Team
7+ years tech CEO, second-time founder / entrepreneur, Strategic network in key research institutes in Europe, international (geo)-politics, and critical infrastructure players, Previously: University of Oxford (MSc.), national Dutch policy think tank DenkWerk
Former Assistant Professor in high-performance distributed computing at VU Amsterdam University. Author of key scientific papers on PUF technology, cryptography, network security & distributed computing, Previously: PhD. at University of Amsterdam, TU Eindhoven & TNO Scientist
Previously at Google and Qualcomm. MSc. Electrical Engineering at University of Texas Arlington, Expertise: Embedded operating systems
Previously at Imagination, Broadcom and IBM. BE. Computer Science and Engineering at BMS Institute of Technology, Expertise: Firmware, PCIe, UART, I2C, SPI
Previously at Rambus. MSc. Electrical Engineering, Centrale Supélec (Grand Ecole France), Expertise: interfaces & ASICs
Previously at Qblox Quantum, MSc. Computer Science, TU Delft, Expertise: verification & algorithms, satellite systems design
Previously at ProDrive Technologies (ASML ecosystem) - MSc. Embedded Systems at TU Twente, Expertise: architecture & algorithms
Over 20y technical experience at companies including AMD, Intel, Nokia, and NXP/Freescale. Expertise: Chip architecture and design, verification, validation, qualification and testing, software bring-up.
Previously at CNRS Grenoble (PhD), MSc. Electronics at University of Montpellier, Expertise: hardware security, including fault injection and side-channel attacks
Previously at Qualcomm, BSc. Computer Engineering and Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Expertise: digital hardware design
Previously at Qiagen and CERN, University of Amsterdam, Expertise: artificial intelligence
Previously at Brightsight. MSc., Electrical Engineering at Universität Stuttgard, Expertise: security evaluation, telecommunications
Previously ASML’s Strategy and President’s Office, MSc. International Economics at University of Groningen. Expertise: product positioning strategy and product management
Previously at McKinsey, PhD. Applied Mathematics at University of Oxford, Expertise: semiconductor industry
Board
Former President, CEO and Chair of JSR Corporation until 2021, Japan’s leading semiconductor materials company. Co-Founder of Cdots LLC Think Tank and sits in the boards of several blue-chip companies in Japan.
Mr Koshiba joined JSR (Japan Synthetic Rubber) in 1981 and was assigned to the Tokyo Research Lab as a research engineer of photoresists. He relocated to Silicon Valley in 1990 to start JSR’s first US electronic materials operation and established a #1 supplier position of high-performance and quality photoresists to support all major US semiconductor manufacturers.
Mr Koshiba returned to JSR Japan in 2002 to run the global operations of the fine-chemical sector as a General Manager. He became Executive Officer in 2004, President and CEO in 2009, and Chair of the Board in 2019 until 2021. Koshiba-san is Co-Founder of Cdots LLC a Think Tank to support the Japanese government as well as start-ups in Japan and overseas. He sits in the boards of several blue-chip companies in Japan.
CEO and founding partner of Serendipity Capital, established in 2019. Former Chief Financial Officer of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Mr Jesudason is the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of Serendipity Capital, which he established in late 2019. Rob is also a Non-Executive Director of Deep Labs and Pollination, and was previously on the Board of Cambridge Quantum Computing. From 2011 to 2018, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and its Chief Financial Officer between 2017 and 2018.
Prior to that, he was a senior investment banker covering global financial institutions at Credit Suisse. He served as a Non-Executive Director of ASB Bank, PT Bank Commonwealth and Tyme Bank.
7+ years tech CEO, second-time founder / entrepreneur, Strategic network in key research institutes in Europe, international (geo)-politics, and critical infrastructure players, Previously: University of Oxford (MSc.), national Dutch policy think tank DenkWerk
Advisors
Fmr. Exco. BCG Global
Chair of the Supervisory Board of Van Lanschot Kempen. Sr. Partner Emeritus of Boston Consulting Group, President of the INSEAD Alumni Association and Chair of AECA Netherlands.
Mr Blom is the Chair of the Supervisory Board of Van Lanschot Kempen, Senior Partner Emeritus of Boston Consulting Group, President of the INSEAD Alumni Association and Chair of AECA Netherlands. He was BCG’s regional chair for the Central European and Eastern European offices; as well as member of the European Management Team from 2003 – 2009 and served on BCG’s Worldwide Executive Committee from 2009 – 2015.
Before joining BCG, Mr Blom was an officer at the Royal Dutch Marine Corps. Mr Blom is also Co-founder of the think-tank DenkWerk and a member of different juries and advisory bodies.
Former British Foreign Service Director for counter-terrorism and Director-General for international operations.
Mr Fishwick’s career expands across the British Foreign Office with postings in Nigeria, Turkey and Afghanistan. He served a secondment to UK Law Enforcement (Customs) as Head of Intelligence between 2001 and 2004, focusing on drug trafficking and tax evasion.
He was the UK Foreign Office Director responsible for security between 2004 and 2006 and for counter-terrorism between 2008-2009, before becoming Director-General for international operations, retiring in 2012. Since 2013 Mr Fishwick has been an adviser and Non-Executive Director at HSBC focusing on financial crime and security issues, helping to guide the bank through the Deferred Prosecution Agreement of 2013.
He is also an adviser and Non-Executive Director at Quantinuum. His pro bono interests include support for the conflict resolution NGO, Intermediate and has been a trustee of the anti-human trafficking NGO, Stop the Traffik, since 2021. Mr Fishwick is an expert contributor to the online security publication The Cipher Brief. He graduated from Oxford University, with a First Class degree and a Doctorate of Philosophy.
Founder and Vice-Chairman of Quantinuum, the world’s leading and largest quantum computing company. Ilyas is also a founding shareholder and investor of Fortaegis.
Ilyas Khan is the founder and Vice-Chairman of the board of directors of Quantinuum, the world’s leading quantum computing company.
He was previously the inaugural Chairman of The Stephen Hawking Foundation. He is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge, and also the Leader in Residence at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. Mr Khan was instrumental in establishing the highly regarded Accelerate Cambridge programme of investment in early-stage Cambridge-based deep-science technology sector companies. He is also the founding Chairman (non-executive) of the Topos Institute.
Minister of State and former Secretary-General of NATO (Emeritus).
Prof (emeritus) Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is Minister of State, former Secretary-General of NATO (2004-2009) and former Dutch Foreign Minister (2002-2004).
He was the Chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2003. Under his tenure NATO assumed the lead security role in Afghanistan and maintained a military presence in Kosovo. NATO also welcomed 9 new members of the Alliance and provided humanitarian assistance to the African Union.
Founder in 1995 of Reuters Venture Capital Fund, Visiting Professor at UCL, Policy Fellow at Cambridge University and former Fellow at Harvard University. Investor and entrepreneur in network technologies.
Mr Taysom was the founder of the Reuters Venture Capital Fund, based in Palo Alto, established in 1995, with a focus on innovations in network security and performance. Under his leadership, the fund made 82 investments, $400m in total, notably 17 of the companies went on to achieve initial public offerings including Verisign, phone.com, Digimarc, and Equinix. John held a fellowship at Harvard University between 2011 and 2012.
In 2015, he joined as a Policy Fellow the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and became a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University College London.
U.S. Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism under George W. Bush.
Mr. Zarate served as U.S. Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism under George W. Bush. Establishing the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence as the first-ever Assistant Secretary of the U.S Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes.
Mr. Zarate is the global co-managing partner and Chief Strategy Officer of K2 Integrity; co-founder and Chair of the Board of Consilient, a groundbreaking fintech company. He is also chair and co-founder of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Mr. Zarate was a visiting lecturer of law at Harvard Law School for eight years and is the author of multiple publications and two books, including “Treasury’s War”.
