Partners

Zoi is a Production and Management Engineer from the Technical University of Crete. She holds a Master's degree in Engineering Management from the Technical University of Crete and a Master's degree in Production Management and Industrial Administration from the University of Thessaly.

She is a PhD candidate in Operations Research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Thessaly. During the last 8 years she has worked as a project manager on a variety of EU-funded projects and has been actively involved in proposal submission.

Stella holds a degree in Agricultural Biotechnology from the Agricultural University of Athens.

She has a long experience working for different non-profit organizations, mainly as a project manager and running various projects. She is a member of the implementation team of iED since the beginning of 2018. Her work focuses on active youth participation, non-formal education and social innovation.

Irena Pavlova is Manager of the European Programmes and Projects at GATE Institute. She is responsible for the initiation, organisation and implementation of GATE’s research projects under various EU and national programmеs.

She is an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University, specialized in software engineering and semantic interoperability.

Denitsa is a Business Development expert at GATE Institute. She supports the development of the institute’s activities by creating partnerships and finding funding opportunities.

Denitsa has strong experience in European and national project financing, throughout the whole project management cycle, including conceptualization and partnership creation, with thematic areas mainly in energy efficiency, environment, and ICT.

After his PhD in the field of micro and nanotechnologies, Paul worked during 5 years as a technical team leader in a consulting company helping start-ups, SMEs and large groups get public funding for innovation and R&D. Paul had joined Opticsvalley – the Paris area cluster in photonics and DeepTech – where he became the Business & Innovation team leader.

Since 2019 Paul stared working as an independent expert, designing EU funded projects, preparing collaborative and individual funding applications, and contributing to the implementation of some of the successful projects.

Jean-Baptiste is a senior coach for BPI France and InvestHorizon. He also works with impact tech start-ups on financing, R&D management, IP & valuation strategy, design methodologies, market entry and ecosystems implementation.
Finally, he is also today the representative of the CCIF in Georgia and a speaker in innovation programs (X-up, UPMC…).

Passionate about the educational approach, Yann launched Creative Valley in 2011 with a network of centers based in the Paris region. Creative Valley is also present at Station F in Paris.

Member of the Digital Council of the Greater Paris Region and creator of a venture capital fund between Europe and Korea, he co-founded an agency specialized in supporting French companies in their development on the Chinese market.

Olga Bochkova is an international project manager with expertise in HealthTech, Education Policy, and CSR. Currently, Olga is managing the incubation program Autonom Innov’ with a focus on the Silver Economy.

Olga previously served as a CSR manager at Airbus. Furthermore, while working for the investment fund she authored the analytical report "HealthTech industry in 2035". Olga has also collaborated with the International Labor Organization on the program "G20 Training Strategy: Vocational Education and Labor Markets in the CIS, Asia, and the Middle East".

Olga has a master's degree from ESCP Business School in Paris. She is passionate about Sustainable Innovation and committed to apply her expertise to the development of startups and entrepreneurs that will improve society

Vitaly Charushin is a member of the advisory board and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Creative Cluster. With 25 years of experience in business development, he brings a holistic approach, offering clarity, direction, and positive support to start-ups.

Having completed executive education programs at Cambridge University, Rotterdam School of Management, and Harvard University, he is skilled in assisting start-ups in identifying their goals and developing sound strategies.

In addition, Vitaly actively engages in cognitive sciences and foreign relations, and he has authored over 15 publications on these topics

International consultant, working since 2003 in cross-sectoral, multinational environments. Engineering, ICT and financial background and extensive experience in Research & Innovation, entrepreneurship, Project Management and Intellectual Property focusing on SMEs & start-ups.
Setup, supported, mentored and coached new companies entrepreneurs & SMEs, in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, UK, and Turkey.

Worked in executive, Senior Project and Programme Manager positions for Private and Public sector projects in ICT, Education, Environment, Tourism, eGovernment.
Over 20 years of working experience in bids & procurement: consulting, drafting, managing tendering procedures or bidding for National and International Projects (EU R&D Framework Programmes, EuropeAid, Structural Funds).

Tuğçe has a great knowledge of administrative procedures of the donor-funded projects and Business and Development activities and has been taking a role in the bidding process, procurement and implementation of the projects in IDI.

Vastly experienced with the EU-funded projects in the field of Research and Innovation, Deep Tech, and capacity building of SMEs, as well as in organizing training, online workshops, and webinars.

Tuğçe has worked for international organizations with multi-tasked duties and has a great background in working with officials in the United States and Turkey.

After completing education, Kemal has taken part in challenging positions in the management consulting sector including project management and business development, marketing & communication, and recruitment functions of reputable national and multinational companies where can fully utilize his potential, apply his demonstrated competencies and academic background.

He has solid experience in managing of international donor funded projects, and, as a consultant - experience in the fields of socio-economic development and technical & engineering consultancy.

Berna is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Sabanci University, Sabanci Business School. She received her BA in Business Administration and her MA in international master programme on European Studies of Science, Technology and Society.

She completed her PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies at Middle East Technical University and continued her research on innovation and entrepreneurship as post-doc research fellow.

Since 2015, she has been working as a faculty member at Sabanci Business School. Her research interests are technology entrepreneurship, academic entrepreneurship, acceleration and incubation programs, technology commercialization in emerging technologies, especially in nanotechnology.

After getting her BS degree Türkan worked as a finance professional at banks and auto companies. She later got a PhD degree in Management from Sabancı University, where she teaches courses on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Management. In her PhD dissertation entitled Marketization of Social Sectors and Strategic Responses of Social Enterprises, she analyzed the evolution and competitive dynamics of the field of supplementary education of the disabled in Turkey.

Türkan has supported many enterprises, mostly focusing on environment and fair trade, in volunteer, mentor, and founding member roles. She is also an agri-entrepreneur growing an organic vineyard and medicinal aromatic plants.

Kerem is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Sabanci Business School, part of Sabanci University. His research is on design of entrepreneurial training programs and the psychology of entrepreneurship, including the effect of early-life trauma on entrepreneurial activity.

He received his PhD in Business Strategy from HEC Paris, France. He holds on MSc degree from the London School of Economics and a BA degree from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.

Nataly is a passionate community builder, with 13 years of experience in Ukrainian tech on sales and top management positions, C-level clubs with 3 cities and 300+ members in total.

She has successfully launched capital Kyiv IT Cluster, an Export strategy of ICT Sector that united 110+ industry leaders and influencers.

Nataly is leading the TechUkraine foundation to realize the recommendations of the strategy and continue inspiring and managing cooperation among the most prominent and skilled people of the ecosystem.

Darya has gained 10+ years of relevant business experience within operational, team, crisis & risk management, financial and tax support, while developing powerful cooperation with stakeholders.

She has joined TechUkraine aiming to build up strategies for enhancing capacities, scaling up work processes, elaborating structure and promoting organization culture and vision.

Valeriia is a young, passionate and energetic Communication Expert with journalistic background. She has experience working in startup and large tech environments. A professional who possesses strong interpersonal skills, is able to handle public relations, the information output and media requests.

The range of Valeriia’s interests is wide: she is interested in tech, media, international relations, fashion and psychology.