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Gib Bulloch

Intrapreneurship Guru (CH)

Gib Bulloch is an award winning social intrapreneur who consults, writes and speaks on a range of topics relating to the role of business in society. His first book: “The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a Corporate Insurgent” (2018) is a personal story of his 15 year journey to create and scale Accenture’s global "not-for-loss" consulting business, Accenture Development Partnerships. This innovative venture attracted significant media attention, won Accenture international awards for Corporate Social Responsibility and Gib himself was voted the UK’s Management Consultant of the year in 2008.

Martina Břeňová

Director of Programs and Development at the Avast Foundation (CZ)

For the past seven years, Martina has been managing the Avast Foundation – one of the largest private foundations in the Czech Republic. Her primary responsibilities include developing the foundation’s long-term strategy, program development, and managing the CSR impact of Avast as a global company. She participated in the development of a program that works with experts and the public sector to provide systematic support for palliative care in the Czech Republic.

Adam Henderson

Expert on the Changing World of Work (UK)

Adam is a TEDx speaker, writer and entrepreneur, on a mission to Rethink Work for the Modern World. Adam believes the way many businesses operate, reflects the way the world was and not the way the world is and in doing so is causing a growing disconnect between employers and their employees, which is having a detrimental affect on everyone. To solve this problem Adam is the founder of Gravitee, an Employee Engagement Agency and the Millennial Mindset, a training company that both help businesses Attract, Engage and Retain a Modern workforce.

Lukáš Bakoš (moderator)

Managing Director, Maxman Consultants

Lukáš builds on his professional experience in Telco and IT companies. Since 2009, he has led a number of Maxman projects for both local and multinational companies in Europe and Asia. He deals with the development of top managers, and his focal point is building self-managing teams and helping companies create an environment with high autonomy, agility and independence.

Matúš Gála

CEO, Lidl Slovakia

Matúš is an alumnus of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. He has worked for the Lidl discount supermarket chain since 2008. Starting as the regional manager for Western Slovakia, he became the head of Training and Development after two years. He then led the Sales Organization Department for the Czech and Slovak market and he eventually became the head of Sales. As the CSO of Lidl Lithuania, he helped Lidl enter the Lithuanian market. Since June 2016, he has worked as the CEO of Lidl Slovakia.

Yuliya Pylypenko

CEO, METRO Cash & Carry SR

Yuliya’s responsibilities at METRO include store operations, customer relations, and the company’s business results in Slovakia. Her career at METRO began in the company’s Ukrainian branch – METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine – where she started working as an HR manager in August 2011. In December 2014, she became the director of operations at METRO Ukraine, a position she maintained until her move to METRO Slovakia.

Veronika Bush

Head Of Communications, TESCO Stores SR

Veronika leads the communications team at Tesco Slovakia, which, among other things, manages the company’s activities in the fields of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Veronika is also the administrator of the Tesco Foundation.At Tesco we are building long-term and fair partnerships with suppliers to bring to the customers healthy, sustainable products available for everybody. At the same time we aim to contribute to the change in society when it comes to solving social and environmental challenges which have the highest positive influence and achieve visible difference for everybody.

Nima Motazed

Managing Director, Swiss Re Slovakia

Nima is a Senior Executive with nearly 30 years of experience in financial industry focused on efficiency and effectiveness of operations, transfor-mation, restructuring, revitalization and merger of major European groups. Nima joined Swiss Re as Country President and Managing Director of Swiss Re Services (Slovakia) in January 2015. His major focus in this role is on further development of Swiss Re Bratislava as Center of Excellence and in delivering highest operational effectiveness to businesses and clients of Swiss Re.

Radek Vrbka

Radek Vrbka, Sales Director, Lidl Slovakia

Radek was one of the first employees of Lidl Czech Republic, which he joined in 2002 as a purchasing manager. In 2012, he became the company’s chief procurement officer, a function which he also kept after becoming the sales manager of Lidl Czech Republic in 2013. Four years later, he took over the Discounted Goods Division and since 2018 he has been working for Lidl Slovakia. Radek helped create a CSR department within Purchasing at both Lidl Czech Republic and Lidl Slovakia. This department is responsible for the creation of strategies and setting sustainability goals in regard to Lidl’s product range.

Alena Kanabová

Senior Manager in Technology Division, Accenture

Alena is Senior Manager in Technology division of global consultancy and technology company Accenture, where she has been working for more than 20 years. During her professional career she has participated in delivery of multiple projects for telecommunications, banking and utilities clients, mainly in system integration area. Since 2017, she has been leading local Accenture corporate citizenship initiatives and programs with community impact. In relation to this role, as well as outside work, she is actively engaged in projects focused on improvement of Slovakia’s educational system and in a promotion of inclusion & diversity in workplace, especially aiming at improvement of gender diversity in IT sector.

Michal Kišša

Executive Director of Business Leaders Forum and Executive Director of the Pontis Foundation

Michal is the executive director of Business Leaders Forum – an association of responsible companies – while also serving as the executive director of the Pontis Foundation. For 15 years now, BLF has been motivating companies to implement the principles of corporate social responsibility into everyday decision-making. The association currently connects 45 companies with more than 100,000 employees in total. Michal Kišša has been the association’s executive director since June 2015. He has been working with CSR reporting and communication at BLF and the Pontis Foundation for more than 12 years. He has co-authored CSR publications and he has helped prepare CSR strategies and reports for several companies, such as Slovak Telekom, dm-drogerie markt, Orange Slovakia, VÚB, Slovnaft, New World Resources, Accenture, and ZSE.

Lukáš Fila

Director of the N Press publishing house

Lukáš was born in Bratislava. He studied law at the Comenius University Faculty of Law, did his viva exam in Administrative and Constitutional Law at Trnava University, and he got a PhD in Logic at the Comenius University Faculty of Arts. He started his career in journalism in 2002 as a political reporter at the Slovak Spectator weekly. He later prepared an information campaign about the EU for the Pravda daily, he worked as a project manager and marketing director at the Petit Press publishing house, and since 2007 he worked as a deputy editor-in-chief and columnist at the SME daily. After the Penta investment group bought a large share in Petit Press, he left the SME daily and became the manager of the N Press publishing house, which publishes the Denník N daily.

Jakub Filo

Deputy Editor-in-Chief, SME

Jakub works at the SME daily as the deputy editor-in-chief responsible for current affairs and opinion journalism. He first started working at SME in June 2015, when he led the science and technology section. In September 2015, he became the main news editor. Previously, he has also worked for the Aktuálne.sk online portal. He joined the portal in 2007 and moved to the position of editor and deputy editor-in-chief in 2011. In 2004, he started working for the News Agency of the Slovak Republic. He is an alumnus of the Faculty of Social Studies and the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University in Brno. He has a PhD in media studies from the Pan-European University in Bratislava.

Juraj Porubský

Editor-in-Chief, Forbes

Juraj has been the editor-in-chief of Forbes in Slovakia ever since it was established in 2010. Forbes is a key media outlet in the field of business on the Slovak market. With a history spanning over 100 years, it ranks as one of the most popular and trustworthy business publications in the world. Before he started working at Forbes, Juraj was the editor-in-chief of the Pravda daily. He studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava and has a PhD in International Relations.

Ivana Vagaská

Senior Program Manager, the Pontis Foundation

Ivana has been focusing on the topic of corporate social responsibility ever since she started working for the Pontis Foundation in 2012. Since 2018, she has been leading the foundation’s CSR team, which is responsible for the activities of Business Leaders Forum and the Slovak Diversity Charter, as well as organizing the BLF CSR Summit and the Via Bona Slovakia Awards. In addition to these activities, Ivana specializes in individual CSR consulting for companies, which includes CSR analyses, stakeholder dialogue, and sustainability reporting using the GRI Standards. She is an alumnus of the University of Economics in Bratislava, where she studied international relations.

Michal Plevka

Behavioral Strategy Director, MINDWORX

Michal studied psychology at Comenius University in Bratislava. Since 2015, he has been working at MINDWORX as a behavioral consultant. He also has experience with the use of behavioral economics for making sales and communication more effective. However, his biggest interest is the use of behavioral sciences to change people’s behavior and habits so that they are aligned with their long-term goals.

Róbert Slovák

Creative Director, Róbert Slovák a jeho priatelia, s.r.o.

Róbert has been working in advertising and communication for more than 20 years. He has been the president of the Art Directors Club and the Club of Advertising Agencies in Slovakia. He is a member of the Arbitration Committee of the Council for Advertising (RPR), he co-founded an association titled “Ľudia z marketingu” (People from Marketing), and he has received many international advertising awards, both national and international. Under the auspices of President Andrej Kiska, he co-founded GoodIdeas.org – an international database of charitable advertising. He has recently released a book titled “Viac ako reklama” (More than Advertising). He currently works the creative director of his company – Róbert Slovák a jeho priatelia, s.r.o.

Marek Grabovský

Brand Manager for Radegast (CZ)

Marek studied at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, but he fell in love with the world of marketing. In 2007, he started working at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery as a marketing specialist for the Radegast brand. He then worked for Karlovarská Becherovka for six years, but he eventually returned to Pilsner Urquell. After coming back, he focused on the Birell brand, only to go back to Radegast. The Radegast brand has decided to use its marketing communication to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time (and especially the future) – droughts and a lack of water. However, the brand's actions speak even louder than its marketing campaign since the brewery in Nošovice, where Radegast is made, is world unique by only using 1.26 liters of water to produce half a liter of beer.

Janna Bruins

Sustainable buying Non-Food, Lidl International

Janna is in charge of sustainable non-food buying strategy at Lidl International. She has extensive experience in CSR management and consulting in Europe and Asia. Janna´s background is in international public law and CSR management.

Marcela Krajčová

HR Manager, Philip Morris Slovakia

After several change management projects, which she managed on both a global and regional level, Marcela returned to HR. She now works as an HR manager at Philip Morris Slovakia (currently on maternity leave). In the past, she has also worked as an HR business partner for development, education, and talent acquisition at the Mondelēz European Business Services Center. She has worked in projects of local and international transformation and she was also involved in the merger and creation of Jacobs Douwe Egberts. Marcela received valuable knowledge and experience during her work in HR consulting, where she designed and carried out projects focusing on development, selection, evaluation, and diagnostics. She also has an affinity for the non-profit sector, where she worked and volunteered for seven years.

Katarína Pšenáková

CSR Manager at Tesco

Katarína is in charge of corporate social responsibility at Tesco – an area which includes numerous activities focusing on the social and environmental challenges of today, while also providing support for colleagues, suppliers, and communities. However, her main focus and passion is sustainability – proposing, implementing, and promoting activities to help Tesco be responsible towards its customers, its surroundings, and the environment. She focuses on the main pillars of sustainability, which include reducing food waste, plastic waste, as well as the contribution of business to climate change.

Jana Sekerová

HR Manager, O2 Slovakia

Having worked for the O2 Slovakia telecommunications company since 2008, Jana moved to the position of HR manager on 1 June 2019. Before this change, she worked in Finance as the head of the Controlling Department for 7 years. In 2012 and 2013, she worked as the financial manager of Tesco Mobile. Before she came to O2 Slovakia, she audited companies for PricewaterhouseCoopers Slovakia, her main focus being companies in the energy and food industries.

Lucia Kišš

Director, SlovakAid

Lucia spent more than five years at the Ministry of Interior, where she led the Department for the Inclusion of Marginalized Roma Communities. Her responsibilities also included the effective implementation of €450 million as part of the Human Resources Operational Program. She has work experience from the European Commission and the non-profit sector in Brussels. She has worked at the Economic and Trade Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia, as well as the Project Preparation Department of the International Organization for Migration. Lucia has a master’s degree in International Development and Migration from the University of Oxford and she also has an honors degree in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham.

Zsuzsanna Mátrai

Corporate Affairs, Director Microsoft Central & Eastern Europe

Zsuzsanna Mátrai joined Microsoft in September 2017 after 20 year diplomatic career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. She is based in Budapest focusing on Microsoft’s corporate and government affairs across Central and Eastern Europe and an advocate of Microsoft’s core values and philanthropic activities ranging from AI through privacy and security issues to education. In cooperation with Microsoft’s Brussels she is involved with strategic planning to positively shape the debate and public policy outcomes on issues important to the ICT industry.

Miroslav Šarišský

Manager of International Relations, Sustainability, and Communication, Slovenské Elektrárne

Miroslav chairs the Energy Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce and he is also a member of the board at the Federation of Employers' Associations of the Slovak Republic. He created the concept for the Fund for Transparent Slovakia and is a member of its executive board. He came up with the Rule of Law Initiative, where he led a working group aimed at improving the legislative process. He is a member of the board of directors of Open Society Foundation Bratislava, as well as being a member of the board of directors of the DOM.ov project, which helps people from marginalized communities build their own housing, and he is also active in providing help for people with disabilities.