Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Laurent started his career in the Telecoms sector in North America, working for Qwest Communications (acquired by CenturyLink) and Telechoice, a boutique strategy consulting firm, where he advised Cisco, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and France Telecom. Back to Europe, he joined Gartner consulting in Italy to advise Telecom Italia, Vodafone and Telefonica on a variety of R&D, innovation, sourcing and new data offering initiatives. Laurent then joined the Hitachi group where he successfully launched and operationally managed businesses in the IoT, Digital/AI, and Energy Transition/Decarbonization sectors (EV, energy storage, hydrogen, energy efficient data centers) driving significant revenue growth across multiple ventures. From the Silicon Valley office, he built the corporate incubators and accelerators of the group, investing over $200m in new ventures, building up to $100M businesses and generating $ billions in enterprise value. Most recently he also managed the EMEA corporate venture office of Hitachi. Laurent brings a unique combination of venture investing and building, and business unit management across North America and Europe, along with a global network extending to South-East Asia and Japan. He served as a corporate representative and advisors in organizations such as the OECD-Business for Inclusive Growth alliance, CSR Europe and the AI for the Planet initiative. He holds and Engineering degree from EPITA (Paris), and MBA from the SDA Bocconi (Milan) and a Master of Public Administration from the London School of Economics. He fluently speaks 4 languages.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

As a Strategy and Business Development Executive, Patricia Kroondijk brings over two decades of leadership experience in venture building, corporate innovation and finance. In one or her most recent corporate roles, she directed Hitachi's Environment Business Division and Corporate Venturing Office, where she architected the successful launch of multiple ventures, including one that scaled to $250M in revenue. Her strategic oversight has delivered consistent growth across portfolios, including a $48M revenue expansion in clean technology and the successful deployment of a $150M ventures fund.

Patricia's executive network spans across Silicon Valley, Europe and Japan. As a trusted C-suite advisor, she has built and led high-performing teams across multiple Fortune 500 companies, consistently delivering transformative results in highly regulated industries. Patricia serves on multiple advisory boards and regularly speaks at global conferences. She holds an MSc in Financial Management and currently mentors at prestigious institutions including Creative Destruction Labs at Oxford, ">>Venture>>", and EIT Climate-KIC.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

After having started his career as a researcher in Computer Science in massive parallel processing systems and system modelling, Carlo worked in strategic consulting for Accenture, Hitachi and Value Team, focusing on the Telecom sector as well as the business value of IT solutions. This led him to take on CEO and Managing Director positions for corporates and listed companies in South America and then manage a small Europe-Latam private equity fund focused on targeting Telcos, Energy, Utilities, and Real Estate companies. More recently Carlo founded H2D, a hydrid hydrogen and battery-based energy storage innovative startup targeting the residential, commercial and industrial building sectors. In his career, Carlo has secured sales deals with values going up to 100M€, managed more than 1.000 people, closed M&A deals up to a 500M€ value, founded 3 companies working in 10 countries. He fluently speaks 6 languages.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Vincent Franceschini is a highly accomplished strategist and technologist with extensive enterprise and industry experience. With a pioneering market-in approach to open innovation, he has been instrumental in enabling and tracking what makes innovation successful for businesses, users, vendors and service providers across the European, North American and Asian markets. With a strong background in data infrastructure and data intelligence, notably serving as Chief Research and Innovation Officer in the Hitachi Group for over 20 years, Vincent has advised numerous organisations around the world, from small start-ups to large international corporations, across a wide range of sectors including IT/digital, manufacturing, heavy industries and telecoms. Following his extensive work on industry standards and best practices, Vincent has been awarded the title of Chairman Emeritus by the SNIA. A lateral thinker and trailblazer, he is currently exploring how to give ClimateTech innovations the best chance of success through new business developments. A rugby enthusiast and passionate skier, Vincent enjoys mountain biking and reading novels in his spare time.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Vincent Poizat is an investment specialist with over 25 years of experience in corporate finance, M&A, and venture capital. After discovering M&A as a programme manager at BHP, he moved to Asia where he advised large corporations on M&A for over 15 years, after which he launched the Corporate Venture Capital advisory services at Deloitte in Japan. As part of Silicon Valley-based Mach49, he worked as Partner-in-Residence with several corporate venture capital funds focused on sustainability and Green Tech. Vincent is passionate about sustainability in all aspects, including in venture capital where he champions a rational and ethical approach. In his free time, Vincent is a life-long practitioner of mixed martial arts.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Olga began her career at a Swiss-based startup accelerator, focusing on fintech, lifetech, and proptech/smart city sectors. She supported 30 companies annually in refining their business models, preparing for Seed investment rounds, and facilitating discussions with corporates to establish proof of concepts. She then transitioned to venture capital, investing in 22 deep-tech startups at pre-seed and seed stage over a two year period. Her expertise spans the entire investment lifecycle, from deal flow and due diligence to portfolio management.
Olga also deepened her knowledge in hydrogen, smart cities, infrastructure, and clean energy through her work in corporate venturing. Passionate about technology and sustainability, she is dedicated to driving impactful innovation. In her free time, she enjoys walking with her dog, travelling and practicing meditation.

Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational global CEO with over 25 years of experience scaling large organizations, driving digital transformation, and delivering sustained revenue growth. He has a proven track record of managing complex, multi-billion-dollar enterprises across diverse sectors, including Energy, Manufacturing, Mobility, IT, and Digital Solutions. Adept at fostering innovation, he excels in executing strategic M&A and divestitures while being recognized for his expertise in ESG and sustainability, with a focus on creating social, economic, and environmental impact. Hicham served as Chairman & CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., where he led North American operations and achieved significant strategic growth. During his tenure, he oversaw a diverse portfolio of 72 companies, generating $14 billion in annual revenue and achieving a 28% increase in revenue over four years. He also led the creation of Hitachi’s business incubator for Digital and Green technology solutions. Previously, Hicham served as President & CEO of Hitachi Vantara, transforming it into a leading digital solutions provider. With extensive board and advisory experience, he has advised high-profile entities, including the U.S. Commerce Secretary.

An accomplished Executive Leader with over 26 years of experience, specializing in venture building, innovation, and strategic planning. He has a proven track record of scaling four startups and supporting corporate venture funds with due diligence on technology investments. Expert in new business incubation, digital solutions, and GTM strategies, with a strong ESG commitment, he is also a renowned speaker on technology innovations at prestigious forums. Holding degrees from IIT Roorkee and the University of Pennsylvania, along with Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, CSPO, AI, and IoT certifications, his expertise spans manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and more.