment Manager in East Jutland Innovation since 2000, Gyda Bay has been screening hundreds of potential business ideas and plans both from industry, University and Hospital of Aarhus. She completes investments each year, is chairman for two of the new start-up companies and in the board of directors for three other start-up companies. Gyda holds a Master Degree in Biology from the Aarhus University.

Casper Struve

Patent Consultant, Life Science & Chemistry, Zacco Denmark A/S

Casper works with all aspects of intellectual property rights, such as securing patent rights for small and medium sized companies. Prior to joining Zacco, Casper worked as a research chemist for the biotech company PreciSense A/S, as part of a team developing a minimally invasive blood-glucose monitor for the continuous monitoring of glucose levels in diabetics.

Casper holds a M.Sc. degree in Bioorganic Chemistry from University of Copenhagen

Troels Balmer Christensen

Research Scientist, Novozymes

Troels is a research scientist at Novozymes in an innovative project founded by the Danish High Technology Foundation (HTF). He has an educational background in physics, biotechnology and micro/nanotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen.

Leif Helth Jensen

Project Vice President, Forskerparken CAT

Leif Helth Jensen has more than 25 years of experience within the life science industry. He has been the CEO of two Biotech companies (Cureon and Glycom), on the Board of Directors in 6 Biotech companies (Genmab, Zealand Pharma, Cureon, Exiqon, Meditel and Promogenetics) and been the co-founder of 4 Biotech companies (NeuroSearch, Zealand Pharma, Cureon and Synome).

He has previously held other positions such as Director of Pharmacology at NeuroSearch, CEO of Danske Life Science and VicePresident Portfolio Management at LifeCycle Pharma. He is currently on the Board of Directors in Inagen, Alcorlab and Rose Pharma and the Chairman of the Board in Valderm, Microlytics, Global Aviation, Bone Medical Ltd.(Australia), Synome Ltd. (UK), Serendex, PharmaOrigin and DrugRecure.

Leif has a M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Copenhagen, and is the co-author of more than 35 peer-reviewed scientific papers and a co-inventor of 19.

Ole Bitsch-Jensen
Investment Manager, SEED Capital

Ole is MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, and B.Comm. in International Business / Marketing Management from Copenhagen Business School.

He has more than 10 years of industry experience from larger international pharmaceutical / biotechnology corporations and biotech start-ups. Ole has been with SEED / Symbion since 2001.

Lars Nordholm

Project Vice President, Novo Nordisk

Lars has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been the leader of 10+ projects representing all aspects of drug development from early discovery and preclinical development, throughall clinical phases to global launch of product.

His main compentences are within the areas of Health Care and Biotech.

Peter Elsner

Patent Attorney, Life Science & Chemistry, Copenhagen Department of Patrade A/S

Peter holds MSc and PhD degrees in cell biology from the Universities of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen respectively. He has extensive research experience from The University of Copenhagen (Faculty of Health Sciences). Upon leaving The University of Copenhagen, Peter took up a post doc position at Novo Nordisk (Corporate Research Affairs), where he developed a human muscle cell culture system for the screening of drug candidates for diabetes, and further investigated the lead compounds.

From 2003, Peter owned an IPR consulting company of his own, before joining Chas. Hude A/S in 2007 and thereafter Patrade A/S in 2009, where his focus areas are biotechnology, biotechnology related MedTech and bio-fuels. In addition to ordinary IPR disciplines, Peter's specialties are due diligence related to life science start-ups, IPR management, as well as patent strategies coordinated with core technology and business plans.

Henrik Egesborg

Owner, MedDevCon

Henrik Egesborg recently started MedDevCon, a consultancy company offering services for medical device companies. MedDevCon services are based on Henrik's more than 20 years of experience from medical device development working as a physicist, sales manager, business developer, project manager, department manager and as a corporate vice president.

With 20 years of technology leadership functions in Novo Nordisk, Henrik is an experienced R&D manager. Responsibilities have included innovative medical device projects, formation of new technology competency centres and establishing an R&D function for a new medical device category. At Novo Nordisk, Henrik developed new business opportunities based on technology acquisition as well as on in-house development; all requiring international and cross-organisational collaboration. He introduced new competencies and business processes to the organisation, ranging from numerical simulation to IPR strategy and management.

Henrik's product development responsibilities have included SPECT brain scanners, blood glucose monitoring, electronic insulin injection devices and insulin inhalation systems. He holds a MSc in electronic engineering and a PhD in physics

Nadeem-Asim Mohammad 

Patent Consultant, Zacco

Nadeem is a patent consultant at Zacco, and deals with all aspects of intellectual property rights, especially patents. Nadeems expertise is within the field of Life science/Biomedicine, and he secures the patent rights for inventors at the University level, and small and medium sized Danish and international biotech companies.

Nadeem holds a M.Sc. degree in Human Biology, and a PhD. degree in Medicine from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Peter Damsbo

CEO, Damsbo

Peter is heading ‘DAMSBO – life sciences resources’ based in Copenhagen. A consultancy company for pharmaceutical, biotech and device companies who needs medical experience to evaluate drug concepts and obtain proof of concept and registration. And to provide local and global perspectives in early, mid and late stage development project for drugs, medical devices and other healthcare products for biotech and venture capital groups.

As an MD, and 17 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Peter has a strong background in combining science, medicine and industry. Before settling as a consultant he worked as VP and CMO at Novo Nordisk and Zealand Pharma, with drug concept evaluation and clinical development within several therapeutic areas as well as medical devices. He is also associated consultant to USA based KINEXUM and Danish based KLIFOs Drug Development Counseling groups. In June 2009 Peter joined Ventac Partners who facilitate drug development and act as a katalysator in technology transfer and fund raising for young biotech companies.

Bent Benemann Bischoff

Business Consultant, Erhverv.net

Bent works as a business consultant at erhverv.net advising entrepreneurs and growth companies on all aspects of business development including strategy and fundraising. Furthermore, Bent is an active board member in a number of companies.

Bent has an international background from European private equity and investment banking as well as executive management extending over the last 25 years.

Bent holds a financial degree from CBS and Northwestern University

Jan Christensen 

Communications Manager, Lego

Jan has more than 10 years of experience in PR and marketing. For the past 2 years, Jan has been Corporate PR Manager at the LEGO Group, dealing with the planning of global PR strategies for the LEGO Group, assisting the sales offices around the world with its implementation as well as handling Danish and international media visiting the company headquarters in Billund.

Previous experience includes 4 years as Head of Communication for the International Danish Entrepreneurship Academy, IDEA, and 3 years with Danish travel organizer, Albatros Travel, where he was responsible for marketing, sales and execution of a number of extreme marathons developed by AT.

Jan has an M.Sc. in Design and Communication Management from Copenhagen Business School.

Liz Sørensen 

Manager, Creative Development, Bang & Olufsen

Liz is Manager, Creative Development in the International Marketing Department at Bang & Olufsen, responsible for the development of all communications for the brand, both internal and external. Liz moved to Denmark four years ago from the United States, where she had more than ten years of experience in sales and marketing, working for large American companies such as Morris Communications, Knight-Ridder and Time Inc.

Liz holds a degree in Journalism (within the Advertising/Marketing Sequence) from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her areas of interest and expertise include advertising, marketing, and communication.

Terje Mose Pedersen 

Project Manager, NetPeople

Terje is currently working for NetPeople - an online ad agency, which is part of the larger Peop!eGroup situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. Daily, within his work for NetPeople, Terje helps some of the most ambitious brands in Denmark, to develop and execute online initiatives. Not constricted to within his profesional career, Terje's day-to-day work in online media, is also a dear passion of his. One of his main interests is to be on the lookout for innovative new ways of using online media - and finds in particularly interesting when online and real life transcend - thus reinforcing eachother.

Terje has previously worked with a consulting agency in New Zealand, concerned with developing sustainable marketing strategies - both online and offline. Terje is educated at Aalborg University, where he holds a Master's degree in CCG (Culture, Communication, and Globalization) - as well as studied Communication at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) in the United States.

Søren Friis Larsen 

Head of Analysis, Dansk Erhverv

Søren is heading the analysis department in the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv) and has previously been responsible for the organization's entrepreneurial policy and activities. The Danish Chamber of Commerce represents a broad range of companies both new and established from most sectors of the economy, and the organisation's analytical focus is equally wide in scope.

Søren has prior experience from both the public and private sector and holds a MS.c. in Political Science.

Steffen Hansen 

State Authorized Public Accountant, KPMG

In KPMG Steffen is working with both big and mature companies and new grow companies and this mix gives him a good basis for advising and developing start up companies including the funding process.

Steffen is also member of Connect Denmark and through Springboards he has experience with evaluation of ideas and business model for several start up companies.

Steffen holds a Master of Science in Business Economics and Auditing from University of Aalborg and joined KPMG Aalborg in 1998.

Peter Faaborg Andersen
Finance Business Development, Novozymes

In Novozymes Peter is working with acquisitions of companies and prioritization of new strategic business opportunities. Prior to joining Novozymes, he worked for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China and the Danish Ministry of Finance.

Peter holds a M.Sc. from Copenhagen Business School in Finance & Strategic Management and a B.Sc. in Business Administration and Philosophy.

Kasper Vardrup

Entrepreneur in Residence, Rainmaking

Kasper Vardrup is an experienced entrepreneur with six successful startups and two exits behind him. Kasper joined the company Rainmaking in 2009 as an Entrepreneur in Residence. Prior to joining Rainmaking, Kasper worked as Senior Consultant at Copenhagen Consulting Company, and has also been a director and board member of several private and public companies in Denmark and Sweden.

Kasper has a specialized focus on strategy and marketing with emphasis on the start-up and development of companies with roots in media and technology. Furthermore, Kasper has experience in a variety of online businesses including the development, management and marketing of ecommerce operations.

Kasper has a Master of Science in Economics and Marketing from Copenhagen Business School and have also studied finance at both Harvard University and National University of Singapore.

David Gram
Strategic Project Manager, Siemens Wind Power

David Gram is Strategic Project Manager at Siemens Wind Power. Previously he worked as Innovation Manager at Scandinavian Airlines, where his main tasks were to improve the innovation process and Strengthen the innovative culture. Before that he was Concept and Product developer in SAS, where he ran a number of product development projects. From this he has gained profound experience with cross functional development processes and stakeholder management.

David has an M.Sc. in Economics & Business Administration from Aarhus School of Business, and his main interests are within innovation processes, organizational development, business/concept development and change management.

Trine-Maria Kristensen
Founder, Socialsquare

Trine-Maria is an entrepreneur with 10 years of experience as selfemployed. She has a background in Marketing and PR - and did 5 years of market research in the financial sector in Responator which she co-founded in 2000.

In 2005 Trine-Maria cofounded Socialsquare - a leading consultancy in digital social business. The company builds knowledge and business around the strategic use of social media in large corporations.

Trine-Maria is a practioner - she has been blogging since 2004 - and is an avid networker in forums like DONA, Albrightgruppen and FDIH. She is the author of the book "Weblogs" (Børsens Forlag, 2007) and a speaker on topics such as "Social business", "Userdriven innovation in the age of social", "Marketing with social media".

Trine-Maria holds a Master in PR from RUC (1996).

Kasper Hulthin
CEO, Hoist

Kasper is an entrepreneur and is passionately into startups. He is currently the CEO of Hoist, but he has founded several companies before, among them, FreePrint and Startmeup. FreePrint, which participated in Venture Cup 07/08 allowed students to print for free in return for having ads printed on the rearside of the paper.

Kasper has a masters from AAU/CBS.

Maria Andersson

Co-owner, Yellowman

Maria is an entrepreneur, co-founder of Yellowman, which is a home delivery service that offers a full selection of supermarket products, fresh goods from the local shops, plus laundry and dry cleaning delivery service.

She got the idea to the company together with co-founder Trey Turner by participating in Venture Cup in 2005 and launched Yellowman.dk in 2007. Maria has a Masters degree in Marketing from Copenhagen Business School.

Tejn Vanting Nielsen

Country Manager, e-conomic

Tejn is a Salesman with a big S, currently employed as Country Manager at e-conomic danmark a/s, the Danish leader in ERP systems delivered as saas towards the SME- segment.

For the past 20 years Tejn has been engaged in sales, of which the last 13 years within the B2B sales.

His experience covers Key account management, Coaching, Relationshipbuilding, Penetration of new markets, Sales strategies, Marketing of the company including social medias and the day to day direct sales.

Simon Lyngsø
Founder, The Exploring Company

With a sound background in futurism and an inspiring approach to business development Simon Lyngsø helps businesses better understand the consumers in order to create new concepts, products and services.

He's a BA in Economics and Politics and an MA in Contemporary European Studies from Sussex University, England.

Steffen Gabriel Brandenhoff

Executive Assistant, Air Alsie A/S

Steffen holds an MSc. from Copenhagen Business School in Finance & Strategic Management, and specialized in the Venture Capitalists Decision Making process by formulating a model for identifying key decision making factors, relevant for choosing their Venture projects. During his studies, he also attended a cross university course at DTU in business planning, and he worked full time for Venture Cup before his present day work. Today, Steffen is flying high, working in Business Aviation for a company that operates luxury corporate jets, Steffen holds a key position in the company as the CEOs confidant, and works with business development, budgetting, and strategy.

Mikkel Bülow Skovborg
Development Director, DEA/FUHU

Mikkel is Development Director in DEA and works with analysis and development of DEA's offer to companies, as well as with more macrooriented quantitive and qualitive approaches to different topics within research and education.

Mikael Tipsmark
Regtional Manager, CONNECT Denmark

Mikael is the Regional Manager for Southern Denmark in CONNECT, he is in charge of screening selected entrepreneurs, execution of Springboards and contact to sponsors and other CONNECT members.

Mikael has a background in finance and has previously worked as Risk Strategy Manager hos SAS Institute.

Peter Madsen
Center Direktør, Syddanske Forskerparker (Sønderborg)

Peter holds an HD in innovation and change. An area in which has been working as a consultant for several years, predominately in developing and manufacturing industries of mechanical and electronic devices. An entrepreneur himself, Peter established his own company in 1999.

Anna Porse

Founder, Manto

Anna Porse Nielsen has a very strong back ground in management consulting and business development in the creative and cultural industries. Before establishing her own consulting company Manto in 2006 she held verious positions in management consulting companies as well as the national Danish tourism board and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she worked as an advisor on export helping Danish companies into the Canadian market. For the last four years she has focused solely on business development, strategy and analysis with in the cultural and creative industries. She has in-depth knowledge about computer games, film, tv, design and music on an industry level and has worked extensively with business development in cultural institutions.

Anna is an expert on the experience economy and is the co-author of several books on the topic. She sits on several advisory boards and gives lectures at universities and design schools on a regular basis.

Her academic back ground is a degree in Political Science but her passion is business development and strategy - as a consultant but just as much in her own company.

Christian Hvashøj

Business Development Consultant, +Leasing

Christian has been involved in business development and startups for the last 6 years. Now he is working as Interim Consultant at +Leasing A/S, building a strong business, structure and concept to take on the fast growing car leasing market.

Before heading into +Leasing Christian has worked for two years as Business Development Consultant at Insights Nordic - a global learning and development company. Christian was part of the strategic board in the Nordic region and handles the long term planning of the business. Alongside, Christian held the GAM responsibility on some major clients and did consultancy work within leadership and talent development.

Christian was founder and partner of a consultant company before the exit 3 years ago.

Christian holds a HD diploma in Organization and Management with focus in Strategic leadership and business development.

Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning 

Managing Director, Center for Culture & Experience Economy 

Rasmus is Managing Director of the national Center for Culture & Experience Economy, funded by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Economics and Business. From 2006 to 09 he was Senior Consultant at consulting company Ramboll Management's Centre for Experience Economy. Rasmus has 16 years of broad international experience in areas such as the creative industries, culture, media and EU public affairs.

 He has substantial expertise in strategic consultancy, business development and financing strategies. He has been official speaker for the European Commission on issues related to media and culture for over ten years and lecturer for the university-level course "Creative Industries: Business, Innovation, Politics & Culture". Fluent in five EU languages.

Thomas Andersen

Partner, Fortius Partners

Martin Justesen

Business Developer and Freelance Project Manager, IDEA House

Since 2004, Martin works in various contexts to improve students possibilities to work with their ideas while they are studying. Each year, Martin helps more than a hundred students to succeed with their ideas and learn from it - connecting the good ideas with the right people. Venture Cup Ambassador 2009, since winning team Multiaerobics stressed that Martin "significantly contributed to their achievement" to win Venture Cup 2009.

Tim Barnes

Executive Director, UCL Advances

Tim is Executive Director of UCL Advances, a new unit of University College London that brings together academics and businesses or all types. Tim previously ran his own business, Lodestone IP Ltd, helping universities and large corporations to spin-out high technology companies. His clients included UCL, Cambridge University, the London Development Agency, the Centre for Scientific Enterprise (CSE), the BBC and Reuters.

Prior to Lodestone, Tim worked as an investment manager at Gorilla Park, a pan-European investment firm that specialised in early-stage technology ventures. Projects he was involved in included a web service development tools company in Paris and a pan-European business services company. He also initiated Gorilla Park's University liaison programme, which included members from the UK, France, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. A graduate of UCL himself, Tim began his professional life as a business consultant with Andersen in London but always felt a strong attachment to UCL which has now brought him back after a ten-year gap.

Charlotte Sørensen
Attorney-At-Law, Juriqa Lawfirm

As an Attorney-at-Law, Charlotte has founded Juriqa Advokatkontor (Lawfirm) in 2008 - working with commercial law, including employment law, intellectual property law, company law, contract law, IT law, marketing law and of course as legal advisor for start-up companies. Before founding Juriqa, Charlotte got 7 years of practical experience working as a consultant in the danish Ministry of Taxation, as a consultant with expertise in VAT and excise duties in a major audit firm, and as a lawyer at an Aalborg Lawfirm. Furthermore, since 2001, Charlotte has been the author of the footnotes in Karnovs Lovsamling (Lawbooks) re. indirect taxation.

With a masters degree in law from University of Aarhus and additional studies at University of Cambridge, University of California and London Guildhall University, combined with a broad practical experiences, Charlotte has a strong understanding of the needs and possibilities of business and trade.

Frank A. Mathiasen

Management Advisor, Center for Ledelse

Frank has more than 10 years of experience as a business advisor for Danish trades and industries. Advising about all aspects of management from establishment to operation on to developing the companies. Currently, he sits on two boards - production company Nyt Skab ApS and Young Enterprise Region Storkøbenhavn, an NGO. Furthermore, Frank has also been teaching business development, design and internationalisation.

In 2006, Frank developed and completed a growth package course for SMEs at the Danish Technological Institute (the course is still active: http://www.startvaekst.dk/v.i.p_vaekstpakken/0/1). In addition to this, Frank is an assigned mentor to a communications manager (Elg & Ko).

Christina Høi
Communications manager and Director, GirlTalk.dk

Christina is a young entrepreneur within the field of social vocation, and has a wealth of NGO volunteer experience. She has been part of developing a young-to-young counseling chat for girls hurting inside. The chat won the European youth award "Active Citizenship."

Christina works for the management group at GirlTalk.dk where she's in charge of developing the counseling portal. She's also responsible for press, communications and networking at GirlTalk.dk and also manages a dating violence project.

Christina is a qualified teacher with extra credits in communication and coaching.

Jørgen Scheuer-Larsen
Executive Advisor, Akselera

As Executive Advisor Jørgen supports CxO's in large and midsize Nordic companies in optimisation the value chain.

Jørgen has 14 years of Business experience from international Companies working with IT management, Project and programme management, IT Strategy and IT portfolio management and Development and support organisation design, governance and management.

Jørgen previously headed and managed different organizations, predominately in Corporate IT. He has a significant experience in mobilizing and running large Programs and projects. The experience concentrated around delivering process optimisation with benefit tracking. Also IT Program/Project, implementing new Business processes and Application suits (i.e. SAP, Microsoft). Besides being Executive Advisor Jørgen is heading the Danish substitute of Akselera AS.

Valdemar Siesbye

CEO, LAXO

Valdemar Siesbye is CEO of LAXO ApS, specialized in business development and implementation of projects. The company is focused on a number of business areas in Denmark and internationally.

Valdemar has great international experience and has previously worked for Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, BBDO and LEGO. Valdemar has a Master in International Business - from Copenhagen Business School, and has studied at Universität St. Gallen, Hochschule für Wirtschafts-, Rechts- und Sozialwissenschaften in Switzerland and Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA

Max Damgaard

Business Consultant, Væksthus Hovedstaden

Max Damgaard holds a Master of law from University of Aarhus and a Bac. Sc (Econ) from Southern Denmark Business School. For the past 13 years he has participated in a number of projects all over Europe, both as expert, as the financial coordinator and as overall manager.

Max Damgaard has worked for CONNECT Denmark as the regional manager of the capital region advising a broad portfolio of entrepreneurs and companies with a high-growth potential, as well as being the secretary of the board. Previously with The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Roskilde University and KHR Engineering (Germany).

Mette Fersum
Life and Business Coach

Mette Fersum is a Life and Business Coach and runs her own coaching business. The aim of the business is to help people succeed with their past, present and future. Mette also works as a Librarian in the Children and Youth Services at a lively public library. Her main job functions are to teach, plan events and conduct children's activities, assist in information retrieval, select and acquire reading materials and encourage use of the library and its resources. Before becoming a librarian, Mette had been working in the health sector for many years, giving her a vast knowledge of medical and surgical issues. Even today Mette keep helself updated in developments in the health industry.

Sussi Bianco

Owner, House of Bianco

From 2007-April 2009 Sussi has been the working chairman of the board at the business network "Morgendagens Heltinder" and co-chairman of the business network "MG50". She runs two consultancies (both founded in 2003). House of Bianco Communication offers consultancy and lectures in networking activities and strategic development of network within organisations. House of Bianco Photography is specialized in Art Photography portraiture and provides advice for a company's visual identity.

As a combination of these two major competences, Sussi works as a consultant in performing strategic analysis of SM companies and in the creation of a trustworthy visual identity and advising on the strategic development of the company. Sussi Bianco has a keen interest in the global shift of paradigm, and how it influences general political goals for Denmark, and also the strategic decisions in businesses

Thomas Bering
Nordic Operations Manager, Google

Thomas has been with Google since 2005. Initially in charge of the Danish AdSense publisher network, he was also responsible for launching Google Books and Scholar in Denmark. After also working closely with large advertisers and agencies for some years, he is now Operations Manager in the Nordics and works to, among other things, ensure that new and existing products are rolled out in alignment with local and global strategies.

Thomas holds an MA in English and Philosophy/Informatics from Aarhus University

Gitte Fredborg

Gitte has more than 15 years of experience as leader within the Telco-industry. During her career she has held managing positions within b-t-b Sale, IT support and the technical area. Presently she is managing the Zealand district of TDC Installation - a unit employing 350 onsite technicians. TDC Installation is responsible for onsite installation and services on TDC's fixed network.

For several years Gitte has been mentoring junior leaders starting their management career within TDC. Through the organisation Kvinfo, Gitte has volunteered mentoring immigrant women seeking to enter the Danish business life.

Kenneth Svenningsen

Kenneth works on setting the direction for new wound care products at Coloplast, and he is also an External Lecturer at CBS where he teaches in Entrepreneurial Finance. Former Senior Analyst at Vækstfonden, where he was involved in venture investing in Medtech, ICT and Cleantech.

Jakob de Lemos

Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, iMotions A/S

Jakob is the cofounder of iMotions, he oversees iMotions' Research & Development as well as Intellectual Property Rights issues. He is the inventor of Emotion Tool^TM, his passion is emotion sensitive media and their relation to cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Combining his knowledge and skills in computing and technology, Jakob is constantly coming up with new ideas for the design and development of advanced digital interfaces. His creativity and innovative spirit drive our product development team to constantly seek technological breakthroughs in emotion technology.

Jakob has extensive professional experience in coordinating projects, ranging from software development to large multidisciplinary events for profit and non-profit organizations.

Jakob studied at several Danish universities to gain the technical knowledge and skills to pursue his career, including at Aarhus University, Interactive Media and Marketing Academy and Aalborg University.

Ricco Zuschlag

Ricco is an entrepreneur and one of the founders of Boliga, which is the biggest independent Real Estate portal in Scandinavia.

Ricco has 12 years of experience in the Internet industry, and specialises in Internet Marketing and Communication. He was previously Product Manager at Viasat and Jubii.

Claus Villumsen

Development Director, BullGuard

Claus is the Development Director at BullGuard, an internet security company present in several countries.

He is a Software Engineer from the Technical University of Denmark.

Torsten Kolind

Product Manager, YouNoodle

YouNoodle is the world's largest specialized network for entrepreneurs and everything around them. Torsten is in charge of all entrepreneurship culture-change web products, and handles strategy, planning, and development for these.

Prior to joining YouNoodle, Torsten was the Managing Director of Venture Cup, and has served as a judge for the Stanford Social E-challenge and the MIT GSW Elevator Pitch Competition.

Torsten holds an M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark, and founded his first company in Copenhagen at age 16.

Torben Falholt

Founder and CEO, IT Practice

Torben has worked as an IT consultant for almost 25 years. 13 years for IBM and 11 years for IT Practice. He has been intensively involved in software development and implementation of larger complex IT solutions. Primary focus has been on the financial sector and the use of internet technology. He has been founder and co-founder of a number of successful companies here among IT Practice, Frankly-web and Peak Consulting Group. Today he is working as CEO in IT Practice and are board-member in a number of companies of which some are startups. Although he has been with commercial it for many years he is still true to his engineering background.

IT Practice was sold to Asseco Group in August 2009. Asseco Group is now the fourth largest software company in Europe.

Niels Vejrup Carlsen

At SEED Capital, Niels is currently on the board of 5 portfolio Software/Internet companies and he is responsible for new investments within this segment. Niels holds a PhD in user interface software engineering from DTU and has a number of patents within human computer interaction. For the past 15 years, Niels has worked with innovation and rapid product development in the telecom and media industries. He worked for Siemens in Germany for 5 years spearheading a product innovation initiative in the phone division.

In Denmark, Niels held positions as CTO in two Danish internet media startups, Berlingske Online A/S and NetDoktor A/S. In addition to an international network, Niels offers strong domain knowledge within the software sector as well as a broad range of managerial, business development and IT strategic skills.

Kim Plesner-Jacobsen

Kim is the sales and general manager of Acto, a full-service web agency, selling and implementing web solutions with the Composite A/S CMS software.

Kim enjoys solving business challenges and thrives when applying an analytic and strategic mindset to new business opportunities - in order to raise the probability of success.

He was involved in two IT startups before the .com breakdown period. where he learned what to do and more importantly what not to do, from a management and investment perspective, when initiating new business ideas.

He has a Masters in Management of Innovation and Business Development, and has worked as a consultant within the analysis, advertising and management consulting business.

Torben Majgaard

As founder and chief executive officer, Torben Majgaard has built Ciklum into one of the largest IT companies in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He brings 11 years of experience working in Eastern Europe and 20 years of IT expertise to quickly build a 700-person company in this changing market. Majgaard is also the founder and majority shareholder of Touchlink Mobile, a Danish developer of application solutions for the mobile content market. Previously, he founded and served as CEO of Vic, a hardware distributor to Eastern Europe, and Den Bla Butik, a Danish retail network for hardware sales. He is a frequent speaker in various IT related summits and conferences throughout different countries, including the Nordic IT Forum and the Central and Eastern European IT Outsourcing Summit.

Benjamin Lundström
Advokat, LL.M. & Partner, Sirius Advokater 

Attorney-at-Law, LL.M., Benjamin Lundström is a partner in Sirius Advokater. He was previously partner at BENDER ▪ VON HALLER ▪ DRAGSTED, law firm and works with corporate commercial law hereunder as legal advisor for start-up companies. With master degrees from both University of Copenhagen and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, Benjamin Lundström has a strong background in corporate commercial law hereunder employment law.

Benjamin Lundström has also lectured for a couple of years at University of Copenhagen before he co-founded von Haller Law Firm with Martin von Haller Grønbæk in 2000. Benjamin Lundström has been on the Jury since 2001 and will continue contributing with his insight on legal and commercial aspects of starting up a business.

Bent Lundsager
Manager Patents, Zacco

Bent has worked with Zacco since 1996. In 2000, Bent was appointed head of the Danish patent department for Communications Technology and Software that provides services within the fields of communications technology, software, electronics and physics. Concurrently with his responsibilities as head of department, Bent is responsible for the drafting, filing and pre- and post-grant prosecution of the patent portfolio of a large number of Danish electronics and software companies, apart from patent prosecution in Denmark and abroad. His technical background from university is in analogue and digital signal processing with a bachelor thesis in opto-electronics and a master thesis in mathematical modelling.

In addition to his position at Zacco, Bent is also a frequent lecturer with the Danish Patent and Trademark office and at business conferences.´

Carsten Snedker

Managing Partner, Innoption IMEA

Carsten Snedker is Managing Partner at Innoption EMEA, a collaboration with Kellogg School of Management, Centre for Research in Technology & innovation. Based on the company's core competencies as an early-stage venture company, Innoption provides its portfolio companies and partner companies with market validated tools that allow their businesses to create radical high-growth beyond the scope of just product and technological innovation.

Professional experience as entrepreneur, consultant and business developer in industries related to medical technology, IT, information warfare, media, venture capital, non-profit entrepreneurship and innovation management.

Core competence is business development, organizational design & management of technology-based new ventures in terms of rapid internationalization in emerging industries.

Hans Peter Bech

Founder and CEO, TBK Consult

Hans Peter is Group CEO and founder of TBK Consult, an international consulting company with 21 offices in 14 countries, focusing entirely on internationalization in the software industry.

Hans Peter has over 25 years of experience with international marketing and sales of software products, services and solutions.

Hans Peters' core competencies are:

- Enterprise B2B business process software solutions, ERP/ERM/CRM solutions and software engineering (bespoke development).

- Go-to-market strategy /program development and implementation, including reference client recruitment, recruitment of reseller and distributor channels and setting up subsidiaries.

From 1998 to 2001 Hans Peter lived in Stuttgart, Germany responsible for building the partner channel for Damgaard/Navision (later acquired by Microsoft) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Hans Peter holds a M.A. (cand. polit.) in macroeconomics and political science from the University of Copenhagen.

Jens Christian Foged

Regional Head, CONNECT Denmark

Responsible for sales and business development, Jens Christian has worked with more than 100 entrepreneurs and SMEs with high growth potential in the Copenhagen region since he took over this position in the beginning of 2008. As an independent consultant and investor, he has previously developed strategy and organizations in a wide range of industries, including retail, fashion, security, IT and transportation working closely with business angels, venture capital and equity investors.

MBA from IMD in Switzerland, Jens Christians educational background is furthermore within general management from A.P. Moller - Maersk A/S. Working internationally within logistics and transportation, he spent 13 years of his career mainly as posted abroad among others in countries such as South Korea, Japan, West Africa and France. He has also worked in strategy consulting with Quartz Strategy Consultants.

Kenneth Larsen
Partner and CEO, Keystones

Kenneth Larsen is educated in Denmark and in the U.S.A. and holds a bachelor in electronic engineering and an MBA. Kenneth has international management experiences from employment in the medical and electronics industry.

Kenneth has years of experience in consulting innovative entrepreneurial companies within business development/planning, building entrepeurneurial teams, strategy formulation, raising risk capital etc. Kenneth is directly involved in a number of start-up companies as board menber, founder and investor.

Susanne Høiberg
CEO, European Patent and Trademark Attorney, Partner, Høiberg A/S

Susanne has worked as a medical doctor and cancer researcher before entering the IP profession in 1990 with a Copenhagen based intellectual property firm. Susanne specialises in innovation management within the areas of biotechnology, medicine and medico-technology.

Susanne teaches IP in CEIPI Öresund, as well as at the Technical University of Denmark. She founded Høiberg A/S in 1995.

Simon Nielsen

Simon is the Managing Director of Q2Con, a scandinavian consulting partner for Customer Relation Management solutions for SAP and SAP solutions in the Media industry.

Jørgen Gransøe

Jørgen is the Managing Partner of Norventum Capital, a venture capital management firm founded in 2001. They focus on early stage technology start-ups with significant growth and value creation potential.