Ms. Fellin is the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security (SGSR WPS). She is a WPS expert and peacebuilder who has worked as a Senior Gender Adviser with Women in International Security (WIIS), the International Affairs Institute (IAI) in Rome, NATO HQ in Brussels, as well as international consultant for UN agencies and other national institutions for more than 15 years. She was instrumental in establishing and coordinating the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN), a project promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy aimed at fulfilling the need to increase the number of women involved in peace-making efforts and at facilitating the appointment of high-level women mediators at local and international level.

Born in Bolzano (Italy), Ms. Fellin studied Conservation of Cultural heritage in Parma (Italy) and Museology at the Louvre, in Paris, and started her career working at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the field of cultural diplomacy. She later obtained her Master’s Degree in “Gender and Women Studies” from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, where she lived for almost 5 years.

Ms. Fellin is a strong supporter of female leadership and in 2016 she founded the Italian chapter of Women In International Security, an organisation dedicated to advancing the leadership and professional development of women in the field of international peace, security and defence.

Since 2017 she has been working with women mediators and peacebuilders across the Globe, supporting projects aimed at facilitating peacebuilding and mediation initiatives at the national and international level. She works on education and training programs about the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda and about “Gendered inclusive mediation and peace processes”. Furthermore, since 2019 she is visiting Lecturer on “Gender, Security, and Post-Conflict Reconstruction” at Durham University (UK) and she continues to mentor young women within the framework of WIIS’s mentoring program “Global Women Leaders”

Catherine Warner is the Director of NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy. She was selected in 2017 following 25 years’ experience in defence science and technology, studies, analyses, management, and operational test and evaluation.

Dr. Warner was the primary technical advisor to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation within the US Office of the Secretary of Defense; her mission was to ensure the office fulfilled its statutory responsibility on the oversight and reporting of test and evaluation results for major weapons systems to Congress and senior Defence Department leadership. She was an active participant with academia and government researchers developing modern statistical methods for defense test and evaluation. She was responsible for developing executive training for military and civilian test and acquisition professionals in the fields of requirements development, design of experiments, reliability management and human factors. For the past two years, she was the technical director for the international procurement of high power ground based radars as part of major upgrades to the US open-air test and training ranges.

In 2013 at the request of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Dr. Warner deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan for 16 months in support of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). She led a team of Information Technology specialists in advising Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on enhancing national communication capabilities for the security and economic growth of the country. The primary focus of this team included supporting the completion of Afghanistan’s National Fiber Optic Ring, Spectrum Management, and Cyber Security.

From 1991 to 2010, Dr. Warner was a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia where she performed analysis of operational tests for Army, Navy, and Air Force systems. She was an Assistant Director and the lead for Air Warfare. Her analysis portfolio included major aircraft systems such as the F-22, F/A-18E/F, V-22, and H-1. Earlier, she was the lead analyst for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems including Predator, Shadow, Hunter, and Global Hawk.

Previously Dr. Warner worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, attended the University of New Mexico and San Jose State University as an undergraduate and earned both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Princeton University.

During her career, Dr. Warner earned the NATO Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, DISA Exceptional Civilian Service Award, and the Presidential Rank Award.

James Appathurai was appointed to Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges (DASG ESC) in September 2021. As DASG, he works on policy development and implementation in the fields of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, cyber security, counter-terrorism, the security implications of climate change, and hybrid defence. Mr. Appathurai previously served as DASG for Political Affairs and Security Policy, as well as Special Representative to Central Asia and the Caucasus. He was NATO’s Spokesperson from 2004 to 2010. He served as Deputy Head and Senior Planning Officer in the Policy Planning and Speechwriting Section of NATO’s Political Affairs Division from 1998 to 2004. He served in the Canadian Defence Department from 1994 to 1998

Yves leads our global organization transformation services (culture, organization design, organizational adaptability, change, M&A). He is specialized in coaching leadership teams through transformation, enabling culture transformation, Organizational Design & Development and Talent & HR Strategy, working in business transformation contexts.

He has over 23 years’ experience as consultant, project manager and program developer for Organizational agility, Human Capital projects for multiple European, Japanese, American and Belgian multinationals and SMEs. Based on his experience in high performance coaching in sports, he has an affinity for leadership- and organizational development. Previously, Yves was Business Unit Director ‘Talent Management’ for Hudson BNL where he was involved from a content and management perspective with salary surveys, compensation & benefits, HR strategy, competency and performance management, career counseling, assessments, management development, organization and change.

Based on his experience in high performance coaching in sports he has specific affinity with leadership- and organization development with special attention for the balance between processes, structures and systems on the one hand and the more cultural and people-related elements on the other hand.

RAdm Nick Wheeler was born on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1970. He was educated on the island and in Dorset UK before joining the Royal Navy in 1991.

Trained as a Warfare Officer, he specialised as a Submariner in 1996. Serving predominantly in SSNs he also completed a number of strategic patrols in SSBNs, gaining a wide range of operational experience at sea and ashore. He completed a tour as a J5 planner in a Joint Operational HQ in Basra, Iraq in 2007, before completing staff training at the UK Joint Command and Staff College. In 2010 he took command of HMS TORBAY, the submarine he had qualified in 14 years earlier, and delivered a varied and challenging operational programme. A further command tour followed in HMS TURBULENT which included her final operational patrol before she was decommissioned late in 2012.

Staff roles followed in Portsmouth at Navy Command, managing a substantial budget, and then on the First Sea Lord’s staff in London, dealing with international relations with key partner navies in NATO and the Five Eyes. On promotion to Captain in 2016 he took up the post of DCOM NATO Submarine Command and ACOS SM to MARCOM, delivering day to day NATO Submarine operations and managing UK Maritime contributions to the Alliance. Working closely with CMRE and national authorities, he delivered a series of important NATO exercises, expanding the Alliance’s ASW capability in the face of growing Russian submarine activity in NATO’s AOR. He then completed an assignment to UK Strategic Command where he was responsible for the setting of policy and the delivery of new capability for the joint aspects of C4ISR. He was promoted to Commodore in 2019 and was seconded to different government department where he was responsible for intelligence support to military operations.

On promotion to Rear Admiral in July 2022, he became the Director of the NATO HQ Consultation, Command and Control Staff (NHQC3S).

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Nikos Loutas is the head of NATO’s of Data and AI Policy unit. The Data & AI Policy Unit is responsible for advocating, leading, and helping manage the responsible use of data and AI for NATO. It provides policy leadership and drive policy adoption, by establishing high-level frameworks and enablers to empower NATO to draw value from data, both open-source and generated by NATO and its Allies, with a focus on Alliance operations and missions.

Before joining NATO, he was a data policy officer in the European Commission’s Secretariat-General, coordinating the implementation of data governance and data policies. Prior to this, he was director responsible for Data and Analytics at PwC’s Technology Consulting practice in Belgium. He started his professional career in research, where he also completed a PhD in semantic web and data analytics.

Matthew McCormack serves as an Assistant Legal Adviser within NATO’s Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), where he advises on international law and the responsible development and use of emerging technologies. Prior to joining OLA, Matt worked in the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where he provided legal advice on the law of war, policies related to the development and use of weapons, and efforts to reduce civilian casualties. During his time working for DoD, Matt also served on the U.S. delegation to the diplomatic conferences that negotiated the Arms Trade Treaty and the U.S. delegation that conducts work under the auspices of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Guy Robinson joined the Royal Navy in 1986 as a warfare officer. His seagoing career has been primarily spent in frigates and destroyers, serving as a bridge watchkeeping officer, navigator and then Principal Warfare Officer. He has been fortunate to command three warships: the patrol vessel HMS GUERNSEY, the Type 42 Destroyer HMS EDINBURGH and the Type 45 Destroyer HMS DARING. In 2003, he commanded EDINBURGH during the combat phase of the 2nd Gulf War and was subsequently awarded a Mention-in-Despatches. In 2008 he operated from the Iraqi Khawr al Amaya offshore oil terminal as Commander Task Group 158.1, running operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf. In 2012, he took DARING on the first operational deployment of a Type 45 to the Middle East. From 2015 through 2016 he was the Deputy Commander of United Kingdom Maritime Forces, the Royal Navy’s high readiness battle staff. During that assignment he assumed duties as Commander of Combined Task Force 150, the counter-terrorism task force operating in the Indian Ocean. In his most recent command assignment (2017-21) he was Deputy Commander at Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) based at Oeiras, Portugal; a deployable Joint battle staff whose primary role is the integration of high-end U.S. maritime capabilities into NATO operations.

During assignments ashore, Vice Admiral Robinson has served in the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), working as the financial programmer in the above water equipment capability area. He also served on the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training staff as Commander Sea Training where he was responsible for the training of all Royal Naval major warships, from frigates to aircraft carriers, as well as a multitude of ships from both NATO and non- NATO navies. As a captain he served in the MoD’s Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre (DCDC) where he was responsible for generating maritime concepts and high-level doctrine. His most recent shore assignment (2013) has been in Navy Command Headquarters as the Assistant Chief of Staff (Warfare), where he was responsible for the assessment of the Fleet’s warfighting capability. He became Chief of Staff at Headquarters Allied Command Transformation in July 2021.

A small town Saskatchewan boy with aspirations of seeing the world, Major-General Christopher Zimmer joined the Canadian Forces in 1990. He attended Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, BC and then graduated from RMC in Kingston, ON, before his first posting to 5 Wing Goose Bay, Labrador.

After two years in Labrador, he was posted out west to 4 Wing Cold Lake as the Squadron Logistics Officer at 416 Tactical Fighter Sqn where he deployed twice with the fighters in support of operations in Kosovo.

From Cold Lake, MGen Zimmer was posted into 1 Canadian Air Division HQ in 2000. In 2004 he proceeded onto a full-time MBA program, followed by a 2 years posting in ADM (Material). In 2009, he was posted to Winnipeg to lead the implementation of the Air Force Expeditionary Concept and, in 2011, he was selected as the Chief of Staff for the JTF-Afghanistan Air Wing.

In 2012, he returned to 4 Wing Cold Lake for his command appointment as the Wing Logistics and Engineering Officer and in 2014 he was selected to attend the National Security Program at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.

MGen Zimmer returned to Ottawa in 2015 as a Colonel posted into the Strategic Joint Staff. Two years later, he assumed command of the Canadian Materiel Support Group. In 2019 he was promoted to the Brigadier-General rank and appointed to the position of Director General Support/ Strategic J4 within Strategic Joint Staff at National Defence HQ.

In 2021, MGen Zimmer joined the Assistant Deputy Minister for Data, Innovation and Analytics (ADM DAI) as a Major-General and assumed the position of Chief of Staff.

Lieutenant General (Ret) Gilles Desclaux is founder and President of the Consultancy Company GDC2. He is Defense Adviser to the Director of the Engineering University for Cognitive Sciences of Bordeaux (ENSC) and an active member of the Human Engineering for Aerospace Laboratory (HEAL) of this entity. He is also Executive Adviser to Thales Raytheon Systems.

His work has prompted the creation of a combined research team from ENSC and THALES, which studies the impact of Cognitive technologies and Artificial Intelligence on the performance of the military decision cycle.

In his last military assignment, he was the Commander of the French Air Defense and Air Operations. In this position, he commanded the French Initial Entry Air Operation over Libya in 2011. From 2004 to 2007, as Brigadier General, he served in NATO Joint Command Lisbon. Prior to assuming this position, he was Adviser to the Prime Minister’s Cabinet.

Additionally, he held a variety of command and staff assignments including command of a squadron, wing and airbase. His experience in wartime, include participation in operations in Chad, Central Africa, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Libya

Caroline has worked at the transformational edge of emerging digital technologies for more than 25 years, leading businesses’ strategic response to technology and executing on organisational changes, new market developments and new business model launches.

Following senior roles at Telefonica, Sodexo, O2 and the Digital Catapult, Caroline led Rolls-Royce's R² Data Labs for five years, delivering £400m of value back into the Group. During the pandemic, she pioneered the Emergent Alliance, which convened over 50 corporates, individuals, NGOs and governments for the first time to leverage expertise, data and resources to aid societal recovery.

Now leading the R² Factory founding team, Caroline drives the company’s strategic vision to create 'a safe space to do hard things' by blending unique experience, cutting-edge capability, thought-leadership and new ways of working to create new opportunities and business models.

Voted one of the most influential people in UK technology (Computer Weekly UKTech50, 2022), Caroline holds a Masters degree from Oxford and has an unfinished PhD in modern gothic literature and how we all use scary monsters to help contain social anxiety.

Jean-René (JR) Couture is a Canadian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professional with more than 30 years of experience both as a military officer and as a NATO civilian staff. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada with a degree (magna cum laude) in physics and mathematics.

JR served 18 years as a signal officer in the Canadian Army, where he held a variety of operational and technical posts. He saw the conclusion of the Cold War while serving in Germany, he deployed to the Balkans as part of the United Nations Force in 1992, contributed to the introduction of networked computers in the Army, project and programme managed command and control systems development and actively participated in NATO ICT interoperability programmes.

JR joined the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (now the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA)) in 2006 where he oversaw the Agency’s planning and execution of its portfolios of projects. He moved to the NATO HQ C3 Staff in 2011 as the Head of the Information Services Branch, where his responsibilities included heading the NATO Information Management Authority, leading and contributing to NATO's ICT policy and standardization efforts and establishing a Chief Information Officer (CIO) function for NATO. On 1 November 2021, he joined Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT) as Head, Federated Interoperability Branch, where his portfolio of responsibilities includes Federated Mission Networking (FMN) capability, development, CWIX, TIDE Sprint and TIDE Hackathon.

JR has a Master in Business Administration (MBA) in Information Systems from HEC Montréal and he is a graduate from the NATO Executive Development Programme (NEDP). JR is a PRINCE 2 (PRoject IN Controlled Environment) and ITIL v3 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) practitioner.

Mircea Geoand became NATO Deputy Secretary General in October 2019, after a distinguished domestic and international career. Mr Geoana is the first Deputy Secretary General from Romania, and the first from any of the countries that joined the Alliance after the end of the Cold War.

Mr Geoand was born in Romania on 14 July 1958. He studied at the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris, and he holds a PhD from the Economic Studies Academy of Bucharest. Mr Geoanda has served as a diplomat and a politician, and in 2009 was his party's candidate to be President of Romania.

• 1993-1995: Spokesperson of the Ministry of ForeignAffairs
• 1996-2000: Romanian Ambassador to the United States.
• 2000-2004: Minister of Foreign Affairs
• 2001: President in Office of OSCE
• 2004-2016: Senator
• 2004-2008: Chair of the Senate Foreign Policy Committee
• 2005-2010: President of the Social Democratic Party
• 2008-2011: President of the Romanian Senate
• 2012-14: High Representative of the Romanian Government for Strategic Economic Projects and Public Diplomacy
• 2012-2014: Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area

Mr Geoané is a strong advocate of transatlantic integration and has held a number of international positions, including OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2001 and personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Georgia in 2005. He is President and founder of the Aspen Institute Romania and has published extensively on domestic and international affairs.

In 2000, he was made a Commander of the National Order, The Star of Romania. He has also been awarded the French Legion d’Honneur and the Italian Stella della Solidarieta.

Mr Geoana is married to Mihaela, an architect by training and former President of the Romanian Red Cross. They have two children, Ana Maria and Alexandru.

He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.

You can follow Mr Geoana on Twitter (@Mircea_Geoana)

Dr Lutz Wenzel took office as deputy Director-General for Cyber/Information Technology at the Federal Ministry of Defence in Berlin in May 2019.

After obtaining a university degree ("Diplom") in physics in 1986 and a PhD in physics in 1989, Dr Wenzel underwent career training for the higher-level technical service of the Federal Defence Administration in the field of communications and electronics in Mannheim.

After his first assignment as a desk officer at the Bundeswehr Technical Centre in Greding, Dr Wenzel joined the NATO Air Command and Control System’s Regional Programme Office in Brussels in 1994.

From 1997 until 1999, Dr Wenzel served as executive assistant to the Deputy Director of the Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement in Koblenz and as the Office’s press spokesperson.

Dr Wenzel then held two positions at the Federal Ministry of Defence in Berlin: Between 1999 and 2001, he was a desk officer for the management of defence investments. From 2001 until 2006, he served as desk officer for budget and Bundeswehr planning with State Secretaries Dr Stiitzle and Dr Eickenbohm.

Subsequently, Dr Wenzel was delegated to the Federal Foreign Office to become a branch head at the German delegation to NATO in Brussels between 2007 and 2010.

Upon his return to the Federal Ministry of Defence in Berlin, Dr Wenzel became the authorised representative of the Director-General of Armaments at the Joint Operations Staff in 2010. In 2012, he was appointed Chief of Branch at the Directorate-General for Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support.

In 2015, Dr Wenzel began his most recent assignment as Chief of the Central Tasks Division at the Directorate-General for Equipment, which he held until assuming his current position.

Dr Wenzel is married with three grown children and lives near Berlin.

Juha Heikkilä is Adviser for Artificial Intelligence in the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, focusing on international aspects. He has been strongly involved in developing the Commission activities in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He led a unit which was instrumental in developing the EU AI strategy, as first published in the Communication on Artificial Intelligence for Europe, in the Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence and the ecosystem of excellence of the White Paper on AI, and engaging with the High-Level Expert Group on AI. He oversaw a significant funding programme on Robotics and AI, including the €700m Public-Private Partnership in Robotics. He was also setting up the new Public-Private Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics, which started in June 2021. Previously, Juha Heikkilä did computational linguistic research at the University of Helsinki, and he holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge.

Since September 2021, Robert is the Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment. He previously worked as Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, working principally on Emerging and Disruptive technologies and their adoption at NATO, counter-terrorism, and all policy and practical issues on cyber defence. Robert began his career at NATO Headquarters in 1995, having previously worked for the European Commission and leading his home region’s representation to the European institutions. His first positions at NATO involved relations with partners and evolved into a focus on designing, running and implementing the enlargement process. He was also the desk officer for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during this period when NATO increased its membership from 16 Allies. From 2003 he led the development of NATO’s relations with partner countries in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. In 2006 he was selected as a member of the Secretary General’s reform group, brought together to modernize how NATO works. In 2009 he joined the Private Office of Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen in the new position of First Deputy Director and subsequently worked for Secretary General Stoltenberg. Robert remained in that position until July 2017 when he assumed his current duties in the Emerging Security Challenges Division. He is married with two children.

Grégoire de Saint Quentin est âgé de 60 ans. Issu de l’Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr (1981 -1983), il effectue un cursus complet au sein de l’institution militaire qu’il quitte en 2020 avec le grade de général d’Armée.

Son parcours militaire est placé sous le signe des forces spéciales et des opérations interarmées. Au cours de sa première partie de carrière, il connait de multiples engagements opérationnels, le plus souvent en position de chef interarmées. Puis Il commande le 1er régiment de parachutistes d’infanterie de marine de 2004 à 2006. Auditeur de l’Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale en 2009, il est nommé général en 2011 et commande successivement les Eléments Français au Sénégal (2011 -13), l’Opération Serval (janvier à Août 2013), les opérations spéciales (2013-2016) et enfin l’ensemble des opérations interarmées de 2016 à 2020 comme sous-chef opérations de l’EMA.

Depuis septembre 2020, il met son expérience opérationnelle au service du développement des futures capacités de commandement des Armées, en particulier comme Vice-Président Senior de la société Preligens, spécialisée dans les solutions d’Intelligence Artificielle pour le renseignement et la Défense.

Le Général d’Armée (2S) Grégoire de Saint Quentin est Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur et Grand Officier de l’ordre National du Mérite. Il est titulaire de cinq citations, de la médaille des blessés et de nombreuses décorations étrangères.

Dr. Craig Martell currently serves as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) for the Department of Defense. His appointment as the CDAO brings extensive industry experience and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to the Department. Dr. Martell’s experience in AI/ML includes serving as the Head of Machine Learning for Lyft, the Head of Machine Intelligence for Dropbox as well as leading a number of AI teams and initiatives at LinkedIn, most notably the development of the LinkedIn AI Academy. Previously he was a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School specializing in natural-language processing (NLP). Dr. Martell has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and is the co- author of the MIT Press book Great Principles of Computing.

I am a graduate of the Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, University of Patras (1989), with an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London (1990) and a PhD in knowledge representation and information extraction from the Informatics & Telecommunications Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1995).

Following the completion of my M.Sc., I worked for approximately 10 years, in parallel with my PhD studies for some of these years, as a software developer, a lecturer in competence seminars on informatics, and – more importantly – as a research associate in various research and development projects, 2 of which (1997- 99) as a post-doc researcher at NCSR “Demokritos”. I was nominated as Researcher for the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications (IIT) of NCSR “Demokritos” (NCSR-D) in 1999, Senior Researcher in 2003, and Research Director in 2007.

I was elected as Director of the Institute in November 2018 and took over the position in February 2019. During my duty as IIT Director, I served as Vice President of NCSR “Demokritos” for 2 years (July 2020 – July 2022). In my duties as Vice President, I also served as NCSR Director from May 2021 till July 2021. Since December 2019, I am a member of the National Council of Research, Technology and Innovation (ESETEK). Also, since April 2021, I am a member of the National Committee for Bioethics & Technoethics.

My main research directions during the almost 30 years of activity in Artificial Intelligence research are knowledge representation, data management and analysis (initially focusing on text), Human-Computer Interfaces (initially in natural language).

Since the beginning of 2004 and till the end of 2019, I took over the leadership of the IIT “Software & Knowledge Engineering Lab – SKEL”. Due to my duties as IIT Director, I handed over SKEL leadership at the beginning of 2020.

Further information can be found at: http://karkaletsis.iit.demokritos.gr/wp- content/uploads/2022/10/VKarkaletsis-CV-en_September2022.pdf

Michael Frings is NVIDIA’s Senior Regional Manager - Federal and Defense. He is a former Officer of the German Armed Forces with the rank of Major. He took part in the ISAF3 mission and served as part of the Kabul Multinational Brigade in Afghanistan. After leaving the military, Michael worked for security and defense companies such as Astaro Internet Security, Secunet Security Networks AG, and Imprivata Inc. He joined NVIDIA in 2015. He represents the company on defense related issues in trade associations including the AFCEA International - Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, EUROBITS – European Competence Center for Cyber Security, BITKOM – German Digital Trade Association.

French Air Force
North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The nomination of General Philippe Lavigne to the post of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation was approved by the North Atlantic Council on 28 May 2021.

General Lavigne has accumulated a particularly diverse and robust operational experience. Having joined the French Air Force Academy in 1985, he qualified as a pilot in 1989, flew the Mirage 2000 during operations in the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq before assuming command of the 1/5 Fighter Squadron “Vendée” in 2001. He subsequently served within the Paris-based Joint Strategic Planning and Command Operations Centre (CPCO) where he contributed to the planning of several peacekeeping and humanitarian operations from 2003 to 2005.

After serving in the Planning Office of the French Air Force Staff, where he was tasked with issues related to space and European cooperation in the field of simulation, he was selected to attend the Centre for Higher Military Studies (CHEM) in 2008 and the “Defence Policy” course at the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN). He was appointed Deputy Director at the General Secretariat for Defence and National Security in Paris in 2009, where he served for three years dealing with a number of sensitive and complex issues in an interagency setting with multinational entities.

He served twice in high-level joint positions, first as the Information Director within the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces between 2012 and 2014 and then as Director of the French Chief of Defence’s front office from 2016 to 2018. Between those two postings, he commanded the Kabul International Airport with its 5000 staff and 57 nationalities and supervised the transfer of military responsibility for the airport to the Afghan civilian authorities.

On 31 August 2018, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, renamed as the French Air and Space Force in 2020, whilst under his command. General Lavigne was made a Commandeur in both the Légion d’honneur and the ordre national du Mérite, and awarded the Croix de la Valeur Militaire. He has accumulated over 2800 flight hours and flown 46 combat missions on the Mirage 2000. He is married to Isabella and they have three children. He continues to play rugby, a long-held passion, whose cherished values have inspired his motto: “Win as a Team”.

Summary

Eugenio is a Telco, Defence and Security industry executive with a broad international experience in Business Development, Negotiation and Deal Execution.

With over 15 years of military background and 16 years in the private sector, he founded and led the triple digit growth of CY4GATE SpA, a company active in the field of Cyber Intelligence and Cyber Security. CY4GATE is part of the Electronic Warfare company Elettronica Group where he has held various leadership roles, and it is listed on the Milano Stock Exchange since June 2020. He currently is the CEO at Telsy SpA and the Chief Public Affairs & Security Officer at TIM Group.

MBA and LL.M graduate, Eugenio is fluent in English, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

He practices Crossfit (he holds a CF1 Crossfit Trainer Certificate) and he is passionate about high intensity workouts. He is known to be a person with a very strong growth mindset.

With a data driven mindset Michiel van Dusseldorp facilitates the MOD NL’s Digital Transformation in de data domain. Together with the Chief Data Office (CDO) team he implements the MOD’s Data Science and AI Strategy by realizing the underlying Roadmap that focuses on high quality IT, data governance, R&D and a dataliterate organization. Furthermore the CDO-team is responsible for internal data policymaking and oversight of data initiatives. Before working at the CIO-Office, he was involved in the Belgian-Dutch procurement of four ASW-frigates

Caroline Bellamy is the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) first Chief Data Officer. She is responsible for delivering the transformation of Data use across the Pan Defence estate, recognising data as a strategic asset, second only to our people.  As Chief Data Officer, Caroline spearheaded the creation of the first Defence Data Strategy, establishing a paradigm shift in data use across defence, developing processes, governance and capabilities that support cross defence data collaboration and interoperability. 

Caroline's work involves her joining forces across the global defence data environment with strong links with NATO, Five Eyes and the Department of Defence. A core focus for Caroline is the development of data capabilities, skills and integrity within the next generation of data specialists. In addition, Caroline uses her platform to affect real cultural change, promoting diversity and inclusion at all levels.

As a result, Caroline has been named as one of 100 most influential people in data (DataIQ), top 20 Women in Data and Technology (Women in Data) and top 100 Global Data Visionaries (Truata).

Caroline's career to date within the data industry has seen her work within the FTSE 100 and the Public Sector. As an experienced board level executive director, she has led significant data transformations, delivering enterprise-wide data capabilities and helping her organisations unlock the power of data to realise commercial, economic and citizen benefits.

Lieutenant De Meyst Olivier graduated in 2015 at the Royal Military Academy as an engineer in telecommunications. He navigated for four years on one of the Belgian frigates as a communication and weapon systems officer. During these four years he participated in SNMG1 exercises as well as multiple anti-trafficking missions on the Mediterranean sea. After his period on board, he was assigned to the department of material resources for the naval component in Evere. He first worked on the replacement program for the future anti-submarine warfare frigates and is currently working as a project officer for the new Dutch and Belgian MCM toolbox capability. During his time in Evere, he followed courses on AI at the university of Mons and was given the opportunity to put his knowledge to the test during an internship of three months at the Center of Maritime Research and Experimentation in Italy. During this internship he worked on automatic target detection and classification on SAS data.

A Catherine Warner is the Director of NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy. She was selected in 2017 following 25 years’ experience in defence science and technology, studies, analyses, management, and operational test and evaluation.

Dr. Warner was the primary technical advisor to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation within the US Office of the Secretary of Defense; her mission was to ensure the office fulfilled its statutory responsibility on the oversight and reporting of test and evaluation results for major weapons systems to Congress and senior Defence Department leadership. She was an active participant with academia and government researchers developing modern statistical methods for defense test and evaluation. She was responsible for developing executive training for military and civilian test and acquisition professionals in the fields of requirements development, design of experiments, reliability management and human factors. For the past two years, she was the technical director for the international procurement of high power ground based radars as part of major upgrades to the US open-air test and training ranges.

In 2013 at the request of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Dr. Warner deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan for 16 months in support of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). She led a team of Information Technology specialists in advising Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on enhancing national communication capabilities for the security and economic growth of the country. The primary focus of this team included supporting the completion of Afghanistan’s National Fiber Optic Ring, Spectrum Management, and Cyber Security.
From 1991 to 2010, Dr. Warner was a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia where she performed analysis of operational tests for Army, Navy, and Air Force systems. She was an Assistant Director and the lead for Air Warfare. Her analysis portfolio included major aircraft systems such as the F- 22, F/A-18E/F, V-22, and H-1. Earlier, she was the lead analyst for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems including Predator, Shadow, Hunter, and Global Hawk.
Previously Dr. Warner worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, attended the University of New Mexico and San Jose State University as an undergraduate and earned both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Princeton University.
During her career, Dr. Warner earned the NATO Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, DISA Exceptional Civilian Service Award, and the Presidential Rank Award.