Women Startup Challenge 2017 Europe Advisors

Craig Newmark is a Web pioneer, philanthropist, and a leading advocate on behalf of trustworthy journalism, veterans and military families, women in tech, and other civic and social justice causes. In 2017, he became a founding funder and executive committee member of the News Integrity Initiative, administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which seeks to advance news literacy and increase trust in journalism.

In 2016, he created Craig Newmark Philanthropies to promote investment in organizations that effectively serve their communities and drive broad civic engagement at the grassroots level. Amid growing concerns about the proliferation of “fake news” in the context of the presidential campaign, one of the foundation’s first donations went to the Poynter Institute to create the Craig Newmark Chair in Journalism Ethics. Newmark is widely credited for his leadership in promoting “news we can trust.”

Craig serves on the board of directors of a range of nonprofits including Blue Star Families, Center for Public Integrity, Girls Who Code, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Poynter Foundation, Sunlight Foundation, VetsInTech, and Women in Public Service Project. He also serves on the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review. He serves on the advisory board of nearly twenty other nonprofit organizations including Donors Choose, EFF, New America Foundation, Voto Latino, Wikimedia Foundation, Women Who Tech, Consumer Reports, and many others.

In 1995, Craig started curating list of San Francisco arts and technology events he personally emailed to friends and colleagues. People were soon calling it “Craig’s List” and when Craig turned it into a company he monetized minimally, opting for a business model that prioritized “doing well by doing good.” Today more than 5 billion ads have been posted on the site, the vast majority for free. Craig has not been involved in management since 2000.

In 2015, craigslist received an award from the FBI in recognition of its undisclosed cooperation with the bureau in combatting human trafficking. Craig was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2013 he was named “Nerd-in-Residence” by the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation.

Craig communicates regularly through his own blog at craignewmarkphilanthropies.org and through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Medium. He also travels the country speaking about issues and appearing on behalf of organizations he supports.

Stéphanie Hospital is the Founder and CEO of OneRagtime, a new generation venture platform, advisory and studio focused on investing in and scaling early stage European startups in both Europe and the United States and working closely with Corporates. Prior to this, Stéphanie was the Executive Vice President of Orange Digital, the Digital & New Growth Business Unit. She has an extensive international and management background in the digital, telecommunication and advertising sectors with a proven track record in setting up and growing new ventures, investing, building best-in-class teams and forming international partnerships. Stéphanie is founding member of Level 39, the leading tech accelerator in London. And she was an Executive Director at Dailymotion, as well as Vice Chairman for IAB Europe. Stéphanie graduated from Grenoble Ecole de Management, and has recently been selected as part of the 50 most inspiring women in tech in Europe.

Jimmy Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as the founder of Wikimedia Foundation, the charity which operates Wikipedia.org, and as the co-founder of Wikia.com. Wales received his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Auburn University and his Master’s in Finance from the University of Alabama. During his academic career, he published an academic paper, “On the pricing of Index Options when all the underlying assets follow a lognormal diffusion”. Before he started his career as an Internet entrepreneur, he worked as a futures and options trader in Chicago, trading mostly short-term interest rate derivatives and currency futures. In 2007, The World Economic Forum recognized Wales as one of its Young Global Leaders. This prestigious award acknowledges the top 250 young leaders for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society, and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. In addition, Wales received the “Time 100 Award” in 2006, as he was named one of the world’s most influential people in the “Scientists & Thinkers” category. He was appointed a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2005, and in 2006, he joined the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization Creative Commons. In January of 2001, Wales started Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Today, Wikipedia and its sister projects are among the top five most visited sites on the Web. In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, CA, to support Wikipedia.org. The Foundation, now based in downtown San Francisco, boasts a staff of close to 150 focusing on fundraising, technology, and programming relating to the expansion of Wikipedia. Wales now sits on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, and continues to act as a key spokesperson. In 2004, Wales co-founded Wikia.com, a completely separate company that enables groups of people to share information and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Wikia’s community-created wikis range from video games and movies to finance and environmental issues. Wikia’s network is now ranked 16th most popular website according to Quantcast.com, and strong growth continues. In 2014, Wales was appointed Co-Chairman of The People’s Operator, a UK-based mobile operator that enables the user to donate 10% of their phone bill to a cause of their choice, at no extra cost to them. In January 2016, Wales became a non-executive director of the Guardian Media Group. Wales is currently living in London, where he intends to make his permanent home.

Adizah is a product-focused technology executive who has worked within the digital tech space since 2009. She is currently the Director of Marketing (EMEA) at Token, a San Francisco-based open banking fintech company. She was also part of the founding team at Level39, a London-based technology accelerator focused on fintech and cybersecurity products. Under her leadership, the Level39 technology ecosystem grew to over 200+ member companies, delivered over 7 hours of weekly educational programming and technology partnerships.

Adizah has been in the technology and startup ecosystem for the last 7 years and understands how to build relationships and strategies that add value to all partners. Adizah has worked on the rollout of digital products such as websites, billing systems, and mentor matching platforms. This work has led Adizah to collaborate with industry leaders such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, JP Morgan, UBS, Thomson Reuters, and Accenture.

Adizah has also spoken about the impact of technology, business, and finance at global industry events and conferences. In 2016, she was named one of the top 100 women in London by City A.M.

Mary McKenna, MBE, is a well-known Irish technology entrepreneur and angel investor. She co-founded the successful Northern Irish e-learning company Learning Pool following a long public sector career and a spell as a Silicon Valley dotcommer. She exited from Learning Pool in 2014 so that she could return to working with earlier-stage startups. Mary is interested in helping to start and grow indigenous Irish and UK tech companies. She is also keen to work with female and young entrepreneurs. She is a resident expert at the University of Oxford's Said Business School; one of the Entrepreneurs in Residence at the Northern Ireland Science Park in Belfast; a trustee of the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology; and an active member of Tech London Advocates. She has invested in six early-stage tech startups to date, three of which have female founding teams. Mary was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2014 New Year’s Honours for services to digital technology, innovation, and learning.

Suki Fuller is a startup advisor and globally recognized speaker, mentor and analytical storyteller. From national security to non-profits; China to Middle East, Suki is sought for her experience in the early adoption of emergent technologies and ability to translate the quantitative into qualitative insights. She is the CEO of Salaam Ventures and Founder of Miribure; a Strategic & Competitive Intelligence company. She is also a board member and NED to several startups. An Advocate for Tech, she is the Mentor Ambassador for Tech London Advocates (TLA) – Women in Tech Group. Suki was also recently named one of the 30 Change Makers for London Tech Week 2018.

Martin Bryant is a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator in the fields of technology and media. He works to help technology companies craft a narrative around their products and business. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of international technology publication The Next Web, and Community Editor at Tech North, where he shone a light on the stories of startups and entrepreneurs in the North of England. Martin has interviewed top technology executives onstage at some of the world’s biggest technology conferences like the Web Summit, SXSW, and LeWeb. He delivers engaging fireside chats and panel discussions, and is also in demand to MC whole events. He also delivers workshops on emerging technology, helping individuals and businesses understand how new trends and products will change the way they live and work. He often appears on TV and radio, and has given insight into technology news stories on the likes of BBC Breakfast, Sky News, You & Yours, and Good Morning Wales.

Lisa Stone is an investor, co-founder and c-level entrepreneur with extensive experience working successfully across sales, product, engineering, marketing, content and community to design platforms, programs, pricing and partnerships that activate millions of people and achieve defined business goals. As a social media pioneer, Lisa has used technology to create scale consumer movements and communities (25-127 million monthly uniques) on topics ranging from lifestyle to enterprise (BlogHer, Ellevest, Law.com, Women.com Networks, Fortune 100 clients, various advisory boards). Specialties: Storytelling with data, putting millions of dollars in the pockets of women, and advocacy for inclusivity in tech. Awards and honors include Fortune’s MPW Entrepreneur Award, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University. 

Rajeeb Dey, MBE, is the Founder and CEO of Enternships, a portal which has connected students and graduates to internships and graduate jobs in over 7,000 startups and fast-growing businesses. In recognition of his work, Rajeeb was named the “O2 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and the youngest recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013. Rajeeb is passionate about helping people connect to opportunities and flourish in their careers. To further this goal, he recently launched Learnerbly - a platform to help manage employees' professional development. Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011. He is a vocal supporter of social enterprise, serving as a Trustee of UnLtd - the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs - for over 8 years. Rajeeb graduated with 1st Class Honours in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford and was appointed the world's youngest Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012 at the age of 26. He was named one of the 1,000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard as well as being recognized in “Who's Who” and “Debrett's People of Today”. He was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's 90th Birthday Honours List in June 2016 for services to Entrepreneurship.

Robin is a seasoned European technology journalist and the Founding Editor of Tech.eu - the premier source of European technology news, data analysis, and market intelligence. He was formerly the European Editor of The Next Web, and before that a senior editor at TechCrunch.