Meet our team of distinguished
mentors and speakers

Mardini is an expert product manager, specialising in user experience. In his 8 years at Google, he has developed the well-known Chrome Internet browser for iOS. Earlier on in his career, he founded his own engineering company and worked as a software engineer. Mardini currently lives in Paris with his family and speaks English, Arabic and French.

Dirk leads the Google Developer Relations Ecosystem team across Europe and has been in the industry for over 15 years. He is a web technologist, author, and speaker. His interests lie in tech, people and the future in general, all of which he discusses on a debating podcast called 2debate.

During his 30-year career as a technical executive, Nelson was Google’s Vice-President of Product and Engineering for Europe and Emerging Markets, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Vice-President, as well as a Professor at the University of Kaiserslautern. Currently, he is an independent consultant, an advisor to dozens of startups in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Emerging Markets, an active member of the Board of Directors of 6 non- and pro-profits around the world, and a member of a technology VC in Brazil. Nelson is also a volunteer for Karimu International Help Foundation, leading projects that improve the lives of poor communities in Tanzania, and for non-profits in Indonesia and Philippines.

Ralitza possesses a wide experience in the worlds of capital markets and equity sales. She has developed a strong network among C-level executives in dozens of public companies across multiple industries. Originally Bulgarian, Ralitza has also lived in Angola and is currently based in Canada. As such, she stays on top of the latest market trends across the globe and generates investment ideas on a daily basis.

Roy is the leader of Google’s Launchpad program. In the last 3 years, he has built Google’s global mentoring program for startups, scaling it to over 40 countries. With more than 15 years of experience, he keeps bringing innovative Internet technologies to fulfill strategic needs of the world.

Sebastian, founder of 10xMBA.com, is crazy about running projects until completion and mentoring others on how to do that too. He loves to help and will make you think on virtually any topic you bring to him. Take a look here at some of the testimonials from people he’s coached. Oh – and when he’s not playing beach volleyball or recording a debating podcast, you’ll find him on a plane, visiting (and hopefully managing) his teams at Google, based around the planet.

Yansen is the CEO and founder of Kibar, a tech startup ecosystem builder to drive entrepreneurship in Indonesia. The initiator of 1,000 digital startup movement in Indonesia, his goal is to create 1,000 startups across Indonesia by 2020. He believes that people can have an impact in making life better through technology.

Ana has worked at Morgan Stanley and since 2013, at Oriflame Cosmetics, directly supporting the company’s managing directors in running their operations. She is an expert in central Asian and east European markets. Ana currently lives in Stockholm and speaks Swedish, Serbian, Russian and English.

Anuj has a deep interest in startup & tech. His passion lies in encouraging Indian people to adopt new technologies. This led him to build Student Yatra, working on Google’s Launchpad Program. An evangelist of GDG Bangalore, he is now settled at Intel.

Bok is a Google Developer Relations program manager with more than a decade of experience in developing full stack software solutions across various industries including telco, banking, digital and creative advertising, retail, etc. He strongly believes we are only starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible with technology in this era and is looking forward to the “next big thing” to come! In his free time, he likes to experiment with new technology or take his road bike out for a spin.

Dushyant is a key driver in the adoption of Google’s tech platforms among top Indian developers and partners. He boasts past experience at Microsoft and Intel. Areas of specialism include program and product management, conflict management and data driven decision making. Dushyant decided to join the team, eager to work with Sebastian on this exciting new venture.

Florian is the founder and CEO of a successful engineering consultancy in the UK. Fun fact: he started his company a mere few months after his first job that he had landed upon graduating… With virtually no pre-existing network of clients, and with no funding capital, he set off to create a business employing dozens of people, before selling it off… and buying it again! In his spare time, Florian builds… other businesses(!), buys and repairs vintage cars, constructs high-end spherical loudspeakers or flies his kitesurf. Oh and Florian is married with 3 children whom he sees often since he mostly operates his ventures from home!

In her 10 years at Google, Inês has driven several product launches, marketing growth strategies and brand initiatives as a marketing manager. She has also supported the engineering world at Google as program manager. Her passions lie in coaching, providing support on team development, conflict management and individual performance and career development.

Kalia has experience in e-commerce, marketing and brand strategy for the world’s largest online retailer. Currently, she specialises in marketing, operations and commercial performance.

Brimming with enthusiasm, Manikantan was inspired to contribute to developer ecosystem. He has been a mobile developer evangelist in multiple tech companies and now strengthens his role within Google’s southeast Asia developer relations team.

Melina’s main role is in designing processes and implement tracking and reporting of metrics for global developer and startup programs at Google. Before that, she was manager of multiple programs relating to Chrome, Google’s browser.

Pan, a data analyst, has working experience of R and Tableau, is proficient in SQL and been learning Python and Alteryx on top of all that. She has experience in implementing logistic regression, multivariate regression, hierarchical linear models, clustering and non-linear regression, all in business settings.

Sami a has strong role in Asian developer and startup ecosystems. He once co-founded Figr, an award-winning technology venture dedicated to enhancing consumer experience. He spends his spare time on photography, scuba diving, and playing drums.

Tayib has over 5 years of experience in managing technology and entrepreneurship programs for students in Africa. Previously, he was university programs coordinator at Google. As well as his expertise in entrepreneurship, he has many years of experience in technology project management and startup ecosystem development.