Delivering Innovation

Irene Gómez is part of the executive team of the new Chief Digital Consumer Office global unit at Telefónica. Recently appointed Global Director of Connected Open Innovation at Telefonica, she has the mission of accelerating internal technological innovation connecting and collaborating with external agents from the entrepreneurship world.

With a double degree in engineering in Telecommunications and Telematics from the Ramon Llull University, she has over 15 years of experience in the field of Product Management & Innovation in the areas of Cybersecurity (ElevenPaths) and AI applied to the user experience (Aura).

Irene is passionate about connecting innovation and technology to enable the creation of new products, services and experiences.

David del Val Latorre is Director of Core Innovation at Telefonica and CEO of Telefonica Research and Development. He is responsible for the creation of new internal products and services for the group. In this role, he has pioneered the introduction in Telefonica of new paradigms such as Artificial Intelligence, Edge Computing, IoT, and Big Data.

He spent 6 years in the United States where he co-founded VXtreme, a technology company based in Silicon Valley, which he later sold to Microsoft.

One of the early inventors of streaming media, he has participated in the founding of 11 start-ups and holds 16 international patents. He is also the president of 5TONIC, a 5G research association in Spain and have served on the board of the Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP). He has taught Entrepreneurship at IE Business School.

David is a Telecommunications Engineer from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, has a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from M.I.T.

As Senior Director of the Digital Ecosystem, Jan drives GE Healthcare Digital Europe’s Ecosystem Strategy and—together with his team-develops cooperation with partner companies, indirect channels, start-up centers, and networks.

Jan is the head of GE Healthcare’s EdisonTM Accelerator in the EMEA region. With over 15 years of experience in healthcare informatics, the medical imaging domain, and management, Jan is a seasoned leader with vast experience in leading strategic initiatives and influencing strategic decisions that ultimately drive revenue and contribute to enterprise value.

Prior to joining GE Healthcare, Jan has held consultancy roles in Digital Health start-ups and Radiology IT companies. Prior to his Digital Ecosystem responsibility at GE Healthcare, he has been responsible for leading clinical consultancy at GE Healthcare Digital in Europe, Middle East, and Africa where he and his team ensured and optimized the quality of clinical solution architecture, clinical workflow consultancy, change management and user adoption.

Jan founded www.gr4ai.academy, a non-profit to create awareness and educate children around Artificial Intelligence.

Alan began his career in healthcare at the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Rising quickly through the ranks, he was soon managing front-line services – and a staff of 200 – at London’s renowned St Mary’s Hospital, and then went on to lead the Service Improvement Program for NHS Westminster. This invaluable “in-the-trenches” experience gave Alan a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing public health in the UK. Nationally-recognised as an NHS leader and innovator, Alan pioneered the development of several clinical collaboration “firsts”, including breakthrough stroke and cancer services, which are still saving lives today. Since leaving the NHS, Alan has partnered extensively with global government health organisations and leading communications providers to identify new ways to design communications and collaboration in healthcare. He is proud to be leading an organization focused on enabling front-line staff to design the future for the NHS.

Irene Arias Hofman is the CEO of IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the leading source of development finance for Latin America and the Caribbean. The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion by supporting early-stage entrepreneurial solutions capable of transforming the lives of vulnerable populations.

Previously, Irene worked for 20 years at the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where she managed the Financial Institutions Group and also the LAC region with its 16-billion-dollar portfolio. Her focus has been on innovation and technology, venture capital, and organizational development.

Juan Vázquez is a telecommunications engineer who is responsible for Gaming initiatives within the Core Innovation area of Telefónica. His role is to help design, build and launch new products and services around connectivity and gaming with the aim of improving the gaming experience of gamers relying on technologies such as Edge Computing, or Network Slicing.

Since joining Telefónica he has had different roles within the company that have allowed him to evolve personally and professionally. He started as an intern 7 years ago in the Key Accounts Engineering department and since then he has always been very close to innovation, technology and customers.

The last 5 years he has bringing digital experiences closer to the quality standards of the physical world. Using Edge Computing and Network Slicing.

Josué is currently focused on developing digital and network services that improve the experience of Teleworkers.

Customer focused, teamplayer, pragmatist and storyteller.

Helena has a Law degree and, after spending a few months at the European Commission, she worked in a prestigious Law firm in Brussels. Soon after, as traveling is another of her passions, she left Europe to work as a journalist for international media in more than 10 countries. She had the opportunity to interview presidents, ministers, businessmen and international personalities such as Hillary Clinton or George Soros.

After several years, she returned to Europe, establishing his base in London, where she founded Media Minds, a publisher of large-format corporate books, which has given her the opportunity to see places that few people can access, such as the archaeological collections of the National Museum of Damascus in Syria; the rehearsals behind the curtain of the Royal Theater in Madrid; or the construction of the Congress Palace of Oran, in Algeria. With the digital revolution, she wanted to jump on the bandwagon of innovation, and founded two startups: Touch of Classic, an application to transmit universal classics to children in an interactive way, and Bridge Bandit, to play bridge.

Thanks to her life as an entrepreneur, she began to take the stage to make presentations to investors and large multinationals. After so many elevator pitches, and thanks to her accumulated experience, her ability to break the ice with strangers, her passion for public speaking, her inexhaustible energy, and the languages she speaks (English, French and Spanish), she took the step to become an "Events Energizer". Helena has presented events such as South Summit, and congresses for companies such as Telefónica, Google or Grupo Santander.