Speakers
Meet the people shaping the AI world. Our speakers bring fresh ideas and real-world experience, from across industries to inspire teams and spark new ways of thinking.
Aimilios Chalamandaris
Head of TTS - R&D
Samsung Electronics
Aimilios (PhD) is currently the Head of TTS - R&D
at Samsung Greece. He was the co-founder and CEO of INNOETICS, a Text-to-Speech startup which was acquired by Samsung Electronics in 2017. With a strong entrepreneurial background, Aimilios was responsible for the organic growth of INNOETICS and its exit to become one of the strongest technological arms of Samsung Electronics globally.
Christos Spatharakis
Speaker
Founder and technology leader with a strong background in electrical
and computer engineering, advanced systems research, and large-scale digital platforms. Co-Founder & CEO of Ferryhopper, the leading online ferry booking platform in the Mediterranean, combining deep technical expertise with product vision, strategic execution, and company-building experience. Proven ability to bridge research, engineering, and business, from CERN and EU-funded research projects to scaling a consumer-facing technology company serving millions of users.
Demetris Gerogiannis
Co-Founder & Tech Lead
Chair AIandMe, AICatalyst
Demetris is co - Founder and co - CEO Tech
& Product of Humanbound, an AI Security Posture Management platform purpose - built for the agentic era. Humanbound helps enterprises discover every AI agent in their environment, continuously attack them in controlled conditions, and maintain a quantified security posture as those agents change week over week. Demetris holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Ioannina and has spent 15 + years building software products across Greece and the US. He chairs AICatalyst, the Artificial Intelligence Association of Greece, founded the AI + Beers meetup community, and serves as an ambassador for the European DIGITAL SME Alliance. His current work sits at the intersection of offensive security and defensive engineering: the Humanbound team runs continuous adversarial tests against client agents, feeds the findings into runtime defense, and publishes weekly analysis of the incidents reshaping how enterprises ship AI agents safely.
Ioannis Panageas
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
UC Irvine and a researcher at Archimedes AI
Ioannis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer
Science at the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where they also direct the GOALLab. They are affiliated with the Center for Algorithms and Theory of Computation, the Center for Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems (CML), the Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization Center (ACO), and the Archimedes Research Unit. Prior to joining UCI, Ioannis was an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Before that, they were a MIT Postdoctoral Fellow working with Costis Daskalakis. They received their PhD in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO) from Georgia Tech, where they were advised by Prasad Tetali. They also obtained an MSc in Mathematics from Georgia Tech and completed their undergraduate studies at the National Technical University of Athens. Their research has been supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) for AI while at SUTD, as well as by awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Their CV, Google Scholar profile, and DBLP profile provide further information about their academic background and research.
Isidoros Sideridis
CEO
Pobuca
As the CEO and co-founder of Pobuca, the customer experience
company, I have been driving the vision, strategy, and growth of the business since 2016. With Pobuca Experience Cloud, we offer turn-key solutions to brands and retailers with software, consulting, and integration services leveraging Microsoft technologies. We help our clients measure, design, and improve customer experience and loyalty across digital channels and AI. I have a passion for technology and innovation, and a background in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Patras. I have received the Microsoft Partner of the year award twice for Pobuca, and have spoken at many technology events and conferences. I also love rationalizing nature’s wonders and won the science communication contest of FameLab in 2011. My mission is to empower businesses to succeed in sales, marketing, and customer service by using cutting-edge technology and data-driven insights.
Konstantinos Gkovedaros
Partner Development Advisor for ISVs & Startups
Microsoft
Konstantinos Karpouzis
Associate Professor
Department of Communication, Media and Culture
Dr Kostas Karpouzis is an associate professor at the Department
of Communication, Media and Culture at Panteion University. His research deals with algorithms that make computer systems more adaptive to how people interact with them and how digital games and gamification, as cultural artifacts, can be used to teach conventional and social skills. He also explores the ethical and social values embedded in and influenced by AI systems. Since 1998 he has been involved in over twenty R&D projects, with prominent examples being the Siren project (the project was voted Best Learning Game in Europe in 2013 by the Games and Learning Alliance), the H2020 iRead project, which produced Navigo, the winner of the GALA Serious Games competition in 2018, and the HE Road-STEAMer project, which designed the European roadmap and proposing policies for teaching STEAM topics in schools and universities. He is a member of the National Bioethics and Technology Ethics Committee, Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Greece Section, and President of the Association of Computer and Communication Engineers of Greece. He has given three talks at TEDx events and his TED-Ed video “Can machines read your emotions?” has been viewed over 670,000 times and translated into 26 languages.
Nikos Tsolakis
Basketball Analyst | Advanced Analytics & Scouting Consultant
Shot Clock
Nikos Tsolakis is a Basketball Analytics & Scouting Consultant, combining
advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence, and coaching knowledge to support modern basketball decision-making. He holds a Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering and an MSc in Advanced Computer & Communication Systems from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and is currently a PhD candidate in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) and Knowledge Graphs. He is the Founder of the largest basketball analysis platform in Greece and a graduate of the Euroleague Head Coaches Board Academy, collaborating with teams and organizations in data-driven player evaluation and scouting.
Petros Fragkiskos
Partner
FNG Law Firm
Petros is a Partner at Drakopoulos, advising on and shaping
investments and sophisticated transactions across a wide range of business activities, including technology M&A, real estate and property investment, construction, project development, start-ups, and innovative technology. He advises clients at every stage from conception and planning through implementation and day-to-day operation, up to divestment and exit. He provides legal advice to private equity firms and venture capital funds, covering establishment, entity structuring, day-to-day operations, and investment activity. He also specializes in the intersection of law and technology, helping companies navigate evolving regulation and adopt new technologies responsibly and strategically. He advises on technology regulatory frameworks and delivers end-to-end solutions in partnership with multinational technology experts on frameworks such as the EU AI Act and NIS2 for cybersecurity, helping shape organizational governance. He is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Association of Law Firms, representing over 185 of Greece’s leading firms, and served as Vice President for three years. He also represents Greece as a Council Member of the International Bar Association’s European Regional Forum. Petros has served as legal counsel to both the Greek Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and a multinational corporation with a strong presence in Greece. He graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Law, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and holds an M.St. from the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the Athens Bar Association, the Hellenic-Dutch Association of Commerce & Industry’s AI Committee, and the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) Technology and Digital Transformation Committe
Vasiliki Koniakou
Dr of Law, IPR Manager, Post-Doc Researcher
AUEB TTO, AUEB
Vasiliki is a Doctor of Law and a post-doctoral researcher
at ELTRUN/ISTLab of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), Department of Department of Management Science and Technology. She is a certified Data Protection Officer (DPO), and she currently serves as the head of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) management at the AUEB Technology Transfer Office (TTO), and a DPO at ACEin. She got her bachelor’s in law from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, and continued her studies in Finland, acquiring a master’s in international, European and Comparative Law, majoring Law and Information Society from the University of Turku, and a Doctorate in Law funded by the Academy of Finland on Internet Governance and fundamental rights. Her current research interest is centred around contemporary legal and ethical dilemmas arising from technological advancements, particularly in the realms of Artificial Intelligence and Internet Governance. She is particularly engaged in exploring issues related to ethics, law and democratic technology governance, as well as digital transformation and its impact on the democratic polity, focusing also on the role of human rights in technological development and technology governance. As a dedicated advocate for privacy, ethics, and digital rights, she is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR), the Digital Constitutionalists Association, and a founding member of MyData Global.
Vassilis Nikolopoulos
Head Of Applied Research & Development / Innovation, Co-founder
Energy Unit, Mytilineos SA, Intelen
Vassilis Nikolopoulos, Ph.D. is an active Deep Tech entrepreneur, corporate
executive, investor & mentor, applied researcher and passionate with technology futurology and Technology transfer. In the last 16 years, Vassilis has been working in applied research, technology transfer and innovation management procedures, focusing on the Big Data problems applied to Utilities and the Energy Sector (Smart Grids). He has also worked for years in applied energy behavioral science, data analytics, algorithms and the application of social networks to change human behaviors towards a more sustainable way of living, especially in corporate environments. He co-founded the Deep tech Intelen (an outcome of his PhD at NTUA), one of the most successful startups in the digital energy and utility analytics market, having some big utilities as clients (including Protergia, MYT). He was also one of the two National Climate champions (Greece) of the British Council, taking part in the Global Youth Forum on Climate Finance 2010 in Shanghai. Being an active entrepreneur, applied researcher and passionate with technology futurology, he has cooperated with more than 40 utilities in the USA and Europe, dealing with customer engagement, customer analytics, AI/ML, energy management and deployment of new business models and digital services. He is a guest lecturer in BlockChain at Nicosia University and in Entrepreneurship at Piraeus University, a reviewer at Elsevier and Blockchain technologies (Editorial Board @Frontiers) and serves also as a Scientific expert/Reviewer at the European Commission in H2020. He has global recognitions in top innovation and entrepreneurship contests (US Red herring, SVASE Silicon Valley, Siemens global smartgrid, OECD eco-innovation, CeBIT top cleantech, etc). He is a mentor at the StartupBootamp accelerator and one of the top-100 Global mentors at the Founder Institute (FI). He is the author of one book in Computer Networks, guest speaker in many conferences and futurology events (ie TedX, SAP Digital, Decentralized, PowerUP EIT, etc) and has more than 50 publications in conferences, journals and technology papers. He is a valedictorian Electrical Engineer from Dundee University, Scotland (with two Class medals and the IEE prize) with postgraduate studies at Imperial College, London School of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique (X) and a PhD from National Technical University of Athens. Also took various courses from HarvardX (Harvard University).
Vicky Pechlivani
GenAI Adoption Strategist
100 Mentors
Vasiliki is an EAL teacher at St. Catherine’s British School
and a key member of the AI Adoption and IT Strategy team. She has extensive experience both in teaching and managerial roles within education and is passionate about upskilling and retraining in technology. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and is currently pursuing her MBA at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). Her research focuses on AI adoption strategies and digital transformation. Vasiliki brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to technology integration in education.
Yianis Kanellopoulos
Founder & CEO
code4thought