Conference Special Guests

A graduate of the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (LLM) and the Pantheon-Assass University (Paris II) - doctoral studies. Doctor of Laws (LLD) and Legal Counsel. In the course of his career, Mr Sobolewski worked at the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University (1989-1995), in the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland (1992-1993) and as an Advisor to the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (1994).From 1994 to 2006 Mr Sobolewski was the Executive Vice President of the Management Board of the National Depository for Securities. As of June 28, 2006 - President of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Management Board. As of June the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the National Depository for Securities.Former Arbitrator at the Warsaw Stock Exchange Court and at the Court of Arbitration of the National Depository for Securities. Worked with the Bureau of the Government Plenipotentiary for Pension System Reform (1997-1998). Expert of many Sejm (Parliament) and Senate commissions. Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Exchange Centre.

 

Adeo Ressi is Founding Member of TheFunded.com, an online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. Adeo also serves as a Trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation, which inspires radical human achievements through competition. TheFunded.com is the seventh start-up that Adeo has founded or built, four of which were acquired and three of which are still operating. The last company, Game Trust, Inc., was acquired by Real Networks, Inc. (RNWK) at the end of 2007.

Davor focuses on technology investments in the European market. Davor currently serves as a Board Observer at Asset Control, Newbay Software and Seatwave. Prior to joining Fidelity Ventures, Hebel was co-founder and supervisory board member for private equity-funded Experia, based in Croatia. From 2000 to 2003, Hebel worked at McKinsey and Company, where he advised companies in the United States and Europe on issues in strategy and technology. Davor received a Bachelor of Science degree from Angelo State University, a Masters in Science in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

Jonathan has been living and working in Croatia for the past 10 years, where he has been a VC fund manager, investment banker, and entrepreneur. As the former director of the SEAF Croatia VC fund, he has invested in companies such as Klik! Multimedia, Perpetuum Mobile, and DCM cable TV. While an investment banker, he worked on the sale of Tau On-line and Bolha.com. In 2003, Jonathan founded the company Mobitel d.o.o., now the leading mobile advertising and entertainment firm in the region, with offices in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana. In 2006, Jonathan became a founder and Managing Director of the Poteza Ventures, which manages a 40 million Euro VC fund focused on southeast Europe. The fund recently closed its first two transactions, including the vertical search engine company Pravi Klik d.o.o.

Mario is the founder and Managing Partner of Eagle Ventures. He is a seasoned VC professional, having conducted over 30 VC transactions, predominantly in the ICT sector and thus being one of the most experienced tech VC professionals in Central and Southeastern Europe.

Prior to founding Eagle Ventures, Mario was a founding team member at gamma capital partners, a leading Austrian tech VC, where he managed the business development in Central and Eastern Europe. Other experience includes iLab24, Austria's first ICT incubator, Invest Mezzanine, Austria's first mezzanine fund, as an equity analyst for German speaking markets, for renowned corporations like Hewlett Packard and Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) as well as in mechanical engineering.

Mario speaks Slovene, German, English, French, Italian and Spanish and is conversant in several Slavic languages.
 

Aljoša has 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur, Chief Executive Officer and President of Httpool Group, e-business advisor, and media specialist. He has been responsible for investment decisions, strategic, and corporate issues, international expansions and partnerships within the group. Education and achievements: MBA Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Kaufmann Fellow Finalist.

     

Tatjana Zabasu is Investment director in RSG Capital, Slovenian venture capital management firm. Her responsibilities include initial project evaluation, deal structuring and term sheet negotiations, as well as monitoring of its implementation. Prior to joining RSG Capital in 2007, she was senior associate in Corporate Finance department in Deloitte in Ljubljana. She worked with numerous international and Slovenian clients mainly on projects comprising due diligence and company valuation services, sell side advisory and advisory in business and strategic development planning. Before that, she was managing minister’s office in the Ministry of Economy, where she also worked on implementation of continuous improvements in companies and development of clusters, and was a member of some international networks of advisors. She started her career as a coordinator of research activities in Research centre of the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana. Tatjana holds a masters degree from the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana. She is fluent in English and also speaks German, Italian and Croatian, and has basic knowledge of French.

 

Andrzej Krasuski is in charge of the Telecommunications and Media Practice in the Warsaw office of CMS Cameron McKenna. He advises clients on various aspects relating to conducting business activity in the telecommunications sector. Andrzej Krasuski is a qualified legal advisor and holds a Ph.D. in telecommunications law. He is the author of a number of specialised publications, including a commentary to the telecommunications law of 16 July 2004, as well as a monograph about agreements on providing telecommunications services. Andrzej Krasuski often lectures at conferences on telecommunications law and personal data protection. He is fluent in German and English.

 

Vjenceslav Terzić has studied Finance at the University of Osijek, Graduate School of Economics and Business. After receiving his Degree, he passed the exam and worked as an estate manager for a short time. He started his private equity career in 2001 as an investment manager at SEAF Zagreb Office, a private equity group headquartered in Washington DC, which was among the first private equity comapanies that was active on Croatian market. During the 5 years in SEAF, he gained extensive experience in private equity business. His responsibilities included financial statements analysis, market research, company valuation, investment structuring, negotiations, preparation of investment documentation and supervision of the realized investments. In 2004 he passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Programme and specialized private equity training at EVCA (European Private Equity Association) in Barcelona. In 2005 he founded his own company specialized in advising private equity companies. He came to Quaestus Private equity in 2006 on the positon of investment manager, where he continued his improvement in investment valuation, structuring and supervision. He also completed financial modelling training at Euromoney in London. In 2004 he passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Programme and specialized private equity training at EVCA (European Private Equity Association) in Barcelona.

 

Željko Lukač received his MBA degree from the University of Texas at Austin. After receiving his MBA degree, Mr. Lukač co-founded the Sherwood Construction Company, a small company that was able to position itself well within a construction market and to take advantage of a booming real estate development sector in the Austin region. In 1996, Mr. Lukač sold its stake in the partnership and returned to Croatia, where he joined a leading Croatian insurance company – Croatia Osiguranje d.d. After six months in Croatia Osiguranje, where he was in training for the management position, in February 1997 Mr. Lukač decided to leave Croatia Osiguranje and join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as an Analyst. Until joining the Partnership, Mr. Lukač worked as a Principal Banker at EBRD Zagreb Office and was responsible for various debt and equity investment projects in building materials, food, tourism and pharmaceutical industry and also took part in the work on EBRD projects in electricity, oil and gas and transport sectors. Until August 2003, when he left EBRD, Željko Lukač was in charge and responsible for nine projects with total value of more than Euro 160 million. In 2003 Mr. Lukač has found, together with his partners, Quaestus Private Equity, where he is a managing director. In 2007 he has found, together with his partners, Quaestus Advisory and Quaestus Invest.

 

Dan Lupu is Intel Capital’s Investment Manager responsible for investing in South- East Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, ex-Yugoslavia, Moldova, Albania). Dan holds an MBA (General Management) from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and an MBA (Finance) from the Graduate School of Management, Canadian MBA Program in Bucharest. Dan received his BSc in Computer Science from University „Politehnica” in Bucharest. He is also CFA chartholder and founding member of the Romanian Association of Financial Analysts, now CFA Romania. Prior to joining Intel Capital Dan was an Investment Executive with SigmaBleyzer which manages a EUR 250 million private equity investment fund focused on South-East Europe. Dan also has significant experience as a sell-side equity research analyst working in Romania, Egypt and UK and covering a variety of sectors, from cement and white goods to pharmaceuticals and telecommunications.

 

Michał Faber is a serial entrepreneur in the internet industry, a PR and investor relations consultant, author of numerous articles on e-business, organizer and host of around 20 ICT conferences. Michal’s current venture is Web², founded in January 2006, a community-empowered company dedicated to leveraging Web 2.0 potential for both consumers and enterprise. Web² recently raised some funding from the leading CEE tech venture capital fund MCI Management.

Mr. Mamic is the head of the Risk Capital Industry Development Program (VENCRO) and the Supported Research and Development Program (IRCRO) at BICRO Ltd., an innovation and investment company which specializes in design and implementation of technology programmes for the Croatian Government. Mr. Mamic holds a degree in economics from the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb, where he holds a seminar course in Croatian Economy and is finishing post-graduate studies.

 

Entrepreneur. Founder of several internet and human resources related companies, most of which are the leaders in their respective markets, and focusing on building ‘marketplaces’: Selectio – the leading Croatian executive search and HRM consulting company, Tau on-line (MojPosao) – the leading regional online recruitment company, Electus – recruitment and temporary employment company, Kreativni poduhvati managing classifieds websites and Kreativni projekti, managing social networking websites, including investment into the largest Bosnian website Dernek.ba. In 2007 and 2008 he sold Tau on-line and Kreativni poduhvati to UK-based media group DMGT in largest valued internet transactions in the broader region. Continues to serve as a board member of DMGT’s international expansion arm Associated Northcliffe International Media.

He started his career as teaching assistant at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Zagreb. After 5 years in science, in 1996 established his own company specialised in financial markets research. From 1997 to 2001 held various positions in financial industry, mostly in investment banking and asset management, including managing a pension fund.

Founded and finances a non-profit organisation Donacije.info, which manages the website of the same name, which has established itself as the ‘marketplace’ for philanthropy in Croatia.

Teaches finance at the Mathematics Department of the University of Zagreb.

Graduated and obtained master’s degree in applied mathematics at the Mathematics Department of the University of Zagreb, and studied in the USA.

 

During his computer science studies in 1995, Aleš designed and implemented one of the first on-line trading brokerages in Europe and successfully ran its operation for two years. He then published a book on advanced SQL programming at O'Reilly Media and rose through the ranks at several IT-related managerial posts in Slovenia, finally serving as the CEO of a top IT integrator with 160 employees networked across three countries. From 2003 to 2007, he established and ran his own business development consultancy, helping top Slovenian companies improve their sales performance. He holds an MBA from California State University, Hayward, and is a passionate connoisseur of fine wine, good food and classical jazz.

 

Ms. Jelisic is the CEO of Mobitel d.o.o., a firm she co-founded in 2003. Mobitel, and its subsidiaries in Slovenia and Serbia, is focused on providing entertainment and marketing services through mobile phones. The company, with 21 employees, has SMS connections with 12 operators throughout the former Yugoslavia, is an on-deck content provider to 9 regional operators, is an IVR service provider throughout the region, and has recently launched proximity based marketing services using Bluetooth technologies. Mobitel is also a record label for iTunes, and sells regional music through iTunes on five continents. Prior to founding Mobitel, Ms. Jelisic was the Marketing Director for Sanoma Magazines, and was responsible for marketing activities related to a portfolio of print media publications, including Story magazine, Elle, and National Geographic. From 2000 – 2001, Ms. Jelisic was the marketing manager for Iskon Internet, at the time, the largest private ISP in Croatia. Ms. Jelisic received her MBA from Leicester University in the UK in 2000, and graduated from Zagreb University in 1996.

 

Danilo joined Raiffeisen Investment in 2008 as the Head of Croatia. He holds a BA and MBA from Webster Univesity, and an MA in Organization and IT Management from Zagreb University. He has started his professional career in IBM Inc. where he was the Financial Analyst for Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa HQ. After that he joined CA IB Investment Bank where he worked on numerous transactions in Banking, Telecom and Manufacturing in SEE Region. Then he joined Bankhaus Samesch & Cie where he was the Corporate finance Manager. After his return to Zagreb he advised several leading IT companies including Oracle and S&T.

 

 

Ivana works as a Head of Department at the Investor Support Division for the Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, where she is active in foreign direct investment projects leading investment process and supporting investors in project management, implementation, negotiation, and providing aftercare. At the Agency she established activities related with venture capital and private equity investments by identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in this region, and cooperating with VC-PE funds in region and beyond. Before joining the Agency, Ivana gained extensive experience working on complex ICT projects. She worked for Siemens company in Croatia, Austria and the Netherlands as Program Manager Sales managing international sales and implementation of ICT projects such as CRM, intelligent networks, VPN, mobile applications and the integration of OSS BSS solutions at international telecom carriers. Ivana graduated electrical engineering at the University of Split and she holds an MBA from the Simmons School of Management in Boston, USA. She completed her study in USA in scope of Ron Brown Fellowship program - scholarship program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to selected professionals. She passed specialized venture capital training at EVCA (European Venture Capital Association) in Budapest in 2006 and executive education at Harvard University in 2008.  She is a member of the founding committee of the Croatian Business Angel Network - CRANE, fostering development of startup community and building its international exposure. Her interests are related with application of technology in business environment and development of business cases for innovative entrepreneurial projects.