Steve Noel holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees In Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University.

He spent his first two years out of University in a Project Manager Development Program for the Department of Energy. He researched alternative and more efficient sources of Energy. In 1999, he worked on the 3G packet core at Nortel Networks. Before leaving, he held the position of Senior Manager for Enhanced Packet Core Development for the emerging 4G network and completed a one year Leadership Edge program working in all levels of Nortel Networks. In 2009, he came to Thales where he has been for the last 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Satcom Department at Thales, where he currently holds the position of Product Line Director, Satcom Solutions.

Biography pending.

Dana Jongens is Safety Services Manager at Inmarsat Maritime, responsible for ensuring Inmarsat's continued provision of consistently high-quality satellite communication services for maritime safety of life at sea and maritime security taking advantage of new and innovative technical developments in these specific areas. Every single day, hundreds of thousands of seafarers place their trust in Inmarsat’s safety services, knowing that it will be there when it matters most. As part of her role, Dana supported the successful application of Fleet Safety for GMDSS Recognition.

Dana has over 10 years of experience in the maritime industry and before joining Inmarsat Dana held business development positions at various organisations within the port of Rotterdam and London. Dana has a Master’s degree in International Business from Tilburg University and studied at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo. She resides in the United Kingdom and is based at Inmarsat’s London headquarters.

Editor of Digital Energy Journal and Software for Domain Experts; conference producer for Digital Energy Journal, Finding Petroleum, Tanker Operator and Carbon Capture Journal; managing director of Future Energy Publishing, which runs Digital Energy Journal, Finding Petroleum, Carbon Capture Journal and Tanker Operator magazine, marketing manager Petromall, support conference organiser, Digital Ship.

Also co-author of "Your Situation Awareness - how digital technology can make it better" published Sept 2017

Before joining KNL Networks Martin was VP Business Development at Inmarsat. He has been working in sales executive positions in the field of maritime at Scan Antenna, Thrane & Thrane and ShipServ being responsible of building and managing global sales and commercial operations.

Joe Apa is Vice President for Maritime, Central, Northern Europe, and the US for Speedcast, based in the United Kingdom.

Qualifying as a Radio Officer from Wray Castle College of Marine Electronics and Communications Engineering, Mr Apa has over 25 years’ experience in the Satellite communications industry, including senior positions at TrustComm, Inmarsat and Stratos.

While at Inmarsat, Mr Apa held the position of Vice President of Maritime Sales Asia, and contributed in a successful period of year on year growth in the region. Before that, Mr Apa spent 15 successful years at Stratos, covering roles as Director, Enterprise and Government for UK and Americas, and ultimately as Vice President of the Global Maritime Business, before the successful acquisition of Stratos by Inmarsat in 2009.

Since joining Speedcast, Mr Apa has focused on improving the regional reach, and Speedcast experience to the customer base, while actively engaging with the team to increase the awareness of the new Speedcast network plans and Value Added service offering to the market.

Dana Jongens is Safety Services Manager at Inmarsat Maritime, responsible for ensuring Inmarsat's continued provision of consistently high-quality satellite communication services for maritime safety of life at sea and maritime security taking advantage of new and innovative technical developments in these specific areas. Every single day, hundreds of thousands of seafarers place their trust in Inmarsat’s safety services, knowing that it will be there when it matters most. As part of her role, Dana supported the successful application of Fleet Safety for GMDSS Recognition.

Dana has over 10 years of experience in the maritime industry and before joining Inmarsat Dana held business development positions at various organisations within the port of Rotterdam and London. Dana has a Master’s degree in International Business from Tilburg University and studied at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo. She resides in the United Kingdom and is based at Inmarsat’s London headquarters.

Biography pending.

After completing his engineering studies at the RWTH Aachen, Steffen worked in various seniour managing positions at the Fraunhofer IPT Aachen and gained his PhD in production technology from RWTH. Before joining Wärtsilä, Steffen held various senior management positions at Hilti, Aker Solutions / MHWirth and Maersk in applied research & development and technology & innovation. Steffen serves also as member of the board of the German Association for Marine Technology GMT / Hamburg.

Wärtsilä’s purpose is enabling sustainable societies with smart technology. Acting as a venture client, the Wärtsilä Digital Ventures team is fostering the collaboration between the corporate world and the startup ecosystems around the globe within its venturing model. Within this venturing model, startups could engage with Wärtsilä’s business on different levels the e.g. by Wärtslä’s own SparkUp Challenges with co-creation opportunities in Wärtsilä’s Digital Acceleration Centres in Helsinki and Singapore or cross-industry acceleration programs in Singapore, Turku and Hamburg.

Recently at the startup event SLUSH Wärtsilä launched a lifeboat for buildings, a product that should never exist. The lifeboats could be used in severe flooding and rising sea levels caused by climate change - ‘Let’s change the course of the future’.

Frank is a Scientific Officer at Project Management Juelich (PtJ) in Berlin. As a member of PtJ's Maritime Technologies group he advises companies and research institutions interested in research grants provided through the Maritime Research Program. In addition, he is involved in project supervision and the administration of the >200 mill. euro research program.PtJ acts on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Before joining PtJ in 2016 Frank had designed decision support systems and been active in product management for approximately 11 years: While furthering his degree in naval architecture with postgraduate studies in Operations Research at NTNU in Trondheim/Norway, he designed a new tanker fleet scheduling algorithm for US-based ExxonMobil. As a freelancer he developed a crew scheduling algorithm and software prototype for a business airline in cooperation with Fraunhofer Supply Chain Services. At FutureShip / DNV GL he applied that experience in operational performance and product management in his position as Managing Consultant and Project Manager.

Studying and working internationally involves exposure to the values of different working cultures and the resulting challenge to think in new ways. Similarily, Frank appreciates teamwork and creativity as key ingredients for successful innovation and enjoys them as well when boating or in the outdoors.

Monique Giese is a Tax Partner at KPMG. She joined the firm in 2006. In February 2018 Monique took over the role as KPMG’s Global Head of Shipping. As KPMG's global lead shipping Monique is engaged in all issues the shipping industry is facing. In her view the biggest challenge of the maritime industry is the transformation from a traditional to a modern and digital industry. Monique is involved in digitalization and optimization projects, global structuring projects and M&A transactions. Further, she is also supporting maritime startups and acts as assessor at different start-up events.

Monique Giese has specialized in international corporate taxation since 2003. She is familiar with tax topics in the shipping and transportation industry and has experience of advising clients in that sector.

Biography pending.

Christian Roeloffs is Managing Director of Container-xChange – an online market place connecting carriers, leasing companies, forwarders and traders to exchange empty containers. Before, Christian was a Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, advising many of the world’s leading shipping companies with a particular focus on topics such equipment management, cost and procurement optimization as well as operational efficiency. Christian holds a MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics where he focused on corporate finance and financial modelling. Before joining BCG he spent some time in Corporate Turnaround, helping clients survive through their most difficult times through both operational and financial restructuring.

Svein Ringbakken is the CEO of The Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance (DNK). Before assuming the role as CEO in 2011, he was held the position as Insurance Director at from 2004-2011.

Ringbakken is an attorney and worked for as General Counsel and Deputy Managing Director at INTERTANKO in the US, UK and London before joining DNK from 1991 to 2004.

Ringbakken has served as Chairman of the Central Union for Nordic Marine Underwriters (CEFOR) 2013-2015 and Board Member of the Norwegian Business Security Council 2015-2017. He has been a Council Member of DNVGL since 2011.

He is Chairman of Osprey Analytics AS an insurtech joint venture between DNK and Clearwater Tracking of the UK.

Alexander is a highly reputed lawyer within the IT, digital transformation and privacy sphere, with a clear international vision to develop his clients' businesses.

Alexander Duisberg is a partner of Bird & Bird in Munich, handling commercial, digital transformation and data protection issues. He is a member of our International Tech & Comms Sector Steering Group and leads our Software & Services industry initiative.

Alexander is considered a leading expert in matters of digital transformation, data protection and data security.

Alexander is an appointed and practicing panellist to the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre and is a member of the Federal Government’s legal work groups in the think-tanks projects "Trusted Cloud", "Smart Data" and "Platform Industry 4.0", and a legal advisor to the "Industrial Data Space". He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and contributes regularly to publications on technology-related topics. Alexander speaks German, English, Italian, Spanish and French.

Adrian is a business transformation director with more than 35 years' experience whose skills include strategic architecture, transformational business change, information and physical security, technical consultancy and business intelligence.

Adrian has worked in a number of sectors including water borne logistics, Commodity Trading, Energy/Utilities. He is a skilled negotiator, presenter, facilitator and mentor, and holds a track-record of bringing in projects on time and within budget.

In the maritime sector he worked for commodity traders, specialising in physical logistics. This includes both vessels and inland barges.

He has worked in cyber and physical security, with specific reference to the maritime domain. He has works with systems designed to be secure and protected. He has also been involved with protection of vessels in high risk areas. He advises on cyber security to the shipping industry.

Outside of work he has a keen interest in Astronomy and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

After completing his engineering studies at the RWTH Aachen, Steffen worked in various seniour managing positions at the Fraunhofer IPT Aachen and gained his PhD in production technology from RWTH. Before joining Wärtsilä, Steffen held various senior management positions at Hilti, Aker Solutions / MHWirth and Maersk in applied research & development and technology & innovation. Steffen serves also as member of the board of the German Association for Marine Technology GMT / Hamburg.

Wärtsilä’s purpose is enabling sustainable societies with smart technology. Acting as a venture client, the Wärtsilä Digital Ventures team is fostering the collaboration between the corporate world and the startup ecosystems around the globe within its venturing model. Within this venturing model, startups could engage with Wärtsilä’s business on different levels the e.g. by Wärtslä’s own SparkUp Challenges with co-creation opportunities in Wärtsilä’s Digital Acceleration Centres in Helsinki and Singapore or cross-industry acceleration programs in Singapore, Turku and Hamburg.

Recently at the startup event SLUSH Wärtsilä launched a lifeboat for buildings, a product that should never exist. The lifeboats could be used in severe flooding and rising sea levels caused by climate change - ‘Let’s change the course of the future’.

Biography pending.

Panellist to be announced.