Diaspora Mentoring Programme

Admir Berbiu

VC Investment Associate @ StarFinder Capital Fund

Admir has a tech background in electronics/telecommunications & is an ex-startup-er. Since 2014, he switched sides and has been investing in pre-seed/ seed, deep tech start-ups (LifeSciences, ICT, Engineering), as part of Starfinder Capital Fund. Besides investments, he co-organized various start-up incubation and acceleration programs, mainly focused in the CEE region & Europe. He is the right person to contact if you are looking for global expansion or raising capital.

Alvin Ihsani

Deep Learning Solutions Architect

Alvin is a Deep Learning Solutions Architect at NVIDIA, developing new customers and technologies for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

Arjeta Culaj

Chief Revenue Officer @LinksUp

Arjeta is experienced in Saas Sales and has previously worked in IoT & IT Project Management, Investment Banking & Private Equity. Currently she is working as a Chief Revenue Officer in a Saas start-up in Germany and is an active community member at 2hearts.

Arjeta Haskaj

Product Manager

Born in Albania, Arjeta has lived in Italy, Germany and now Lisbon (Portugal), where she is running her own startup easly.space and working as a product manager for technological trading platforms in an Investment Bank. Arjeta is very passionate about technology and innovation and interested in helping every start-up that wants to succeed.

Anila (Hyka) Smørgrav

Engagement Director at Orange Business Service

Anila currently holds the position of Engagement Director relating to complex solutions at Orange Business Services market leader in Technology and Telecom. She has over 25 years of international experience in different social and economic environments, in the telecom sector and IT, digital transformation strategies of enterprises including the development of innovative products, project management and contract negotiation, transaction management.

Alen Saqe

Entrepreneur | Tech enthusiast

Alen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dentem. Loves building solutions that make a difference. Founder at 21. Tech enthusiast. Does not believe in crypto-currencies with the current infrastructure!

Daniel Kazani

Daniel is a technology and start-up enthusiast and the co-founder of Softup Technologies GmbH, a software development company based in Munich, Germany and Tirana, Albania. The firm provides software development services for start-ups as well as SMEs that are looking to build or scale their teams. Daniel is a first time entrepreneur who has worked and lived in 5+ countries. He is looking to support young entrepreneurs with mentorship, market access and funding.

Dorina Pulluqi

Sales Leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Dorina is a dynamic and data driven technology leader with 10 years of experience building high performing teams, responsible for driving growth, brand awareness and pipeline to support sales. Nimble innovator with a passion for connecting complex business issues with scalable solutions by developing and executing business strategy that produce measurable results.

Edlira Kasaj

Digital entrepreneur

With a MSc and BSc in Computer Sciences and an MBA, Edlira has always been around tech environments. She started her career by creating small businesses and established the first ICT Innovation Center in Albania. Edlira has had a diverse career working across start-ups, private sector, governmental bodies, international organisations and academic institutions. Recently she setup and lead the Digital Women Program at ReDI School of Digital Integration, an IT training program for refugee and migrant women in Berlin. She is now working to build new ventures.

Endri Mataj

Lead Product Manager at EY

Endri Mataj is a Lead Product Manager at Ernst & Young (EY) in New York City, working with global clients in transforming product strategy and agile software development into their organisation. Priory Endri has worked as a founder and entrepreneur, startup community builder with Startup Grind and served as a key lead in the Albania's digital transformation as telecommunications and information technology adviser to the Prime Minister of Albania (2010-2013). Endri is a Fulbright Scholar, and John R. Weitzel Scholar

Erjon Skora

Head of Product

Experienced manager within multinational and tech companies. Supported operations scale-up and growth for start-ups throughout Europe. Head of Product at Neosurance, Co-Founder at Youtentic, and active member at the Italian Business Angels Network Association (IBAN). Erjon has been boosting start-ups growth while actively collaborating as a Business Developer, Strategic Marketing, Product & Project Manager.

Fioralba Duma

Storytelling and a Tech Addict

Born in Shkoder (Albania) and raised in Rome (Italy) Fioralba has studied Psychology and worked in various areas of Marketing: Research, Customer Care, Communication, Social Media. She has a diverse career path across communication agencies, non-profit organisations and private sector. She was lead of the project ArtisanOnline, that aims to empower Albanian artisans and open a new market in Italy using diaspora as a connecting bridge. Experienced in Advocacy and Immigration, she's also proficient in Graphics & Storytelling.

Frank Hysa

Senior Innovation Manager

Frank has a Ph.D. in management achieved between the University of Maryland and the Polytechnic University of Marche. Frank’s research focused on open innovation strategies, of which he is among the leading experts in Italy. Today he is Senior Innovation Manager and founder of HYLE, a company that provides innovation management services to startups & SMEs.

Gerta Malaj

Product Ops @ LinkedIn

Gerta Malaj, is an Albanian American in San Francisco, California. She has studied Logistics Engineering at MIT and Math at Wellesley. Her work experience include Product Operations at LinkedIn, Health Tech at Sanofi and SaaS consulting at IBM.

Gerd Buta

Innovation Advisor

Gerd has extensive experience working for the UN in Africa, Asia and Europe at key positions and management levels. Working closely with change agents, innovators and entrepreneurs globally, the focus of his work at the WFP Innovation Accelerator is to help teams and initiatives and start-ups with proven innovative solutions, services and products towards their path to large scale impact.

Kebiana Doci

Director of Entrepreneur Education at True and North

Having previously worked in communications, finance and the public sector, Kebiana has a wealth of experience in people-first sectors. She became passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve their full potential, when she started managing The UK-Albania Tech Hub, an accelerator designed to grow scale start-ups for international market entry. Kebiana is now the Director of Entrepreneur Education at True and North, supporting the development of tech ecosystems in various countries.

Lona Aliaj

Founder & CEO of StyleLend

Lona Alia is the Founder & CEO of Style Lend, a fashion rental marketplace. For the past 8 years she has dedicated her time building and prototyping various fashion/ tech startups in Silicon Valley. She founded StyleLend.com 6 years ago to help women around the world have access to the world’s most coveted closets and in the process promote sustainable fashion consumption. She holds an MBA and is one of the few female founders of Y combinator. Born in Albania, Lona has spent most of her life living, working or studying in the US, Paris, London, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paolo.

Landa Grembi

IoT Enabler @Magenta Telekom Austria

Landa is an Experienced Project Manager, ICT Product Designer, Product Manager, Team Leader, Business Analyst. She's guided each and every day by the motivation of turning ideas into business. An enthusiastic promoter of Agile methodology and cross functional teams, she's also very Customer Centric oriented and an expert for feature introductions of new generation networks (NB-IoT & LTE-M).

Stavri Pashko

Self-starter | Challenger

An inquisitive mind, a self-starter and someone who tends to value integrity and honesty over other things. Stavri's experience includes leadership, strategy, risk management, process re-engineering, project management, developed through a career as an internal auditor in industries such as financial services, telecommunications and automotive. He is skilled at developing innovative solutions to ensure compliance and minimise operational losses for organisations. Stavri is always up for a good challenge!