DeFINE: Fashion-Technology Showcase

Paola Bertola, PhD in Design, is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Design Department, where she coordinates the PhD Program in Design. She is cofounder of Fashion in Process (FIP) research collective and Faculty Member of the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano, where she teaches in BA Fashion Design program and in MSc Product Service System Design Program. Her research focuses on creative processes, design management and branding, and design research within “culture intensive” industries. She is an author of several international publications and consultant on didactic and research activities for Italian and foreign institutions and companies. She was twice awarded with the Compasso d'Oro Price (2001 and 2011) for her research activities.

Lisa Lang is a European technologist and innovative textile expert. She has gained recognition as one of Forbes Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech, top 100 most influential people in wearable tech worldwide, one of 25 leaders in fashion and technology worldwide, and has been listed as one of the 50 most important women for innovation & startups in the EU. Lisa Lang a direct adviser for fashion, technology and entrepreneurship for the European Commission, focusing on creative industries and Artificial Intelligence strategies on several high-level advisory boards. She founded highly recognized companies like ElektroCouture, ThePowerHouse and FNDMT who are dedicated to push innovation within the fashion technology sector. Since 2021 she has joined EURATEX, Europe's biggest interest group for the textile and apparel industry as Associated Director for Innovation & Skills. There she's creating the future strategies for digitalisation, new standards and education program for the textile and apparel sector.

Matthew works at the crossroads of Fashion, Retail and Technology to head up London College of Fashion's Innovation Agency. Using emerging technology to alter the way that the fashion industry is making, showcasing and retailing, Matthew and his team are building a pathway for truly digital designer businesses. Matthew has delivered a stunning range of projects that have captured the imagination of both the fashion and technology industries, including what Forbes described as 'the first example of truly beautiful wearable tech'. Most recently, he worked alongside Lucasfilm's immersive entertainment division ILMxLAB to bring their new performance-driven augmentation technology, LIVECGX, to London Fashion Week. Matthew was named as a 'fashion-tech trailblazer changing the course of retail' by Drapers and a 'pioneer and visionary' by Wired.

Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta has worked in the fashion industry for over 14 years. She is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at events like Premiere Vision, #FashionTech Berlin, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion brands, Muchaneta, a former contributor to Wareable.com, is now a contributor to Vogue Business.

Giusy is Fashion Technology Accelerator's Chief Executive Officer and she has 10+ years experience in the investment and startups area. She has been Investment Manager at Italian Angels for Growth, business angels network with 14M€ invested. Previously, she was innovation specialist at in Intesa Sanpaolo bank, running a program which supports business development of tech start-ups. Earlier, she had working experience in the United States working first as Researcher at the Kauffman Foundation then at the Mind the Bridge as coordinator of the incubation program in San Francisco. She has also been involved in consultancy projects to develop entrepreneurial ecosystem in different countries. She is lecturer at the major Italian Fashion Schools such as Instituto Marangoni and Domus Academy.

I'm the co-founder of Greendeck and Cliff.ai. Greendeck helps retailers with price optimisation and monitoring their competitors. Cliff.ai is the world’s first Business Reliability platform. Previously I co-founded TrueMD and HealthOS in the digital healthcare space. Both of these were acquired in 2017. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics engineering and a Masters in Physics. I’m also a Techstars alumni.

Fashion innovation catalyst currently leading Startupbootcamp FashionTech, one of the top global startup and corporate accelerators. With 15 years of extensive experience in the fashion and luxury industry, Stefano is a digital entrepreneur committed to building an open innovation ecosystem. As a global power connector, his span of expertise ranges across omnichannel customer experience, retail innovation, multi-channel strategy design and digital consulting for a wide variety of luxury brands, including BMW, Luxottica, Gucci, Tod’s, Uniqlo, H&M, Prada and Stone island. Founder of Accenture Innovation Global Hub, as well as lecturer and professor at University Bocconi and Istituto Marangoni.

Judith leads the Centre for Fashion Enterprise. She has 30 years’ experience in the fashion industry, developing successful fashion business start-ups. Judith is a proven entrepreneur: as director of iconic British menswear brand Burro from 1990-2005, she worked from the ground up to develop a fashion start-up into a global brand. Judith delivers on strategic development and delivery for the CFE and has pioneered executive coaching as a development tool for SME business leaders.

Danièle is an experienced Lecturer in Fashion Marketing at IFM and in different programmes and institutions. Her range of expertise covers consumer behaviour, strategic marketing, innovation strategies and competitiveness policies. She regularly collaborates with France’s Ministry of Industry to design and implement various collective initiatives to help creative industries raise their competitive level on the global scene by acquiring updated design and technological capabilities. She is Secretary General to the R3iLab innovation network. Danièle regularly carries out strategic studies for businesses and for the European Commission mostly focused on fashion innovation and SME-related issues and challenges. An alumna of INSEAD’s MBA, her career has been focusing on textile and other creative industries since an early stage when she first joined Chargeurs Group as International Marketing Director, after being in charge of market intelligence at Rothmans International. She then went on to set up and run IFM’s Market Research and Consulting Department.

A serial entrepreneur, an ideational leader & sustainability expert in platform creation and responsible sourcing with longterm experience in co-creation formats, change processes and applying digital technologies to industries in flux. I'm CEO at Sqetch, speaker, consultant, coach, university lecturer and innovation expert for Fashion Council Germany.

DeFINE mentee since September 2020 with his startup Uno Apparel Europe. Executive MBA in Fashion Management and Master in Economics, Oleg Vishnevski is also a consultant, business developer and Fashion Tech entrepreneur. He has contributed to the development of several international brands (Michael Kors, Dior) and distribution networks in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Oleg Vishnevski is a visiting lecturer in Mod'Spe Fashion Business School (Paris); his academic research areas are Entrepreneurship, Innovation management, Human and social sciences applied to the creative industries. He also consults several fashion startups from Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe.

Founder Italian Artisans

Thierry has 20+ years of experience in the communications and entertainment industries. After graduating in Paris he worked in London as a business consultant for entertainment companies and telecom operators, then in France and Germany in business development for Vivendi, and then for ARTE – the Franco-German TV station – in Strasbourg. Thierry then completed an MBA at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and at UCLA in Los Angeles, where he specialized in film financing and e-commerce. In 2012, he graduated from the European Executive Programme of the Ecole National d’Administration (ENA) in France. For Media Deals, Thierry is in charge of developing the investment network across Europe and managing the network’s Investment Forums, which regularly bring mediatech companies and investors together for pitching sessions. With regard to this, he supports the network’s investors in identifying investment opportunities and in carrying out due diligence with a focus on cross-border transactions and exit strategies. He was also the project director of Media Deals’ EU project ImMediaTe, which examined financial mechanisms for digital media between five European clusters (Barcelona, Rome, Malta, Paris, and Amsterdam) and is now the director of the new DG Connect project European Investor Gate (EIG). Thierry has also been developing different creative industries funds for the film, music, and video games sectors. He is a regular speaker at conferences and summits on content and technology as well as an expert for the European Commission on regulations for investment in the digital sector.

Senior Lecturer and Course Director for the Masters in Strategic Fashion Marketing at the London College of Fashion, Ana Roncha is an experienced strategic thinker working with established international fashion and lifestyle brands, start-up communities, academia, media and international organisations. She is a renowned academic with close to two decades specialising in strategic fashion marketing and fashion brand development in a global setting. Ana holds a PhD in Design and Marketing Management for the Fashion Industry and had a PostDoctoral Research Fellowship in Enterprise and Collaboration attached to the WORTH project – an EU funded project that aimed to investigate the nature of collaborations used by designers and enterprises, in the creative industries from different EU member states. She is a fellow of the HEA and her research has been published in academic journals and featured in conferences worldwide. Ana has collaborated with the World Economic Forum and Accenture on projects related to the Future of Retail, Business Model Innovation and the Impact of Technology and Changing Consumer Demand for the Fashion and Lifestyle industries. Co-author of the book “Fashion Management: A Strategic Approach” as well as the Case Centre’s award winning case on Ethics and Social Responsibility 2019