Lars Thomsen, who was born in Hamburg in 1968, is one of the world's leading futurologists. As a researcher of future trends, Lars is considered one of the most influential experts in trend forecasting within the fields of energy, mobility, and smart networks. Since the age of 22, he has worked as a consultant in the development of strategies and business models for the future. Lars has worked with various types of organizations across Europe, including independent companies, corporations, institutions, and government-related agencies. His reference list includes more than 800 organizations.
Lars Thomsen’s extensive professional network helps him facilitate frequent one-on-one meetings with other international leaders of innovation. Around 30% of his time is spent traveling around the world for the purpose of research and exploration. In addition to his professional activities, Lars is also a member of several think tanks as well as the World Future Society in Washington, D.C.. Currently, he lives with his family on Lake Zurich in Switzerland.
Lars Thomsen is a sought-after keynote speaker for international congresses and conferences. His lectures inspire through a balance of provocative and fact-based hypotheses that together illustrate possible future scenarios. His audiences include board members, supervisory board members, executives, customers, and employees.
Expert in sector analysis, purchasing and consumption tendencies, labour market development and sustainability. Carsten Beck has given presentations on themes such as consumer tendencies; mega-trends; scenario planning; the future of households and sustainability throughout the world.
He has worked as Project Manager in projects carried out by the Danish Confederation of Industries, Danish Editors, Post Denmark, IKEA, pharmaceutical companies, telecommunications companies and housing enterprises among others.
His professional experience spans over 20 countries.
Ignacio Garcia Bercero is a Director in DG Trade of the European Commission. Since 2012 he has been responsible for overseeing EC activities in the fields of Neighbouring Countries, US and Canada as well as being the Chief Negotiator for the EU- India FTA. He coordinated the work of the EU-US High Level Working Group on Growth and Jobs and is the Chief Negotiator for the TTIP negotiations. Working at the European Commission since 1987, from 2005 until 2011 he worked in the areas of Sustainable Development, Bilateral Trade Relations (South Asia, South East Asia, Korea, EuroMed and the Middle East).
He was also the Chief Negotiator for the EU-Korea and EU-India Free Trade Agreements. Previously he worked in the areas of WTO Dispute Settlement, and Trade Barriers Regulation. In the period leading to the launch of the DDA negotiations, he was working on overall coordination of WTO Policy and was Chief Negotiator on Trade and Competition. He has also been posted in the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York.
Economist of BBVA Research Member of the team of economists that make up the Spain Unit, led by Miguel Cardoso, dedicated to regional analysis as per autonomous region.
Previously, Joseba Barandiaran held various positions in the areas of Risks at BBVA, both Market and Structural risk management, as Head of the Liquidity Risk Team, and as coordinating expert in Latin American Bank Treasuries in America.
He holds a Degree in Economics from the University of the Basque Country-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea from 1996 and has a Master in Economics and Finance from the Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI) obtained in 1998. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Basque Professional College of Economists.
Industrial Organisation and Telecommunications Engineer (University of Deusto and University of Delaware). More than 20 years experience in the world of security and infrastructures, 14 years in Grupo Elecnor. Collaborator and regular speaker at events on security and awareness both for companies and governmental entities as well as being a passionate enthusiast of technology in general.
More than 10 years experience in the cyber security sector. CEO and Founding Member of ITS Security, an enterprise founded in 2007 specialising in cyber security and industrial cyber security services.
He also worked as CISO, Director of Information Security for the Industrial Group EGILE, as head of planning, developing, controlling and managing policies, procedures and actions with the aim of improving information security in consonance with the fundamental pillars of confidentiality, integrity and availability.
Collaborator and regular speaker at events on security and awareness both for companies and governmental entities.
David Barroso has been working in security for over 20 years, in a wide variety of areas such as incident response, intelligence or network and system security. He is currently founder of CounterCraft, set up to help companies and governments all over the world define and deploy digital counter-intelligence campaigns. Previously, he was CTO and co-founder of ElevenPaths, Telefónica's security company and Security Intelligence Manager at Telefónica Digital. David es un conferenciante habitual sobre temas de seguridad, riesgos en dispositivos móviles, cibercrimen, botnets, malware, DDoS, etc., y participa en numerosos grupos y eventos de seguridad por todo el mundo como BlackHat, RSA Conference, e-crime congress, APWG, FIRST,NATO, ENISA, Segurinfo, RootedCon o ICCyber entre otras.
David is a regular conference speaker on topics including security, risks for mobile devices, cyber-crime, botnets, malware, DDoS, etc., and he takes part in numerous security groups and events throughout the world such as BlackHat, RSA Conference, e-crime congress, APWG, FIRST, NATO, ENISA, Segurinfo, RootedCon or ICCyber among others.
Chris Brewster is Professor of International Human Resource Management at Henley Business School, University of Reading and at Schools in the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland. He had substantial experience in trade unions, Government, specialist journals, personnel management in construction and air transport, and in consultancy, before becoming an educator. Chris has consulted with many major international companies and taught on management programmes throughout the world.
He has conducted research and published extensively in the field of international and comparative HRM, particularly in the area of international mobility and expatriation. In 2002 Chris Brewster was awarded the Georges Petitpas Memorial Award by the practitioner body, the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to international human resource management.
Professor Arizkuren is the Director of the Master in International Business of Deusto Business School. She is specialized in International Human Resource Management. In the field of research, she was the principal investigator of the Research Team of Deusto Business School (DBS) "Innovation and Management Organizations in the Knowledge Society." Throughout her career she has led numerous projects, among which stands out for its interest on the subject, those related to International HR management (from different points of view: selection of expatriates, international training, payment in MNC and repatriation). She has directed 12 doctoral thesis, all of them with the best rating, and is currently directing another 2 doctoral research projects. She has participated in several doctoral defenses and has published numerous articles in scientific journals, both national and international and has participated in the most important research Workshops on topics related to HR Management.
In the academic field, she has been for many years professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Deusto, and has lectured on the subject both in various undergraduate and postgraduate (Master and Doctorate) programs at the DBS and Tourism School. She has also participated as a guest lecturer on topics related to HR Management International in various foreign Universities (Milwaukee, USA; Clermont-Ferrand, France; Turin, Italia; Satakunta Polytechnic, Finland; Montpellier, France) and National Universities (ICADE, Pablo Olavide University and Mondragon Universitatea). She has been guest speaker in many national and international events on issues relating specifically to the International HR Management.
Angela de los Heros has a degree in Psychology from the Complutense University of Madrid and over 12 years' experience in the recruitment industry in multi-national consultancy companies with great international exposure. She is an expert in Negotiation, Human Resources Consultancy, Search for Executives and Recruitment of Middle Managers within the Industrial Sector.
For the past year, she has been Manager of the Antal International Office in Bilbao, prior to which she spent 4 years as Manager in the Automotive and Industry Division of Antal International.
Since 2013, Mª Sol Busto has been director of Human Resources Chassis Business Unit at Gestamp. Graduate in Psychology from the Deusto University 1987 and post-graduate in Human Resources Management from the Financial Studies Centre (1995), she commenced her professional experience in 1990 as Human Resources consultant in Andersen Consulting, at present Accenture. Two years later, in this same company, she became head of Human Resources of the Bilbao office, where she continued her professional career until 1999.
This same year she joined the company Iberdrola as head of Training and Professional Development Programmes, a post she occupied until 2013, when she became director of Human Resources of Chassis Business Unit at Gestamp where she continues to work.
Furthermore, in 2010, she studied the Programme for Leadership Development (PLD) at ESADE Business School and Deusto Business School (Deusto University). In 2012 she studied again at ESADE Business School in the programme Energising Leadership Programme (ELP).
Ciara O’Higgins has 15 years experience in international business, and is specialised in internationalisation strategies for services and knowledge-based organisations. Her experience at ESI (European Software Institute) and then TECNALIA centres around the creation of international networks for sale of tech-based services and cross border technology transfer. In her role as International Development Director of TECNALIA, among other responsibilities, she was in charge of managing international teams, applying HR policies to offices abroad and deploying the expatriation policy. She also has experience in international cooperation projects having worked for the Red Cross and as a senior consultant for economic development and multilateral donor projects around the world at IDOM Consulting.
Ciara is Irish and French and has been living here in the Basque Country for 18 years, since she graduated in European Management Science from the University of Kent. She has an MBA from IESE Business School, a Masters in Corporate Social Responsibility from the University Camilo José Cela and is currently a PhD candidate at Deusto Business School.
