Senior Advisors

Senior Advisors

Adriel Lares

Adriel Lares

Adriel Lares is a current technology CFO who is actively involved with for and non profit board representations as well as startup guidance in the B2B S-a-a-S space.

Adriel serves Fastly inc. (NYSE:FSLY), a global content delivery network solution, as Chief Financial Officer since May 2016. Prior to that, Adriel was advisor and CFO at Lookout, Inc., a mobile security firm.


From 2010 to 2012, Adriel served as Business Unit Manager of 3PAR Inc., a data storage and information storage software company by Hewlett Packard’s Storage Unit that he had steered as CFO, Treasurer and Director of Finance for more than 5 years before. Adriel is also a co-founder of Memento Mori, a Napa-based winery.

Adriel earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Braxton Carter

Braxton Carter

Mr. Carter is the founder and CEO of Carter Companies focused on investments in the TMT space.

Mr. Carter previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for T-Mobile U.S until July 2020, and was responsible for leading the financial functions and logistics of the company. Mr. Carter was one of the key architects of the turnaround of T-Mobile and creation of the ‘Uncarrier’. He was also a key member of the Team negotiating and closing the acquisition of Sprint in April of 2020 and the acquisition of MetroPCS in 2013. Mr. Carter served as Vice Chairman and CFO of MetroPCS Communications, Inc., his second wireless startup, from 2005 until the merger with T-Mobile in May of 2013. Prior to 2001 Mr. Carter served as CFO of PrimeCo Personal Communications, his first wireless startup up until the combination to create Verizon Wireless.

Upon the creation of Verizon Wireless, Mr. Carter was COO and CFO of the successor entity of PrimeCo Personal Communications Inc. Mr. Carter also has extensive senior management experience in the retail industry and spent 10 years in public accounting. Mr. Carter was appointed to the board of Zayo Group in April of 2020, to the board of Assurant, Inc. in July of 2020 and previously served on the board of Research Now, Inc.

Mr. Carter is a certified public accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Karl Lamprecht

Dr. Karl Lamprecht

Karl Lamprecht is President & CEO of the ZEISS Group and became Member of the Executive Board of the ZEISS Group in 2018. Amongst others, he oversees the ZEISS Venture Board, Digital Innovation and Research & Technology. Previously, Mr. Lamprecht led the segment Semiconductor Manufacturing Technologies. Mr. Lamprecht joined ZEISS in 2005.

Karl Lamprecht was born on 19 November 1964 in Zell am See, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Innsbruck and graduated in 1990 (Mag. rer. nat.). In 1993 he obtained his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in physics from the University of Innsbruck. In 1995 he also completed an MBA at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Orna Berry

Dr. Orna Berry

Dr. Orna Berry is a recognized entrepreneur, scientist, policy maker and an industry executive with over 30 years of experience in the Israeli science, technology and venture capital space.

Her wide range of remarkable career achievements include serving as Israel's Chief Scientist and Head of the Industrial Research and Development Administration as the only woman to hold this position to-date, and taking on the position as Chairwoman of the Israel Venture Association after an active career as Venture Partner at Gemini Israel Funds. Throughout her corporate career, Dr. Berry has held several reputable senior management roles leading to being Corporate VP and General Manager of the EMC Israel Center of Excellence, and VP Innovation at EMC. She continued serving as a VP at Dell EMC and the GM of the Israel Center of Excellence following Dell’s acquisition of EMC.

Over the past few years, she has led national science and technology initiatives in the Quantum and Artificial Intelligence domains. A major cornerstone of Dr. Berry's career was the acquisition of her company, ORNET Data Communication Technologies, by Siemens AG in the first-ever acquisition of an Israeli company by a European conglomerate. Dr. Berry holds a BSc degree in Statistics and Mathematics from Haifa University, and a Master's degree in Statistics from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD in Computer Science of the University of Southern California.


Dr. Berry is an active advocate for women in technology and has received international recognition for her work on female empowerment in the greater business domain.

Dr. Rainer Hillebrand

Dr. Rainer Hillebrand

Dr. Rainer Hillebrand is an expert in Corporate Strategy, E-Commerce and Business Intelligence.

Dr. Hillebrand currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board Otto Group, Corporate Strategy, E-Commerce, Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Group IT.

Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Hillebrand began his career at his alma mater, the Army University Hamburg, at the Marketing Institute, and thereafter joined Otto as Head of Strategic Development. Dr. Hillebrand has been an Executive Board Member of the Otto Group since 1999 and has been Vice Chairman of the Otto Group for over a decade.

Fotis Karonis

Fotis Karonis

Fotis Karonis joined the Capgemini-Altran Group as Executive Vice President, Group leader of 5G and Edge Computing, in 2021.

Until recently, Fotis was the CTIO at BT Enterprise & the 5G Executive Lead at BT Group, driving 5G-digital transformation with customers in sectors such as intelligent manufacturing, healthcare, and transport & logistics. Prior to that Fotis was BT Managing Director of Mobile & Convergence, where he set up the 5G ecosystem plan for the deployment of the EE / BT 5G Network which went live in May 2019 - the first 5G launch in the UK and one of the first globally. Previously, Fotis was the CTO of EE from 2010 and lead of the technology integration of EE with BT Group in 2016. As EE CTO, he led EE to be the first operator to launch 4G in the UK in 2012, establishing the UK's best 4G Mobile Network since.

He was awarded Mobile Europe’s CTO of the Year in 2015. Fotis also has extensive experience in the aviation industry, being the CTO of the new Athens International Airport, a greenfield project that rose to a highly regarded European airport. He also worked as a consultant for other new major airports across the world. Fotis is a technology visionary, with a creative business mindset and passion for empowering teams to innovate, and drive amazing customer experiences.

Hassan Ahmed, Ph.D.

Hassan Ahmed, Ph.D.

Dr. Hassan Ahmed is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator.

He was most recently cofounder, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and CEO of Affirmed Networks. Founded in 2010, Affirmed Networks is the industry-transforming leader in fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile core solutions. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2020. Prior to starting Affirmed Networks, Dr. Ahmed was Senior Advisor at Charles River Ventures.

He served as Chairman and CEO of Sonus Networks for ten years during which time it grew from an
idea into the leading public company enabling the transformation of telephony to IP. Before
Sonus, Dr. Ahmed was EVP and GM of the Core Switching division of Ascend Communications
and VP Engineering and Chief Technology Officer of Cascade Communications. He has also held
key leadership positions at Motorola and Analog Devices.

Dr. Ahmed was also Associate Professor of Electrical Computer and Systems Engineering and
Associate Professor of Finance at Boston University. Additionally, he has guest lectured at MIT’s
Sloan School of Management. Dr. Ahmed is the author of more than 50 professional publications and holds a BSEE and MSAE
from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Helena Svancar

Helena Svancar

Helena Svancar is a Partner in the investment team at Verdane.

Prior to Verdane, Helena was the Head of M&A at Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications technology company, for almost five years. She has two decades of experience in investment banking and spent the last ten years at Deutsche Bank, where she was Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance Nordics.

Helena holds a CEMS Msc. in Finance and International Management from the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of St.Gallen.

Jay Eum

Jay Eum

Jay Eum is Co-Founding Managing Partner of GFT Ventures. GFT Ventures is an early stage frontier technology focused VC firm investing primarily in the US and Israel.

Jay brings over 20 years of extensive investment experience across both institutional and corporate venture capital firms. Jay co-founded TransLink Capital, a Palo Alto-based early stage venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs develop customer connections and partnerships in Asia. Jay was responsible for leading investments in AI, AR/VR, blockchain, cloud, and consumer technologies. Prior to TransLink, Jay was Managing Director of Samsung Ventures where he established and led the US venture capital operations for Samsung.

Jay started his venture capital career at Vertex Management, Singapore-based venture capital arm of investment firm Temasek Holdings. Jay received an MBA from Stanford University and MS/BS in Chemistry from Seoul National University. Jay serves as Chairman and Board Director of the Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA). Jay is also an active angel investor and advisor to several startups.

Lars Hinrichs

Lars Hinrichs

Lars Hinrichs is a successful tech entrepreneur and investor, passionate about all things digital and best-known for his work in founding XING. He is a current member of the Supervisory Board at Deutsche Telekom and is the founder and CEO of Cinco Capital.

Mr. Hinrichs launched politik-digital.de, an award-winning platform for politics and new media, at age 22. He experienced a range of initial entrepreneurial success leading up to the founding of XING. In 2006, he oversaw its IPO, making XING the world's first Web 2.0 company to go public.

Mr. Hinrichs is currently active in investing in a wide range of tech startups and is a leader in driving growth in Germany’s tech ecosystem. He advises at the Global Leaders of World Economic Forum, the Young Global Leaders, and the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Marco Börries

Marco Börries

Marco Börries is a German entrepreneur with a passion for making ideas work.

enfore AG is his fourth start-up and was founded in 2009 as NumberFour AG. Mr. Börries has founded multiple successful companies; the first, Star Division, he founded at the age of 16 and sold to Sun Microsystems. His second company, StarFinanz, a joint-venture with the Deutsche Sparkassen Organisation, aimed to re-invent online banking with StarMoney – which became the leading product in Germany.

He founded Verdisoft, his third company, in 2001, which was later sold to Yahoo. In 2009, Mr. Börries founded NumberFour in Berlin to re-imagine the way small businesses are run. Together with his team he is working to fulfill NumberFour’s Mission: “Helping 200 Million+ Run Their Business”.

Michael Sommer

Michael Sommer

Michael Sommer is a German trade unionist leader, telecom industry veteran, and was a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG from 2000 to 2018.

After completing his studies in Berlin, Mr. Sommer spent over 10 years in numerous Trade Union Secretary roles at the Deutsche Postgewerkschaft, for which he would later become an active member of the Executive Committee and, ultimately, Deputy Chairman. He also served as Deputy Chairman of the United Services Union.

Mr. Sommer further served as Chairman of the German Confederation of Trade Unions for 12 years, after which he became President of the International Trade Union Confederation until 2014.

Prof. Dr. Sc. Nat. Michael Kaschke

Prof. Dr. Sc. Nat. Michael Kaschke

Michael Kaschke is the former President and CEO of the ZEISS Group and oversaw Strategic Development, Brand Communications, Legal & Compliance, Human Resources and Digital Innovation. He was also responsible for the Asia Pacific region. Michael Kaschke became Member of the Executive Board of the ZEISS Group in 2000, and was appointed as President and CEO in 2011.

In addition to his offices as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, a company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (MDax), and of other ZEISS companies, he is a Member of the Supervisory Boards of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Deutsche Telekom AG and Robert Bosch GmbH. In 2014 Michael Kaschke was appointed to the German Council of Science and Humanities, one of the country’s most important scientific-political advisory boards.

In 2009 Kaschke became honorary professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Michael Kaschke is Chairman of the Aalen University Council. In 1983, he graduated with a degree in physics from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.

He obtained two doctorates, the first in 1986 (Dr. rer. nat.) and the second in 1988 (Dr. sc. nat.). As part of his scientific work, he conducted research into the generation and application of ultra-short laser pulses.

Thorsten Langheim

Thorsten Langheim

Thorsten Langheim joined the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom in 2019 where he is responsible for the “USA and Group Development" Board department.

Thorsten is also responsible for Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. business as well as Corporate Development, Portfolio Strategy, and Group M&A activities. This includes overseeing Deutsche Telekom’s 12 % stake in BT as well as the management of the Deutsche Telekom subsidiaries T-Mobile Netherlands and Deutsche Funkturm. Moreover, Mr. Langheim is Chairman and Co-founder of DTCP.

Thorsten had already been responsible for the majority of the functions of his Board department in his previous role as Executive Vice President Group Development at Deutsche Telekom. Prior to his position at Deutsche Telekom, Thorsten was Managing Director at the Private Equity Group of The Blackstone Group, an asset management and financial services company, primarily focusing on private equity investments in Germany.

Before that, Thorsten was Investment Banker and Vice President European M&A at J.P. Morgan in London and Assistant Director at WestLB in Düsseldorf. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors at T-Mobile US and is a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Sporthilfe as well as Chairman of T-Mobile Netherlands and Deutsche Funkturm.

Tim Höttges

Tim Höttges

Tim Höttges is the Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Previously, he was a member of the Group Board of Management responsible for Finance and Controlling. Mr. Höttges has spent his career specializing in finance and strategic corporate planning.


After completing his Business degree in Cologne, Mr. Höttges kicked off his career as a consultant at the VIAG Group in Munich. While at the VIAG Group, he held various divisional and project management positions, in addition to his membership on the Extended Management Board responsible for controlling, corporate planning, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Höttges has enjoyed great industry success, having played a central role in the merger of VIAG AG and VEBA AG to form E.on AG, as well as having overseen T-Home become a market leader in terms of new DSL customers after joining Deutsche Telekom.

Trevor Healy

Trevor Healy

Trevor Healy is one of the most seasoned technology executives in the industry, having founded, managed, and advised countless successful tech ventures.

He is the current Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sansa Advisors, which helps founders to “unlock their strategic value at the right time.” His previous executive and management roles are numerous: Executive Chairman of Nexmo, President of Sansa Security, CEO of Amobee Inc. and Jajah, and as Chief Innovation Officer and a Board Director at Telefonica Europe PLC. He has also advised Onavo (acquired by Facebook), Cotendo (acquired by Akamai), and Kontera (acquired by Singtel), in addition to holding GM positions at PayPal and VeriSign Payment Services. Mr. Healy co-founded CelNX (acquired by VeriSign), started the US subsidiary of Trintech Inc., and held senior positions at Kindle Banking Systems.

Taking a good business and turning it into insanely great long-lasting enterprise is his passion.

Uwe Nickl

Uwe Nickl

Uwe Nickl is the co-founder of Open Dutch Fiber.

He is an experienced leader in the European digital infrastructure space, with a proven track record of delivering effective programmes to deploy fibre broadband. Mr. Nickl has most recently been the CEO of Deutsche Glasfaser Holding GmbH from 2016 until 2021. Before joining Deutsche Glasfaser he had been CEO of the pepcom Group since 2014 and previously held leading positions as Executive Director of the Board of Directors and Chief Sales Officer of euNetworks Group Limited. Mr. Nickl has been involved in various management positions at Level 3 Communications for a total of 10 years, initially as Managing Director of Central and Eastern Europe.

Subsequently, as Senior Vice President, he headed the strategy, product world and marketing in Europe. He was also responsible for the operation and expansion of the company’s submarine cables.

Mr. Nickl began his career in the telecommunications industry in 1997 in the network division of Siemens AG. Mr. Nickl studied business administration in Germany and the Netherlands.