Our BOLD IV Judges

The BOLD IV jury board is here,and it’s nothing short of extraordinary. We’ve brought together an elite lineup of innovators, market leaders, and change-makers from across the globe, each chosen for their industry authority, creative vision, and relentless pursuit of excellence.

From cutting-edge tech disruptors to iconic design pioneers, our judges represent the full spectrum of bold thinking. They’ve built brands, led revolutions, and redefined industries, and now they’re putting their expertise to work, separating the good from the truly groundbreaking.
Think your project is bold enough? This is the jury that decides.

MAURIZIO ROSSI

Chairperson of BOLD Awards, curiosity driven dreamer and always a keen observer, Maurizio father of four likes to discover and understand differences of people's lifestyles and their cultures. He's fascinated how technologies impact our day life and about their influence in the society and cultures, thanks to his dynamic personality he has developed an important network of international connections.

CHAIRPERSON

EPI LUDVIK

Epi is the Founder & CEO of Crowdsourcing Week. In 2008, he created Ludvik + Partners - one of New York’s hottest boutique virtual ad agencies built on a 100% crowdsourcing model. Epi Ludvik is one of the pioneers in the crowdsourcing ad space, an industry expert and thought leader in entertainment advertising - including public relations, event production, experiential marketing, consumer advertising and digital marketing.

CO-CHAIRPERSON

MICHELLE VINCENT

Michelle Vincent is CEO of Mofilm, a content creation network within the Brandtech Group and has over 20 years of experience in media consulting and sales, most recently at Google where she has overseen partnerships with Fortune 1000 brands across a wide range of industries. Prior to that, Michelle held various roles at Meta’s Facebook, Newscorp and Hearst Magazines. Outside of work, Michelle has enjoyed roles contributing as a mentor to young professionals in media at The Forem and She Runs It and has served as a committee contributor at the IAB for Lead Generation and Multicultural disciplines. Michelle earned her BSBA in Business General Management with a dual concentration in Marketing and Finance at the University of Pittsburgh. She originally hails from the Philadelphia suburbs and now lives in Long Island with her husband and two sons.

New Media & AdTech

HELENA SAMISOE

Helena is the Founder and CEO of GLOBHE, on a mission to create a more sustainable future through the world's first Crowddroning platform. Helena is a firm believer that the future of possible is already here and passionate about using innovative technology and collaborations to show it and lead the way.Helena has been ranked "World's Top 50 Women in Tech" by Forbes, named "Swede of the Year Innovation 2020", ranked as one of the most powerful business women in Sweden and has been featured as the "Drone Queen" on BBC.

ROBOTICS

CHRISTOPHER PERI

Dr. Peri had worked on XR starting with the VFX1 back in 1995 including teaching a class on VRML. His master thesis at UC Berkeley, 'Spatial Perception in Virtual Environments: Visual Cognition Gain with Head Mounted Displays' focused on how spatial perception and memory are improved using a HMD. This work was a foundation for his Ph.D. in Spatial Communication. His professional work includes AR and Navigation devices while in the Air Force, expressing complex financial deals using 3D, environmental monitoring with NASA, understanding the fit of market to startups while at VentureBeat, to his current role at Samsung Research America (SRA) working on mobile strategy and cross department coordination for various VR/AR projects as well as leading the advanced research dept. for XR solutions at SRA.

AR / VR

RUTH HEDGES

Ruth E. Hedges is the CEO of Rise Up Crowdfunding and according to "Forbes the "Queen of Crowdfunding". She is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Regulation Crowdfunding and helped create and pioneer the Regulation Crowdfunding industry in the JobsAct of 2012 and since then she has trained and consulted with over 5000 people, corporations, and organizations over the past decade, educating them in the process. Rise Up Crowdfunding is a regulation crowdfunding portal and marketplace focusing on diversity and inclusion in collaboration with corporations and organizations. http://riseupcrowdfunding.com

CROWDFUNDING

JUDITH SCHUERMANS

Judith is currently working as an innovation officer at EIT Urban Mobility. Her role is about setting up and managing programmes that bring innovative and sustainable urban mobility solutions to the market. EIT Urban Mobility, supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), acts to accelerate positive change on mobility to make urban spaces more liveable. Judith has previous experience as an innovation consultant for international collaborative innovation projects, mainly in the sector of smart cities and start-up innovation.

MOBILITY

SEMUN HO

Semun joined Singapore Fashion Council in April 2018, where under her leadership, the association secured the appointment to run the Design Orchard co-working space in 2019 and the retail space in 2020, and kickstarted The Bridge Fashion Innovator (TBFI), an incubation programme targeted towards the fashion industry in 2019. In mid 2022, the organisation underwent a brand transformation from Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF) to Singapore Fashion Council (SFC), to encapsulate its wider purpose in serving the entire fashion value chain.

FASHIONTECH

SABRINA THOMPSON

Sabrina Thompson is the CEO and Founder of GIRL IN SPACE CLUB, as well as a NASA Aerospace Engineer. At NASA, she designs orbits and trajectories, similar to the legendary Katherine Johnson. In addition to being a CEO and "Rocket-Scientist", she is also an Atmospheric Physicist. Sabrina has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including a U.S. Patent for a miniaturized astrometric alignment sensor for distributed and non-distributed guidance, navigation, and control systems. She considers herself an “Artsy” engineer.

SpaceTech

KEITH KOO

Keith is the Founder and Managing Partner of Guardian Insight Group, a technology advisory services firm focused on identifying, assessing, controlling, and mitigating the risks associated with doing business with technology companies and vendors, such as financial, blockchain, pricing/cost, cyber, information security, business resiliency, disaster recovery, regulatory, and compliance. Keith also serves as a mentor and advisor to a number of innovative companies, breakthrough technology startups, and incubators.

Future of Work

VINCENT CARBONE

Vincent graduated Steven Institute of Technology with a Materials Engineering degree and shortly after graduating went on to get a MBA in International Business studying in Italy. When he returned from his international studies with started an enterprise software company focusing on Innovation Management Software and Services, Brightidea (https://www.brightidea.com/). The company is now the leader in Innovation Management Software with offices in New York and San Francesco and clients including Nike, Merck, J&J, and the US Intelligence Community.

SaaS

ANURAG BATRA

Anurag is Product Management Lead for ML Data Infrastructure at Google, where he manages strategy for various forms of crowdsourcing systems for data collection and annotation for Machine Learning. When not driving product excellence himself, Anurag thrives on mentoring Product Managers and entrepreneurs on product strategy. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his two teenage sons.

AI

EFRAT FENIGSON

Efrat is a seasoned CMO and strategist, with 18 years of experience in technology and marketing.Efrat is the CMO of Mindspace, a global leader in coworking and flex spaces, spanning 30+ locations in Europe and the US.Efrat was featured as one Israel’s 2022 top tech leaders by The Wall Street Journal, one of StartIsrael’s 2021 most promising marketing leaders in Israel, focused on social impact, awarded “CMO of the year” for 2019 by Israel’s Geektime magazine, as well as one of the top 10 tech marketing executives in Israel in 2017.Efrat is also a co-founder of G-CMO (Global CMO forum), a community of Israel’s top CMO’s from global companies.

PROPTECH

ROB ISRACH

Rob brings over 20 years of expertise to the company, across marketing, alliances, and international business. Rob has served at Tipalti for over 6 years, helping to grow them from 17 employees to over 500 while multiplying revenues by 40X with a Double Unicorn valuation. Prior to Tipalti, Rob served as VP Global Marketing Programs at NetSuite where he led global branding, international marketing, and demand generation, helping guide the company through 10X+ revenue growth, from a private company through IPO to cloud market leader. Rob also has held various management positions at Intuit and GE.

MARKETPLACES

AMY WU

Amy is an award-winning writer for the women’s ag and agtech movement. She is an entrepreneur and storyteller bridging the action in the field with the digital advances in the office and laboratory.Amy is also the Founder and Creator of From Farms to Incubators, a multimedia platform that uses documentary, video, photography and the written word to tell the stories of women leaders and innovators in agtech. It has a mission of highlighting women in food, farming, and farmtech, especially women of color.

AGRITECH

IOANA SURPATEANU

Ioana is a Web3 entrepreneur. She is the founder of Strategy W, a crypto and emerging tech consultancy designed to accelerate specific verticals within the Metaverse and the DeFi 2.0 ecosystems. She is Chief Innovation Officer for Swash, a Web3 data monetisation platform and holds executive and advisory board positions for a variety of Metaverse and DeFi projects. She sits on the Executive Board of the Multichain Asset Managers Association, a global community of organisations working to transform asset management through blockchain technology. She is the founder of League of Meta’s, a female-led Web3 and Metaverse advocacy group and an OG mentor for Outlier Ventures’ Basecamp Accelerator where she’s supported projects in the Polygon, Hedera and Polkadot cohorts. She has recently joined the Farfetch/OV Dream Assembly Accelerator as a mentor for the first ever Web3 fashion cohort. She was also an expert contributor to Citigroup’s GPS Report: Metaverse and Money: Decrypting the Future.

METAVERSE

CORNEL AMARIEI

Cornel Amariei is a renowned Romanian inventor, speaker and entrepreneur known for creating .lumen – a startup that builds glasses which empower the blind to live a better life. Cornel was born in a family where his parents and sister lived with disabilities. This environment inspired his work, later recognized in Forbes 30U30 Europe and the Global Business Hall of Fame.

YOUNG ACHIEVER

ROB VAN KRANENBURG

Rob Is the Founder of the Internet of Things Council and Bricolabs. He works as Ecosystem Manager for the EU project Next Generation Internet and now is the Chief Innovation Officer at Asvin.io. Rob wrote The Internet of Things: A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID, Institute of Network Cultures and co-edited Enabling Things to Talk published by Springer. He recently published Future Urban Smartness: Connectivity Zones with Disposable Identities also by Springer.

IoT

CRHIS DOCHERTY

Chris has been forging the future as a full time innovation leader since 2005 when he took up the role of European Innovation Manager in the Cargill Agricultural Supply Chain business unit. Chris nowadays works hand in glove with an impressive roster of Planbox clients in sectors such as formula one, big pharma, startup foundations and life sciences. Chris' innovation claim to fame is, that as young engineer, he helped build the replica engines for the Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain which can still be seen working in the ship at Bristol Docks in the UK

Open Innovation

VASILY KASSAB

Vasily is an Entrepreneur Designer with a wide cultural background across Middle East, Italy, Russia and Eastern Europe.Building Teams with Heart and Passion, transforming Design Culture within large organizations, scaling Brands and experiences for Major FMCG, Alcohol, Pharma and corporates from Positioning / strategy to Retail experiences and Digital and Fashion, now Vasily is Leading and scaling Strategic Design Team for PepsiCo Latin America Being Based in Mexico and Brazil.

Design

TIM DIERCKXSENS

Tim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Venly, a developer-friendly blockchain technology provider specialized in Wallet, NFT and Marketplace solutions. He’s been passionate about blockchain since 2014 and active since 2016. He’s building Venly to help web2 businesses embrace web3 technology as he firmly believes that the way we do business will drastically change due to the innovation.Tim has a Master’s degree in Business Science and earned a professional degree in Business Analysis at The Master Labs. He loves to learn, play tennis, share ideas and foster great relationships.

Blockchain & NFTs

MARTA PAIAR

Chairwoman of Kuwekeza Investment Holdings Ltd

FinTech

COREY WHITE

Corey White is a proven security industry veteran with more than twenty-five years of success managing security practices and consulting teams. His work encompasses virtually every industry, including government, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Corey has created Cyvatar.AI to enable vendor partners to deliver reliable, repeatable, and measurable business outcomes to clients. Corey also served as the SVP of Worldwide Consulting and Chief Experience Officer at Cylance as well as the Southwest Director of Consulting for Foundstone & McAfee/Intel Professional Services.

CYBERSECURITY

BONNIE CHIA

Bonnie is a passionate storyteller with more than 15 years of success in the field of marketing and communications, from advertising, public relations to brand development. She cut her teeth in the industry with successful stints at top ad and PR agencies across the globe from LA to Taipei to Singapore, working on internationally renowned brands like P&G, SK-II, ASUS, Panasonic, IHG, etc. In 2012, she joined the WWF’s Earth Hour global team in Singapore, where she switched her focus to marketing and branding for social good and sustainability, leading the global strategy and planning for the world’s largest grassroots movement. Now as the Head of Brand for WWF International, her portfolio expands to include the development of the WWF brand globally.

SUSTAINABILITY

JULIA HOENG

Dr. Hoeng has extensive expertise in establishing external innovation strategies and programs within the life science sector to develop products, technologies, and partnerships advancing business objectives. Dr. Hoeng holds a doctoral degree in molecular biology from Cambridge University (UK), MS in Bioinformatics from Georgia Tech (USA), MBA from Business School Lausanne (CH).

SCIENCE

CHARLIE MATHEWS

Charlie Mathews is currently the Market Development and Commercial Director for RGAX UK, the transformation engine of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (RGA). After spending a decade in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Shanghai, Charlie is now in London. His interest in advancing systems, sustainable development, and applying new solutions leads him to identify innovative ideas and form lasting partnerships to bring those ideas to life.

INSURTECH

SANDY CARTER

Sandy Carter was recognized by CNN as one of the TOP 10 most powerful women in tech. She is currently Senior VP of business development and Channel Chief at Unstoppable Domains where she drives new partnerships and integrations for Web 3.0 and the Metaverse. Her mission is to onboard the world onto the decentralized web by building blockchain based identity platforms. She has won numerous awards including Top 150 Business Transformational Leaders, Top 100 Chief Tech Leader, Top 14 Edge Leader, Federal 100 Award Winner, and Fortune's Most Powerful Women. She is fluent in eight programming languages and is the author of five books, which won the Platinum MarCom Award and the Silver Marketing Sherpa award.

DEFI

ERIC WADE

Eric is the editor of Crypto Capital and Crypto Cashflow. Eric is an Internet entrepreneur and investor who began picking stocks and trading futures contracts in college, using his expertise to become a certified financial manager at the largest American retail brokerage. He eventually sold the Internet domain of his nickname – Wallstreet.com – for over $1 million. Eric’s cryptocurrency career began by mining bitcoin. Soon, he turned to mining Ethereum and then even taught himself how to build and program his own miners.

CRYPTO

FRANK A. SLIWKA

A highly innovative and resilient global business leader with deep digital entertainment, games & esports industry expertise, gained from over 25 years’ building successful businesses and winning teams around entertainment properties.Recognized with the German Game Developer Award, the European Games Award and with Asia's Sports Industry Award (SPIA Awards) in 2017 and 2018, I have a verifiable history of commitment to growth, expansion and P&L optimization in the games, esports and media competitive industries in both mature and emerging markets across the Asia Pacific Region, the US, and Europe. Currently I´m the COO of Epulze and the CEO of ibMedia Group. Before that, I worked with companies like ESL, Electronic Arts, gamescom, UBM (United Business Media), Crytek or MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation).

eGaming & eSports

VOLKER HIRSCH

Trained as a lawyer, Volker spent over two decades in technology businesses in the UK, US, Germany and beyond, where he drove corporate strategy, growth and expansion. After a 20 year career as an entrepreneur and technology investor, Volker joined Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) as Chief Commercial Officer in August 2022.Volker joined MDC from renowned venture capital firm and ‘deep tech’ investor Amadeus Capital, where he was a partner in their early-stage funds after making a name for himself as an active angel investor for over ten years.Previously, he was the Chief Strategy Officer at the gaming middleware company Scoreloop, which BlackBerry acquired. He then served as its Global Head of Business Development Games. Volker is also the co-founder of Blue Beck, a software development house and Tech North Advocates, a non-profit championing the role of technology in the North of England.

HealthTech

TIMOTHY SEAN O'CONNELL

Timothy is a pioneer in the European start-up scene both as a serial entrepreneur, investor, business leader and educator. Over the past 10 years he managed over 20 international Accelerator Programs across multiple Industries (Food, Fashion, IoT, Blockchain, Wellness, EdTech…) that collaborated with 100’s of early-stage startups. He has also balanced his career from working as a successful Marketing Executive with global brands to founding, managing and exiting a number of innovative startups. As an Innovator & Investor, he is currently a Senior Partner at H-Farm, a publicly listed company focused on Business & Education Innovation, where he directs the Accelerator program with industry leaders such as CDP Venture Capital, Vodafone, Pfizer and Cisco. He also represents Europe on the Board of the GAN (Global Accelerator Network) and is a founding partner of the EAS (European Accelerator Summit).

Our BOLD IV Judges

MAURIZIO ROSSI

CHAIRPERSON

EPI LUDVIK

CO-CHAIRPERSON

MICHELLE VINCENT

New Media & AdTech

HELENA SAMISOE

ROBOTICS

CHRISTOPHER PERI

AR / VR

RUTH HEDGES

CROWDFUNDING

JUDITH SCHUERMANS

MOBILITY

SEMUN HO

FASHIONTECH

SABRINA THOMPSON

SpaceTech

KEITH KOO

Future of Work

VINCENT CARBONE

SaaS

ANURAG BATRA

AI

EFRAT FENIGSON

PROPTECH

ROB ISRACH

MARKETPLACES

AMY WU

AGRITECH

IOANA SURPATEANU

METAVERSE

CORNEL AMARIEI

YOUNG ACHIEVER

ROB VAN KRANENBURG

IoT

CRHIS DOCHERTY

Open Innovation

VASILY KASSAB

Design

TIM DIERCKXSENS

Blockchain & NFTs

MARTA PAIAR

FinTech

COREY WHITE

CYBERSECURITY

BONNIE CHIA

SUSTAINABILITY

JULIA HOENG

SCIENCE

CHARLIE MATHEWS

INSURTECH

SANDY CARTER

DEFI

ERIC WADE

CRYPTO

FRANK A. SLIWKA

eGaming & eSports

VOLKER HIRSCH

HealthTech

TIMOTHY SEAN O'CONNELL

EdTech

Where BOLD Leadership Meets AI