We are thrilled to announce the newly elected EBAN Board at EAIS24. Jesper Jarlbæk has been elected as President and expressed his excitement by saying, “It is a great honour to have been elected by my peers to serve as President of EBAN. I am inheriting an organization that is the strongest it has ever been. I see EBAN playing a key role in facing the challenges to the future of Europe, as outlined by Mr. Draghi in his report. We must work to translate the fountain of European innovation into the strong, competitive workplaces of the future. Business angels are key risk-takers pivotal to achieving this. We must work with the EU to create a true single market for early-stage entrepreneurs and their investors.”
The Board has elected 2 vice presidents, Nina Dremelj and Ricardo Luz: It has appointed Nina Dremelj as Vice President – Treasurer. She shared her commitment to the new role, stating, “Business angels play a crucial role in the investment lifecycle. I am honored to serve as the Vice President-Treasurer on the newly elected Board of EBAN. In this capacity, I will dedicate my efforts to expanding our network and enhancing the value of EBAN within the European ecosystem.”
Additionally, Ricardo Luz joins as Vice President – Advocacy, expressing,“It will be an honour to serve EBAN on the newly elected Board as Vice-President. Working closely with the entire EBAN Board and Executive Team, I will focus my energy on EBAN’s Strategic Partnership with the EU, NPB/NPIs, corporates and early-stage investors. And, I´ll continue to co-lead the EXITs Taskforce, helping EBAN to support its members: from deal flow generation, through investment, to exit.”
Let’s meet the members of our new board:
Board of Directors 2024
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JARLBÆK Jesper
President
Danish Business Angels, DENMARKJesper Jarlbæk is an angel investor and board member of a number of growth businesses. Jesper is currently Vice-Chairman of DVCA (Danish Venture Capital Association) and Chairman of DanBAN, Danish Business Angels, Denmark’s largest and most successful Business Angel Network. In 2009, Jesper was awarded the “Business Angel of the Year” title by DVCA. Jesper Jarlbæk is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Bang & Olufsen A/S, an NASDAQ OMX listed company and Chair of Happy Helper listed on NASDAQ First North. Jesper is the Chair of CataCap, a Danish PE fund. Until 2002, Jesper Jarlbæk was employed at Arthur Andersen, ultimately holding dual positions as Managing Partner, Denmark and Nordic Managing Partner – Assurance and Business Advisory. From 2002 to 2006, Jesper was Managing Partner of Advisory Services at Deloitte. Jesper lectures and mentors at CBS, Copenhagen Business School and is a member of the Danish Committee for Good Corporate Governance.
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DREMELJ Nina
Vice President and Treasurer
Business Angels of Slovenia, SLOVENIANina Dremelj is the president of Business Angels of Slovenia. Her greatest passion is to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into real, successful businesses. In last 5 years she invested in more than 17 companies with average investment multiple 7,71x.
She also puts her energy and focus towards Alita Capital, Investment company, investing smaller tickets but a lot of time and knowledge into extremely early stages or founding teams with a lasting will to bring innovative projects to life.
In the past, she co-owned and successfully managed the Swiss seed fund AlpVent AG. In 2021, under the auspices of business angels, she helped set up the first daFUND venture capital fund, supported by business angels and also invested in it.
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LUZ Ricardo
Vice-President – Advocacy
Invicta Angels, PORTUGALPartner of Civitta Portugal; Co-Founder of Matching Ventures, Absolute H. and Fluidinova. Founder & President of Invicta Angels – Associação de Investidores early-stage do Norte de Portugal. Founder & VP of FNABA, the Portuguese Federation of Business Angels Associations, 2007-15. Executive Board Member of Instituição Financeira de Desenvolvimento (now BPF), 2015-17. Former Board member of several SME´s and private associations, and Consultant of Strategy, Business and Competitiveness. Former Professor of Higher Education of Courses of Management, Sales and Finance. Undergraduate Degree in Economics and Master degree in Design for Sustainability. Postgraduate Degrees in Political Journalism and National Defense Auditor.
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ANSON Rita
Norwegian Business Angels Network, NORWAY
Secretary General at NorBAN Norwegian Business Angels Network – from April 2018 – Present :Expert consultant as head of program coordination for business angels training and startups, helping to create arenas where angel investors and entrepreneurs/companies meet.
– Facilitating training programs and events in Norway and the North Atlantic for new angel investors in startup investment strategies, covering the evaluation of startups, and creating local networks.
– Delivering courses on entrepreneurship training (Investment readiness, Pitching training, Startup guidance for migrants, Entrepreneurial Orientation) to strengthen individuals in the Nordics on how to establish their own company, guiding and helping professionals and young entrepreneurs in the innovation eco-system, to set a network and to get introduced to investors.
Nordic Ignite – Partner & CoFounder – from March 2022 to Present Deal flow and lead manager at Nordic Ignite and member of its investment committee. As a member of the pre-screening team in Norway responsible for the initial due diligence of early stage startup investment opportunities
WIN Women Investor Network Norway Co-Founder – March 2020 – Present. Empowering women to strengthen their financial position, with programs to learn how to invest in startups, and by providing an arena for women to evaluate investment opportunities and invest together.
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BJARKBY Christine
SweBAN, SWEDEN
Christine Bjarkby is an investor and founder at Lincs focusing as Senior Advisor in Growth Capital at Lincs. Christine is in the board of EBAN since 2017. Christine has a broad experience from business development worldwide from large public global companies to small start-up companies. Christine has previously worked with investments as a representative of Invest Sweden, Entrepreneurship Network (Enterprise Network for Startup ICT) and Connect Sweden. Christine is and has been a board member of several startup companies and is herself a business angel. Christine is one of the founders of NordicBan and are now building up the Business Angel community in Sweden. Christine matches growth companies with capital and crucial skills and contacts. Her network consist more than 500 investors is spread all over Sweden both Business Angels as VC. Christine works actively to develop its investment network at regional, national and international levels.
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COLOMER Albert
Business Angels Network Catalunya, SPAIN
Albert has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement in Spain. In 2002, he co-founded and became executive director of the Business Angel Network Catalunya BANC, the first Spanish angel network, which he led. Additionally in 2006 he co-founded ESBAN, a private foundation to raising awareness and promoting angel investment and Business Angels Networks in Spain. Since 2003, Albert is member of the Board of EBAN. Albert has been appointed by the Parliament of Catalonia as member of the Advisory Board of the Catalan Institute of Finance, the public credit institution of the Government of Catalonia. During his career, Albert has gathered a profound knowledge of the entrepreneurship skills. As a consultant, advisor, coach or business angel, His experience in entrepreneurial field, over 25 years, has helped thousands start-ups and entrepreneurs to born and grow. He is co-founder (1986) and executive director of CPAC (Fundació Privada per a la Promoció de l’Autoocupació de Catalunya), an independent charity with a mission to help people and organizations to be entrepreneurs.
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DRIDJE Marcel
Sophia Business Angels, FRANCE
Marcel Dridje is the SOPHIA BUSINESS ANGELS President Emeritus & a Mentor at The Camp in Aix en Provence.
A seasoned European Sales senior Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK and holds an M&A executive program credentials from INSEAD.
Marcel most recently left CISCO after 35 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel with SBA to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development.
Vaelsys/ IVAS (France), Zetalabs (France), Faveeo (CH), Digitalarti (France), OnePulse (UK) and Cyberflowanalytics (Recently acquired by Webroot a leading US cybersecurity company based in Denver USA) are six of his star ventures.
A self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 30 years IT& Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA, USA and APAC.
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HUIDOBRO Marta
Asociación Española de Business Angels Networks, SPAIN.
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KETIKIDIS Panayiotis
Capacity Building Committee Chair
Hellenic Business Angels Network, GREECEProfessor Panos Ketikidis is the Co-Founder of the Hellenic Business Angels Network (HeBAN) and Board Member of EBAN.
Current position: Professor of Innovation and Technology, CITY College – Chairman of the South East European Research Center (SEERC) and Business Angel Investor.
Professor Ketikidis has over 30 years of experience in management, education, innovation, research, and competitive research funding and very solid networks as a result of this experience. His expertise lie in (responsible) innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, triple helix, (impact) investment, regional development, supply chain management and health informatics. Prof. Ketikidis also served as President and Board member in several profit and non-profit associations supporting and mobilizing the knowledge triangle (research, business and education) to facilitate innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems Science, Health Informatics from CITY University (UK).
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LINNANVIRTA Reima
Finnish Business Angels Network, FINLAND
Reima Linnanvirta is an angel investor turned into a venture capitalist. He has invested in 35 startups as an angel investor and made several exits, the quickest one in just 104 days.
Reima currently works as a Partner at Trind Ventures and is the President Emeritus of the Finnish Business Angels Network.
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O’CONNOR Michael
HBAN, IRELAND
Michael O’Connor started in marine and arctic exploration before specialising in high technology or innovative projects usually involving international growth. Early experience with Raychem Corporation Menlo Park before co-founding Intepro, a venture capital backed Irish IT startup. Led the US market entry with several rounds of international venture capital before a successful trade sale. Since returning from the USA he has created many new initiatives, advised over 300 start-ups and built an angel network doing over 100 deals, investing over €50m in primarily start-ups. Founded the International Security Accelerator to invest in AI, Cyber & big data global start-ups and co-chairs the EBAN E-Xcelerator. Graduated from Cambridge University in Engineering and holds an MBA from London Business School and the Wharton School. Board member & investor in several companies. International judge and umpire in the sailing world for major international events.
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PRODANOVIC Selma
invest.austria, AUSTRIA
Named Startup-Grande-Dame by the media and elected “TOP 100: Europe’s most influential women in the startup & VC space” in 2022, Selma is an internationally celebrated keynote speaker and thought leader. She is passionate about empowering people and creating a better future. In the last 20 years, she considerably shaped the startup and angel investing ecosystem across Europe. Global media in over 40 countries (Forbes, Financial Times, Elle, Aljazeera, Bloomberg Adria) covered her expertise and activities.
She is the founder & Board Member of the global SDG platform 1MillionStartups and the Austrian Angel Investors Association. She advised and supported hundreds of startups, hosted the “EBAN- Masters of Angel Investing” interview series with the best business angels in Europe, authored two books, and is lecturing entrepreneurship at universities. Besides her passion for entrepreneurship, she is a fervent advocate for female empowerment and mental health. Above all, Selma is happily married to her first love and is the proud mother of two fantastic young adults.
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ROUHANA Nicolas
IM Capital, LEBANON
Dr. Nicolas Rouhana (PhD) is currently the Chairman and CEO of IM Fndng, managing IM Capital & IM Ventures funds of $60M, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee and Technical Assistance to businesses and investors in Lebanon. The funds co-created the first Seed accelerator SpEED@BDD in Lebanon, created and managed 5 business angel groups with more than 135 angel investors, trained more than 65 mentors, invested in more than 45 startups, leveraged more than $40M matching private capital, and created and maintained more than 800 jobs.
Between 2002 & 2015, Nicolas was the Executive Director of Berytech, a leading Technology Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon. We was also board member of EBN (European Business Network). He is currently President of the Internet Society-Lebanon Chapter and the Chairman of Speed@BDD accelerator, and board member of Berytech and several Lebanese technology companies.
Nicolas has a Telecommunications Engineering degree from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, a PhD in Networking Systems from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and an EDP graduate from INSEAD, France.
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SAI Caroline
Angels Santé, FRANCE
Caroline is of French-American background and educated both in the US and France. After a master’s degree in International Business, she gained extensive business and Communication experience in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She is currently the Operations Manager of Angels Santé, the largest business angel network in Europe solely dedicated to healthcare and well as the Head of the EIT Health Investor Network operated by Angels Santé. This European network dedicated to equity investment in healthcare brings together Healthcare investors and pre-qualified healthcare European startups raising between 500 K to 10 M €. She represents Angels Santé on the EBAN Board.
Caroline, who is passionate about early stage investment and the power of networking, is now based in Paris.
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SAKUS Rita
Lithuanian Business Angel Network, LITHUANIA
Rita is an experienced investor, co-founder of the Lithuanian Business Angel Network (LitBAN), a board member of the European business angel network (EBAN), and an active mentor in the European startup ecosystem. She is a Canadian-Lithuanian and has a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston and an executive education certificate from Harvard University all with a sharp focus on innovation and high tech. Her colourful career led her to great corporations such as Texas Instruments, Nortel Networks, Transcom Worldwide and others. While working with Venture Capital in Israel twenty years ago, she couldn’t help but notice parallels between there and Lithuania vis a vis innovation and incredibly bright talent. Shortly thereafter she moved to Lithuania and taught seminars at the International School of Management in her first years in Vilnius on Venture Capital and building innovative startups. Startups are her passion since the start of her career led by great professors of entrepreneurialism. She is a certified scuba instructor and enjoys singing a bit of jazz from time to time.
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SHALLAL Audra
Corenvest, FINLAND
Audra Shallal is an expert in Women’s Entrepreneurship and Angel Investment in the EMEA region. She promotes Entrepreneurship and Angel Investing through Programs, Mentoring, Business Plan Competitions, Business Angel Networks and Women’s Economic Empowerment within the EU and the MENA region. She consults for international organizations such as OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and the European Commission, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship to the Grandes Ecoles such as ENSCP, X, ParisTech, CELSA. Audra has played a key role in launching the Enterprise Financing Network within the MENA-OECD Investment Programme which creates a unique platform to connect entrepreneurs, financiers, research bodies and policymakers in order to improve the conditions for financing entrepreneurship. She is used to hold the position of Vice-President of the Femmes Business Angels and currently serves on the Board of BADGE (Les Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles), the Advisory Board of Tenmou-Bahrain First Business Angel Company, and the Paris Executive Business Accelerator. She is also Chair of the Mentoring Taskforce within the American Chamber of Commerce’s Women Leadership Committee and is an accredited Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and BiD Network. She is also a Member of the Board at NFBAN – Nordic Female Business Angel Network.
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SIMA Petr
DEPO Ventures, CZECH REPUBLIC
Founder of DEPO Ventures with 25 years of experience in M&A and Corporate Finance with emphasis on business valuation. Founder of Angel Network and Grouport Investment Fund. Petr has extensive VC and Investor exposure accumulated over the years.
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SIMONGULASHVILI George
Axel – Georgian Business Angels Network, GEORGIA
George Simongulashvili is an active angel investor and Axel – Georgian Angel Investors Network’s board member who actively applies deep insights toward driving high-potential startups to successful positions and promoting the culture of angel investing in the region.
He brings more than 25 years of incomparable experience in driving transformative change with growth across a wide range of industries. George is a founding partner of GEC Consulting, leading more than 100 impactful projects that have navigated businesses within Georgia and Central Asia toward sustainable growth and competitive advantage. With recognized strategic foresight and hands-on approach, George has gained a reputation for creating measurable success in business process optimization, digital transformation, financial management and strategic planning. He was founding partner of first internationally accredited business school/university in Caucasus (Caucasus School of Business, Caucasus University) largely contributing to the development of new generation of managers and entrepreneurs in the country of Georgia. His collaborations with international organizations like EBRD, USAID, and UNDP underpin his commitment to creating innovation and scalability at the global level.
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SOSSO Ian
Monte Carlo Capital, MONACO
Ian Sosso, winner of EBAN’s “best European early stage award” in 2019, is the founder of Monte Carlo Capital (MCC), a group of business angels, UHNWI and family offices investing in Europe and the US in early stage deep tech and highly disruptive businesses.
MCC combines the best features of business angels and venture capital: a global group of sophisticated investors and family offices capable of taking businesses from seed all the way to exit, providing financing and helping management scale their businesses up internationally. MCC typically starts investing as pre-seed/seed, taking an entire financing round, and leads follow-ons too.
Ian is also a managing partner of the Start Up Nursery fund, a fund dedicated to financing the creation of deep tech US university spin offs. Ian started his career in 1993 and previously worked in Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong with HSBC, UBS and JPMorgan, holding investment banking positions in trading, sales and financial engineering. Before founding Monte Carlo Capital, Ian was, until 2009, the regional managing director and head of capital markets in Asia for Commerzbank where he was managing all capital markets activities in Asia, including equity derivatives, credit, precious metals, foreign exchange, debt capital markets, as well as the treasuries of HK, Singapore and Shanghai.
Over the years, Ian has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences in China, HK, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Monaco. Ian currently lectures venture capital to MBA and finance MSc students at the International University of Monaco, and a regular speaker at leading business school. He is also a board member of the Monaco Venture Capital Association. Ian joined the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), in 2016 and recently won the best performing new member award at the annual conference of EBAN in Malaga. Ian is a Monégasque and holds a MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE)
With such an exceptional board in place, the future of EBAN shines brightly. The next few years promise to be an exciting period of growth and impact. In this spirit, we are proud to announce that we’re not only achieving but surpassing the goals set by our manifesto for a gender-balanced angel investing ecosystem—with 42% of our board now represented by women!
We are also pleased to recognize Janne Jormalainen as President Emeritus of EBAN, honoring his strong leadership and contributions during his presidency from 2020 to 2024. Janne joins the distinguished ranks of past EBAN presidents, including Peter Cowley (2018-2020), Candace Johnson (2014-2018), Paulo Andrez (2012-2014), Brigitte Baumann (2009-2012), Anthony Clarke (2004-2009), and Peter Jungen (2001-2004). Our deepest gratitude extends to Selma Prodanovic as well, who served as Vice President alongside Janne, for her dedicated service and commitment to EBAN’s mission over the past four years. Together, Janne and Selma have set a remarkable foundation for the future.
Thank you, Janne and Selma, for your invaluable contributions!
