Learn more here about the 2019-20 European Ada Awards Jury Members:
Ms. Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl – Director General of Digital Europe, the leading digital technology industry association, representing over 35.000 digital companies in Europe. Cecilia is a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, a Board Member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, and a Board Member of the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum. Formerly, Cecilia was an Executive Board Member of the Royal Danish Export Ministry, a Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman of the Export Grant Committee, an Executive Board member for DIGITALEUROPE, and a member of the association’s high level Digital Advisory Council. Additionally, she was the Chairman of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), where she has led the development of policy positions on issues such as Business Digitalisation, ICT security, disruptive business models, telecoms and education. Cecilia has more than 20 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle as well as with SMEs, building business across Europe and China and founding the cloud provider GlobeIT. She has deep insights into the digitalisation of business and society and the data-driven economy, and is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on these issues at high-level events across the world.
Ms. Kelly Dorekens – Director, Deloitte Belgium. As a Director within the Customer & Marketing group at Deloitte, Kelly is leading the Salesforce practice for mid-market and private companies. In her role, she is leveraging 14 years of experience in Digital Transformations. She is also responsible for driving Deloitte’s Talent agenda across the Salesforce teams in EMEA. Throughout her career, she has partnered with a range of clients in different industries, including Utilities, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Automotive, Telecommunications, Travel, Banking, Insurance and Government.
Ms. Eva Fabry – Co-founder and Director of the European Center for Women and Technology. Eva worked twenty years in diplomacy and (2007-2014) as European Affairs Manager at the Norwegian Regional Innovation Centre Papirbredden Innovasjon in Drammen, Norway with women and tech as an emerging idea for regional growth generation. 2009-2010 Eva was also Project Manager and responsible for delivering the European Directory of Women in ICT, endorsed by the European e-skills Alliance as the leading platform for women in technology in Europe. Under Eva’s leadership ECWT has grown from 16 founding members to the active involvement of 130+ multi-stakeholder based organizations. ECWT´s key priorities today are to attract more girls to coding, digital literacy and STEM careers; support to women’s STEM entrepreneurship and business start-ups; alternative financing of STEM businesses; gendered innovations and multicultural integration through innovative ICT tools. Eva Fabry / ECWT is member of the Future Open Council of Mobile World Capital Barcelona´s Digital Future Society (dFS) Think Tank. Eva is a frequent speaker on gender and STEM / ICT issues in the leading European and global conferences.
Ms. Arnheiður Guðmundsdóttir – Managing Director of Ský, the Icelandic Computer Society, a non-profit society open for anyone in Iceland who works in an IT field. Additionally, Arnheiður is the Managing Director of the UTmessan event. Arnheiður has been in the IT sector since 1986, working as a programmer, a Project Manager, and then the Managing Director of Software Development. Her experience has allowed her to build strong connections in the IT field throughout Iceland – Ský has a growing network of around 5.000 people. Ský hosts around 20-30 events each year, all IT related. Her innovation project “UTmessan” is one of the largest IT events in Iceland.
Formerly, Arnheiður was a Board Member at Programmers of the Future fund, the Icelandic Committee on Trade Procedures and e-Commerce, a CEPIS Council Member and BEBRAS community member on behalf of Iceland. Additionally, she was a main organizer of “Girls in ICT” day, and both an advisor and jury member of the RebootHack project.
Ms. Viola Pinzi – Project Manager, European Schoolnet. Viola Pinzi is a project manager in the Digital Citizenship Department at European Schoolnet. She is currently involved in project management, research, training activities and product management for core service platforms across several line of works (media literacy and digital skills, entrepreneurial education, digital assessment, online safety). Viola has 15 years’ experience in the fields of education, careers guidance and employment services, with a focus on social inclusion and ICT tools integration within these systems. She holds a degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Siena, balanced between social sciences, mass-media and new technologies, and MSc in Information Studies from the University of Amsterdam, with a curricula aimed at deep understanding of human-centred knowledge-based interactive systems. Her interests also include organizational development and service planning, social innovation and change management, knowledge management and data wise innovation.
Ms. Afke Schaart – Vice President and Head of Europe, Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), GSMA. Afke is responsible for all Public Policy advocacy activities, Strategic Engagement and Industry Programmes of the GSMA in the wider European region. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators and nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC event as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences. Afke is also the Vice-Chair of the EATA. Before joining the GSMA, Afke worked at Microsoft and KPN and served as Member of Parliament in the Netherlands.