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.

Mike started Cardinal Point Marine Ltd in 2011. With nearly 40 years in shipping Mike has served as Master, qualified as a solicitor, and held a variety of senior roles in technical, legal, assurance and commercial disciplines. His career has included global commercial operations roles with Union Maritime Ltd, Maersk Tankers, Glencore’s ST Shipping & Transport, BP Shipping and he was also the first Director (Maritime) of the UK’s Confidential Hazardous Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP).

Throughout his career he has been passionate about the safety and operational integrity of ships and the business benefits which result from first class operations. His consultancy is currently focussed on aspects of digitalisation, emissions controls and optimising organisations and processes.

Mike is a Liveryman and past Warden of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and a Fellow of the Nautical Institute.

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.

Mike started Cardinal Point Marine Ltd in 2011. With nearly 40 years in shipping Mike has served as Master, qualified as a solicitor, and held a variety of senior roles in technical, legal, assurance and commercial disciplines. His career has included global commercial operations roles with Union Maritime Ltd, Maersk Tankers, Glencore’s ST Shipping & Transport, BP Shipping and he was also the first Director (Maritime) of the UK’s Confidential Hazardous Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP).

Throughout his career he has been passionate about the safety and operational integrity of ships and the business benefits which result from first class operations. His consultancy is currently focussed on aspects of digitalisation, emissions controls and optimising organisations and processes.

Mike is a Liveryman and past Warden of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and a Fellow of the Nautical Institute.

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.

Chris McGrath is the Executive Director of Clearwater. He has been at the forefront of the UK's initiative in the design and delivery of "upstream" preventative risk management strategies. Successfully deployed throughout the 2012 Olympics against, technical and human threats, his approach helped shape the UK's CPNI Countering Hostile Reconnaissance (CHR) programme. Since 2012 Chris has been actively working with his former government colleagues in supporting clients with their Active Cyber Defence (ACD) strategies, including the insurance, oil and gas and maritime industries.

Sir Trevor had a successful career in the Royal Navy attaining the highest rank in the Service as an Admiral. He held many diverse leadership positions including 5 independent Commands from diesel submarine Captain as a 29-year-old to Aircraft Carrier Captain in which his final Command was the whole of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (36,000 people) as the Commander in Chief. He was also the NATO Maritime Commander with operational command of all ships and submarines from across the 27 NATO countries. He achieved the fastest promotion of any Admiral in recent history and his career path gave him not only leadership experience at sea but also across the highest levels of Defence, change management and procurement and acquisition, chairing or being a member of the most senior Defence Boards. He gained considerable commercial insight from being responsible for all shipbuilding, procurement and logistics as the first Chief of Materiel (Fleet) in the Defence Equipment and Support organisation (28,000 people).

Since retiring from the RN, Sir Trevor has taken on Chairman roles in commercial organisations including Clearwater a maritime technology company.

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, specializes on data protection, digital transformation projects, Internet of Things, and complex technology transactions, with a particular focus on automotive, industrial and insurance sectors. He covers a range of matters, including agile development, platforms and the data economy, cloud, cyber security, licensing and technology disputes.

Alexander is considered an "absolute expert" and "1 of 5 leading technology lawyers in Germany" on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious matters of technology law, including agile development, Big Data, cloud migration, transactional data protection and cyber security, digital transformation projects, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. His client base comprises suppliers and customers in a range of industries, in particular within the automotive, mechanical engineering and insurance sectors.

Alexander has been invited to the Federal Government think-tanks "Trusted Cloud", "Smart Data" and "Plattform Industrie 4.0", and is member of the Steering Group of the Industrial Data Space Association.

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.

Stephan Piworus joined Identec Solutions AG in June 2016 as Senior Vice President and is in charge of the business unit Marine & Ports including global sales activities. Prior to joining Identec Stephan amassed many years of varied experience by working in a range roles in both the industry (e.g. Eurogate, Airbus) and the public sector (e.g. Maritime Cluster Northern Germany). He was also the architect behind the establishment of a maritime cluster in Hamburg, which is today a thriving and well renowned organization. Innovation and change management has always been in the center of his attention throughout his career.