August 2016

Dr. Klepper is a senior adviser at Nordic Energy Research. She works with administration of research programmes within renewable energy in the Nordic countries and in the EU. She also works with dissemination of the research from these programs. Previously, she worked as a researcher at the Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN) at the University of Oslo. She developed processes for and characterized novel silicon containing materials for energy technology using atomic layer deposition (ALD). She has worked with thin films using ALD since 2001. An important part of the research has been to analyze and characterize the deposited materials using several analytical techniques, including investigation of thin film properties.

Dr. Klepper will share the vision and strategy that the Nordic region is undertaking in implementing renewable energies and the economic benefits of introducing clean technologies.

It is our pleasure to announce Andrej Babache as a speaker at the MK20205 Summit. Mr Babache is a Director of Mid Europa, London. Mid Europa is a private-equity fund focused on Central and South Eastern Europe with approximately 4.3 billion euros in funds raised since inception. Mr Babache will speak on Central and South Eastern Europe’s prospects, perspectives, and challenges. Regarding Macedonia Mr Babache will reflect on how Macedonia fits into the global and regional contexts, and what Macedonian sectors can compete within Europe.

Prior to joining Mid Europa Mr Babache was an investment banker with Citigroup in London focusing on Central Eastern Europe and Turkey (2003-2006).

Mr Babache has a Masters in Economics and Business from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Guruduth Banavar is the Keynote speaker at the Macedonia2025 Summit in Skopje and will be speaking on changing the world with technology innovation. He is currently Chief Science Officer and Vice President, IBM Research, USA. As a lifelong innovator, Guru has invented dozens of technologies and turned them into practical solutions that benefit business and society around the world, from India to Brazil to the USA. In this talk, he will reflect on how technology’s transformative power has changed every industry and community, and project into a future where technology will help us solve the world’s biggest problems including food, health, and the environment. Dr Banavar has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah.

Last year Guru Banavar spoke at the Nobel Week Dialogue series in Goteborg, dedicated to the future of Artificial Intelligence. His presentation covered the future of human-robot (AI) interaction and cooperation in resolving some of humanity’s most daunting challenges such as curing cancer or reversing climate change.

Dr Guruduth Banavar is the Chief Science Officer and Vice President at IBM Research. Dr Banavar leads a worldwide team that co-innovates with clients, by applying advanced technologies to solve tough business problems. His current areas of focus are: healthcare, life sciences, financial services, energy and natural resources, and Smarter Cities. Dr Banavar is an elected member of the IBM Academy of Technology, and serves on the board of IBM’s Industry Academy.

Dr Banavar previous position at IBM was the Chief Technology Officer of IBM’s Global Public Sector business with a focus on the Smarter Cities initiative. An example of his work is the City Operations Center in Rio de Janeiro, which coordinates day-to-day as well as emergency operations in support of planning and service management across thirty agencies within that city. Dr Banavar also served on NY Governor Cuomo’s commission for improving New York State’s resilience to natural disasters after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.

Dr Banavar’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and other international media. He has also published over t40 research papers, (co-)invented more than 25 patents, chaired major technical conferences and workshops in the field, served on 3 PhD committees, and sits on the advisory boards of international research and educational organizations.

Michael Mizrahi is the Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development at Azrieli College of Engineering – Jerusalem.

Mr Mizrahi is a serial entrepreneur and a visionary whose goal is to transform Jerusalem into one of the leading 20 cities in the world for startups and entrepreneurs. He helps fulfil this goal as a member of the board of the nonprofit organization MadeInJLM and Director of the Startup accelerator AtoBe, which operates as part of the Azrieli College of Engineering. MadeInJLM identifies future innovators and provides them the platform to contribute, connect, mentor and create. What is unique about AtoBe is that its main and only focus is engineering and technology. It provides innovators with state of the art equipment that enables them to work wonders.

Mr Mizrahi is also one of the driving forces behind three programs that are funded by the EU Tempus and Erasmus Plus programs. One of those projects is MMATENG, whose objective is to improve BA and MA programs in Material Engineering in cooperation with universities in Israel, Russia and Ukraine. It is also supported by a number of Israeli universities and universities in Germany, France and Poland.

The participants at the Macedonia2025 Summit will have the chance to hear Mr Mizrahi talk about an Israeli startup in the GeoEnergy field and about the influence of AtoBe Startup accelerator on youth employment in Jerusalem.