John Higgins is Immediate Past President of the BCS, the UK’s Chartered Institute of IT, Chair of the Global Digital Foundation, Chair of Sardina Systems Ltd and a senior advisor to global communications company, Burson, Cohn & Wolfe. He is an advisor to the European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge and chairs the Advisory Board of the European University, Eutopia. He was Director General of DIGITALEUROPE, the association for the digital technology industry in Europe, until April 2017, following nine years leading its UK member association, Intellect, now TechUK. The Queen appointed him a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for his services to the UK IT industry.

Brando Benifei is an Italian MEP serving his second term and is the Head of Delegation of Partito Democratico in the European parliament. He is Rapporteur for the Artificial Intelligence Act in the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).

Diva studied Genomic Biotechnology at La Sapienza University in Rome and holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Cambridge. She graduated from the Singularity University Graduate Studies Program on exponentially growing technologies at NASA Ames. Nominated by Forbes “Top 50 European Women in Tech”, Diva founded a successful robotics startups and was a curator of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum. Today Diva sits on the board of SECO and holds the position of Chief Innovation, Education and Marketing Officer at EIT Digital. ​

Roberto Cascella is Head of Sector "Technology, Supply Chain & Strategic Autonomy" at the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO). He coordinates the two technical ECSO WGs with a high impact on the European cybersecurity strategy: WG6 defines the cybersecurity R&I roadmap for trusted and resilient technologies, and WG1 focuses on standardisation and certification in cybersecurity with the mission to establish trusted supply chains at EU level. He also represents ECSO in different committees, including the SCCG established under the Cybersecurity Act. Before joining ECSO, he worked as Innovation and Research Project Manager and Research Scientist contributing to several EU projects. Roberto holds a Ph.D. (2007) in ICT from University of Trento, an M.Sc. in Telecommunication engineering from Politecnico di Torino and KTH Stockholm (2003).​

Rob is Director AI for Global Digital Foundation, and heads up the AI Assurance Club, a Global Digital Foundation initiative that brings together representatives from across the AI ecosystem to build trust and confidence in AI systems by operationalising AI assurance. Rob is also currently a Director of The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) – a long established academic society focussed on AI. He is part of the British

Standards Institution group ART/1 working on AI standards, and was a core team member of the IEEE committee preparing IEEE 7001-2021 – a standard for transparency of autonomous systems. His 2020 book ‘Transparency For Robots And Autonomous Systems’ published by the IET, encapsulates his research in transparency for autonomous intelligent systems and is cited within the IEEE 7001 standard.

Until August 2021, Rob was Senior Lecturer within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bath, UK. He taught robotics and AI, and was the Director of Studies for the Bath MSc programme in Robotics and Autonomous Systems.

Rob completed his PhD at the University of Bath researching in AI and robotics within the Department of Computer Science. His research focusses on robot action selection, robot transparency and the ethical considerations of building and deploying autonomous intelligent systems.

Rob has an entrepreneurial background, previously founding RWA, an international provider of IT systems for the leisure travel industry.​

Ray is an internationally recognised ICT Standardisation Expert and Senior Researcher in the ADAPT Research Centre in Dublin City University (DCU), IRELAND. He began his career in industry as a software engineer, software consultant and project manager with LM Ericsson, Software and Systems Engineering Limited and Siemens. Joining the School of Computing DCU in 1995 he has taught AI, IoT and Data Governance modules on Undergraduate, Masters, and PhD Programmes and is current (2021) Chair of the Graduate Diploma in Web Technologies. Ray is Chair of Big Data Value Association Standards Task Force, Team Leader of Network Development @ Gender Responsive Standards at the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe, Chair of the External Advisory Board of StandICT.eu, Chair of the External Advisory Board of HSBooster.eu, Chair of the Foresight Committee for EUOS, Research Partner in StandICT2023.eu, HSBooster.eu and ADRA-e.eu and Lead PI on ELITE-S Fellowship Programme for Emerging Technologies Standardization (Elite-Fellowships.eu). Member of Strategic Advisory Group for CENCENELEC JTC21 on Artificial Intelligence, Convenor of the Working Group on IT Governance for ISO/IEC JTC12 SC40. Ray has been a Digital Leader with World Economic Forum since 2016 and was appointed to the IEEE European Public Policy Committee on ICT in 2019 as the AI WG Lead for IEEE EPPC. Ray was also appointed in 2020 to the OECD Network of Experts (ONE AI) and is currently (since 2021) the Director of the European Observatory for ICT Standards (EUOS). Ray was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Big Data Value Association (2022) and appointed Vice President of the European Academy for Standardisation (2022).

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Ten years ago, in 2012, there was a Big Bang in AI. Deep learning made AI lucrative for the first time, and the West Coast Tech Giants became the most powerful companies in the world. Moore's Law is not dying, but evolving. Ten years from now, machines will drive, converse, and extend our health spans. Are we ready?

Klaus joined EUnited as Executive Director in January 2021 heading the Brussels office and running the association of the European Engineering Industries. He is also chairing the Orgalim AI Task Force since March 2022.

Prior to this, Klaus has worked as Director for Digital Technology and Innovation for over 8 years in the DIGITALEUROPE’s office in Brussels covering a broad range of issues such as product compliance, standardisation & interoperability, research & Innovation, mobile terminals, accessibility, consumer and audio-visual policies and digital technologies.

From 2008 to 2012 Klaus worked as Operations Director for ESMIG, the European Smart Metering Industry group. This is the association for providers and manufacturers of smart metering and grids solutions who aim to modernize Europe’s energy networks and to offer new energy services to consumers.

Before that Klaus worked as Trade and Consumer Affairs manager for APPLIA, the association for the domestic appliances industry, for over 6 years in Brussels.

Klaus holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Bath and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Technical University, Darmstadt.

Nicolas is an economist by training focused on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on geopolitics, the economy and industry. He is the Director for European AI Governance at The Future Society, where he studies and monitors European developments in the legislative framework surrounding AI. His current focus is on the EU AI Act and the various governance mechanisms needed to enforce it cost-effectively.

Nicolas is also involved in AI standardisation efforts, as a member of the International Standardisation Organization’s SC42 and CEN-CENELEC JTC 21 committees on Artificial Intelligence, as a Belgian representative. Nicolas is also an expert at OECD.AI Policy Observatory in the Working Group on Classification & Risk. Prior to The Future Society, he worked at the Brussels-based economic policy think-tank Bruegel on EU technology, AI and innovation policy. His publications have focused on the impact of AI & automation, though he has carried out research on global trade & investments, EU-China relations and transatlantic partnerships.

Nicolas completed his Masters degree (M.Phil.) in Economics at the University of Oxford with a thesis on institutional engineering for resolving the tragedy of the commons in global contexts. He is a native French-speaker fluent in English and persists in learning Dutch and Mandarin.