Ivo A. Ivanov is Chief Operating Officer of the DE-CIX Group AG and also – as Chief Executive Officer of DE-CIX International – responsible for the global business activities of the Internet Exchange Operator. Ivo has more than 15 years’ of experience in the regulatory, legal and commercial Internet environment.

Ivo joined DE-CIX in January 2007. In recent years, Ivo has been deeply involved in the establishment DE-CIX sites in Istanbul, Palermo, Madrid, Marseille, New York, Dallas, Dubai (UAE-IX powered by DE-CIX) as well as Mumbai (Mumbai IX powered by DE-CIX), and several DE-CIX consultancy projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Ivo has an educational background focused on Law and Business. Fluent in German, English, Russian and Bulgarian, he graduated from a German business school in 1995 and holds two Law degrees, from the Universities of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Bonn (Germany). After graduation, he worked as a lawyer, with a focus on e-commerce law, IP law, telecommunications law and data protection law.

Current Role: 
• CEO of MEO (2022 – present)
• CEO of Altice Dominicana (2018-2022)
• Chief Audit Executive of the Altice Group in Switzerland, overseeing operations in France, the United States, Israel, Portugal, and the Dominican Republic (2016-2016)
• Several manager positions in the areas of auditing, operational consulting and organizational transformation, having led teams and projects in various geographical areas (since 2003)

Fast Facts
Ana Figueiredo led the following initiatives or events:
• The MEO network demonstrated the greatest resilience in Portugal during the energy blackout in April 2025.
• MEO ensured the success of the first mobile voting in the European elections in Portugal (2024).
• MEO was the first and only operator worldwide to launch an offer that integrates telecommunications and energy. (2024)
• MEO ensured a network of excellence for 1.5 million pilgrims at World Youth Day in Lisbon (2023)
• MEO received the Reputation Awards from the consultancy firm Onstrategy and Best Mobile Network in several Portuguese cities awarded by Umlaut

Vital Statistics & Education
• Degree in Business Administration and Management from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG)
• MBA from the Catholic University and Nova Business School (Lisbon MBA)

Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld is a founder, international manager, investor, entrepreneur, and now author. He is the founder and CEO of K2Elevation, a company that invests in and develops international enterprises in the technology and biotech segment.

He is Chairman of KONUX, a member of the supervisory boards of Brain Lab, GreyOrange and Fero Labs. From 2008 to 2017, he was Chairman and CEO of Alcoa/Arconic. Previously, Dr. Kleinfeld had a 20-year career with Siemens, where he ended up serving as CEO of Siemens AG until 2007. He’s served as an advisor to several US Presidents as well as European, Asian, and Middle Eastern government leaders.

Dr. Kleinfeld is an Honorary Senator of the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting, an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution, a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Board of Directors of The Metropolitan Opera.

Most recently he wrote a book called "Leading to Thrive: Mastering Strategies for Sustainable Success in Business and Life”.

He was born in Bremen, Germany, and holds an MBA from the University of Goettingen and a PhD from the University of Wuerzburg. A dual US and German citizen, Dr. Kleinfeld lives with his family in New York.

Florian Tursky is an Austrian politician and expert in digitalization, communication, and politics. He served as the Secretary for Digitalization and Telecommunications in the Austrian Federal Government and was instrumental in launching significant digitalization projects, including the introduction of ID Austria and the implementation of important EU regulations in the digital sector.

Tursky holds multiple master's degrees in communication, management, and digital business & tech law. He is currently the Acting Chairman of the Vodafone Institute Europe and an Executive Fellow at the Global GovTech Center in Berlin.

Alexa von Busse is a presenter specialising in digitalisation and artificial intelligence. The business graduate and journalist frequently speaks with government officials and CEOs in Germany and Europe on topics related to the transformation of our economy, society and cities. Representatives from the worlds of science, business and politics discuss defence and cyber security, industry and climate protection, finance and health with her.

Bernd Meurer is a seasoned technology executive with extensive experience at BT since November 1998, currently serving as Chief Technology Officer – Major Account CTO, where thought leadership and driving innovation agendas are key responsibilities. Meurer possesses a profound understanding of customer business strategies and brings broad expertise in digital transformation, IT architectures, and service offerings. Previous roles include Head of Sales Engineering and Unit Manager for Client Network & IT Design at BT Germany, as well as Project Manager positions at agiplan and Stadt Köln. Academically, Meurer holds a Ph.D. in Physics from both the Max-Planck-Institute Stuttgart and the University of Stuttgart, complemented by a Diplom-Physiker degree from the University of Cologne.

Marco Fuchs, born in 1962, has been the CEO of OHB SE since 2000 and since 2024 member of the Supervisory Board of OHB System AG. He studied law in Berlin, Hamburg and New York and was admitted to the bar and attorney-at-law. Subsequently, he worked as a lawyer at Jones Day in New York and Frankfurt. He has been Honorary Consul of the Republic of Italy in the State of Bremen since 2008 and, since 2017, vice president at the German Aerospace Industry Association BDLI.

With over 20 years of experience in the IT and telecommunications industry, Vladimir Prodanovic serves as a Principal Program Manager at NVIDIA, where he leads data center readiness for GPU deployments and operational excellence. Before joining NVIDIA, he spent nearly 11 years at Microsoft, overseeing global GPU and high-performance computing (HPC) deployments and managing programs across multiple regions.

Vladimir’s career includes leadership roles at KPN, B2, and other pioneering technology companies, where he developed deep expertise in business development, IT infrastructure, and network planning.

He holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology. With a strong blend of strategic insight and hands-on experience, Vladimir is a respected authority in the advancement of digital infrastructure.

With nearly a quarter-century of immersion in the Internet engineering sector, my journey has led to co- founding TransmissionCo, where we specialize in high-capacity DWDM optical transmission services. At the helm as Managing Director, I channel my expertise in DWDM and IP/MPLS networking, network design, and engineering to empower and interconnect communities across Africa.

My tenure as Head of Engineering at SEACOM honed my ability to lead complex network infrastructure projects and foster innovation. TransmissionCo benefits from this rich background, positioning us as a key player in expanding Africa's digital landscape. Our mission resonates with my personal commitment to quality, sustainability, and the advancement of regional connectivity.

Azfar Aslam is a global technology and business leader who has spent more than two decades helping major organisations navigate the profound shifts in digital infrastructure, AI, and network technologies. He is currently Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Europe at Nokia Infrastructure, where he leads strategy, technology evolution, and market development across a multi-billion-euro business serving telecom operators, cloud providers, and industrial enterprises.

Azfar holds a Doctorate in Communications Engineering from University College London, MBA training from London Business School, and executive leadership accreditation from Harvard Business School.

Samuel Mungadze is an experienced tech writer and journalist, and is currently the editor for ITWeb Africa, a South African-based continental business technology publication. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, he has established a reputation for generating in-depth, incisive news reporting on the convergence of ICT policy, cyber security, telecommunications, and digital transformation. Throughout his long career in technology media, he has interviewed major tech figures including CEOs of leading telecoms and ICT companies, start-up founders, opinion leaders, and analysts.

Executive working across the energy, infrastructure and finance sectors. At REN, Portugal’s listed transmission system operator, he led acquisitions in Portugal and Chile and held responsibility for internal audit and data protection. He combines strategy and execution, bringing a practical perspective on investment, governance and operational discipline in complex energy environments.

Rear Admiral Nuno António de Noronha Bragança was born in Lisbon on June 15th, 1963. Having attended Naval School, he graduated in 1988. He specialised in Communications and Electronic Warfare, holds a Master’s degree in Management and Organizational Behaviour and took, besides other courses, the ESDP Foundation Training Programme, the Joint General Staffs Course and the Promotion Course for General Officer.

He was the commanding officer of an OPV, the N.R.P. “Limpopo”, having previously held positions on board of several naval units. Ashore, he was Commander of the Cadet Company of the Student Corps of the Naval Academy, Director of the Naval Radio Station of Ponta Delgada Azores and held a position at the Chief of the Navy Staff in the Personnel and Organization Division. He was Aide-de-Champ and Navy Military Advisor of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Officer in the European Union Military Staff in Brussels, Director of the Navy Communications, Data and Cipher Centre in Lisbon.

Held the position of Commander of the Navy Headquarter Facilities, Head of the Resources Division of the Chief of Navy Staff and Chief of Cabinet of the Director General of Maritime Authority.

Between August 2018 and September 2019, he held the position of Commander of the Navy Permanent Task Group for West Africa, having commanded the National Force Deployed for the Open Sea Mission 18.2 and 19.1, developed in the Gulf of Guinea region.

He was, between February 2020 and July 2021, the Military Advisor to the National Defense Commission of the Portuguese Parliament having assumed on 30 July 2021 the position of Chief of Cabinet of the Admiral Chief of Navy Staff and National Maritime Authority.

In January 2022 took office as Deputy Director General of the Maritime Authority and Deputy Commander of the Maritime Police.

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, focusing on geopolitics and the globalised economy as well as greyzone and hybrid threats. She’s also a columnist with Foreign Policy and Politico Europe and the author of the award-winning Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World(Yale University Press). Her latest book, Undersea War, will be published by John Murray Press and Basic Books in October 2026.

At the Atlantic Council, Elisabeth leads the Threats to the Global Maritime Order initiative. She was previously a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). She’s the author of God’s Spies, about the Stasi’s church division (2019) and The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression (2022). She is also a member of M&C Saatchi World Services’ advisory council, a member of GALLOS Technologies’ advisory board, an adviser to Willis Towers Watson’s research arm, a member of the Aurora Forum’s steering committee and a member of the UK National Preparedness Commission. Before joining academia, she worked in the private sector following a career as a journalist. She is a regular op-ed contributor to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Times (of London).

Mohamad H. Ibrahim is a visionary leader in the field of network and satellite communication. With over 15 years of experience in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) business, he has played a pivotal role in connecting countries across Africa. His passion for providing reliable, secure, and affordable connectivity has driven the success of Interfiber Networks.

Mohamad holds a strong background in ICT (Information and Communication Technology). He founded several Internet service providers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.Congo), contributing significantly to bridging the digital divide in the region. His expertise lies in leveraging leased circuits on the West African submarine cable to connect African countries.

As the CEO of Interfiber Networks, Mohamad leads a dedicated team focused on expanding connectivity throughout Africa with services such as IP Transit, Internet Connectivity, and Active Circuits.

Daan Juijn as Director for Research leads the Research team at the Arq Foundation, an independent think tank based in Brussels that advises European institutions and member states on AI policy and governance. His work spans AI scenario development, geopolitical strategy, and foundational research on how AI systems may reshape economies and societies. Before joining the policy world, Daan served as a Strategic Advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

Simone Maria Parazzoli is co-author of The Agentic State, the first framework mapping how agentic AI will transform government. Previously he worked at the OECD, advising governments on AI adoption and innovation. He holds an MPP from Bocconi and Sciences Po. He’s now focused on accelerating the safe adoption of transformative AI across the public sector.

Philippe Dumont is a member of ‘2020 Capacity Power 100’ an elite group of the most influential people of the wholesale carrier community. He is a CEO with over 25 years of international experience in the Telecoms industry. His strong leadership style is supplemented with an entrepreneurial attitude and long term vision.

Philippe was President & CEO of ASN (Alcatel Lucent Submarine Networks),  a worldwide leader for turnkey telecoms submarine cable systems, for 6 years and has also served for 5 years as President of the Wireless Transmission activities at Alcatel Lucent.

He is currently the CEO of EllaLink, a €180m project that has been designed to satisfy the growing traffic demand  between Europe and Latin America. The system will offer the first ever large scale, direct fibre route between the two continents, bypassing the congested routes of the North Atlantic.

Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton is President of the Transatlantic Leadership Network and directs its Atlantic Basin Initiative of African, European, South, Central and North American Eminent Persons, research institutes and private sector leaders that explores the changing dynamics among the four continents of the Atlantic Basin with regard to digital connectivity, energy, economic growth, human development, and human security.

He is Senior non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Recent publications include The Transatlantic Digital Economy 2024 and The promise of a free and open Atlantic. He has held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. Department of State, and serves on several international advisory boards.

Luís Manuel Brás Bernardino is a Portuguese Army Colonel (Reserve) with more than 37 years of experience in UN, NATO and EU missions graduated with the Staff Course and the National Defence Course. He holds a master’s degree in Strategy and a PhD in International Relations from the Lisbon
University. Professor at the Military University Institute with extensive international experience on teaching, training, and advising. Luis Bernardino is the author and co-author of 15 books and has published more than 100 articles in national and international scientific and non-scientific journals on
topics of Security and Defence. Regularly participates in conferences, evaluation boards, and other academic or institutional events related with submarine cables and global interconnectivity. He is currently Professor at the Department of International Relations at the Autonomous University of
Lisbon.

Edward is a successful entrepreneur who is well recognised for his commitment to the development of the African Internet.

Often called on for business and leadership advice, Edward is a member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA), and serves on multiple boards of pan-African technology companies.

Since co-founding Workonline Communications in 2006, Edward has successfully led the company to becoming the leader in the provision of wholesale connectivity and IP transit services in sub-Saharan Africa. Edward most notably also co-founded businesses such as Yafibr (formerly AIK Group) in 2020, as well as Magic Space Dust and Unicorn Factory in 2021.

As Chief Executive Officer, Tesh sets the strategy for the company and leads the talented team creating Europe’s leading data centre platform. Tesh is a digital infrastructure and data centre industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in development, finance, sales, marketing, and real estate. Before joining AtlasEdge, he served as CEO of Africa Data Centres, where he led the company’s hyperscale expansion, making it one of the continent’s largest operators. Prior to this, Tesh held various executive roles at CyrusOne, eventually becoming the company’s CEO. During his tenure at CyrusOne, annual revenue grew from $221 million in 2012 to over $1 billion by 2020. His previous roles also include Chief Marketing and Business Officer for Telx, founder of NYC-Connect, and various management positions at Abovenet, Sprint, and Metromedia Fiber Networks.

Luís is Cleantech for Europe's Policy Manager and leads Cleantech for Europe Policy team. He is an experienced professional with more than 10 years working in climate and energy transition regulation. Previously, Luís worked at the European Parliament for over five years, developing his expertise on climate and sustainability. Luís graduated from University of Porto in both Engineering and Innovation Economics and Management and is now pursuing his PhD in Management, with a focus on sustainability.

Lourenço Sousa Coutinho is an Associate Director at CBRE Portugal, specializing in real estate and infrastructure investment banking. He leads the Data Center Capital Markets business division in Portugal and has been involved in some of the most relevant transactions in the sector. With a background in M&A advisory, structured finance, and corporate strategy, he supports global investors in executing complex, highvalue projects shaping the future of the Portuguese and Iberian markets.

Wouter is an internet pioneer with 20+ years of industry experience. Wouter cofounded in 1997 the first carrier neutral data centre in Amsterdam – SpeedPort, modelled after AboveNet and the Palo Alto Internet Exchange in California. In 1999, he was part of the founding team of Interxion, which became Europe’s leading data centre operator 20 years later. He initiated the Swiss Internet Exchange Swiss-IX in 2001, and the French France-IX in 2009. In July 2016, whilst at Interxion, he founded PAIX to focus 100% on the data centre opportunity on the African continent. He initiated and co-founded the Africa Data Centres Association in 2018, and is currently a board member. Wouter grew up in Mali and Burkina Faso and graduated from Imperial College London with a Masters in Software Engineering, and received his MBA from INSEAD.

Sam Bogerd is Lead Researcher for Institutional Innovation at the Arq Foundation, an independent think tank based in Brussels focused on AI policy and governance. His work covers EU institutional reform, research policy (including the design of FP10), public procurement, and AI governance. Previously, he worked at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior on national AI strategy and strengthening long-term thinking in government.

Filipe de Oliveira Lopes is an experienced professional with 18.2 years of work experience in sales and business development. He has a strong background in renewable energy, solar energy, and wind engineering. Based in Portugal, Filipe has held various leadership positions in sales and account management, leading sales and account managers to develop product sales, new client services, and solutions. He has also worked at companies like MCA, ISQ, INCM Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda, and GE. Filipe's expertise lies in driving business growth and implementing effective business strategies.

…

Paul Rendek is currently a Director at Dstream Group, a strategic management consulting group specialised in the IT industry. He has 30+ years of experience in a global capacity in the Internet industry and a solid understanding of the Internet’s technical aspects, business development, and public policy.

He was part of RIPE NCC’s Senior Management Team, responsible for developing organisational strategies and maintaining the RIPE NCC’s external relations and public affairs activities, overseeing outreach to RIPE NCC & RIPE members, industry partners, governments, law enforcement and regulators.

Paul was one of the founders of the Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG) and the Eurasia Network Operators Group (ENOG). He was also appointed to the Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) team to produce the Internet Number Community response to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group’s RFP.

As an Internet governance expert passionate about Internet development, he was an appointed representative of the Internet technical community in the global Internet governance arena.

Before his employment at the RIPE NCC, his position at EUnet, the first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Europe, and GEANT, the pan-European network for research and education have ensured that he has been a known face in the Internet community since 1993.