Chairperson
![]() | Sylwester Janik | MCI ManagementSylwester Janik joined MCI Management as Venture Partner in 2008. Sylwester has more than 12 years experience in venture capital, strategic management of technology and new business development. Prior to MCI, he was Director of Strategy & Development at ATM SA, Polish IT stock listed company, where he also managed the company’s corporate venturing program (2006 – 2008) and among others – VicePresident of mPay – ATM’s portfolio company that launched a mobile payment service. During period 2003-2006, as Director of Business Development of Technology Accelerator within Lockheed Martin Offset Program and coach for technology start-ups and research commercialisation projects, Sylwester was instrumental in building and development of several technology companies. In his previous career, Sylwester also worked as project manager and strategy and management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, UK and Enterplan, Poland (1995 – 2003). Sylwester holds MA in Economics from the University of Gdansk and MBA in Strategic Management of Technology and e-business from the Cass Business School. |
Special Guests
![]() | Davor Hebel | Fidelity VenturesDavor focuses on technology investments in the European market. Davor currently serves as a Board Observer at Asset Control, Newbay Software and Seatwave. Prior to joining Fidelity Ventures, Hebel was co-founder and supervisory board member for private equity-funded Experia, based in Croatia. From 2000 to 2003, Hebel worked at McKinsey and Company, where he advised companies in the United States and Europe on issues in strategy and technology. Davor received a Bachelor of Science degree from Angelo State University, a Masters in Science in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a MBA from Harvard Business School. |
![]() | Morten Lund | Lund XYArchangel investor, serial entrepreuneur, startup ideologist and visionary. He has founded and/or co-invested in more than 40 high-tech start ups including Skype, the Internet phone startup bought by eBay. At 36 years of age, his current portfolio includes over 80 companies, from internet technology, through telecommunications, to health and energy. Lund has additionally established a category of investments in his portfolio entitled WILD – Worldwide Investments/Involvement in Life Development which is currently investing in companies within the areas of water purification technology, water turbine energy, landmine detection and hunger/obesity. He is one of the most active seed investors in Europe. Lund is a special member of Clinton’s Global Initiative (www.clintonglobalinitiative.org), he is a professor at Reykjavik University and frequent speaker at international conferences. His blog has more readers than a local newspaper, 40,000. Whilst venture capitalist Tim Draper (the investor behind Hotmail) calls him “brilliant” and VC Bill Tai describes as “a cross between Wile E. Coyote and Yosemite Sam”, Lund was recently well captured by an article which described him as “what you’d get if you took Ron Conway’s Web 2.0 savvy, mixed in the European sensibilities of Index Ventures, added a dollop of Tim Draper’s pioneering wackiness and marinated it all in RedBull.” Lund’s investment model merges angel and venture capital with incubator support catapaulting start-ups into existence. He believes: “Startups need help from smart people – not takeovers from smart asses”. To Lund, being an investor is all about adding value. He doesn’t over-think and he doesn’t let himself get bogged down by institutional processes. He just does. Quickly. He falls in love with companies, and does what it takes to help them grow. Tenacious, instinctive and viciously self-promoting, one of Morten’s secrets to success lies in his network activity which extends from honing the raw brilliance of young programmers to masterminding a sit-down with former President Clinton. He is not afraid to take risks and dedicates funds for high risk early stage investments. He is known for acting on the moment, focusing on people, timing, network and…luck hence the title of his blog: ‘Its all about Luck’. Recent activities include, co-founding Denmarks now largest newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, a free newspaper, where he intends to transform the nature of printed press today, merging this offline distribution with an attractive online presence. He also recently started 40+ companies under his boutique firm LundKenner and ignited international communications agency Hello Group founded 2006 and now employing 65 people, and currently the fastest growing add and media agency in Scandinavia. On top of all that Morten has started 3 funds – Chinese Property, Indian Tech Ventures and Middle East GreenTech Private Equity Fund.Recent exits include: VOIP star Skype (recently sold to eBay for $2.6 billion), Anti-virus consumer brand Bullguard, Web Agency NeoIdeo (sold to Leo Burnett), Chinese browser Maxthon with 72 million downloads, Orolix the fastest growing on-line company in Brazil, Commisions free stocktrading Zecco.com (75.000+ clients in 12months) PokerOffice the world leader in poker training.Within his WILD investment portfolio, he is currently involved with WaterStillar, a company for water purification techniques; IJoule, a startup working to fight obesity and Aresa, a company that uses genetically modified plants to detect landmines.At the heart of Morten Lund there’s something that drives him to go big. To Lund, big money means big power. It means Carl Icahn-style clout and activism. Something makes people listen to Lund, he has the clout, vision and disruptive ideas to fascinate and inspire. He will influence how we live, communicate, work and play tomorrow. |
![]() | Ludwik Sobolewski | Warsaw Stock ExchangeA graduate of the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (LLM) and the Pantheon-Assass University (Paris II) – doctoral studies. Doctor of Laws (LLD) and Legal Counsel. In the course of his career, Mr Sobolewski worked at the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University (1989-1995), in the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland (1992-1993) and as an Advisor to the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (1994).From 1994 to 2006 Mr Sobolewski was the Executive Vice President of the Management Board of the National Depository for Securities. As of June 28, 2006 – President of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Management Board. As of June the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the National Depository for Securities.Former Arbitrator at the Warsaw Stock Exchange Court and at the Court of Arbitration of the National Depository for Securities. Worked with the Bureau of the Government Plenipotentiary for Pension System Reform (1997-1998). Expert of many Sejm (Parliament) and Senate commissions. Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Exchange Centre. |
![]() | Rafał Styczeń | IIFRafal Styczeń is the main founder and the biggest shareholder of IIF. IIF (Internet Investment Fund) founded by Styczeń in 1999 was one of the first venture capital funds in Poland. Rafał Styczeń operated on the IT market as early as during his studies at the University of Science and Technology in Krakow. He is behind the success of Comarch, BillBird (Moje Rachunki), Inteligo and other companies. His knowledge and experience is the source of inspiration for IIF portfolio companies. Since January 2000, Rafal Styczeń is the President and CEO of IIF. From 2002 to 2004, Rafal Styczeń was the Managing Director of BillBird, a company which set up and operated an innovative network MojeRachunki, sold to Gtech in 2004. The MojeRachunki was an innovative technology for electronic payment of bills. The project was fully created by the Internet Investment Fund. In 1994, prior to founding IIF, Rafal Styczeń was among co-founders of Comarch and co- authors of the company’s success, as Comarch now ranks among the largest IT companies in Poland. Working in the capacity of Vice President of Comarch, he prepared the company for IPO and run R&D for Telecommunication Department and was the company’s President of the Board for two years before the Company’s IPO. Rafał Styczeń has a master degree in the Computer Science from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. In 1996, he graduated from the Post-Graduate Studies in Managing Enterprise Finance at the Warsaw School of Economics. |
![]() | Konstantin Urban | Holtzbrinck VenturesIn May 1998, Konstantin joined the Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, when he became the head of the New Media division. In 2000, all internet investments were hived off from the Verlagsgruppe von Holtzbrinck and consolidated to form the holtzbrinck networXs AG and Konstantin was appointed CEO. Since 2000 he and CFO Martin Weber developed holtzbrinck networXs to one of the leading German internet investment companies. Now that holtzbrinck networXs was split up into Holtzbrinck Networks GmbH and Holtzbrinck Ventures GmbH, Konstantin Urban – as well as Martin Weber – is General Manager of both companies. His operating focus is on building up Holtzbrinck Networks. At holtzbrinck networXs, Konstantin was not only CEO but also founder of the Parship GmbH, Europe’s leading high-quality online partnership service. Before he joined the Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, Konstantin was Senior Consultant at Gemini Consulting, Munich, and Trainee at Blackwell Scientific Publications in Oxford and Boston. Education: management studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. He holds a MBA degree of the Babson College, Wellesley. |