Uroš Marter holds MSc in finance from Boston College. He is cofounder and managing director of Arkas d.o.o., a company specialising in Boutique Investment Banking. His professional career started in AF Partners, London, where he worked as investment professional responsible for reviewing, analysing and structuring private equity and venture capital investments in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Before joining AF Partners he worked at Merrill Lynch, New York, specialising in investment banking with a focus on capital-raising for private equity, venture capital and opportunistic real estate funds.

Miomir Knežević holds PhD in biotechnology from University of Ljubljana. Currently he is the Head of the Unit for collection and processing of haematopoietic stem cells at Transfusion centre in Ljubljana. Prior to his current employment he worked as researcher and managing director and has cooperated with different institutes in Slovenia, Austria and Belgium. He is cofounder of several companies engaged in biotechnology, which received financing from different venture capital funds. He also worked as a national expert on detachment in the unit for Applied Genomics and Biotechnology for Health in directorate Health, DG Research, European Commission, Brussels.

Boštjan Bregar is managing director of MARG d.o.o. He started his professional career at Hermes SoftLab as software engineer and was soon promoted to managing director responsible for software development. He later joined StorScape in Boston, where he was in charge of merger between Hermes SoftLab and Eurologic. After returning to Slovenia, he was in charge of restructuring and revitalisation of development department, portfolio outsourcing and account management in a company Actual.

Jure Božič is founder and managing director of Our Space, company active in the area of restructuring business processes and monitoring of IT reform implementation. He started his career as application designer in Iskra CAOP, where he was later promoted to head of the IT center and finally to the company’s manager. He started his own company Aster and after that took the position of regional manager for Silicon Graphics subsidiary in Switzerland. Throughout his professional career he gained relevant experience in venture capital industry.

Emil Vizovišek has a degree in chemical technology. At present he is member of the management board in Sava d.d., responsible for development and technology. In his career in technology development area he gained specific knowledge and experience in quality and continuous improvement systems, project design and management as well as strategic investment and product development. He is active member in a range of business associations and president of supervisory board of two companies owned by holding company Sava d.d..

Blaž Nardin holds PhD in mechanical engineering. Presently he is CEO of Gorenje Orodjarna d.o.o. He gained most of his professional experience in TECOS – Slovenian Tool and Die Technology Development Centre working as researcher, project manager, Head of CAE Department and finally as managing director of TECOS. Throughout his career he has also lead courses for technical and marketing strategies in tool and mould making. In addition, he was evaluator of EU 6. FP programs. He is well known for his professional expertise in manufacturing as well as his activities in promoting cooperation between science and business.

Tomaž Karčnik holds PhD in electronic technology. Presently he is Head of development at Instrumentation Technologies, leading provider of beam stabilization instruments for particle accelerators. He has successfully established development department as one of the key departments in the company by applying his technical knowledge and business experience. His professional career started in academia, working as assistant professor and researcher at Tohoku University, Japan and at Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion, Haifa.

Andra Dodič holds a degree in electro-technical and computer engineering and MSc in management and organisation. Currently she is Head of new products development program at Kolektor Sikom d.o.o., global strategic supplier of commutators, where she initially worked as electric machinery constructor and project manager.