EBSI Demo Day

Marc Taverner is the Executive Director of the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (inatba.org), the pre-eminent nonprofit organisation supporting the growth of DLT & blockchain technologies. INATBA does this by engaging public and private audiences to address and reduce frictions that inhibit market growth. As executive director, Marc works with INATBA’s Members to host bilateral conversations between governments (including the European Commission) and companies to inform policies and regulations and advance the international adoption of blockchain.

Most recently, INATBA, under Marc’s leadership, has been working to respond to the European Commission’s proposed Digital Finance Package, engaging with members and governments worldwide to discuss the future of blockchain and crypto-asset regulation. Marc has been active in the global blockchain ecosystem for more than six years, working across 20 countries, engaging with organisations from governments and financial institutions, to large corporates and industry associations. Prior to joining INATBA, he was the Global Ambassador and head of Business Development for the Bitfury Group, one of Europe’s largest blockchain unicorns.

To INATBA he brings a unique set of experiences gained from a career in start-ups and industry-leading companies. The founder of a successful modem distribution company, Nuvo, Marc has held leadership roles with many top technology companies, including Genesys Conferencing, the world's largest provider of unified communications services, and Promethean, a market leader in educational technology solutions.

Sebastiano Toffaletti heads the Brussels secretariat of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, which he contributed to found in 2008. DIGITAL SME is Europe's largest association for digital Small and Medium sized Enterprises, representing about 45.000 companies across the continent. The association covers EU initiatives, legislation and policies related to topics such as cybersecurity and privacy, data economy, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and blockchain. In 2019, DIGITAL SME published its Manifesto for Europe’s digital future highlighting 10 key priorities and the role of SMEs in the digital revolution.

Sebastiano authored several articles and position papers on topics such as Intellectual Property Rights, Standards, data economy and digital skills, and serves as an expert in EU working groups and task forces, where he brings forward the interests and views of SMEs. He is a member of the EU multi-stakeholder Platform on ICT standardisation. He is currently chairman of the Working Group on SMEs at the European Cybersecurity Organisation and has led the creation of the label “Cybersecurity made in the EU” in support of SME cybersecurity providers .

Since 2014, Sebastiano is a member of the Board at ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Since 2020, Sebastiano is also a Board member of EIF, the European Internet Forum.

Katrien Vanelven studied Ancient History and graduated with a master’s degree from KU Leuven. She joined KU Leuven’s International Policy Unit in 2009, as Advisor on Europe and North America. She coordinated KU Leuven’s participation in Erasmus Mundus Action 2 and Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility.

Since spring 2018, she has been contributing to the establishment of Una Europa, an alliance of 11 European universities. In Una Europa’s 1Europe project, she leads the work package ‘The European University Ecosystem’, creating a sustainable ecosystem in which Una Europa can thrive. The supporting technology and infrastructure is put in place to support smooth administrative processes, to support access for students and staff to all services within Una Europa and to support blended and virtual education.

The partners in the Una Europa alliance join forces to further elaborate and test blockchain technology to register and exchange credits obtained by students during an exchange period at a partner university as well as for the authentication of digital degree certificates.