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EU Texas Economic Leadership Forum – Digital Economy & Policy and Innovation as a Driver of Economic Growth
Tomas Ageskog • Alessandro Campioli • Peter Fatelnig • Grace Koh • Christine Perez • Christian Blackwell • Trey Bowles • Mitch Jacobson • Maureen McKelvey
November 4th, 2021 at The Debate Chamber at Old Parkland
NO charge for EACC members (2 tickets per company), for sponsors and consular corps but you must register as seating is limited.
Registration 8:00am
Welcome 8:45am – 8:55am
9:00 am: “The Digital Economy & the Future Path for Cooperation” – Economic Leadership Forum
- Tomas Ageskog, VP Digital Services North America, Ericsson
- Alessandro Campioli, Director, IBM Expert Labs Americas
- Peter Fatelnig, Minister-Counsellor for Digital Economy Policy, Delegation of the European Union to the United States
- Grace Koh, Vice President, Legislative Affairs, at Nokia
- Christine Perez (moderator), Editor, D CEO at D Magazine
10:15am: “Innovation as a Driver of Economic Improvement: Texas and Europe” – Economic Leadership Forum
- Christian Blackwell, Managing Partner, Opus Faveo
- Trey Bowles (moderator), CoFounder and President, InnoCity Partners LLC
- Mitch Jacobson, Executive Director, Austin Technology Incubator, University of TX
- Maureen McKelvey, Head of the Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Goteborg, Sweden; Incoming President of the International Schumpeter Society
Economic Leadership Forum – Speaker Biographies
Tomas Ageskog
Tomas Ageskog heads the SW and Services business for core and Digital Services business support for Ericsson in North America serving telecom operators. His team focuses on the 5G market launch and enabling innovation across Enterprises & Government. He is responsible for a BUSD business with 1200+ people onshore and as many offshore who design and deliver solutions at industry record margins.
A Swedish engineer, he joined the job market just as the wireless industry was about to take off and he thrives today as a global business leader in a sector which provides constant change, opportunity and has a meaningful impact on society. He is married to an American and has lived 7 years in Asia, 12 years in Europe and 4 years in the USA. He has two young boys and currently lives in Dallas, Texas.
Alessandro Campioli
Alessandro is a consulting executive focused on client success delivering value-based services and business outcome. He is a senior leader with multi-million P&L experience in the Software & Services IT business, healthcare, banking & financial services, insurance, retail & distribution, travel & transportation, and government. He has a track record of success in managing diverse cross-organizational teams and partnering with sales, marketing, and offering management to drive the best solutions and innovations for IBM and clients globally. He has presented at several conferences and public events and worked with external analysts. Alessandro lives in Dallas with wife and two children.
Peter Fatelnig
Peter Fatelnig is Minister-Counsellor for Digital Economy Policy at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and resides in Washington DC since 2018. Since his arrival, digital economy policy became a top-priority in the EU-US relations. He – with a small team – covers all aspects of the broader conversation of digital tech in society and economy. A senior manager at the European Commission since 1998 he is committed to a positive European vision of a society and economy driven by technology. Prior to the EU he worked on international assignments for the strategy consulting firm American Management Systems, and for the European Space Agency, in the Netherlands. Peter holds a Master degree in Communication Engineering from the University of Technology in Graz, Austria, and is a senior member of the IEEE. He is married and has raised two daughters.
The EU Delegation was first established in Washington, DC in 1954 and now represents the European Union across the United States. It has expanded to host staff of the European Parliament Liaison Office, EUROPOL, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank and the European Air Safety Agency.
Grace Koh
Grace Koh is Vice President, Legislative Affairs, at Nokia. Before coming to Nokia, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, where she led the 125-member delegation in negotiating successful outcomes for U.S. spectrum and satellite policy. She has also served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology, Telecom, and Cyber-Security Policy. In this role, she advised the President and other senior White House staff on all matters pertaining to technology policy. Koh previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her primary role was to advise the chairmen and committee members on policy and legal issues arising in the telecommunications and technology sectors. Grace Koh has also held jobs in the private sector, as a partner in the Telecom Law Group at DLA Piper LLC and also as Policy Counsel at Cox Enterprises, Inc.’s Public Policy Office. She began her legal career at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Christine Perez
Christine Perez is the editor of D CEO, the business title of D Magazine Partners, named the country’s best regional business publication in 2021. She also oversees its online news site and real estate and healthcare verticals, along with the Dallas 500 and other ancillary publications. A national award-winning journalist, Christine has covered the Dallas-Fort Worth market since 2000. She previously held editorial posts at magazines in Kansas City and Minneapolis and was a columnist for National Real Estate Investor. Christine serves as president-elect of the Alliance of Area Business Publishers, whose members reach 1.2 million professionals in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Christian Blackwell
Christian is Managing Partner of Opus Faveo Innovation Development, where he has a particular interest in the challenges of innovation for universities, governments, and larger corporates.
Prior to Opus Faveo, Christian was a founder and investor in several start-up companies, an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in New York and London, and treasurer for the international operations of GTE/Verizon. His industry experience includes energy, telecommunications, technology, financial services, natural resources, education and infrastructure. Christian has led transactions of well over US$ 1 billion in size, mostly cross-border in nature, and he has a large amount of experience in emerging markets. He has conducted business in over 40 countries, and he speaks 4 languages.
Christian has a BA in political science and international affairs from Rice University and an MBA in international finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He was accepted to Rice at age 15, and he earned both degrees by age 21. In addition to innovation, he is interested in international political economy and the performing arts. He currently is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, the American Council on Germany (New York), the Atlantik-Brücke (Berlin), the George W. Bush Institute Working Group on North American Competitiveness, the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Ft. Worth, the John Tower Center for Political Studies, and the SMU Cox School Associate Board.
Trey Bowles
Trey Bowles is the CoFounder and President of InnoCity Partners LLC, a boutique consulting firm focused on supporting cities/municipalities, corporations, and innovators working to develop innovative solutions for their communities that support and create the best place for their citizens to live, work, and play. Trey cofounded and is now the Executive Chairman of the Dallas Entrepreneur (DEC) Center where he recently stepped out of his role as CEO. Bowles cofounded and launched the Dallas Innovation Alliance, a public partnership to develop a Smart Cities initiative for the City of Dallas. Bowles is cofounder and Chairman of the Mayor’s Star Council which is created with City of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to engage culturally diverse and civically minded group of young professions to make impact on the city. Trey launched an entrepreneurship department at SMU in the Meadows School of Arts where he still serves as an adjunct professor and most recently Bowles helped relaunch the next stage of the Startup America Partnership as the Startup Champions Network. SCN is national network of professional ecosystem builders working together to support entrepreneurs in their local regions. Most recently Bowles was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) as a special government employee by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Bowles, a serial entrepreneur, having built numerous organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit space, lives in Dallas, TX with his bride and three kids.
Mitch Jacobson
Mitch Jacobson is the Executive Director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin. He leads three distinct organizations under the Office of the Vice President of Research. The Austin Technology Incubator is all about building companies, NSF SW I-Corps Node assists faculty and researchers in commercializing their inventions and the Blackstone LaunchPad (powered by TechStars) focuses on UT Austin students around innovation and entrepreneurship. At ATI he leads a team of professionals that consult with hundreds of early stage companies with the ultimate goal of getting them funded and commercializing their technologies / solutions. The UT Blackstone LaunchPad is the “Center of Gravity” for entrepreneurship at UT Austin for all students. And the SW I-Corps node covers UT Austin and partner universities including Texas A&M, MD Anderson, Rice University, and Texas Tech. Mr Jacobson’s career spans over 38 years and includes extensive experience in executive management, sales management, sales, marketing, operations, venture investing and entrepreneurial consulting.
Prior to starting at ATI in 2009, Mr Jacobson served in various senior positions at Tech Data Corporation, Dell Technologies and Tandy Corporation. At Tech Data he was General Manager and Vice President of Sales and was responsible for a $7b P&L. At Dell he served as Director of Rest of World, Director of European Sales & Expansion, and Director of Dell Direct US Sales. In-between Tech Data and ATI, Mr. Jacobson founded the first angel investment group in Austin, TX – The Eyes of Texas Partners which he ran with his partners for 8 years. Mr. Jacobson serves on the Board of Directors of the ACC Foundation, Pecan Street, and TFIC. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of The Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Corporate Directors & the Austin Forum. He has also received numerous awards including being selected as a Fellow of the World Confederation of Productivity Science, Austin Chamber’s Volunteer of the Year in Economic Development, Austin’s Mentor of the Year and Who’s Who in Energy.
Maureen McKelvey
Professor McKelvey has held high level positions in expert groups and written reports, for Nordic organizations such as VINNOVA, the Norwegian Research Council, and the Swedish parliament as well as more globally for the OECD and the European Union. Her research addresses innovation, entrepreneurship, and the ever-changing nature of technology, society, and economy. An underlying theoretical proposition from an evolutionary and Schumpeterian paradigm is that innovation and entrepreneurship are closely related to processes of creating, accessing, and diffusing knowledge and opportunities. McKelvey’s research focuses on the development and use of knowledge at the interplay between innovation management and entrepreneurship with science and engineering. She has published in journals such as Small Business Economics, Research Policy and Applied Economics as well as books with Routledge, Oxford, Cambridge, and Edward Elgar. Professor McKelvey has had high level positions in expert groups and written reports, for Swedish organizations as well as for the OECD and EU. Her research and results will greatly impact the transformation of society through knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship by opening up new scientific breakthroughs; building upon extreme methodologies recently developing in social science research; and pioneering new approaches into the unknown. She leads the Swedish Research Distinguished Professor Program on Knowledge-Intensive Innovation Ecosystems.
