Ekaterina, a founding partner of BlankPage Capital, is one of Europe’s most visionary venture capitalists who has been investing in breakthrough technology companies in AI, quantum computing, cloud and data infrastructure, energy efficiency, and cybersecurity for almost two decades.

Previously, as a General Partner at OpenOcean VC and a Managing Director at Samsung Catalyst Fund, she has led investments and served on the boards of companies such as Graphcore (acquired by SoftBank), IQM Quantum Computers, AIMotive (acquired by Stellantis),

LatticeFlow AI – Results you Can Trust , Hygraph, Bitrise, and Binalyze. In addition, she was deeply involved in strategic initiatives to create $20B+ business opportunities for Samsung, EMC/Dell and Siemens. Passionate about building a strong technology ecosystem, she has invested in other deep tech Venture Capital funds across Europe.

Ekaterina has lived and worked in Silicon Valley, plus several countries in Europe and Latin America. Before becoming a VC, Ekaterina was an entrepreneur and a software architect creating cutting edge companies and solutions, including some of the first e-commerce technology platforms in the early 2000’s. She has co-founded European Women in VC network, is serving as an expert at the European Commission since 2003, and is a Mentor at CDL for the Next Generation Compute, AI and Quantum since 2019. Ekaterina has been named among Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space.

Dr. Reza Azarderakhsh is the CEO and Founder of PQSecure with the main focus on development of quantum-safe cryptographic solutions for tomorrow’s data today in-transit, at-rest, and in-use. Dr. Azarderakhsh is well-known fo the development of several cryptographic algorithms and architecture for various applications. He published more than 100 papers in journals and conferences on applied cryptography.

Dr. Bellido spent his career overseeing and leading the development of several organizations in the healthcare industry. He brings strong financial management expertise, deep operating and leadership experience and a global business perspective, acquired over 30 years of international business in biosciences, healthcare and financial industries.

Notably, Dr. Bellido managed a CA$300 million life science investment fund (SGF-Santé) that produced several important and key players in the medical device industry. He has a proven ability to approach technical and scientific issues with a solid business perspective. Dr. Bellido holds a PhD in medical microbiology from the University of Geneva and an MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Québec at Montreal.

Lubjana Beshaj is a research scientist at Army Cyber Institute and an Associate Professor at West Point. Her research interests are cryptography and emerging technologies. More specifically, algebraic curve cryptography, post quantum cryptography, homomorphic encryption, quantum stabilizer codes, blockchain technologies, and neural network cryptography.

Dr. Amandeep Singh Bhatia is a Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate at Purdue University, working within the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering under Prof. Alam’s group and the Department of Chemistry under Prof. Kais’ group. His research focuses on near-term quantum computing techniques, particularly variational quantum algorithms, Quantum/Classical/Hybrid machine learning, optimization, and privacy-preserving federated learning algorithms. Dr. Bhatia applies these techniques across various fields, including healthcare, finance, chemistry, and manufacturing, with an emphasis on scaling Quantum AI for heterogeneous data. Prior to joining Purdue in 2022, Dr. Bhatia was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Tubingen in Germany, where he worked on various aspects of quantum algorithms for optimization in Finance.

Yuval Boger is the Chief Commercial Officer of QuEra Computing, the leader in neutral-atom quantum computers. Before QuEra, he has served as CEO and CMO of frontier-tech companies from seed to NASDAQ in markets including quantum computing software, wireless power, enterprise software, and virtual reality. He is the host of the Superposition Guy’s Podcast. Yuval received a M.Sc. in Physics from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Dr. Charles Bruce serves as Chief Innovation Officer for Mayo Clinic Florida. He also serves as the Medical Director of the Innovation Exchange. He is a practicing cardiologist, as well as a researcher, inventor, and professor of Medicine. His unique perspective into the challenges of health care delivery is shaped by his medical experiences in South Africa and the United States. Dr. Bruce is an accomplished innovator, holding more than 60 issued patents for medical inventions and was named the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Inventor in 2023.

Ahmad Byagowi is a Research Scientist focused on Time and Frequency Synchronization in Hyper Scale Networks. Ahmad received his first Ph.D. (Dr. Techn.) from Vienna University of Technology (TUWIEN) under the supervision of Prof. Peter Kopacek working on distributed control systems in 2010. Following that, Byagowi went to the University of Manitoba, initially as a Post Doc fellow working with Prof. Zahra Moussavi working on game engines and virtual reality systems. Due to his interest in the project, Byagowi started a second Ph.D. and finished it in 2016. After that, Byagowi started working with Prof. Ramesh Raskar from the MIT Media Labs on haptic systems. This led him to Facebook as a visiting scholar. He was impressed by the research there and decided to join Facebook in 2017. Byagowi still holds an Adjunct Professor title with the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Nadia Carlsten is the CEO of the Danish Center for AI Innovation (DCAI), where she oversees Gefion, Denmark’s first AI supercomputer. With extensive leadership experience, she has driven innovation strategy and product development at top tech companies, including at SandboxAQ and AWS, where she led quantum and AI initiatives. Nadia has a strong track record of managing large-scale public-private technology programs and advising on global tech policy. She holds a PhD in Engineering from UC Berkeley.

With over 25 years of experience in the deep-tech, Vishal is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for building innovative products using cutting-edge technologies. He is the co-founder and CEO of QuantrolOx, a spinout from Oxford University that is developing automation software to accelerate the scaling of quantum computers.

Vishal experience spans across opto-electronics, smartphone SW, navigation systems, automotive, AI and quantum technologies. He has held various roles in research, manufacturing, operations, R&D, strategy, product management and business development. He has founded and led several startups, including Secondmind, an AI company, and VocalIQ, that was acquired by Apple in 2015. He is also an active advisor to promising deep tech startups and a member of the Founders Pledge, a community of entrepreneurs who commit to donate a portion of their personal proceeds to effective social causes. Vishal is a global citizen who has lived in 15 cities across 11 countries, from the Equator to the Arctic.

Bob Coecke is Chief Scientist at Quantinuum, Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College Oxford. Previously he was Professor of Quantum Foundations, Logics and Structures at the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University, where he was 20 years, and co-founded and led a multi-disciplinary Quantum Group that grew to 50 members and he supervised close to 70 PhD students. He pioneered Categorical Quantum Mechanics (now in AMS’s MSC2020 classification), ZX-calculus, DisCoCat natural language meaning, mathematical foundations for resource theories, Quantum Natural Language Processing, and DisCoCirc natural language meaning. He co-authored Picturing Quantum Processes and Quantum in Pictures. He was the first person to have Quantum Foundations as part of his academic title. He received the IEEE LiCS test-of-time award.

Olivier Ezratty is a freelance quantum engineer, mostly known for “Understanding Quantum Technologies”, his comprehensive open-source book on quantum technologies (September 2025, 8th edition). He is a teacher and lecturer on quantum and classical technologies at EPITA, CentraleSupelec, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, and other Universities. He works for a diverse set of government institutions and industry organizations, as a referent expert for Bpifrance, Agence Nationale de Recherche (France) and the European Commission. He is also one of the cofounders of the Quantum Energy Initiative. He holds an Msc in Computer Science from CentraleSupelec.

Ismael Faro is the Vice President of Quantum Services and Data at IBM. Ismael Faro serves as the Vice President of Quantum Services and Data at IBM Research, where he has been recognized as a Distinguished Engineer for his significant technical contributions. In 2016, Faro played a pivotal role in architecting the IBM Quantum Experience, the world’s first public Quantum Cloud platform. He is also renowned as one of the original contributors to Qiskit, the open-source quantum computing software development framework.

In his current role, Faro leads the development of Quantum Cloud services and middleware that bridge classical and quantum computation. He spearheads strategic initiatives at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum computing, with recent projects focusing on harnessing AI to optimize critical components of the quantum software stack.
Faro’s team is at the forefront of defining and integrating next-generation Quantum and High-Performance Computing (HPC) architectures. Their work is instrumental in advancing the field of quantum computing and its practical applications in research and industry.

Doug Finke is the Chief Content Officer for Global Quantum Intelligence (GQI), a leader in business intelligence focused on the quantum industry. GQI was formed as a merger between three quantum analyst organizations including the Quantum Computing Report (QCR), which Doug founded in 2015. Previously, Doug was employed in the computer, semiconductor, and storage industries for over 30 years where he helped drive the growth of many new technologies during this period. Doug has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the startup company, IntelliSense and helped sell the company at a valuation of $750 million. As Vice-President of Marketing and Business Development at the semiconductor startup ChipWrights, Doug helped raise $25 million in venture capital funding. Other important firms for whom Doug has worked include IBM, Intel, and HGST/Western Digital. Doug holds degrees in computer engineering and management from the University of Illinois and MIT, respectively.

Sergio Gago Huerta is the Managing Director of Quantum Computing at Moody’s Analytics and has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, CTO and general manager in startups, scaleups and corporations.

Prior to leading the Quantum Computing effort he led the Media Solutions operating unit for Moody’s that features the NewsEdge suite of real-time news-based solutions. He led advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning and applied these developments to news and other media content for companies seeking timely, highly relevant information to fuel decision making as news breaks. With previous experience at Rakuten, Zinio, VCG, Tangelo and Ares Development, Sergio brings more than two decades of executive management and technology experience leading highly technical organizations to drive digital transformation. He holds an MBA, Telecommunications Engineering and Quantum Computing & Information graduate degrees. He was also nominated “40 under 40” in data in 2021 by CDO. Sergio is also the Director at the Big Data and AI Master Degree at BTS / University of Barcelona and an Angel Investor in early stage startups.

Lawrence Gasman is the founder and President of Inside Quantum Technology. He has authored industry analysis reports on quantum key distribution, quantum computing, quantum networks, and quantum sensors and numerous studies on high-speed interfaces for high-performance computers. He also served on a panel at the Q2B conference in 2017; the first ever business-oriented quantum computing conference. Lawrence has been tracking commercialization of new technologies for 35 years and has written four books in this area. His consulting work has included both major multinationals and high-tech start-ups as clients and he has also carried out due diligence work for investment banks, venture capitalists and leading management consulting firms.

BlueQubit is a California-based startup specializing in crafting GPU- accelerated quantum infrastructure and QC platform tailored for hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. As its co-founder and CEO, Hrant Gharibyan plays a pivotal role in guiding its scientific innovations and fostering strategic partnerships. Hrant is a Stanford-trained quantum scientist with a decade of experience in quantum physics and algorithms as a Simon’s Fellow at Caltech and researcher at Google’s Quantum AI team.

Nicolas Godbout is Director of Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Montréal, Director of the Transdisciplinary Institute for Quantum Information (INTRIQ) as well as Co-Founder of Castor Optics. Throughout his career in the private and public sectors, he tackled research and development projects harnessing optical fibers for applications in telecommunications, biomedical engineering and quantum information. He has been an active researcher in quantum information for twenty years and is now active in advocating the development and adoption of quantum technologies.

Alexander Heinrich is the head of the QuantumBW office, managing the overall activities of Baden-Württemberg’s Quantum Technology Alliance and serving as the first point of contact. QuantumBW is pooling scientific and economic expertise from research institutions and businesses in Europe’s leading innovation region, fostering a quantum ecosystem and facilitating the application of quantum science in quantum sensor technology and quantum computing.

Alexander is dedicated to interlinking science, business, and politics to shape the quantum future. Previously, as the coordinator of a collaborative research center, he established an interdisciplinary scientific network focused on fluctuations in quantum matter, connecting the Universities of Konstanz, Göttingen, and TU Munich. As a board member of the German Physical Society (DPG) he promoted the career development of emerging talents after founding the Young German Physical Society. Additionally, as an Expert Citizen on the Committee for Economy, Science, and Technology in Bonn, he contributed to initiatives on transfer, startups, and incubation.

Alexander received his PhD in physics from the University of Konstanz, working on ultrafast lasers to explore quantum effects in condensed matter. He has been awarded the DPG Badge of Honor and was named STEM-Ambassador of the Year 2010 by Germany’s STEM initiative “MINT Zukunft schaffen.”

Daniel Mo Houshmand, known as Mo, is the CEO of QDaria, a pioneering quantum computer startup based in Oslo, Norway. At QDaria, Mo and his team bring a hands-on approach to the complex world of quantum computing. They are working towards the ambitious goal of developing a large-scale Topological Quantum Computer using Fibonacci Anyons, a project that could significantly impact the field of quantum technology.
Mo’s interdisciplinary mindset allows him to bridge theoretical concepts with practical applications, contributing to advancements in the field. With a background in Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Quantum Machine Learning, and Quantum Hardware Engineering, he is actively involved in education initiatives, particularly in experimental quantum mechanics and making Norway “Quantum Ready.” Through these efforts, he aims to foster a new generation of quantum scientists and engineers, ensuring Norway’s place in the quantum revolution.

Beyond the scientific realm, he explores the intersection of science and art through his SciArt creations. His paintings, which blend scientific themes such as turbulence with artistic expression, have found homes in various locations, including national hospitals. This unique approach allows Mo to communicate complex scientific ideas in a visually accessible manner.

Michael Hush is the Chief Scientist at Q-CTRL, a cutting-edge scale-up quantum technology company. Michael joined Q-CTRL at its founding six years ago, initially leading the development of control software to reduce errors on quantum computers. His role expanded, and he was promoted to Chief Scientist three years ago. Under his leadership, Q-CTRL has developed world-leading demonstrations of quantum computers applied to optimization problems relevant to the logistics and transport industries, and new navigation capabilities powered by ruggedized quantum sensors.

Michael’s work at Q-CTRL focuses on accelerating the pathway to quantum computing advantage and enhancing the robustness of quantum sensors for deployment in diverse environments. His contributions have been pivotal in establishing Q-CTRL’s infrastructure software, now used by over 14,000 users, which is the chosen control solution for quantum computers available on IBM Cloud. Michael has also spearheaded collaborations with the Australian Department of Defence, Rigetti, Atom Computing, IonQ, the UK Ministry of Defence, and SoftBank.

Michael earned his PhD in quantum physics from the Australian National University (ANU), where he was awarded the University Medal for Theoretical Physics. His postdoctoral research includes fellowships at the Research School of Engineering at ANU and the University of Nottingham, as well as a research and teaching role at UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

2001~2011 : 3G/LTE Mobile Network Operation/Mgmt., SK Telecom
2012~2022 : IP/Optical Network R&D, SK Telecom
2023~ : Quantum Business Development, SK Telecom

Dr. Mark Jackson is a theoretical physicist and the Senior Quantum Evangelist at Quantinuum. He received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Duke and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Columbia. Dr. Jackson has authored nearly 40 technical articles, served as Adjunct Faculty at Singularity University and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Yale Ventures. He has delivered over 300 keynote and panel talks, and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field.

Dr. Shahar Keinan is the CEO & co-founder of POLARIS Quantum Biotech. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in the field of computational and theoretical chemistry and published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the fields of in-silico drug design and discovery, as well as molecular materials design and computational methods development. Shahar has received a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, after which she moved to Northwestern University and Duke University for a post-doc positions. Previously she was CSO of Cloud Pharmaceuticals and has been instrumental in the development of the Quantum Molecular Design process since its inception at Duke University, and has pioneered the use of Inverse Design algorithms to optimize electro-optical materials and small molecule drugs.

Iordanis Kerenidis received his Ph.D. from the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004, under Umesh Vazirani. After a two-year postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Peter Shor, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique CNRS in Paris as a research director. He has been the coordinator of a number of EU-funded projects including an ERC Grant, and he is the founder and director of the Paris Centre for Quantum Computing. His research is focused on quantum algorithms for machine learning and optimization, including one of the first end-to-end quantum machine learning applications for recommendation systems, demonstration of quantum classification on trapped ion hardware and NISQ algorithms for Monte Carlo methods in Finance. Until recently, Iordanis served as the Senior VP of Quantum Algorithms for QCWare, where he collaborated closely with industrial partners in Finance and Life Sciences. Currently, he is the CTO of Quantum Signals, working on AI and quantum for Finance.

Yaroslav is an Applied Scientist at Amazon Braket. Yaroslav graduated with a PhD degree in theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from University of New South Wales (Australia), where he focused on topics encompassing high-temperature superconductivity, quantum phase transitions and topological phenomena in exotic quantum matter. After completing his PhD, Yaroslav worked as a visiting scientist at Los Alamos National Lab and as a postdoc at Joint Quantum Institute advising tech startups. At Amazon Braket, Yaroslav’s primary interests span across quantum compilation, benchmarking, applications of machine learning methods to quantum physics / computing, and GenAI.

Piia Konstari is the Director of Microfabrication Services at VTT with a passion in turning research into business. She looks for exceptional opportunities and creates strategic commercial partnerships in the field of microelectronics and quantum technologies. Piia has a background in sales and business development both from VTT as well as from the semiconductor industry. Piia holds a degree in MSc (Tech) in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Helsinki.

Rebecca Krauthamer is the Founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer at QuSecure. She studied Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. In 2020 Rebecca was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for her work in quantum computing. She serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Quantum Computing, as well as the drafting committee for the WEF cybersecurity and governance reports on “Transitioning to a Quantum-Secure Economy” and “Quantum Computing Governance Principles”. She also serves on the advisory board of the AI Ethics Journal and is a contributing member of the Newsweek Expert Forum. Previously she served as CEO of Quantum Thought, a venture studio for quantum computing applications.

Ethan Krimins leads Quantum Research Sciences (QRS), which is focused on the discovery, development & delivery of practical quantum software. Ethan has over 30 years of classical & quantum computer science, IT and programming experience. Ethan manages Quantum Computing and Quantum Information Technologies for QRS, which is the first company to achieve a Phase III federal contract in quantum computing and the first company to operationalize a quantum software. QRS is based in Lafayette, Indiana and affiliated with the Purdue University Quantum Science and Engineering Institute. Ethan has a Mathematics undergrad from the University of Rochester and a MBA from Columbia University.

Since joining Amgen R&D in 2018, Zoran Krunic has been at the forefront of applying Machine Learning to enhance patient outcomes and streamline clinical trial enrollment processes, utilizing comprehensive Electronic Health Records and clinical datasets. His pioneering work in the Quantum Machine Learning space, in collaboration with IBM’s Quantum team, has been instrumental in integrating machine learning with quantum computing through IBM’s Qiskit platform, as it was presented in the paper: “Quantum Kernels for Real-World Predictions Based on Electronic Health Records”: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9779984. Most recently, he co-authored his second paper in quantum computing in collaboration with QuEra: “Robust Quantum Reservoir Computing for Molecular Property Prediction”: https://arxiv.org/html/2412.06758v1.

Building on these foundations, Zoran has broadened his research scope to deepen the study of quantum kernels, scrutinizing their effects on the variability and reproducibility of small clinical datasets. Additionally, he has launched several innovative projects within the quantum computing sphere. These initiatives go beyond quantum kernels, delving into various facets of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) and the wider Quantum Computing disciplines, all aimed at advancing the integration of Quantum Computing within pharmacology.

Prior to his tenure at Amgen, Zoran developed Machine Learning algorithms at Optum to predict hardware and software failures within complex enterprise architectures. He has a strong background in data engineering and systems development, having contributed significantly to large-scale projects at renowned organizations such as Capital Group and ARCO Petroleum.

In his current full and part-time endeavors, Zoran is leading the efforts in embracing generative AI technologies, with a particular focus on OpenAI’s GPT and Anthropic’s Claude models. His work is focused on prompt engineering and its application to code generation, advanced document analysis, and process management, with a commitment to ethical AI practices and data privacy. Most recently, the work has expanded to include reproducibility and the potential for auto-labeling using generative AI.

A recognized voice in quantum computing circles, Zoran is a regular presenter at industry conferences and has served on numerous panels discussing the integration of quantum computing and generative AI within the Health Sciences sector, with a firm belief that the integration of these new technologies will be deep and comprehensive.

With a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Zoran continues to explore and contribute to the evolving relationship between quantum computing and artificial intelligence, fostering groundbreaking advancements in healthcare technology.

Dr. Elica Kyoseva is Director of Quantum Algorithm Engineering at NVIDIA, where she leads a team developing cutting-edge hybrid quantum-classical algorithms leveraging NVIDIA’s HPC architecture. Elica has expertise in quantum computing and its applications to drug discovery and human health. Prior to her role at NVIDIA, she led the Quantum for Bio program at Wellcome Leap, a $50 million effort aimed at showcasing quantum computing’s potential in solving critical health challenges. Before that, Elica worked as an Applied Quantum Computing Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim, where she focused on developing innovative quantum algorithms for drug discovery and forging strategic partnerships within the industry.
Originally from Bulgaria, Elica earned her PhD in Quantum Optics from the University of Sofia. She spent time in academia as a postdoc at the Center for Quantum Technologies in Singapore and, subsequently, as a tenure-track assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Elica also spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Research Fellow. She was also a Marie Curie fellow and was awarded the 2016 John Atanasoff Award of President of Bulgaria for internationally recognized scientists.

Dr. Stefan Leichenauer is the Vice President of Engineering and lead scientist at SandboxAQ. Stefan joined the Sandbox team at Alphabet as its first employee to bring AI and Quantum technologies to real-world applications, initiating all of the projects that have become the SandboxAQ product portfolio. He recruited teams of engineers and scientists to further develop the SandboxAQ products and became head of Research and Engineering, overseeing all of their projects. Today, he drives all product development at SandboxAQ. Stefan is also the bridge between the engineering and business/strategy divisions of SandboxAQ and works closely with the partnerships team to craft external engagements.

Stefan received his Ph.D. in Physics from UC Berkeley and has held positions in Physics at UC Berkeley and Caltech as a leading researcher. He maintains a close connection with academia through the SandboxAQ Ph.D. Residency and Postdoc programs.

Gorka is a Strategy & Operations lead for Incubation Sales in the Strategic Missions & Technologies division at Microsoft, the company’s business incubation hub for scaling innovation and growth. With extensive experience across product marketing, software development, technical sales, and product management over the past 12+ years, he is currently leading cross-functional teams to drive a category of emerging technologies at the intersection of AI and quantum.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Gorka is passionate about mentoring and coaching—holding leadership positions in DEI communities and initiatives, mentoring in several programs, and coaching basketball teams.

LinkedIn: Gorka Madariaga | LinkedIn

With 25+ years of executive leadership across healthcare and emerging tech, I bring a rare blend of deep technical expertise, practical strategy, and a mission-driven mindset. My focus: investing in and accelerating quantum and next-gen computing innovations that can solve humanity’s most complex problems.

As Managing Partner at Qubits Ventures, I lead global investments in quantum, future of computing, data, intelligence, and infrastructure technologies and applications — from superconducting and photonic hardware to new AI models built to run in these exotic compute systems to data center innovations. My approach combines hands-on implementation know-how with long-range ecosystem building, helping bold founders go from idea to impactful scale.

Denis is a physicist and CTO of Qrypt, a post quantum cryptography company. He is a founding member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and the Mid Atlantic Quantum Alliance where he is the co-chair of the Crypto Working Group. Denis served 20 years in the intelligence community working on sensitive technology programs in partnerships with National Labs, academia, and large industrial partners. He has patents in quantum entropy and encryption. He works on the American National Standards Institute Quantum Computing Risk Study Group advising the financial community and the ITU-T Quantum Information Technology for Networks advancing international telecommunications standardization.

Michael Marthaler has worked in the field of quantum computing for more than 15 years. He received his PhD from the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2009. As a Postdoc he worked at the KIT, AIST in Tsukuba, Japan and at Saarland University in the group of Prof. Frank Wilhelm. In 2017 he co-founded HQS Quantum Simulations. HQS aims to bridge the gap between research and industry in the field of quantum computing, to exploit the immense potential of quantum computers.

Mr. McClelland has worked domestically and internationally in a variety of executive, operations, technology, research and development, and business roles in the quantum, utility, energy, healthcare, cybersecurity, and computer science industries. He has worked for the City of San Diego, Science Applications International Corporation and San Diego Gas and Electric. Mr. McClelland currently works with Qubitekk Inc., as Chief Revenue Officer, where they apply cutting edge quantum science to solve the nation’s most critical security and quantum networking needs. Qubitekk provides quantum entangled communications systems for the nations critical infrastructure, including the nation’s first commercial metro scale quantum network. Mr. McClelland is active in philanthropy as founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Prevent Drowning Foundation of San Diego formally the San Diego Junior Lifeguard Foundation. Former ocean in-surf rescue boat lifeguard, he holds a BA in Psychology and a MS in Computer Science.

Bimal Mehta is the Head of AI and ML Engineering within Centre of Analytics & Insights at Vanguard. His primary role is to lead the AI and ML pipelines for Vanguard’s Personal Investor Business. Bimal is also part of Vanguard’s Enterprise Quantum Group that is responsible for exploring and advocating Quantum Computing use cases and applications at Vanguard. He actively leads a team that is exploring quantum algorithms in the Machine Learning and Optimization space.

David Mitlyng is the CEO of Xairos, a startup building a global timing service to expand beyond GPS. David has three decades of experience in the space industry, including Hughes Space and Communications, Orbital, Maxar, and BridgeComm. David has a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly SLO, a MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Zia Mohammad is a seasoned product leader with over seven years of experience in developing emerging technologies across as AI, Fintech, and Quantum Computing. Zia holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience from The Ohio State University. Beyond his professional interests, Zia works as a Chef de cuisine on the weekends, is involved in emerging technology policy, and is on a quest to visit every country!

Expert in quantum computing and quantum machine learning. PhD jointly awarded by ICFO (Spain) and the University of Southampton (UK).

Formerly Computational physicist at Cortirio (UK), Technical Director at The Quantum Revolution Fund, and Founder and CTO at Groundstate Consulting.

Advisor for the McKinsey Tech Council and the Forbes Tech Council, and Mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab.

Richard co-founded ORCA Computing in 2019. He is an accomplished business executive and technologist with a PhD in quantum atom-optics and over 15 years of experience managing scientific teams working on disruptive early-stage technologies such as quantum, AR/VR and other consumer and industrial applications of photonics. Under his leadership, the company has grown to 45 people, expanded globally and developed a roadmap focused on building a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer. Previously, Richard worked for the UK government alongside Sir Peter Knight creating the £270m UK quantum technologies programme. He was also pivotal in the early stages of the €1 billion EU quantum flagship programme.

Eric Ostby is the Chief Product Officer at Aliro Quantum. He leads product management and is responsible for setting product strategy and roadmaps, driving product direction and commercialization, and working closely with customers and partners to incorporate product requirements. Eric has more than ten years of experience leading product development for quantum technologies. He has held product leadership roles for quantum software and hardware at Rigetti Computing and Google, including the key role he played in the demonstration of quantum supremacy at Google. Eric led project teams at the Boston Consulting Group, and worked for IBM and Raytheon on laser development including fiber communications and high energy applications. Eric received his PhD from Caltech in electrical engineering with a focus on high quality factor optical resonators.

Marco Paini is VP Finance Solutions at Rigetti Computing and focuses on the growth of Rigetti’s financial services practice, including the continued development of proprietary solutions, of an expert team, and of impactful partnerships with finance institutions. Marco has also recently been managing the programme to build the first commercial quantum computer in the UK, a collaboration led by Rigetti and sponsored by Innovate UK with Oxford Instruments, Phasecraft, the University of Edinburgh and Standard Chartered.

Marco previously led quantum computing applications portfolio development of QxBranch, a quantum computing software company acquired by Rigetti in 2019. Prior to QxBranch, Marco spent more than eighteen years with Accenture, where he held several roles in technology. In the last part of his career with Accenture, Marco oversaw the AI ecosystem and the development of the quantum computing offering for the Accenture UKI Financial Services Technology Advisory practice.

Marco studied physics at the University of Pavia, where he collaborated with the Quantum Information Theory Group of the University of Pavia.

Dr. Gregoire Ribordy, co-founder and CEO, has 20 years of experience in various R&D and management roles in the field of optical measurements and communication systems. He founded ID Quantique in 2001 and has managed the company since then. Prior to this, he was a research fellow at the Group of Applied Physics of the University of Geneva between 1997 and 2001. In this position, he actively developed quantum cryptography technology and is the holder of a number of patents in the field. Between 1995 and 1996, Dr. Ribordy worked in the R&D division of Nikon Corp. in Tokyo.

Dr. Ribordy is the recipient of several awards such as the 2001 New Entrepreneurs in Technology and Science prize, the 2002 de Vigier award and the Swiss Society for Optics and Microscopy 1999 prize. At the end of 2005, he was selected as one of the most innovative individuals in information technology worldwide by the World Technology Network. Dr. Ribordy, with the other co-founders of IDQ, were awarded the Medal of Innovation in 2017 and the Impact Award in 2019 by the University of Geneva.

Gina Scinta is Thales TCT’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, Gina serves as the company’s technology evangelist. Her mission is to help Thales TCT’s U.S. Federal Government customers learn effective ways to solve their mission critical cyber security challenges. Gina also leads several strategic initiatives for the company such as the collaboration with NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, ACT-IAC, and more.

Gina has over 30 years of experience in the technology community. Prior to joining Thales TCT, Gina served as a Senior Solutions Architect with Thales Digital Identity & Security. In this role, she focused on providing solutions for protecting data using world class encryption and key management for data at rest in data centers and cloud infrastructures.

Dr. Joe Smith is a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on engineering large-scale quantum information systems. Previous to this, he was a Kennedy Scholar at MIT working on quantum sensing. Joe is also the Chief Scientist and founder of RobQuant, a company combining robotic systems and AI to deliver quantum sensing for healthcare.

Dr. Bob Sutor has been a technical leader and executive in the computer and DeepTech industry for over 40 years. He is a theoretical mathematician by training, with a Ph.D. from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree from Harvard College.

Bob’s industry role is to advance AI and quantum technologies by providing strategic and technical insight to help build strong business, partner, technical, and educational ecosystems. His singular goal is to evolve AI and quantum to help solve some of the critical computational problems facing businesses and society today. Bob is widely quoted in the press, delivers conference keynotes, and appears in the media. He is the author of a popular Quantum and AI newsletter on LinkedIn and Substack.

Dr. Sutor is the CEO and Founder of Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory. He helps clients and investors understand sophisticated technologies such as AI and quantum computing and use them effectively to succeed in their organizations and industries. As an author and communicator, Bob helps clients bring their messages to current and potential customers in clear, powerful, and impactful ways.

Dr. Sutor is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Buffalo, New York, USA.

Bob spent over two decades at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. During his time there, he worked on or led efforts in AI, quantum computing, optimization, mathematical software, and blockchain. As the Vice President for Mathematical Sciences at IBM, Dr. Sutor oversaw AI projects for clients in the agricultural, energy, financial services, food, healthcare, insurance, and oil and gas industries. He was also an executive on the software side of the IBM business in areas including IBM Websphere middleware, software on Linux, mobile, open source, and emerging industry standards.

He was the Vice President of Corporate Development and, later, Chief Quantum Advocate at Infleqtion, a quantum computing and sensing company based in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Bob was the Vice President and Practice Lead for Emerging Technologies at The Futurum Group.

Dr. Sutor is the author of the 2019 quantum computing book Dancing with Qubits. Dancing with Qubits, Second Edition, was published in March 2024 and includes new chapters on NISQ algorithms and quantum machine learning. Bob is also the author of the 2021 book Dancing with Python, an introduction to Python coding for classical, quantum, and AI computing.

Dr. Sutor’s full resume is at available online and is suitable for printing. Areas in which he’s worked: quantum computing, AI, blockchain, mathematics and mathematical software, Linux, open source, standards management, product management and marketing, computer algebra, and web standards.

Experienced UK/Canadian entrepreneur, engineer, angel investor specializing in disruptive technologies—networking, storage, supercomputing, AI, and Big Data.

Dr. Paul Terry is founder/founding employee of 6 successful Canadian companies over 30 years – 1 NASDAQ public, 5 acquisitions. Cumulative valuation of 6 companies greater than $10bn to Canadian stakeholders. Technologies include telecoms, networking, supercomputing and big data. Past designations include Director Strategy Newbridge Networks (Alcatel), CTO of Abatis (Ericsson), CTO Canada of Cray Supercomputing (Octigabay); CEO of PHEMI. Paul holds a 1st Class Honours Degree in Physics/Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering from Liverpool University. He holds an MBA from Cranfield University.

Paul is a Corporate Director (ICD.D) has sat on 40+ technology boards. He has advised VCs, national defence and governments (federal and provincial, UK, US, Canada) on economic/technical/health/national defence strategies. Paul has spent 25 years on various non for profit boards – Providence Heath Care (PHC) (6 years), MSFHR – founding board member (12 years) and Genome BC (5 years) – chair of Genome BC industrial innovation sub-committee. Paul is an adjunct professor at SFU’s Beedie School of Business and an MBA lecturer at the SFU Beedie School of Business specialising in the area of value proposition design, startups and innovation.

Co-Founder of National Artificial Intelligence & Cyber Security ISAO, Executive Chairman of The Tortora Brayda Institute for AI & Cybersecurity, a global Think Tank to improve the effectiveness of partnerships in the private and public sectors. The Institute has generated the National AI & Cybersecurity ISAO, of which he is a Founder and Task Force Member. The ISAO aligns with government cyber policy and supports cyber diplomacy and private sector growth within the NATO community.

Judge on United Nations’ AI for Good Innovation Factory for North America and Global Contest, 2020-2023. Selected as Judge for the new AI for Good for Climate Change in partnership with ITU, UNESCO, FAO, IAEA, and World Bank at COP 28 and COP29.

Former CEO of Gorilla Corporation, the leading global partner marketing and sales agency for the technology sector. Gorilla drives hundreds of millions of dollars annually for its vendor clients.

Special Constituent Member of the World Economic Forum and an expert contributor to the G20 for Global Risk Assessment.

Fellow of the British Computer Society, Freeman of the City of London, and a Hidalgo d’España.

Global Leader for the Forbes Technology Council Cybersecurity Group and contributes thought leadership articles on channel strategy, cybersecurity, quantum and AI. Won two Forbes recognition awards in 2023.

Carlo is a Top 100 Thought Leader in Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing, ESG, and Top 10 in National Security.

https://councils.forbes.com/u/15e589e1-5251-4b45-a03c-1c662051d440

https://twitter.com/tortorabrayda

Dr. Christian Tutschku heads the Quantum Computing team in the Digital Business research department at Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO. He studied physics and completed his doctorate at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in the field of theoretical solid-state physics. He was honoured with the Röntgen Science Award for his dissertation on the role of quantum anomalies in topological materials.

His research centres on application-oriented, holistic quantum software engineering and the connection to interfaces with machine learning methods as well as the transfer of knowledge to the expanding quantum computing ecosystem. To this end, together with Fraunhofer IAF, he coordinates the ‘Competence Center Quantum Computing Baden-Württemberg’ (KQCBW), which supports companies and organizations in preparing for the use of quantum computing with the help of a training program.

Arlind Visha is a Senior Quantum Algorithms Engineer at SECQAI, a NATO DIANA company based in London, world leaders in quantum security solutions. SECQAI have developed both the secure semiconductor foundations required to protect against quantum computing threats, whilst also developing Quantum Machine Learning & Simulation capabilities with a particular focus on dual-use applications.

He specialises in Quantum Machine Learning (QML), focusing on developing practical quantum solutions for real-world challenges. At SECQAI, he has been driving the real-world application of quantum computing, contributing to advancements in quantum materials, quantum language models, quantum security, and fraud detection using QML.

Dr. Daniel Volz is co-founder and CEO of Kipu Quantum GmbH, a quantum computing startup with the mission to shorten the waiting time for industrial quantum advantage for end users by leveraging application- and hardware-specific algorithms.

Previously he served as a project lead with BASF SE, working on the strategic impact of quantum computing and other corporate-development related topics. Later, as a senior consultant at McKinsey’s Frankfurt office, he built up McKinsey’s quantum computing capabilities and acted as a consultant for clients in verticals such as chemicals, pharma, oil & gas, banking, automotive, and electronics.

He co-built a specialty chemicals startup as the first non-founder employee (high-tech and electronic chemicals) in his twenties and mastered skills like R&D and managing projects and teams of various sizes along the way. He also tapped into product development and strategic marketing to reach market readiness for deep-blue TADF technology, which is commercialized in OLED displays to drastically decrease the power consumption of hand-held devices and enable better displays.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-volz-3225646a/

Vice President of North American Sales for Pasqal, a French neutral Atom Quantum computing company founded in 2019. Prior to Pasqal, Michael worked over 6 years at Zapata Computing & Q-CTRL, assisting Fortune 500 companies and US Government agencies in understanding the complexities of deploying Quantum computing, with an eye on driving ROI on intractable use cases. Before Quantum, Michael spent 13 years with Intel Corporation & Nvidia assisting companies with Global Innovations initiatives by taking new & novel technologies from the R&D lab to production environments. Michael’s expertise is understanding the intersection of deep tech and driving ROI for business leaders in the Oil & Gas, Financial Services & Pharmaceutical industries.

Masako leads a multidisciplinary team that develops novel quantum applications — uniquely optimized for IonQ quantum processors — with clients around the world. Masako was an early adopter of leadership-class HPC and hybrid CPU/GPU computing, and is excited to drive growth in quantum computing as a vendor. She was previously at GE Research for 20 years and brings a business-aware, customer-first perspective to innovation. Most recently, her focus area has been Quantum + AI.

Dr. Arman Zaribafiyan, head of product for AI Simulation platforms at SandboxAQ, is the founder and former CEO of Good Chemistry (acquired by SandboxAQ), the Vancouver-based software start-up combining cloud, AI and quantum computing to re-imagine the design and synthesis of new materials. Before founding Good Chemistry, he was the CTO at quantum software company 1QBit. Over the last decade, Arman has directed strategic partnerships and cutting-edge research and development collaborations with Fortune 100 companies such as Dow, Biogen, Mercedes Benz, AWS, Microsoft, and IBM in various roles as a technology and product leader. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UBC, focusing on quantum information science, and he was the recipient of a prestigious Mitacs fellowship for his research on hybrid quantum computing.