André Marquet has an engineering degree in Telecommunications, and a master’s in computer science from ISCTE-Lisbon University.
He started his career as a computer networks researcher at INESC Lisbon, worked in Tunisia for EFACEC, held an IT consultant position at AICEP Nokia, and later moved into Product Management at Wit Software and Huawei.
He has co-founded and had an executive role at Beta-i.com, a leading innovation startup hub, and Productized, an innovation consulting company.
Professional consultant with proven leadership and teamwork experience as founder of two successful nonprofit organizations, and a partner in several companies, with over 15 years of experience working in product development and software solutions for the telecom, web, and security and defense markets.
He is also an invited lecturer at Portuguese Catholic University on product discovery and entrepreneurship and a trainer and mentor to the Islamic Finance Changemakers program at the IE Business School in Madrid. He is also Head of Product Experimentation at Cofidis Portugal.

Carolina is CEO and Founder of Connect2Global, where she merges her passion for community and entrepreneurship. The Portuguese Government also appointed her as the Honorary Consul of Portugal to Miami.
Previously, she was President of the World Strategic Forum for two years and VP of International Development for eMerge Americas before that. In addition, she is a speaker at various conferences on women’s entrepreneurship and remote work.
Connect2Global recently signed an MOU with the US Mission to Portugal through its Public Diplomacy Section, known as AWE (Academy of Women Entrepreneurs).
Carolina is also a mentor for SGWIT, a program of the Select USA Investment.
She is known for her high-energy and strong expertise in international development, with a special focus on global marketing and business development.
“There is no time like the present to start crossing borders and expanding your horizons. There is a world of opportunity waiting for you

Mr. Polisner has spent the last several years of his career turning around projects in crisis, building high-performing teams, and addressing significant technological and economic challenges for government, large enterprises, and society. In 2021 he successfully completed a major application and infrastructure modernization project turnaround for the California Student Aid Commission.
Mr. Polisner remains active in writing about policy and legislation affecting wealth and income inequality, participatory democracy, and budgeting. He has expertise in corporate social (responsibility) behavior and externalities.
He is the founder, and Executive Director of an entity focused on leveraging technology and organizing behavior to sustain effective civic engagement (civ.works).
Previously he designed scalable operations services to support Oracle Cloud and Oracle Cloud customers. During his Oracle tenure, George led the Performance Architecture consulting unit in the Western United States. He also drove major innovation with regard to how on-premise Oracle products were installed through the Oracle Applications Gold CD program.
George is a frequent radio guest providing analysis on the U.S.political and economic environment and now happily resides in Lisbon.

Professionally, over 35 years of performance in executive positions, with responsibility for management, decision, and team leadership in Information Technology in the Public, Financial, Logistics, Tourism, and Insurance Sectors.
He has worked in several companies, such as Banco do Brasil, Aliança do Brasil Seguros, BBTUR- BB Turismo, ECT – Correios, Ministério do Planejamento, ABGF-Agência Brasileira Gestora de Fundos Garantidores e Garantias S.A., SERPRO – Serviço Federal de Processamento de Dados, the largest public IT company in Latin America, and Capgemini.
She began her career at Banco do Brasil, in the Technology area, from manager to IT Director.
She is recognized in various sectors: IT, Innovation, Management, Clients, Compliance, and Strategic Planning.
Responsible for the turnaround at SERPRO, a company that turned a profit in the last two years after nine years of successive losses. Gloria made relevant implementations in BB’s IT areas, such as systems architecture and the IT procurement standardization project in the Federal Government.
He is currently Ceo of Ayo Group holding, which includes the companies Memora Innovative Processes, Oraex Cloud Consulting, VA Expert, Bitgov, and Praxis, responsible for developing international expansion and growth strategies in the four countries already present and in Brazil. The companies operate in the oil and gas, retail, government, financial, food and beverage sectors.

João Neves was born in Ponte de Sor, in 1957.
He holds a degree in Economics from Instituto Superior de Economia, in 1980, and a Master’s degree in Administration and Public Policies, from Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e Empresa (ISCTE), in 2003.
Secretary of State of Economy in the XXI Constitutional Government, between 2018 and 2019, and Assistant Secretary of State and of Economy in the XXII Constitutional Government.
Director of the Laboratórios BIAL Company, in 2010/2018.
Member of the Board of Directors Instituto de Apoio às Pequenas e Médias Empresas (IAPMEI, I.P.), 2007/2010.
Head of Office of the Minister of Economy and Innovation, in 2005/2007. Director-General of the Ministry of Economy’s Enterprise, in 2004/2005.
Regional Director of Lisbon and Tagus Valley of the Ministry of Economy. He also managed the Economy Measure of the Regional Operational Program of Lisbon and Tagus Valley/QCAIII in 2003/2004. General Director of Industry, in 2001/2003.
Services Director of the Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2000/2001.
Director of services of the Directorate-General of Industry, in 1997/2000.
National delegate for the Innovation and SME’s Program of the V R&D Framework Program of the European Union, in 1997/2000.
Head of the Office of the Secretary of State for Industry and then of the Minister of Economy, in 1995/1997.
Member of Technical staff of the Directorate General of Industry, 1984/1995.

Jonathan Littman is the Founder of Redbridge Lisbon, SmartUp.life – The Innovation Hub, and the co-author of the international IDEO bestsellers “The Art of Innovation” and “Ten Faces of Innovation”.
Jonathan leads immersive seminars and delivers keynotes on entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation in the US, Europe, and China. An adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, Jonathan teaches Creativity, Innovation, and Applied Design, an interactive approach to tapping anthropology and cross-pollination techniques to uncover unique insights and prototype new products and services.
Ten books, 500+ articles and prize-winning journalism in Playboy, the LA Times Magazine, Marker Medium, LA Magazine, Huffington Post, and Forbes.
Jonathan holds a BA in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley.

With over 24 years of experience in transformation projects, he started his career at EY, which he complemented with an international career that included more than eight countries and expertise in sectors such as Retail and Consumer Products, Telecommunications, Healthcare, and Public Sector. Among these experiences are the transformation project of Unilever Europe Foods Business and Portugal Telecom.
Back at EY since 2010, he has been dedicated to large transformation programs in the public sector. He is also responsible and passionate about digital transformation in public administration and the role of innovation as a driver of this movement.
He has a degree in Management from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a post-graduation in Information Systems from Instituto Superior Técnico (POSI). Currently, he leads the Government and Public Sector and Health, Science, and Wellness sectors in EY’s Consulting practice.
Married, father of 3 children, speaks five languages, and plays four instruments, characteristics that he believes facilitate the innovation process.